IC (Imum Coeli)

The IC, short for the Latin Imum Coeli ("bottom of the sky"), is the point on the ecliptic that lies directly below the birthplace at the moment of birth — the antipode of the midheaven. It is the cusp of the fourth house and the deepest, most internal point of the chart.

Where the midheaven represents the public role and visible achievement, the IC represents what underlies all of that: the home, the family of origin, the ancestral material, the inner emotional bedrock that the rest of the life is built on. It is the foundation of the house, in the architectural sense and the metaphorical one.

The IC is calculated automatically as the point 180 degrees opposite the midheaven. If your MC is 22 degrees Capricorn, your IC is 22 degrees Cancer. The two points are always opposite and always change together as birth time changes.

Many astrologers emphasize the IC as the most private and least conscious of the four cardinal axis points. It is often the part of the chart a person is least able to articulate about themselves, even though it shapes the conditions under which they feel safe, settled, or at home. Transits to the IC frequently coincide with moves, family events, and shifts in the felt sense of where one belongs.