The ancient astrology texts are remarkably consistent in their listings of significations of the fifth house. While other houses have longish lists of significations, the fifth house list is conspicuously short — basically, children and “good doing.” Yet, in modern times its significations have grown to include creativity, recreation, leisure, romance, sex, and all around fun, as well as gambling and other games of chance. How did we go from children and good-doing to all the other significations?
One of the things I’ve learned in my studies in Hellenistic astrology is that most of what I learned earlier from modern astrology isn’t based on the traditions of astrology as it was developed two thousand years ago around the Mediterranean. Because of issues with translations and the loss of many ancient texts, much of the transmission over the centuries was imperfect. Only recently have translators with astrological knowledge been able to translate ancient texts, illuminating knowledge that was lost over time. Later practitioners often drew from incomplete sources and layered on their own interpretive tools, such as psychology in the 20th century. While some innovations have been helpful, much of the philosophical underpinnings of the conceptual system of astrology seem to have been lost along the way, such as the ideas underlying the meanings of the houses, for example.
Many modern astrology texts assign meanings to each of the twelve houses by overlaying the twelve signs of the zodiac to derive interpretations, known as the “Twelve Letter Alphabet.” So, in this formulation, the first house would equal Aires and, therefore, significations for Aires would apply to the first house, which would be also associated with Mars, the ruler of Aires in modern astrology. Taurus would equal the second house, and so on. However, this signs = houses formulation never appears in the ancient astrology texts; there is no evidence that it was used at all.
Instead, the meanings of the houses in Hellenistic astrology seem to have been partially derived from a philosophical scheme known as the Planetary Joys, in which each of the traditional planets were assigned to a house in which they were said to “rejoice.” According to the Planetary Joys:
The sun rejoices in the ninth house
The moon rejoices in the third house
Mercury rejoices in the first house
Venus rejoices in the fifth house
Mars rejoices in the sixth house
Jupiter rejoices in the eleventh house
Saturn rejoices in the twelfth house
These placements inform the meanings attributed to the houses. The ninth house, for example, became known as the “Place of God” due to the sun rejoicing there, while the third house became known as the “Place of Goddess” because the moon had her joy there. The meanings of the additional houses not listed above (second, fourth, seventh, eighth, and tenth) seem to have been derived according to their angularity (the fourth, seventh, and tenth), which makes planets more “busy,” and their placement as succedent houses (second and eighth), in which they are “rising up” to the position of the angular houses next.
The planetary joys scheme also captures the quality of a particular house based on the aspect the house makes with the first house, known as the “hour-marker” (what we call the Ascendant). For example, the fifth house forms a trine with the Ascendant, indicating good things (trine) that come from the body (the first house). As the lower half of the chart in the planetary joys scheme indicates the body, while the upper half signifies the mind or spirit, good things coming from the body indicates children. Conversely, the sixth house, where Mars has its joy, is known as the “Place of Bad Fortune.” It forms a harsh square with the Ascendant, indicating bad things that happen to the body, such as injuries and illness.
Instead of trying to derive meanings for the fifth house from the fifth sign of the zodiac, Leo, as I originally learned, I’ve relearned how to approach this house through the planetary joys scheme. The amazing thing is that the significations you can derive from the ancient formulations are incredibly rich. With Venus rejoicing in the fifth house, it’s easy to understand how this house was known as the “Place of Good Fortune.” Venus, the benefic planet of the night time sect, has her joy in the lower half of the chart in the fifth house from the Ascendant, where she makes a lovely trine supportive of Venusian things — relationships, romance, sex, connections, money, commerce, the arts, and good things that come from the body, aka children.
Starting with this formulation, we can further develop the significations for the fifth house. What do children do, always and every day? They play.
Children play. And playing builds creativity, for both children and adults. Unstructured time to, as my parents said, “dink around” in whatever format interests you — building legos, acting out complex scenarios with dolls, drawing pictures, choreographing dances, making up plays, or simply letting your mind wander into fantasy — builds creative muscles. So, already we have children = play = creativity.
The fifth house also makes energizing sextile (60 degree) aspects with two other houses — the third and the seventh — which support the idea of play. The third house of siblings and friends indicates many of our earliest playmates — siblings, cousins, classmates, and the kids in the neighborhood we grew up with. The seventh house, where partnership is indicated, is another area in which a sense of play is welcome, if perhaps not as literally as with the third house. Ideally, we have a sense of fun and play with our partners, romantic or business. Even buttoned up businessmen celebrate their deals by going out and celebrating together — essentially grown-up play.
