Journal #4
UNPACKING THE HUMAN DESIGN LIFE CHART
Human Design is a road map that gets you in touch with the parts of yourself that knows the best way for you to thrive energetically. Living your unique design helps you be in the world without resistance, to feel safe to say 'yes' or 'no' and to live a life that's true to you with confidence and without hesitation. All this information is presented in the form of the Human Design Life Chart, also known as a Rave Mandala. This Mandala is a combination of four ancient modalities, four distinct ways to understand the rhythm and flow of life. All the colours, shapes, lines, symbols and numbers denote the person you were designed to be. You are looking at the very core of your being, your unique design or genetic code.
Like natal astrological calculations, the Human Design Chart is based on the date, time and place of your birth. This calculation combined with the wisdom from the Hindu Chakra System (the shapes in your chart, also known as the nine centres), the Chinese I Ching (the 64 gates, the numbers that sit inside the centres) and the Kabbalah 'Tree of Life' (the 36 channels, the lines that link the gates and centres together). This combination makes up the foundation of your life chart.
Astrology's contribution, with its 12 Zodiac signs, assists in the calculation and recording of two precise moments in time and space. The first calculation is the exact time and place of your birth. This is your Personality data that represents your conscious self and are the black lines in your chart. These are traits that you know about yourself and have access to and are easy to work with. The second calculation is three months before your birth (when your soul enters your body). These are the red lines in your chart and is your Design data, representing your unconscious self. It is here to tell you what is going on below your conscious mind and introduce you to traits you have inherited from your mother, father or grandparents, that you don't consciously recognise within yourself. It is how you are genetically programmed to move through the world. These are traits you cannot consciously access, meaning what might come out of your mouth can be as much of a surprise to you as it is to others. However, as you dive deep into your chart, over time, you will begin to learn more about the unconscious side of yourself. The use of the two calculations together distinguishes the difference between Human Design and traditional Astrology.
The ancient Chinese I'Ching was one of the first books about Chinese oracle wisdom ever written. The amazing mathematical structure of its 64 hexagrams, represents the 64 sections of the Human Design Mandala's outer ring. Each hexagram is a combination of 6 broken (yin) and solid (yang) lines, and each of the lines contains information specific to its position within the hexagram. The hexagram around the wheel has an association directly aligned with our genetic code (the codon). There are 64 condons in our genetic code, as there are 64 hexagrams in I'Ching. These hexagrams around the outer ring of the Mandala, translates as gates within your Life Chart (numbers 1 to 64) and are here to interpret and help us understand our genetic imprint. It provides us with specific details about the characteristics that make you unique.
The outer ring of the Mandala is here for interpretation, where was the inner ring is here for calculation. Every hexagram, with its corresponding gate, has a specific place and measurement within the arc in the outer ring. When you are born, each hexagram is aligned with a planet, node or moon, which at that precise moment in time imprints our characteristics which we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. This moment is what gets recorded, colouring in your Life Chart.
The Hindu Chakra System brings us the nine centres. Traditionally there were seven centres, but during a cosmic shift in 1781, our species evolved to 9 centred beings to ensure our survival. Each centre has its own energy that correlates to different parts of the body.
The Crown – is a pressure centre that bookends the top of your chart and is in control of your pineal gland. But also where you are open to new insights, questions and draw inspiration. The Crown asks the question which moves on to the Ajna to conceptualise the answer.
The Ajna – an awareness centre that is in control of your mind and pituitary glands, but is also in charge of your opinions, judgments and point of view. It is merely the interpreter that transforms the pressure of inspiration from the Crown, into useful information for review, research and communication. The Ajna is here to way up the pros and cons of any decision, but not to make it for you.
The Throat – the centre for communication and manifestation, but also governs your metabolism (Thyroid & Parathyroid). It is where you are given a voice to either physically manifest and/or express yourself verbally.
The G Centre – is all about love, sense of self and direction, but it also governs the liver and your blood. This centre is located in the centre of the Mandala, and is here to establish our identity. This is where our unique energy flow or if defined, connects to the flow of life. It is through this centre where we are wired to the Universe, allowing it to live within us as well as pulling life toward us.
The Ego (Heart) – is a motor centre that governs the stomach, gall bladder and thymus gland and is also the centre for will power, motivation your heart's desires. The Ego centre is the motor energy behind the 'I, me, mine' source of our will power if your centre is defined.
The Solar Plexus (Emotions) – is an awareness and motor centre that governs the kidneys, pancreas and bladder. But most importantly is the home to our emotions and the process of knowledge around the emotional waves of the defined Solar Plexus. It is this emotional wave that provides you with the desire to experience more, to seek intimacy in relationships, and for spiritual consciousness.
The Sacral – is a motor centre, which helps you call the shots. It governs not only your sexual organs and gut but also your creativity and desire. Its generative energy is here to support you and the people around you by giving you the power to sustain activity.
The Spleen – is an awareness centre that's primary focus is about survival. It is here to govern your immunity and lymphatic system but is also in charge of your fears and instincts. It is in charge of your intuition, providing you with the physical awareness you require in the present moment as a way of protecting your safety and wellbeing.
The Root – is a motor centre, which gives people the momentum to get things started. Like the Crown, it is a pressure centre that bookends your chart. This centre governs your adrenal glands but is here to ground you, so you find the balance between fear and trust.
Lastly, the ‘Tree of Life’ from the Kabbalistic tradition contributes to the Human Design System by providing the energetic pathways that connect the centres through the gates. These are called channels, and they create the living circuitry that directs the flow of energy throughout your body. At either end of a channel, is one of the 64 gates, also known as hexagrams in I'Ching. Energy enters and exits a Charka centre through each single gate; they are always open to meet energy from the other end of the channel it connects to. To have a defined centre, (coloured centre) and to highlight a whole a channel, both gates at either end of the channel need to be activated. Alternatively, one gate can be activated, which means we then have the opportunity to meet others that can complete the channel for us, creating an electromagnetic connection. Each channel has their own set of characteristics within the Life Chart, but remains flexible so it can encompass the energy and traits of the two gates at either end and the defined centres that it connects to, to bring everything together. A defined channel is often your most dominate trait and the key to your uniqueness.
If you would like more information on Human Design or to look into your own Life Chart, please get in touch hello@billieroutledge.com
