The Fourth House

Spiritually considered, the fourth angle or Nadir, the point opposite the M.C, signifies the frozen North, and is symbolised by Capricorn, the crystallising point of the souls involution. It is death, inertia, that is, crystallisation of the souls spiritual forces. It is the lowest point of the arc in the Monads downward journey. It is the night before the awakening day upon a higher plane of existence. 

Upon the reversed of the Zodiac, the mundane, external human plane, Cancer now symbolises the fourth house. Where the great honours of achievement in life are mirrored by the end of the mundane affairs, where the culmination has reversed and life leads on to death and the grave. Returning to the source of the physical, crystallised form. The home and comfort of the physical vessel, all in accordance with the heritage and genetic implications of which it first adhered to. As such, the fourth house relates to the roots of our existence and the very foundation on which we gain our footing, the womb. It’s the house where we find our parents and the ancestors that came before them; tying us to our homeland with a great sense of patriotism, tradition and history, the psychological influences we receive from our upbringing. Home is where the heart is, and it’s affiliation with the land will show the quality and nature of the ground and physical home where we reside. It’s a secure place of hidden things that are under the Earth, it shows treasure, gems, minerals, oils, mines, wells and water supplies. Lily says; “profit from the bowels of the Earth.” Occupations that deal with tending the land, such as farming and agriculture. In this house we will see the beginning and ending of all matters, representing early childhood, to life experiences, to the process of death and funerals. Death by drowning is particularly relevant. This house is known as the Angle of the Earth, the House of Parents, Ypogen and Immum Coeli. It’s a ‘dark’, feminine, nocturnal house, relating to the breasts and lungs, and is associated with the colour red. 

In this house we will see land owners, the workers on it, crops and produce, buildings, property on the market, and supplies that feed a nation beneath the Earth; water, oil and gas pipes. It’s a town or city in question and it’s governor. In questions of war, it’s the town or city under attack. Cancer and the Sun are co-significators for the fourth house, Lily says; “in nativities or questions, the fourth house represents fathers, so doth the Sun by day charts and Saturn by night charts; yet if the Sun be herein placed, he is not ill, but rather shows a father to be of noble disposition.” Manilius viewed the fourth as the temple of Saturn. Both are related to ancestry, land, agriculture, mining and death- this relevancy suggests a heightened emphasis on these affairs when Saturn is connected to the fourth by location and rulership. In questions concerning a missing person or lost objects, the fourth describes the nature of the surface beneath them and in murder cases can help to describe the location of the body. In property sales or lease agreements, it describes the boundaries, buildings and gardens. The turned fourth house from any house shows the conclusion of the question.

Source;

The Light of Egypt; Thomas Burgoyne 

Deborah Houlding, Skyscript.co.uk