Fours:
Corners of the earth
Noble Truths of Buddhism
Suits in a deck of cards
Directions
Limbs
Gospels
Basic castes in India
Aims of life for a Hindu
Building blocks of DNA
The Tetragrammaton - YHWH, the Hebrew name of God
Horsemen of the Apocalypse
In astrology
Elements
Signs of each quality
Ptolemaic aspects
Four = foundation
Cancer is the fourth sign of the Zodiac: the first water sign, and the second of the Cardinals. Cancer rules the natural fourth house, that is the bottom of the chart, the sector upon which the whole chart rests.
This fourth house represents the place we come from – our family, our culture, our milieu as children, it shows the foundation of the self. Cancer rules memory, and often the fourth house is where we lock those memories up. Anyone with Neptune on the IC knows what it's like to have a foundation that's foggy.
But the fourth house is also called the house of endings. It's a water house, emotional, irrational, a swamp, a mystery, a place to bury the dead.
Cancer's ruler is the Moon, childish, a little crazy. Nurturing, nourishing, nostalgic. The Mother, the dark womb, the dark tomb.
This is the month when the Sun travels through Cancer, lighting up those regions of the regions of the mind and soul and world that are more comfortable in the soft silvery light of the Moon. What's remarkable during this Uranus-Pluto square is that every planet which enters the sea of Cancer dives straight into an opposition with Pluto in Capricorn and a square to Uranus: instant pressure.
But back to four-square. All our foundations are being shaken – Pluto demands a purge, Uranus demands change. Uranus in Aries is selfish; Pluto in Capricorn is corporate. Cancer and the fourth house can be all about habits – what habits do you have that need fixing? what are you being forced to change?
Venus is the next planet to run the Cancer gamut this year. That comes at the end of this month. Then Ceres, which should be very interesting as the goddess of wheat goes into Cancer at the end of September. I think there may be more crop failures. Jupiter and Vesta are due for their pummelling in 2013 but by the Saturn will have moved on to Scorpio.
The power of four is about getting our foundations right. But all those fours that I listed at the top are also flexible. Think of how DNA works. You have the four basic building blocks but the potential for different combinations is infinite. Imagine if one of those building blocks was removed, or wrong, though. Think how your arms and legs works. They're tremendously useful, everyone's are different – and some people lead full rich lives without. (The thalidomide babies are currently having a Chiron Return.)
Your own foundations may not be shifting, but those around you certainly will.
