The second house correlates with Taurus, the second sign of the common zodiac. Taurus is a Fixed Cross Earth sign.

In astronomy this constellation is called The Bull. The Bull contains the Pleiades within its shoulder and Aldebaran is the Eye of the Bull. Orion, the hunter-king, holds a flayed lion skin in his outstretched hand toward the Bull. His other arm is raised brandishing a mighty club. Both arms and their contents represent fixed cross labors of Hercules. Sirius, the Dog Star, is so-called because it is within the constellation of The Dog which follows its master. The second house is rich in meaning, instruction, and direction like this section of the night sky. Humanity has honored, replicated, and painted these stars on prehistoric cave walls. We have entombed monarchs by their symbolism and looked to these particular constellations for guidance since time immemorial.

Humanity has recognized something particular about these constellations of which the Bull is a member in all points of known history and ancient unremembered past. The energy that streams from them and the importance of aligning to them has been a theme across the world, literally on every continent. To this day that is so. The Ageless Wisdom traditions, including the Trans-himalayan stream from Master DK, Blavatsky, and Master Morya through Roerich, has enunciated that the Big Dipper, the Pleiades, and Sirius hold significance to life on Earth, to the Human Creative Hierarchy, to the Hierarchy of Adepts, and to the sacredization of planet Earth. The second house aligns with all of this. If one is a student of Being, intent on cutting through the facades of appearance and false-pulls of desire, then the second house and Taurus will be of interest to you even if in this life your second house is uninhabited. Look to the sign on the cusp for insight in that case.

The second house indicates wealth, abundance, resources known and not yet discovered, those that are inner and readily accessible as well as outer just waiting to be properly used or invoked. Planets in the second house are the native’s wealth. Those planets indicate positive karma through their placement. The native has access to abundant qualities and skills within 2nd house planets or planets in Taurus.

Yet, as gardeners and farmers know, the earth requires partnership, respect, and tender care in order to bring forth a healthy yield for self and others. The second house and Taurus are roll-up the sleeves positions: get engaged, become a crafts-person of something, take your time learning through doing. For example, a musician is in partnership with his or her instrument. One oils the wood, or rosins the bow, then stores the instrument properly respecting wood, reed, skin, or brass. The partnership is also that of discipline, diligence, and patience. The earth signs know full well that good things take time. Therefore, there is a respect for time, the journey of learning a craft, even the craft of the spiritual Path. Planets in the second house are to be respected for their potential and for the good karma that they represent. We are to use them for the well-being of others which is the most lucrative partnership. Do not waste 2nd house planets on yourself; doing so is boorish. Like Mother Earth who gives everything to all her children without reservation, planets in the second house will be made more abundant by doing the same. This is a house of generosity. That which inhabits it is being received in this life because you have generated the flow of goodness in previous lives. Keep it flowing!

One is reminded to approach second house planets or those in Taurus with wisdom. Whatever one thinks one understands about said planet is likely the surface or is superficial. Similar to the earth which must be scratched in order to be seeded and bear fruit, second house planets and those in Taurus must be tilled. The deeper one digs the more resources will be discovered and mined from said planet.

As mentioned, Taurus is a fixed cross sign. See the posts on Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius for more on the Fixed Cross. Here in the first fixed cross sign, the functions of anchoring, of making something firm, or of securing a quality or attribute of consciousness or Awareness-Being are front and center. The historical Buddha is a good example of this as is the Teaching (Dharma) he set. In his own words, “Hold fast to the Truth as a lamp.” “Hold fast” is also sometimes translated as “cling to” like an infant primate clings to its mother, or as in to be moored to, be cemented to, not separate from. To hold fast to something, including an idea or concept is to be wed to it, to have an unmistakable reliance upon it and, most importantly, to know that that something is dependable, reliable. So then, to hold fast to the Truth not only is to be one’s demeanor and dedication but Truth needs to actually be true, to be non-deceiving, thus thoroughly dependable and applicable. This is Taurus in its spiritual Path methodology as well as its labor-intensive craftsmanship. If truth is flexible for someone such as in business, politics, or personal relationships, that person will work hard to appear upright while knowing in his or her heart of hearts that true Truth is unchanging, ever ethical, and never self-motivated. Second house planets should be looked at and lived with this same integrity. Again, this house should not be viewed as for one’s self even though it is in the personal sector of the chart traditionally considered.

