Human Design

A self-knowledge system that emerged in 1987. It places the planet positions calculated from your birth data on a diagram called the bodygraph. By the system’s own definition, the diagram’s 64 gates come from the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching, the channels linking the centers from the Kabbalah’s Tree of Life, and the nine centers from the chakra system.

No. It is a separate system that uses astrology’s planetary calculation. It calculates the planets as astrology does but does not read them through signs and houses: it reads them through gates that divide the zodiac into 64 equal parts, channels formed where two gates join, and the nine centers those channels connect. So it does not replace your birth chart; it adds a second reading beside it that looks at the same sky in another language.

Type is the main division, based on which centers are defined in your bodygraph and how they connect; the system links it to the way you use your energy. There are four types: Generator (Manifesting Generator is a subtype of it), Projector, Manifestor and Reflector. Each type has a strategy; for a Projector it is to wait for the invitation. Inner authority describes what makes a decision clear for you: with Emotional (Solar Plexus) authority, a feeling that holds once the emotional wave settles; with Sacral authority, the body’s immediate yes-or-no response. Profile is two numbers: the line of the Sun on the Personality side and the line of the Sun on the Design side. In 1/3 (Investigator / Martyr), for example, the first number points to a tendency toward building a solid foundation through research, the second to learning by trial and error.

The system reads a chart from two sides, so two moments are calculated. Personality is the planet positions at the moment of your birth; the system links this side to the side of your personality you know. Design is the planet positions at the moment the Sun stood exactly 88° behind its birth position, about three months before birth; the system links it to the side you carry without noticing. Every marked gate in the bodygraph comes from one of these two sides, sometimes from both. In the lists, a value such as 41.3 means gate 41, line 3.