The 2nd house of the Lagna (ascendant) chart controls self-earned wealth, income, bank balance, financial assets, speech, communication and relations with the family.
Mercury’s placement here is considered benefic as Mercury will bestow the native with the intellect to earn money, maintain it safely, speak properly to their family members, etc., a person with Mercury in the 2nd house of their Lagna chart will be money-minded or will want to earn more money. In other words, their bank balance and financial assets will matter much to them.
Of course, but… Mercury is a young planet. If Mercury is not conjunct with a benefic planet such as Jupiter, Moon, Venus, or even the Sun, it will also present some level of confusion in the mind of the native. Their mind will be on money and income sources, but they will likely not be sure about how else they can earn more income.
Mercury in the 2nd house of the ascendant chart can also bless the native with an excellent job or profession which is administrative in nature and they will earn a healthy salary from the same. It is also possible that the person will create or build a career out of academia or academic pursuits, such as being a professor, educator, instructor, teacher, coach, etc.
Such a person will also know how to talk to others; he will respect elders, be nice to his youngsters, and polite to his/her peers. This person will not give in to peer pressure and will easily refuse it whenever others try to influence him/her.
He/she will also be quite charitable and helpful to others; such individuals will rarely, if ever, refuse someone who comes to them seeking help.
Some considerations to make here are –
- Mercury in exaltation (Virgo) – Mercury is considered exalted in His own sign, Virgo. So, for Mercury to be posited in Virgo in the 2nd house of the ascendant chart, it means that the ascendant would be Leo. So, in this placement Mercury maximizes the money-earning mindset of the person enabling them to earn a lot of wealth, but at the cost of their family communications and relationships with their household members. The individual, however, commands considerable respect in the society.
- Mercury in His own sign (Gemini) – for Mercury to be in 2nd sign in Gemini, the ascendant would be Taurus. Now, Gemini is more of a family-oriented sign as opposed to Virgo, so the person will still make very good money but they will also enjoy good relations with their family members. The person will try to grow their wealth and also be more successful, but they will find themselves stuck somewhere in the process or situation of having to handle their family relations as well as those with children. With that said, family could become somewhat of a limiting factor for such natives, though they will not mind that and will overall have very cordial relations with everyone at home.
- Mercury in debilitation (Pisces) – when in Pisces, Mercury gets debilitated and therefore the good effects get reversed to some extent. As such, the person will have trouble earning money and they will likely be confused about how they should be making money. Since Mercury represents intellect and logic, and the 2nd house represents self-earned income and wealth generation, the person will suffer lack of reasoning or logic and therefore confusion about how they would be earning their funds. Such an individual would also likely have struggles with their education because Mercury also decides the educational qualifications of the person to a great extent. Note that if Jupiter or Venus aspects Mercury in the 2nd house then the native will get some relief even in debilitation of the planet.
Aside from this, a few more considerations to be made in this situation are explained below.
- Mercury Rahu conjunction – if there is Mercury Rahu conjunction in the 2nd house, then it means that the person will end up earning money through immoral and possibly unethical ways. They will not be too worried about the ethicality of things because when Rahu conjuncts Mercury, He will influence Mercury to act accordingly. Therefore, the person will no doubt earn very good money, especially if Mercury Rahu conjunction happens in Gemini, but the methods may be questionable. Additionally, when Rahu is present in the 2nd house, there will be periodic fluctuations in the wealth and income of the person from time to time. Such an individual would be obsessed with making money, and because Rahu does not usually care about family relations, their connections with their family will suffer as they will not be able to give them much time.
- Mercury Ketu conjunction – now, this is not a good combination when it comes to earning wealth because Mercury is more worldly and Ketu is more spiritual. So, when two opposing forces conjunct each other, the result is not favorable in most cases. Now, if the conjunction happens in a sign like Gemini, Ketu will easily overpower the abilities of Mercury to grant wealth and will cause detachment via loss from material wealth. The only exception here is that if Mercury Ketu conjunction happens in Sagittarius (in which case the native will be a Scorpio ascendant) – but even if Ketu does cause troubles with the person’s wealth generation here, it will nevertheless ensure that the person will be able to earn decent wealth as Mercury also performs well in Sagittarius.
As usual, the benefits of Mercury are further magnified when it is conjunct with a benefic planet such as Moon, Jupiter, or Venus. Rahu may help boost the money generation efforts of Mercury but it is usually not the most preferred way for the same, because the methods to earn money will not be ethical in most cases.