Jeff Bezos: Croesus of the internet age

Long before the Covid-19 pandemic made shopping-by-Amazon a virtual necessity, Jeff Bezos had already built a mousetrap that brought the world beating a path to his door. Since the inception of Amazon.com in 1994 as an online marketplace for books, the company has since expanded in multiple directions, now selling virtually every kind of consumer product from groceries to furniture, as well as providing a platform for live-streaming and artificial intelligence, cloud-computing web services, and film & television production.

Amazon is the largest internet company by revenue in the world, the second largest private employer in the United States, and one of the world’s most valuable companies. Riding on the back of this current era’s technological tsunami, Jeff Bezos is now officially the world’s richest man. And for those who know how to see it, it’s right there in his chart.

Bezos has several classical yogas, most of them rendered powerful to deliver optimum results by virtue of their positive avasthas (condition, dignity, state).

The Pancha Maha-Purusha yogas are virtually unique in that a single true planet can, by virtue of house position and occupancy of a favorable sign, command an archetypal status. In Bezos’s case, Jupiter occupies its own sign to create Hamsa yoga from all three lagnas — udaya-lagna, chandra-lagna, and surya-lagna. Furthermore, Jupiter picks up additional strength via digbala in the 1st house. Among other things, Hamsa yoga grants intelligence, wisdom, consulting/teaching skills, and a visionary frame of mind.

Bezos was a National Merit Scholar and high school valedictorian, and in his graduation speech, he told the audience he dreamed of the day when mankind would colonize space. He attended Princeton where he earned a BSc in Electrical Engineering and graduated summa cum laude (“with highest praise”), meaning he was in the top 5% of his class.

In addition to Hamsa yoga, the same powerful Jupiter in his chart also forms a Kesari yoga by virtue of being in mutual kendras from the Moon in the 10th. Although the latter is not strong, being dark and waning, the yoga nonetheless rides on the strength of Jupiter’s sign and house placement. Kesari is one mark of a consummate schmoozer, someone who can consult, teach, mingle socially, and sell just about anything to anybody.

Although Bezos originally started Amazon as an online bookstore, he had always planned to expand to other products. Within a year of taking the company public, he diversified into the online sale of music and video, and thereafter expanded the company’s products to include a wide variety of other consumer goods.

In any Vedic chart, Dharma-Karma Adhipati (DKA) yogas are formed via the association or mutual aspect of a trikona lord and a kendra lord. In Bezos’s chart, Mercury owns two kendras — the 4th and the 7th — and therefore combines with the Moon, a trikona lord, to form two such yogas, specifically a DKA-4/5, and a DKA-5/7, the former of which is a true Raja Yoga. Although the Moon is dark, Mercury is bright in its retrograde phase, and thus has a positive avastha to give this yoga power, all the more effectively since both planets occupy the 10th house of career.

Bezos went straight from Princeton into the financial industry, where he joined a telecom startup in building networks for international trade, then into customer service for the banking sector, and thereafter became a senior vice-president of a hedge fund at age 30.

Which brings us to the indications for wealth in his chart.

Dhana yogas are formed via the association or mutual aspect of (a) lord of a dhana-sthana, ie, 2nd or 11th, and (b) lord of a dharma-sthana, ie, 1st, 5th or 9th. In Bezos’s chart, we see 9th lord Mars is associated with 11th lord Saturn to form a Dhana yoga. Note first that these two planets could have formed yoga by association or mutual aspect from any of the 12 houses. But what makes this yoga so incredibly powerful is that both participants are strong — Mars exalted, and Saturn in its own sign — while both associating in the 11th house, which is itself a dhana-sthana. In this case, the astrological confluence of factors in favor of wealth is simply remarkable.

And similar to the situation with his Hamsa yoga, Bezos’s powerful Dhana yoga also repeats from his chandra-lagna and surya-lagna. From the perspective of the luminaries, Saturn is lord of the 2nd house in its own sign, while Mars is lord of the 5th exalted in the 2nd house. Thus, the formula for Dhana yoga — a trinal lord and a money lord in association or mutual aspect — is again fulfilled, and once more in a money house when viewed from the luminaries. Extraordinary coincidence, or just more evidence of a fixed-karma pattern for fabulous wealth?