The term “lamp” in the quote implies that darkness is everywhere, therefore hold fast to this lamp of Truth. Let it not only guide you but, as any lamp in the darkness would do, let it illumine the way for others at the same time. Second house planets when spiritually understood and lived or those in Taurus are lamps to direct one out of the mire of ignorance and the bondage of a desire-driven life.

from PBS, The Buddha

The Buddha is said to have been born under, achieve enlightenment under, and his body die under Taurus full moons. Deep contemplation lies in this declaration. The season of Buddha’s life markers has never been politicized or adjusted in 2600 years. Those full moons are held sacred in China, in Vietnam, Burma, Shri Lanka, and the Himalyana region, and now across the western world. Fluctuation occurs in month only due to the country using sidereal or tropical calendars, tropical being astronomical and used by most. So, unlike the birth season of Jesus Christ which was changed for political or cultural reasons during the first millennium of Christianity, the Buddha’s significant life occurrences were fixed, anchored, and have remained unmoved. This is as much earth and its temperament as it is fixity. The Buddha himself reported these events and the celestial factors of them. They are true, thus unchanging. As people and cultures celebrate the dates associated with enlightenment along with its causes and conditions, those people are imbued with the energy of those causes and conditions. They are reminded that buddha nature is within each person and all beings, that Buddha was not special – as in born of a non-human parentage through divine intercession. Rather, essential goodness and wisdom is within all beings; one simply needs to till the soil of being through one’s life’s experience, contemplation, and meditation to arrive at what Shakyamuni Buddha did: innate Awareness-Being.

Second house planets, then, should provide insight into factors of essential being that the native has been focused upon and – as a soul – skillfully honing over long epochs of time. Love and wisdom are universal, but how you or I live them, cultivate them, and foster them in others is particular, as unique as snowflakes. Contemplate your 2nd house planets for this and observe yourself. Are you living the wealth of essential being that you have cultivated over eons of time?

The rulers of Taurus are Venus traditionally, the Moon veiling Vulcan esoterically, and the Moon veiling Vulcan hierarchically. There are two signs in which the Moon veils Vulcan: Taurus and Virgo. Both are earth and feminine polarity signs. There are three signs in which the esoteric and hierarchical rulers are the same. They are Taurus (Moon/Vulcan), Cancer (Neptune), and Pisces (Jupiter). Pluto being involved in Pisces is a temporary one, the Master DK reports. (The Sun veiling in all three levels in Leo is not included here due to its untold mysteries for humanity.) All of these signs are feminine polarity. To my mind, this says something about the feminine energetic of human consciousness/awareness as particularly suited or capable of engendering the bodhimind, the heart of the mind/the mind of the heart, the mind of Awareness awakened and expanded beyond differences and limiting frames of reference. I suggest that if any of these four planets are in the second house, earnestly turn the spiral of them.

Venus rules Taurus and the second house traditionally.
In astrology as well as Tarot, Venus is associated with money, riches of all forms, finery, and talents.The word “talents” means coinage as well as a skill, and this double meaning applies to planets in the 2nd house. Wealth or riches can demonstrate in all manner of ways. To have friends or be respected or to have a reliable car are forms of wealth. Good health is a richness sought after by most people as is peace of mind. A person might be wealthy in any of these facets of life and not have much money. Second house planets illustrate the native’s riches. Live them and share them.

Venus refers to adornments, finery, and that which is refined. On the spiritual path, even with traditional rulers, adornments are not baubles and beads, rings and bling. Rather, the reference is to virtue. What are the virtues of your second house planets or planets in Taurus or the sign on the second house cusp? Do you humbly display the higher nature’s royalty and serenity? Are you living these indicators appropriately?

Lastly, Venus attracts. It is like a magnet. 2nd house planets will attract unto them. Be mindful that lower Venus flaunting or titillation are not one’s response to this performance of the universal law of attraction. The law of karma brings that which has been set in motion previously. Send it along with grace and generosity.

