The Art of Active Waiting Inquiry

Some writing to process my latest experiences and learnings as I share my discoveries with you.

In a previous article, I mentioned the show "The Magicians" in bringing up Depression.

I like to reframe Depression like this:

Imagine a fast-moving mountain stream.

Occasionally, there are spaces off to the side where water gets side-tracked (Uranus).

You know how water comes to rest in a depression in the earth?

Sometimes, we have mental or physical Depression as a signpost to take a breather, a time out, and enjoy some deep rest.

Wait too long, though, and your water stagnates and gets stuck (like how water does in a depression in the earth). 

Going deep to rest implies Pluto to me, which can either bring death or lead to transformation.

Death is the ultimate transformation.

In Human Design, many newcomers mistakenly equate our waiting strategy with doing nothing. That is not accurate. 

Waiting for Favorable Circumstances

Strategy, a concept defined initially by Aristotle as having the purpose of achieving victory, is not a passive endeavor. 

In this context, waiting is an active and intentional action that empowers individuals, setting the stage for favorable circumstances.

In the Magicians, graduate students are taught about waiting for favorable circumstances for casting spells - circumstances controlled by the planetary bodies, particularly the moon.

Now link that to Waiting for the Pulse. 

The timing of mood is not up to our mind. Every individual gate has a formatting of now or not; it's linked to our chemistry. Involving all centers, the Individual Empowerment Circuitry also carries the keynotes of Melancholy. This natural energy can be channeled into the fertile inspiration to be creative or create for creation's sake.

By experimenting with our Strategy of waiting for life to initiate us, we find that serendipity starts to abound in life.

It's one of the most consistent, common noticings of myself and others over years of experimenting with living our human designs.

Nowadays, it's natural for me to do things in alignment without knowing why I'm doing what I'm doing or how what I'm doing is actually in alignment; the action either prevents something drastic from happening or encourages something awesome to happen. My mind stopped questioning and acting from this place of knowing clarity. It's so common now following my body that ease is the norm, and the discomfort is unnatural nowadays and very noticeable.

Twelve years ago, before the Human Design experiment mutation took hold in me, discomfort was the norm for this body - back when the madness of the "normal mind" ruled.

For those of us categorized as one of the three waiting Types, the act of "waiting" involves attuning to the energy of the Aura specific to our Type. It means centering oneself within the Aura's energy, embracing its frequency and gifts.

Adopting an active waiting approach can be considered a strategic move, offering individuals the freedom to wait for "favorable circumstances," thereby profoundly altering the course of our lives.

 This active waiting state represents one's authentic energy calm, despite the adaptive strategies imposed by the mind, so that our natural flow is undisrupted.

Like the mountain stream on its adventure from high vistas to shining seas, our bodygraph has enormous pressure, a gravity-like force drawing us from the head and root pressures to express at the throat.

This waiting state can be seen as a gateway to deep self-reflection and inner transformation. It is a pause where we can reconnect with our true essence, allowing authentic energy to guide our actions and decisions.

This state invites a sense of stillness, creating space for clarity and knowing to arise.

By consciously embracing this waiting state, we can become more aware of who we are and what truly matters to us.

 It is an opportunity to shed the layers of conditioning and reconnect with the core of our being. 

Waiting for life's initiation of us through the self-discovery of what we can respond to, gain clarity on, or be invited to can lead to a more fulfilling and purposeful life.

It takes balancing great concentration with letting go for effortless effort to flow.

As we still and align our actions with our authentic energy, free from external pressures and expectations - it becomes more readily apparent which are spoken for through conditioning that arises from within.

Have you ever tapped into a wellspring of creativity and intuition in this active waiting state? It is a fertile ground where new insights and awareness can blossom.

By allowing yourself to be present in the moment and tune in to your inner wisdom, you can uncover unique knowing and innovative approaches to your challenges.

This fertile, active waiting state enables us to transcend conventional thinking, and Inquiry helps us, "Waiting Types," tap into our inherent, innate potential.

In essence, the Strategy of active waiting inquiry serves as a step towards harmonizing with our internal energy and orientation. It narrates the inner journey of the "passenger within" as it reconciles with its vehicle in this life - our form.

"Form follows Function" is a term I've been using lately to explain that Aura is what builds the body. 

Function is a critical evolutionary determinant, and form arises from the Aura. 

In other words, your Aura is what builds the body. 

Ra gave a lot of Human Design readings before creating a simple way to explain to his clients and students how to help realign the being to their form. Type, Strategy, and Authority arise from the Auric natal imprint (not just the conscious personality or unconscious design blueprint).

Like how magicians wait for the moon to reach the proper phase and position for casting a spell, Strategy serves as a way of waiting for life to move us into the correct circumstances for fulfillment.

The neutrino ocean is a program that, like an array of delicacies from all the galaxy's far reaches and beyond, cannot be digested in one meal; indeed, some are poison and will kill you.

Strategy reshapes life circumstances—engaging in active waiting leaves less time for unnecessary external initiatives that take you further off your path, down the road of regret.

Lashing out in Frustration, Anger, Bitterness, Disappointment, or doing things to avoid these states of being from those states of being are just going to create more of the same.

"We can't solve today's problems with the mentality that created them." Albert Einstein 

Active Waiting helps to alter the energy of surrounding situations and circumstances. Reflective Inquiry partnered with this allows the mind to process the pressure while we wait.

Active Waiting Inquiry becomes a practice of reorientation toward one's natural auric energy internally while simultaneously becoming an energetic force that transforms interpersonal dynamics.

Exploring "the energy of waiting" represents a significant behavioral shift for us in this frenetic age, as many people move faster and faster to adapt to or try to keep up with the changing background frequency, while others fall into apathetic states.

Countering conditioned tendencies to initiate actions out of alignment is no easy feat.

Consciously embracing active waiting opens individuals to profound experiences, unlocking new dimensions of freedom and decision-making.

Consider the example of a design focused on reproduction through Channel 59-6, "Mating, a design focused on Reproduction." The active waiting strategy can drastically change circumstances and effectiveness. 

For example, offering sex in response to a come-on differs radically from initiating sex without mutual attraction, avoiding misunderstandings and chaos, or, at worst, imprisonment.

The waiting strategy makes our Aura available for the right circumstances, to be open and enveloping (Generator), focused and penetrating (Projector), or resistant and sampling (Reflector). 

