What about you? Does this look exhilirating, totally doable, challenging or terrifying? Easy? Or perhaps some combination of these? Maybe your reaction is reflected on your 4/10 axis.

The 4th house sits at the bottom of the [...]]]> Having both a child and an insane fear of heights, this picture puts my heart, thick and loud, in my throat:

What about you? Does this look exhilirating, totally doable, challenging or terrifying? Easy? Or perhaps some combination of these? Maybe your reaction is reflected on your 4/10 axis.

The 4th house sits at the bottom of the horoscope chart, the 10th house its opposite, high on top. Together they create a tension, a tug-o-war of sorts. On one end, we want to stay home, hunker down, find a safe space to curl up and close our eyes. The 4th house is associated with Cancer, the crab, which carries its home on its back, stays close to the ground (even in the water), and retreats when it’s threatened. You’re not going to find many crabs climbing mountains.

On the other extreme, we want to scale the heights before us — build a ladder to the stars, conquer the world, make a name for ourselves — all those cliches associated with the 10th house, which is also associated with Capricorn: the lone mountain goat, finding each foothold it needs to move slowly up the craggy hillside.

The animal equivalents are inspiring and instructive but they don’t consider that humans need both ends of the rope. We need that safe space and we need to take risks as well. And we can only do well with risk if we come from a secure base — if we trust that the world will support us, that there is firm ground beneath our feet, that the harness is secure and somebody’s got our back. Without that kind of grounding, fear will freeze us.

What about you? Do you trust that you’re held safely even as you work to achieve your ambitions? Or are you thwarted by your fear of falling? How can you build the secure base you need in order to move forward?

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