What this house holds
This is the house of home. The family you came from, what you inherited from them, the place you lived as a child, and the home you make later in life.
It also holds land and houses, the things that stay put. I think of it as the foundation the rest of the chart stands on.
How it was read before
Older astrology gave this house to Cancer and the Moon. It was read for a person's parents, their early surroundings, their property, and the closing years of life.
For a nation it held the land itself: farms, gardens, crops, mines and public buildings. It was also read as the house of how any matter ends.
Sit with this
Home is where your energy rests. Sometimes that is a place, and sometimes it is a person, or a feeling you carry with you.
If your first home was not a safe one, you are allowed to build a new one. What you came from does not decide where you go.