The voracious second house

Version en Español aqui. Gracias, Señor Shaman!

I was initially going to say precious instead of voracious in the title and I hope the article will show why I chose the latter. 

The second house is usually known as the house of money. More specifically, this house covers the native's personal money, money he or she has made by themselves or money which come into their possession without any further obligations. I am saying this because loans fall in the eighth house and although the money received from loans is (in many cases) at the individual's disposal, he or she will have to pay it back under certain conditions. 

These conditions include specific time frames and certain added interest in many cases, along with others that depend on the initial deal (seventh house) that was struck between the native and the creditor. The creditor can be a family member (fourth and third houses, depending on the kind of relative), a friend (eleventh house), a bank (tenth house), a co-worker (sixth house), a loanshark (I would place that in the eighth house) and various other people, including your significant other or a stranger (seventh house).

The second and eight houses are in opposition, both being succedent and thus stable in energy, which means that a delicate balance exists between one's personal money and money which was borrowed from others - the eighth house is other people's money, being the second from the seventh. This opposition is not always bad, as it allows one to receive money from others for free, but usually at other costs. Since the eighth house is the house of wills and inheritances, the native can find themselves in a position where they receive money after someone has passed away. This usually means that the person has lost a family member, often a grandparent or a parent, something that can weigh heavily on them from an emotional perspective. In other cases a sibling or an aunt or uncle (third house) dies and leaves all or some of their remaining possessions to a certain individual. In rarer cases someone can receive inheritance after a friend (eleventh house) passes away, and rarer still, a complete stranger (seventh house) through a very fortunate twist of circumstances. Then there are cases when the spouse dies and the husband or wife is left to inherit. 

Speaking about spouses, I shall sidetrack a bit and talk about the wife (seventh house) in particular here. Even today there are cultures in which a man's wife is his personal possession. This would seem off, since the second and seventh houses are inconjunct and thus have nothing in common with each other. But in this case collective customs, religious beliefs and even laws that are unwritten for the most part allow for a wife to be considered a personal commodity. Thus, in the event someone were to interpret such a man's chart, they would probably have to assign the man's wife to the second house and leave the seventh for associates, enemies, and various people in general. A man's wife is often a source of personal pride, something I will address later on in the text.

But the opposition between the second and eighth houses can still cause difficulties even in situations where the person is to receive stuff for free. Very often taxes (eighth house) have to be paid in order to come into the possession of those goods. In some unfortunate cases the native finds themselves as the sole beneficiary of an inheritance and instead of acquiring goods, he or she is forced to pay off the dead person's debts. When this happen it can be something that can have a tremendous impact on one's second house. These situations and many more concerning one's second house can very well generate great amounts of stress, something that accumulates in the eighth house, as discussed in that article.  

And there are usually stress-free methods of acquiring personal possessions, in the form of them being given to you as gifts. Gifts usually are considered as belonging in the fifth house yet whatever is received falls into the second house the second it is received. The two houses are square one another and this makes one less susceptible to receive gifts constantly, except maybe if they have Jupiter or at least Venus there, but even these placements have many variables. Gifts are usually received at special occasions, such as one's birthday (first house) and as a means for others to celebrate (fifth house) the birthday boy or girl. Various customs around the world also facilitate giving and receiving gifts, yet those customs are mostly connected to religious events and there are not that many important religious events throughout the year in any religion. One can receive gifts from their sweetheart (seventh house) as a loving gesture, yet this too does not happen that often, or from people who want to impress them, something which usually falls into the fifth house since people usually act that way during the initial dating period of the relationship. 

While gifts in general fall in the fifth house, I guess the actual item one receives as a gift qualifies as falling both in the second and, at times, fifth house because it becomes one's personal possession and it can also be something that spoils the person. Receiving a sweater knitted by grandma as a gift is a fifth house thing, but the sweater itself then falls in the second house - it keeps the body warm. On the other hand, receiving a designer shirt one can wear when they're going clubbing would fall in both the second and fifth houses though, in my opinion. The same would happen if you were to receive a vacuum cleaner versus a 4K TV. In general, it is safe to assign personal possessions to the second house alone, while luxury items would also be assigned to the fifth.

Like the sixth and tenth, the second house is also an Earth house based on the universal attribution of houses to signs, which makes perfect sense because it is the house that covers something as quintessentially material as money, along with more material stuff as will be detailed further on. This house is located below the horizon and it depends on the first house (the self), being an immediate consequence of the latter. This means that it is a personal house and its location in the eastern hemisphere of the chart (to the right of the MC-IC axis as one looks at the chart) makes it even more so. The second house thus becomes vital for the native because it insures his or her sustainability. This becomes extremely important for the native's survival, as besides the need to breathe, people also need nourishment in order to survive.

