Four
The Fourth House
House of Cancer Element: Water
Ruling Planet: Moon
Area of Consciousness Personal
Awareness through the experience of continuity

Sun in Fourth House 4

The Sun in House 4 indicates that during the course of the current lifetime, consciousness is to become more self-aware. The concern of the fourth house people is their inner reality and the circumstances that have gone into making them who they are..

People born with the Sun in H4 rarely have any great desire for acclaim or worldly success; instead they tend to favour a home - based life, which affords them much time for reflection.

When the Sun is in H4, it is common to find other inner planets also in H4 and the Moon in one of the houses of Universal consciousness, indicating that the past life experience has been group orientated and lacking the terms of reference which make possible an understanding of personal development. In the 4th House a person is given the opportunity to understand how the emotional nature of the individual is formed from his past: through experiences which can be remembered and those which are locked in the unconscious; through personal experience and through the collective experience of his race. Many 4th House people are drawn to psychotherapy as a means of accessing and processing what is in the unconscious and they have already awareness of the importance of the emotional level in understanding human motivation. The closer the Sun to the I.C the more activated is the channel of communication between the personal and the collective unconscious, and the stronger the sense of continuity and attachment to the culture of birth. People with the Sun in the 4th House are likely to view the mother as the most influential parent, regardless of whether the experience of her was positive or negative. Home life - the responsibility of the mother - is perceived by a 4th House person as the environment, which will either make or mar the individual. Yet, whilst a person with the Sun in H4 places such a high value upon home life, this placement does not automatically confer the ability to create or sustain the desired environment. This will come only after a person has an understanding of his own emotional nature and of any sabota­ging tendencies.

The 4th House experience by its nature is easier for a woman to handle than for a man who tends to look to a partner to create and run the home and thereby relinquishes a considerable amount of control of this all-important environment.

A person with the Sun in H4 views his home as an extension and a reflection of himself, and it is notable that a 4th House person will frequently seek to move home after a major period of inner change or after a break-through in self-understanding: it is as if the existing four walls no longer represent a comfortable fit. Fourth House people who are constantly on the move may well be relying upon a change of residence to put right what they sense to be out of kilter in their lives, in which case they are probably evad­ing the need to look at self.

Professions chosen by 4th House people include psychotherapy, social work, mental health nursing, and all sectors of the industry, which has grown up around home ownership.

Mercury in Fourth House 4

Mercury in the 4th House with the Sun increases inward-looking ness of the disposition and creates a reality, which is greatly influenced by the emotional states and by the example and experience of the mother who may be of an anxious or highly strung disposition.

To people with this combination in H4 the need to feel secure is of paramount importance. A person’s level of awareness will determine whether he will rely upon bricks and mortar to provide the sense of security or whether he will create a centre within himself by means of self understanding.

When Mercury is in H4 and the Sun in H3 then the past is perceived as a factor of great importance in the conditioning process at work, on both the individual and his society, and in order to understand either, a person with this combination will look to their history.

When Mercury is in H4 and the Sun in H5 then the form which a person’s creativity takes will be heavily influenced by, and in all probability designed to impart, psychological insight. This combination produces authors, poets and fine artists. It is also evident in the charts of therapists and healers who seek to use both their own creativity and that of their clients in order to bring about healing at the emotional level.

Regardless of the placement of the Sun, a person with Mercury in H4 is closely identified with the perspectives and preconceptions of the culture into which he is born and has difficulty adapting to those of other societies. Loneliness and a sense of alienation are frequently the result of long periods spent abroad.

Venus in Fourth House 4

Venus in the 4th House confers a love of home and, unless afflicted by the outer planets, indicates a happy childhood and a loving relationship with the mother. Even if Venus is afflicted, an affectionate view of the maternal role and home life is likely to mark a person’s development.

Venus in the 4th House facilitates the process of becoming reconciled to all that has been: it carries a promise of inner peace, especially in a person’s mature years, and creates affection for the country of birth. 