This creates space for the asking, the recognition, formal invitations, or surprises in life that lead us to spiritual fulfillment - satisfaction, success, and surprise.

The waiting strategy Ra gave us allows for calming the not-self's desire to take, take, take, or, on the flip side, give from "Not-Self generosity" in an attempt to get.

Are you volunteering from the mind without a genuine recognition or need?

#EmpowermentCircuitry #ActiveWaiting #ReflectiveInquiry #Melancholy #LivingYourDesign #LivingYourDesign

Mastering your System

Projectors are here to master systems so that they can be successful guides for others. Understanding a system to the core cultivates in the Projector the ability to recognize what is going on in the world around them, even inside of the other, perceiving directly how the process of enlivenment might be helped along through awareness.

Dear Projector, if you're reading this, the very first system you need to master is your own physiology. Not by domination, but by recognizing how your Design speaks its nature through your body, through your sensory contact with the environment, as it is received in awareness. We don't do any of our sense perceptions after all, we simply receive them as they are filtered by the Design.

In relation to your environment, you exist in a projection field. Projection is nothing bad (don't be fooled by much of the conventional interpretations in psychotherapy). The projection field is part of how you experience life, as well as your integration into the world - it is a mirror for you. What and whom you are drawn to connect with, how you perceive what is out there, is a reflection of your own state and condition. 

Learning the language of your own biology is key to understanding the way in which the Design operates in its wholeness. Recognizing directly that we're all breathing together in a single continuous body - and that it has a nature. This is something that is constantly being communicated to you through the projection field.  

You can learn the biological language of this system of life by studying how your form functions in relation to your environment - noticing its cycling through dualities of up and down, hot and cold, stimulation and neutral, acceleration and deceleration, energy availability and rest, intensification and deintensification, movement and stillness, doing and non-doing... 

noticing the rhythms, the way things wiggle and oscillate as they pattern themselves, the way in which things respond to each other organically...

noticing the way in which the attention is naturally beckoned towards beauty and the simple, gentle pleasure of sensory stimulation... 

noticing the way in which other bodies move and hold themselves up, without getting distracted by the personality layering on top...

noticing that all of this is already available without us needing to create any of it... There is seeing already happening.

All of this is what will reveal to you the nature of the Design, the intelligence that informs everyone's decision-making Authority, whichever one it may be. 

Every system (including yourself) contains oscillation, and in that oscillation the Design brings messages of support from the unconscious to the conscious. You might recognize these as felt qualities that show up: your hand suddenly reaching up to carefully support your head, fingers stroking your lips or the side of your cheeks, a gentle rocking back and forth as you sit, feet that suddenly wiggle... and then, as we notice that contact, perhaps a quality of ease showing up elsewhere in the body. Soothing. Stabilizing. More present. 

In the general Maya of Mind we pay little attention to these signals. We've been conditioned not to value them and even try to hide them or change them out of a sense of vulnerability or shame for looking weird. We were never taught to simply allow them to be and to drink them in. The Personality and the Design may have been placed into a forced marriage, as Ra liked to describe it, but they can have a communication of care and love. Between conscious and unconscious. Self to Self. 

In the Not-Self we can get caught up in the negativity of the mind, absorbed and seeking a way out, running in circles, not noticing how good it feels to simply feel the temperature of our hand on our face for an extended moment of time. A simple gesture, but exactly the right quality of support in the right place at the right time, with the right intensity, not too much, not too little, providing us with an enjoyable portal back to our senses in the present.

In these times of crumbling support infrastructure around us, we may discover innate support emerging from our own depths. Not because we went digging and excavating into our darkness with the mind in the hope of finding the light, but because we made the effort to reclaim our attention back from the addiction to the Not-Self. Because we trained the mind to see differently. Because we opened up the door to awareness and invited the intelligence of the Design into the live conversation we are having with the world in every moment.

The more your mind can reside in the natural movement of your Design and track it, receptive to what it brings to you without overamplifying it, the more you'll understand the operating system we're all embedded in. The more your own nature is integrated within you, the more you'll recognize it effortlessly outside of you. And wisdom begins to flourish in your undefined centers. This is a biological cellular knowing, not a superficial mental memorization of 'how things are supposed to be' or copy-pasted wisdom from elsewhere to try and make an impact. The ocean of neutrino information simply flows through you, and you know what you need to know.

The more you can surrender your eyes to go where they want to go, seeing what they want to see while ignoring the delusional interpretation process of the Not-Self agenda, the more your Strategy and Authority can begin to truly unfold moment to moment. 

This is vital for how we navigate the spaces between invitations. As Projectors, we too must be correct moment by moment, even though we might wait for the right invitation for years. In between invitations, what we take care of is our eyes (including our third eye), gifting ourselves the ability to perceive clearly. This is what the other Types need from us. To help them recognize where the unconscious Design already wants to go, and how we might get organized around that.

And all of this begins by recognizing when enough is enough. Recognizing when your system is making the shift from acceleration to deceleration, activity to rest. If you're reading this, I invite you to take a few moments to simply let go into wonder, without trying to create anything new. Perhaps gently asking yourself these questions, slowly, one by one, to nourish your seeing and guide your own awareness:

1) If I let my eyes go where they want to go, wandering around in the external environment, where do I notice the greatest sense of ease?

2) Without mental interpretation, what are these eyes already seeing that I may not have noticed before? 

3) What are the physical properties of that? Can I see its color, texture, shape? How does that register to my awareness, without me trying to do or create any of it?

4) If I stay with this just a little while longer, lingering at this contact surface of awareness with the external world, as my eyes easily go where they want to go, might I notice something different than before? Is there something new?

5) After having wondered freely for a little while, how do I feel overall compared to before?

If you took the time to participate in this little exercise, I'd love to hear about your experience.

Enjoy your movie,

Hagen

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The 'Science' of Differentiation - Being a Human Design 'Scientist' (Part 2)

This article is a continuation of an exploration into what it means to practice Human Design as a science. Part 1 can be found here:

https://www.humandesignlifecoaching.com/blog/2022/3/9/the-science-of-differentiation-being-a-human-design-scientist-part-1

Thanks for returning to this read, as we dive into the question of what it means to be scientific in our experiment of Human Design, and in practicing it professionally as ‘The Science of Differentiation’. In Part 1, I introduced the scientific method and connected it to our individual experiment with the Type, Strategy and Authority formula. I also mentioned the concept of  ‘pseudoscience’ which is the main critique the Human Design system inevitably receives with regards to required markers for it to be accepted as a science. In Part 2, we’ll be exploring each of these criteria, namely ‘verifiability’, ‘falsifiability’ and ‘bias’, to see where our limitations might be at. 

