Meaning
The fourth house begins at the Imum Coeli, the IC, the point of the zodiac on the meridian below the horizon, opposite the Midheaven: the lowest point of the chart and the angle of the earth. It is one of Lilly's four angles, fourth in his ranking of strength.
Lilly in 1647 gives it the father, lands and houses, tillage, and the end of any matter, with further items on inheritances and hidden treasure that we leave out here. Modern astrology reads it as home, family, ancestry and the private emotional ground a life stands on, and many modern authors give it the mother or either parent where Lilly gave it the father. Our keywords are "home, roots, family".
In a chart
A planet in the fourth house, close to the IC, is read as part of what a person comes from and returns to. The Moon, its natural ruler in modern teaching, is read here as a strong tie to home; Saturn as a sense of duty to it. These are colours of the tradition, not facts about anyone's family.
The axis from the fourth house to the tenth runs from the private to the public, the root to the visible branch, and astrologers read the two together.
Across the traditions
In quadrant systems such as Placidus the IC is the cusp of the fourth house. In whole-sign houses the fourth house is the fourth sign from the rising sign, and the IC degree falls wherever it falls, sometimes in the third or the fifth; in equal houses the fourth cusp is 90° from the Ascendant. Our chart lets you switch between Placidus, Whole Sign and Equal to see which planets move. The pairing with Cancer and the Moon is a modern teaching device.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Topics (Lilly, 1647)
- The father, lands and houses, tillage, the end of any matter (his items on inheritance and treasure left out) sourced
- Class (Lilly)
- Angular, fourth in strength sourced
- Natural sign and ruler
- Cancer, with Moon: a modern teaching device after Alan Leo; Lilly's pairings differ sourced
- Topics (modern)
- Home, roots, family sourced
- One right house system
- No: a planet's house can change with the system; ours is named on the chart disputed
- Our keywords
- "home, roots, family" our construction
How the schools read it
- Hellenistic (Valens)
- The fourth place, counted by whole signs from the rising sign.
- Lilly (1647)
- Angular; the father, lands and houses, tillage, the end of any matter (his items on inheritance and treasure left out).
- Modern psychological (Alan Leo, Rudhyar and after)
- Home, roots, family.
- Jyotisha
- The fourth bhava, always counted by whole signs from the lagna.
- EsoTerrier
- Placidus by default, Whole Sign and Equal a tap away, Porphyry above the polar circles; a reading for each planet in the house, in our own words.
Claims about it
-
There is one correct house system, and a planet's house is a fact of the sky.
disputedWhat the record shows: A planet's house depends on the division chosen: between Placidus and Whole Sign a median of twelve of sixteen objects changed house in our 56 test charts. We default to Placidus and show the system on the chart.
-
Placidus is the traditional, or the original, house system.
falseWhat the record shows: The Hellenistic tradition used whole-sign houses. The Placidus division was first published by Magini in 1602; it is the most used today, not the oldest.
