Adhi yoga
Adhi yoga is a classical yoga formed when benefics are placed in the 6th, 7th and 8th houses counted from the Moon. The name means 'excess' or 'strong', and the yoga is described as giving leadership and wealth.
What it is
The standard rule is benefics in the 6th, 7th or 8th from the Moon. The traditional readings associate it with authority, influence and resources.
How it is worked out or read
The site does not check adhi yoga. The houses from the Moon can be counted by hand from the birth chart's Moon sign.
Where it appears on this site
The Moon's sign is in the panchang. The Moon chart article explains the reference.
The definition
Adhi yoga is formed when the natural benefics, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus, occupy the sixth, seventh and eighth houses counted from the Moon. The classical texts, including the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira and the Phaladeepika, describe it in this form. Some later authors also apply the same rule counted from the Lagna, and a reader should state which reference point is being used.
The three benefics need not be in three different houses. They can be spread across the sixth, seventh and eighth in any combination, and the yoga is described in graded forms depending on how many of them take part.
Why these three houses
The sixth, seventh and eighth houses from the Moon surround the point directly opposite the Moon. Benefics placed there are read as supporting the Moon, which represents the mind, from the far side of the chart, much as advisers stand around a ruler. This picture helps explain the traditional results: the person is described as being supported, guided and protected by good counsel and capable helpers.
Graded results
The texts describe the results as depending on strength. When all three benefics take part and are strong, the person is described as reaching a position of leadership, such as a ruler or chief; with two, a minister or senior adviser; with one, a commander or a person of standing in a smaller sphere. In modern terms these grades are read as degrees of responsibility and recognition in one's work, rather than literal political office.
The results are also said to be stronger when the benefics are free from malefic association and from combustion, and when the Moon itself is strong.
Checking it on a chart
To check Adhi yoga, find the Moon's sign, count six, seven and eight signs from it, and note which grahas sit in those three signs. If Mercury, Jupiter or Venus are among them, and no malefic spoils them, the yoga is present to that degree. Note the dignity of each benefic: Jupiter in Makara, its debilitation, gives a weaker contribution than Jupiter in Karka or its own signs. Mercury close to the Sun may be combust, which also weakens it.
Keeping perspective
Adhi yoga is one of the better-known supportive patterns, and many charts show at least a partial form of it, because Mercury and Venus are never far from the Sun and so cluster together often. A partial Adhi yoga is therefore not rare, and a reader should not treat it as an exceptional sign on its own. It is best read alongside the house lords, the dashas and the overall balance of the chart.