With Venus in the 4th House a person tends to be lucky in property matters pro­vided he remains on his native soil.

Mars in Fourth House 4

Mars in the 4th House frequently signifies tension in the child hood, the result in all probability of a difficult relationship with an emotionally volatile mother. The early circumstances, however, are likely to give a person an awareness of the importance of the nurturing environment to a person’s subsequent emotional development and create an interest in psychology generally. This placement of Mars is common in the charts of people who become psychologists or who undertake intensive therapy or courses in self-awareness. People with Mars in H4 who do embark upon self-discovery will usually give it precedence over everything else in their lives. There is a tendency for Mars in H4 to manifest difficulties in real estate matters and accidents around the home.

Jupiter in Fourth House 4

Jupiter in the 4th House tends to signify a loving and liberal childhood in which the mother’s trusting attitude plays a significant part. This placement of Jupiter inclines a person towards spiritual methods of self-discovery rather than psychological and gives an aptitude for meditation, qualities often shared with the mother. Like Venus, Jupiter makes a person feel very much a part of the culture and the history of the country of his birth, and bodes well for property matters provided he does not move overseas.

Saturn in Fourth House 4

Saturn in the 4th House gives a cold and austere childhood. With this placement a person tends to experience the mother as inhibited and puritanical; home life in consequence is cheerless. Saturn in H4 is found in charts, which indicate that emotional immaturity in past lives has incurred karma: the reaction to emotional charged situations having been irresponsible, child-like and lacking restraint. People with Saturn in H4 usually wish to leave behind their childhood and everything associated with it as soon as possible. They rarely have much affection for the country of birth.

People with Saturn in the 4th House begin adult life feeling uncomfortable with self-examination and usually with little awareness of the extent of their inhibitedness. Although their future happiness depends upon a willingness to examine the legacy of their childhoods, their inhibitions enable them to develop the emotional control lacking in previous incarnations. Understanding the emotional self is the challenge presented by Saturn in H4, which may or may not be accepted. The price of not looking within tends to be loneliness, domestic disharmony and a lack of emotional fulfilment. Those who do accept the challenge tend to favour the psychological, rather than the spiritual route to self-discovery and appear to be particularly receptive to psychoanalysis.

The 4th House placement of Saturn tends to manifest delays and disappointments in connection with property. It is notable that people with Saturn in H4 experience more than an average amount of difficulty in disposing of properties.

Uranus in Fourth House 4

Uranus in the 4th House indicates that there is a developmental need to be freed up from childlike emotional patterns and from a need to be nurtured in particular. This frequently means that a dependency upon the mother has to be broken. With Uranus in H4 a person usually experiences domestic disharmony in his childhood. If it is the father who is responsible (it is common for the father to have a drink problem when Uranus is in H4), then the mother is likely to prove unequal to the task of counteracting the father’s influence with the result that the child becomes estranged from both parents and leaves home to escape the oppressive conditions.

It is not uncommon for people with Uranus in H4 to embrace an unusual or eccentric lifestyle in the name of freedom.

In the matter of property, atmosphere and location will usually take precedence over financial considerations and there may be a principled aversion to property ownership. People with Uranus in H4 tend to be dismissive of the received wisdom about security and like to feel that they have no special attachment to the country of birth.

Close to the I.C, Uranus confers considerable psychic ability and a special gift for divination.

Neptune in Fourth House 4

With Neptune in the 4th House a person seeks to make his home a sanctuary and the centre of his life. With this placement there tends to be great sensitivity to environments and locations and a propensity to ‘fall in love’ with certain properties which become central to the efforts to create the ideal home. Not infrequently, because sentiment has prevailed over economic sense, people with Neptune in H4 find themselves in conside­rable financial difficulty over a property.

