Who am I? Human Design Can Answer That
“Human beings have a right to their own authority.” - Ra Uru Hu
You guys. Where do I begin? Let’s start with admitting that I am in the depths of what I’ve dubbed “My Second Spiritual Awakening”. (The first one was a beautifully agonizing hot mess on the Ganges riverbank in India.)
Below is an accurate portrayal of what I’ve been going through:
Yup. It me.
“But what caused such an awakening?”, you so eloquently ask. Two words and I was done for.
Human Design
I was listening to Lacey Philip’s Expanded Podcast when I first heard the words, “Human Design”. Something instantly clicked, and before I knew what was going on, I had spent over $500 on books, videos and readings. It was THAT intense and THAT instant for me.
For the first time in my life I felt seen, heard, and acknowledged. It was like I had been handed a permission slip to be the person I knew I’ve always been, but have been conditioned to suppress.
It was unlike any other spiritual experience I’ve had. This wasn’t the fluffy, feel good new-age stuff I roll my eyes at. This was the purist modality I LIVE for. This was a missing puzzle piece in my spiritual journey.
What is Human Design?
Ok. Let’s get to the good stuff. Try to follow along because it’s a bit woo-hoo—but like, the good kind.
Human Design is a fairly new system of self-knowledge that combines the traditional principles of the I Ching, astrology, Kabbalah, Hindu-Brahmin chakra system, and quantum physics.
Incorporate modern science of reading the genetic code, and this offers you profound insight into how you are designed to live your unique life.
Stay with me…
The Human Design system was brought to us by Alan Krakower, a former advertising executive and magazine publisher turned modern day mystic. Alan, now known as Ra Uru Hu, had an eight-day visitation in the ’80s with a “Voice.” This “Voice” transmitted a mechanical system of self-discovery designed for the 21st Century.
Human Design is kinda like our energetic DNA—a manual on how we best operate in this world.
That system is now a four-hundred-page textbook.
And that's it. That’s how the world came to know of Human Design, through this eight-day transmission session with some white guy in Ibiza.
I know. It sounds crazy. I was about to brush it off. That was until I pulled up my own Human Design chart and my mind was blown. And then I pulled my mom’s chart and my mind was blown some more. And then I pulled my dad’s chart, sister’s chart, friend’s chart, sister’s friend’s chart, until my mind was fully blown into tiny little pieces I’m still trying to put back together.
Enter my second spiritual awakening.
Now, for the sake of our sanity, I will not turn this blog post into a four-hundred page textbook. Human Design is an overly detailed, complex system I can’t even begin to break down with one blog post.
I will, however, share the Human Design basics* that can help you get started living your most authentic life. Are you ready?!?
*I am still very new to my experiment. I am simply sharing what I’ve learned so far and my experience with HD. Enjoy!
My Human Design Chart
Your Chart
Let’s start with pulling up your chart—aka your permission slip to be your beautiful bad self. With a quick Google search, you can find a few websites that can generate your chart for free. You can pull up your chart here.
You will need:
Your birthday
Your time of birth (Accurate if possible. If you don’t know what time you were born and you have no way of getting this information, your chart will be a bit skewed. I would play with different times throughout the day to see if it effects your type, strategy and authority—those are the three most important parts of your Human Design chart. The smaller details may vary, but at least you can start your experiment with those three things. Here are some helpful tips for finding your birth time.)
Your birth location (city and country)
Your Type
Ok, now we’re getting to the good stuff. According to Human Design, humanity is divided into five different energy types. Your Human Design type is essentially how you best use your energy in the world—how you best take action and interact with the world around you. Your type will help you get a better understanding of why you are the way you are (because there’s a reason some of us need a nap everyday—ahem, projectors).
The five types are:
Manifestor
Manifestors make up about 9% of the population. You are the initiators, meaning you can make things happen by informing and initiating. You are here to learn about your impact on others.
Aura: Closed and repelling
Strategy: You are designed to inform others what you are going to do in order to experience more peace and avoid anger. Inform us, do, be at peace, and sleep alone, bb.
Signature: Peace
Not-Self-Theme: Anger
Generators
Generators make up about 70% of the population. You literally generate energy and are the energizer bunnies of our society. Your work is your gift to the world. You are designed to do. You are here to learn about yourselves.
