The second house represents an individual's personal possessions, their money, physical objects, the things (or people, including the self) that they see as valuable. It refers to the way we estimate value and go about securing the bag.
In mythology, the second house is associated with the legend of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar (or Inanna), also known as The Queen of the Heavens. Before descending into the Underworld she had to give up all her possessions (the 8th house) and when she was about to re-emerge above the horizon, she received back (the 2nd house) all of her jewelry, clothes and other possessions.
SUN
The Sun in the second house means that your sense of self-worth is tied to your material positions. Your main priority is achieving financial stability and security. Success or failure in this mission determines whether you feel good about yourself or not. Some people can be happy with just the basics, not people with the Sun in the second house. The driving force behind their life is the desire to make sure that they always have enough to financially meet whatever needs they may have in life.
This is about more than just love for luxurious items or expensive trips, this is about knowing how foundational to our lives money is. How money is the key to good health, to bright disposition, to healthy human relationships. There is an understanding that you can be a good person only if you have peaceful mind and for that you need to have a firm hold over your finances.
For people whose identity is tied to their possessions, the material is just an expression of the value of the self. “I have this because I proved myself to be capable enough to get it. And if I don't have this personal wealth, then I need to work harder on myself to get good enough to win this prize from life”. Security and control are tightly linked, you can't have security if you have no control. So very often people with this placement have several income streams, or have their own business, and are very possessive with their items.
MOON
Having your natal Moon in the second house means that your emotional wellbeing is closely tied to material security. Loss of finances leads to depression, loss of emotional balance and complete breakup with rational thought. It’s the moment we go into a panic mode because the emotional foundation of our world has been pulled from underneath us.
They find emotional bliss in material comfort but that does not have to mean flashy and expensive stuff, it can be a soft, warm blanket and a cup of coffee. Either way objects-based comfort is the core.
Imagine a person’s faith in life and faith in his or her ability to meet life’s expectations and rise to them as a giant Jenga tower. When life gives you obstacles, when you hurt, pieces of that jenga tower are removed but the overall structure remains intact. You lose someone important - it hurts you but it doesn't break you. You have problems at work - it hurts you but it doesn't break you. Until the block "Material Security" is removed. Then everything collapses because finances have been the pin under your entire life. You go into a panic mode because it feels like everything is collapsing.
Hoarding or piling up old stuff you don't really need can be an issue if taken to extremes. Stinginess can also happen. The Moon has a very changeable nature so here and there this person might lose control over their finances and spend too much on objects they don't really need.
MERCURY
People with a second-house Mercury apply crafty and combinative, mix and match approach to making money. Their way of going about securing the material foundation of their life is through brain work. Money making is a riddle to be solved. Mind acrobatics get you there you just need to crack the right formula. These people too might have several income streams and several different formulas to bring home the cash.
Mercury, just like the Moon, has a very changeable nature but if the Moon is emotionally changeable, Mercury is intellectually changeable. So different income projects might be started and discarded quite often. Remember that the second house is about money, about capital, and early capitalism started with merchants and traders, both of these guilds are ruled by Mercury - so quickness and adaptability, skillfulness with numbers and figures, talent for bargaining and haggling.
In Ancient Greece, Mercury was known as the trickster because he was always so close to the Sun that very often he was invisible and the Ancients weren't sure where Mercury will appear - before the Sun or after the Sun. Now we have technology that allows us to know exactly where Mercury is in the sky at any given moment but that's not how it has always been. So some illusionism and deceit in making money can’t be ruled out.
Remember, money is a math problem to be solved. The amount doesn't matter, it’s about flexing your brain to find a way to get money out of someone’s pocket and into yours. It’s just a competition of intellects. Mercury rules over Gemini and Virgo. Gemini is an air sign, it’s all about abstract ideas. Virgo is the most practical of signs. Mercury is good at combining these two traits - and so is money. Money is the most practical thing that underpins our entire material world, value is the opposite - it is most abstract thing. And Mercury knows that and thrives in the space where you can explore this duality (ex. price setting and trade).
VENUS
Venus in the second house is one very happy Venus because the planet rules over money and material possessions. A strong love for beautiful, classy, expensive and luxurious items is suggested with this placement. If you have Venus in the 2nd house, chances are you love possessing beautiful objects and so when you go about making money, not spending but making them, you do that with the idea that you need to work at a place where you are being paid enough to be able to afford the lifestyle that you want and that you need it to be in an environment where you will be able to wear the expensive dress you bought.
With Venus here love for pretty things brings an understanding that lots of money needs to be made so that you can afford these pretty objects. And so such people often go into finance or other notably well-paid jobs that might not be that inspirational but they sure bring big checks. Love for money in itself is present and but the main point here is the love for beauty. Money is just a prerequisite for beauty and quality to be allowed to thrive. Money is just a means to an end. The end is beauty and comfort.
