13 essential human design words and what they mean for your brand
Unlock the potential of your brand with 13 essential Human Design words.
In my time as a human design reader, I’ve had many people tell me that they don’t understand the language of human design.
Honestly, I can’t fault them.
In my opinion, the language of human design is one of the biggest barriers to entry into the system.
Human design uses many words that we already know, but it shifts and changes these words into a new theoretical context.
Of course, this can become incredibly confusing.
When I was new to human design, I would sometimes feel like I was listening to a jargon words salad when I came across human design readers or teachers. I’ve sometimes felt this way even when listening to Ra’s lectures.
Once you understand the vocabulary of human design, everything becomes much easier.
Let’s go over 13 essential terms you need to know to get started on your human design journey.
1. Bodygraph
This is what we call the chart you get when you enter your birth information on a human design app, website or software.
Much like the natal chart in astrology, the Bodygraph is a map of our unique energy that is calculated based on our date and time of birth and the corresponding locations of the planets in the sky.
In our Bodygraph, we can find all of the details of our unique Design - Type, Strategy, Authority, Profile, Incarnation Cross, and much much more.
By studying it, we can become familiar with our unique gifts, and talents, and learn how to apply these skills in our lives and businesses.
2. Type or Aura Type
Have you ever taken one of those personality tests that told you that you’re an ENTP or ISFJ?
Think of your human design Aura Type (just Type for short) sort of like that.
These broad categories - Manifestor, Generator, Manifesting Generator, Projector, and Reflector - describe your general energy and how you’re ideally meant to operate in the world.
Each type has its own unique way of behaving, perceiving, working and communicating with others.
They each have different gifts, skills, strengths, weaknesses, and energy needs.
Naturally, this means they also have unique needs when it comes to running a business.
3. Strategy
Each of the Types has its own Strategy for approaching the world and relationships with other people.
Strategy is also how we create opportunities that feel right for us and that propel us towards our goals.
For more on strategy, check out my previous post: How I got started with human design and how you can too.
When we live and do business according to our Strategy, we can experience less resistance and more joy, peace, excitement and success.
4. Inner Authority or Authority
Throw away all of those logical decision-making techniques.
Inner Authority is how human design tells us we are designed to make decisions.
Unlike conventional decision-making wisdom, human design teaches us that we make decisions with our bodies, not our minds.
Think of your Authority as your inner compass guiding you towards the right opportunities, clients, partnerships, and decisions that are right for your life and your business.
5. Not-Self
One of the simplest terms in human design, yet one of the most difficult to understand in practice.
The Not-Self is who you are when you are not living in alignment with your true nature (i.e. your Type, Strategy and Authority).
In practical terms, our not self is anywhere in our human design bodygraph that has no colour - it’s the blank spaces in our charts where we pick up energy, habits, emotions, behaviours, etc. from other people.
Each type also has Not-Self themes - frustration, anger, bitterness, and disappointment - which serve as an alert system for when we’re operating in a way that goes against who we truly are.
The Not-Self is also crucial when it comes to business and branding.
It can tell us when we need to shift the way we show up in our businesses to be more aligned with our true nature.
We also sell from the Not-Self but that’s a conversation for another time 😉
Human Design is not about fixing who you are. It’s about remembering who you’ve always been.
6. Profile
When you look at the information section of your bodygraph, you’ll see two numbers next to some words that look something like this:
“5/1 - Heretic/Investigator” or “6/2 - Role Model/Hermit” or “2/4 - Hermit/Opportunist”
Appearing as two numbers from 1 to 6 which come together to make 12 individual Profiles, these are the archetypal patterns that shape our life and our journey.
Our human design Profile describes our innate skills, strengths and challenges, as well as the roles we play in our lives.
In branding and messaging, our Profiles are particularly powerful when we apply them to the way we create content.
7. Energy Centres (aka Centres)
Energy Centres are a lot like chakras.
But instead of 7 major chakras, in human design, there are 9 energy centres.
They are: Head, Ajna, Throat, G or Identity, Heart, Spleen, Sacral, Emotional Solar Plexus, and Root.
Like chakras, each Centre is associated with a specific type of energy.
If you look at your Bodygraph, you may see that you have some Centres that are coloured in (defined) and some that are not coloured in (open or undefined).
(Unless you’re a Reflector in which case all of your centres will be undefined).
The defined centres are where you produce energy, while the undefined or open centres are where you absorb and amplify the energies of others and your environment.
In terms of branding, your defined centres are the skills and talents you bring to the table as a business owner.
