Money, the Economy, and You
Astrological tips for controlling your
cash flow

By Elizabeth Summers

Love may make the world go ’round, but money certainly is the driving force on Planet Earth! During the recent U.S. presidential election, the economy was listed as the number one concern of the majority of Americans, and the same is likely true in other countries. Word of an economic downturn accompanied by potential layoffs has given many anxious nights to the average wage-earner here, and listening to media reports of housing foreclosures, or watching pension funds and 401k plans vanish, hasn’t made those nights any better.

Astrology can’t solve the world’s financial problems, of course, but it can help us to make our own “stash of cash” safe, especially if we learn to understand the most important astrological factors that relate to the state of our finances. We all know of people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and lots of money, and yet managed somehow to dissipate their fortunes and their futures. But we also know of other folks who started out on a hardscrabble and dusty road, and yet made millions along the way. If there’s one thing that distinguishes people like this from each other, it is their basic attitude toward money, and that, in fact, is something astrology can tell us a lot about.

Whether in your timed birth chart, or in your solar chart, the 2nd house is the area that fully and completely spells out your attitude toward money, thus telling you something about your financial opportunities in life, as well as the financial pitfalls you need to avoid. Though the 2nd house is the most important, other sectors of your chart also describe your finances to one degree or another. The 5th house shows your potential for speculative risk, and the 8th house delineates your attitude toward shared resources, such as joint accounts, but these two houses merely help to round out the general picture shown by the 2nd.

Since the 2nd is the house of personal possessions in general, it details the way you feel about anything you either want to own or to acquire, including money. It also spells out what you hope money will bring to you, and the pleasure you may take in acquiring, spending, or saving money.

You may at times not completely understand your attitude toward money, and thus wonder why you act the way you do in circumstances that require financial decisions. For example, if you truly want to save money, yet impulsive Aries is on the cusp of your 2nd house, you may find it very hard indeed. Every time you see that commercial about how “a dollar and a dream” can make you rich, you may find yourself unconsciously fishing a bill or two out of your pocket and heading off to buy a lottery ticket. Too many dollars and too many dreams and you could, of course, find your pockets, if not your bank account, empty. On the other hand, with a more conservative sign such as Capricorn as your solar 2nd, you might hold onto your money pretty easily, and maybe too easily at that, as stinginess could be a problem.

So how do you handle money? To explore your attitudes toward the “long green,” read the description of your solar 2nd-house below. Once you’ve done this, you will never again be in doubt as to why you save and spend the way you do, and you’ll be better able to control your cash flow!

If you are an Aries, your solar 2nd house is Taurus. Yes, Aries, you are fast and impulsive in all things, and you also love the color red more than anything else in the world. However, once you open your wallet and see the green inside, your attitude toward spending kicks in, and it happens to be the reverse of your typical urge to act first and think later. You are blessed to have the conservative sign of Taurus governing your attitude toward money, and that saves you from ending up at the casino (or standing in line for lottery tickets) night after night. You want to watch your money grow, and you can be surprisingly cautious with your hard-earned income. You will not be found tuning in to the latest infomercial promising get-rich-quick schemes. In fact, if you are over at a neighbor’s house when one of these fraudulent scams comes on TV, you will leap over to the TV set and switch it off, presto! You have a lot of faith in your own ability to understand your finances, so you will bring a healthy dose of skepticism to any conversation you have with a financial planner or money manager. You let your inner confidence and outward brashness carry the day when you meet with anyone of this nature that you might employ, and you aren’t afraid to ask questions and demand answers. It’s your money you are taking about after all, and that’s something you never forget!

If you are a Taurus, your solar 2nd house is Gemini. Money is energy to you, since quicksilver Gemini guides your hands when it comes time to write a check or withdraw money to invest. You are always filled with delight at all the energy you stir up with your money every time you shop or eat out! With Mercury, the planet of the mind, ruling your money zone, you spend a lot of time thinking about your money and all the wonderful things you plan on doing with it. However, you also can be very forgetful where money is concerned, and you may not remember to check your bank balance before you spend, or pay your bills. You always promise yourself to do better when you get in trouble with the bank because of an overdraft, but then you promptly forget about your resolution—until the next time you get a notice that you are being charged an overdraft fee. You have a tendency to spend your money on intellectual and technical items, so your home is likely to be filled with books, chess sets, and video games, along with clothes, art objects...and more books! Do try your best to allow your common sense to have a say when it comes to spending and saving. If you do that, you will find that you are able to stop your money from pouring through your wallet as if your currency was in a sieve, instead of a leather pouch.

