Your IC

Why you feel one way at home, and act another way in the world

The IC (short for Imum Coeli, Latin for “bottom of the sky”) is one of the four angles in your chart—like your Ascendant or Midheaven—but it’s less talked about in beginner astrology because it’s... slippery.

Some astrologers associate it with childhood, others with ancestral roots. Some treat it like your emotional foundation. Others say it’s your soul’s origin story. There’s no consensus—but there is a vibe. And the vibe is this:

The IC is your internal home base. The part of you that exists when no one’s watching. It’s what feels safe, familiar, or sometimes just... inevitable. You don’t perform it. You don’t show it off. You are it—whether you like it or not.

It sits at the very bottom of the chart, anchoring the Fourth House, and represents your most private self. Not necessarily your “real” self—but your unfiltered default. The one who doesn’t make small talk. The one who’s still shaped by your childhood home—even if you haven’t lived there in years.

IC PLACEMENTS

The sign on your IC shows the flavor of your inner life—how you recharge, self-soothe, or retreat.

IC in Taurus? You need physical comfort, stability, and at least one corner of your home that smells like vanilla and is off-limits to chaos.

IC in Scorpio? You’re emotionally intense behind the scenes, even if you seem cool and composed in public. You might’ve grown up with secrets or a general sense that nothing was ever quite what it seemed.

IC in Aquarius? Your inner world is unconventional. Maybe your childhood was too. You might crave independence in ways that don’t always make sense to the people closest to you.

This isn’t the side of yourself you post about. It’s the version that takes over when you’re tired, triggered, or 100% done performing for anyone else.

YOUR IC SHOWS UP WHEN YOU

  • Go home for the holidays and immediately regress into an earlier version of yourself

  • Decorate your space in a way that makes sense to you, but feels weirdly specific to outsiders

  • Refuse to answer the door because you’re just not in a “people” place

  • Need to disappear to reset—and don’t want to explain why

  • Catch yourself parenting your inner child without realizing it

THE IC GOVERNS

  • Your sense of home, emotionally and physically

  • Private rituals and emotional default settings

  • The environment you were raised in—and how it shaped you

  • What makes you feel safe vs. what makes you feel exposed

  • Your inner world when you’re not performing, pretending, or trying to be understood

DO PEOPLE SEE YOUR IC?

Not really unless they live with you. Or raised you. Or are you.

The IC doesn’t care about optics. It’s not branding, and it’s not ambition. It’s where your roots live, for better or worse. And the more you get to know that version of yourself—the one who shows up when all the lights are off—the more self-resourced you become.

KEY TAKEAWAY

The IC won’t land you a promotion. But it might explain why you need two hours alone after any social event. It’s not about who you’re becoming—it’s about who you’ve always been.

You don’t have to overanalyze it. But if you’ve ever wondered why certain things feel so personal, so hardwired, or so hard to explain—start here.