House 5 · Putra bhāva · Putra bhava
Children, intelligence, and what you carry from before
Offspring, creative intelligence, discernment, mantra, and pūrva puṇya.
- Angularity
- Paṇaphara — succedent
- Classified as
- Trikoṇa — a trine, and auspicious
- Kāraka
- Jupiter — signifies these matters wherever it falls
The fifth is the strongest of the trikoṇa houses after the first, and the classical texts treat it as the house of pūrva puṇya — merit carried from before this life. Whether or not one takes that literally, the practical reading is consistent: the fifth shows what comes to a person easily and without apparent cause.
It signifies children, and also everything else a person produces from themselves: creative work, speculation, and the particular quality of intelligence called dhī — discernment rather than mere cleverness. Mantra and initiated practice belong here.
Romance sits here rather than in the seventh, which surprises people. The seventh is partnership and contract; the fifth is attraction and play.
Significations
- children
- intelligence
- creativity
- discernment
- mantra
- romance
- merit earned previously
Source: BPHS ch. 12; Jātaka Pārijāta ch. 6