I could not locate the audios, but in one lecture Ra explained that he felt confident to move forward on his path because the system could withstand scrutiny and therefore he as a messenger could too. In another lecture, he also explained that Human Design could never be free from the pseudoscience label, because there are so many components (especially at the foundations) that could never be proved. 

We would never be able to find the evidence necessary to substantiate them. This is the paradox we find ourselves at as practitioners. We have a formula we can empirically test (this is explained below), but we can never prove its origins, the underlying basis that explains why it works the way it does. And for strict scientific critics this is enough to categorically dump the whole thing.

In the previous article, I put forward an essential question to reflect on, for anyone who remembers nothing else from this article series: ‘Is what I’m saying true and how do I know?’

For scientists, it is necessary to investigate what the evidence is that verifies their claims. Not only that, but to consider if others can run experiments independently to test and verify these claims too. This is what would create an intersubjective consistency that allows us to agree on what the 'objective world' supposedly 'is'. It is what allows us to create a framework for how things function and how we can best cooperate within that mutual understanding.

Now if you've been in Human Design for a while, you may already sense that there is a catch in this. Human Design more than anything else is about your uniqueness - a realm that only you have access to experiment with in any meaningful sense. Nobody else can run independent experiments with your inner world. Only you can.

And there is another dimension to this: the knowing of the mysteries of existence, as far the mechanics of Human Design go, is contained within the Individual Knowing circuit, which is not directly about proving oneself. The only Individual circuitry that runs through the Willpower of the Heart Center is the Centering Circuit through the Channel of Initiation (51/25). It's part of the Mystical Way: the leaping beyond the mythology of the Tribe. Separating oneself from the existing belief systems and support structures that bind the community together in its ritual practices, in order to make direct contact with the Higher Self alone. Being the first to go beyond the horizon of what the Tribe can embrace and include, hurtling oneself into the unknown. Then potentially returning to the Tribe with innovation that is sourced from one's own mutative individuality, after having successfully contacted the Spirit that lives in Matter, having survived and integrated the shock.

This Channel is the only Individual Ego that has the will to prove oneself. Which is not something that can be demanded from the Individual Knowing circuit. If you're a mutative creative artist, you know what happens whenever your creativity becomes subject to the pressure to prove your worth: the magic vanishes - and it's not you anymore. 

This is what I continue to observe in myself too writing these articles, and this series in particular. I rewrote and edited this article after posting it because it felt out of tune when I read over it again. I saw my own openness getting a bit too jacked up on 'Being an HD Scientist' to the point of distortion, though I didn't catch this when I published the article at first. I was coming at it from an angle that nobody had really asked for, and as I went through it, I didn't feel well held as a reader myself. The narrative didn't flow and it seemed I had blurted to soon.

Science is about proving the validity of patterns that explain reality. And to leverage those patterns in order to move safely into the future together. The Cross of Explanation is rooted in the (43/23) Channel of Structuring. This is the Life Force of rational explanation. It's my Cross too, and I suppose this article series is an attempt to get to know myself better more than anything else. To see more clearly this interplay between my Individual Knowing and Logical Collective Channels, the inner tension that is there between them, and to try to unpack it in a universalizing way. Key to this Channel is voicing yourself at the right time and not before...

And so let's move into the next concepts with that tension in mind: the scientists that confuses and conflates proving the pattern with proving themselves. This is another stepping stone in the discourse about individual vs collective truth.

"Science of Differentiation: Human Design is the study of our uniqueness, our differentiation; a science which is verified through our own personal experimentation with its tools for living; it is not a belief system." 

(The Definitive Book of Human Design (2018): 435) 

In light of this definition, we'll now cover verifiability, falsifiability and bias step by step.

Verifiability: for evidence to be verifiable, it is commonly understood as something that must eventually be measurable ‘empirically’. ‘Empirical’ evidence means that we can perceive it directly with our senses, confirming accurate predictions of noticeable change. 

The importance of this is that the evidence has a causal ground in the material world into which we are physically embedded, by which we are affected and which we seek to affect - where ‘reality’ is most persuasive. Our explanations should not rest on something ephemeral or purely spiritual in such a way that our only option is to believe it or not. Otherwise this could be a basis for superstition, lies and deception or plain falsehoods leading to all sorts of exaggerations rooted in ignorance like witch hunts, etc. One example of this would be the claim that Winter is cold and deadly compared to Spring because a particular Goddess descends into the underworld during that time of the year. Though poetic and perhaps of metaphorical / mystical / spiritual value, or ritual value within a communal mythos, it isn’t empirically testable. Another example would be sensational rumours or hearsay that becomes a wildfire. We can see plenty of that in the misinformation age that we're in right now. We no longer know what external sources to trust.

“Empiricism in the philosophy of science emphasizes evidence, especially as discovered in experiments. It is a fundamental part of the scientific method that all hypotheses and theories must be tested against observations of the natural world rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empiricism

Ra Uru Hu emphasized that Human Design was an empirical science that needed to be verified through one’s own direct sense perception of life as they experiment with the formulas, observing and predicting change. And true enough, through the Type signposts and the shifting patterns in our relationships we can do that. We can test the proposed formula to see if it works. Though what we may not be able to verify empirically are the underlying ‘mechanics’ that are suggested to be the cause for why it works the way that it does. They were a mystical revelation, after all.

We’d need to be able to physically locate and correlate a neutrino produced by the sun moving through a Gate activating specific biochemistry in a body that leads to change in thinking and behaviour… Has anyone got the budget or means for that (ethically)?

Having said this, there is a power in Human Design that enables it to overcome this particular limitation in an intriguing way to still make it compelling. This is the power of the mechanical logic that underpins the accuracy of its keynotes. What's so compelling about it as a practitioner is that once you get skilled at the art of its poetry, you can invoke the logic to analyse or reflect upon any phenomenon in a way that describes it holistically and within a context that has direct implications for you as a unique individual. It can be used to understand the world around in a way that was simply never so accessible before.

