Human Design: Discover the Person You Were Born to Be

by Chetan Parkyn

When living true to your design, you attune to your body’s needs on physical, mental, and emotional levels.

When you fall out of synch with your design, or go against your nature, you can become susceptible to physical discomfort or illness. Resistance to a center’s energy can, therefore, have an adverse effect on the corresponding organ or gland.

The Mind can trap deep thinkers into an endless loop because the mental wheels never cease as it ponders the past and attempts to relate to the present and future.

Anatomically the Self relates to the liver, the seat of the soul, where our blood is cleansed. Whether your center is defined or not determines how you filter life experiences. A congested liver raises one’s level of intolerance for life and therefore reduces one’s ability to connect directly with it.

It is statistically rare to have a defined Heart, but if you’re

Binding themes of this center are the ability to stand on your own two feet, to be bold enough to convince others, to take control of a situation, and to handle crisis. But inefficiency can irk you in a way that makes you want to take on every task and do it yourself. You will want to get your own way and may run the risk of being perceived as arrogant in the pursuit of your goals.

You may sometimes find yourself over-burdened and unsatisfied with partners and projects, and you may ask what you have done to deserve this. The answer is simple: you have committed to people and projects indiscriminately. You have taken on too much. You have promised too much. It is therefore vital to take your needs into account — first! No one is indispensable, not even someone with a defined Sacral.

In fact, you might well be known as a serial procrastinator or someone who does things at the last minute because, to achieve anything, you need time for the pressure to build within. You might be one of those people who pack their suitcase two minutes before the taxi arrives. I would almost bet that you write to-do lists just to be seen to be doing something! You can start millions of things but finish very little.

So sit down, be patient, and master the art of waiting to respond. View yourself as a magnet and let people and openings seek you out. And they will. It is an energetic law of life that magnets attract.

It is split into two hemispheres and therefore has two diverse ways of viewing the world. It is indecisive by nature, so a mental decision becomes as reliable as flipping a coin. Getting your mind around this truth is the first step on the path to wiser decision making.

The most important thing for anyone with Sacral Authority to appreciate is that this inner guidance system is only ever effective when in response. It is not proactive; it is responsive. Thus, your authority is designed to wait until there is a clear response that speaks from the lower belly with an “uh-huh” for “yes” and “uh-uh” for “no,” or that sensation of being drawn toward or repelled by something. If there is no response, this in itself implies a lack of interest at the time.

Many people with a defined Sacral struggle to differentiate between gut response and emotional reaction. A response is patient, relaxed, and measured, whereas a reaction is an unconscious reflex and hasty.

When you have both the Spleen and Sacral defined, your gut response becomes greatly enhanced by the Spleen senses. This means that your gut

There are thirty-six of them, containing the stuff we are made of, the finer components of our being. These thirty-six channels, inspired by the ancient wisdom of the Kabbalah, act as conduits between the centers, running life-energy back and forth.

What needs to be noted is this: if the channel between two centers is colored, it is an active channel, taking qualities from each of the gates it connects to become an entity on its own. It is like a wire in which two “charges” meet in the middle in a rush of color and energy. These are the channels that will have consistent meaning in your life. If a channel is white or only half colored, it is an inactive channel. This means it has no consistent meaning for you. However, other people may have that channel activated, and so this will intermittently light up your channel as they come in and out of your company. This is another example of how different designs mesh and merge.

The color of an active channel is informative on its own: black denotes a conscious trait, pink signals unconscious, and a striped combination means it’s a mixture of both. What will tend to happen — if my experience of readings is anything to go by — is that you’ll recognize the black-colored channels and their meanings as conscious elements of your personality, something you already know you act out or do, whereas the meanings of the pink-colored channels are not so readily obvious because they’re unconscious elements.

As an agent of transformation, you empower with the creativity, contribution, and potential improvements you bring to a situation, accomplishing feats that can defy the odds. There is something of the genius or wizard about you. Give you raw material and you’ll make it shine. Show you an ailing company and you’ll turn its fortunes around. You know the direction things need to go in and can put projects and people back on track. Your conviction and energy are contagious to those working or living with you.

Everyone I know with this channel has a life made up of a sequence of quantum leaps from one place to the next, forever changing direction and relying on nothing more than blind faith — and an affirmative gut response from the Sacral. The 3-60 is one of three “format channels.” A format channel has an overriding impact on your entire design, dictating how your life will be lived out, regardless of whatever else is going on in your life chart.

