Frequently asked questions

Astrology is the study of the positions of the Sun, the Moon and the planets, read as a map of tendencies and timing in a person’s life. In India it is called Jyotisha, “the science of light”, and it is one of the six Vedangas, the traditional disciplines that support the study of the Vedas.

An astrologer reads your birth chart, the sky at the moment and place you were born, and relates it to questions about character, relationships, work, health and the timing of events. It is a traditional system of interpretation: a way to reflect on your life and your choices, not a guarantee of what will happen.

On Stella you choose a named astrologer, decide between a voice call and a chat, pick a date and time on their profile, and pay when you book. A confirmation email follows, and reminder emails before the session.

At the appointed time you join from your bookings page: a call opens in your browser, a chat in a chat window. Share your question and your birth details, and the astrologer reads your chart and talks it through with you. Calls and chats are charged per minute, and whatever you do not use is returned to you automatically after the session.

An online consultation brings an astrologer to you wherever you are, with no travel and no waiting room. You can read profiles, languages, specialisations and rates before you choose, book a time that suits you, and talk from somewhere private and comfortable.

You pay only for the minutes you use, and everything is on record: your booking, your receipt, and a team to contact if something goes wrong. With chat, you can consult even when you cannot speak freely.

Vedic astrology, or Jyotisha, is the astrological tradition of India, set out in classical texts such as the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. It uses the sidereal zodiac, which is fixed to the stars, and reads a chart through twelve signs, twelve houses, nine grahas and twenty-seven nakshatras. It times the periods of a life with dasha systems such as Vimshottari.

The Panchang, Muhurta and Vaastu belong to the same family of knowledge.

The main difference is the zodiac. Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, tied to the fixed stars; most Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac, tied to the seasons. The two are now about 24 degrees apart, so your Vedic signs are often one sign earlier than your Western ones.

Vedic astrology also gives the Moon a central place, uses the nakshatras (the 27 lunar mansions) and times the periods of life with dashas, while Western astrology usually starts from the Sun sign.

Astrology describes tendencies, and periods the tradition considers favourable or difficult; it does not guarantee events. A thoughtful astrologer talks about possibilities and choices rather than certainties, and your own decisions and circumstances always matter.

Be wary of anyone who promises a guaranteed outcome, or who warns that something terrible will happen unless you pay for a remedy.

Not in the modern scientific sense: controlled studies have not shown that astrological interpretations predict individual events. The calculations behind a chart are precise astronomy, and Stella computes them with the Swiss Ephemeris, but what a chart means is interpretation within a tradition.

Many people find that interpretation valuable for reflection and for choosing the timing of important steps. Use it alongside, never instead of, medical, legal, financial or other professional advice.

Most people ask about marriage and relationships, career and business, money, health and wellbeing, children, education, travel, property and the timing of important events. You can also ask about your chart itself: your Lagna, the dasha you are in, or a dosha you have been told about.

Come with one or two clear questions and your birth details, and ask the astrologer to explain the reasoning behind what they tell you.

Not to browse, read the guides and articles, or use the free Kundli and Panchang calculators. To book a consultation or save a Kundli, sign in with your Google account. Stella does not ask you to create a separate password.

A Kundli, or Janam Kundli, is your birth chart: a map of the sky at the moment and place you were born, showing where the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the rising sign stood, arranged in twelve houses. Astrologers read it for your temperament, strengths and challenges, and use it to time the periods of your life.

Stella’s free Kundli calculator draws your chart in North or South Indian style, with each planet’s sign, house and nakshatra, sixteen divisional charts, your Vimshottari dashas and the main dosha checks.

Your Rashi is the zodiac sign the Moon was in when you were born. Vedic astrology gives it special weight: the Moon stands for the mind and the emotions, and because it moves quickly, about two and a half days in each sign, it differs from person to person far more than the Sun sign does.

Sade Sati and traditional chart matching are counted from the Moon sign, and many Vedic readers follow their Moon sign for forecasts. The free Kundli calculator shows yours near the top of the result.

The Lagna is the sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of your birth. It marks the first house of your chart and describes your body, your temperament and the way you meet the world, so it is often treated as the most personal point in a chart. A new sign rises roughly every two hours, which is why the Lagna depends on an accurate birth time.

The Navagrahas are the nine grahas of Vedic astrology: the Sun (Surya), the Moon (Chandra), Mars (Mangal), Mercury (Budh), Jupiter (Guru), Venus (Shukra), Saturn (Shani), and the two lunar nodes, Rahu and Ketu. Rahu and Ketu are not physical bodies but the points where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s.

