What is Human Design?: A comprehensive guide for the skeptic
The term ‘Human Design’ refers to the body of knowledge compiled by Ra Uru Hu (né (Alan) Robert Krakower) that claims to describe the mechanics of human experience.
Many philosophers have attempted to describe the full spectrum of human experience, often beginning with one basic assumption and building their system from there. Human Design claims to be a comprehensive description of the contemporary human experience.
Human Design is based the idea that we have evolved as a species and that the old systems we’ve used to understand ourselves are out of date. It is based on a synthesis of 4 ancient systems and claims to show how these systems come together: The Chinese I’Ching or Book of Changes, The Hindu Chakra System, Western Astrology, and The Kabbalah. Because of the I’Chings connection to our genetic code (each hexagram represents a different codon), Human Design is also said to reveal some information about our genetic code, though explorations into the extent of this connection are still on-going.
How is the information meant to be used?
How we use of any knowledge or system that we encounter in our lives is up to us. There is no right way to use Human Design.
Many people develop a greater sense of compassion and ease when they discover Human Design because it brings a new level of understanding about themselves, their lives, and the people around them.
By studying the system as a whole and by looking at their own charts and the charts of their friends and relatives, they learn to see that the difficulties they’ve perceived are really just a matter of the differences between people.
Human Design is often called “The Science of Differentiation.” Our charts show us how we are unique. When we learn to see our uniqueness and come to understand the uniqueness of those around us, it’s easier for us to accept things just the way they are.
What about Strategy and Authority?
Many people have also experienced a profound transformation in their lives by using what Human Design calls “Strategy and Authority.”
Strategy and Authority refers to a new way of making decisions. Your Strategy and Authority are determined by your chart.
It is said that by making decisions through your Strategy and Authority you move from just understanding who you are to really being who you are, and that it can lead to greater satisfaction, peace, sweetness, and surprise.
How does Strategy and Authority work?
Human Design teaches that we have two sets of intelligence and that each set of information has a different purpose.
One set of information is based on what is “open” or “undefined” in us. These are the parts of our chart that are white.
The other set of information comes from what is “fixed” or “defined” in our chart. These are the parts of the chart that are colored in.
Each set of information is meant to be used in a specific way and for the most part, we confuse the two.
The open parts of our charts are places where we “take in” life. These are the parts of our nature that come and go.
For example, the ego center has a keynote of “self worth.” Someone with a defined ego has a consistent, steady sense of self worth. Someone with an open ego does not. Sometimes they feel a sense of self worth and sometimes they feel worthless. Their experience of self worth is based more on who they’re around than it is based on who they are.
The gift of having an open center is that you can see the theme of that center very clearly. Someone with a defined ego will never really understand self worth the way that someone with an open ego can. We can only learn about things if we have the chance to experience life without them. It’s like that saying, “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.” Our openness is a place where we experience things that are constantly there and then gone, there and then gone. This gives us the opportunity to know the nature of those parts of the human experience.
The defined parts of our charts are the places where we put something out into the world. If openness is what we take in, definition is what others take in from us.
The defined parts of our charts are consistent, living energies. The information that they hold for us is meant to act as an inner guide, a guide for us and us alone. Our definition is the seat of our inner driver, a deep intelligence that knows what’s best for us.
Your Strategy and Authority arise from your definition. For example, if you have a defined sacral, your strategy is to wait to respond because that is the nature of sacral energy. Or if you have a defined solar plexus, your inner authority is an emotional inner authority and requires time to move through it’s emotional wave before it finds clarity.
Because these decisions are based on what is consistent in you, they help to align you to your true self and bring you satisfaction, peace, sweetness, and surprise, the 4 keynotes of living your design.
What’s wrong with the way I normally make decisions?
Ra taught that most people invert the two sets of information that they’re taking in. We ignore what’s consistent in us because it’s always been there. We take what we are for granted. Instead, we start to make decisions based on our openness.
This happens, he said, because our minds become uncomfortable with the malleable, transitory nature of our openness. We develop what are called “mental” or “not-self” strategies designed to stabilize or control the consistent flux that we experience there.
When we make decisions based on a desire to stabilize our openness, we miss the opportunity to see and learn about self-worth. Instead of watching the experience come and go, we get distracted by our fear and try to change ourselves or our lives to stabilize our experience.
Each center is said to have a unique mental or “not-self” strategy when it is open.
For example, someone with an open ego becomes uncomfortable that they don’t have a consistent sense of self worth. They might try to study self-help or self-improvement strategies, or they might make decisions that they believe will give them a sense of self-worth. Often open ego decisions involve supporting another, proving that you can commit to something, or making a lot of money.
On the other hand, someone with an open solar plexus develops the strategy of avoiding confrontation. They will hide their true thoughts or feelings because that seems easier than disagreeing.
Ra’s claim is that when we make decisions based on these mental strategies, we damage our relationship with ourselves. These kinds of decisions, he says, are based on a sense that it is not safe or not okay to be who we really are.
Ra often finished his talks and signed his emails by saying “Love Yourself” and by this, he meant that we should make decisions based on our Strategy and Authority rather than on our open center mental strategies.
Because our Strategy and Authority are based on the parts of us that are consistent, they reflect our true self. Making decisions based on this inner wisdom heals our relationships with ourselves in such a way that allows us to be who we really are in the world, engendering a sense of respect and love for ourselves and giving rise to our unique wisdom and expression.
What is De-conditioning?
Ra said that it would take 7 years of making decisions using Strategy and Authority to fully align to who we are. These 7 years are referred to as de-conditioning.
“Conditioning” is said to come from external people, energies, and experiences through our open centers. In Human Design people say that other people “condition” you. This means that you experience a certain set of energies when you are around them. You experience their definition and that conditions you.
