How to consult an astrologer, and what to have ready

To consult an astrologer properly you need three things: your date of birth, your birth time as exactly as you can get it, and the town or city you were born in. Bring one clear question as well. A reading given against a specific question is worth more than a general tour of the chart, and it costs you less.

I am Abhishek Soni. I read charts from Nagpur and have been doing this for twenty five years. The fastest way to reach me is WhatsApp on +91 82371 07999. What follows is what I would tell anyone before a first consultation, including the parts that are not in my commercial interest.

The birth details, and why the time matters so much

The date and place are usually easy. The time is where everything goes wrong.

The lagna, the sign rising at the moment you were born, changes roughly every two hours. It sets the frame of the whole chart: which house each planet falls into, which planet rules your first house, and therefore most of the personal reading. An error of an hour can move it to the next sign. An error of four hours changes the chart into a different chart.

So look for a written source before you rely on memory. In order of reliability: the hospital record or discharge summary, the birth certificate if the time is printed on it, and an entry in a family register or an old horoscope written at the time. A parent's recollection is better than nothing, but "just after sunrise" or "around lunch" is a range, and it should be treated as a range.

If the time is genuinely unknown, say so at the start. It does not end the reading. The Moon moves slowly enough that its sign and nakshatra usually survive an uncertain time, and a great deal can be read from that layer and from the mahadasha sequence. What changes is the honesty of the frame: a reading built on a guessed time should be presented as a reading built on a guessed time, and anyone who does not tell you that is doing you a disservice.

Bring one question

The most useful consultations I have are the ones where the person arrives with a single, concrete question. Not "tell me about my life". Something like: I have had two job offers and one means moving cities, what does my chart say about this period. Or: we have been trying to fix a marriage date and the family is anxious, is there anything in the timing worth knowing.

A focused question does three things. It tells me which part of the chart to read closely. It gives you an answer you can actually use on Monday. And it stops the reading turning into a list of predictions you did not ask for.

If your question is broad by nature, say a full look at the year ahead, that is fine too, and there is a longer reading for it. Just know that breadth costs depth. The readings page lays out which is which.

What a reading can and cannot do

It can describe the pattern in your chart, plainly. It can tell you what tradition holds about a placement, what a running mahadasha indicates about the weather of a period, and where the chart's supports and pressures are. It can tell you what to be careful about, and when a subject is likely to become live.

It cannot give you a date for a thing that depends on other people. It cannot diagnose or treat illness, and I will send you to a doctor rather than pretend otherwise. It cannot decide a legal case, and it should not be used as a substitute for a lawyer or an accountant. It cannot tell you what another person is thinking. And it does not deal in certainty about the future, because a chart indicates and a life is lived.

I also do not read charts to frighten people. If something difficult is showing, you will be told plainly and told what tradition suggests doing about it, and that is different from being told your marriage is doomed unless you buy a stone.

Compatibility, remedies and the two most sold subjects

Two subjects attract more selling than any others: marriage matching and remedies.

On matching, the seventh house is the part of each chart being read, and Guna Milan is a genuine traditional method that is worth doing. It is also routinely misused. A low score is not a verdict on two people, and a high score is not a guarantee of a happy marriage. A responsible matching looks at both charts properly, says where the friction is likely to be, and leaves the decision with the families rather than pronouncing on it.

On remedies, the tradition's own instinct is that they should be small, cheap and done by the person themselves. If a remedy comes with a large fee attached, be slow. That applies to me as much as to anyone else.

How to reach me, and how the messages work

WhatsApp on +91 82371 07999 is the front door and the one most people use. Write in whichever language is comfortable for you. Send the birth details in text rather than as a photograph of a note, because photographs of handwriting are where wrong birth times come from.

You can also start on the site, where the free kundli will draw your chart with no email wall in front of it.

About messages. If you have a reading in progress or a sitting booked, you will get notes about that reading and reminders about the appointment, and occasionally a note when something is on offer. You control that from your own message preferences, where you can turn each kind off and leave the rest on. You do not have to explain why and nobody will call you to ask.

Questions people ask

What if I do not know my birth time at all? Say so at the start. The reading leans on the Moon's position and the period sequence instead, which survive an uncertain time, and it is presented with that limitation stated. Beware of anyone who takes an unknown time and still gives you exact predictions about the hour of your life.

How long does a consultation take? A sitting runs an hour, which is enough to go through the chart and the question properly without rushing. A written reading is not a clock at all: you get the document, and you can come back on it.

Do I need to send my kundli, or just my birth details? Birth details are enough, and honestly better. Charts arrive in different systems and settings, and I would rather compute it myself from the date, time and place than inherit someone else's assumptions.