What is Human Design?

Human Design is a synthesis of several ancient systems, integrating aspects of Astrology, the I Ching, chakras, and the Kabbalah. It represents a map of human consciousness that links these old wisdom traditions to contemporary thought. It connects in particular to our modern understanding of genetics. (Read my story with Human Design here…)

Origins

The system originates from a revelation that came on the planet in 1987 in the form of a mystical experience. The man (who was given the title, Ra Uru Hu) was told that this is the time for many esoteric secrets to be revealed. Ra describes that he was penetrated by a voice for seven days and nights. He began to teach extensively in 1992. The formidable reputation of Human Design for a penetrating accuracy has been growing worldwide ever since. (Ra Uru Hu died in March 2011).

The Human Design Chart

A design chart is drawn up from your birth data. What emerges is a genetic map, a blueprint for your life journey. A reading of your design provides considerable detail about your true potential and unique place in the scheme of things.

A Human Design chart looks like the illustration below (it is Osho’s chart). We each have a unique design, just as we have a unique fingerprint. The premise of the system is that the universe has given you a design, because it needs you that way. The more you can trust this ‘belonging’, the more carried (and cared for) you will be by life.

Types (categories)

All our Human Design charts fall into broad categories. The population breaks down into the following four types. (If you are interested, you can find out your type and get your chart from here: www.jovianarchive.com)

Manifestor
These are pure energy beings, with a built-in capacity to do what they want when they want to do it. Others are threatened (and jealous) of that access to energy and they meet resistance all around. Most people want to tie them down and not let them move with so much freedom. They carry anger from that constant blocking by others. The dilemma starts at a young age. Their strategy is really a public relations exercise. If they inform before they act, people around will feel included and considered instead of threatened.

Generator
These are energy types with incredible stamina to go and go. The trick for them is to get involved with their considerable energy with things that are really for them and not let it get used up by other people. If they behave like a manifestor type and try and make things happen, they will get frustrated. Their power is in response. If they wait and let things come to them, their response will be a sure guide. They can trust a non-verbal, non-mental intelligence deep inside their cells, which knows where to go next and what to be available for.

Manifesting Generator (a category of Generator)
They get encouraged from an early age to use their manifesting power to make things happen. However their real power emerges from waiting and going with the flow. They have to learn to trust that their life unfolds with satisfaction when they don’t push the river. If they first engage their energy (or not) out of response, then they can move with a ‘go for it’ speed and they won’t suffer frustrating anger.

Projector
This is a non-energy type and their gift is that they understand energy. They need to wait for the recognition of others for their specific abilities. That appreciation acts like a red carpet, bringing out their abilities even more. They suffer bitterness because they often feel undervalued. Once they relax and stop comparing themselves to the hard-working energy types they get a chance to understand that they have an unusual ability to be guides for the energy types, and in that they can find their real self worth.

Reflector
The most rare of the four types, their design is very open and they carry a sense of communion with humanity. Since they take in other people very deeply and reflect back their energy, they are very senstivie to their environment. When there is lack of harmony around them, they can feel disturbed and disappointed. They thrive in a loving atmosphere. Their design changes with the cycle of the moon. They need to take time (28 days) to come to a clear decision where major life changes are concerned.

Centers

Head Centre: Inspiration, the mental pressure to ask questions

Ajna Centre: Conceptualization, the mental awareness

Throat Centre: Expression and actualization, it is the hub where everything converges.

G-Centre: The Higher Self, identity in terms of love and direction

Heart (Ego) Centre: The hub for engaging in the material world, it relates to the ‘will power’ capacity

Splenic Centre: Existential Awareness, body’s defense with the immune system, intuition

Solar Plexus Centre: Emotional Awareness, with clarity only over time

Sacral Centre: Generating power, fertility, sexuality, vitality, life and death

Root Centre: Adrenaline survival pressure, stress handling capacity

Definition – Openness

Self (your nature) – Definition in a chart – colored centers
When centers in a chart get colored in, it means they operate in a consistent reliable way. Since they indicate a fixed capacity that is always accessible in the same way (day in and day out), they offer a way of describing to a person their nature. This is what they are born with and that does not change, it is a representation of ‘who they are’. Your nature isn’t your life; it’s what you can trust to guide you through life.

Not-Self (your nurture) – Openness in a chart – white centers and areas
The white areas in a chart are where nothing operates in a fixed way, they are ‘who you are not’. This openness is where we are conditioned in terms of nurture. That nurture can be positive or negative and the learning process is to be able to evaluate the difference. That filtering capacity of others’ fixedness can form the basis for wisdom.

Nature And Nurture Together is Our Life: because we’re both, in the quantum we’re more than both.

Strategy and Authority

A reading will propose an experiment to the mind to see what happens when decisions are made according to the nature of your mechanics. The colored centers (or not) indicate the type of design and the basic decision making ‘strategy’. Then there are various centers which can be the place of a final ‘yes or no’. This is called the ‘inner authority’ and it varies with different charts. The experiment takes time; the mind needs to gather the evidence before it relinquishes thinking it’s in charge of the life.

Profile

There are twelve profiles, just like there are twelve zodiac signs. The profile is a specific style with which the being engages with life. It is often called the costume, and there is learning involved in allowing it to fit well.

Incarnation Cross

Each one of us is a cell within the larger body of the universe. We uniquely filter different aspects of the whole, though we are all born within 64 archetypical influences. These are known as the Incarnation Crosses. No incarnation is more important than another; we each have a specific purpose, the whole needs each cross equally.

The Mandala

This wheel represents the unfolding of evolution. Every Human Design chart is a genetic blueprint that configured out of the matrix in this wheel. The colored spokes indicate how a planetary position filtered the neutrino stream at the moment of birth. The numbers on the outer wheel are a translation of that imprinting. These are hexagrams of the I Ching and they represent genetic markers. (There are 64 hexagrams in the I Ching and it happens that there are also 64 codons in our DNA.)

Kumud took sannyas in 1975 and has participated and worked at various jobs in all the communes around Osho. She finally worked in the Healing Arts as a colourpuncturist. Fifteen years ago she started her training in Human Design – meeting and studying with Ra personally – and has been a Human Design analyst since 1999. She gives readings over skype and can be contacted via her website: www.humandesignwise.com