General Consultation
A General Consultation is a private one-on-one meeting for helping you gain astrological insight and perspective into just about any area of your life. Whether it’s just a general interpretation of your natal chart or exploring an extremely specific topic in depth or navigating a complicated time-sensitive situation or getting a sense of what the next few months are going to be like, the framework of a General Consultation is flexible enough to accommodate most needs. Most sessions involve any combination of the following:
• Natal Astrology: I can provide my interpretation of what your natal chart indicates about personality, strengths and weaknesses, finances, familial relationships, work, career, education, travel, living situation, dating, romantic relationships, parenthood and many other topics of your life.
• Forecasting/Timing: I can provide my interpretation of what your natal chart indicates about the timing and activity levels of various topics in your life for any given time period. Sometimes this requires knowing a bit about your own history.
• Other: I designed a General Consultation to be flexible enough to accommodate whatever it is you would like me to look at if it doesn’t fit neatly into another category like horary, electional or rectification. I may use whatever techniques at my disposal that are suited to what you want to investigate: transits, annual profections, solar returns, zodiacal releasing, astrocartography, etc.
General Consultations are currently conducted over Zoom. You do not have to appear on camera if you do not want to. As long as we can hear each other, that’s the minimum that we need.
• Birth Date: This is usually not a problem, but if you don’t know your exact birth date and have exhausted all avenues, you may want to consider rectification.
• Birth Time: Down to the minute is preferred. I would also like to know the source of your birth time. A rounded birth time can be acceptable if the Ascendant is not too close to a sign boundary. See the ‘What if I don’t know my birth time?‘ section below.
• Birth Place: City/State/Country. Make sure to list the county/district somewhere on the intake form if there are multiple places with the same name as your birth place.
Here are some ways you might be able to find your birth time:
• Birth Certificate: This is usually reliable, but be aware that the birth time on the birth certificate might not be completely correct, especially if the birth minute is rounded to the nearest hour or half-hour. Depending on when and where you were born, the birth time might not be recorded on the birth certificate at all. If you were born in the United States, a good place to start searching for your birth certificate is here. If your state-issued birth certificate lacks the birth time, the county version might have it, or it may be on the long-form version of your birth certificate which you may have to specifically request.
• Hospital Records: If you were born in a hospital, the time may be on your hospital bracelet if it was kept. The hospital may still have records containing your birth time in their archives.
• Family Records: Usually, if your parents kept a baby book or other family records, the time could recorded in there.
• Birth Announcement: If you were born when births were announced in the local newspaper, you may be able to find the newspaper released after your birth in newspaper archives, the birth time or clues about the birth time can sometimes be there.
• Email/Social Media: If you were born when your parents might have had email or social media accounts, there could be clues or records there.
•Ask Parents/Relatives: Even if they don’t know the exact time, they may be able to give you some clues as to what part of the day it was. Keep in mind that memory can be unreliable.
If all else fails…
• Rectification: An astrologer would use any and all clues you can gather, alongside a chronology of important events in your life to find the time that matches most closely. Find out more about my rectification services here.
• Generalized Reading: I can still give you a general consultation without a birth time but with the understanding that my interpretations will be much more generalized.
My Astrological Preferences:
• Zodiac: Tropical
• House System: Whole Sign Houses as Topics/Porphyry as Dynamical Divisions
• Rulerships: Traditional, Domiciles, Exaltations, Trigons/Triplicities, Chaldean Decans, Egyptian Terms
• Planets/Points: Ascendant/Descendant, MC/IC, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Nodes (True), Lot of Fortune, Lot of Spirit, Lot of Eros, other Hermetic Lots
• Aspects: Ptolemaic, Sign-Based and Degree-Based, Antiscia/Contra-Antiscia
My Preferred Techniques:
• Transits
• Annual Profections
• Solar Returns
• Zodiacal Releasing
• Minor Period/Ascensional Period Timing
• Secondary Progressions
• Primary Directions
• Synastry
• Astrocartography
• And more…
Ideally, if you want me to analyze the natal chart of someone other than yourself, I would prefer to do so with their informed consent. If obtaining their consent is prohibitively difficult or impractical, then I would restrict myself to making more general observations and only give information that is pertinent for your relationship to them.
Personal Chronology
Many times the interpretations I may generate from forecasting techniques can depend on what has occurred at earlier times. Accordingly, it can be extremely useful to have a working familiarity with your own personal history, including at least the years relationships began and ended, when jobs began and ended, when times of moves happened, etc.
Device Recommendation
I strongly recommend using a desktop or laptop computer so you can conveniently record your own copy of our session through Zoom which will immediately download into your specified downloads folder once the session ends. If you use a phone or tablet, Zoom will not let you record onto your device. If you gave consent for me to make a backup recording, I have limited space on my drive and can not guarantee that you will receive a recording of our session expeditiously.
Before scheduling an appointment…
• Please make sure that you would not be driving during the time of the appointment.
• Please make sure that you would not be on shift at work during the time of the appointment.
• Please make sure that you would not be leaving young children unattended during the time of the appointment.
