The Fourth house in our birth chart is the point of deepest foundation from which all else in our lives rises above the ground. It’s the place of home, family, our parents, and our ancestral roots. It’s our heritage, family of origin, and a place where we experience both lack or connection to emotional security and find (or not) our sense of belonging.
It’s this early experience of family, our connection with our parental caregivers that we build, brick by brick, the foundations of both our inner and outer sense of security, belonging (to a family, to a tribe, a land), and our adventures in building and acquiring our own nests both in a physical (i.e., our physical home, real estate) as well as psychological sense.
This is also the place in our inner geography where hidden treasures lie, under the layers of our familial and ancestral beliefs, myths and messages. It also represents the beginning of our childhood experiences, often even preverbal, and the end of life, the end of the matter – the womb and the tomb.
As you can see, this is a complex and layered placement of our charts and lives. What is it like to experience a coming home or even finding one’s ‘ideal home’? How does one connect to a soulful sense of home and belonging?
Whenever a friend or client tells me that they’re doing some home renovation, I immediately look to the symbolism of the Fourth House. Dreams that show home also take me to the Fourth House. Home is associated with our experience of our private self, the one that only a few, if that, ever get to meet. Gosh, at times, even we are challenged to face this private self that lives in our deep roots.
Without a sense of security and rootedness, it’s hard to have a sense of belonging and safety. How can we build our dreams if we feel like tumbleweeds gathering no moss?
Looking to our roots
Recently, I heard this amazing story from a friend. Thanks to the wizardry of DNA genealogy and sites like Ancestry.com, my friend, who was adopted, was able to learn and even meet some of her biological family members.
In doing so, they’re piecing together parts of their story that they never imagined existed, including a connection with her psychic gifts and those of a great-grandmother that they until now knew nothing about. Not only was the physical resemblance there in the photo, but so were the psychic gifts they both shared.
What impressed me about this story is the vivid example of a hidden treasure and the feeling of connection it brought forth. My friend wasn’t the ‘only one in the family with such a gift; it came down through the family line.
Other examples of the power of understanding our roots, if and when we can gather information, are about the family myths and their power to write the stories both in the past and going forth. Gaining an understanding of the family stories, beyond the surface of anecdotal accounts, but in looking at the patterns of repetition, especially thematically, gives one vital clue to the work to be done, healed, and where gifts await to be (re)claimed.
The unlived life of our ancestors
I’m sure you’ve met your fair share of parents who will state categorically that their little one will grow up to be a (insert profession of choice.) So now, this young soul is charged with making their dream come true. This proclamation will either be due to the reasoning: ‘that’s what our family is/does’ or an expression of what the parent wanted to be but couldn’t.
But then there are the unconscious pressures to live the unlived life of our parents and ancestors. Nothing was ever clearly spoken; there are no stories, yet there’s this felt sense that one has been cast in a particular role and try as they might, they’re stuck in playing that assigned role.
The shape of their lives, relationships, work, and sense of self takes on this invisible veil, and like a Greek tragedy or a Shakespearean comedy, they unconsciously play the part.
The parental influence on what we do for work and how we approach the earning of our daily bread is momentous. It most often stands like an iceberg in our life, with us unable to fully grasp the depth of such colossal icy rock on our path. What is known is only the tip of the iceberg, whereas underneath the surface lies the unconscious desires of our parents and their parents, going back most likely generations.
While it may sound more ominous, it can also be creatively affirming in reality. We know that all that we make as humans is built on the shoulder of giants. So perhaps, our own lives and how we share our gifts with the world through our work are also built on the deep foundation of our ancestors. We get to do what they couldn’t do due to lack of resources, know-how, and the fact that the past is like another country – they do things differently there.
Exploring this dimension in our lives is challenging, enriching, and a combination of detective and archeological research. We’re pulling on threads that often make us feel uncomfortable, yet we can’t stop once we start. We may not find all the answers in this lifetime, but we can at least know that we’ve done substantial work for the descendants in our family, if not for society itself.
When I was in Sunday school as a kid, learning my biblical stories, the image of the end of days with the return of all who died to be brought back to life for Judgment Day stuck with me. Mainly I was worried about those who had died at sea and now would have to swim up to the surface. Ah, the logic of a child. But now, taking a closer look at this image, I wonder if the return of those ‘who died’ for the final judgment isn’t also the symbolic return of those before us with their stories and unfinished work, but also wisdom and legacy for us to acknowledge and use to transmute and heal much that has been buried under eons of untold stories and hidden treasures. Pluto is the planetary archetype of the Underworld and all wealth buried under the earth. The end of days, like the endings that the Fourth House rules, is also where the new is birthed. I feel that we walk around earth under a scarcity trance when in truth, many riches await us to go searching for them, especially in our inner psychic landscape.
The Fourth House – I’m rooted
On a surface level, the complementary polarity of the Fourth (home) and Tenth (career) is where many of the challenges many face in life. How to balance, recalibrate and honor the needs of both.
If you think of the Fourth and the Tenth houses as a tree, the Fourth is the roots from which all nutrients come through that will nourish the canopy of the Tenth house. Weak roots lead to undernourished canopies, where one builds their legacy, reputation, and experience of recognition (i.e., success) on a shallow foundation.
Another element that I’ve often found in my client work is how much their relationship with their parents, be it either mother or father, sheds light on the gifts and challenges they face when birthing and crafting their businesses or owning their career/work in the world.
Not to mention when what they’re working on is related directly or vicariously to the unlived lives of one or both parents. These unconscious tendrils can have a heavy toll on one, making forging one’s path much harder. Nevertheless, there are also experiences of receiving the legacy and inheritance of a parent in a more conscious manner that can serve as a gift.
Still, the Fourth House and the Eighth and the Twelfth link us all to the ancestral waters through time immemorial. They speak to our connection to those who inhabit the realm of those who have crossed to the Otherside/Otherworld.
Being rooted in purpose
When exploring the theme of purpose, it’s as if we’re on a boat that is sailing through the deeper ocean of fate and destiny. We may want to distance ourselves from these perceived ancient themes, but our resistance to exploring what these mean to us only makes the journey harder.
And there’s nothing like dealing with family and its entangled web for us to wonder about fate and destiny. Often we will ask why we were born into this family? With these parents? These siblings? This dynamic and dramatic story?
When one is beckoned to engage more consciously with their sense of purpose, especially around aligning it with their livelihood, it’s vital to gain perspective and understanding about our story with our family and how that influences our work in the world.
So if you’re wondering why you do the work you do, look to the story that got you here? Even if it’s through resistance to following a parent’s footsteps, that already speaks to the hold their story has over your life and work.
Ultimately, the root of the Fourth House is about teaching us how to establish our own inner sense of security so that we may have a foundational touchstone for the life and work we’re to bring forth to the world. Belonging to oneself and better understanding our past and origin story are the firm foundations for a purposeful life and a healthy livelihood.
Photo Credits:
Main image: Christopher Izquierdo
Subsequent images: Dave Hoefler, James Wheeler, Kristen Walsh, and Daniel Sessler Via Unsplash