Each graha signifies different areas of life, and its sign, house and strength in your chart shape how it is read.

The nakshatras are the 27 lunar mansions: equal divisions of the zodiac of 13°20′ each, named after star groups along the Moon’s path. Your birth nakshatra is the one the Moon was in when you were born. It is used in naming ceremonies, in traditional compatibility matching and to start the Vimshottari dasha.

Each nakshatra has four padas, or quarters, and the day’s nakshatra is one of the five limbs of the Panchang.

A dasha is a planetary period. The most widely used system, Vimshottari, divides a 120-year cycle among the nine grahas, beginning from the Moon’s nakshatra at birth. Each major period, the mahadasha, divides into antardashas, and those into pratyantardashas.

Astrologers look at the running dasha to judge which parts of your chart are most active at a given time. Stella’s Kundli lists your dashas with their exact dates.

A chart is called Manglik when Mars occupies certain houses, traditionally the 1st, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th, counted from the Lagna and, in many traditions, also from the Moon and from Venus. It is traditionally weighed in marriage matching.

Traditions differ on the houses and on the many conditions said to cancel it, so a Manglik result is a starting point for a conversation with an astrologer, not a verdict. Stella’s Kundli shows where Mars falls from each reference point and applies no cancellations.

Sade Sati, “seven and a half”, is the time Saturn spends in the sign before your Moon sign, in your Moon sign and in the sign after it: about two and a half years in each. Tradition links it with pressure, responsibility and lessons in patience, but it is not the curse it is often made out to be, and most people live through it two or three times.

Stella’s Kundli lists every Sade Sati and Dhaiya in your first hundred years, dated from Saturn’s actual movement.

Kaal Sarp dosha describes a chart in which all seven planets from the Sun to Saturn lie on one side of the axis between Rahu and Ketu. It is named after the serpent the two nodes represent.

Astrologers disagree on how much weight it carries and on the exact rule, for example whether a planet in the same sign as a node counts as enclosed. Stella’s Kundli answers by exact longitude and shows the sign-based answer beside it, so you can see where the two differ.

Astrologer profiles on Stella are set up by the Stella team, not by open sign-up. Each profile shows the astrologer’s name, years of practice, languages, specialisations and per-minute rates for calls and chats, with reviews from customers who have actually consulted them.

Read a few profiles and choose the person whose approach and language suit your question.

A real person, always. A chat consultation on Stella is a live, typed conversation with the named astrologer you booked, and Stella does not use chatbots or AI to answer consultations. While you chat, the screen shows the rate, the running cost and the most the session can cost.

A call is a voice conversation in your browser; a chat is a typed conversation in a chat window. Both are booked for a time with the same astrologer and both are charged per minute, often at different rates, which the profile shows.

A call suits a flowing conversation. A chat suits people who like to think as they type, or who need to consult somewhere they cannot speak freely.

Open an astrologer’s profile, choose a call or a chat, pick a date on the calendar and a time from the list, and select Book now. Sign in with Google if you have not already.

The slot is held for you for 15 minutes while you pay. Once the payment succeeds, the booking is confirmed and a confirmation email is on its way. Your bookings page shows the booking, with the button to join when the time comes.

Your date, exact time and place of birth; your main question, written down; and any dates that matter to it, such as a planned wedding or move.

For a call, use an up-to-date browser, allow the microphone when asked, and find a quiet place with a steady connection. For a chat, keep your messages short and clear so the astrologer can answer each in turn.

You can still consult. Most planetary positions change little within a day, so a good deal can be read from the date and place alone, though the Moon moves faster and can change sign or nakshatra within the day. The Lagna and the houses change about every two hours, so tell your astrologer how sure you are of the time.

Some astrologers offer birth-time rectification, estimating the time from events in your life. Ask before you book.

Each astrologer’s profile lists the languages they consult in, such as Hindi and English. Choose someone who speaks the language you are most at ease in: on the astrologers page you can search by language.

Each astrologer sets the length of their sessions, for example up to 30 minutes, and the booking shows it before you pay. You can finish sooner; ending early simply means more is returned to you.

A chat ends when it reaches the maximum you booked, and a call ends when its booked time is over. You are never charged more than you paid at booking, and you can book another session to continue.

Rejoin from your bookings page as soon as you can. On a call, the meter counts only the time you are both connected, so it pauses while either of you is away and resumes when you are both back. In a chat, a drop of less than a minute and a half does not interrupt the session.

You are not charged for time you did not spend together. After every session Stella reads the call or chat records to see who joined. If your astrologer never joined, the meter reads zero and your whole payment is returned automatically.