What's compelling for both practitioner and client is that the accuracy of it is a felt at a physical level. The body recognizes what is being said in a noticeable way. Sudden shivers, sudden profound relaxation, crying, and other sorts of physical responses that can come in sync with a mental breakthrough as the keynotes are spoken. Which is strange because the language is generally speaking complex and far out. Yet it is intimate and capable of touching one's subjective perceptions about the world in a way that not only explains things that have always been noticed but remained mysterious before, but also that it touches the physical experiences of the body as it moves through the world. It describes mechanically the experience of being either physically at odds with or seamlessly in the flow within one's context. Moreover, it describes in detail how this functions precisely for the individual. It explains why copy-pasting strategies from other people into one's own life has very very little qualitative effect. And it provides something tailor-made to suit you instead.

All of these things can be verified as an individual measurement of 'what works' and 'what doesn't work'. That's basically the code hidden in every line description (not just the third line). And this to me seems more enlivening than trying to first verify if the whole neutrino business is actually true to begin with. If I can read a line from the Rave I'Ching and hear it come out of my friend's mouth, without them even knowing anything about Human Design; and I can ask them questions about that based on the chart in a way that helps us connect and understand each other... especially if it's about a trait that really annoyed me and felt like I wanted to change about them - then, hey isn't that neat? Making that available to people, starting with myself, is probably a much quicker and practical step towards widespread peace than the endeavour of building a new enhanced particle accelerator.

Falsifiability:  Ra was a 26th Gate who loved to make bold claims rooted in what he individually ‘knew’ to be true in his bones. And this could alarm people into identifying his claims as persuasive and dangerous exaggerations. The falsifiability of claims means that they should be logically testable with available means. If we cannot verify aspects of the system directly, nor run an experiment that could contradict our predictions or hypothesis, then we have no scientifically meaningful way of knowing whether the claim is actually true or not. It’s fully untestable.

The main example used to illustrate this notion is Karl Popper’s statement “All swans are white.” This is a hypothesis that could be either logically ‘verified’ by observing all swans – which we do not have the means to do. But on the other hand, the claim could be ‘falsified’ by observing a single black swan.

A strong distinction is then made between what is considered to be ‘science’ and what is not on this basis. If claims made within Human Design cannot be technically falsified, if we cannot logically test their validity by finding contradictory evidence using available means, then it is not a scientific claim.

So if we think about that for a moment, we can see that many aspects of the Human Design system cannot be falsified. Ra knew this and therefore, as far as my interpretation of it goes, his focus was to prove at least the scientific validity of Type - out of which the Strategy follows, serving as the basis for the proposed decision-making formula. The next step then would be collecting empirical evidence for the Inner Authorities rooted in people’s personal experiments. These are things that could in a way be measured through sufficient statistical analysis, correlating and predicting patterns.

So ultimately, the scope is brought back to the individual, which is both the practical bottom line of the Human Design system as such, and also where the empirical evidence for any of it is going to come from. How we collect and evaluate that data could accumulate into a resource base for making scientific claims (or not).

For yourself, you can verify or falsify your proposed decision-making formula and evaluate its legitimacy by following it (or not) and checking the outcome against what it predicts. The limitation to this, however, is the all-pervasive ‘confirmation bias’ that each individual is hyper-prone to - and that scientific critics can hear almost instantly in the subtle shifts of intonation in your voice from many miles away with their acute sensitivity.

Bias: there are many kinds of biases, but one of the more prominent ones that we are concerned with when it comes to scientific experimentation is the so-called ‘confirmation bias’. This essentially means that we are prone to interpret our findings in a particular way that is most convenient to us and would serve to confirm pre-existing beliefs or what we’re already hoping to get out of it. There is an outcome we already have in mind, consciously or subconsciously, and we will warp information to conform to that outcome in order to bring it closer to fulfilment. 

This can lead to distortions of evidence, paying disproportionate attention to that which seems to confirm and verify, while ignoring or even eliminating contrary evidence or attempts at refutation and falsification. This can lead to major mistakes in many professions, such as medicine or urban planning for example.

If you're reading this and you've already taken the Living Your Design course, then you're probably familiar with the concept of the Not-Self and how it works. You can probably see how it lines up with long-held confirmation biases. These are the strategies and ways of thinking that keep us stuck in life following the same mistakes over and over again. It serves the purpose to keep our system stable, which is adaptive in terms of not falling apart under constant survival stress, but it also prevents us from actually growing and developing as ourselves. 

When this influences our interactions with others and impacts them, there's backlash eventually. And the tricky thing is that we're blind until suddenly we are not. We've all got our shadows and distractions out and about that help us cope with the uncomfortable intensity in the openness - and we don't get to sidestep their consequences.

One way of dealing with the problem of cognitive biases in science is that our experiments should be open to logical challenge - in particular by field ‘experts’. Investigation should be made in order to test how solid our explanations really are and whether the evidence is sufficient. We may say that we were frustrated because we didn’t trust and follow our perceived gut response, but does that explanation hold up when it is probed more deeply? And can it be probed at all? 

Are there any other expert authorities on you and your decision-making process? If there are, how empowering is that really and what is their agenda? And perhaps the more relevant question: would you like to be probed?

Again we're getting in contact with this strange relationship between the collective logical process and the integrity of individuality. In order for something to be collectively accepted as a scientific truth, you need a panel of experts who all agree on a pattern due to its predictability, which they need to investigate and measure in significant detail within the context of existing knowledge. (Imagine a group of scientists deciding amongst themselves that you're wrong about your life...) 

The individual in me is already sighing: 'Ain't nobody got time for that!' The Collective in me is saying: 'Yes, wouldn't it be interesting if we could reliably measure the gut responses of a whole batch of Generator's according to Channel variations?'

Nevertheless, biases and shadows are part of the game. I’m quoting one of my teachers in neurobiology here: ‘We’re biased to believe that we’re less biased than others!’ (Steve Hoskinson) And we have to come to practical terms with that. It is legitimate for a group of scientists to point out I'm wrong when my subjectivity has a significant sphere of influence.  

If you take on the Human Design decision-making formula during a desperate and stressful time in your life (in the same way that many people turn to medicine or any other kind of ‘solution’ to their life problems that is being sold on the market), wouldn’t there be a psychological incentive to maintain a sense of security and mental stability by perceiving that ‘it works’ when all else has failed? Wouldn’t there be a bias to believe that you’re doing the right thing?

