The 4th House represents several things: our past, upbringing, and what keeps us comfortable. The 4th House is in the bottom of the chart, and it often provides a strong starting point and foundation for the native to work upon as the native grows up. Planets in the 4th House show the person investing part of themselves in maintaining this foundation.
When Pluto is in the 4th House, the workings of the past and the person’s upbringing can be a great source of either self-empowerment or destruction. People with this placement are marked by their childhood. Even if the childhood was uneventful and insignificant from another perspective, the person with this placement would feel otherwise. To people with Pluto in the 4th House, their childhood was everything to them in an intense way.
The 4th House represents the “starting place” and for those with Pluto in the 4th House, these people can fear their past and roots due to the intense exposure they had with it. Due to this, people with this placement will usually not share information about their family or past. They keep their families and past under wraps as a way to protect themselves, but perhaps to also not confront the intense and sometimes terrifying hold their family and past can have on them. If the person sees their past and family to be something to be feared and hidden, their past and family will have a strong grip on them.
However, if the person sees their past to be a place of empowerment, the person will have a strong hold on their family and past. When a person with this placement accepts the darkness and secrets of their beginnings and sees it as a way to develop their strengths, this person can start using the hidden strength they’ve had all along: creating an unshakable and incredibly strong foundation for the self to grow on. People with this placement have the ability to reroot and restructure themselves. They have the ability to create a true, powerful sense of home. At their best, these people can create a sense of home that is empowering, intimate, and genuine.
People with this placement often seek for a true sense of home for they believe that finding strong roots is the way to empowerment. Due to this, they are often private, only letting those they truly trust into their safe space. If a person with this placement lets you into their safe space, they trust that you won’t hurt them in this safe space. Those with Pluto in the 4th can feel as if the safe space they strongly cling to can also transform to be their destructive space if it is controlled by the wrong people. Due to this, Pluto in the 4th people are often controlling of their safe space. They find power in their own vulnerability and comfort.
Pluto in the 4th people are skilled at adapting to many circumstances. Due to growing up early in an environment that was seen as secretly chaotic, these people know how to handle themselves in highly stressful situations. At their best, these people can find peace in even the most volatile situations. These people are often constructing and deconstructing their sense of home and safety, not only changing their home but also themselves during this process. Redefining safety and comfort is a way for these people to transform themselves for the better or worse.
While one’s upbringing with Pluto in the 4th House can often be secretive, manipulative, and chaotic, those with Pluto in the 4th House can also have a very intimate and passionate upbringing. Pluto brings intensity to the household, and when there are no power struggles or fear between the family members, people with this placement can build intimate and close relationships with their loved ones. Just as volatile circumstances can build one’s resistance to chaos, building intimate and genuine bonds with loved ones can help also.
People with this placement will often see one of their parents to be a powerful authority, for better or worse. Depending on the relationship, this parent could either have an intimate and close relationship to the person, or have power struggles with the person due to feeling discomfort. Either way, the relationship between people with this placement and their parents are often intense, and it’s often up to the parent to start their family dynamic to either be loving and genuine, or secretive and turbulent.
Intensity is something Pluto in the 4th individuals know early on. Knowing what to do with this intensity and how to handle intensity throughout their life is an important trial Pluto in the 4th individuals need to learn. By reevaluating what truly brings them comfort and power, Pluto in the 4th individuals have the opportunity to empower themselves from square one.