• Please make sure that you would not be excessively interrupted or preoccupied during the time of the appointment.
• Please make sure that you would otherwise be in a safe, secure and private environment during the time of the appointment.
• My main priority here is safety! If you’re having trouble finding an appointment time that works with your schedule, I do offer night-time and weekend appointments through my Priority and Off-Schedule appointment options.
Before the scheduled appointment time…
• Please make sure that you have a stable internet connection.
• Please make sure that your microphone is working.
• If you want to appear on camera, please make sure your camera is working. You do not have to be on camera unless you want to be.
• If you are using a mobile device, please make sure that it is charged or that you have a charger on hand.
• Please have a phone on hand as a backup in case of technical difficulties.
• Please make sure you are using only your personal device/account to ensure your privacy.
• Please make sure you have access to the email address you provided to setup the appointment in case I need to contact you or you need to contact me close to the time of the appointment.
• Please make sure my email address (patrickwatsonastrologer@gmail.com) is whitelisted so that any emails I might send to you don’t get filtered into your spam folder, or check your spam folder as well as your inbox close to the time of your appointment.
Yes! You can purchase General Consultation gift certificates here.
Yes! You can purchase a General Consultation with cryptocurrency here.
Yes, I manage payment plans through Paypal for those in need. Please email me to arrange a payment plan that works for you.
Video/Audio Recordings
• You are free to record our session through Zoom or a third party recording software/app.
• Please be aware you will only be able to make a recording through Zoom if you are using a desktop or laptop computer, not a mobile device like a tablet or phone.
Backup Recordings
• Out of respect for your privacy, I will only have a backup recording available if you gave me consent to record.
• If you request a backup recording, I will make it available for download from my Google Drive as soon as I can, but I cannot guarantee expeditious delivery. Once you confirm you have downloaded it, I will remove it from my Google Drive.
• I store any recordings on an external hard drive that is disconnected from the internet. I can delete these recordings by request.
Transcripts/Summaries
• I do not currently offer these as part of my services, but they can currently be generated by third party transcription/summarizing apps/services.
Appointment Management
• Up to 48 hours before the appointment, you can use the “Change/Cancel Appointment” button in your confirmation email from Acuity to reschedule or cancel.
Appointment Extensions
• Appointment extensions are available as add-ons at checkout upon scheduling below.
• If you’ve already scheduled and later want an appointment extension, send me an email.
• If you want an appointment extension during our session let me know. I’ll try to accommodate it if my availability that day allows for it. If I can, I’ll send a payment link for the extra time after the appointment ends.
Rescheduling
You:
• Rescheduling up to 48 hours before: Free rescheduling.
• Rescheduling within 48 hours: Email me for a rescheduling link ($25 short notice rescheduling fee).
Me:
• If I need to reschedule: I will email you with a link to reschedule from my earliest slots without a fee or you can cancel for a full refund.
Cancellation
You:
• Canceling up to 48 hours before: Full refund.
• Canceling within 48 hours: Email me for 50% refund.
• Canceling after having already rescheduled: 50% refund.
• Canceling an appointment scheduled through a gift certificate: No refund.
Me:
• If I need to cancel: Full refund.
Anticipated Lateness
You:
• If you expect to be late, email me beforehand. We’ll aim for a full session at an adjusted time (if we’re available) or a shortened session without partial refunds for missed time.
Me:
• If I expect to be late, I’ll email you beforehand. We can continue with the full session at an adjusted time (if we’re available) or a shortened one with a partial refund for missed time.
Unanticipated Lateness
You:
• If you’re over 5 minutes late: I’ll email a reminder. If you respond or arrive within the next 10 minutes, only the remaining time of the appointment is honored.
Me:
• If I’m over 5 minutes late: We can continue with the full session if you’re available, or a shortened one with a partial refund for missed time, or I’ll email you a link to reschedule from my earliest slots at no charge, or you can cancel for a full refund.
No-Show
You:
• If you don’t show up within 5 minutes, I’ll email a reminder. If you don’t respond or arrive in the next 10 minutes, no refunds or rescheduling will be available. A new appointment would have to be made at full cost.
Me:
• If I don’t show up within 15 minutes: Full refund or a new session at no cost.
Technological Difficulties
• Technological difficulties happen. Should technical issues from either end unacceptably disrupt more than a quarter of our scheduled session, you can choose to conclude the session early. I will then provide you with a link to reschedule from my earliest available slots at no charge.
Special Circumstances
• Medical, family and personal emergencies happen. I reserve the right to adjust policies on a case-by-case basis.
Refunds
• Processing Times: I process refund requests manually through Paypal and Chase Bank wire transfers. While I strive to fulfill refunds within 24 hours, depending on fund availability and bank processing times, it could take up to 7-10 business days for the refund to be completed.
• Crypto: For purchases made using cryptocurrency, refunds will be issued in USD based on the original USD value of the transaction at the time of purchase, not the current value of the cryptocurrency. Please be aware that you assume the risk of cryptocurrencies’ volatility.
My books are closed for now until summer 2024 while I finish working on something truly exciting…