The second house is the zodiac sign that follows the first, residing below the horizon and under the earth. It represents that which supports the first house, the material possessions and resources that sustain us.

Material support is the essence of this house. Money, and the things we acquire with it such clothing, food, the latest iPhone, cool CDs, etc. This house will tell you about your relationship with money, how you go about earning and spending money, as well as how you take care of your possessions.

Natural assets not directly tied to money can be found in the second house, such as the skills, talents, and abilities you possess. The second house may speak to how you hone and cultivate your abilities and turn them into marketable skills.

However, the second house can have a darker side, revealing themes of greed, possessiveness, and poverty when planets influencing this house are under difficult conditions. These themes can extend beyond material affairs, affecting our mindset and emotional states.

There is a tendency to take second house planets for granted. It can be difficult to recognize their relationship to things outside of ourselves and how they do or do not support us.

Second house planets have a practical approach to life, as they tend to be focused on more materialistic, tangible topics and outcomes.

For Your Consideration

In my personal experience, I have encountered a substantial number of examples in which the second house was active during pregnancy or the birth of a child, in cases where other primary indicators for children and pregnancy were not - particularly in the charts of women. I have not found any traditional sources that connect the second house to pregnancy, but I have some theories about why this link may exist.

The second house has a lot to do with the body and what you put into it. What you put into your body eventually becomes your body just as the second house rises and eventually becomes the first. Having children is a much different experience for people with uterus’s than for those that do not for the obvious reason that they actually have to grow inside their bodies.

The second house is what comes after the first, what comes after - or succeeds - you. Who comes after you have risen/grown to maturity? Who inherits your place in the world after you have gone?

Your children do, if you have them.

During pregnancy and even during the first months of life, babies are not unlike appendages of their mother’s physical bodies, rather than fully separate entities of their own. Before the advent of modern medicine and things like baby formula, babies were utterly dependent on milk provided by their mother’s bodies, and close proximity to her body helped ensure their survival. It is not my intention to overturn or challenge the tradition of astrology and dismiss the fifth house as the primary house for children. Nonetheless, I believe that it is at least worth considering that the system of astrology was conceived by Men who historically viewed children and experienced parenthood much differently than Women did. The fifth house does indeed have strong symbolic resonance with the themes of children for many reasons (see fifth house) but may be a better match for children from the traditionally male perspective.