System

System #5: Human Design

by David Hadwin 2 years ago 10 min read

Have you ever wondered who you are? Why you're different than others? HOW you're different than others? These questions have been asked as long as people have been around to ask them and according to Ra Uru Huh, he's discovered a system that answers just that.

How it began

In January 1987, Ra was fasting on the island of Ibiza, Spain. Late in his 40 day fast, he was overwhelmed with a voice that kept speaking to him. As it wouldn't leave him, he started to write down what this voice was telling him. What came out was what's now known as Human Design.

The Human Design System is a system based on numerous ancient traditions including the Chinese I'Ching, Hindu Auras and Chakras, the Jewish Kabalah, and the Zodiac. Ra was told that all these ancient traditions were parts of the same truth and that by combining them together with a chart called the Rave I'Ching that The Voice dictated him, you could understand who people were!

The Types

In Human Design, there are 4 main types of people (with a fantastical amount of variety):

Generators (70%) - These are the worker bees. They form a majority of the work and use their consistent energy to get things done. They have nurturing auras and they need to learn to respond to life in the moment without regard for past traumas, future fears, or current resulting emotions. Generators need to exhaust themselves daily.
Projectors (21%) - These are the guides. Forming approximately a quarter of the world, these people are great at guiding energy but lack consistent energy. They have a penetrating aura which can be used to see who someone really is. Knowing who someone is and how they're stuck leads you to wanting to help "correct" them, but doing so unsolicitedly leads to resentment. Because of this, Projectors need to learn to wait for the invitation. Projectors need to go to bed before they are exhausted.
Manifestors (8%) - The whole dance starts with these folks (and mother nature). Manifestors are here to manifest their desires. Their auras are like wrecking balls and move energy out of their way where ever they go. Unfortunately, because they can be such a disturbance, everyone else will try to control them until they learn to communicate their intentions.
Reflectors (1%) - The rarest of the types, Reflectors are the barometers of their environment. With a clear chart, they are the most dynamic of the 4 types and because of this, they can't trust their day to day feelings/moods. They need to learn to be patient for big decisions until they've had a chance to experience each energy. Reflectors, as the name suggests, can be a hard type to be because others will only see you as themselves.

Left Angle Incarnation Cross of Upheaval (18/17 | 39/38)

Definitions

The Rave I'Ching (aka Human Design chart) is composed of Centers connected via Channels that are formed from 2 or more Gates. These 64 Gates are one to one representations of the Chinese I'Ching which was formed 3,000 years ago based on all the avatars of human personality and are activated when a planet is in that position (ex. Gate 38 is the gate of the Warrior, or Gate 17, the gate of Opinions). This system of Gates creates a much more nuanced and defined system when compared to the subjective nature of Astrology.

When two Gates that are part of the same Channel are defined, that Channel and the respective Centers that the Gates are part of get defined. The totality of your definitions (and lack thereof) ends up creating your Human Design chart. These definitions can either be black (conscious) or red (subconscious) and, according to The Voice, your subconscious gets defined ~87 days before birth which means that the red gates in a chart are the conscious design of a person born ~87 days before you. Is this true? No clue...but it plays a fairly large role in the system as it is but might require more analysis.

Another interesting note about Gates is that hanging gates (the ones not completed into Channels) attracts you to other people who can complete that channel, and them to you. This dicotomy between those two Gates ends up playing itself out within the relationship. For example, someone with the Gate of Suffering (ie. finding your purpose through your struggles) will be attracted to, and attract people with the Gate of the Warrior (ie. finding struggles to have a purpose). These two will play out that dynamic within their relationship, and the sooner they realize that their dynamic purely energetic instead of caused by a failure or brokenness on either party, they can become wise to it and break out of the emotions, anger, and frustration that it can create when they fight against it.

The Not-Self

When Centers and Gates aren't defined in your design, they can be activated by either the daily energies or others. This is what Human Design considers the "Not-Self". Since everyone has the potential to show each energy, it can be intoxicating to utilize other people's definitions but doing so becomes taxing on your body. You will always do better (and be healthier) by utilizing your own definitions and the ultimate goal of Human Design is to develop the humility and awareness to know who you are and to be okay with that "box." This is the most relieving principle of Human Design once accepted, but it also causes the most aversion to the system since people don't like being pigeon-holed. However, once you go on the experiment, and you notice how much more simple your life can be operating as yourself, people usually become convinced.

The ultimate goal of Human Design is to develop the humility and awareness to know who you are and to be okay with that "box."

Life Theme

One of my favorite things about Human Design is what's called a Life Theme (or Incarnation Cross). This is the main four energies present in your chart (two conscious and two subconscious) which represent 70% of your overall chart and since the subconscious follows the conscious with a ~87 day lag, it visually creates a cross as you can see above. Meditating on the intersection of those 4 energies can give you an understanding of how you'll interact with the world. For instance, my Incarnation Cross is made up of the Gates 18 (Correction), 17 (Opinions), 39 (Provocation), and 38 (The Warrior). These 4 energies together paint a picture of person who champions change and has the tenacity, and courage to upset old systems to bring back joy, health, and prosperity/abundance.

