The second house is where we first meet money in the birth chart. Traditional authors link it with moveable wealth – cash, goods, and anything you can carry away or sell. It describes how you earn a living, how money comes in, and how easily it slips out again. When we judge the second, we are asking: “What does this person live on, and how secure is that support?”
But the second house is not only about coins and paychecks. It also shows the people and tools that help you manage your resources: assistants, advisors, staff, and anyone who supports your material life. A well-placed second house often points to capable helpers and good judgment around money. A troubled second house can show poor advice, unreliable support, or costly mistakes. Abu Maʿshar sums it up as “possession, dealings, wealth, gathering and storing wealth, and the means of livelihood.” It is the house of both what you have and what you do with it.
In the classical system, the second house does not aspect the Ascendant. It stands in “aversion” to the first and is therefore considered a weaker house. It does not naturally see or support the native’s life as the first house does. Because of this, planets here need help to perform at their best. Benefics like Venus and Jupiter in the second usually bring easier access to money, better conditions of work, and a smoother flow of income. Malefics like Mars and Saturn, especially when badly placed, tend to show losses, debts, or long stretches where one has to fight hard just to stay afloat.
The second house also has important derived meanings. It is the eighth from the seventh, so it speaks about the partner’s losses, debts, and, in some charts, the death of the spouse. Strong benefics here can show money gained through marriage or a partner who improves one’s financial position. Harsh planets can bring the opposite: strain in the partner’s finances that weighs on the relationship. The second is also the tenth from the fifth, pointing to the profession or public standing of one’s children, and how their work or reputation may show up in the native’s life.
In the rest of the article, we will not stay in theory. We will look at real examples of second-house planets at work: writers who earned their living by the pen, politicians whose finances shaped their public careers, and students whose education rose or fell on the strength of their second house. Through their lives, we can see how the second house speaks not only about money in the bank, but about the effort, support, and sacrifice behind every income.
Frank Herbert – Mercury and Venus in Scorpio
Frank Herbert, author of Dune, has Libra rising with the Sun in Libra on the Ascendant. In his second house, he has Mercury, Venus, and the North Node in Scorpio. A Virgo stellium of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Part of Fortune occupies the eleventh quadrant house, but all of it is ruled by Mercury, and all of it feeds into the second house. This pulls Herbert’s writing and thinking right into the heart of his livelihood. Mercury in Scorpio in a fertile, fixed water sign is deep, strategic, and probing. It wants to dig into systems, power, ecology, religion, and psychology, then turn that material into income. With the North Node there as well, Mercury and Venus are amplified and pushed out into the wider world through a large, ambitious work like Dune.
Venus in Scorpio shares that second house with Mercury. Venus rules Herbert’s Libra Ascendant and his Sun, and also rules the eighth house of joint finances and debt. In Scorpio, Venus is in detriment, so themes of money and value come with tension and dependency. We see this in the early 1960s: while Herbert researched and wrote Dune, his wife Beverly went back to full-time work in advertising and became the main breadwinner.
The Virgo Moon applies to Mercury, and Mercury will also sextile Jupiter and Saturn in Virgo, tying careful craft and steady effort into his money story. Herbert spent about six years researching, writing, and revising Dune. The novel’s dense world-building, political and religious intrigue, and ecological focus mirror Mercury and Venus in Scorpio working with that Virgo support: detailed, layered, and practical under the surface. Yet Venus in detriment shows up clearly. The expanded manuscript of Dune was rejected by more than twenty publishers. Only when editor Sterling E. Lanier at Chilton took a chance on it did Herbert receive a $7,500 advance and royalties. Even then, by 1968 he had earned about $20,000 from Dune—good money for science fiction, but not enough to leave his other jobs.
For decades, Herbert’s steady income came from Mercury-type work: journalism, editing, and other jobs that paid for skill and information. He wrote for newspapers and, when money was tight, took practical work such as oyster diving, survival instruction, and ecological consulting. This is Mercury in the second house doing what it does best: turning knowledge into earnings. Meanwhile, Venus in detriment and the North Node in the same house point to a bigger promise that takes time to ripen. Herbert had to carry the strain first, then collect the reward later.
That reward arrived once Dune finally broke through. As the series gained readers, the Scorpio second-house trio showed its full strength: a durable income from novels, lectures, and related work, built on one deep, carefully constructed universe. And the second house also speaks through a derived meaning: it is the tenth from the fifth, which can describe a child’s profession. Herbert’s second-house story continued through his son Brian Herbert, who became a writer and carried the Dune world forward with prequels and sequels. In the end, Herbert’s finances followed a clear second-house arc: early pressure and persistence, followed by a long, steady flow from a creation that refused to die.
Stephen Crane — Combust Mercury in Scorpio
Stephen Crane also has Mercury in Scorpio in the second house, but in a difficult condition: Mercury is combust and in a tight sextile to Saturn in Capricorn in the fourth house. His money comes through Mercurial work—writing, reporting, and ideas—but under pressure. Scorpio makes his mind deep, intense, and drawn to hard subjects; Saturn adds weight, realism, and a somber tone. The result is a style that is pared down, unsentimental, and focused on harsh social realities. Even so, Mercury is the “Victor” in his chart, so this stressed planet still leads the way: it defines his life through words, even as it shows strain around income and health.
The second-house story appears clearly in Crane’s career. Unable to find a publisher for Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), he paid to print it himself, using a pseudonym and his own limited funds. Only after The Red Badge of Courage (1895) became a success was Maggie picked up commercially. To keep money coming in, Crane relied on journalism and war correspondence, writing for newspapers and traveling into danger—the SS Commodore shipwreck that inspired “The Open Boat,” and later reporting on the Greco-Turkish War and the Spanish–American War. Each time, he turned risk and hardship into paid copy. Yet combust Mercury, joined to Saturn, shows its cost: irregular income, constant financial pressure, poor health, and an early death at 28. His second house gave him a living through the pen, but it never made life easy.
