How to Interpret Houses in Astrology – Part 3: The Second House

This week brings us to the second house in astrology, the house I love to hate.

In case you missed the post on the first house, that one’s here!

Part of the reason I struggle with matters of the second house is because I’ve got two things working against me in this matter: the ruler of my second house, Jupiter, is debilitated in Gemini, and the second house itself is afflicted by the presence of an extremely strong Mars in Aries in a day chart. I also have Rahu there in both my Western chart and my Jyotish chart. Yikes.

In the broadest possible sense, the second house deals with our resources, money, and value. By “value” here I mean the matters we regard as a medium of exchange and agency, but more specifically it refers to our relationship with the material resources we need to support our flourishing.

But why the second house, of all places? After all, it’s a little weird for something as “material for human flourishing” to come from a house that can’t even make an aspect to the ascendant. This is where things start to get interesting rapidly.

In the ancient astrological tradition, the second house was often referred to by astrologers as “the Gate of Dis,” or, perhaps more evocatively to modern hearers, “the Gate of Hades.” There was an obvious connection in the minds of early western astrologers between the idea of matters of physical resources and the notion that those materials came out of the ground.

Veins of rich minerals, fresh spring water, fertile soil, everything that human civilization required for flourishing emerges from the earth. And so all matters financial quickly became wedded to all matters chthonic.

And who has charge over that which lies under the earth but the chthonic deities? Dives Pater, Hades, Pluto—in fact, we acknowledge this when we describe someone as a plutocrat, one who rules by virtue of having the biggest bank account. The point here is that all matters necessary for human safety, satiety, and security emerge from the earth, and far too often we drive ourselves to the grave in their pursuit (or on behalf of those who have told us that they are most important).

This requires a beat to consider the astronomy of the second house: any planets or points in the second house are succeeding to the first house as the sphere of heaven rotates through the day. Remember what I said about succedent houses in my first post in this series? That which is moving towards the first house from the second house is coming into being, and in fact, everything that sits on the first house is literally sitting right on top of that which supports it in the second. The second house, for that reason, describes the “foundational materials” of the life that comes to be in the ascendant. So, the ascendant is where those earthly treasures emerge and are put to use.

By the way, the words funds and foundation are etymologically related, both related to the Latin word fundus, which—in addition to “foundation”—also means farm, namely, that place where material resources turn into food. Those of you who took AP Western Civilization will remember that people gathering around farms that produced food is, after all, the backbone of civilization, and it was agricultural societies that developed the practice of astrology in the first place.

I think the more important meaning of the second house for the modern reader is, however, money. This begs some more pointed questions.

What is money, anyway?

As part of my own process as of late I’ve been re-evaluating many of the ideas that I picked up from the atmosphere regarding money: namely that it’s essentially bad and not a subject of conversation in polite company. It’s as though there’s a cultural aversion to money’s chthonic origins (it comes out of Hades, after all!) that’s baked in to the way we approach it, coupled with a general cultural misunderstanding of a saying of Jesus, who did not say “money is the root of all evil;” in fact, the text reads, “money is the root of all kinds of evil,” and furthermore, “you cannot serve both God and wealth.”

Decrying money seems to be a favorite pastime of millennials, anyway (and for good reason, considering the mess we inherited following the 2008 financial crisis). It’s also not very woke of us to pursue financial abundance, is it? We’ve been sold the idea that accumulating money from other people deprives them of resources that they need.

Yes, in a wage society our labor is undervalued and exploited, that’s not an item of discussion. But I would like to posit the idea that money itself, as a means of exchange of value, is fundamentally morally neutral; it is rather what we do with the money that we have, and how we go about accessing it, that engenders good or evil in our approach to the same.

Instead of looking at it as a necessary evil, I’ve made the conscious choice in recent months to work with a more neutral, perhaps even positive, view of money. At its simplest level, money is a means of exchanging value. But the definition I’m working with is this: money is a symbol of agency that facilitates change. Money, as a symbol, both represents change-facilitating agency and facilitates change itself.

If that definition doesn’t land for you, think about how you feel when you get a larger-than-expected tax refund and all the ideas you have because of that extra cash.

