Vedic Astrology: The Second House – Value of the Self

Seed Principle: The physical body (first house) needs to be fed and wants to feel good about itself. The actions of the physical body have results in the second house. Money, speech, physical enjoyment through the senses, close friends are all related to the second house. They are an expression of what we value the most.

The body part associated with the Second house is the face, the sense organs and in particular the mouth. What goes into our mouth and what comes out of our mouth is directly correlated to our level of self-esteem. For instance, our diet generally improves as our sense of self-worth improves. We realize we get so much more out of life and can contribute so much more when our diet and routines improve.  Also, we realize what comes out of our mouth, our words, have the potential to add value and meaning to our life and to the lives of others.

2nd house people: Our family and close personal friends are second house people, those closest to us. These people also affirm our values and are a reflection of them. As our values change, evolve and sometimes outgrow the values of our past, blood family members may fall by the wayside and an alternative family grows – one we have chosen in this lifetime.

Activities: Activities that give us pleasure in the moment and that make us feel connected. Eating, talking, socializing with relatives and friends are second house activities.

Environment: Our home or any place where we feel at home, like the local bar where we feel safe or the spiritual center or our cubicle at work that we have decorated and “made our own“.

Objects: Clothes, things we collect and like to have around us. Actually, possessions themselves are related to the second house. But specifically things that reflect our values and give us a sense of connection and even identity.

Planetary Indicators: Venus has the most to do with the second house. Venus is indicative of our values and what we value the most. Venus also has to do with our senses and shows how the promise of pleasure begins the entire cycle of value, values, respect and how those things translate into wealth.

Guna / Lesson: Personal Artha (Value)
General Explanation:
As this is the first “Artha” house, our personal values, these are the things  and the things we want next to us. As our values evolve so do the things we feed our self. Not just food through our mouth, but what we consume on all levels is an expression of the second house – our value system, which leads to what we are becoming. How valued we feel has a lot to do with how much we think we deserve and has a big impact on our capacity to earn a good living. Our need to grow in wealth and what we value the most is shown here.
We have many preferences, habits, and routines that are an expression of our identity, both who we think we are and how we feel about ourselves. We will literally put our body and our identity in an environment, both internal and external. Internally we have a sense of self-worth, we have values and we will derive a certain meaning from them. Externally those things will be seen in our home, our friends and family, clothes and other things we hold dear to us.

The second house is a real bedrock of our existence. It is the stability and structure through which we live our life. The second house also has to do with our past conditioning. It has to do with the deep bonds of family and personal commitments we have made that do not change quickly. In many ways it shows the cumulative result of the things we have made a personal commitment to and the deep grooves they have left in our life and our immediate environment. We are hesitant to let others into our environment, to see us that deeply, because rejection of us on that level makes us question our very identity.

The second house is where we see the issue of self-worth playing out in someone’s life. Based on how we feel about ourselves, we ask for a certain wage from our job and expect a certain level of self-respect from others. This level of self-respect will also be a standard we express through our speech, our diet, our manner of dress. As our identity evolves, these things will change. When we are younger, we inherit the values of our childhood. Our identity and values are an expression of how we were raised. But as we get older, and our truthful self becomes more clear to us, our values change and the choices they imply also change.

Many of these choices will involve what we consume, what we buy, what we eat. As was noted, our body (first house) needs sustenance, comfort and a place to abide (second House).

Evolutionary process of the second house:
“From a value system based on material wealth, to values based on social pressures and other people, to the realization that true stability and our most vital asset is wisdom, is the Evolutionary process of the second house.”

The effects of planets in the second house:
The Sun in the second house native ties a lot of their identity to values, wealth, family and other stable structures of the world. There’s likely a lot of attention placed on material wealth. The native may even be greedy and clannish in their behavior, taking care of their own. They may be a smoker.

The Moon in the second house shows a wavering value system. These natives may often feel at the whim of their family members or what others say about them. There may be inconsistent speech and habits, even food addictions or problems. Yet, they are quite adaptable and may be quite successful as a result.

Mars in the second house makes for some aggressive speech and a tendency to argue over values and principles. There may be battles and conflicts especially with family members or very close friends as their emerging sense of self-worth evolves. They may work hard and earn a high salary in their career. Smoking is an issue.

Mercury in the second house makes for a skilled speaker and one who easily adapts to family life and domestic situations. This native may also be an excellent writer (especially if the second house is a female sign). This person will value a multitude of cultures, perhaps master many languages and adapt a value system based on humor and tolerance.

Jupiter in the second house often creates a religious person and one whose sense of self-worth comes from higher, philosophical principles. Yet, there may be disagreements with family members over personal philosophies and religions. They may tend to exaggerate their words, and be a little untrustworthy as a result.

Venus in the second house can easily produce wealth, comfort and support. A world of beauty and order, not to mention creativity would be the most valued and precious to this native. There would likely be very polite manners and sweet speech. Yet, there may also be excessive sensual indulgence as the second house rules the mouth. They may bend their values to suit others.

Saturn in the second house shows a premium would be placed on conservative values. There is a tendency to be overwhelmed by family responsibilities and difficulty getting loose from them. Hard work and determined effort would grow their income over time. Yet they may work in a profession that does not bring satisfaction.

Rahu in the second house will bring obsessions over developing our own paradigm of value. Often this is a placement of greed and excess accumulation, but not enjoyment. Also, there could be eating disorders, substance abuse and inconsistent speech (especially lying).

Ketu in the second house often shows a dissatisfaction with the values in which they were raised. Confusion about their own self-worth and excessive criticism of themselves and others by extension.