How to Judge Horoscope Part 2: The Second House (Dhana Bhava) - A Modern Guide
A systematic exploration of B.V. Raman's classic text on horoscope judgment, transforming ancient wisdom into practical, modern insights for astrology students.
Part 2 of 13 • Second House • Topics: Financial status, Family background, Speech patterns
The Second House—Dhana Bhava or the house of wealth—governs not just money, but the entire spectrum of resources: family, speech, food, vision, and accumulated possessions. It reveals how we acquire, preserve, and deploy our material resources.
"The second house signifies family, speech, vision and financial prosperity... the second house largely but not exclusively indicates wealth."
In analyzing the Second House, we apply the same four-factor framework: the house itself, its lord, occupants, and karakas (Jupiter for wealth, Venus for family). Understanding these factors reveals not just financial status, but also family dynamics, speech patterns, and even eye health.
Significations of the Second House
The Second House, also called Dhana Bhava (House of Wealth) or Kutumba Sthana (House of Family), represents our material and familial foundations.
Material Significations
- Wealth and financial prosperity
- Self-acquisition and earnings
- Movable possessions
- Food and eating habits
- Precious metals and gems
Personal & Family Significations
- Family (immediate family unit)
- Speech and voice quality
- Right eye (left eye = 12th house)
- Face and facial features
- Manner and source of death
Karakas (Natural Significators): Jupiter (for wealth and prosperity), Venus (for family harmony and possessions), Mercury (for speech and business acumen).
Results of 2nd Lord in Different Houses
The placement of the second lord determines the primary sources of wealth and the nature of family relationships. Raman provides detailed results:
General: Becomes wealthy, but hates own family, lacks polite manners, passionate, subservient, time-serving.
Source of Wealth: Earns money by own effort, intelligence, learning. Or gets inherited wealth if 9th lord/Sun connects with this combination.
General: Becomes proud, may marry 2-3 times (depending on 7th house strength), may be childless.
Well-Fortified: Earns considerable fortune through business/occupations consistent with 2nd lord and house nature. Enjoys nutritious food, cordial family relations.
General: Brave, intelligent, good-natured but depraved character, atheistic tendencies, addicted to luxuries, becomes miser later in life.
Well-Fortified: Benefited by sisters, earns through fine arts (music, dancing), propitiates deities/spirits.
General: Spends money for own happiness, highly frugal in money dealings.
Well-Fortified: Earns well as automobile dealer/agent, agriculturist, landlord, commission agent. Benefited by maternal relations.
General: Hating family, sensual, doesn't spend money even on children, lacks manners and etiquette.
Well-Fortified: Unexpected wealth through lotteries, crosswords, favor of rulers, speculation.
General: Income and expenditure from enemies, suffers from defects/diseases in anus and thighs.
Well-Fortified: Amasses wealth through black-marketing, deceit, creating troubles between friends/relatives, questionable dealings. Afflicted: Sentenced for crimes like breach of trust, forgery, perjury.
General: Likely to become healer, laxity of morals in marriage, wastes money on sensual gratification.
Strong (with 7th lord): Wealth through foreign sources, journeys to foreign countries, business abroad. Benefits through contact with women if in feminine constellation.
General: Very little happiness from spouse, misunderstandings with elder brothers, gets landed properties.
Strong: Influx AND loss of wealth. Observation shows hardly any earnings, but inherited/accumulated wealth disappears.
General: Skillful, ill-health in young age but healthy afterwards, possesses lot of wealth, happy.
Well-Fortified (with 9th lord in lagna): Good inheritance, benefits through sources according to sign/nakshatra nature.
General: Respect from elders/superiors, learned, wealthy, earns by own exertions.
Details: Takes to useful avocations—business, agriculture, philosophical lectures. Constellation/sign determine exact sources. Powerful afflictions cause loss from same sources.
General: Bad health during childhood, earns considerable wealth, becomes unscrupulous.
Well-Fortified: Earns by lending money, as banker, running boarding house.
General: Becomes respectable man, likely government servant, deprived of elder brother's happiness.
Details: Income through ecclesiastical sources. If afflicted, loses money on this account.
