If you have an empty 5th House in your natal chart, you didn’t need any planets positioned there in order to find activities that bring you joy or have romance in your life. Not having planets in your 5th House doesn’t mean that you are destined for a boring life with no romantic relationships.
Is your empty 5th House something you should worry about? What are some things to keep in mind with this house sitting vacant?
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- You can still have romance, fun, and vibrant self-expression.
- The sign on your 5th House cusp and its ruling planet can offer insight.
- Transiting planets will visit your empty 5th House.
What does an empty 5th House in my chart mean?
With only 10 planets often considered in an astrology reading and 12 houses, you are bound to have a few empty houses in your natal chart, and your 5th House could be one of them.
But can you still pull information from an empty house? You can and I’ll show you how!
What does the Fifth House mean?
One name for the Second House is the House of Children.
This house covers the territory of your actual children, yes, but there is much more to it.
The Fifth House has a lot to do with vitality and pleasure. It is also the things you do not out of obligation or duty, but simply for fun or joy, as children do.
Self-expression and sharing what you have inside with the world is also a part of this house.
One other component of the 5th House I will mention is love, but it doesn’t describe committed long-term relationships, necessarily. This is the butterflies in the stomach, fun, and maybe even no-strings-attached kind of love.
- Self-expression
- Hobbies
- Fun and play
- Children
- Romance and flings
What are empty houses in astrology?
An empty house is just a house with no planets in it.
Not every astrologer interprets empty houses in the same way, but in Evolutionary Astrology, the branch of astrology I prefer, an empty house just means you didn’t need planets there in order to do what you came here to do.
I see a natal chart as a map that can lead you to your best life. So in my view, an empty house doesn’t mean that you should expect trouble or to struggle.
However, that also doesn’t mean that you get to automatically breeze through an empty house, either.
There are times when an empty house can still play a vital role in your life.
What if my Fifth House is empty?
If you find your Fifth House empty, in order to create a fun life, find romance, be a good parent, or express yourself, you didn’t need any planets in this house to achieve those things.
From the standpoint of Evolutionary Astrology, you were born with the “right” chart for you, no matter how many empty houses you find in it.
The tools and characteristics you need to have a vibrant, fun, and romantic life are all there.
With an empty Fifth House, your planetary energy was just needed elsewhere in your natal chart.
This empty house doesn’t mean you will never face challenges in these areas of life, of course, it just means that it is still absolutely possible to be a fantastic parent and experience many pleasurable activities with the natal chart you have.
And luckily, even though your 5th House is empty, your chart still offers you plenty of insight as to how you may experience these parts of life.
How do I read my empty 5th House?
Finding no planets in your House of Children doesn’t mean you are left clueless about your 5th House.
Here are some ways you can still pull together a lot of detail about your empty 5th house.
1. Your Fifth House sign
Find out which sign of the Zodiac your Fifth House cusp falls in.
In the example natal chart below, you can see that their 5th House cusp lands in Gemini.
This sign will offer insight into the manner in which you experience this house. Its traits, desires, and predispositions may offer clues about how you may seek pleasure, romance, and parent if you have children.
2. Look up the ruling planet of your Fifth House sign
A second way to understand more about your empty Fifth House is to look for your 5th House sign’s planetary ruler.
Every sign of the Zodiac has a ruling planet. Some of the signs even have two rulers!
Check the table below to see which planet rules the sign of your Fifth House.
| Zodiac Sign of Your Fifth House | Zodiac Sign’s Ruling Planet or Planets |
| Aries | Mars |
| Taurus | Venus |
| Gemini | Mercury |
| Cancer | The Moon |
| Leo | The Sun |
| Virgo | Chiron (modern), Mercury (traditional) |
| Libra | Venus |
| Scorpio | Pluto (modern), Mars (traditional) |
| Sagittarius | Jupiter |
| Capricorn | Saturn |
| Aquarius | Uranus (modern), Saturn (traditional) |
| Pisces | Neptune (modern), Jupiter (traditional) |
3. Locate the planetary ruler of your Fifth House sign
The next step is to locate that ruling planet in your natal chart.
The traits of the sign the ruling planet sits in can be melded with the characteristics of the sign of your Fifth House, filling in more details about how you may express your Fifth House.
Whichever house this ruling planet is in will also connect some of the life experiences from that house to your Fifth House, as well.
In the birth chart example below, their 5th House cusp falls in Gemini. In the table above, you can see that the ruler of Gemini is Mercury.
In their chart, Mercury is in Libra in the 8th House, so the traits of Libra and the experiences of the 8th House will help influence how they express their 5th House.
4. Find the Sun in your chart
Another way to understand more about your empty 5th House is to find your Sun, the ruler of the Fifth House, in your natal chart.
Where the Sun is located will already mark a very important spot in your chart, but it can also provide additional details as to how you may experience your empty 5th House.
Will my empty Fifth House always be empty?
While the placements in your natal chart are frozen in time at the moment of your birth, your empty 5th House will at times still host planets through the transiting planets.
The term “transiting planets” used in astrology describes the currently moving planets.
The current planets move continuously through your natal chart, bringing their power to the houses of your chart as they go. Understand more about planets in transit in this article from Kathryn Hocking found here.
In our chart example above, transiting planets are shown. You can see transiting Mars sitting in this person’s natal Fifth House, introducing planetary energy into this otherwise empty house.
However, Mars only stays in one sign for around 2 years and will soon enough move on to the Sixth House, taking its energy and influence with it.
An empty Fifth House in astrology can still be packed with activity when you take the planets in transit into consideration.
Other articles you may enjoy:
Empty 4th House
Empty 6th House
