When the Sun resides in the 5th house, the person lives a life of pleasure. This may not always be very fulfilling and it indicates a certain extravagance and frivolousness throughout life. In astrology, the Sun represents our behavior, life, vitality and creative force. It is the one planet we look to in describing who we are. It’s natural home is the 5th house. The 5th house is the playground and is a place of pleasure. We associate this house with children and childhood. A 5th house Sun is a playful kid on a playground running amok.
The Leo zodiac sign follows Cancer, the zodiac sign of the pregnant mother or a new mother feeding an infant with breast milk. Leo is about weened children playing elsewhere and this gives their parents time to engage in courting and sex that results in another pregnancy. The 5th house includes the tavern, and inn. At these places, there are games and the local stage. The local simple parish church is also Leo with its pulpit for preaching. As is the mystery play. Leo is fixed fire. A Leo native acts and then consumes the reaction of the audience and then reacts. While Leo is associated with fame, it is especially seen in local notables. People with a position. The minister, the local leaders and the most popular and unpopular individuals. Leos are well known but not necessarily intimately. They are often the people everyone knows without any understanding of the individual personality. For better or worse, Leos will be known by reputation not character.
Madame Deficit
Reputation is critical to anyone with strong Leo. You will be known for your behavior so you must guard your reputation. Live or die by it. To the French, Marie Antoinette was Madame Déficit. Her Scorpio (debt) Sun conjunct Scorpio Venus (money) was on the stage. Her behavior of excessive spending of others resources proceeded her. Scorpio is about sharing resources. This sign is about expenditure on credit, debt, and inheritance. As the French began to starve and the country’s finances were bad, Marie Antoinette wore her hair several feet high done up in elaborate coiffure. She behaved over the years as if France was not seriously in decline. She played in a hamlet in her personal playground; the Petite Trianon. She spent lavishly on clothes, gambling and amusement. Finally, the King purchased a private palace for her so she could leave it to whichever child she wanted. This demand to create an inheritance for a personal heir was in keeping with her Scorpio Sun in the 5th house of children but France was struggling to make the country’s debt payments. The birth of her second son caused more damage since it was rumored she had betrayed the King and given birth to a bastard. At this point, her reputation had a life of its own. She was hated and had become France’s scapegoat. Sin is imagined as a debt owed to God whom no man can repay. The high priest would choose two animals one to be sacrificed and one to lay all the sins upon to be sent away. The peoples hatred was so great only her execution could slake their vengeance for her. At the end, she was given no privacy in her prison and was executed on a public stage to public acclaim.
The Abdication
Abdication in most circumstances is the deliberate failure to fulfill your responsibility. As Prince of Wales, David (Edward VIII) Windsor was the popular playboy prince, and a clotheshorse. As his father was gravely ill, he didn’t want to pull himself away from his romantic dalliances. As a Leo Descendant, his ideal partner was a Leonine women; that is a playgirl. At that time, that lifestyle was much easier for married women. His father believed David would ruin himself in under a year after his death. David abdicated in just under eleven months to run off with a not quite divorced woman. His horoscope had several oppressive elements of control and responsibility and the strong need to rebel. These are the Pluto in the 4th – control at home, Saturn in the 8th – the heavy burden of the inheritance of responsibilities, Capricorn in the 12th – a nagging feeling that he needed to fulfill some nebulous duty and finally, the 1° Aquarius Ascendant and his will to resist. He needed to abdicate this oppressive burden of kingship and he was most fortunate to live during a time when an unsuitable woman was just the ticket to his permanent freedom. He explained himself this way; “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.” The love bit was just rebranding and guarding of his reputation. He found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility so he abdicated responsibility. “I now quit altogether public affairs and I lay down my burden.”
His 2° Cancer Sun is the sabian symbol “a man on a magic carpet hovers over a large area of land”. This is the picture of the Sun on its daylight journey. He was now free to experience and pursue any pleasure. The world lay before him.
Princess Dutiful
Kate Middleton keeps her character under wraps and, publically, is the dutiful Duchess of Cambridge. Long gone are the public revelations of see through clothes modeling in the hope of catching a prince’s eye, heavily intoxicated partying, top less sunbathing, blown up skirts, angst over her featherweight workload and pole dancing lessons. Until she began guarding her reputation, Kate was quite naughty but now she is known as the staid Catherine. The Jupiter square Venus suggests financial extravagance but also likely love affairs in a bid to seek meaning. This is a major theme of her life. When a woman has this aspect she often projects this on the man in her life and like Jupiter he is an adulterer. The literal reading of the horoscope is when Catherine is out on the job, retrograde Venus in the 6th, her prince is at home pursuing his jovial adventures, Scorpio Jupiter in the 4th. Or if her birth time is a bit off he may be in the 3rd and this is the neighborhood. Rose Hanbury lived just a few miles from the Cambridges home when rumors suggested that William was having an affair with her. The Cambridges seem to spend most their time elsewhere now. The conflict relationship between Venus and Jupiter has a punch line just because something appears valuable doesn’t mean it is. Meaning and appearance are not correlated. Attracting a man by wearing skimpy see through clothes will get you the sort of man who marries that sort of girl. Over time, her horoscope suggests she will build a life around her children and the job she has and her marriage will devolve into her taking breaks. Her job will provide her plenty of opportunities. A later birth time also suggests her nodes are in the 5th and 11th house. This balancing act is reordering what is meaningful to her.
The zodiac sign Leo is square Scorpio and Taurus. Leo lives in the space of conflict between your values and other people’s values. Leo comes down to action and then a reaction to what others value. This reaction leads to popularity or infamy. Leo cultivates people resources. Play and the life of pleasure are the tools of the 5th house sun.