Satyacharya's Principle—YUKTA VICHARYA: "The matter should be looked into cleverly." All sources of strength and weakness must be evenly balanced before pronouncing an opinion.
Important Combinations for Wealth
Wealth-Producing Combinations
| Combination | Result |
|---|---|
| 2nd & 11th lords interchange OR both in kendras + Mercury/Jupiter aspect | Pretty rich |
| Jupiter unaspected by malefics OR Jupiter as 2nd lord | Much wealth |
| Moon in 2nd aspected by Mercury | Earns money by self-exertion |
| Sun in 2nd without Saturn aspect | Steady fortune |
| Lagna lord in 2nd OR 2nd lord in 11th OR 11th lord in lagna | Acquires great wealth |
| 2nd lord with 10th lord, aspected by lord of Navamsa occupied by lagna lord | Earns when quite young |
| 2nd lord in 10th aspected by lagna lord or lord of lagna in Navamsa | Earns well in young age |
| 2nd & 11th lords with lagna lord in kendra with temporal strength | Earns in middle life |
Poverty-Producing Combinations
| Combination | Result |
|---|---|
| Lagna lord in 12th with/aspected by Maraka planet | Extreme poverty |
| Exchange between 1st & 6th lords + one with/aspected by Maraka | Extreme poverty |
| Malefics (not 9th/10th lords) in lagna with/aspected by Maraka | Extremely poor |
| Saturn in lagna hemmed between malefics (no Jupiter aspect) | Fortune destroyed |
| Lagna = movable sign + Saturn/Ketu in it + hemmed between malefics | Poverty + deformed body |
| 6th/8th/12th from lagna becomes Arudha lagna | Suffers poverty |
| 2nd lord with evil planets OR aspected by malefics | Poor |
| Lords of 2nd & 11th remain separate + without/aspected by malefics | Always indigent |
Speech & Eyes
| Combination | Result |
|---|---|
| 2nd lord debilitated in 2nd/8th with evil planets | Stammering or dumbness |
| Mars in 2nd with Moon or aspected by Mercury | Good mathematician |
| Sun/Moon aspected by Jupiter or Venus | Able debater |
| 2nd lord with Venus | Eye suffers |
| Sun and Moon in 2nd | Night blindness |
| 2nd lord in 6th/8th/12th | Eye disease |
| 2nd lord joins Saturn/Mars/Gulika | Eye injury |
| Saturn in 2nd | Unfavorable for eyesight |
Planets in the Second House
The presence of planets in the 2nd house directly influences wealth accumulation, family life, and speech patterns:
Sun in 2nd
Negative: Losses by offending authorities, diseased face, stubborn, peevish.
Positive: Obtains money by industrious effort (nature depends on sign).
Moon in 2nd
Positive: Large family, much happiness, money through females, fair complexion.
Note: Financial position somewhat variable, reserved, not very sociable, squint-eyed, much admired.
Mars in 2nd
Character: Quarrelsome, befriends evil-minded persons, unsympathetic, picks quarrels.
Wealth: Good earning powers but usually miserly, accumulates money, good conversationalist.
Mercury in 2nd
Learned in religious/philosophical lore, gains by lecturing, business, commerce. Becomes rich, highly intelligent, spends on charities, clever in earning, careful and thrifty.
Jupiter in 2nd
Becomes poet, great writer, astrologer, scientist. Increases success chances, accumulates fortune, good wife/family, doesn't quarrel, acquires wealth through Jupiter-ruled things.
Venus in 2nd
Large family, money comes readily by favors from others, eats good food, possesses vehicles, handsome, skillful, pleasant, marries well. Health and wealth indicated greatly.
Saturn in 2nd
Unless 2nd is Libra/Capricorn/Aquarius, earning is uphill struggle—much work, little gain. Harsh speech, unsocial, sorrowful, roaming aimlessly. Gains through metals, storage, mines, labor. Unpopular. Unhappy family life.
Rahu in 2nd
Peevish, diseased face, family friction, eye-sight danger. Financial affairs uncertain (unless other favorable combinations). If Jupiter aspects 2nd, earnings good. Money through friends/business.
Ketu in 2nd
Bad speaker, loss through fraud/deception, liability in financial affairs. Success in spiritualism, navigation, mystical arts, hospitals.