Indeed, for you to have access to money in the modern world is tantamount to having access to farmland or a mineral vein or a spring in the ancient world: you have agency. You have some means by which you can improve your own circumstances and the circumstances of those who depend upon you. What you choose to do with that agency is where things can go amiss: I’m of the opinion that abundance multiplies in its sharing, and that in doing so we’ll find that there is indeed always enough to go around.

So what?

The second house, in view of all of this, relates to our funds and our foundations: the peculiar veins of wealth that we have access to in this life. I contend that we all have access to something, even if that something is limited in terms of quantity and accessibility. Supposing that we think of the second house as a vein of resources, we can begin to interpret it like this:

If the second house and its ruler are in good condition, that vein of resources is right near the surface and easy to access, and there’s always plenty available.

If the second house and its ruler are in rougher shape, that vein of resources is further under the surface and requires more work to access, and there might not be as much there in terms of flow.

Another thing to keep in mind here is that indicators of plenty and scarcity in the chart are culturally landlocked. Someone who makes $17,000 a year in the United States is living at the poverty level, no question. But if you’ll excuse the extreme example, someone who makes $17,000 a year in Haiti is unquestionably a person of means and access within that context, considering the median annual income is $350.

(Hey, France: pay Haiti reparations.)

Moreover, it’s better to understand wealth indicators in relationship to the second house as indicators of fabulous wealth, far and above the average income for a person’s culture. Likewise, poverty indicators are primarily interpreted in the extreme opposite direction.

So, the person who makes a low five figures in Haiti might have the Moon and Venus in Pisces both applying to Jupiter in Cancer with the 2nd house cusp falling in Cancer, which would be a strong indication of fabulous wealth from a person’s endeavors. Contextualize that chart somewhere else, like the States, and we’re probably looking at a billionaire. This is how matters of wealth are treated in the astrological tradition.

How does that impact me?

What about us average folks, without either wealth or poverty indicators in our charts? That’s the bulk of us, to be quite honest. For us, we’ll be looking at the second house to describe our relationship with money and possessions, how we go about getting it, and what we choose to invest our resources in. I’ll also add as a joiner here that we can use “resources” in a broader sense to refer to our emotional energy, our time, our availability—anything we can invest, anything we own.

The planet ruling the second house describes, in part, our overall angle of approach to our resources. Saturn tends towards discretion, Jupiter towards generosity, Mars towards pursuit, the Sun towards extravagance, Venus towards sharing, Mercury towards managing, and the Moon towards gathering. As always, the condition of the planet determines how well that planet can go about doing its job. Assessing planetary condition is another blog post series… in fact, it’s an entire book (one which you would do well to get if you haven’t already).

Meanwhile, the placement of that planet by house locates the peculiar veins of resources we have access to throughout our life and livelihood, and the areas in which we choose to make our most significant investments of finance, time, and intention—namely, the places we value most. This is determined also in part by the second house ruler.

For example, say that your second house cusp falls in Cancer. This makes the Moon the planet which has most say over your finances and therefore your collecting and investing of resources serves a peculiar emotional security function, for the Moon’s nature is to gather, hold, and seek belonging. Let’s then say that you have the Moon in Virgo in the fourth house. This means that your approach to finances will drive you to gather, hold, utilize your finances to seek belonging in a scrupulous, careful fashion that applies sound judgment to financial management, living out similar sorts of patterns that your parents demonstrated to you. “Bad with money” is probably not a descriptor for you.

Another example: your second house cusp falls in Libra, making Venus the ruler of your second house, and Venus is placed in Aries in your 8th house in your nativity. This suggests that your default approach to finances is one of sharing what you have with other people with whom you’re in close relationship in an effort to broker peace and to win their affection through what you can offer them, to the detriment of your bottom line (remember that the 8th house is the other money house).

Let’s nuance this second example. Say that you also have Saturn in Libra, who is in very good shape there. Saturn’s nature isn’t one of surplus; his nature is of sufficiency. Namely, his concern is that you have precisely what you need when you need it; no more, no less. He sees Venus over in Aries and reins her in: stop trying so hard to pay for the affections of others.

Another way you might experience this is as a transit—say you’ve got that Venus in Aries in the eighth situation happening, but Saturn is currently transiting your second house. The opposition of transiting Saturn to your natal Venus will create a situation that forces you to come to the uncomfortable realization that trying to buy people’s affection is a dead end.