Aura: Open and enveloping
Strategy: You are designed to respond to things that light you up in order to experience satisfaction and avoid frustration. Respond, love and light away, bb.
Signature: Satisfaction
Not-Self-Theme: Frustration
Manifesting Generators
Manifesting Generators make up about 35% of the population and are the true multi-taskers. You can initiate and generate energy, taking on multiple things at once. You are here to learn about yourselves.
Aura: Open and enveloping
Strategy: You, my bb, have to respond to things that light you up AND inform others what you are going to do in order to experience satisfaction and avoid frustration.
Signature: Satisfaction
Not-Self-Theme: Frustration
Projectors (it me)
Projectors make up about 20% of the population. We are the guides and the advisors of the world. We are not here to “do” in the traditional sense, as we do not generate energy like our generating brothers and sisters. We are to help guide their energy. We are here to learn about and understand the other.
Aura: Focused and absorbing
Strategy: We, my fellow bbs, have to wait for the invitation and use our authority (how we best make decisions—more info on authority below) in order to experience success and avoid bitterness. While we wait, we are to follow our passions and study what lights us up.
Signature: Success
Not-Self-Theme: Bitterness
Reflectors
The rarest of all, Reflectors make up about 1% of the population. You are the mirrors amongst us. You literally reflect the health status of your community. Without you, we wouldn’t know where we stand. You are here to learn to reflect rather than identify.
Aura: Resistant and sampling
Strategy: You must wait an entire moon cycle—28 days—to find clarity and make decisions, in order to experience more surprises and less disappointment. Consider the moon your co-creator, bb.
Signature: Surprise
Not-Self-Theme: Disappointment
If each type was in a board room planning out a project, this is how (I think) it would play out:
The manifestor would initiate an incredible idea.
The generator/generating manifestor would bring the idea to life.
The projector would guide and advise on the next best moves.
The reflector would reflect the status of the project so that we know if we’re on the right course or should make changes.
Oh what a beautiful world it would be if everyone just lived according to their Human Design type. Because we live in world where 70% of the population are generators, the rest of us have been conditioned to work at their level. But the truth is, we are not all designed that way. So then we feel lazy and inconsistent, forcing ourselves to live completely unaligned.
What a relief it was for me to learn that I’m not lazy, I’m a guide. I find that projectors have the greatest relief when they discover Human Design, because for the first time in our lives we have been given permission to be who we’ve always known deep down inside we are—professional nappers.
When we each step fully into our types, the energy around us aligns, and life doesn’t feel like such a struggle. But this takes a lot of deconditioning and practice, which I’ll get into later.
Projectors—why is this so us?
Your Strategy
Your strategy is how you best take action. (I quickly mentioned strategies above.) When you have no idea what to do, your strategy tells you what to do. I won’t get into every strategy here. Again, avoiding a four-hundred page textbook. But I would love to share mine.
My strategy (and all projectors) is to wait for the invitation. Which is kinda crazy, because I would always tell my loved ones things like “it’ll just come to me” which would result in the “you gotta work hard and chase what you want and MAKE IT HAPPEN” lecture which would then result in me falling flat on my face and get me all in a “WHY CAN’T I MAKE THINGS HAPPEN THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG ME” tizzy. Projectors, ya know the mood.
Well, new mood—hey ya! Because now I can do what I’ve always known to be my truth—patiently wait. Ok, let’s be real. It’s not THAT easy to sit around and wait, but I’m trying my hardest. And while I wait, I’ve been told to study and follow my passions. So excuse me while I rant about Human Design on my blog.
Your Authority
Your authority is how you best make decisions. Contrary to popular belief, we are not all meant to listen to our guts, or sleep on it, or use our instinct. Crazy. I know. We each have an authority that when used, will help us to make the best decisions in life. Again, not getting into each authority here. But can we talk about moi?
My authority is splenic, meaning I make the best decisions when I use my instant intuitive instinct. With a splenic authority, intuition is the guiding force in life (again, this is not the case for everyone). If you have a splenic authority, you may find yourself saying things like “ I KNEW this was going to happen!”, over and over and over again. We are meant to use our instincts in the moment to make the best decisions in our lives.