How did I arrive at that? It's a multifaceted understanding of the interactions of the definitions and where they are in the chart. For instance, the other side of Gate 18 (Correction) is Gate 58 (The Gate of Joy). For Gate 39 (Provocation), it is Gate 55 (Abundance). So the aim of correction is joy, and the aim of provocation is abundance. There's so many more interactions there, but we can talk about that at a later time.

Ultimately, however, since you and I carry these energies with us, everything we encounter will be tainted with our energy which, unfortunately, results in none of us ever quite seeing reality as it is. No one can witness who someone else is completely, because by being there, we change them. Reflectors are the ones who can get the closest.

Variables

A more advanced feature of Human Design, which requires within 5-10min birth time accuracy is what is called Variables. You can see these as the red and black arrows in my chart below. I've only started experimenting with these 2 months ago, but so far, they have proven correct for me and have had a drastic impact on my eating and sleeping. Like all of Human Design, Variables are only a symbol on the chart hiding a depth of knowledge, however, some of the information of obfuscated from the chart for simpler reading. For instance, the top left red arrow explains the way you are meant to nourish your body (Digestion), the direction of the arrow explains whether it is masculine or feminine (ie. active, or receptive, etc) but to know which of 6 digestions you have, you need to be able to see what is called the tone of your Sun Gate (or use a program that details it). For instance, my digestion is based on light. The masculine version is direct light (eating during the day since food makes you active, and giving yourself plenty of hours to digest before sleep), but I have the feminine version (eating makes me sleepy, snacking can hold me off until I have time to eat and sleep, or nap).

Other Variables cover your ideal Environment (where you feel the most comfortable), your Awareness (what sense you gain the most insight from), and your Perspective (the lens through which you see the world), and Motivation (what propels you to act). If you're curious to know which ones are yours, gather up your accurate birth details and head to bodygraph.io.

Learning of It

I learned of about the Human Design System before I started my travels back in 2016. And, according to it, I was a Projector verging on a Reflector since I had only one Channel defined (the black bar) and every other Center was undefined (white). I found out about this through a family friend and it explained more about me than I'd ever heard any system explain before including things like Astrology, Enneagrams, 16 Personalities, DISC, etc. Each one of these seem to talk about your definitions, but none of them would talk about the fact that I was a different person around different people on different days. Since it resonated with me, I decided to learn everything I could about it. At the time, that was quite difficult because everything was behind a paywall, but I found tricks for Googling things and borrowed a book from that family friend.

Learning all about it gave me an idea, since I only had one definition and everything else of mine was open, if Human Design was correct, I should be able to sense other people's definitions by how I feel around them.

Human Design has revolutionized the way that I understand myself and others

Testing the System

With that hypothesis, I started my travels. With everyone I would meet, I would get to know them and make mental guesses about which type they are AND which centers they'd have defined. Once I was satisfied with my guesses, I'd ask them to run their charts and loe and behold, I'd be right! I traveled for more than a year and a half, and ran this for hundreds of people and the only times I was incorrect was when I ran across Manifestors and Reflectors since they were so rare...and even now, I only know 2 Reflectors and 4 Manifestors from all the people I've tested. The other times I'd feel incorrect were when the person disagreed with the analysis. Sometimes, this would be because they don't know themselves, usually because they can't (see 2nd line Profiles) or are operating out of their Not Self (using other people's energies/definitions). However, the main reason I found that made this information not resonate correctly was when the person was born on a day with multiple Life Themes or Types and minutes actually mattered in their birth time which seems to point to some flaw in the system (or my knowledge); what happens at moments of transition?

Conclusion

Human Design has revolutionized the way that I understand myself and others. I was raised in a family of people that had most of their charts solidly defined, and I always thought that I was like them but also knew that I was different. Getting a chance to travel solo and realize that those energies weren't present with me anymore allowed me to finally understand myself and my uniqueness. Through understanding myself, I also developed a deep compassion for other people's strengths and struggles, the energies that they are both blessed with and cursed with has enabled me to have a deeper compassion for them. Just like a bee will ever only be able to be a bee, and you really can't blame it for stinging you when you make it scared, people have started to feel the same to me.

I appreciate Human Design for being much more objective than other modalities, however, when it gets to these specific days where time matters, it starts to feel more subjective than it was intended to and maybe a part of that is my lack of knowledge. Other than the language feeling so new agey which can be a turn off for people, so far, Human Design has proven itself to be about 80% - 90% correct because of those days where time matters and the subconscious aspect (which I haven't gotten to test myself since my chart doesn't contain much of it and I have a second line Profile as my subconscious...you can read more about that).

With all that said, operating at first like it's 100% correct and testing it as such can allow you to break out of your old habits and learn something new about yourself, others, and how the world works. Ultimately, however, Human Design is not a belief system and shouldn't be followed with blind faith, it should be tested by you, in your life and discarded if it doesn't seem to resonate with you. I would say, however, that over years of noticing the growth in my friends, and family, Human Design is a process. It takes a while to let go of who you've thought you were all this time and people who start out absolutely not resonating with it, over time, start noticing the truth it has to offer.

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