2nd house in astrology: resources, values, Gate of Hades

Vettius Valens devotes a chapter to “house II, called the Gate of Hades, the place that rises after the Ascendant” (Anthology, book II, chapter 15). In his list of the twelve places (book IV, chapter 12), he links it to life, the Gate of Hades, shadow, giving and receiving, partnership.

Firmicus Maternus explains the name (Mathesis, book II, chapters 17 and 19). From it one learns “the increase of hope and of possessions,” but it is a sluggish place, cut off from the Ascendant: it receives no ray and no aspect from it, and that is why it is called the infernal gate. He also records its Greek name, anafora, the rising, and has it begin thirty degrees after the degree of the Ascendant.

The sign next to the Ascendant does indeed form none of the aspects the ancients recognized with it. For them, a house that does not “see” the Ascendant acted with less force on the person's life.

Lilly draws up the practical list (Christian Astrology, book I, chapter VII, pp. 50-51): the estate or fortune of the person, their wealth or poverty, movable goods, money lent, profit and loss. Al-Biruni puts food, livelihood, household goods and helpers there (Book of Instruction, § 461).

The modern reading keeps the resources and adds values: what you set store by, the sense of security that comes from what you have built, and the aptitudes that, once cultivated, become a source of income or of lasting satisfaction.

The 2nd house is succedent: it follows an angle and consolidates what the angle set in motion. The 1st house asserts a presence; the 2nd gives it solid ground. On the axis it forms with the 8th house, it holds what belongs to you alone, as opposed to resources that are shared, received or inherited.

The natural wheel ties the 2nd house to Taurus and, through it, to Venus. Lilly does keep Taurus as a consignificator, but he pairs it with Jupiter: if Jupiter is placed in this house, or is its ruler, that is for him an argument of wealth. He adds that the Sun and Mars are never well placed there, both showing a scattering of goods.

Lilly also ranks the 2nd house fairly low in his order of strength (chapter VI, p. 48): it comes after the four angles, after the 11th and the 5th, but also after the cadent 9th and 3rd. Only the 8th, 6th and 12th are weaker. The old idea of the “sluggish” place has not gone away.

These associations are historical landmarks. In your chart, the color of the 2nd house comes from the sign on its cusp, and its dynamics from its ruler.

The cusps are calculated in Placidus. The “House cusps” table in chapter I gives the position of the 2nd house, its sign and its ruler, in modern rulerships: a Scorpio, Aquarius or Pisces cusp points there to Pluto, Uranus or Neptune, where tradition named Mars, Saturn or Jupiter. The planets occupying the house appear in the House column of the positions table.

In chapter IV, the Money & resources section brings together the 2nd and 8th houses and their rulers, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto, along with the Part of Fortune: what comes in, what is shared, what holds back. An empty 2nd house is read there through its ruler.

When a planet occupies it, that planet sets the tone of your relationship to resources. Venus leans toward the pleasure of owning and a taste for beautiful things; Saturn toward rigorous management, sometimes austere but solid over time; Mars toward a conquering energy for earning, with spending that can be impulsive. Most houses in a chart are empty, and a 2nd house without a planet says nothing about a lack of money.

For Camille Morel, AstralPro's sample chart (fictional data), the cusp of the 2nd house is at 15°40' Sagittarius. Sagittarius has the same ruler in both systems: Jupiter. Lilly would therefore see here the favorable case he describes, Jupiter as ruler of the 2nd house. But this Jupiter lies at 0°50' Scorpio, in the 12th house, and it is peregrine there, with none of the four dignities.

The other money house leads to the same place. The cusp of the 8th house falls in Gemini, ruled by Mercury, which is also in Scorpio and in the 12th house. The Part of Fortune, finally, is at 10°44' Scorpio, again in the 12th house. Camille's resources thus run through the most withdrawn house of the chart. For Money & resources, the report selects Jupiter sextile the MC, orb 0°35', which links this discreet ruler to public life.

Camille's 2nd house is not empty: Uranus (19°10' Capricorn) and Neptune (18°56' Capricorn) occupy it, conjunct with an orb of 0°15'. This conjunction appears in the list of aspects, but the report does not comment on it: pairs formed by two slow planets are left out of the selection, because a whole generation shares them.

Both planets lie close to the cusp of the 3rd house, at 22°06' Capricorn: Uranus is 2°56' from it, Neptune 3°10'. With Lilly's 5° margin, they would already count with the 3rd house. AstralPro leaves them in the 2nd house, where their degree falls, and that is where you will find them in the table.

Neptune keeps a link with this area by another route: it rules Camille's 4th house, whose cusp is in Pisces. The same body can thus occupy one house and rule another.