Your Aura, Signature, and Not-Self-Theme
Your aura is the electromagnetic frequency that emanates from your body, extending roughly two arm lengths in all directions. It’s HUGE y’all. It is how you energetically interact with others. Understanding your aura and other people’s auras will make life a whole lot easier—trust.
Your signature is what you came here to experience and when living according to your design (i.e. strategy and authority) your signature unfolds naturally.
Your not-self-theme is a clue that you are not living according to your design. Use it as a tool to help you get back on that Human Design track.
The Nine Centers
The triangles and squares on your Human Design chart are the nine centers. Each center is responsible for processing specific energy. If the square or triangle is colored in, it means it is defined—it is consistent energy. If the square or triangle is white, it means it is *undefined—it is inconsistent energy.
*There are some Human Design schools of thought that differentiate between undefined and open. Not getting into that here. So we will refer to these centers as undefined.
The nine centers are:
The Head: Inspiration
Defined Head: Continual pressure to resolve thought processes. Fixed inspiration.
Undefined Head: Lack of mental pressure. Inspired by who is in your aura.
The Ajna: Awareness
Defined Ajna: Knows only a fixed mental way of thinking.
Undefined Ajna: Your ajna has many different ways of thinking—no consistent thought pattern.
Both: You are not meant to make decisions from your ajna (mind). The ajna is here to process and think, NOT decide. Use your authority to make the best decisions for your life.
The Throat: Communication
Defined Throat: You are designed to speak.
Undefined Throat: You always feel pressure to speak and can speak in various ways, depending on who you are with.
Both: Follow your strategy and authority when using the the throat center. I.e: Projectors, wait to be invited to speak and use your authority to decide if you want to speak.
The G Center: Love and Purpose
Defined G Center: You have a solid sense of purpose, know who you are and where you’re going.
Undefined G Center: You understand other people’s sense of self, but have no fixed sense of identity. You experience love and direction through the conditioning of a defined G center, but you can feel a bit directionless and lost.
The Heart: Willpower
Defined Will: You have consistent will power and keep routines and rituals pretty easily.
Undefined Will: You don’t have consistent will power, and that’s ok—7 out of 8 people have an undefined will center. Don’t force yourself to do something. Use your Strategy and Authority to help make the best commitments and don’t make promises.
The Sacral: Life Force
Defined Sacral: Where my Generators at? I love you, because I need your energy to work in short bursts (see undefined sacral). People with defined sacral have pure creative potential waiting to be put into action—but remember, you will work best when you wait to respond to what feels good and do work you love.
Undefined Sacral: Lacks impulse to be continually busy. You take in the life and work force from those around you and amplify it, working efficiently and intensely in short bursts. To keep your energy sustainable, be flexible with your “work bursts”. You are not here to work 40+ hours a week.
The Solar Plexus: Emotions
Defined Emotional Solar Plexus: An up and down wave of emotions that brings clarity over time. Wait out the emotional waves and use your authority to make the best choices.
Undefined Sacral: Emotionally still. Avoid all emotional decisions—use authority to decide.
The Spleen: Survival (MY FAVORITE CENTER)
Defined Spleen: General well-being. This is my favorite center because it is my most active center (it’s a hot mess all up in there), but it’s also incredibly fascinating to see how intuition and fear literally go hand-in-hand. A defined spleen has that instant hit of intuition that we must be present to receive. It is imperative that you meditate and constantly practice presence to receive those hits and follow them. But you also have a lot of fear, as it is the survival center. Contrary to popular belief, fear is not a bad thing. It is here to “protect” you. Honor your fears, and use your intuition to guide you.
Undefined Spleen: Sensitivity to well-being in oneself and environment. Pay attention to your health and avoid spontaneity.
The Root: Adrenaline
Defined Root: Pressure to be productive. Fixed way of dealing with stress.
Undefined Root: No pressure to be productive. Experiences stress as something coming from others.
Both: Do not do anything in life, unless it is rooted in a place of stillness or joy.
The Six Lines, 36 Channels, 64 Gates
I’m well on my way to writing that four-hundred page textbook, aren’t I? Ok, I’m wrapping it up, but not before QUICKLY mentioning these last three things.
The six lines and your profile is how you learn and how you will travel in life. It’s like your personality.