But your undefined centres? That’s where you make your money 💸
8. Gates
If you take a look at the Centres in your Bodygraph, you’ll notice that each one has numbers inside of it.
Each of our Bodygraphs has 64 gates that correspond with the themes of the 64 hexagrams of the I-Ching, an energetic system that describes the genetic archetypes of the human species.
Each gate also corresponds with a specific astrological sign and will have themes related to that sign.
Based on the astrological placements relative to our time of birth, we will each have 26 of these Gates activated within our individual human design chart.
By looking at the gates of specific planetary placements, we can understand the kinds of energies and themes you’ll experience in particular areas of your business.
For example, looking at the gates activated by Mercury in your Bodygraph can help inform your brand’s message and marketing.
9. Channels
If you’re not a Reflector, when you look at your Bodygraph, you’ll see that some of your defined centres have red or black lines between them.
These are Channels.
When two gates opposite each other in adjacent Centres are both activated in your chart, a pathway forms connecting and activating the two Centres on either side.
The Channel becomes defined and you gain access to the energies of both Gates. the corresponding Centres, and the energy of the Channel when those Gates come together.
I like to look at Channels defined to the Throat Centre when it comes to marketing.
If you have any of these channels defined, they can determine the way you show up in your marketing, sales and any public communications for your brand.
10. Personality
If you look at your Bodygraph, you’ll notice that on one side there are symbols and numbers written in black, and on the other, there are similar symbols and numbers written in red.
The black side is known as the Personality in human design.
The personality side of the Bodygraph represents the themes, influences, gifts, and skills, that we are aware of in our lives.
It is who we know we are - the conscious mind.
The planetary positions that make up the personality are calculated based on your date and time of birth, and are essentially the same as what you’d find in your astrological natal chart.
In my human design branding sessions, I often focus on placements on the Personality side of the Bodygraph.
Why? Because these are the gifts and skills that we know we know how to access and can use reliably in our businesses.
11. Design
Where the black in your Bodygraph represents your Personality, the red represents your Design - your unconscious.
The Design side of your Bodygraph is calculated using a date and time that is roughly three months before you were born.
Many cultures believe that around three months before birth is when our souls become anchored in the earthly realm.
Whether you believe that or not, it’s up to you to decide.
What’s important is that the Design side of your chart represents the unconscious and the body.
It is the themes, gifts, and skills that operate in your life that we are not aware of - they just are.
Often we can’t see these things in ourselves, but others can see them in us.
We always have access to these gifts but we may not be able to consciously tap into these skills or explain how we do what we do.
12. Incarnation Cross
Think of the Incarnation Cross as the grand role that we are designed to live out when we live in alignment with our Design.
A combination of the four most prominent gates in our Bodygraph - the personality sun, personality earth, design sun, and design earth - the Incarnation Cross is an archetype that describes the way we perceive, communicate and transform others who cross our paths.
If you’re familiar with Richard Rudd’s Gene Keys, you’ll notice that the Incarnation Cross corresponds with the Genius Sequence in the Gene Key system.
In this way, understanding your Incarnation Cross can help us understand our brand’s genius and how we create transformations in the lives of our customers.
13. Conditioning and Deconditioning
If you’ve been in the human design world for any length of time, you’ve probably heard these words.
No, they have nothing to do with washing your hair 😆
Imagine yourself surrounded by a big clear bubble.
As you go through your day, you encounter other people each with their own coloured bubbles.
Every time you interact with someone, some of the colour from their bubble seeps into yours.
By the time you get home, your bubble isn’t the clear, pristine bubble you started off with.
It’s got a little bit of blue here, some red there, some rainbow colours and zig-zag patterns over there.
Now imagine this happening over the process of your entire life.
This is conditioning.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with this process.
It’s natural to be influenced by the people we interact with. It’s life.
The problem is, if we’re not careful, we can think that this bubble - filled with all these different colours - is how our bubble always was.
Deconditioning then, is the process of clearing away all the colours and patterns in our bubbles and returning to the bright, clear bubble we started off with.
It’s releasing all the things we learned from other people about how we “should” live, and coming back home to who we truly are.
Deconditioning is the ultimate goal of human design.
Because human design is not about fixing who you are. It’s about remembering who you’ve always been.
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Recap
I hope this article helped you decode the language of your human design.
I want to help you feel more confident about engaging with your own human design experiment and journey of deconditioning.
If you’ve got any questions, you know where to find me.
Until next time. Love,
Tay