Journey to the Center of You: The Fourth House
Where do you belong? What is home to you? Where and how do you feel secure and rooted?
The answers to these questions and more are what await us in the fourth houses of our natal charts. Shovel up!
In the previous two houses (second and third) we developed what was started in the first house of the self. Now, we have arrived at the second of the angular points of the natal chart (Ascendant, Imum Coeli, Descendant, Midheaven).
The first house started with the ascendant – aka the rising degree - and the start of the fourth house is marked by what is known as IC (Imum Coeli) – literally meaning bottom of the sky. So, it is no surprise that our roots and stability are housed in this area of the natal chart.
By the time of our arrival at the fourth house, we have developed our unique gaze into the world (first house), our possessions and values (second house), and how we think and make logical connections (third house); and now, at the fourth house, what are tested and experienced are our stability and roots in order to be able to fully say “I”. This is where – among other things - our ancestry, our home life and our parents come into the picture.
Again, in order to be able to say “I”, we either (or at first) need to know where we come from or (or eventually) discover and/or create our roots and how we can achieve stability in the world.
When we are younger, this is experienced through what is given (or not given) to us from our parents or whoever and whatever was included in our early home lives. As we grow up, and experience physical existence on our own, our stability is constantly challenged and thrown off balance - prompting us to develop stronger/newer/better roots that are uniquely ours. Through experiences, or by adapting to them or to their aftermaths, we (hopefully) dig deeper and deeper and find what security is to us in various forms.
The sign at the cusp of the fourth house (the sign on the IC) and its ruler, the remainder of the house and the planets occupying this area inform us of this unique way of achieving stability. It can also inform us about one’s home life, housing matters, impact of and the relationship with one of the parents (either the mother or the father or sometimes both depending on the kind of relationship they had with the native) and how one “ends” things.
In my opinion, the final one is especially interesting. I see this “way of ending things” as my way of coming to a conclusion (of a relationship, event, gain, loss etc.). This is what/how I think and feel and do with what is left in my hands after something ends. The fourth house, therefore, can illuminate in what way does the end of things go to my memory and to my life story.
The ”I” that was merely a spark in the first house discovered its body (second house) and learned to speak (third house) – and now in the fourth house there is an “I” with a past and a story, ready to say “I am”.
If you want to learn more about your natal fourth house and/or the rest of your chart, I recommend my Modus Operandi reading. I designed it as an easy to digest entry into your chart focusing on one or two areas of your life. Click here to book a session.