Every session that does not finish normally is also reviewed by a Stella admin, and you can contact Support with your booking reference.

You can cancel a booking from your bookings page at any time before it starts. To move it to a different time instead, contact Support with your booking reference: a booking can be moved to another free time with the same astrologer up to three times, and only more than two hours before it starts.

Refunds for a cancelled paid booking are currently decided case by case by the Stella team, while the refund policy is being finalised.

Calls and chats are charged per minute, at the rate shown on the astrologer’s profile, and that rate is fixed on your booking when you book. At booking you pay the most the session can cost: the rate times the maximum minutes.

After the session, Stella charges only for the minutes you actually used and returns the rest to you automatically.

A call is charged for the time you and the astrologer were both connected, taken from the call service’s own records, and the total is rounded up to the next minute once. Time spent waiting for the other person is not counted, and if you were connected together for less than two minutes, the call is not charged at all.

The chat meter starts with the astrologer’s first message, not when you open the chat, and runs to the last message. Any pause is charged for at most two minutes, so a longer silence costs nothing extra. The total is rounded up to the next minute once, and a chat that has started is charged at least one minute.

Automatically, shortly after the session closes. Stella works out what the session cost and returns the rest the way you paid: to your card, UPI or bank account through Razorpay, or to your Stella wallet. An email tells you when it is on its way, and banks can take a few working days to show a refund.

The one exception is a session you did not join yourself; a Stella admin reviews that before anything is returned.

Sometimes. When Stella runs a free-minutes offer, the first one to five minutes of every call and chat are free, and the offer is shown before you book, for example “The first 2 minutes are free”.

The offer is fixed on your booking when you make it, so a later change never affects a booking you already have. At least one minute of every session is always paid.

Payments go through Razorpay’s secure checkout, which offers methods such as UPI, cards and net banking. You can also pay from your Stella wallet if it has a balance.

You enter your payment details with Razorpay, not on Stella’s pages, so Stella never sees your card number. Stella’s servers confirm every payment with Razorpay directly before a booking is confirmed.

Yes. A confirmation email follows every paid booking, and each paid booking has a receipt on your bookings page that you can print or save as a PDF.

Do not pay again. Stella confirms payments with Razorpay directly, so a short delay usually resolves itself within a few minutes and your bookings page updates. If the booking is still not confirmed, contact Support with the payment reference from your bank or UPI app.

Stella also compares its records with Razorpay’s every night, so a payment without a booking is found and put right.

Yes, and it needs no account. Enter your date, time and place of birth to see your chart in North or South Indian style, every planet’s sign, house and nakshatra, all sixteen divisional charts, your Vimshottari dashas, your birth details and the Manglik, Kaal Sarp and Sade Sati checks. Sign in only if you want to save a chart.

The positions are calculated with the Swiss Ephemeris, the astronomical library behind most professional astrology software, for any date from 1801 to 2398. Stella uses the settings of Jagannatha Hora, a widely used Jyotish program: the true Chitrapaksha ayanamsa, the mean node for Rahu and Ketu, and sunrise at the centre of the Sun’s disc. Its results have been checked against Jagannatha Hora.

Your birth time matters most: a few minutes can change the Lagna or a divisional chart.

Yes. Sign in with Google and select Save this Kundli to keep a chart; saved Kundlis are visible only to you, and you can delete one whenever you like. Any chart can be printed, or saved as a PDF, with the Print or save as PDF button. Birth details are never put in a page address.

The Panchang is the traditional Hindu almanac. It describes each day by five limbs: the tithi (lunar day), the vara (weekday), the nakshatra, the yoga and the karana. Families use it to choose dates, keep fasts and festivals, and avoid inauspicious times.

Stella’s Panchang opens on today’s Panchang for New Delhi. Choose any date and place to see sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset, every limb that touches the day with its exact start and end, and Rahu Kaal with the day’s other traditional periods.

Your Moon sign, or Rashi: the sign the Moon was in when you were born. Stella’s daily horoscope is worked out each day by Stella’s own Swiss Ephemeris calculations, from where the Moon really is today, counted as a house from each Moon sign in the traditional way, with Saturn and Jupiter read the same way. If you do not know your Moon sign, the free Kundli calculator shows it; you need your birth time, because the Moon changes sign about every two and a half days.

A daily horoscope is general guidance for everyone of a Moon sign, not a personal reading.