Finally, the fifth house opposes the eleventh house, the place where Jupiter, the other benefic planet, is said to rejoice. An opposition is usually a tense aspect, denoting a lack of understanding of the other side. But these are the two benefics we’re talking about; an opposition between them is like a playful tango. Similarly, the relationship between the fifth and the eleventh houses captures the creative tension between one’s individual creativity (fifth house) and one’s friends, communities, and groups. We can’t grow our own creativity if we spend all our time with our friends; on the other hand, we can’t grow our relationships if we spend all our time daydreaming on our own. These two houses, the “Place of Good Fortune” (fifth house) and the “Place of Good Spirit” (eleventh house), ideally work together, providing a bounty of goodness in our lives.
Originally, when I was thinking about this column, I wanted to articulate my experience, over the pandemic year we’ve all had, of the complete depression of the fifth house in my life. The pandemic shut down creative projects I was involved with in dance and the arts, as well as drastically curtailed the lives of my children, as it did for children everywhere. Basically, everything Venusian in my life seemed suddenly under ice (and, indeed, my fifth house, in Libra, happens to be ruled by Venus). The kids were dejected, their own projects and pastimes (fifth house) on hold, their friends (eleventh house) only on screens for periods last year.
While Saturn and Pluto raged in their ice kingdoms in Capricorn, conjoining with each other and a depleted, unhelpful Jupiter in a plague year worthy of the Old Testament, Venus was, clearly, depressed, holed up in whatever sign she was in, without any support. So, it figures that the fifth house, where Venus has her joy, was on ice. There were no more performances, hugs from friends, or smiles from strangers. There was no watching in satisfaction as your children progressed through the milestones of their lives.
But now, finally, it feels like things are thawing out. Saturn and Jupiter moving out of Capricorn, and co-presence with Pluto, late last year was the beginning; Jupiter’s triumphant entrance into Pisces last month, coinciding with the news in the U.S. that masks were no longer needed for vaccinated people, was the next step. Jupiter’s re-entry back into Pisces at the very end of this year, after a retrograde back into Aquarius this summer, will hopefully signal that we are, in fact, past the pandemic. But even now, the reality has shifted: we are no longer in a once-in-a-generation astrological maelstrom. There are challenges certainly (see below), but these are normal challenges that crop up regularly. We deal with them as we deal with everything in life — the best way we can.
My personal benchmarks for the end of the pandemic include: 1) dancing in a humid studio with a bunch of other humans, all sweating and breathing together, 2) sitting chock-a-block next to strangers in a tiny, slightly rundown, theater watching something that transports me, and 3) when my children are entirely back to their lives, unfettered and joyful. Venus will definitely be in her joy, then.
Bonus: Uranus Square Saturn
This aspect, which went exact on June 14th, between Uranus in Taurus and Saturn (currently retrograde) in Aquarius, both at 13 degrees, is the second of three squares made by these two cosmic bigwigs this year. The first happened on February 17th at 7 degrees (with both planets direct), the second is happening this month, during Saturn’s retrograde period, and the final exact hit will be on December 24th at 11 degrees of their respective fixed signs, with Uranus retrograde this time. But keep in mind that these are only the three instances of exact, degree-based aspects. These two planetary titans are in a sign-based square all year, and have been since December 2020 (as well as earlier in spring/summer 2020, when Saturn first dipped into Aquarius).
This means that the tensions indicated by the square aspect, signifying conflict and struggle, are present throughout the year, as the planets are located in signs that square each other all year. This tension, between the planet of stability and institutions (Saturn) and the planet of revolution and change (Uranus) is simmering in the background of our lives throughout this year. It flares up during these exact hits, in February (right around the second impeachment of the former president), in June, and in December, as well as regularly throughout this year via needling by Mars, whenever the planet of war is in one of the fixed signs.
We will continue to see this clash play out in society around us, as we’ve been seeing around the world since last spring/summer, with various configurations of change vs. status quo playing out worldwide. The players may be different but the conflicts are strikingly similar. The conflict will play out in our own lives as well. The whole sign houses of Taurus, where Uranus is located, and Aquarius, where Saturn is located, will be the personal battlegrounds where these issues will occur for each of us.
Saturn seems to have the upper hand, dignified in its home sign of Aquarius. As an outer planet, Uranus is not part of the traditional rulership scheme, so we can’t compare its strength directly to Saturn, which is the last of the traditional planets, in terms of being furthest out but able to be seen by the naked eye. Yet, Uranus doesn’t seem to be in an entirely comfortable environment, in earthy Taurus. Uranus’ tour through the previous sign of Aires, from roughly 2010-2018, which coincided with the Arab Spring, highlighted personal revolution, and seems better aligned with the change maker spirit of Uranus.