Looking more towards the essence of this house, we can observe how money is an attribution assigned to it based on the past several thousand years of human history alone, around the time money was invented as a means of purchasing goods. Before that time and even afterwards people used to simply exchange goods. Someone who was skilled at hunting was able to exchange meat and animal pelts with someone who was skilled in crafting hunting weapons for instance. So we can see how the second house becomes an area of life into which other personal possessions fall. In fact, all personal possessions fall into this house from the laces of one's shoes to their fat bank account which contains large amounts of money. 

Someone usually comes to acquire personal possessions through some form of personal work, and we have seen in the article on the sixth house how the trine aspect between that house and the second facilitates this. So before jobs and services and even slavery, like way back in primitive times, people were able to procure things for themselves (second house) with more or less effort and strife (sixth house). Whether risking their lives hunting dangerous beasts for nourishment or skillfully sowing animal pelts together to make an outfit, they had to perform a certain task in order to obtain something of personal possession. 

And personal possessions are a theme of the second house. The first house is the self, making the second house that of things over which the self has power and control, so to speak. But that is not always the case, since going deeper towards the essence of this house, we find that it is a house of personal nourishment. Yes, eating and drinking is usually a fifth house theme, but that applies only when you're doing it for pleasure. You eat a delicious cake and drink a fancy wine to spoil yourself (fifth house), but only if your financial condition allows you to - I've talked about this in the appropriate article.

But you still need to eat even if you cannot afford a sophisticated meal! And eating is, in itself, a second house theme and it is perpetual (stable energies) because you have to eat constantly in order to survive. Yes, diets are sixth house, but eating for the sole purpose of surviving is second house, regardless of the quality of the food. Therefore, this house covers the basic needs of an individual in order for them to sustain their self, one way or another. It just so happens people invented money as a means to procure certain things including those that sustain the self, resulting in money being attributed to the second house. 

People often overlook their health and physical condition (first house) when eating (second house) probably out of some form of deep sense of despair (I would place it in the twelfth house) with respect to losing one's well-being. Naturally, eating poorly or unbalanced meals can take a toll on the body (first house) and generate health issues (sixth house). The trine between the second and sixth facilitates this, while the sextile between the second and the twelfth makes it somewhat easier for self-destructive patterns to manifest through bad eating habits. 

There's an expression in my country I for one find stupid, like many others, but I will add it here because I think it is relevant to what I've previously said and what I am going to say further on. It often happens that when people chat small talk (third house) like idiots someone tells another they've gained weight. The other then answer somewhat along the lines of "I am fat and beautiful" which basically means they've gained weight as a sign of being healthy. This kind of thinking goes back throughout history all the way to primitive times. Before not so long ago people usually considered others of a weaker complexion to be sick (sixth house), likely because poverty was wide spread and people got sick due to poor nutrition (second house) and also because many illnesses weakened the body and "ate" away at the person's fat and muscle tissues. 

Besides being a sign of health, the part about being beautiful also goes back to time immemorial. People of a thicker complexion were considered more attractive, especially for procreation purposes. Think of how people lived under the constant threat the elements in both hotter and warmer climates, in both cases experiencing shortages of food quite often. Additional far stored inside the body allowed the individual to live longer because the body was able to cannibalize itself by progressively eating away at that fat and in cases where that fat became depleted, it then "attacked" its muscles as a source of sustenance. It is then logical to see how such individuals were more survival-material than others and could thus be considered more fit for life, making them better suited to perpetuate their stronger genes (children - fifth house). Not only that, but fatter women were considered more fertile throughout time - we have proof in depictions of the Mother Goddess image in the form of a fat woman. 

Speaking of which, men often brag about being married to a good looking woman and it is something that makes them feel good about themselves in terms of personal accomplishment. This also applies in cases where marriage is not the case yet there is an existing couple. Not only does the guy feel good about himself because he has succeeded in "conquering" a woman of incredible beauty, but he is also able to possess her in a sexual way - this applies to same sex couple as well. Expressions like "my wife" and "my husband" or "my girl/boyfriend" imply a kind of material possession in a sense the other can be viewed as an object of great value. The person is, in theory, free to spoil themselves in the other's "goodies" (fifth house), naturally in a sexual manner but also for general fun. These factors can and will often trigger envy from others, something which for individuals that are more mentally stable should merely feed their ego.

But we know how throughout history personal resources have become the cause of fighting and war, as in many cases people seek to possess the possessions of others by force. This is probably because the second and the seventh house have nothing in common and in many cases one is unable to acquire another's possessions through other means?! And because I have talked about possessions, wars and wives, the best example is the Trojan War that started after the Trojan prince Paris and the Spartan queen Helen fell in love, Helen sneaking away with Paris back to Troy. While Helen's husband, king Menelaus, was enraged and wanted to wage war on the Trojans to take back his beautiful wife, his brother Agamemnon sought this as an opportunity for conquest and and the riches that resulted from that. 