They are free, interactive introductions. Each page explains its tradition and lets you try it: drawing sample tarot cards, working out your name and life-path numbers, walking through your home room by room, or planning a muhurta or a pooja. Sample readings are labelled as samples, none of them creates a booking, and Stella does not arrange priests or perform poojas today.

For a reading about your own life, book a consultation with an astrologer.

Kundli matching is the traditional comparison of two birth charts before a marriage. Stella’s calculator uses Ashtakoota, or Guna Milan: eight tests between the two partners’ Moons, worth 36 points in all.

It is free and needs no account. Enter both sets of birth details to see the score, every koota, the Nadi and Bhakoot doshas and each partner’s Manglik placement. No names are asked for, and nothing is stored.

Tradition reads the 36-point total in bands: 18 is the minimum for a match to be considered, 18 to 24½ is acceptable, 25 to 32½ very good and 33 to 36 excellent.

Many astrologers look at Nadi and Bhakoot dosha before the total, and a score is a starting point, not a decision: Guna Milan compares only the two Moons, while an astrologer reads both whole charts.

They are the two doshas of Guna Milan. Nadi dosha means both Moons are in the same nadi, one of three groups of nakshatras, and the Nadi koota scores 0 of 8. Bhakoot dosha means the two Moon signs are 2/12, 5/9 or 6/8 apart, and the Bhakoot koota scores 0 of 7.

Tradition names exceptions to both, such as two Moon signs with the same lord. Stella lists any exception that applies beside the score but never changes the score: how much an exception counts is for your astrologer.

Yes. For each partner Stella shows whether Mars is in the 1st, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th house counted from the Lagna, from the Moon and from Venus.

Manglik is not one of the eight kootas, so it does not change the 36-point score. Tradition often considers two Manglik charts to balance each other; Stella applies no cancellation and leaves that to your astrologer.

Guna Milan is read from each partner’s Moon, which moves about 13° a day: through a nakshatra in about a day, and through a sign in about two and a half days. A birth time an hour or two out changes the score only when the Moon was near the edge of a nakshatra or a sign, but it can change the Lagna, and with it the Manglik reading from the Lagna.

Enter the most accurate times you have, and tell your astrologer if either is uncertain.

Rahu Kaal (Rahu Kalam) is a period of about an hour and a half each day that tradition avoids for beginning anything new, such as a journey, a purchase or a ceremony. The daytime, from sunrise to sunset, is divided into eight equal parts, and the weekday decides which one is Rahu’s: the 8th on Sunday, the 2nd on Monday, the 7th on Tuesday, the 5th on Wednesday, the 6th on Thursday, the 4th on Friday and the 3rd on Saturday.

Because it is a share of the daytime, it moves with the season and the place. Stella’s Panchang calculates it for your date and city, with Yamaganda, Gulika Kaal, Dur Muhurtam, Abhijit Muhurta and Brahma Muhurta. Its times follow Stella’s sunrise, when the centre of the Sun is on the horizon, so they can differ by a few minutes from almanacs that use the first visible edge of the Sun.

Stella keeps what a feature needs and no more. The Kundli and Panchang calculators store nothing unless you choose to save a chart, and the calculation engine never receives your name. Your bookings, payments and chats are visible to you, and a consultation is open only to you and the astrologer you booked. Payment details stay with Razorpay.

Voice calls are not recorded. A chat is written by its nature, so its messages are kept with your booking, and you can read the conversation again from your bookings page. Only you and the astrologer you booked can open it.

Yes. You can delete a saved Kundli yourself at any time, and a waitlist entry from the Your data page. To delete your account, or to get a copy of the data Stella holds about you, contact Support from the email address you sign in with.

Records that the law or an open dispute requires Stella to keep, such as payment records, may be kept for as long as that obligation lasts.

Never under pressure. Traditional remedies include prayer, mantra, charity, fasting and service, and many cost nothing. If an astrologer suggests a gemstone or a ritual, ask why, what it is meant to do and what it will cost, and take your time to decide.

Be wary of anyone who says something bad will happen unless you pay for a remedy. Stella does not sell gemstones or remedies.

Only a customer who has actually had a consultation can review it, within 30 days, and each review stays linked to that consultation. Stella does not write or edit reviews. An admin may hide a review that breaks the rules, with a recorded reason, but cannot change what it says, and customers can delete their own reviews at any time.

Use the Support page, or email guruji@stellaastro.com. If your question is about a booking or a payment, include its reference and a short description of what happened. Never send a password, OTP, CVV or full card number.

Apply through the Become an Astrologer page. The Stella team reviews every application and sets up each profile itself. An astrologer’s rates, hours and languages appear on their profile once it is published.