In Taurus, Uranus must fight against the basic tendency of the sign of the bull to resist change in the first place. Taurus is fixed, solid, sometimes idle (it’s ruled by Venus, after all, which can be indolent). What we’re seeing, interestingly, is disruption (a key Uranian term) in Taurean and Venusian things — money (hello, cryptocurrency!), agriculture (adapting to climate change), food (plant-based meat, etc.), the arts (zoom performances, online exhibits), relationships (vastly more connecting online through the pandemic), and the shifting of the very earth around us, as sea levels rise and rising heat subtracts from livable areas.
Meanwhile, Saturn in Aquarius is the social, airy home placement of the great taskmaster of the universe. In Aquarius, Saturn builds social networks (social media these days; the last Saturn in Aquarius transit was 30 years ago when the internet was born) that allow people and organizations to interact. While Saturn in Capricorn, its other home sign, builds traditionally, through structures, empires, fortunes, and power, in Aquarius Saturn is more socially-minded and less interested in hierarchies. All of which just might be a good sign for the preservation of democracy everywhere.
There is a sense, with this square, of a scrambling of ideologies. Saturn, usually the old man yelling at everyone to get off his lawn, here is remade into an open-minded elder of sorts, your grandpa who voted for Bernie and supports Medicare for all, your grandma off on a motorcycle with her new (20 years younger) boyfriend. Uranus, the typical class clown flinging spitballs from the back row, is settled down a bit, in earthy Taurus, given a list of STEAM projects to keep him occupied constructively.
Given this counterintuitive reorienting of positions (the conservative in the more liberal sign and the revolutionary in the more solid sign), there seems to be a glimmer of possibility of a breakthrough between the factions arguing for change or continuity. Perhaps the change makers’ demands can be, actually, listened to by the powers-that-be, or maybe they can somehow join forces together. The fascinating political developments happening now in Israel, with a coalition of parties from a vast ideological spectrum joining forces to push out the long-time leader (status quo) points to the sort of fragile solution that may come out of this square. Human relationships (Venus, ruling Uranus in Taurus) may help build bridges across ideological divides, especially once Venus moves into Leo on June 27th.
But Venus’ peacemaking initiatives may be thwarted, or come too late. Mars, growling in the background in Leo since June 11th, springs into an exact opposition and square to Saturn and Uranus, respectively, on July 1st (Mars opposite Saturn) and 3rd (Mars square Uranus), bringing a combustible, warlike energy to the ideological standoff. Things may heat up, especially in areas experiencing a fragile idealogical detente. All it takes is one (metaphorical or literal) bomb thrower to turn a peaceful protest into a melee. This is actually the second martian dust up with Uranus and Saturn this year, following Mars’ tour through Taurus, which began, interestingly, on January 6th, though the two outer planets weren’t in an exact aspect then, just squared by sign.
Venus follows Mars’ footsteps, forming an exact opposition to Saturn on July 6th, followed by a square to Uranus on the 8th. But Venus’ flower power may be too little, too late. I’m also concerned that Jupiter’s retrograde back into Aquarius on July 28th may expand, unhelpfully, whatever conflagration has happened along the Aquarius-Leo-Taurus T-square axis, especially since Venus will have left Leo by then for the more peaceful farmlands of Virgo on July 21st. Out of its home sign of Pisces, in Aquarius Jupiter is ruled by Saturn, thus expanding Saturn’s portfolio and power while dimming Jupiter’s beneficence.
The temperature of this configuration lowers significantly when Mars moves into Virgo on July 29th, by which point Saturn and Uranus are more than four degrees apart, as Saturn continues its retrograde, which weakens their standoff. But, stay tuned, this configuration heats up again this fall, courtesy of our frenemy Mars, back to his old tricks again, this time from his powerful home sign of Scorpio. Mars in Scorpio will square Saturn in Aquarius on November 10th at 7 degrees and then will oppose Uranus in Taurus on November 17th at 12 degrees.
This is also happening during the lead up to our first eclipse in years to take place along the Scorpio-Taurus axis, which will occur on November 19th at 27 degrees of Taurus during the full moon. So, expect whatever tensions that arise this summer to return, but with a new, less showy (Leo), more strategic (Scorpio) signature. There may be less performative saber rattling and more actual cloak and dagger machinations (Scorpio’s modus operandi). And this time Mars in Scorpio is well-matched against Saturn in Aquarius, both in their respective domiciles, so the conflict could be intense.
As always, look to the whole sign houses in your chart — in this case all four fixed signs — to see where this conflict may play out in your own life. And keep an eye on them all year, as we will continue to see these houses heat up. Focusing on the topics of these four houses, which will all fall along one of the three house angles in your natal chart (angular — very active houses 1, 4, 7, and 10; succedent — rising action houses 2, 5, 8, and 11; or cadent — declining or falling away houses 3, 6, 9, and 12) will help keep perspective during a time of stress for these life areas. And look to the benefics, Venus and Jupiter, wherever they are in your chart, natally and by transit. They will provide what help they can.