The fourth house stands in my mind like the hidden roots of the tree, vital, stabilizing, deep and private. What goes on there is privy to very few, if even to anybody, yet can be the most essential for true nourishment. It speaks of our history, the truth as scripted in the DNA, ourselves when alone or in our most intimate surroundings as well as our connection to the family and the legacy they have left. The food, habits, traditions and commonly their trauma and dreams. We all, as individuals stand on a rich statement of survival that brought us here today from generations past. The nature of that statement is where one finds a home, where one feels comfortable. It is the accumulation of all the souls who brought you here today and what we possess of them now. It is what has been passed down, for good or for pain. The fourth house tells how and why we might feel safe and comfortable, or why we can’t seem to feel safe and comfortable.
To explore the fourth house one must ask what one needs to feel sheltered, and how and why. What has one learned from family and what might one need to unlearn and evolve from. A strong fourth house lends itself to the need for privacy with a hunger for understanding of one’s heritage whether conscious or not. The fourth house is not for public consumption without having done the inner-work to digest it for oneself. It can become apparently rich when we get a glimpses into the fourth house of others, as most likely it will seem weird and alien to one’s own fourth house and maybe like they are gazing into a hidden world. Yet when we find another whose fourth house resonates with our own that person feels like home. Just ask any expat how they feel when they enter the home of another expat from the same country. They feel comfort and relief.
The fourth house can help one understand what they carry with them as karma from the family. It can help or hinder when unconscious. When conscious one can navigate their heritage with a sense of strength. When one understands their heritage one understands the great spectacle of their existence, that they are a modern day representation of all their ancestors.
