5th House
Definition
The 5th house is a succedent house — one that follows a "corner" house of the chart — sitting below the horizon. It forms a trine to the Ascendant: a trine is a flowing 120-degree link, the easiest of the major aspects. In whole sign houses, where each house is a whole zodiac sign, it is the fifth sign counted on from your rising sign. It lies between the 4th house (the IC) and the 6th house, in the lower-left part of the chart.
In Tradition
Astrologers read the 5th house as the house of children, pleasure, creativity, romance, and self-expression. Hellenistic astrologers called it Good Fortune (agathe tyche), and it was the joy of Venus — the place where Venus is said to be most at home.
In Practice
In a birth chart, astrologers look to the 5th house for your creative potential, the flavour of your romantic life, and matters to do with children. The state of the 5th-house ruler and any planets sitting there shape judgments about fertility, hobbies and pastimes, and how you go after enjoyment. In horary astrology — which answers a question from the chart of the moment it was asked — the 5th house stands for the asker's children and creative ventures. In mundane astrology, which reads charts for nations, it governs places of entertainment and recreation, the national birth rate, and schools. Its flowing trine to the Ascendant makes it one of the houses traditionally counted as favourable.
Historical Origin
In Hellenistic astrology the 5th place was called Good Fortune (agathe tyche). Venus has her joy there, and the house's links to pleasure and children grow out of that Venusian connection. Dorotheus refers to it as "the sign of children," and classical astrologers named it Bona Fortuna — Good Fortune.
Further Reading
- Howard Sasportas, The Twelve Houses
- Deborah Houlding, The Houses: Temples of the Sky
- Robert Hand, Horoscope Symbols