George W. Bush — Mars in Virgo
George W. Bush has Mars in Virgo in his second whole-sign house, the house of income, assets, and expenses as well. Mars rules his Aries Midheaven (career and public reputation) and his Scorpio fourth house (land and family property) which houses the Lot of Fortune as well. This means that whenever he makes a move with money, Mars sends ripples into his public image and his dealings with land and real estate. In Virgo, Mars works through details and paperwork: contracts, compliance, valuations, and the sort of numbers that later show up in audits and investigations.
His early business story fits this picture. Bush’s first oil company, Arbusto Energy (later Spectrum 7), struggled through the oil price collapse of the mid-1980s and was eventually absorbed by Harken Energy in 1986, leaving him mainly with stock instead of reliable cash. In June 1990 he sold 212,140 Harken shares at $4 each, about $848,560, to pay off the loan he had used to buy into the Texas Rangers baseball team. Two months later Harken announced a significant loss and the stock fell. Because he had sold before that news became public, the SEC opened an insider-trading inquiry. This is Mars in the second house in action: money tied to risk, and a financial decision that pulls career and reputation into the spotlight.
29-Aug-1991 PT dex square Mars (l=MA) d. => MC
25-Oct-1991 PT dex square Mars d. => MCDoctor H, in A Rectification Manual, notes a pair of primary directions in 1991 where Mars forms a square to the Midheaven. These directions sit between two key events. On 21 August 1991, eight days before the first exact Mars–MC hit, the SEC cleared Bush of wrongdoing in the Harken case. Mars in the money house describes the disputed stock sale; Mars ruling the Midheaven ensures that the question became one of public trust and suitability for higher office. Then, on 30 October 1991, just five days after the second Mars–MC square, Bush appeared in cowboy boots at the groundbreaking for the Texas Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, literally shovelling dirt. Here the same Mars, ruling the fourth house of land and sitting in an earth sign, shows up as a stadium project and a highly visible real-estate development.
The chart also explains why the story turns from liability to asset. In Bush’s chart, the Sun separates from a sextile with Mars and applies to a square with Jupiter in Libra in the third house. In simple terms, actions involving money and land (Mars in the second, ruling the fourth) are carried by the Sun into Jupiter’s realm of publicity, judgment, and local opinion (the third house). Voter-approved bonds covered most of the $191 million stadium cost, presenting Bush not as a suspect trader but as a community deal-maker. The ballpark raised his net worth and burnished his public image, becoming part of the narrative that helped launch his run for Texas governor.
Lyndon B. Johnson — Mars in Virgo
Lyndon B. Johnson has a Virgo stellium in his second whole-sign house: Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Mars all cluster there. The second house is the place of money, livelihood, and what it costs to keep life running. Here we will focus on Mars in Virgo, since it stands out in his early story. Mars in Virgo in the second house often shows steady money leaks and lots of small costs.
Mars also rules his ninth house in Aries, which signifies higher education, travel, and mentors. That link means financial stress does not stay in the background; it shows up directly in his studies. The ninth is further burdened by Saturn which is the out of sect malefic, adding more weight to Johnson’s attempts at college and long-term plans. Whenever money is tight, school suffers.
We see this clearly in 1928. Johnson enrolled at Southwest Texas State Teachers College in 1927 after borrowing $75 and taking janitorial work to cover his costs. By early 1928, the numbers no longer worked: textbooks, dorm fees, and train fare kept rising, while campus wages stayed small. In letters home he complained of “too many little expenses”—a perfect picture of Mars in Virgo in the second house, where small costs pile up until they become a real problem.
22-Feb-1928 REG. ASC c. => Mars (l=p)
30-Apr-1928 REG. ASC c. => Mars
26-Apr-1928 PT. Mars (l=p) d. => ASC
19-Jul-1928 PT. Mars d. => ASCDoctor H., in A Rectification Manual, points to four primary directions in 1928 that link Mars and the Ascendant. They describe a period when Mars themes step into the foreground of Johnson’s life. During these months he repeatedly borrowed money to stay enrolled. By April he could not pay his second-semester charges; by July he had nothing left to pawn. With Mars ruling his ninth house, the price of education itself became the enemy. On 5 September 1928, he withdrew from college and took a teaching job in Cotulla, Texas, earning $75 a month to rebuild his finances.
In Johnson’s chart, Mars in Virgo in the second house shows up as relentless small expenses, constant scrabbling for money, and a practical “work-for-wages” response. Because that same Mars rules the ninth, his financial problems delayed his education. Later, as president, he pushed major higher-education and student-aid laws.
The second house isn’t just about money; it shows how a person actually makes a living, what pressures sit on their wallet, and who or what supports them along the way. In Frank Herbert’s chart, Mercury and Venus in Scorpio in the second house point to years of financial struggle and deep creative work that later turned Dune into a long-lasting income stream. For Stephen Crane, a combust Mercury in Scorpio in the second meant earning by the word with tight budgets, harsh realism, and even paying to publish his first novel. With Mars in Virgo in the second, George W. Bush’s finances ran through risk, rules, and land deals like the Rangers ballpark that shaped both his wealth and public image. The same Mars placement in Lyndon B. Johnson’s chart showed a constant drip of small expenses that forced him out of college temporarily into work, leaving a strong mark on how he understood money and opportunity.
This article was written with help from ChatGPT