This is the kind of thing critics are afraid of and for good reason. In the end, we're all concerned with the consequences of decision-making and having the ability to see what we're getting into. For example, if you’re following Human Design’s Primary Health System, you are moving into pioneering territory - not a well-tested and scientifically proven miracle cure-all. Your experiment may end up on the list of 'things that didn't work'. 

This modality is so counter to conventional dietary regimen advice and healthcare practices, that it can be a really radical step to take. If you’ve been experimenting with it for a long time and you aren’t really finding your health and wellbeing improving – but you persist anyway, then there may be a confirmation bias driving the process rather than careful attunement to your own body. 

Quoting the Definitive Book: "Primary Health System (PHS): Discipline within The Human Design System that studies the Form's cognition; a dietary regimen which best supports each person's complex and unique brain development."

If anyone knows to what extent we have got brains scans or EEG readings that track someone's PHS trajectory, I'd love to hear about it. 

Personally, I find PHS a component of the Human Design System where we need to get as scientifically sound professionally as we possibly can, collecting and evaluating data properly. And to my knowledge, this isn’t really happening currently. (If I’m wrong about this, someone please correct me.)

So having presented these three concepts, I’m bringing it back to the essential question of this inquiry:

 ‘Is what I’m saying true and how do I know?’ 

Knowing then that you and everyone else have certain biases at work might foster greater attention to what you and others express, or at least where it's coming from. 

At whatever level you’re practicing the Human Design System, the points outlined above emphasize at least one major thing: it’s probably in your own best interest to be as scientific about your experiment as you can be. 

And I'm breaking away here from what I had written in the previous version of this article because I was getting preachy. What I really meant to say with being 'as scientific as possible' is to pay very careful attention to your process, to consider the evidence you're really seeing versus what you think you're seeing, and how you actually come to know this mysterious thing called truth. To watch your mind distort things and bring that into the light. And perhaps, to document your observations following the scientific method if you feel inclined to make your experiment scientifically useful for others. 

(Or, your know, 'Ain't nobody got time for that!' and enjoy your life.)

This is a simple orientation of mind to the unfolding of your life as it is, tracking what happens all the way through the cycle while the known and the unknown dance with you and things are revealed. I'm not suggesting you get your lab coat, read René Descartes and start dissecting your partner in order to measure their gut response from the inside in order to prove it.

Just as much, it's about evaluating honestly how you really move through life and being clear for yourself about where your authority is. To be scientific in this sense is to assume a direct relationship to truth, not externalising it to a third party who gets to plaster their 'expertise' across your life. However, this also means recognizing that you don't know what you don't know, and that well-founded expertise can be valuable information. It's a measured pattern that you can put into context, and that you can take or leave and see what happens. It's also about understanding that if you want to make claims that are scientifically applicable to the Collective, it's going to have to undergo scrutiny before it can have legitimacy. 

So much of the work of understanding this term 'the Science of Differentiation' is disentangling the misguided personal proving from the logical collective process of establishing the patterns. What is a scientific pursuit in Human Design is to correlate scientific findings with what is described in the mechanics, given available means. Given the way in which the HD community is not very well organised around this, I don't see it as scientific by conventional standards. Right now, we've got individuals worldwide connecting the dots amongst each other in small groups and through online platforms as they share the patterns they notice in their lives. It's a myth-making in progress, which includes some really incredible stories that may point any one of us in a direction we could follow and check out for ourselves. And we'll live and die by that.

If at this point you're doubting about moving forward with it at all, I’d say that’s a good checkpoint to be at. It’s an opportunity to evaluate exactly what it is that has driven you and motivated you in this direction. This is an opportunity to get clearer with yourself that when you do make the decision to proceed, you are responsible for yourself, and that it’s time to really start paying attention to your decision-making process and its consequences. You won’t be the only one in the Human Design boat, but you’ll be the only one on your unique path.

For whatever it’s worth to you, my perspective is that each individual as a whole aligns with an underlying advantage that is deeper than their mental motivation. Even if it may be unsustainable and detrimental in the long-term or near future, whatever you’re getting involved with, however you’re getting involved in it - it serves you at some level of your being given your circumstances and conditioning; things you came by innocently and are not your fault. 

Everyone's innately doing the best they can given what they've got.

In the previous version of this article, I continued to elaborate on the importance of 'bias' as a concept to understand, and I went down a thread of trying to get at the distinction between the individual decision-making process vs the collective logical decisions-making process. I then introduced Rupert Sheldrake as a perspective to explore so as to see if we may have a ground for relating to the Human Design system not purely as a pseudoscience, however appropriate that label might still be. There's another side to the story of bias in terms of how it accumulates into dogmatic power structures, which includes scientific institutions that get to dictate what is acceptable and what is not. But we'll get to that. 

I think this is long enough now and will close Part 2 here. We can cover the other material in Part 3. 

There's an open invitation for you to share your perspectives with me here and have a discussion.

Would you like to leave a comment below? 


Thanks for reading,

Hagen

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The 'Science' of Differentiation - Being a Human Design 'Scientist' (Part 1)

In this article, we'll be exploring what it means to be scientific in our practical application of the Human Design system. 

The topic of Human Design as a science is something that I’ve been walking with for quite some time and found meaningful to think about, given our context here on this network as a school, and then my own context as a Human Design professional. It’s too vast for me to contain in a single article, and I’ll take it as far as I can in this first part.

To start off, I’ve been hearing that Human Design is quickly becoming more popular and fashionable, with a risk of decreased quality of service due to many unlicensed and untrained ‘professionals’. Along with that, some critiques of the Human Design system recently crossed my feed in which the authors took issue with people who falsely claim to be scientific in order to sell things to a desperate audience.

It's common to find attacks masquerading as 'critiques', 'myth-busting', 'debunking' and so on while the authors seem more interested in ridiculing their target and describing them as con-artists scamming their audiences for their money. And while these dangers do exist and we should be alerted to them, sometimes it just seems like the venting of frustration to me. But this is a side track.

Anyway, I quickly checked out some Google Trends statistics (2004 – Jan 2022):

The results above are for the United States. In this graph we can see the red results indicating a notable increase for the term ‘Human Design’, compared to ‘The Human Design System’ (blue) and ‘Ra Uru Hu’ (yellow).

