4th House in Astrology: Home and Core of Personality

    House 4 represents the place we go when we turn inward, the most intimate place. The time has come to a stop, taking in what we have learned earlier.

    In House 1, we are bare. In House 2, we discover our unique identity. In House 3, we turn our attention to the outside world and begin forming our opinions about things. We get an idea of who we are, our individuality, our physical body, mind, and environmental context during this journey. As we approach House 4, the time has stopped to assimilate what we learned in previous Houses.

    Fourth House

    • Sphere - Family atmosphere
    • Planet - Moon
    • Sign - Cancer
    • Element - Water
    • Quality - Cardinal
    • Polarity - Female
    • Position - Angular
    • physiology - stomach and breasts
    • Places - House, family tree
    • Color - Red
    • Chave Words - Home, parents, identity, value system, childhood, inherited patterns, family environment, education

    4th House and the Personal Value System

    In the 4th House, naturally ruled by the Moon and Cancer, we face the challenge of putting all the pieces together and integrating them into our value system, which will become the center of our personality, our unique identity. Some people continue to make this synthesis throughout their lives, evolving their value system and integrating the reflections that they make of the new learning. Others stop doing it, and their personality crystallizes. We often focus more on one aspect of life than another (some people value a career more than family, and vice versa, for example). When we focus on the outside, we lose track of our "I" and do not pay due attention to our most intimate needs. We do not feed our center.

    4th House and the Background of Heaven in the Definition of Personality

    The "I" is determined by the sign found at the bottom of Heaven (which symbolizes our roots) and by the planets located in House 4. We integrate our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and actions into a system in this House. Unique that has meaning for us. The Fund of Heaven and the 4th House also allow us to keep the center of our personality, our value system, stable. House 4 represents where we go when we turn inward, the most intimate place where our "I" rests again before starting new activities. The Fourth House is our base of operations. The place where we find space to analyze events, transform them into experiences, define strategies, and outline forms of action. For this reason, the 4th House has become associated with the home, the soul, and the roots of who we are. It is the inner face of our personality. The side we share with only a few people. It is our true nature. The Sky Background (Imum Coeli or IC) marks the point in the sky immediately below us at our birth.

    House 4, Home and Family

    The Background of Heaven and House 4 reflects how our origins and our family influence our personality and way of being. On a deeper level, House 4 reflects everything we inherited from our roots, from our ancestors. It is our family's psychological heritage. The planets and signs present in the 4th House reveal our environment and the type of influence we receive from it. For example, Saturn in the 4th House or Capricorn in the Background of the Sky can indicate a cold and distant family environment or a very conservative family. Venus in the 4th House or Libra in the Background of Heaven can mean a loving home and a possible harmony between personality and family tradition. The Moon in the 4th House or Cancer in the Background of Heaven suggests a harmonious home. In contrast, Uranus in the 4th House or Aquarius in the Background of Heaven implies the non-identification between the personality and the family context where he grew up since childhood.

    4th House and Relationship with Parents

    As a general rule, the influence exerted by parents on our personality is attributed to the axis formed by House 4 and House 10. The rulership of the Moon caused the Fourth House to be traditionally associated with the Mother, while the Tenth House (ruled by the planet Saturn and the sign of Capricorn ) with the Father. However, the influence of parental figures on the personality of each of us requires a careful analysis of the star charts of all the people involved (son-mother-father). The experiences we live in childhood, the type of home in which we grew up, and the relationship we build with our parents or other significant figures will condition how we relate to others (friends, partners, children, with parents later in life). The image that we create of parents is formed in the early stages of life, in childhood, and it always accompanies us. For Psychological Astrology, studying the impact of the personality/parent relationship can pave the way to clarify specific problems or difficulties in relationships or personal frustrations that the individual cannot explain. On the other hand, sometimes it is necessary to go deeper to reach the origin of everything and, from there, deconstruct perceptions that affect us negatively to replace them with others, more positive and that are in harmony with our way of being.

    House 4 and the Past

    House 4 represents our origins but also the way we end things. How we conclude a processor considers that a situation is closed is related to the positions of this House. Venus, finish everything elegantly for everyone. Saturn tends to prolong the situation and take time to finish it. Moon and Neptune discreetly move away, and Uranus and Mars give themselves up to the fight. House 4 also suggests the environmental conditions of adult life. The most profound reflections arise in the mature phase of life. The accumulation of experiences, positive and negative, the advance of age, the awareness of our finitude, or the loss of loved ones invariably changes our notion of time and of life itself. Life becomes urgent. There is no time to waste on trifles. We can feel an enormous desire to make our dreams come true. To gain time, realize what we have not been able to do until then. Life experiences and reflection based on them can lead to a new stage of self-discovery. Anything that leads us to ourselves leads to the energies of House 4. Although we live in the present, with our eyes on the future, our past will always be with us. It is part of our identity, who we are, and our heritage for future generations.

    The 12 Houses in Astrology

    • House 1 - Individual Identity (the "I")
    • House 2 - Money, Earnings, and Possessions
    • House 3 - Mind, Environment, and Brothers
    • House 4 - Home
    • House 5 - Creative Self-Expression, Hobbies, and Fun
    • House 6 - Work, Health, and Small Animals
    • House 7 - Couple and Marriage
    • House 8 - Sex, Death, and Birth
    • House 9 - Philosophy and Adventure
    • House 10 - Career and Social Statutes
    • House 11 - Friends and Community
    • House 12 - Spirituality and Subconscious