To have Altjira-Alcheringa in the Second House is to have a powerful, life-giving connection to Country and the Creator Being and the Creator Spirit! All that encompasses the archetypes, needs, states and elements of belonging to Country form the inner narrative of the life path.
Punjel said: “I will give them two other bodies, one in the form of a spirit body or Dowie which will be a container for individual experience. It will be a memory bank from which they can recollect all previous experiences. This will make their work on Tya easier and bring order to creation instead of disorder. ”
Aeons of time passed. Time was now perfect for the finest of all creation. A special creation of enormous complexity. The human. In indigenous and First Nations philosophy the soul of the human is the sum total of experiences in all the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, and when the animal body dies, all the experiences registered in the soul remain impressed on the Dowie (spirit body).
We are looking to the presence of the Divine (signified by Altjira-Alcheringa) in the Second House, sometimes called the house of Country, or the House of Wealth. In this instance, wealth refers not to material wealth or money (although it can encompass that) it can refer to wants, desires, security, comforts and personal choices. It also references belonging to country via activites such as songlines, duty, personal meaning and transcendence. Transcendence is going beyond the limits of self to encounter the Self, the immanent other that exists in all that is – be it called Punjel, Bunjil, Biame, Alcheringa, Altjira, or any other name.
The Second House
When we look at a house in astrology, we consider archetypes, needs, states and elements.
The Archetypes relevant to the 2nd house are the Earth Mother, (experienced as Goolagaia), the act of nurturing country, and husbandry of country for sustenance and survival.
The 2nd house presents certain needs which must be satisfied, else one is in perpetual conflict attempting to satisfy these needs. In the case of the 2nd house, the needs are safety, security, stability. In the first place, these needs are satisfied with connection or belonging to country. Family, food, accommodation, clothing, employment all take second place to the primary need of the Indigenous Australian to have belonging to Country.
When these needs are satisfied, the states of the second house become apparent: serenity, comfort, stability and equanimity. Equanimity is the quiet art of remaining inwardly balanced amid the changing circumstances of life. It is neither indifference nor emotional withdrawal, but a spaciousness of mind in which joy and sorrow, gain and loss, praise and blame may be encountered without completely possessing us.
The word suggests the foundation of spirit — a capacity to remain present without being swept away by every passing current. Equanimity does not demand that we cease to care. Rather, it invites us to care deeply without becoming captive to the outcomes of our caring. We don’t become captive to satisfying needs, desires, possessions, attachments and comforts.
The elements of the 2nd house are Earth (Country), Yin, a personal connection to ancestors, waters and law. Other elements of the 2nd house include animals and plants. The personal connection is referenced to tribal connections and skin. Yin comprises a feminine polarity; it is joining, integrative, responsive and can be inhibited. Being of the feminine polarity, Yin can be dark, unconscious and union oriented. This suggests elements of the collective unconscious are expressed in the 2nd house.
When we talk about “Country” in the 2nd house, we include all activities relating to Country. “Country” is usually broader than “land,” encompassing people, ancestors, waters, animals, plants, law, and spiritual relationships.
Activities include
- Caring for Country
- Nurturing Country
- Looking after Country
- Healing Country
- Renewing Country
- Regenerating Country
- Revitalising Country
- Honouring Country
- Connecting with Country
- Maintaining cultural connection to Country
- Ceremonially caring for the land
- Sustaining the life and spirit of Country
The Divine Presence (Creator Spirit) is encountered in all the above activities, including “singing up the country,” songlines, narratives about creation and sustenance, the connection to nature and ceremonies that embrace belonging, duty, personal meaning and transcendence – going beyond the self to a connection to the All, the Creator Spirit.
Altjira-Alcheringa in the 2nd house is that revelation that occurs internally: a personal self-understanding of skin, life path, totem, belonging, soul contract, mythos – the ongoing story that one lives by. This is the transcendence through belonging to Country and the presence of Altjira-Alcheringa in the 2nd house.