This second graph shows results for Brazil. Here we have a comparison between ‘Desenho Humano’ (red), ‘Human Design’ (blue) and ‘Ra Uru Hu’ yellow.

This third graph shows results for the United Kingdom. ‘Human Design’ (blue) and ‘Gene Keys’ (red).

Here we have Germany. ‘Human Design’ (blue) and ‘Ra Uru Hu’ (red).

India. ‘Human Design’ (blue) and ‘Ra Uru Hu’ (red).

South Africa. ‘Human Design’ (blue) and ‘Ra Uru Hu’ (red).

Globally then, we find the following results (2004 – Jan 2022):

‘Human Design’ (red). ‘The Human Design System’ (blue). ‘Ra Uru Hu’ (yellow).

And so we can see a global upward trend (almost 3 times as popular on Google than 10 years ago) that is likely to be driven by the US and Western Europe mainly, and some swelling in Brazil and the UK since the initial hype almost two decades ago, compared to other regions of the world. We can notice the difference between these terms, suggesting perhaps that even though people may be interested in ‘Human Design’ because they heard or saw it somewhere, they may not necessarily be interested in the source material from Ra.

With this in mind, the Human Design system also being called ‘The Science of Differentiation’ is important to consider. Though this term isn’t as search engine friendly, Ra Uru Hu on several occasions emphasized that the scientific validation of Human Design was very important to him, in part to distinguish HD from other belief based systems that incorporate new age spirituality. Having said that, just because we call Human Design ‘the Science of Differentiation’ does not necessarily make it a science, and I hope to shed some more light on that in this article series (hopefully we get there).

Firstly, because it is something that I wanted to check my own understanding about for myself, secondly as a call to professional Human Design practitioners – in particular to those who may be doing the system and the vocation a disservice, and thirdly to encourage reflection and evaluation of what we are doing here in this particular community together (and maybe what we are not).

This is an article that I found very hard to write because as I did so, many layers of my own conditioning emerged to the surface that I had not yet faced. It was a confronting process in which I could see my Not-Self tendencies emerge while putting words onto the page, distorting the narrative and its message with an underlying purpose in mind. I had to rewrite and spend more time than I originally thought I would. It was necessary to dwell in the uncertainty and unknowing for longer while watching the mind propose all sorts ridiculous angles by which I could try to prove myself as a scientist, or as a professional, through this piece of writing. There was a strong Not-Self structure my system was invested in preserving as if my life depended on it. I wanted to write about this subject sincerely, and yet it continued to feel contrived for a while.

The guiding question for this article is: ‘If you are a practitioner of Human Design experimenting at any level, are you being truly scientific?’

Originally I was driving a second question related to HD professionals who use ‘The Science of Differentiation’ as a convincing marketing trick in order to sell themselves, without necessarily understanding the limitations of that claim. (And then I took a whole wrong turn by reducing the rest of the article digging deeper into that.) Instead, I’m now reorienting us back to the beauty of science and the interesting crossroads we might find ourselves standing at as practitioners.

Personal Sharing:

In my Design, aside from my Individual Channels of Awareness (61/24) and Structuring (43/23) I have Definition in the Collective Understanding circuit, which includes the Channel of Logic (63/4) and the Channel of Judgment (58/18). Much of that is unconscious and formatted by the Experiential Abstract Cycle and Mutative Individual Pulse. And so at first glance you might expect or say that I’m scientifically inclined. Though a sincere interest in science was not really catalysed in me until the year I was introduced to Human Design while in my final year of university. I’d actually given up on mathematics quite early on in secondary school due to conflicts with teachers and had grown a general dislike for abstracting life into formulas that my senses couldn’t connect to. Then much of the modern sciences became increasingly unavailable to me from that point onward.

By invitation, I was encouraged to continue studying economics and began to develop a taste for logical patterns and thinking about systems. But I was missing a lot of essential foundations to understand complex mathematics and found myself slower than others, which I also allowed to discourage me in the conditioned striving for high grades. Meanwhile, what my attention was really preoccupied with most of the time were challenges in personal relationships (the 2/5 Profile in close relationships). I was more interested in understanding social dynamics between human beings, and this was not something I could grasp through abstract mathematics, nor could I solve my relational issues with the kind of scientific thinking that reduced real living complexity to abstract patterns and cold calculation. There’s a significant difference between describing a relationship as an equation and actually living one.


Eventually I went on to study Regenerative Economics at Schumacher College in Devon, UK. As a school this place has a different scientific lineage than most esteemed universities. In fact, the whole ethos of the school follows holistic principles that structure the college into a living community where the student body grows its own food, takes care of the communal spaces and learns to live together in a way that encompasses as many dimensions of life as possible. We were encouraged to really experiment and bring all of that into the classroom to reflect upon relative to the subjects we were studying.

If you’re somebody without any Tribal Definition in your Design like me, this may not necessarily sound appealing to you. And while I’m glad I had the experience, close community life like that may not be my thing (though I’m not so sure I’ll be able to escape it either). Nevertheless, what was very meaningful and valuable to me was the embrace of the totality of life as part of our classroom conversations. The body of the individual had a voice in the classroom setting and could shape how we would go about our day. 

The intellect was not the only way of knowing that we appreciated. There was a deep scientific and philosophical inquiry into our relationship to nature, to the senses, to each other and to the complexities that emerge in the experience of living. Our focus, for most people, was much less on ‘getting the degree’ and much more on observing the mystery of what is actually meaningful in our lives and what connects us to each other. And especially, how we come to understand these things through scientific inquiry.

Scientists whose thinking I was exposed to, and some of whom I was taught by directly at this college include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alfred North Whitehead, Henri Bortoft, Brian Goodwin, Stephan Harding, Rupert and Merlin Sheldrake to name just a few that you might also be familiar with in one way or another. And though I’m not designed to be much mentally influenced by the thinking of others, by contrasting my own thinking with their essential concepts I found myself very enriched. I was given language for certain phenomena I did not have before, and I could question and evolve my own ways of thinking and knowing. All of this allowed me to expand what I could see and think about in my own way.

More importantly though, these scientists role modelled a different kind of relationship between the scientific observer and the observed than what you might traditionally find in academic institutions. Which is something I’d like to explore with you in this article series, as we think about practicing Human Design scientifically. But before we get there, let’s start with the basics. What is science anyway?