The acoustic quality of this channel needs to tune in to sounds that match your mood. Then exercise patience. If life is teaching you anything, it’s that things don’t remain stuck for long. Trust this channel’s mutative energy, and the frustration over temporary inertia can ease. Throughout your life, you’ll come to see that the transformations you bring — to your world and others’ — are immensely empowering.

The ability to think logically has practical importance but can also mean you’re plagued by doubts and worry. So consider these phrases: “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” or “If you can’t change it, why worry?” Your great task is to determine how much attention you give to your problem-seeking thoughts, knowing the delicate balance between being concerned all the time and actually enjoying life. You are designed to think and worry. Accept this and you can start to step away from more troublesome thoughts.

Your mind is a great asset and is better trained to find solutions in the lives of others rather than in your own. It finds rational and sound solutions that bring about improvement.

You are a born leader who can march with purpose into an uncertain future, knowing the way. Whether you hear yourself saying it or not, what others hear is “I lead toward an assured future...” “Alpha” is the highest rank in the social order of wolf packs, and you, as an alpha male or female, stand out as the leader of any pack.

Being a leader brings many responsibilities, and perhaps the greatest is to be true to yourself. You do not have to lead everyone just because they look lost or seem in need of guidance; leadership is an ability, not an obligation. The wrong company and wrong situations can lead you into a role that is unfulfilling and meaningless, but when your true leadership is recognized and invited, you bring about radical and positive change.

9 Channel of Concentration 52 From the Sacral to the Root You have the ability to focus your determination and concentration to bring about improvement and success. Focus, focus, focus — that’s what your life is all about.

You arrive at the starting point of any project armed with the determination to make things work — even in relationships. You can have incredibly fulfilling relationships, but only when you know everything is perfect, ready, and in place. You find it hard to commit until every flaw has been ironed out and every “imperfection” tackled.

It frustrates you if things are set in motion before all your resources are assembled and a great plan is drawn up. Nothing drives you crazier than something that feels ill-prepared, without focus. This is why you make an excellent planner. An affirmative gut response will tell you the correct things to focus on. Then there’s no stopping you. The 9-52 is one of three “format channels.” A format channel has an overriding impact on your entire design, dictating how your life will be lived out, regardless of whatever else is going on in your life chart. So your Human Design has the ingrained motto “Before moving, picture the arrow in the bull’s-eye.”

Any channel emerging from gate 10 denotes a strong sense of identity and love of life, and you embrace the potential for an awakening in others. You want them to breathe in the reality of life’s joy and see the beauty in everyday moments.

You cannot abide people who are untruthful and situations that appear dishonest or unjust. You demand unabashed candor and that people be upfront at all times. You want to meet people on a higher level, so integration with kindred spirits accords with your nature. No one entertains the possibility of the world becoming a better place more than you do.

For those who do follow, it will be a profound experience as you open a doorway to a higher spiritual level. Life, for you, is all about the “now” and embracing your days moment by moment.

You are forever seeking life’s meaning, then yearning to express it so that others are stimulated by your findings. Your insatiable curiosity never stops in its pursuit of finding something out or obtaining new information to share with others.

You will also take on all sorts of trips and travels as a means to satisfy your curiosity, always wondering what’s around the next corner, always sensing that there is nothing quite like firsthand experience to stimulate your ideas and beliefs anew. The Biblical phrase “Seek, and ye shall find” is applicable here, except that for you, the search continues until your last breath. It’s as if your mind cannot rest until it has come to grips with everything there is to experience in life. For you, truth cannot be known through having preconceived ideas. You must seek out the experience and sample it for yourself.

En route to your achievements, you may appear calm and assured. But under the surface, there are all manner of emotional waves pulling on you. Man or woman, you have no difficulty expressing emotions, from exuberance to rage. Indeed, this is an outlet that brings relief. But be wary of who shares your emotions, because they can arrive with an impact some people struggle to understand, let alone handle. You can be extremely passionate about what you do, but also hot-tempered. Indeed, others may wonder, “Where on Earth is all this emotion coming from?”

Emotions that are dismissed become pent up and block your manifesting abilities. Emotions that are recognized allow you to maintain a balance and chase the stars. En route to outer orbit, you just need to keep checking in with your feelings and honoring them. That way, you remain open to whatever life throws at you and can empower others with the social and business links you forge and the accomplishments you attain.