So we’ve got a basic structure to work with here:

The planet ruling the 2nd house describes your basic style of engagement with financial matters. The house where the planet is located describes both the location of that golden vein of resources, and where you’ll invest the resources that you do have. Another way to say this is that your resources get tied up in the affairs of whichever house the second ruler falls in.

As always, the nature and condition of the planet ruling the second house describes the nature and condition of your resources; meanwhile, if you have any planets in the second, their nature and condition describe the peculiar demands that are placed on your resources by other influences, and whether those demands generate ease or hardship.

So where is your vein of gold?

  • Second house ruler in the first house: my resources are in my own hands and I invest my energies and funds in myself. If my second house ruler is in good condition, I have everything I need; if my second house ruler is in poor condition, chasing after enough becomes a major plot point for me.
  • Second house ruler in the second house: my resources are precisely where they should be and can be uncovered and multiplied through how I manage, spend, save, and invest what I already have. Because the second ruler is likely in the sign it rules, there’s a solid chance that my base financial status is one of ease.
  • Second house ruler in the third house: my resources are found in my own zip code, within the day-to-day activities of life, “tasky” stuff, routines, the exercise of word and mind, and in daily exchanges. I might also get money from siblings, relatives, or neighbors.
  • Second house ruler in the fourth house: my resources are in the hands of my parents or the legacy that they left. If my second ruler is in good condition here, it’s probable that my parents have helped me out quite a bit. If that second ruler is in bad condition here, chances are that money is a continual pinch point between me and my parents. Another meaning of this placement is resources being found in real estate or the land (or sea, if the fourth house cusp falls in a water sign).
  • Second house ruler in the fifth house: my resources are bound up in my creative endeavors, what I make, and the ways in which I enjoy myself. The second ruler in poor condition here can indicate overspending on luxuries.
  • Second house ruler in the sixth house: I’ve got to work for what I have. My resources come to me through concerted effort, discipline, and diligence, and money isn’t necessarily “fun” for me as much as it is a stark necessity. This could also signify finding resources in the medical field, or receiving money from AD&D insurance payments (that’s a niche delineation!)
  • Second house ruler in the seventh house: my resources are found in partnership, marriage, contract, or enmity. Again, condition and nature of the 2nd ruler: Mars in Aries here ruling the 2nd might describe an arms dealer; Venus in Pisces here ruling the 2nd might suggest marrying for money.
  • Second house ruler in the eighth house: my resources are found among other people’s money, and chances are I make a cut or income from judicious management of investments. Problem is, there’s a solid chance that my 2nd ruler is in detriment here, and so my money will always be a problem that needs to be solved rather than something that flows out from and into my pockets with ease.
  • Second house ruler in the ninth house: my resources are found among faraway places and people, through mass communications, teaching, religion, or philosophy. I’ll have to go looking for it, most likely (especially because there’s a good chance that, in the 9th house, the 2nd house ruler is in aversion to the 2nd).
  • Second house ruler in the tenth house: my resources drive my career here, and one of my driving professional goals is financial security. I likely work as a leader with influence over financial matters in my setting and the 2nd ruler is a powerful overall storyteller in my chart.
  • Second house ruler in the eleventh house: my resources can be found among my friends, groups, and associations; I give freely and freely I receive, holding things in common. My network is as important as my bank account. (A niche interpretation: I live on a kibbutz and we hold everything in common!)
  • Second house ruler in the twelfth house: my resources are frequently a pain point in my life and it requires a lot of effort to get the engine to turn over financially. The best outcomes from me financially come from diligent saving and prudent use of resources, and I might be able to access money in unusual ways from dealing in hidden matters or working with people who are involved in 12th house situations (patients, prisoners, those in recovery).

Remember, this is just a start: there’s plenty more that can be said about getting your financial house in order! If you want to do a deep dive, I’d love to work with you to identify the vein of resources in your life and help you develop a strategy to earn, save, and give more than you thought possible.

Get your financial house in order: book an astrology consultation today!

Featured image by Sharon McCutcheon via Unsplash

How to Interpret Houses in Astrology: Part 1

When you’re first learning about astrology, there comes a time—and it usually happens when you encounter your first quality sun sign horoscope— that you’ll come across the idea of “houses.” Houses in astrology are one of the crucial components of understanding your birth chart, and if you want your understanding of astrology to level up quickly, learning how the houses work and what they mean, both in general and for you, will be one of the quickest ways to understand how this kooky cosmic clock times trends in your life and in the world.

