The Sun
in the Fifth House
By reputation, the Fifth House is the party sector of the horoscope. In Hellenistic and medieval astrology, it was all about the serious business of having children, but in modern astrology, the Fifth tends to be more closely associated with the childish art of play. It is the house of games, sports, and entertainment. It is also linked with the kind of play reserved for adults, such as lovemaking and gambling.
However, the attribute of the Fifth that often gets the most attention is creativity, which is itself a kind of play. In the Fifth House, we marshal our resources for the purpose of self-expression. In this sense, the Fifth resembles the Second House, except that in the Second, we apply our resources toward a goal of material profit, while in the Fifth, we spew out those resources without any thought of what we might get in return.
The artisan who directs his or her talents toward the creation of beautiful objects, with an eye firmly fixed on the market, labors in the Second House. The artist who pours his or her heart into a painting, or a poem, or a piece of music for no other reason than it has to be done lives, works, and eats a lot of ramen noodles in the Fifth House.
There is an innate affinity between the Sun and this kind of creativity. The Sun gives us the energy, the confidence, and the essential egotism to think we can create something that is new to the world. Not only that, the Sun rules Leo, which is the fifth sign and the natural ruler of the Fifth House. If the Sun feels at home anywhere, it is in this happy sector devoted to fun, games, and childlike wonder.
Creativity
As may be expected, there are a lot of highly creative people with the Sun in the Fifth (Leonardo da Vinci, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and William Blake, just for starters). But there are also creative people with the Sun in other houses as well. It’s not as if the Fifth has a lock on this capacity. What makes creatives with this placement different is their attitude toward their creativity.
First of all, there is the unqualified joy that creative people with the Sun in the Fifth House derive from their creativity. In many cases, that joy is evident in the things they create, but even if it isn’t, the sense of childlike elation is always burning in their hearts. For some creatives with this placement, this capacity for joy can make it difficult for them to think of their art as a profession. For them, the requirements of the marketplace and the idea of creating on demand are unwelcomed distractions from the simple fun of doing what they do.
Another difference in the creativity of a Fifth House Sun is how pervasive it is. It is an attitude—a need to explore, experiment, and be inspired that permeates every facet of the Sun in the Fifth person’s life. Leonardo da Vinci is an excellent example of this. He began as a painter, but the creative urge was so strong in his nature that it pushed him to scientific investigations, anatomy, engineering, and so on. People with the Sun in Fifth, both artists and regular folks, can’t help but infuse everything they do with their creativity, their personality, and their passion.
Passion
There are many ways that a person can be creative other than through the arts. The scientist designing an experiment, the cook tinkering with a recipe, and the storekeeper trying out a new way of displaying his or her merchandise can all be creatures of the Fifth House. The thing that unites all these different ways of expressing creativity is the passion that the person with the Sun in the Fifth House feels.
That passion often makes everything that the Sun in the Fifth people do seem special and distinctive. The extroverts among them (such the irrepressible Theodore Roosevelt) often get a lot of attention. They seem to fill every room they enter with excitement. Quieter types may try to keep their passion to themselves, but it usually shows through their actions, their conversations, and their attitudes toward life.
There are occasions when people with this placement can be too passionate, when they get so involved with what they are doing and the happiness it brings them that they forget about social niceties. It is sometimes difficult for Sun in the Fifth people to appreciate another person’s point of view, particularly when they are in the grips of one of their passions, and they can at times appear oblivious and self-involved.
However, even when people with this placement behave badly, we often have trouble holding it against them. We overlook their failings because their passion and sense of fun are so infectious. They brighten and intensify the lives of everyone around them. Even the Sun in the Fifth person who can’t create a poem or a symphony can create a moment—a moment when we feel the exhilaration and childlike wonder that infuse everything that these people do. The privilege of being part of one of these moments is often enough to make us forget about past mistakes.
Your Mission
If you were born with the Sun in the Fifth House, it would seem that the first thing you have to do, the first part of your mission, is to find your passion. Some of you, particularly those who have been gifted with special talents, will be drawn to the arts or to other fields in which high levels of creativity are valued, such as experimental science, advertising, or fashion. However, even though this placement of the Sun can convey the talent and the passion required by these professions, it does not in itself provide the raw ambition typically needed to succeed. That depends on other factors in the horoscope.
Some may find an outlet for the passion of the Fifth House in having and raising children. What can top creating a new life? Through the ages, this has been the ultimate function of the Fifth House. However, the Sun in the Fifth is traditionally considered an indicator of infertility or barrenness. Fertility cannot be judged by just one placement in the horoscope, and in my research of people with the Sun in the Fifth House, I found plenty of people who had children. Still, there are also quite a few who did not, mostly by choice. This indicates that childbearing may not be as automatic with this placement as it might first appear.
The fact is that, for most people with this placement, finding their passion is not an issue. Their passion finds them. Your passion may be an activity through which you make your living, or it may be something that you do on the side: a collection, a hobby, a garden, or an intellectual pursuit. What will define that passion is the happiness it gives you. It is not a thing that you do. It’s a thing that you have to do, and if the circumstances in your life prevent you from having the time or means to pursue your passion, it is the thing you will pine after, that will fill your dreams and constantly distract your thoughts.
People with the Sun in the Fifth have to be careful, though. The same passion that makes you supremely happy can also make you a little bit crazy. It can blind you to reality and cause you act in ways that are selfish and destructive. This is particularly likely when you try to keep your passion to yourself for your own pleasure and the aggrandizement of your own ego. No matter how intense this kind of passion might seem at the moment, it will eventually wither and die. It will eventually betray you.
That brings us to the real mission of the Sun in the Fifth House. When you’ve found your passion or it has found you, you have to share it. For the creative people with this placement, this means sharing the things you create. For the rest of you, it means sharing the happiness and exhilaration that your passion gives you. There are people out there who have forgotten what it means to play, who have silenced their inner child. Your mission is to share with them, maybe just for a minute, the thrill, the pleasure, and the creative possibilities that come with this placement of the Sun.
Even though the Sun might not have the same power in the Fifth House that it has in the First or the Tenth, this is still a positive placement. The Fifth House represents a kind of playground for the ego. How could the Sun not thrive here? For those of you who know how to share that sense of play and wonder, having the Sun in the Fifth House is a source of endless joy, not just in your life, but in the lives of everyone around you.