MARS
Mars in the second house brings forcefulness and first-do-then-think-maybe kind of attitude into the world of material possessions. A second house mars is a strange combo because the 2nd house is about stability and security, Mars is about risk and impulse. With Mars in this house acquiring wealth is about proving yourself. Gambling and entrepreneurship are very likely as they both offer opportunities for adrenalin rushes, for exciting challenges and feelings of vigor and victory.
Mars in the second house people are not afraid to be openly very confrontational about getting what they want and also protecting what they have. Impatience and impulsivity when it comes to your possessions is also indicated with this placement. Money may come in a lot at once and then may be lost all of it at once. And this may happen more than once in the person’s life. Because Mars is such a me-me-me energy there is a strong connection between what you are able to win and how you feel about yourself.
The word “win” here is the key. People with Mars in the 2nd house need to make money in a way that feels like they won the money in a competition. Like a war conquest. Money isn't a steady stream of regularly coming payments, its a compilation of several big one-off hits. Like war trophy.
JUPITER
People with Jupiter in the 2nd house make money by large-scaling ideas and having grand plans. They make money off of scale and expansion. They succeed when they throw various people, various ideas, places, together in a pan and cook it to make a large corporation with global distribution.
This is a person who, when you go to their house and you take a few moments to admire the beautiful antique vase in the hallway, they might offer to give you the vase to take home. They are not attached to their possessions, even though they must have liked the vase a lot to buy it in the first place, but they are fine with letting it go.
They seem to not care about how much they have. They do not identify with the possessions they have. They like making money but their angle on that process is: it is another form of expansion, another expression of expansionist energy. And Jupiter likes to expand. “I like to make money because I like to see things get bigger, not because I have something specific I want ot buy or because it somehow reflects my personal value”.
The 2nd house is about security and what makes you feel secure. With Jupiter here - scale, expansion, growth is how you believe material comfort is achieved.
SATURN
Saturn in the 2nd house people see money-making and possessions as a problem that they need to keep in check. Chances are they will have financial struggles before their first Saturn return and then, if they learn the lesson of that return, then they will get a grip on their finances and never fall in dire circumstances again. But even then, there is a Saturnian attitude to money, meaning that money is that annoying, persistent bug you need to keep in check regularly.
There is a bit of a sense of resentment, of seeing the material as the problem to grapple with in this lifetime. Yet, once you experience problems and learn the Saturnian lesson, these people can build quite a good wealth for themselves. Even then though, for them acquiring wealth will be a problem to solve, not a process to be enjoyed.
Saturn represents a scarcity mindset, there is high likelihood that the person will never feel "full" in that area of life regardless of how much they have. It is really a question of attitude here - money is the problem, the trap, the grind that can't be escaped.
URANUS
Uranus in the second house brings a revolutionary attitude to personal finance. Material security is found in … freedom.
On the level of money-making, the most Uranian thing would be the gig economy. The gig economy is centered around the concept of freedom and owning yourself and your labor. On the level of personal possessions, the most Uranian thing is constantly renting everything but not owning anything. You prefer to rent than to own. You prefer to rent out your labor than to be owned. The standard means of making money are seen as traps, possessions bog you down.
These two examples are the unorthodox ways in which Uranus tries to solve the problem of the material foundation of our lives. Does all this make life hectic? Maybe. Uranus calls it freedom lifestyle. People with this placement often spend money on technology and they love it for being able to pack a lot of functionalities into small objects, things that do not bog you down, that you can easily pack and move to the other side of the globe.
With Uranus here sudden changes in the financial situation of the person are to be expected. You could get rich quickly out of nowhere, but then you could also lose a lot of money unexpectedly. The key is to lose less than what you first earned.
NEPTUNE
Neptune is a spiritual, imaginative energy which does not sit well with the material nature of the second house (or of our world in general). Going about securing the bag so you could pay the bills, pay your taxes and then set something aside for old age is just the kind of 3D mature planning that Neptune despises (but Saturn loves) and is not equipped to do.
The attitude of these people to material possessions is that they do not notice them. Neptune has a blind spot for the material and especially for things like calculating salary/tax deductions, years of experience for retirement etc. This is foreign land to Neptunian energy. If Neptune in the second is prominent in the chart, this can indicate someone completely unaware of the importance of the material foundation of our lives to facilitate the construction of the other parts of our lives.
The task here is to blend spirituality and practicality. If you can piece the pieces together well, the result is money-magnet. If not, losing large amounts of money or mishandling financial affairs can be expected.
PLUTO
Pluto in the second house is a force to be reckoned with. The 2nd house is about security and Pluto is about control, about being laser-focused on the material because that's what allows you to be fully in control of your life. So money and personal possessions are extremely important and there are intense feelings involved in these matters. There is a borderline obsession with acquiring wealth and material stability.
Very often these people exhibit a very business-minded, strategic approach to personal wealth. They need to be in full control of their finances and will go above and beyond to ensure that nobody can pull that rug from underneath them. As mentioned earlier, there are intense feelings involved in the realm of their possessions, meaning that they can be very possessive about their things or about the people they love.