Bezos has been absolutely canny with money. He used the $54 million raised during his company’s 1997 equity offering to finance aggressive acquisition of smaller competitors. In 2000, he borrowed $2 billion from banks to further invest in the expansion of Amazon’s mission, from mere seller of goods to provider of services deemed vital by contemporary consumers and corporations alike. Although investors fretted that he was plowing too much money back into the business and not paying them dividends, such that the company almost went bankrupt in 2002, Amazon turned an annual profit of $400 million in 2003 and has never looked back since.

In November 2007, Bezos introduced the Amazon Kindle, almost literally changing the publishing industry overnight. This was right in the middle of his Mars-Saturn period, the two powerful planets that formed the stellar Dhana yoga in his 11th house.

As if we needed further evidence, the piece-de-resistance in this chart is Bezos’s Kala Sarpa formed via the nodal axis running through the 4th and 10th houses, wherein all of the visible planets lie within the seven contiguous signs from Sagittarius to Gemini. Because both Moon and Mercury lie outside the degree of the nodal axis, this is technically a Class 4 type, but no less the potent despite it being the most common of Kala Sarpa patterns.

Since the Sun and Moon lie on the nodal axis, this Kala Sarpa is considered a dosha, because the nodes are regarded as enemies of the luminaries, having the power to eclipse them. Perhaps this is why Bezos is increasingly vilified as a ruthless capitalist, but there may be more to this than eventually meets the eye. Life is long, and it remains to be seen how this will play out.

In any event, a Kala Sarpa configuration can be further evaluated via the status of its nodal dispositors. Note that Ketu in the 10th is disposited by a double-strength Jupiter in the 1st, participating in two robust yogas. Meanwhile, Rahu in the 4th is disposited by a retrograde Mercury in the 10th, participating in two DKA yogas.

Further note that a Kala Sarpa pattern also acts as an amplifier, expanding for good or ill whatever already exists in the chart. So, in addition to magnifying the Hamsa, DKA and Kesari yogas, Kala Sarpa also elevates that remarkable Dhana yoga whose participants Mars and Saturn are both strong in a dhana-sthana. And it bears repeating, this is the strongest yoga in the chart because of the conjoined strengths of the two participants, like two mighty kings who’ve formed an alliance.

In 2016, Bezos sold two million of his shares to personally net $1.4 billion. This happened right on the cusp of his Rahu-Saturn period, wherein bhukti lord Saturn again invoked the power of his Dhana yoga, and the Kala Sarpa pattern pushed it over the top. In fact, the Saturn bhuktis have been incredible for Bezos’s wealth. Both in Mars-Saturn and Rahu-Saturn, he doubled his net worth. This brings us back to his stellar Dhana yoga in the 11th, where it serves as a reminder that a planet in its own sign, eg, Saturn in his chart, is always stronger than a planet in exaltation, eg, Mars.

In terms of dasha sequence, Bezos has the wind in his sails. His Moon dasha began in 1994, the year he launched Amazon. As noted earlier, the Moon participates in two DKA yogas with Mercury in the 10th house. Furthermore, the Moon occupies a kendra in both the D4 and the D10, and in both amshas influences the lagna, the first by occupation, the second by aspect. Note that the D4 is a measure of assets, eg, property, money in the bank, and net worth, while the D10 is an indicator of professional success and status.

Mars dasha, which ran July 2004 to July 2011, was equally good. In the D4, Mars is exalted in the 2nd and stabilized by the aspect of Jupiter. In the D10, Mars is in its own sign in the 5th and, although on the nodal axis, is again stabilized by Jupiter’s aspect.

Rahu dasha runs from July 2011 to July 2029. Rahu occupies the lagna of the D4, where it associates with the Moon and is aspected by Saturn, the net effect of which is positive. With nodes in the amshas, we also need to assess the dispositors. In Rahu’s case, its dispositor Jupiter is in the 10th where it participates in a Shubha-Sankhya yoga with benefic Mercury. The only negative factor is Jupiter’s association with its sole enemy, the Sun, but this is minor in light of the many other positives.