I think Wikipedia should at least be a good starting point for anyone beginning their inquiry into what science is conventionally understood to be. If we can’t trust at least that information to be accurate and reliable these days, then what can we trust right? 😉 …

The simple definition we find here is: “Science (from Latin ‘scientia’ ‘knowledge’) is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.”

And then you can also find a concise description of some of the scientific human endeavour throughout history, piecing together an image of how scientific inquiry evolved to where we are currently. At the core of this pursuit we find several vital aspects of science: the ‘Scientific Method’, ‘verifiability’, ‘falsifiability’ and ‘bias’. 

By understanding these concepts, we can get an understanding of how to approach Human Design scientifically ourselves, but also an understanding of where we are inevitably limited. By being able to hold both of these understandings side by side, we can practice from a place of humility and walk as closely to the truth as we can.

So before we briefly go into each of these concepts, I’d like to insert what I think is the quintessence of all of this. It is a question that reflects the scientific spirit, that I find helpful and necessary to bring myself back to continuously. And I invite you to remember this question if nothing else from this article:


“Is what I’m saying true and how do I know?”


There are many possible answers: 'yes', 'no', 'maybe', 'sometimes', 'I don't know', 'feels true enough but I'm not sure', ‘other people seem to think so’, ‘my gut makes an interesting sound’, etc. And all of those are fine - as long as we're aware of that and don't pretend it to be otherwise. There's nothing shameful about not knowing - that's where science begins. 

Then there is the process of moving from ‘not knowing’ to ‘knowing something scientifically’, which is not the same as moving from ‘not knowing’ to ‘thinking that we think we know’. How you ask yourself this quintessential question and move towards an answer from there, reflects the kind of scientist you are (or aren’t). And there are many different possible kinds scientists who are prone to disagreeing with each other. 

Ra Uru Hu in one of his lectures talked about Truth and Outer Authority, and that our process of getting there, sharing our awareness with each other, was not about agreeing with each other and seeing things the same way in the end. Rather, to be able to share peacefully how we see differently. I’ll elaborate on this more later on.

To answer this big question then, science proposes the ‘Scientific Method’ as a pathway to knowing:

1. You start with a curious observation.

2. You let your observation inspire or inform you with a question about its nature, 'what' it might be or 'how' it works.

3. You develop a hypothesis, a theoretical answer for what could be the case, projecting some anticipated results or predictions.

4. You find a way to test your hypothesis through experimentation, finding out how you would measure your results.

5. You analyse your findings about the observation to see if they meet your anticipations and substantiate your hypothesis or not, and what else they might indicate.

6. You draw your conclusions based on evidence and refine your process. 

This then is the guiding logical framework for training the mind to conceptualize and see scientifically. When we as Human Design practitioners claim to be practicing the ‘Science of Differentiation’, we have to understand how it follows this method. If we don’t, we’re better off just dropping the pretence. 

What connects the multiple threads I’ve opened up so far is the word ‘evidence’ in step number 6. All roads lead back to evidence. “Is what I’m saying true and how do I know?” – what’s my evidence? What do I consider to be the evidence for my conclusions and is it scientifically legitimate? 

In Human Design the practice is a proposed formula for you to experiment with and start validating the mechanics for yourself. This is your Type, Strategy and Authority applied as a way to make decisions and observe the outcome. ‘Decide for yourself to engage in this experiment and watch carefully what happens’. 

So let’s follow the scientific method in a hypothetical example for a Sacral Generator Type:

Observation: A feeling of dissatisfaction with one’s life, repeated struggle with decision-making dilemmas and feeling stuck.

Question: Can following my Type, Strategy and Authority make a measurable difference?

Hypothesis: If I follow my Type, Strategy and Authority formula, I don’t expect much will change or improve. If I simply wait for things to come to me without making anything happen, I expect nothing will happen. I’ll measure by observing changes in how I physically feel as a consequence of my decisions.

Experiment: At work, instead of going out of my office to initiate stuff to do with my colleagues which I usually do (I always think the quicker we get started the better - just do it.), I sat and waited for somebody to approach me with work. I felt nervous about what others were going to think of me but stuck with it. Eventually somebody actually showed up and asked me if I was okay and if I wanted to continue to work on yesterday’s reports. I felt something like a knot in my gut, and had the immediate urge to say no. But it was an important report and if I wasn’t going to do it, I don’t think it would get done properly and my supervisor would get upset with me. So I said ‘sure’ and started working on the report. I felt very bored doing it and really did not enjoy the feeling that ‘I had to do it’. I worked on it for two hours and noticed myself grinding my teeth until my jaw tightened up. My mind started thinking that I was stuck in a slave’s job and that I resented my boss. I was counting down the minutes on the clock so that I could quit it and go for lunch break. I felt very frustrated and could barely enjoy my meal because I was so uncomfortable in my gut.

Analysis: I can see that I ‘waited to respond’ according to the TSA formula, and that my expectations were incorrect because somebody did show up with work for me to do. When I felt in my body that I didn’t want to do it (the knots in the gut or stomach and the urge to say no) I continued anyway because I thought I had to and was afraid of consequences. When I went ahead with the reports, I felt very frustrated afterwards and this was physically noticeable. 

Conclusion: This particular case example does show a pattern between my decision-making, the feeling of frustration in my gut and overall dissatisfaction with my life and what I do for a living. It seems consistent with what is being suggested by the TSA formula. I have to experiment further to see if following my ‘gut response’ more liberally makes a positive difference and if making my decisions differently can connect me to something more ‘satisfying’ and how that would be. 


The evidence is mainly to be found in the signposts (Frustration and Satisfaction | Resistance and Ease) at first. If the formula says that you’re a Generator, can you observe that when you make your decisions one way it leads you to a physical feeling of frustration in the gut and dysfunction in communication with others? And when you make decisions the other way, can you observe a physical feeling of deep satisfaction in the gut and greater ease of communication with others?

This process may suffice for you, but scientifically what remains is weighing this ‘evidence’ in terms of ‘verifiability’, ‘falsifiability’ and ‘bias’, as mentioned earlier. And this is where we may run into the kinds of challenges that critics may then leverage as a way to dismiss the value of the system as a whole. 