“Sure, but what are they?”

First, let’s put some vapor house on to get in the mood…

Imagine a department store.

Within a department store you have, well, departments, and you’re probably thinking of the sales floor: there’s housewares, men’s clothing, women’s clothing, automotive, sporting goods, automotive, and electronics (in most, anyway). The sales floor has quite a bit to do with how the store interacts with you, the customer.

But there are also parts of the store that you don’t see, too; things like the cash office, human resources, the loading dock, the employee lounge, and the warehouse area in the back. Sometimes there’s a concessions area with a Starbucks in front. Then there’s the checkout area, which is where the magic happens for the store.

Each of these areas serves a different function in the overall shopping experience. So, we might think of them as “functional areas.” And each of these areas has a middle manager who oversees the day-to-day operations of each department, while everyone in the store and all its functions, as well as its overall success, is under the purview of the general manager.

In astrology, each house in a chart is like one of these functional areas within a store. Each of the houses has a way in which it relates to you as an individual, and each house interfaces with an aspect of the outside world around you (just like each area in the store, sales floor or not, relates to the customer experience overall).

The Ascendant and its ruler represents the General Manager of the store, and every other department has its own manager, or what we call a “house ruler.”

So if each house represents a domain of your life, how do you figure out which domain goes where? Let’s look at a chart example.

Screenshot 2019-04-08 13.06

If you’re looking at your circular birth chart, you’ll see it divided into twelve pizza slices. Starting with the point on the circle furthest over the left-hand side (the nine o’clock position), you will then count forward counter-clockwise to number them off. See where the Ascendant degree is in that graphic? Everything in a counter-clockwise direction, to the next line or “cusp,” is the first house.

So, the first house in that chart is the pie piece that starts at 26 Libra 46 and goes to 24 Scorpio 57.

However! A tricky bit quickly arises: when using quadrant houses, if a planet is within 5 degrees of the next house cusp moving in a counter-clockwise direction, we read that planet as being in the next house. Looking at that same chart, we see that Jupiter is at 24 Sagittarius 19, but the 3rd house line falls at 26 Sagittarius 44. Since that Jupiter is within 5 degrees, we know that this Jupiter is a 3rd house Jupiter.

That five-degree “buffer” until the dividing line is what we call the “cusp” of a house, which doesn’t mean boundary; it means point or apex, like the points on your canine teeth: it’s why those teeth are called “cuspids.” It’s the seat of power related to that house, and planets on the cusp have a big impact in the affairs of that house.

For example, we might think of the second house in your birth chart as your stock room: it’s where all your inventory and resources are stored. A planet sitting right on the 2nd house cusp is in the middle of your stock room, doing whatever it is that planet does: if it’s Jupiter, he’s making money for you, but if it’s Mars, he’s probably spending money. “You gotta spend money to make money, honey,” he says.

But, he’s not in charge of the stockroom. He’s just right in the middle of it doing his Mars thing.

Who’s actually in charge of the 2nd house? Well, whose turf does that cusp fall in? To figure this out, we look at the sign wherein the cusp falls, and see what planet rules it.

So, if the 2nd cusp falls in the sign of Leo, the ruler of Leo is then in charge of the 2nd cusp. In this case, the Sun rules the 2nd cusp and will describe your relationship to money in some way.

How do I figure out how to divide the houses in my birth chart? I heard something about whole sign/Placidus/Koch/&c. houses… what’s all that about?

Technical Ramble Alert!

What you’re thinking about is the issue of house division, which has been a logistical problem within the astrological community for centuries and has engendered more than one loud argument in restaurants at conferences throughout the years.

Conceptually, houses are divisions of local space using astronomical considerations. There are… more than a handful of different criteria around which you could divide this space. You could use time to divide space. You could use… space to divide space (how’s your spherical trigonometry?) You could just use the Zodiac itself to divide space. It’s like cutting a pizza into 12 pieces. We generally want the result to have nice, even pieces.

But different astronomical criteria (yes, astronomical, meaning things that we are observing about the sky) determine how those pieces are divided. Broadly speaking, most systems of house division use either a reference to a point in the Zodiac, usually the ascendant, and then project houses from there on a sign-by-sign basis (whole sign houses and equal sign houses do this), while others, like Placidus, bring the degree of the midheaven into the equation, creating some complicated math.