A person with Neptune in H4 usually feels himself to be very much a part of the history and culture of the country of his birth and is disinclined to leave it for any length of time. Even the spiritual quests of people with Neptune in H4 rarely take them too far away from the traditions of their own culture. This placement confers a ready aptitude for contemplation and meditation; and when Neptune is close to the I.C, clairvoyant abilities.

Pluto in Fourth House 4

With Pluto in the 4th House, the soul, over many lifetimes, is learning emotional awareness and self-sufficiency by means of a process which involves reducing dependence upon outer forms of security, particularly that provided by the mother and the home.

People with Pluto in the 4th House usually confront situations which make them grow up early and yet the nature of the circumstances designed to develop independence in a person, varies considerably, depending upon which other planets are in H4 with Pluto.

If Venus or Jupiter is with Pluto, then the parents are likely to be loving to the child but committed to making him independent early in life. Mars or Uranus in H4 with Pluto nearly always indicate some trauma with parents which involves drink, drugs or violence, as do the circumstances produced by Pluto alone. When Saturn is with Pluto in H4 the parents’ emotional inhibitions prevent them from doing anything more than look after the child’s physical needs. The combination of Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto tends to produce exces­sively liberal parents who thrust freedom upon the child.

How a person deals with the challenges brought by Pluto in H4 will depend very much upon the level of development. The childhood circumstances may take a person the rest of his life to come to terms with, or they may equip him with a sound understanding that he and he alone is responsible for his own happiness and emotional well-being.

With Pluto in the 4th House, a person’s life tends to be made up of a number of distinct phases or watersheds, and it is not uncommon for the Plutonian to quit a property and even a country in order to bring a phase of his life to a close.

Moon in Fourth House 4

The Moon in the 4th House indicates that past life experiences, centred upon the home and the mother  have provided an opportunity to begin the process of opening up emotionally by creating awareness of a need for love, nurturing and maternal guidance. A person with the Moon in the 4th House is usually born into a close-knit family and, regardless of sex, has an especially close relationship with the mother. The relationship with the mother has enormous significance for the child’s emotional development: accustomed to her unconditional love, he tends to grow up very much an emotional consumer. Demanding and self-absorbed, he usually has much to learn about the giving of love and may be reluctant to take the responsibilities of being either a partner or a parent. For as long as the mother is alive, she remains the principal claimant of his affections and he may be aware of a strong psychic bond between them. If outer planets are present in H4 with the Moon then the mother is likely to be instrumental in creating the conditions, frequently traumatic, which are required to move a person on from the security of home-centred life, which the past life experience has made familiar to the soul and which has now served its purpose.

Whatever area of life, the Sun, by its sign and house position, is identified as being the one into which a person must move in order to continue his development. When the Moon is in H4 he will first ensure that he has a secure home base from which to project. He tends to leave the family home only when he is able to afford to set up a home of his own. As a person with the Moon in H4 identifies property with security and he is usually an enthusiastic homeowner.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: - The matter of whether and when the 4th House denotes the mother or the father (and conversely, whether the 10th House denotes the father or the mother) has long been an area of controversy in Western astrology. The view taken throughout this work is that regardless of the sex of the native, the 4th House at all times denotes the mother and the home, (and the 10th House the father and the career). Whilst it is unquestionably the case that the outer planets use the agency of the father to bring about the necessary developmental conditions, the essential significance of the exper­ience is that the security and nurturance provided by the home (the province of the mother)  is withdrawn in order that a person may learn to provide for himself. For people born in 1960s, when Uranus and Pluto were in conjunction, this lesson is likely to be earned through difficult and often traumatic circum­stances.

In our contemporary societies the experiences brought into a person’s life by the inner planets working through the 4th House are easier, unquestionably, for a woman to handle. For a man an emphasised 4th House will produce tendencies which are considered unmasculine. Women with an emphasised 10th House face a comparable difficulty although one, which the thinking of the last thirty years has done much to ease. Notions of sexual equality have yet to extend in any meaningful way to men with an emphasised 4th House.