Axis of the 2nd and 8th Houses

As you know, the twelve houses of the zodiac tell us about the physical, material, and social life of the individual. In this post, we will check the Axis of the 2nd and 8th houses. By taking note of, and checking all the information inherent to the Houses in the signs of the zodiac, the ruling planets of these Houses, and the planets and fictitious points in the Houses, we are putting together a puzzle made up of many characteristics, which we call today, the psychology of a person. This is their acquired rather than inborn behavior, the influence exerted upon them by the social, cultural, and geographical background and events, the customs, and mentality to which they are subjected from a very early age.

Consequently, a careful study of this information provided by all the elements above comes under what is called “deductive clairvoyance”; it is through association, intuition, and deduction, depending on the position of the planets in the Houses, of the Houses in the signs, and through subtle control of his skills, that the sensible astrologer succeeds in reaching such a finesse of interpretation that leads him to find facts and precise events which took place or could have taken place in a person’s life.

The 2nd House

Whilst the axis of the 1st and 7th Houses can be broadly defined, as the expression goes, by ‘myself and others’ – ‘myself’ being revealed by the ascendant in the birth chart and ‘others’ or more precisely ‘my attitude towards others’, by the situation of the descendant – the axis of the 2nd and 8th Houses can be conjugated in the first person singular, in the presence of the verbs to take and to throw away: “I take and I throw away”. Indeed, whatever its situation in the birth chart, the 2nd House informs us about taking, the way which an individual takes possession of his natural background, and, by extension, about his possessions, his assets, and the result of his efforts and his work, in other words, his gains, his profits, his income, etc.

“To take, to have, to acquire, to earn” are therefore the verbs that are used in the 2nd House. But, where does this need to take, to have, to acquire, to earn, to possess, to accumulate, to keep, come from? Do we not find ourselves there, in the domain of the instinct of survival and self-preservation which we all have and also share with the animal world? On the whole, it is due to fundamental and instinctive anxiety about the unknown, deprivation, dispossession, and death. Let’s not forget that, when studying the twelve Houses, we are entering the realms of individual existence which was wrongly believed to precede or supplant the essence of a human being.

Also, you can navigate to our website homepage and check detailed information about the Zodiac 12 signs‘ personalities and compatibilities.

The 8th House

Here, the individual no longer takes; he throws away, he rejects, or else he sows, he sacrifices with another harvest in mind. In the 2nd House, he produces, becomes attached to, and accumulates. In the 8th House, he destroys, becomes detached, and spreads himself. Consequently, while the 2nd House is related to the instinct of survival and self-preservation, the 8th House shows obvious similarities with the death instinct. But one should not be too hasty in concluding from this that this House is exclusively that of death.

First, it represents an individual’s capacity to become detached from material assets and, paradoxically, what he can get from doing so. In the 8th House, he becomes detached. He no longer needs to provide. He is a little like the animal who does not worry about what he will find to eat tomorrow. Thus, this House has become that of inheritance, meaning the things which we acquire without any effort on our part.

But, in all cases, if there is such a thing as an inheritance (and there will be, of course, because we all have the 8th House in our birth chart), it must be understood that it may refer to either material or spiritual assets and that what we are going to do with this possible and potential inheritance is more important than the fact of inheriting or the nature of the things that we inherit.