What makes one pursue charity or philanthropy?

One of the heartening trends globally, to see of late is the increase in influential and wealthy people pursuing philanthropy based activities.

Prominent figures like Bill Gates, Azim Premji, Warren Buffet and Pierre Omidyar come to the mind.

While many of us may have an inclination to pursue charitable activities, the names mentioned above use their wealth and influence to enable a wider positive social change.

This inclination to donate and be involved in charitable acts is not a recent development. It has been there for millennia. Our ancient sages recognized this and so does Jyotish.

The inherent potential in an individual to pursue this varies (based on his overall life path and Karma). It gets activated at an appropriate Dasha or planetary period. Every chart is unique.

This article highlights one such case and draws some inferences from it.

The Dotcom boom and Ebay

Example : Pierre Omidyar

Pierre is an American billionaire entrepreneur, computer scientist and philanthropist. He is the founder of eBay and was the chairman from 1998 to 2015. He became a billionaire at the age of 31 with eBay’s 1998 initial public offering (IPO). 

Omidyar and his wife Pamela are well-known philanthropists. They founded Omidyar Network in 2004 in order to expand their efforts beyond non-profits to include for-profits and public policy. (Bio)

Below is the birth chart from Astrodatabank.

Disclaimer. The birth chart is from a public source and hence not completely verified.

Does the chart show inherent potential – Let us take a look at the main D1 birth chart:

To do philanthropy with Wealth, one must earn it first

My focus is on studying billionaires who first went through a period of massive wealth accumulation. And then the focus is to understand why they choose to pursue philanthropy.

Hence earning wealth is critically important. How has this taken place for Pierre.

Dhana Yogas (Wealth Yogas) and Raja Yogas (Status)

When the chart exhibits wealth giving Yogas and is activated the person is blessed with material wealth. In this case:

From the Lagna (Ascendant)

1. Lagna Lord Moon (though debilitated) forms a 1-5 Dhana/Raja Yoga
2. Jupiter and Venus as the 9th and 11th lords go to the Lagna and form  1-9, 1-11 and 1-9-11 Dhana Yogas
3. Jupiter gets directional strength in the 1st house and is exalted. It is with another benefic Venus. Jupiter is also the natural Karaka of wealth.
4. Venus also forms a 1-4 Raja Yoga
5. Saturn and Mars form a 5-7 and 7-9 Raja Yoga
6. The 2nd lord of wealth, Sun and the 5th lord Mars get sources of strength as they exchange signs in the Navamsa

From the Chandra Lagna the picture repeats and even more powerfully

1. 1st Lord Mars goes to the 11th house and forms a 1-11 Dhana Yoga
2. Jupiter and Venus combine again to form a 2-5-11 Dhana Yoga in the 9th house of Fortune and good luck
3. Jupiter and Venus form a 5-7 Raja Yoga in the 9th house
4. 9th Lord Moon goes to the 1st house forming a 1-9 Dhanya Yoga
5. Saturn and Mars again form a 1-4 Raja Yoga

Please note: Saturn and Mercury are the 8th lords of Sudden gains and other peoples money respectively from the Lagna and Chandra Lagna.

Mercury also has a source of strength being Vargottama in the Navamsa.

The Timing for wealth

• 1996: he earned his first $1 Million when Microsoft acquired eShop on June 11, 1996 for less than $50 million (Venus – Saturn)
• 1995: 4 September, he launched an online service called Auction Web which would later become eBay. (Venus – Saturn)
• It is interesting that Venus rules the 11th house of Social Network and Saturn rules the 7th house of relationships (including trade)
• This period also saw a tremendous increase in website traffic and online transactions
• 1998:  September eBay launched a successful public offering, making him a billionaire (Venus – Mercury)

Venus activates his Dhana Yogas and Mercury acts as a strong 8th lord in its own sign from the Moon.

The period of Philanthropy 

There are many indications for philanthropy in a chart.

1. The 9th and the 12th house of Dharma and Moksha gain prominence
2. Sun as the natural karaka for upholding Dharma
3. Jupiter as the natural karaka of religion and charitable acts
4. The Jupiter ruled signs of Sagittarius and Pisces
5. Moon as the natural karaka for nurturing and care
6. Other Dharma and Moksha houses and signs

Omidyar setup the Omidyar Network in 2004, a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives.

The period (Sun with sub period as Rahu/Jupiter/Saturn). My guess is that the sub period was Jupiter.

Major period Sun (Strong) rules the 2nd house of wealth and goes to the 12th house of charity along with a strong 12th lord Mercury in its own sign and Vargottama (strong).

Jupiter (exalted) as the natural karaka of all charitable acts is capable of developing this situation.

In Conclusion

This by no means is a full analysis, however demonstrates how the activation of time periods can make a person wealthy and then enable to give back to society.

Thank you for patiently reading and for your constructive feedback and insights.

Photo by tear cordez from Pexels