Having a bad quarter? Call your astrologer

Ashish Bansal first consulted an astrologer during a period of business turmoil. Her top tip for the New Delhi commodities exporter: focus on selling white-colored products, because his birth chart was closely aligned with the white moon.

Nearly a decade later, 98% of Bansal’s business is exporting rice. White rice.

The 42-year-old now regularly calls a roster of soothsayers for advice when facing tough career decisions. The priciest charges more than $1 a minute.

“I’ve got the expensive ones, I’ve got the regular ones," Bansal said. “There’s a different kind of comfort with each astrologer." He also checks an astrology app on his phone to monitor the planetary impact on his fortunes.

It’s well known that people in South Asia seek out seers for relationship advice. But throughout the region, business moguls and politicians often religiously consult with astrologers for guidance on major decisions, such as when to start a new company, how to break a streak of losses or the timing of an election campaign. Some believers have upended their lives after receiving cosmic advice.

“It’s very common among politicians, and quite a few of the big-name businesspeople do this," said Kavil Ramachandran, a professor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. “They think the future can be controlled like this, that you can minimize the chances of things going wrong."

Generations of leaders in South and Southeast Asia have consulted the celestial planes. Powerful politicians in Myanmar gravitated to a fortuneteller nicknamed ET. Mahinda Rajapaksa, part of Sri Lanka’s long-ruling clan, took his astrologer’s advice and called an early presidential election in 2015—which he lost. In 2022, that same astrologer publicly predicted the end of the Rajapaksa regime amid protests that ultimately toppled the family’s rule.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known for seeking guidance on auspicious timings for swearing-in ceremonies and other critical events. As a child, he took advantage of the respect shown to fortunetellers in India by pretending to be a palm reader on packed trains.

“I would hold someone’s hand and stare," he recounted at an awards ceremony last year. “Immediately a seat would be arranged for me."

Chandrashekar Sharma, a 62-year-old astrologer based in the Indian tech hub of Bengaluru, counts some of the country’s biggest moguls among his clients. The most high-profile is Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man and chairman of the conglomerate Reliance Industries.

For over two decades, Sharma has counseled the Ambanis on “all of the decisions of family or business or anything else," he said. Consultations have included the location of offices and power plants, the timing for new ventures and construction of the family’s 27-story home in Mumbai.

“We have the whole family," he said. “It’s 20, 25% business issues, and mostly personal issues."

Reliance Industries didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Among his clients overall, Sharma said, 80% come to him for business problems. “Their personal life, they think they can manage," he said. “Financial growth has become the most important thing for a human being."

Astrologer Chandrashekar Sharma leads a ceremony for one of his clients.

And it all hinges on the birth chart, which depicts the positions of planets and constellations at a person’s exact time and place of birth. Astrologers act as an interpreter of the chart—and a person’s future. Some also offer other services like tarot-card and palm readings.

Some people have dramatically changed their lives after receiving otherworldly advice.

Dil Shrestha, a 45-year-old businessman in Kathmandu, moved offices and sold his house at a loss after his astrologer determined they were situated in “a very bad place" that was negatively affecting his fortunes.

He consults with the seer hundreds of times a year on matters related to his businesses, which include a tourism company and a recruiting firm that sends Nepalese workers overseas.

Shrestha has lost track of how much he’s spent in fees, but he says it’s been worth it. After each celestially informed change, his companies bounced back from a rough patch. The astrologer recently signed off on the locations of a newly built hotel and grounds for a family villa.

“Astrology is the truth," Shrestha said. “I believe that."

Neelima Sonavane, who lives in the western Indian city of Pune, consulted a seer when she wanted to return to work after decades as a stay-at-home mom. His career advice: go into real estate or the garment industry.

The 54-year-old picked real estate. Now in her job as a broker, she calls a tarot-card reader every few months to get an analysis of a potential client.

“I’ll go to the reader and ask ‘Can you kind of read the energy?’ " she said. “Is he actually interested, or is he wasting my time?"

Last year, she was struggling with a picky client who spent months mulling over apartments to rent. A card reader told her that he was fooling around. Sonavane dumped him.

Bansal, the commodities trader, said he is waiting to see if his astrologer’s next big prediction for his life comes true: that he will move to Australia in the second half of this year.

He has been trying to relocate to Perth for years, but life always intervened. Maybe this year, Bansal said, all the stars and planets will align.

“My astrologer told me my best potential will come abroad," he said. “99.99% I might move to Australia this July."

Write to Shan Li at shan.li@wsj.com