Water Signs Series Part I: Cancer
It is the first stab of feelings in the zodiac. I am not going to talk about the overblown motherly and crybaby stereotypes of Cancer here (though I will note that I think a lot of the stereotypes of Cancer come with misogynist undertones). I want to speak of Cancer in its role as the first step of digestion. The matter hits the stomach, the nutrients are sought. Traditionally associated with the stomach, we have the phrase gut feeling which is a deeply appropriate method of navigating the world for a Cancerina person. Cancerian types have a great sensitivity to environment
Read More2nd and 8th Houses: Keeping and Sharing.
Our stories around money, commerce, making a living, finances---can often be very limited. We're given a narrative around money from culture or our families of origin. Those stories are often limited. If someone is lucky, they get to learn the non-emotional rules of money and how the systems work. But a lot of people don't learn that and kind of flounder while slowly learning the rules the hard way. It's hard to wade our way through the weird emotional waters many of us have around money.
If you've never had financial security, there is a hyper-vigilance that impacts your personality. You see people with security and there is an ease they have in the world which doesn't exist for you. Even if you "catch up" financially, the years of being on-edge still exist in the body, still exist in the behavior. And it can be a long adjustment to get to that ease.
When someone has questions about money in their natal chart, I always look at the 2nd and 8th houses. Part of Your Narrative Around Money exists in that axis. The 2nd house asks "What is worth owning? What is mine? What is meant to be mine?" and the 8th house asks "What is ours? What do I share with the world? What do other people share with me?"
The 8th house also has a relationship with death. And inheritance. What will we pass on? What has been passed to us? Which stories and folklores do we inherit about objects, about money, about who we are to give to and who we are to receive from?
I see the 2nd house as "The Story To Tell Myself About How I Will Gain My Own Wealth" and the 8th as "The Story That Collectively Exists That I Must Integrate Into My Own Story".
Resources keep us alive. The 8th House talks about death. So what do we need to share that keeps us from death? What do we need to learn to receive that keeps us from death?
Deeply studying the signs and placements and rulerships of the 2nd and 8th houses will help us understand those stories. What is yours and who do you give it to? What is others' and how do you receive it? What do you own for yourself and what do you own with others? The 8th house teaches us how to keep one another alive, where we have bonds as humans that are keeping us away from passing. Things come in and out---connections with others, living or dead. Inheritance that passes hands. Shared values that we uphold together.
I'm going to be exploring these houses in coming articles. Planet placements in these houses, rulerships, etc. So look out for that. But for now perhaps just look at the rulers of those houses---which signs govern your 2nd and 8th whole sign houses and how does that relate to your story around money, commerce, inheritance, sharing, keeping, giving and receiving.