Timing Wealth Events (Dasa/Bhukti)
To time financial events, note these six factors that influence the 2nd house:
- Lord of 2nd house
- Planets aspecting 2nd house
- Planets in 2nd house
- Planets aspecting 2nd lord
- Planets associated with 2nd lord
- Lord of 2nd from Moon
These planets produce 2nd house results in their Dasas (major periods) or Bhuktis (sub-periods):
| Planet Dasa/Bhukti | Typical Results |
|---|---|
| Sun | Ill-health & expenses, property/cattle destruction, bad luck, quarrels, litigation troubles |
| Moon | Access to wealth, good earnings, family happiness, fame, property increase, gains in undertakings |
| Mars | Comforts, happiness, favors from superiors/position holders, fame increase |
| Mercury | Nervous/paralytic troubles if aspected by malefics. Otherwise pleasant results, debts liquidated, good earnings, family prosperity |
| Jupiter | Financial position improves, eye troubles disappear |
| Venus | Power, influence, financial prosperity, great success |
| Saturn | Lot of expense, eye disease, family misunderstandings, wife quarrels, worry. (If yogakaraka: financial prosperity predicted) |
| Rahu | Destruction of 2nd house indications, quarrels, litigation, court expenses, offending authorities, losses |
| Ketu | Wealth loss by theft/fire/litigation/gambling, eye-sore, sight diseases, disturbance, debts, extreme worry |
Best Periods: Sub-period of planets associated with 2nd house during major period of planets ALSO associated with 2nd house produce "par excellence" results. Other combinations produce results to limited or feeble extents.
Practical Example: Chart Analysis
Chart No. 38 — Speaker in Indian State
| Birth Details | |
|---|---|
| Date | 20/21-10-1893 |
| Time | 4:01 AM (LT) |
| Location | 13°N, 5h 10m 20s E |
| Lagna | Virgo |
| 2nd Lord | Venus |
| Dasa at Birth | Mars 4-2-14 |
| Six Factors Influencing 2nd House | |
|---|---|
| (a) Lord of 2nd | Venus |
| (b) Planets aspecting 2nd | Nil |
| (c) Planets in 2nd | Mercury, Sun |
| (d) Aspecting 2nd lord | Jupiter |
| (e) Associated with 2nd lord | Nil |
| (f) 2nd lord from Moon | Saturn |
Raman's Analysis:
Planets Capable of Influencing 2nd House: Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Sun
Venus is capable of producing 2nd house effects much more than other planets (being the direct lord).
Key Period: The sub-period of Venus in major period of Saturn was important from a financial viewpoint.
Result: The native was appointed Speaker in a leading Indian State during this period—a position of great prestige, wealth, and speech authority (perfectly fitting 2nd house significations).
Key Lesson
The second house governs not just money, but speech and status. A Speaker position is the ultimate manifestation of strong 2nd house indications—wealth, family respect, authoritative speech, and public recognition.
Key Takeaways
- Wealth is multifaceted—2nd house shows not just money, but family, speech, food, and accumulated resources
- 2nd lord placement reveals income sources—in 1st (own effort), 4th (mother/property), 7th (foreign sources), 10th (profession), etc.
- Apply YUKTA VICHARYA—balance all strengths and weaknesses before concluding; don't rely on single indicators
- Poverty/wealth require multiple confirmations—check 2nd lord, 11th lord, lagna lord, Jupiter, and Arudha lagna
- Speech and eyes are linked to 2nd house—afflictions cause stammering/dumbness or eye diseases
- Planets in 2nd house matter greatly—benefics (Jupiter, Venus, Mercury) enhance wealth; malefics (Saturn, Rahu) create struggle
- Timing uses six factors—analyze lord, occupants, aspects on house AND lord, 2nd from Moon
- Context determines wealth grade—what's wealthy in one locality/time may be poor in another; judge relatively
"Grades of wealth differ. Wealth has many sections and will have to be interpreted with reference to locality, time, circumstances and other surroundings."
In Part 3, we'll explore the Third House (Sahaja Bhava)—siblings, courage, short travels, and communication—learning how to judge brotherly relationships and personal initiative through systematic analysis.