If you are a Gemini, your solar 2nd house is Cancer. Your friends and associates would be stunned if they knew how much money you truly have in your bank account, as well as stashed away in pension funds, annuities, and the like. You are a real hoarder where money is concerned, and you probably have a record of the first dollar you ever earned, if not the actual dollar itself. You have never forgotten the thrill you received when you were handed your first allowance or had money of your own to spend from an after-school job. You receive a real sense of security from reading your bank statement and seeing how many figures are used to measure your wealth—four, five, six, or more? But while counting your money is nice, you still need to know that you have it safely in a bank, and your valuables nestled in a safe-deposit box, in order to be able to feel that you have a truly secure safety net beneath you. You do well in financial programs that gradually increase your profits, and you steer clear of risky ventures, or of any financial program that is the least bit daring. The only exception to this rule is real estate. You have a great interest in owning property and you can be very fortunate in your real estate investments. In fact, a great job for you, either full-time or part-time, is to get a real estate license, since you certainly would thrive in that occupation.

If you are a Cancer, your solar 2nd house is Leo. You love to live large, and no matter whether you live in your parent’s basement, your own apartment, or a mansion, your home is definitely your castle. You want to be able to show off your wealth, not because you are ostentatious, but because you take a great deal of pride in how well you can provide for yourself and your loved ones. You would adore having a long and winding driveway, along with ornate moldings on your home, and you want to have as many rooms as possible. Everything you own, from a snazzy sports car to a luxurious boat, is part and parcel of how well you have done in life. Your attitude toward money is that the more you have, the happier you are, and the better you feel about yourself and about life in general. You enjoy looking at all the beautiful items you own, especially when you feel discouraged or you have a setback in your life. You are extremely generous with your money, and you will help out a friend, relative or even a stranger whose story of hard luck touches your big heart. Your income is often spent on luxuries, as well as on entertaining your friends. You are the first one to offer to pick up a tab when you and your associates are out on the town. You love to own jewelry, and you are a sucker for diamond earrings or a diamond-studded tie clasp. In fact, diamonds are your biggest financial temptation, whether you are a man or a woman.

If you are a Leo, your solar 2nd house is Virgo. You are a whiz at figures, and you can easily manage your own and your family’s household accounts without any help. You also do your own taxes, and you can probably spot more deductions than the average bookkeeper or accountant. If you need to, you can create a budget for yourself in nothing flat—and then stick by it down to the last figure. You know where every penny of your income is, and how it is working for you—or not. You know how much you spend for coffee on your way to work, and how much you save by buying your food at a savings club instead of at the local supermarket. You clip coupons, you buy on sale, and you look for bargains everywhere you go. You buy travel tickets after you comparison shop for the cheapest air and hotel fares, and you only vacation off season. That way you can have the quality you want, along with the cheapest prices. You don’t scrimp on quality, by the way, as it’s first class all the way for you and your loved ones, though that doesn’t mean you have to pay designer prices, even though you have designer tastes. At times you go off on a binge, throwing caution to the wind, and you spend carelessly, but those times are few and far between, and you go right back to your thrifty ways very quickly.

If you are a Virgo, your solar 2nd house is Libra. You have a wonderfully analytical mind, but you still have a very hard time making decisions about your financial future. Indecisive Libra is the ruler of your house of money and assets, so you are often unable to decide on the right economic path to follow. You will ask your friends and family what they think you should do to earn the most from your income, and you will employ financial planners, yet when all is said and done you are still just as undecided as you were before you asked anyone’s opinion. You find it very difficult to choose from the many options you have open to you, and you waver between wanting to go with a risky program that will yield a high rate of return on your investment, or plunking your money into a safe and secure package that will return substantially less. But the minute you decide on a route of moderation, you’ll be wondering out loud about whether or not you should have gone for the high profits. You would greatly benefit by considering splitting up your money into three piles, putting a small amount into a plan that’s risky, a small amount into a strict savings plan, and the bulk of your income into a moderate package. That way you will have the best of all possible financial worlds, and still come out ahead.

If you are a Libra, your solar 2nd house is Scorpio. You have a very intense attachment to your possessions, and you will never willingly give up anything you have worked for, and certainly nothing that you have bought with your earnings. But it’s also true that you have a tendency to consider people among your prized possessions, and that’s not healthy for you. After all, unlike those Waterford crystal glasses and fine Wedgwood china on display in your dining room, people have their own thoughts and feelings. Where people, and lovers in particular, are concerned, you tend to think that if you spend your money on someone then he or she is beholden to you in some way. When someone you’ve spent lavishly on turns out to have an opinion that differs with yours, you can go ballistic. Once you are calmer, and back to normal, you may have trouble getting this person back in your orbit, so is it worth it? You can be extremely secretive where your money is concerned, as the thought that someone might somehow access your financial records can keep you up at night. You certainly will take more than the usual precautions to prevent this, but you also have to learn to relax once that security is in place. You have a tendency to go to extremes when it comes to saving and spending, as one month you may sock everything you earn into a savings account, and the next month you may spend money like water. Try to be more balanced.

