In the Second House of the Zodiacal Wheel, we step through the threshold of the First House of the Self - the House of the “I Am” - into the space of value and worth. You can think of the Second House as the House of “I Value”, for once we come into a body we must begin the journey of understanding what we have and what we need so that the body - as the vessel for the soul - can evolve and thrive. The Second House provides a place for us to shelter as we begin to discern what is of value to our soul’s purpose and what does not serve.

While the First House is fueled by Cardinal Fire and the flame of spiritual incarnation, the Second House is made of Fixed Earth that grounds us in our material reality and creates a stable foundation upon which to build a life. More importantly, the Second House is a place of security and sacred pleasure that can only be found in our human embodiment. There is no judgment here, for the Second House is traditionally protected by Venus, the planet of love and beauty as well as esoterically supported by the hypothetical planet, Vulcan. Venus reminds us that the Second House is rooted in the gifts of the Earth, art, and the values of the soul. Vulcan was the blacksmith of the ancient gods and shaped the forms to hold and carry the light. Together, these two celestial beings give shelter and support for our souls to become true light bearers.

In the Second House, we find the time and space to contemplate what matters to us on a soul level by exploring all things tangible through the lens of art and beauty. Through contemplation, reflection and soul-centered action, a magical fusion of the mind and the heart takes place. Here, we plant and nurture all the seeds that we need to sustain and nourish the soul. It requires an act of faith to place the seeds into the darkness of the Earth with a belief that they will inherently reach for the light. The planted seed represents that internal experience of contemplation that must occur before we can experience the external act of manifestation - the sprouted plant. Gardening is a metaphor for aligning our purpose with our power to create and manifest. In the Second House, we begin to trust and believe in our ability to be the caretakers of our own gardens and our own growth. 

There is an inherent beauty in the soul manifesting itself in the material realm, in the carving out of a path that originates from love and leads us deeper into that sacred space. The work of the Second House can be found in the weeding of that path to make more room for Venus to shine her light on love. What do you want to bloom in your life? What do you want to manifest? Look to the Second House to cultivate a garden of loving intelligence that is rooted in the fertility of the heart. This intriguing relationship between that which cannot be seen - the planted seed - and the external act of clearing out - the weeding - of all that limits our potential to create must be assessed in order to determine what is truly of value and what will truly serve. Once aligned, whatever urges we have to acquire or create can be balanced with what we actually need to live a life of meaning and purpose. 

The Second House encourages us to look to the natural world to guide us towards a deeper understanding and appreciation of what can support the mind and the heart. There is such wisdom to be found in our relationship to the body of Earth and in our relationship to our own bodies. In the Second House, the body has intrinsic value for it is the vehicle for the embodied soul. It holds the memories of all of our earthly experiences and, perhaps, even our experiences from previous lifetimes. Just as nature cannot lie, the body will never lie to us. If we can embrace the natural world and the body as sacred entities, they can begin to function as sanctuaries as opposed to burdens or barriers to a full life. This natural and somatic intelligence grounds us in the present which, in turn, grounds us in ourselves . From this enlightened perspective of the Second House, we can begin to see through the illusion of some of the excesses of the material world that seek to distract us from what is really of value: love.

Second House Considerations

“I see and when the eye is opened, all is illumined,” is the esoteric mantra for this House. Mantra is sacred sound made manifest and it, too, holds a special connection to the Second House. The Ajna or Third Eye Chakra is the “soul eye” in the esoteric saying for the Second House and it encourages us to see and value the light in all things. Light is the soul expression of the divine and the Second House is a container for that light to illuminate the way forward. It is also the house in which we are called to embody that light as we are simultaneously transformed by it. 

Let us look to the mantras for all of the second cards in the tarot to find another way to access Second House energy.

• II The Oracle: “Reverence”
• In the house of “I value”, it makes sense that reverence is a word that can guide us into a richer relationship with the people and things that matter to us.

•  II of Earth: “Attunement”
• The process of tuning in to what feels right in the body, the heart and the mind helps to align with our concepts of worth and value.

• II of Water: “Union”
• To truly determine what is of value to us, we must unite heart and mind and seek a balance between the wisdom that can be found in each. We can also think of the body as the sacred space in which these two wisdoms can co-exist and co-create a reality that is both supportive and transformative.

• II of Fire: “Potential”
• The Second House is full of potential for it is the house of manifestation in the material realm that creates the true treasure that we seek: an aligned body, mind and heart that is full of grace.

• II of Air: “Attention”
• We are asked to step from the initiatory experience of self-hood - the “I Am” of the First House - and begin the discernment process of figuring out what is valuable to the self. We must not only pay attention to what we are experiencing, but we must attend to creating healthy boundaries so that we can invite in relationships that support and release those that do not.

• Poem for The Second House:

Where is God?

By Mark Nepo

It’s as if what is unbreakable -

the very pulse of life - waits for

everything else to be torn away,

and then in the bareness that

only silence and suffering and  

great love can expose, it dares

to speak through us and to us.

It seems to say, if you to last,

hold on to nothing. If you want

to know love, let in everything.

If you want to feel the presence 

of everything, stop counting the

things that break along the way.   

• Song for the Second House: Our House by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young