The 36 channels are the bridges that connect the centers. A channel is composed of two gates that connects two centers. This is how the two centers communicate, giving you further insight in why you are the way you are. For example, my spleen center is connected to my will center—Channel 26-4, The Surrender Channel—meaning I have the innate ability to replace old standards with new ones.
The 64 gates represent specific energies that give you further juicy details into your personality—like what drives you, your life purpose, patterns in your relationships, what fulfills you and even how you connect with Source. This is where it gets REALLY good.
Deconditioning
Ok, you’re all hopped on Human Design. You want more, you want answers, you want relief. And all of that and more you will receive. But, Human Design is not the end all be all to your woo’s. I’m sorry. We still gotta work. That’s the fun part, after all.
In Human Design, we refer to this work as “deconditioning”. Now that we know who we truly are, it’s not like we can just go be who we truly are. That’s because we’ve spent our entire lives being conditioned to be something else. Unless you were raised by Human Design experts that knew your chart inside out and raised you to be the guiding, napping projector that you truly are, you were most likely conditioned.
Projectors were told to work harder. Generators were told to relax. Manifestors were told to wait. And reflectors just got all sorts of stares.
No big deal. It’s part of the journey.
But now you have this divine tool to help you decondition and bring you back to your truth. It’s going to take time. Be patient as you unravel, shed, decondition, and come back Home to who you’ve always been.
It’s an Experiment
One last note before I leave. We call this “The Human Design Experiment”, because it’s just that—an experiment. If you choose to enter the experiment and start living by your design, strategy and authority, just remember—it’s an experiment.
Resources
And last, but not least, here are some resources to get you started on your Human Design Experiment today. Who’s joining me down in this rabbit hole?
Jovian Archive: For my fellow purists, here you will find the OG good stuff like videos from Ra himself. His family now runs the site as he transitioned in 2011. You can get your free chart here. They also offer Human Design readings.
International Human Design School: If you want to actually study this good stuff, this is the official certified HD school. (Certified by Jovian Archive)
“Human Design: The Definitive Book of Human Design, The Science of Differentiation” by Ra Uru Hu: The infamous four-hundred page textbook. The original teachings of Human Design straight from the source. It’s an actual textbook, so I recommend this to anyone serious about studying HD.
“Human Design: Discover the Person You Were Born to Be” by Chetan Parkyn: If you’re not so serious about HD, but still intrigued, this is a great place to start.
“Understanding Human Design: The New Science of Astrology: Discover Who You Really Are” by Karen Curry: I love Karen’s language, it’s full of love and just makes you feel good. I particularly like how she describes the 64 gates. Another great read!
The Projector Signature: From Bitterness to Success: A message for my fellow projectors. Listen to Ra’s dreamy voice. Ok, it’s not that dreamy, but there’s something to it. Enjoy!
I have found there are two schools of thought around Human Design—the purists and the new-agers. Dig in. Me, I’m a purist, so I’m getting most of my info from Ra’s books, website and school (granted, I’m still discerning). BUT, I wouldn’t have even discovered HD had it not been for the new-agers, so I have nothing against them. Just follow what feels good to you—but know there is a difference in the material being shared.
P.s: I’m sprinkling in a little Human Design into my 1:1 Skincare Sessions. We will go over your type, strategy and authority to help you move forward in life. Because I wholeheartedly believe that when you start living your truth, the physical heals. Human Design coupled with Medical Medium—it’s absolute magic if you ask me.
Hi! I’m Janelle, celery juice junkie, solo-traveling soul-seeker, over-sharing storyteller, healing foods expert, chronic deep thinker, spiritual self-help bookworm, sober Miami girl, papaya eating fanatic, eager grocery shopper, and free spirit foodie, sharing my journey into awakening and love for conscious food, kinda like Anthony Bourdain meets Oprah.
I created The Free Spirit Foodie in 2016 as a way to process a lay off, a year-long solo trip around India, and a search for God. It evolved into a sacred digital space to share everything I was experiencing and learning.
We’re talking solo-female traveling, plant-based living, holistic healing, and all of the AHA moments in between. Thank you for joining me on this journey. May you be reminded you are not alone and that living an authentic life is our only purpose.
Want to learn more about me? Click here to read my full story. It’s a crazy one.
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