About riches, someone like Lord Manticore will always tell you money is important, while someone like Señor Shaman will say he is old school and he keeps his money under the mattress - I see nothing wrong with that. Yet I hope that if you've read this article so far and those before it, you have noticed there everything inside a chart is interconnected. When it comes to money, this connection can be observed between the second, sixth and eighth houses, as one has to constantly pay attention to those energies and make the necessary adjustments along the way whenever the situation demands in order to ensure at least a relative financial well-being for themselves. In short, what you earn (sixth) and what you possess (second) has to be more than what you owe (eighth) and this should remain constant.

Riches also increase one's self esteem and self worth, which are other second house themes. I hope I made it clear by now how quite a few things surrounding the second house improve self esteem and self worth in a person. There is that saying "clothes don't make a man" that talks about the need to deal with people based on their personality and character (first house) and not on their possessions (second house). It plainly means you can be rich yet still be an arsehole because having more money does not improve your lame personality, in many cases worsening it. 

But in too many cases clothes do make a man, as wealthy people are generally appreciated and admired by others, possibly even because of some ulterior motives of the latter. I am saying this because those who seek companionship with people who are wealthy often do it out of need because they hope (eleventh house) they will have something to gain (second house) something out of it, by either performing certain services (sixth house) or simply by sucking up to them (which is a form of service that feeds egos). Objectively speaking they are beggars and beggars in general are people who seek to gain something without doing anything most of the time while trying to compensate with sob stories. In the case of actual beggars on the street, those stories are often about poverty (second house) and disease (sixth house) to cover for the fact they are not able to work (sixth house). 

So we can see the second house is also about poverty as well as riches. And generally speaking, many people feel bad about themselves when being poor, although I have met quite a few who are the opposite, partly as a mask and partly as some form of mental debility (twelfth house) that does not necessarily imply a severe medical condition - they're simply retards. 

On the other hand, the rich are likely to seek the services of at least a few of those "beggars" who suck up to them. The best scenario is some rich person coming across people who possess certain skills the rich are in need and who are experiencing financial difficulty on a constant basis, which makes them depend on their employer (tenth house). Based on this major advantage they have over others, some employers start treating their staff as if they were slaves (sixth house) because they know those people will succumb to extreme poverty if they get fired and cannot afford to spend even a short amount of time without a steady income while seeking another job. Yes, unfortunately these things happen and they are not scarce.

At some point in time it seems that certain people began to acquire more because of various reasons. They then noticed people started envying them and wanting to take what is theirs, either by direct use of force (seventh house) or by theft (third house). This likely made them act in order to defend themselves and what thy had acquired so they did that, also by means of repaying others that would serve (sixth house) them for that purpose. I see nothing wrong with that, but human nature has many facets and one of them makes people want more. And more. And much more! 

Yes, I am talking about greed. It makes people want to possess beyond their basic needs, as well as those that give them pleasure and more they possess the more they want. I imagine certain people in the distant past experienced this to great degree and at least some of them succeeded, resulting in permanent social fractures between those who have more and those who have less, the former ending up ruling (tenth house) over the latter. As such, personal wealth conferred a certain status to people who in turn became more powerful and their authority (tenth house) increased. Greed can also make one power-hungry as much as it makes them hungry for material stuff. Yet it is likely many of those people already possessed the personal power (first house) that allowed them to acquire that wealth in the first place and then use it to increase their status and authority. That personal power also allowed them to maintain the position of authority they had acquired.  

We talked in Asteria about the ancient view on houses and mentioned the second house as having been named The Gate of Hades. This is because in the whole-sign house system predominantly used in ancient times, the second house is the first house following the Ascendant that is located entirely below the horizon and it leads the way to the "bottom of the chart", also known as the Subterraneous Place. If you think about it, wealth does come from underground in the form of natural resources. Even trees and plants come from there but not animals, yet many animals are herbivore and consume plants which grow from the ground. So it makes sense that the second house is one of values, both material in nature and a personal, subjective one.

You can work with the second house with the help of its angel, Toel:

Wow, I ended up writing more about this house than I initially thought I would so I hope it will be of help.

Edit: I should've also mentioned I see the solar plexus chakra as being more connected to this house. 

I also forgot to detail a bit on an experience I've had during a magical working I did to gain more insight on money. I did a godhead assumption of Pluto because it was the god of the underworld and also the planet bearing its name is considered to rule over collective wealth - I talked above about the underground. While I got nothing immediately after performing the godhead assumption, later than night I heard the following words in my mind yet they sounded as if they came from someone else entirely: "Money is not power, it is merely a tool of power. Become more powerful and you will have more money." I still contemplate on those words every so often, but I think they speak for themselves. 

Hate on, dum-dums!

The Great Gazoo