My friend Ryhan Butler did a series of Twitter threads on the rationale for the way most of the popular house systems are divided, and if you want to do a deep dive, head over there!

BUT HOW DO I PICK ONE

Just pick one and stick with it long enough to learn how it functions and why it functions. In my practice, I waffle between whole sign houses and Placidus houses for natal astrology (although I gave up whole sign houses for Lent this year to build some consistency of interpretation…), but I use Placidus exclusively for horary.

The point, especially if you’re new to learning astrology, is not to win an argument; the point is to have results that help lead you to richer understanding of your own chart and the charts that come into your life. So!

How do I actually interpret the houses in my birth chart?

Let’s start off with the idea of angular triads. There are four angles in your birth chart. As each day goes by, if you’re looking south, the sky appears to rotate in a clockwise direction. We call this direction “primary motion.” Planets rise at the ascendant, culminate at the midheaven, set at the descendant, and come to their lowest point at the imum coeli, AKA the cusp of the 4th house.

Those four turning points are called “angles,” and initially were described with a word that also meant “tent pegs.” Those four points are the most significant points in your chart, and anything placed within those houses has more to say about your overall life and experiences. So start off by looking to see if you have any planets in the 1st, 10th, 7th, or 4th houses.

Planets in the houses that come before the angular houses in primary direction (remember, clockwise is primary) are called “succedent.” If we think of each of the big four angle house cusps as a throne, planets the succedent houses (2nd, 11th, 8th, and 5th) will, as the day goes on, succeed to those thrones. Conversely, planets in the houses that come after the angular houses in primary direction are called “cadent.” They were on the throne, but now they’ve lost their opportunity and have fallen out of power (which is what “cadent” means).

We can then divvy out the houses into three categories: succedent, angular, and cadent. Planets in angular houses have all the opportunity in the world to manifest what they promise; planets in cadent houses have lost that opportunity and are regrouping. Planets in succedent houses are movin’ on up but aren’t quite there.

Now, just because a planet is in an angular house doesn’t mean that it’s doing its job well, which is why understanding planetary condition is crucial—but that’s for another blog post!

Let’s get to the overall meaning of the houses, then. I won’t go into the rationale for why these meanings are what they are; that’s been treated at length by lots of fantastic astrologers. What I do want to point out is that there’s disagreement on the meanings of some of these, for sure.

Modern astrology understands the meanings of houses that Dane Rudhyar articulated in his lovely book “The Astrological Houses,” where each of the houses is viewed as a part of an unfolding life cycle. That’s not what I’m presenting here.

What I’m presenting here represents the consensus of the classical astrological tradition as found as common threads through the astrological texts of the middle ages, renaissance, and baroque era. Try these out, see if you like them, and if you get stuck on the meaning of a house or if it doesn’t land, let it marinate until it clicks. Many of these are drawn from the “joys” of the planets: if a planet delights to be in a house, it impacts the overall meaning of that house.

    • The first house is the joy of Mercury and it relates to you: your baseline personality, underlying motivations, style, appearance, and vitality.
    • The second house relates to money, especially your money, and resources that you have access to which enable you to support yourself.
    • The third house is the joy of the Moon and relates to communication in general, but more specifically to communication with people who are in your local space. There’s a “your zip code” element to the third; it represents your peers, siblings, neighbors, and really anywhere within commuting distance. It also relates to matters of the mind, gathering knowledge, primary education, news, rumors, and reports.
    • The fourth house relates to matters of ancestry, parents, family, and your sense of “home;” it also relates to matters of the land, and the legacies that you leave.
    • The fifth house is the joy of Venus and relates to matters of sensual pleasure, fun, recreation, procreation, and creativity. Sam Reynolds calls this the house of swagger; where you go to express yourself and put more of yourself in the world.
    • The sixth house is the joy of Mars and relates to matters of disease and illness. It also relates to drudgery, hard work, labors, servitude, and people who work for you. It also represents pets and small animals!
    • The seventh house relates to one-on-one interactions, most commonly marriage or romantic relationships, but it also has signification of anyone with whom we are engaged, such as the opposing party in a lawsuit, the business partner we would sign a contract with, or our enemies.
    • The eighth house is the house of unavoidables: death, debt, and taxes. Since it opposes the 2nd house, it has significations of other people’s money. It also represents inheritances you might receive from the dead, as well as your relationship with fear.
    • The ninth house is the joy of the Sun and relates to matters that enlighten and elevate our perspective: religion, philosophy, higher education, and travel to far-off lands. It’s everything that the 3rd house isn’t; if the 3rd is focused on here and now, the 9th is focused on everything else. Publishing and mass communication is part of the story here; 3rd is generating content, 9th is getting it out there.
    • The tenth house, called “Acts” in Greek, is what you’re known for, the way you appear within public perception, career, vocation, and accomplishments.
    • The eleventh house is the joy of Jupiter and relates to the people whose company you keep: friends, groups, affiliations, associations. It also describes the positive boons and opportunities which come your way and your aspirational longings.
    • The twelfth house is the joy of Saturn and relates to matters of sorrow, isolation, separation, and imprisonment. Kelly Surtees describes it as a “Pandora’s Box” of all the stuff that you’d rather forget about that can be brought to the surface by transit.

