Cookie Policy
Cookie Policy
Alchemy Astrology is operated by Alchemy Works Studio LLC.
Effective: 6 August 2026
Last updated: 8 August 2026
Contact: legal@alchemy-astrology.com
The short version
We use one cookie to keep you signed in, one to remember your answer to the cookie banner, and a small number set by Cloudflare to keep the site up and unattacked. Those are on whether you like it or not, because without them the site does not work.
Analytics cookies are the only other kind we use, and they do not run until you say yes. Nothing is set for analytics before you choose, saying no costs you nothing, and you can change your mind whenever you want.
We do not use advertising cookies, we do not use tracking pixels, we do not record your session or your screen, and we do not let anyone else drop a cookie through our site to follow you around the web.
1. What these things are
A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to store, and to send back on your next visit. Related technologies do much the same job: localStorage keeps values in the browser until something clears them, and a pixel is a tiny image whose loading tells a server that a page was opened. Where this policy says cookies
it means all of them.
A cookie is first party if we set it and third party if another company does. A session cookie disappears when you close the browser. A persistent cookie stays until it expires or you delete it.
2. How we ask
We show you a banner once you start something with us: going to pay for a reading, asking to be told when one is ready, or signing in. Until then nothing is stored on your device and nothing about you is recorded, so there is nothing to ask you about. We do count that the page was opened, which is not about you and is described in Counting that touches nothing
below. The banner offers accept and reject as equally easy choices, because a reject button hidden two screens deep is not a real choice, and consent that is not freely given is not consent.
Until you choose, no analytics cookie is set. If you reject, none is set at all, and we do not ask again for six months. Your answer is stored in the alchemy_cookie_consent cookie described below, copied into localStorage under the same name so that clearing the cookie does not lose it, and, if you are signed in, kept on your account so that answering on one device answers on all of them.
If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, we treat that as a rejection and do not show you the banner at all.
You can change your answer at any time from the Cookie settings link in the footer of any page.
3. What we actually set
Strictly necessary
These run without consent, because the law permits it and the site cannot function without them.
| Cookie | Set by | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
_mirror_session |
Alchemy Astrology | Keeps you signed in and carries the token that protects forms against cross-site request forgery. Named for our former brand, and left that way deliberately: renaming it would sign out everyone who is currently signed in. | 1 year |
alchemy_cookie_consent |
Alchemy Astrology | Remembers whether you accepted or rejected analytics, so we stop asking. Holds your choice and its date, nothing else. | 6 months |
alchemy_cookie_consent in localStorage |
Alchemy Astrology | The same answer again, so that a cookie your browser has cleared can be put back rather than asked for a second time. Holds your choice, nothing else. | Until you change your answer |
__cf_bm |
Cloudflare | Tells automated traffic apart from people, so the site stays up. | 30 minutes |
cf_clearance |
Cloudflare | Records that a challenge was passed, so you are not challenged repeatedly. | Up to 1 year |
If you are signed in, your answer to the banner is also stored on your account, which is not on your device and so is covered by our Privacy Policy rather than by this table. It is there so that a new phone, or a browser that has cleared its storage, does not mean being asked all over again. Cookie settings clears it along with the cookie and the localStorage copy.
Analytics, only with your consent
| Cookie | Set by | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
ph_<project key>_posthog |
PostHog | Gives your browser an identifier so we can count visitors and see which features get used. | 1 year |
__ph_opt_in_out_<project key> |
PostHog | Records that you opted out, so PostHog stays off. | 1 year |
PostHog also mirrors these values into localStorage under the same names. Rejecting analytics prevents both.
We use PostHog to answer questions like which readings people look at before they buy, and where they give up part way through a form. We do not use it to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell what it tells us.
Counting that touches nothing
We also count how many times a page was opened, on our own servers. That count sets no cookie, writes nothing to localStorage, reads nothing your browser has stored, and carries no identifier, no account, and no IP address. It records that a page was opened and which page it was, and nothing that could say who opened it, so two visits by you cannot be told apart from two visits by two strangers.
Because it neither stores nor reads anything on your device, it is outside the rules the banner exists for, and it runs whether or not you accept analytics. That includes when your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track: those are answers about being followed, and there is nothing here to follow.
It is how we know whether a page works at all. Everything more detailed than that -- which features get used, what someone looked at before they bought -- still comes from PostHog running in your browser, and still waits for your yes.
Cookies we do not set, but you may still meet
When you pay, we send you to Stripe's own checkout page. Stripe sets its own cookies there to process the payment and prevent fraud. Those are on Stripe's domain rather than ours, we cannot read them, and they are covered by Stripe's privacy policy.
If you sign in with Google, Google sets cookies on its own sign-in page under Google's privacy policy.
4. Turning them off in your browser
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and most browsers let you refuse third-party cookies while keeping first-party ones. Blocking the strictly necessary cookies above will sign you out and may stop parts of the site working.
The instructions live with the browser makers: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge.
5. Changes
If we add a cookie, we will update this table before it goes live, and if it is not strictly necessary we will ask for your consent again.
6. Contact
Questions about this policy: legal@alchemy-astrology.com
See also our Privacy Policy and our subprocessors page.