Second house (dhana bhava): wealth and speech
The second house (dhana bhava) is the house of wealth, family, speech and early food. It is the second sign counted from the Lagna.
What it is
The traditional significations are accumulated wealth, family, speech and the face. The lord of the second house and the grahas in it are read for these themes.
How it is worked out or read
In the chart, the second house is the sign after the Lagna sign, and it is listed in the houses table.
Where it appears on this site
The second house appears in the birth chart. The houses overview lists all twelve.
Where the second house sits
The second house is the sign after the Lagna sign, and it is the house of accumulated resources, family, speech and the early nourishment of life. Its position relative to the Lagna is fixed by the whole-sign method, so the reader can always identify it by counting one sign forward from the Lagna. The second house also has a counterpart at the twelfth from the Lagna, which is the house of expenditure, so the two are read together in many traditional discussions of money and loss.
In a chart where Mesha is the Lagna, the second house is Vrishabha, and a reader who knows Venus as the lord of that sign will see how the theme of resources is linked to the position and strength of Venus in the chart.
What the traditional lists include
The classical significations of the second house are wealth in the form of stored resources, the family into which a person is born, the speech and the manner of talking, and the face and the eyes. Some traditions also add food and early education. The lord of the second house and any grahas placed in it are read together, and the reader looks at whether they support or strain these themes.
The second house is also associated with the accumulation of what is earned, rather than with earning as such. Earning is usually read through the eleventh house, and keeping through the second, so a reader who wants a full picture of resources will look at both.
Using the second house in reading
A careful reader describes the second house in general terms and checks each claim against the chart. A strong lord in a good house supports the theme of stable resources; a weak lord or a malefic in the house suggests that resources need more protection or effort. The reading is always more useful when it names the specific grahas and their signs rather than repeating the general list.
Second house and daily income
The second house is read alongside the planetary placements that show daily income and the handling of money in ordinary life. Its lord shows the nature of the resources that come to a person, and its planets show the manner of gathering and holding them. A reader looking at the second house in a practical way will ask whether the lord is well placed, whether benefic planets support it and whether malefics press upon it.
Because resources depend on the rest of life, the second house is best read in relation to the eleventh, which shows the returns that come from effort, and to the tenth, which shows the work itself. Read together, the three houses give a fuller picture of how a person's resources are formed.