If you are a Scorpio, your solar 2nd house is Sagittarius. You love to spend your money on travel, and in fact you could easily blow your entire paycheck on a trip to some exotic location without a thought, or even without a glance at your bank balance. When you return home, you may have to declare bankruptcy (we hope not), but at least you will have satisfied that travel itch! In general, your attitude toward money is that there is always another pile of cash where the last pile come from, which is why you may often be overdrawn at the bank, or find yourself scrambling at month’s end in order to pay your rent or your mortgage. After you have just emptied out your account on the last spending spree, you may end up having to ask for handouts from your family and friends. Is this what you really want, though? You are certainly correct in your belief that you can spend your money any way you choose, and no one has the right to tell you any differently. However, you would be wise to make sure that you are able to meet your expenses, since if you don’t take charge of your own money, you will find yourself at the mercy of your creditors, including friends, neighbors, and relatives to whom you owe money. If there is anything you dislike more than being in debt to someone, I can’t imagine what that might be, so heed the warning here!

If you are a Sagittarius, your solar 2nd house is Capricorn, and you take great care to make sure your money is spent in a very orderly and prudent fashion. Even if your best friend can’t wait to head down to the local mall because there’s a fantastic sale going on, you won’t join in! You only buy what you need and what you want, and if something you don’t want is available at a bargain price, you can walk away without the least tinge of regret. You are not, in other words, a “shopaholic” by anyone’s standards. What you do enjoy is collecting things. You love nothing more than to have a large cache of coins, pottery, art work, jewelry, antiques, or anything else collectible. You adore rummaging though flea markets and auctions, and you are the first one at the early-bird previews for estate sales. There’s a challenge in keeping those collections from taking over the house, however, and spending money on a special one-of-a-kind item can at times break the bank if you’re not careful. And if there’s one place where your wild side comes out, it is at an auction. You can get so caught up in the bidding that you temporarily lose sight of just how much money you really do have in your checking account. When you’re finished, you may need to borrow gas money from the auctioneer before you can drive your purchases home!

If you are a Capricorn, your solar 2nd house is Aquarius. You have a very erratic and unpredictable attitude toward you own money, and to other people’s money as well. In fact, you can leave your friends and family gasping in astonishment at some of the financial schemes you allow yourself to take part in. Though you have a great deal of common sense and practicality, if someone comes to you with a weird idea for a new product that will make millions, then no matter how far-fetched it sounds, you are on board—and in fact the more outlandish the invention is, the more you want to invest in it! You are ready to spend your money on your own personal interests, too, and you have a special fondness for any product that has to do with outer space. You may contribute to organizations that are attempting to make contact with alien life forms, and your shelves are covered with all the science fiction books you have picked up over the years at book sales, and you subscribe to magazines that deal with metaphysical and New Age themes. In addition, you truly want to accomplish great things in the world with your money, and thus you often give to charities. You love the idea of sponsoring a child in a third-world country, and your name probably is listed as a donor on numerous community betterment organizations in your neighborhood.

If you are an Aquarius, your solar 2nd house is Pisces, a Water sign. Given this, it’s not surprising that your money goes through your hands like water! No matter how hard you try, you simply can’t keep track of what you spend and where you spend it! In all honesty, most of the time you really don’t want to. You enjoy using your money to escape from reality, and you would love to spend it on something like a home theater, where you can immerse yourself in a film and listen to surround sound as you pretend you are James Bond or Lara Croft, trekking your way through an exotic landscape. You will instinctively spend money on any item that is water-related, and if you can’t afford to have your own indoor swimming pool, you will certainly have a small aquarium at your bedside table. Your imagination fuels your attitude toward your money, and your imagination is also fully expressed in your ability to partake of unusual financial arrangements, the more outlandish the better. You hate to have to hand your money over to a banker or financial planner and have it put in a nice, safe high-yield interest account. Instead, you are full of enthusiasm for investments and ventures that are complex, and which would mystify the most astute businessperson. That scenario doesn’t bother you in the slightest, since you have a very eclectic attitude toward life in general, and the more complex you can make any subject, money included, the happier you are!

If you are a Pisces, your solar 2nd house is Aries. You love to spend money, not only your own, but other people’s, too. That’s why so often people of your sign are involved in the financial world as a stock broker, trader or hedge-fund manager. You enjoy being involved with the movers and shakers in the financial markets, and you never tire of the rush you get when you hear the opening bell at the open of the stock market. Even if you have just a few hundred dollars to invest in the stock market, you will sit and watch your investments go up and down as you watch the stock ticker streaming across the screens of the financial channels on cable TV. The last place on earth you should ever take a job is in a casino or gambling arena, since your self-control goes out the window in such places. You love risking money, mostly for the emotional thrill it gives you, but you do need to try hard to make sure that you save for your future, and for a rainy day. Consider taking a more concrete, albeit dull, approach to your money and you will find that you won’t have to root around behind your sofa cushions for spare change when it’s time to pay your cellphone bill. You are not stingy at all, and you are a true philanthropist, a very big tipper, and you will help out anyone you know who is need.