Packing for the Road: The Second House
Traditionally called the house of money and finances, the second house encompasses a much larger area of life. It is the house of possessions and what we accumulate - and it includes things other than money.
What do we have? Well, to start with, we have our bodies - the first thing we actually own.
In the first house we took our first breath, and now we are even more separated from the mother. Through our bodies we navigate the world, move, feel things. After the first house, which shows how we meet the world, the second house shows what we use in that world.
But our bodies are only the beginning. As we grow up, we require and accumulate more. Here are some of the possessions I could think of (based on some of the signs that could be in the second house):
Ambition, drive, money, taste, pleasure, information, family, nurturing, creativity, talent, skills, diplomacy, looks, fairness, relationships, power, wisdom, optimism, perseverance, intelligence, friendships, ideals, compassion, selflessness, a belief in something greater than oneself…
These are all different possessions one might have to use (or have access to) while they navigate their existence. A person with the air sign Gemini at the cusp of their second house might accumulate information and this would be their most important possession. On the other hand, with another air sign Libra in the second house, taste, fairness or relationships could be their most prized possessions. With Pisces, how they gauge their wealth could be through compassion, their relationship with the intangible or with a power greater than themselves…
One second house problem might be one’s confusion around what wealth or possessions are for them. We all know the cliché of the financially rich person who is unhappy and/or discontent. Of course, there are almost always some other things going on in the chart but the feeling of being “poor” directs me to the second house (or Jupiter for that matter but not the topic right now).
One other possession we rarely talk about is “value”. The second house, under its vast umbrella, houses what we value – what we think is valuable. In a world where what is valuable, cool, fashionable is fed to us by corporations or other people, it is getting more and more difficult to find what we each value. It is normalized that we should accumulate more and more material goods or money, and we are trained (or indoctrinated) to do so from childhood. Just look at the biggest media franchise in the world, Pokémon, where the goal is literally to accumulate by “catching them all”.
We are not encouraged to find who we are and what is valuable to us but rather seek out what others have deemed valuable. As a result, we become existentially, psychologically, financially or physically sick when everything everybody has been telling us with regards to what is of value turns out to be false or insufficient for the unique “I”.
As important as the second house is, it is a means to an end like all the houses are. So, the fact that the mindset of accumulation as the ultimate goal is ubiquitous in so much of the world right now shows how far behind we are as humanity (literally the second phase of 12 phases of existence).
But the change starts at the individual level.
A look into the second house of one’s chart is an exploration of the world of possessions, values and the ways to enjoy existence with the help of these possessions. It helps us uncover what one has, what one values, one’s attitude towards their accumulations and how one goes about acquiring/using these.
In the first house we see the road ahead and the second house is the packing part of the journey.
If you want to learn more about your natal second house and/or the rest of your chart, I recommend my Modus Operandi reading. I designed it as an easy to digest entry into your chart focusing on one or two areas of your life. Click here to book a session.