THE MOOD: Spiritual Economics

Astrology has ideas about stuff – and specifically, stuff like money, objects, belongings, and all forms of material resources.

As I currently work in philanthropy alongside my astrological practice, I’ve been thinking a lot about resources: how they move, play, live, breathe, and hide. There is so much energy stored in a dollar, in a fancy handbag, in a house, in the soil. What is the quality, shape, and personality of resource? How do we collectively decide that things have value? And what happens when these resources interact?

Issues of resources are primarily held in the 2nd and 8th Houses in astrology. The 2nd House is the domain of material resources, values, possessions, money, worth, and "what you own" (Cameron Allen). If the 2nd House is the space of what we generate and own individually, the 8th House is the space of what we generate and own in relationship. The 8th House is the domain of shared resources, invisible power and influence, inheritance, karma, magic, sex, and “cooperative activity…[which] produces various results, releases new energies, or creates new wealth” (Dane Rudhyar).

By itself, many of the traditional meanings of these houses feel deeply influenced by a settler-colonial belief system that claims that individuals and groups can own things. This belief system tells us that land, natural resources, and resulting objects can be possessed by people; that people can hold power and control over these materials; and that these materials are distinctly separate from the people who control them. These ideas of ownership and the privatization of natural resources are deeply entrenched in our contemporary capitalist culture and have sought to dissolve our relationship with the earth, the commons, and each other.

Fundamentally, I don’t believe that any person can own anything – for ownership is a political expression, not an energetic reality. Nothing in nature owns anything else. A tree does not own a river; everything is shared and in relationship. I must acknowledge that these ideas are not new, and nor I do own them, too. I have been deeply influenced by multiple Indigenous worldviews that view land and water as sacred, sentient beings, as well as by feminist Marxist texts like Sylvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch, which argues that the division of communal lands destroyed women’s power, spurring witch hunts and undermining more collaborative, mystical forms of working with nature and each other.

How I make sense of these houses, then, is through their relationship; the 2nd House cannot exist without the 8th House, and vice versa. The 8th House reminds us that the objects and resources that we may see as individually “ours” are in fact shared and exist beyond our individual stewardship. We may tend to them for a moment in time, but they have lives before, and beyond, us that we do not see. We often experience this whenever we buy something – we do not witness the gathering of natural materials, the processing of those materials into the formation of a thing, and the journey it took to get to us in that very moment. And, while the transfer to owning something feels permanent, we cannot take these things with us when we die, and they will continue to live on in their own ways. Everything flows into and through the primordial soup of life; everything emerges and dies and gets remade into something else. We are in this constant cycle of exchange with land, with nature, with objects, and with money.

While they are not traditional associations with the 2nd and 8th Houses, I would argue that critical justice movements like reparations, land back, and solidarity economics are part of a deep tradition of these houses. They recognize that land, labor, and both individual and collective human energy – particularly the land of Indigenous peoples and the labor of enslaved Black Americans – were possessed, stolen, and exploited, and prevented from participating in cycles of sharing, mutual collaboration, and dignity for all living beings. These movements are necessary to move us towards acknowledging and repairing harms, as well as nurturing dignified relationships with nature and with each other moving forward.

I urge us to consider, then, that resources – land, money, objects, and energy – are deeply spiritual, holding memories, stories, and experiences beyond the time that we may experience them in our backyards, in our living rooms, and in our bank accounts. They hold power and magic necessary for life. During this holiday time, when gifts flow, remember that this practice is not purely material. We are participating in a form of spiritual economics: giving and receiving objects that contain immense historical, emotional, metaphysical, and psychic resonance, in an endless and abundant flow, that share life and joy with each other. And like a river, it must flow – otherwise it turns dull, stagnant, devoid of the vitality that keeps us going.

Giving is receiving, receiving is giving, and we continue in nurturing, sharing, being, and living together. ‘Tis the season, always, to nurture the cycle.

If you are looking for a way to honor right relationship this season, consider learning more about and making a contribution to the reparations, Land Back, and solidarity economy movements. There are multiple national organizations leading these efforts, and look for organizations in your community, state, and region doing this work on a local level. Here are some resources to get started:

Candace Kita