The Moon veils Vulcan esoterically in Taurus and the second house.
Re-read the post on Virgo for the initial explanation of the Moon veiling Vulcan, thus of each component part. Note that Vulcan, the divine blacksmith, only rules in earth signs and only in esoteric or hierarchical positions. Much to contemplate in those factors.

One’s life, inner and outer, is the material that Vulcan works with. Vulcan was an artisan; he made magical and/or beautiful things out of base material. His method is similar to Pluto’s: unrelenting, rhythmic (hammer blows), pressure driven (pounding), plus uses heat or intensification alternating with immersion/dowsing/drowning. The fire-water alternation, like the ceaseless hammer falls, force the material to yield its habitual patterned ways, to be broken down so as to be re-fashioned, re-made, resurrected, transformed, and transfigured. The Buddha’s teachings on the primary personal poisons being one in nature as buddha wisdoms is ultimately Vulcan’s revelation. Like Michelangelo who “saw” the sculpture within the huge block of stone and simply “freed it”, our emotions, behavioral responses, and all the edifications of the personal ego and its ruse are the prima materia of Vulcan. The Moon veils this process and represents all that is patterned thus the fodder being consumed. The Moon is all that is illusory displayed so well by the light of the moon itself. That light is the sun’s light; the moon produces none of its own.

“Break through, break through delusions of mind,” Vulcan sings as he hammers away. “Let all come undone,” he invokes. Planets in the 2nd house under this esoteric influence are much more than they seem. A clump of gold ore does look like much, and to the adepts of realization a bag of gold did not look like much either. Often, they would toss it to the wind as a teaching on attachment to whoever brought it. Nothing is more precious than Awareness, and Awareness is without form, which is how Awareness-Compassion, Awareness-Equanimity, Awareness-Wisdom, Awareness-Activity are always spontaneous and perfect to the moment. Your 2nd house planets or those in Taurus indicate lotus petals of Awareness’ flower. Unfold them. Vulcan’s influence is easily seen through self-reflection of one’s life. His rhythmic insistence hammering away at some one or two features in one’s psyche will be obvious. Yield to this manifestation of divine de-construction. Be remade into the buddha or bodhisattva that you are.

Moon veils Vulcan hierarchically
The esoteric level of this veiling is significant to rise to or to call upon within one’s self. I don’t have the sense that the hierarchical is much different than what’s already been stated. More likely, the hierarchical level and its influence is one of consistency within the person of that which the esoteric seeks to establish.

The Hierarchy of Adepts is, now, mostly comprised of human beings who have thus established themselves. Every nation and culture has been blessed by human beings who have used the substances of emotions, mind, habits patterns, layers of consciousness, and human ways of being. They made themselves anew through uncovering what was underneath the costuming, that which is within us all.

The spiritual Path seems so long and hard primarily because most people don’t actually engage it! If each moment is the teacher and a teaching, if each instance is fresh, brand new, never expressed or existed before, then each moment of thought, word, or action could be lived for its freshness, its raw potency, its Awareness-Being. But, we human beings have ideas of what that should look like, smell like, be like. And it won’t and could never be as those ideas imagine.

The Moon is dead. A clump of clay or block of wood or chunk of tin looks inert, too; no life, little beauty. But the Moon is all that has been; the same is so of the clay, wood, and tin. All that has been has come together, aggregated into this something called clay or wood or self and Path. The soil under our feet is from billions of years of dead plants and animals and piles of shit. But that soil gives food, produces homes, and makes us feel secure. That which is dead brings forward life.

The second house or planets in Taurus under this hierarchical influence require that you decompose. Heat and water are essential to that process. Vulcan’s kiln and submersion bucket are everywhere and everything.

Drukpa Kunley sings, “Although the Vision of the Great Perfection is exalted, the aspirant must discover the nature of Mind for him/herself.”… “Realizing this vision of sublime sameness, ultimate compassion is discovered.”*

* The Divine Madman, the Sublime Life and Songs of Drukpa Kunley by Keith Dowman, pg. 113, 114.