The 5th house in astrology is the mundane equivalent of the sign of Leo.
It’s all about creativity, games, sports, children, and art.
The highly regarded French post impressionist painter, Paul Cezanne, had an interesting 5th house.
He has a Moon Uranus conjunction in Pisces, semi sextile (30 degree aspect) Neptune.
First Post Impressionist
Cezanne today is regarded by many as the first post impressionist. He struggled to find a new style and is thought to have inspired Picasso’s cubism.
I have had a life long love of Cezanne, his endless series of paintings featuring the bathers in geometric patterns, the equally endless series on the subject of Mont Sainte-Victoire in his home patch of Provence.
Breaking the Rules
Cezanne, though he did find it a struggle, developed a totally unique, inspired style of painting, breaking the rules.
To me, all this is very indicative of his dreamy, inspired and sensitive Piscean Moon conjunct rule breaking Uranus in the 5th house of creativity. I think he was compelled subconsciously (Pisces) to do it.
The presence of the Moon’s north node in this house too, suggests that he did follow the right course in his life, that of creativity, as opposed to heeding his father’s wishes to follow him in to the tedious world of finance and its social milieu.
Mary Cassatt seated in a chair with an umbrella. Verso reads “The only photograph for which she ever posed. Courtesy of Durand-Ruel.” By Durand-Ruel –Â The Frick Collection/Frick Art Reference Library Archives., Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Although born near Pittsburgh, USA in 1844, Mary Cassatt spent most of her life in France.
For someone who came to epitomise the ‘new woman’ of the time, who never married, and developed a career of their own, it is perhaps no surprise that we find Aquarius rising in her chart.
Aquarius is independent, freedom loving and likes to break new ground, yet can remain quite conservative at heart. This is shown in many aspects of her life. One of her primary subjects was women and their relationship to children, a traditional, genre.
The new feminine
Interestingly as well, we find Neptune in Aquarius in the first house. Neptune I equate with femininity and in Aquarius this is coloured by looking at it in new, independent spirit.
She clearly identified with this. Neptune’s quite tight trine aspect with Mars in Gemini in 5th house, adds much creative flair to her artistic expression. It was fellow impressionist, Degas, who introduced her to pastel and engraving, both genres she went onto master, testifying to her latent abilities.
Mother and Child Before a Pool By Mary Cassatt – Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum; Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 46.106_transpc002.jpg, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Professional opposition
We also find Saturn quite close to her ascendant in opposition to the Moon in Leo in the 7th house. Saturn here indicates caution and her strong moral fibre, but the opposition to the Moon reveals troubles and frustrations in her life, particularly within herself, in relationships and professional life. The Moon in Leo in itself is naturally creative and artistic.
Both the Moon and Saturn are in good aspect to Uranus in Aries in the 2nd house, further supporting her kind of organic, sensible way of breaking new ground by truly living the part of the ‘new woman’.
Creative releases
Also, Saturn’s trine to Mercury in the 5th house, shows an easy creative release for her through something which is manually dexterous, like painting. Mercury also in good aspect the Moon in Leo supports this release function through some kind of creativity.
Finally, I come to Venus, essentially unaspected in Cancer in the 6th house of work. I found this a little surprising at first, though a prominent Venus isn’t a necessarily a prerequisite for artistic ability.
Enjoying work
Venus in Cancer is tender, likes the home and family and is another symbolic representation of what she painted a lot of, women and children. In the 6th house, this is a classic indication of working artistically, or simply loving work.
Also, an unaspected planet can often ‘shout’ to be heard, so to speak. It may well have spoken to her creatively, but is this Venus also symbolic of the fact that she never married, that she was tied to her work?
So in all, Mary Cassatt may have been something of an enigma. She lived the life of a ‘new woman’, widened the boundaries of art through her involvement in the impressionist movement, yet inwardly, she retained strong moral values and a liking for tradition.
My father has been dead a long time now, but I’ve never stopped missing him.
I was brought up in an agricultural community of intensive farming, but with just enough ‘real nature’ around us to appreciate the clean air (usually), the silence, the freedom. I virtually grew up on a bike and cars were relatively rare down our road.
Through all that time my father seemed to be in the background, always there, but quiet, shy. He’d had various jobs before retirement, a butcher, farm labourer mainly, but he was an intelligent man of few words.
And I feel I never really knew or understood him.
I wish I’d asked more questions, about his early life, his family. But we never know or ask enough, do we? We take it for granted that our family are there. For us.
Then one day, one of them is not. It’s too late. Yes, of course, I’m stating the obvious, but most often we ignore the obvious all around us, don’t we?
My abiding memory is of my father on his piece land at the back of our house, digging, simply digging the rich soil, surrounded by the vast fertile fields and eyed by hungry, inquisitive birds.
Ciscography 