The 13-33 is a “leadership channel,” providing direction, creative guidance, and a sense of purpose for others. You can steer people and projects beautifully. Your history helps guide and reassure others through an uncertain future. It finds its voice via the Throat with expressions like “I remember when...” or “In my experience, what happens is...” You are a great listener as well as a talkative witness. Your strong sense of identity is fortified by each life experience you absorb and so you become the perfect confidante — and magnet — for everyone’s agonies.

You are an organizer and strategist who expresses logic, someone who absorbs all the facts, details, and politics of a situation and then threads them all together to form your own concrete opinion or recommendation. You will be so well informed that few will doubt the convincing arguments you put forward.

You are someone who will continue to investigate everything that confronts you, and your mind is a great asset to you, because it’s capable of seeing the way ahead.

18 Channel of Judgment 58

Armed with a perfectionist streak, you scrutinize society, looking for ways to improve everything for the benefit of everyone. You sit in impartial judgment, pointing out what is and what isn’t working. It is a continual assessment with the goal of enhancing the social, working, and living environments around you.

But there is a tendency to challenge everything and campaign for change for the sake of it. Your intentions are well meant but can lead to misunderstandings, especially if your judgment is misdirected into your personal life. If you don’t restrain the 18-58, great conflict can arise in relationships because you’ll be viewed as being overcritical.

You are the consummate consultant, troubleshooter, overseeing authority — and art or restaurant critic, but you can also be your own worst enemy, turning the ever-critical eye inward. You can be needlessly hard on yourself, so I always tell people with this channel to cut themselves some slack and appreciate that not even they can be perfect. Instead, realize that you have the gift of correcting and improving society’s failings with your spontaneous recommendations, appraisals, and rulings. Fall back on your authority and make sure you’re applying your abilities in the right direction and then you’ll feel fulfilled.

Compassionate, tactile, sensual, and supersensitive, you naturally feel everyone’s wants, needs, and emotions — and know how to meet them. This tends to result in a hands-on approach to everything you do.

People feel safe in your company. In relationships the 19-49 brings a sensuality that seeks close contact with another and needs to be tactile. The lightest brushing of skin holds its own electricity. That’s why your sensitive touch can make you a natural healer, masseur, or Reiki specialist. It probably explains why you also like to hold hands and prefer handshake deals, conducting calm business meetings over food, breaking bread together. You also have an innate affinity to animals. Everyone and everything comes to appreciate your sensitivity!

Having involuntary impulses means you must be wary of constant interrupting and talking over people. When you speak out of turn, you can quickly alienate others.

Your environment tends to revolve around money matters, positions of power, and prestige. They say money makes the world go round and yet love of money is the root of all evil. Your aim is to strike a balance between the two as you weigh material value against your core values.

Your nature, like his, finds harmony when hard work makes profits for your company, family, or community. You have a tribal value that aims to look after number one but also wishes to financially look after everyone else. You demand a freedom and autonomy to make money in line with your wants and wishes. If you’re held back, or in a position without autonomy, you will feel deprived and frustrated. The flip side is that you can sway toward greed, but if that happens, you’ll feel less than wholesome. Your greatest fulfillment and self-esteem come when you are a force for the common good and are recognized for what you manifest.

Oscar Wilde once said that the cynic knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. I would specifically re-word that quote for 21-45 people and say: “You know the cost of everything — but can also know the value of everything, too.”

You are a deep, intellectual thinker who can exhaust yourself, and others, by trying to rationalize everything in life.

You think so hard that people can almost hear the wheels turning! There is a pressure to capture an inner truth, but this mental exertion can send you into a maddening whirl. Yet you find it impossible to release your thoughts from the revolving door that traps them inside your head.

That acceptance by itself can ease frustration. The second is to practice not becoming a slave to your mind. Enjoy times of silence and quiet reverie. Immerse yourself in soothing music. When the Crown’s wheels start spinning, step back from racing thoughts, allowing the Mind to chatter away without your direct participation. This is the first step toward meditation and it’s where you’ll find great refuge and solace.

You are an indomitable force, initiating fresh experiences to propel you and others into new arenas. You know exactly where you’re heading: toward a bigger and better life. The combination of your heart’s desire and self-love means you are determined to penetrate new frontiers, leaping into the unknown and gambling with fate. This attitude instills a tremendous focus in anyone sharing your journey or working with you.