In the D10, Rahu is very well-placed, being exalted in the 5th with Mars, and aspected by Jupiter. As with every nodal period lord, we must check its dispositor in the amsha as well. But since Rahu’s dispositor Mars is in its own sign in the 5th, this simply substantiates Rahu’s status in this amsha.

Mars’s dignity in the rashi chart and in both of these success-oriented amshas is suggestive of the karaka quality of Mars, one of whose names is bhumi-karaka, ie, significator of property. Born in New Mexico, Bezos spent summers on the ranch of his maternal grandfather, and later bought the ranch to expand it 10-fold. Like Ted Turner, Bezos is destined to be a major property holder, not only out on the range, but also in the Amazon distribution centers spreading across America and around the world. 

On the other hand, it’s a law of karma that bad things happen to almost every one of us at some point in our lives. For Bezos, that was arguably when he and his wife of 26 years ended their marriage and Bezos wrote the largest divorce settlement check in history, to the tune of $36 billion.

Bezos met his future wife when they were both working at a New York hedge fund, and got married in 1993, during his Sun-Venus period. See his rashi and navamsha charts below, where both period lords promise good times. In the rashi, the Sun is associated with 7th lord Mercury, while Venus in the 12th is a typical promise of marital pleasures. In his navamsha, dasha lord Sun is in the 11th associated only with a strong Jupiter in its own sign. Bhukti lord Venus is in stellar condition, being in the 9th in its own sign!

After three kids of their own and one adopted, flash forward 26 years, by which time the bloom was off the rose. Bezos and his wife decided to end their marriage, and after a trial separation, formalized their divorce in 2019, by which time Bezos was running Rahu-Saturn. In the navamsha, Rahu occupies the 2nd but is aspected by Saturn. Rahu’s dispositor Jupiter is in the 11th but there associates with the Sun, which is a malefic pure and simple, although in Seshadri Iyer’s system, it’s also the sole enemy of Jupiter. Note the distinctions arising from point of view: Sun is strong in the D9, stabilized by Jupiter; Jupiter is strong in the D9, but seriously destabilized by the Sun. Meanwhile, bhukti lord Saturn is in a bad way in the D9. It occupies the 8th house, where it lies on the nodal axis and is furthermore aspected by Mars, therefore vulnerable and doubly destabilized.

Although Amazon is the company that put Bezos at the pinnacle of the world’s wealthiest men, he owns several other enterprises, notably The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company. In response to President Trump’s frequent accusations of Bezos avoiding corporate taxes, gaining undue political influence, and undermining his presidency by spreading “fake news,” Bezos has repeatedly joked about using his rocket company to send Donald Trump into outer space. Now that’s visionary!

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Alan Annand studied with Hart deFouw, and is a graduate of the American College of Vedic Astrology. He’s also a former tutor for the British Faculty of Astrological Studies, and the author of several books.

Kala Sarpa is a first-of-its-kind reference book on a unique pattern in jyotish that is not discussed in shastra yet is part of India’s rich oral tradition.

Stellar Astrology, Volumes 1-3, offer a wealth of time-tested techniques in the form of biographical profiles, analyses of world events, and technical essays. Parivartana Yoga is a reference text for one of the most common yet powerful planetary combinations in jyotish. His Mutual Reception is an expanded companion volume written for western astrologers, covering planetary exchange as seen through the lens of traditional astrology. Likewise, his book The Draconic Bowl is a reference text for western astrologers for whom the extensive delineations of the nodes by house position and planetary influence will provide a wealth of information.

His New Age Noir crime novels (Scorpio Rising, Felonious Monk, Soma County) feature astrologer and palmist Axel Crowe, whom one reviewer has dubbed “Sherlock Holmes with a horoscope.”

Websites: www.navamsa.com, www.sextile.com

You can find his books on Amazon, Apple, Barnes&Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.