The 5th House, the House of Good Fortune

The twelve houses acts as fields of experiences for the planets to express their significations.  5th House themes include:

  • Creative self expression
  • Courtship and dating
  • Love affairs
  • Children
  • Fertility
Image by Michelle Nunes

When we feel as though something is missing in our life, we can usually find it in the 5th House. The 5th House is where Venus is said to have her joy.  This is the house of pleasure, of fun, courtship, and children. This is the house where we come alive by pursuing our passions and creative instincts.

The 5th House contains the light that nourishes our growth if—like a house plant—we turn ourselves in its direction and follow the 5th House lead. In the 5th, we unapologetically rewild ourselves to our basic human nature that wants to create, dance, sing and, most of all: love.

Children

The 5th House often represents our biological children. We can look to the sign on the 5th to understand the tone of our experience here.  For instance, Cancer’s innate approach is to nourish and protect. Gemini encourages curiosity and communication whereas Sagittarius parents with an adventurous heart while encouraging her/his child to find meaning in their experiences.

We look to the fifth for questions pertaining to fertility as well. In general, water signs tend to be more fertile whereas Leo, Gemini and Virgo on the 5th House cusp might have to take extra steps to conceive or have children later in life. We would look at the entire chart to support this.

The 5th House represents not only our biological children, but creative children we birth like books, art, screenplays and the inventive projects that reflect our inspired spark within. With Virgo or Capricorn on the 5th, we might find that we excel at structuring our creative drive, tending to details, and exerting discipline and boundaries when it comes to our passion projects. A 5th House Pisces might find her creative outlet in music, poetry or film whereas Aquarius might birth her cerebral children in the creation of science fiction works or technology.

Activations

Our 5th House comes online in a variety of ways:

  1. We have planets in the 5th and this is where they strut their stuff
  2. A transit or progression triggers the ruler of the 5th
  3. By progression: The progressed Moon or Sun enters the 5th House
  4. By profection: Profections is a traditional technique that elevates one house every birth year. We are in a 5th House profection every twelve years.
  5. The Lord of the Year is located in our 5th House in our Solar Return and/or we have a packed 5th House for our Solar Return.

Years ago, when my progressed moon was transiting through the 5th House, I fell in love with one of the most significant people in my life. Other clients I work with became pregnant during their 5th House profection or when their Solar Returns featured Jupiter or the Moon. Even if your 5th House is empty, it will still show up in your life when activated.  And thank goodness: we can all use the spark, love, and joy that this House of Good Fortune brings to our lives.