Now, the key to interpreting how houses function is to figure out which planet rules the house and to look at the condition and placement of that planet in your birth chart. We can use this extremely basic formula to get us rolling:

My [nth] house cusp falls in [sign]. [Sign] is ruled by [planet]. [Planet] is in [good/bad/eh] condition in [x] house. My relationship to [nth] house affairs manifests in a [planet] style using [matters of the house the sign ruler is placed in]. This leads to [positive/negative/mixed] outcomes relative to matters of the [nth] house.

Since I’m a Sagittarius midheaven, I’ll use my own chart as an example.

In my chart, the cusp of the 9th house falls in Scorpio. Scorpio is ruled by Mars. Mars is in overall good condition in my chart in the 2nd house. My relationship to 9th house affairs manifests in a Mars style using matters of the 2nd house. This leads to generally positive outcomes relative to matters of the 9th house.

I’m an impulse spender when something resonates with a goal or ideal that I have. In fact, I spend a lot of money, but I try to spend it in accordance with my ethics around money!

Let’s try another one!

Say you have the 7th house cusp in Libra with Venus in Capricorn in the 10th in a night chart, applying to the conjunction of Mars, with the Moon applying to trine Venus from Taurus. That’s a strong Venus, helped by Mars and supported by the Moon. So it would look like this:

In your chart, the cusp of the 7th house falls in Libra. Libra is ruled by Venus. Libra is in overall good condition in the 10th house. Your relationship to 7th house affairs (relationships) manifests in a Venus in Capricorn style (strong, determined, suffers no fools) within the realm of your 10th house. This leads to positive outcomes relative to matters of the 7th house; you might meet your partner in a work setting, or you and your partner might join together to found a company (since in this instance, Mars would be your ascendant ruler as the ASC would fall in Aries).

Remember what I said especially about planets in an angular house (both Mars and Venus are in an angular house, the 10th here): this part of your chart will have a lot to say about your overall life story! It’s turned up to 11, so to speak. This synergy between Mars and Venus in your chart makes your professional achievements a major factor in the stories people tell about you.

What if I have empty houses in my chart?

That’s not anything you need to worry about. I’ve heard of people told that they won’t have kids because their 5th house is empty… that’s bunk, sorry. Even if a house is empty, it still has a ruler, and that ruler is still placed somewhere and doing something. If your 2nd house is empty, you’re not going to be broke because of that; look to the ruler of your 2nd and see what’s happening with it! Use the formula, tell the story!

That said, understanding the condition of a planet is crucial to getting accurate interpretations for each placement. I’ve not yet written a lot on understanding planetary condition, but if you want to do a deep dive, Demetra George’s new book is the text you want to get to start getting the mechanics in your head (affiliate link ahoy!): get it here!

Meanwhile, over the next twelve weeks, I’m going to be offering one post for each of the houses going through its ruler being placed in any of the other houses! That’ll cover every possible combination.

In the meantime, if you really want to do a deep dive into understanding your house placements, there’s no better way to do that than by working one on one with me in an astrology consultation. Your chart will come alive in ways you didn’t expect just by getting another set of experienced eyes on it, and I absolutely can’t wait to work with you!

get your houses in order: book a session with me today!

Featured Image by Jakob Owens via Unsplash