The Fourth House
Think of the place you go when you need to be completely yourself, where no one is watching. Think of where you come from: your family, your earliest home, the roots you carry even if you moved far away. That is the 4th house: the foundation under everything else.
The 4th house begins at the IC, the lowest point of the chart, the part of the sky that was beneath your feet at birth. It is the most private part of the chart, and the deepest.
- 11st self and presence
- 22nd resources and worth
- 33rd mind and near world
- 44th home and roots
- 55th joy and creation
- 66th work and health
- 77th partnership
- 88th shared depth
- 99th meaning and travel
- 1010th calling and status
- 1111th friends and future
- 1212th retreat and the unseen
What the 4th house covers
- Home, both the building and the feeling.
- Family, parents and ancestry.
- Roots, heritage and where you belong.
- Private life and your inner foundation.
Every chart has all twelve houses. Yours may have several planets in the 4th house or none at all. Either way, this area of life is part of your story.
Where it sits
The 4th house is an angular house, below the horizon, on the western side. Angular houses (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) begin at the four angles of the chart. They are the strongest and most visible houses: what happens here happens out in the open.
- Angular: 1, 4, 7, 10 On the four angles. Where life acts most visibly.
- Succedent: 2, 5, 8, 11 Follow the angles. Where things are held and built up.
- Cadent: 3, 6, 9, 12 Fall away from the angles. Where we learn and adjust.
The old name: the Subterranean
In Hellenistic astrology the 4th house was the Subterranean place, the angle under the Earth. It was linked with the parents, the land and inheritance, and with the end of things: what is buried, what is hidden, what we return to. A life's foundations and its endings share the same house.
- Tier
- Angular
- Hemisphere
- Below the horizon, western side
- Quadrant
- 2nd
- Keyword
- Home And Roots
- Natural sign
- Cancer (modern link)
- Old name
- The Subterranean
- Joy of
- No planet
- Activated at ages
- 3, 15, 27, 39 and on
What fills this house in your chart?
See the sign on its cusp, the planets inside and the ruler that runs it.
