The significations of this house are directly linked to its location in the circle that encloses our mundane subjects. Being at the lowest point on the chart (from Greek hipo+geion, "below the earth - Gaia"; Latin, inferus, "that which lies below," radical origin of hell), it symbolizes our roots and foundations, both in the physical sense, real estate, and our parents and home environment. This house provides insight into the experience one had in their childhood. Planets found in it are often used as references during one's life.
Its position below the earth, opposite the highest, most public point in the sky, expands its range of significations. It is at this more private, darker point that all the hidden things, secrets and treasures, are found.
However, as the ascendant is in aspect to this point, there is a certain awareness: some sense of what is kept "but I know where to find", unlike the 12th house, which is more related to losses and what is hidden from ourselves.
It is in the world below the moist earth that life sprouts and also ends. Thus the fourth house represents beginnings and endings, mortality, funerals, and old age. Some ancient authors relate this house to children, a theme more commonly referenced elsewhere in the chart, which will be covered in future texts.
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