You are also said to be conditioned by a “Global Conditioning Field” that floods the entire planet. This Global Conditioning field is sometimes called The Global Consciousness Field, the Global Transit Field, or simply, The Transits. You can access the current Transit Field online at JovianArchive.com/JustNow
The idea is that when we make decisions from our openness, we are making decisions based on the conditioning we experience from others. Doing so means that we “hold on” to this conditioning and don’t see it as clearly as we could.
As we begin to make decisions from our definition, these open centers and the energies that come in through them become clearer or “clean out.” This is said to allow for the development of our unique wisdom, giving rise to a unique expression of a unique self.
Deeper Levels of Differentiation
It’s important to note that the defined parts of your chart carry a very unique signature. The free charts that you receive from online websites only provide you with the surface level of your design.
When you look at your Human Design chart, you will see a set of numbers listed on either side of the chart. The numbers include a decimal point.
The number before the decimal point is the “gate.” You will see that the gate number in the list corresponds to a gate in the chart that is circle in.
However, gate definition is only the surface level.
Each gate definition that you see in this chart is one of over 1,000 possibilities.
Each gate is subdivided into 6 “lines.” The number after the decimal point indicates which line you have.
What is not show in this introductory chart is that there are three more layers below the line level that point to greater and greater subtlety of differentiation.
Each line is subdivided into 6 “colors.” Each color is subdivided into 6 “tones” and each tone is subdivided into 5 “bases.” It is said that we cannot consciously perceive our base-level activations but that the others can be perceived.It can be overwhelming to try to jump into this deeper level at the beginning but it’s worth discussing for a few reasons.
First, beginners who are searching for Human Design information online are likely to come across information on Variable, The Four Transformations (PHS, Environment, Perspective, and View), and Orientation (Right or Left) and if they don’t know how that knowledge fits with the rest of it, they can end up being misdirected.
Second, for many people, especially those who are Reflectors, Manifestors, and Projectors, exploring these deeper levels can be an important adjunct to Strategy and Authority. In fact, Ra taught that understanding the deeper levels was essential for Projector Awakening.
Third, these deeper levels reveal the real gift of Human Design — the blossoming of consciousness.
The Blossoming of Consciousness
Below, you can see an example of an advanced chart including information on the deeper levels. There are four sections of important information for the blossoming of consciousness.
Ra taught that there are four stages of life and called these The Four Transformations. In the first stage of life, we learn who we are, how to make decisions as ourselves, and how to eat correctly for our body. In the second stage, we discover where we belong, what types of environments resonate with us and specifically, where to be. In the third stage, we begin to see that we see life in a unique way. We learn about our unique way of seeing. In the fourth stage, the blossoming of consciousness, we learn to share what we’ve seen in a unique way as well.
Everyone goes through these stages but people who do not live in alignment with their design do not differentiate — their unique way of seeing becomes homogenized and generic, their unique way of expressing what they see gets muddled and watered down. True differentiation is only possible for those who trust themselves and live their lives authentically.
The blossoming of consciousness is also something that happens internally. It is an awakening that you experience as you move through the last period of your life. It is not for anyone else. It is just for you.
Is this for real?
Ra encouraged his students not to believe a word he said and instead to experiment with the tools of Strategy and Authority to see for themselves if they really worked.
Many people have had a great deal of success using these tools to bring ease to their lives. Many others have simply found greater ease and compassion through the understanding that comes from learning about their design.
As someone who has studied widely from the various systems and traditions of the world, including the philosophies and theologies of the Western and Eastern Intellectual traditions as well as Native American traditions, I can say that Human Design is incredibly interesting and worthy of investigation.
The way the system lays out the various experiences we have as human beings, and the way those experiences relate to each other through gates, channels, and centers, seem to offer a very accurate and comprehensive description of the spectrum of human experience. It is, of course, not a replacement for that experience itself. But of the systems veracity, there seems to be little doubt.
I have also, personally, experienced the positive impacts of following my own Strategy and Authority, though I have not done so consistently enough for long enough to feel that I have fully “de-conditioned.” My presumption is that it does work but that it might be very difficult to achieve full de-conditioning because it can be hard to know what is your inner authority and what is a mental decision.
Decision-making is something we often do without realizing it. We move through the world largely by habit. Our brains are designed to send neurotransmitters through the easiest pathway available, which is always the one we’ve done the most frequently. That is, we are creatures of habit.
Switching to a new style of decision-making requires us to break some very old habits, habits that can sometimes be hard to even acknowledge.
That said, the brain is endlessly malleable. New research into brain science shows that our brains are rearranging themselves all the time and that it is possible to guide that sculpting with awareness and practice. As I have learned more about the mental stories of my open centers, I have learned to see those stories and to interrupt them before I act. Most of my teaching is based on this approach.
The other thing to keep in mind is that seven years is not actually that long when you consider the kind of spiritual transformation that Human Design promises. Already, after just a couple years of following my strategy and authority, my health, personal life, and work life have all improved. Many people have benefited from Human Design in a number of ways so despite it’s connection to Western Astrology, at the end of the day, I believe it is well worth our time.
Do I have to spend money to live my design?
Everything you need to live your design is available for free. You can access your chart at JovianArchive.com, MyBodyGraph.com, and a host of other places. Jovian Archive and The International Human Design School both have large amounts of free introductory-level knowledge that should be enough to allow anyone to understand how to use their Strategy and Authority to achieve the results promised by Ra.
That said, many people benefit from talking to someone who has been through the process. Living Your Design is a course offered by many Human Design Professionals, which walks you through the basic mechanics of the system and gives you the chance to connect with other people who are beginning to experiment with living their designs as well.
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To learn more about Human Design, visit the websites of Jovian Archive, the International Human Design School, or the BG5 Institute.
