Astrological houses

Second House

Direct answer

Second House is the house of money, possessions, livelihood, values, food, voice, self-worth, and resources the person can use or steward.

HousesThe Great Almanac DictionaryUpdated 2026-09-26

Get my personal reading

$0 today, then $12/month after 7 days. Cancel anytime.

At a glance

In astrology: The Second House is succedent and follows the First House, turning embodiment into resources and support.
Found in: Houses
Related: Birth Chart, Zodiac, Transit

An engraved chart wheel of twelve divisions, ruled aspect lines drawn across it — Chart geometry · visual guide **Second House**
Second House describes money, values, possessions, livelihood, and self-worth.
A structural orientation; exact placements depend on the chart or technique being discussed.

From the reference page to your own chart

What does your own chart say about you?

Choose love, work or purpose. Your reading is written from your chart. Your reading uses your own birth details.

Get my personal reading $0 today, then $12/month after 7 days. Cancel anytime.

Walk through Alex’s whole example first

The Road of AgesSee the turning points of your whole life, from your birth date See your road's shape

Prefer to explore first?

Member tools The 2026 book Lectures

The daily letter, free

One short letter at 7 each morning: the day’s theme read for your own chart.

The Road of AgesThe turning points of your whole life, from your own chart Walk my road

Free, by email

Your daily Almanac letter

One short letter at 7 each morning: the day’s theme read for your own chart, and one thing to do with it.

What sets Second House apart

The second house stands one sign from the Ascendant, in aversion, so no Ptolemaic aspect joins it to the first; Firmicus puts it with the sixth, eighth and twelfth, the places that do not see the horoscope. Dorotheus calls it the place of property and ties it to livelihood. Firmicus gives the Latin inferna porta, the infernal gate, from the Greek anaphora, and says it rules hope and the increase of possessions. It has no planetary joy.

Aspect to the first: none: it is in aversion, one sign away
Firmicus' name: inferna porta, the infernal gate, rendering the Greek anaphora
Dorotheus' name: the place of property; a lot of property goes with it
Al-Qabisi: assets, livelihood and underofficials, with green as its colour
Dorotheus I.27: a malefic here or aspecting it marks a decline in status

A one-minute story

The Twelve Places

How the turning sky was cut into twelve places, and what each was read for.

Every day, the whole sky turns once around you.

The place of property, and the infernal gate

Dorotheus calls the second house the place of property, the matter of livelihood, and speaks of a lot of property that goes with it. Firmicus Maternus gives it a Latin name, inferna porta, the infernal gate, with the Greek anaphora, and says it rules hope and the increase of possessions. Al-Qabisi lists assets, livelihood and underofficials or helpers, and assigns it the end of youth. He colors it green.

Firmicus counts it among the places that do not see the Ascendant. The sign next to the rising sign has no aspect to it, so he calls it a lazy place, grouped with the sixth, eighth and twelfth. That is the whole force of the name: the house is out of contact with the life, however useful its subject.

Where a failing fortune comes from

Dorotheus Book I, chapter 27, uses the second house to explain a decline in status. A malefic in the second house, or in opposition or square to it, means decline, and the lord of the second house points to the source of the loss:

Venus: women
Mercury: a book or a reckoning
Jupiter: a nobleman, king or government
Mars: violence, theft or fire
Saturn: old men, slaves or freedmen, a building or a burial place
Sun: fathers, a father's women, or a debt
Moon: mothers and their relatives

He adds that an increasing Moon in trine with the Sun, aspecting the second house, is good: it means service to kings.

What the three lords of assets say

Al-Andarzaghar reads the three triplicity lords of the second house as a timeline of wealth. The strongest of the three has authority over assets. The first lord shows wealth at the start of life, the second in the middle and the third at the end.

The second house is a succedent house, and al-Qabisi says succedent houses carry middling fortune, the second through assets. No planet is said to rejoice here, and Dorotheus does not list it among the places he recommends.

The story behind Second House

Traditional sources often connect the Second House with movable goods, wealth, and substance.

The spiritual meaning of Second House

Engraved emblem: a middle-aged man, a merchant, standing full length behind a small trestle table of wares — The second house · The merchant

Spiritually, Second House asks what is truly valuable and how it should be stewarded.

Why Second House matters

Second House matters because it shows how a person sustains life materially and psychologically: what they value, keep, spend, earn, and protect.

How to read Second House

Second House speaks to income, pricing, resources, body security, appetite, stored value, and the practical question of enough.

Second House in practice: an example

Venus in the Second House can link money and self-worth with beauty, taste, pleasure, art, or relational skill.

Where readings of Second House go wrong

A common error is to treat the Second House as only cash. It also includes values, capacities, and what the person can rely on.

Sources and editorial method

This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.

Source: The Great Almanac Dictionary
Category: Houses
Last updated: 2026-09-26

Read your Second House

Second House in a book is one thing; Second House in your own birth chart is your life. The Oracle casts your real chart and tells you what it means for your love, your work, and your year ahead, in conversation. It opens with the 7-day Seeker trial.

Speak with the Oracle

How Second House lives in your own chart across your year, in love, in work, in timing, is written in the Cosmic Codex: the whole year, once. Open the Cosmic Codex

Birth ChartA Birth Chart is a personal astrology map built from birth date, time, and place. ZodiacThe Zodiac is the twelve-sign wheel used as astrology's core sign language. TransitTransit means current planetary movement activating a chart.

More in Houses