On behalf of ‘real’ science, one of the main tools that aggressive critics use is the label 'pseudoscience', driving an assumption that when something is called a pseudoscience it doesn't merit attention and is invalid for exploration by definition.

Wikipedia defines a pseudoscience as follows:

"Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claims; reliance on confirmation bias rather than rigorous attempts at refutation; lack of openness to evaluation by other experts; absence of systematic practices when developing hypotheses; and continued adherence long after the pseudoscientific hypotheses have been experimentally discredited." 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience#Scientific_method

And so what do you reckon? Is Human Design a Science of Differentiation, or a Pseudoscience of Differentiation? Does this matter to you and why (not)?

And why is it worthy of exploration to you?

(Would you like to leave your perspective as a comment?)

I’ll close this first part on a cliff-hanger. The content so far may be good enough to start chewing on already as an introduction before we go deeper. In the next parts I hope to dive into what ‘verifiability’, ‘falsifiability’ and ‘bias’ are and how these things play into the scientific approach to practicing Human Design (or lack thereof).

I also intend to bring in some interesting perspectives from Rupert Sheldrake’s book ‘The Science Delusion’, also called ‘Science Set Free’, which turns things on its head by investigating whether the prevailing scientific worldview holds up to its own standards – or not. And this may open up an avenue for us to look at some of the alternative scientific role models I mentioned earlier, and how they might inspire the Human Design experiment.

Then finally we can get into the topic of individual truth vs collective or institutionalised scientific truth, which is what we’re gradually building up towards.

(To be continued when the energy shows up. 

If not, then at least you know where I was headed and have a trail you could follow.)

Hagen

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Awakening Human Design Analysts

The Professional Phone is Ringing. Will you answer the Call?

IHDS Human Design Analyst Teacher Laveena Archers

One of the most profound tools for awakening awareness, the poignant language Ra gave us in the Rave I'Ching is "part haiku, part dictionary."

The Rave I'Ching describes the 64 Hexagrams (Gates) and describes each of the six lines for each Gate. In the Rave I-Ching, Ra has given us names of the Incarnation Crosses, our Life's Work, and the highest expression of purpose. 

Newcomers tend to over-identify with details and forget we can never take one Gate or Live in isolation. 

Our job as analysts is to decipher the elements in context to a being's quantum intelligence. 

Over-analyzing one specific Line of a chart is tricky. We need to continually come back to the surface's frequency because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. One Gate plus one Gate in a channel is not only about the gate description or even the lines therein. It now encompasses a unique life force frequency in context to the entire Design. 

Remember the Personality is a third of what you are, the Design is a third of what you are, and the Quantum of the two is more than the sum of the parts (one plus one equals three). We need to always bring our analysis of a chart home to the context of the Quantum.

When you put too much focus on just a part of the chart and don't look at that part without bringing it back to the whole, your analysis might not help someone as much as giving them all of the valuable information that can lead them to develop their self-awareness. 

When in Doubt, Zoom Out

Feeling stuck? I like to say, "When in doubt, zoom out."

Remember to keep in mind the Type, Strategy, Authority, defined centers/channels/gates when you look at a line. 

Look at the big picture and do your best to practice describing what you see in context.

I notice the way they teach us to do this at IHDS leads to horrendous run-on sentences. What to do? It is what it is. At some point, you get good at pausing, breathing, touching in with your client's receptivity and presence to the information you are conveying to them. 

In an analysis...
Ask Yes/No Questions of Generators. Invite the Projector's Seeing of Others. Inform of thier Impact, to Impact Manifestors. Initiate the Reflector to their Objectivity.

Genetic Continuity

When you study enough Human Design, you come across the term "genetic continuity." Besides all lines of similar values relating to each other, the pieces of every chart you encounter seem to have a recurring theme or pattern. 

The genetic continuity related to the Type/Strategy/Authority/Profile/Cross is a breathtaking symphony of keynotes that speaks to the nature of a person's Being and what they are learning or where they are nurtured. 

This theme you see is consistent breathing in or out of the Being's expression and living of their life. You come across paradox and complexities that are to be brought into a contextual relationship to the whole.

The Rave I-Ching is a kind of poetry. It takes time to "grok" the lines. The "This" and "That" is a generality of two extreme polarities in most cases. You are very specific, and so are your clients.

On his deathbed, Confucious said he wished he could have more time to learn from the Book of Changes: "Give me a few more years so that I can devote fifty years to study Change, and I may be free from great mistakes." The Ancient Chinese Book of Changes can take a lifetime to understand. 

Similarly, the Rave I-Ching lines take time, and they can make more sense when applied in context with the entire chart. Here are my Type recommendations to learn these Lines. 

  • If you're a Generator, would you like to start with your own lines, to map and meditate on over time?

  • If you are a Projector, I suggest you read the lines of the people you know best or spend the most time observing in aura.

  • Manifestors need to understand their Impact.

  • Reflectors, can you study the lunar Transits?

In my Professional Analyst Training classes, we offer you a 64 digital set of flashcards as seen below. You can print them out and laminate for study purposes.

Image by Naraya Fox

On every Flashcard, you will see the "chop" or image for the Hexagram, with a colored drop shadow to help you remember the elements that create the Hexagram. We've started with the I-Ching name and the Gate description, along with the Center it is in, and the keynoting Ra gave us for each Line. These are intended to help you remember what the nature of each Line is about for each Gate.  You don't have to memorize all of it right away. It is helpful to get into the practice of speaking this language and seeing what magic it holds for both you and your clients.

When you read the Rave I-Ching Lines, for most, there are two sets of definitions. One sounds positive (Exaltation), and one seems negative (Detriment). These are two sides of the same coin. It is the "this" and the "that" of the Line. Some people think of it as the light and the dark. I like to label it as Ease and Challenge. Who doesn't like a good challenge? Ra liked the Detriments. He thought of them as very honest. The collective tends to see the Detriments as "bad" or "wrong" and the Exaltation as "good" or "right." Remember, Human Design is not about these things. It's about accepting everything in alignment and watching as the Observer.

We all get to experience the This and the That. When we follow our Strategy and Authority, we may experience more ease. When we are acting from the "not-self," we may encounter more of the challenge. Yet, those challenges are there for a reason. Certain people will influence you to express the challenge, which colors the nature of your relationships with them. No choice. 

Ra said he wrote the Rave I-Ching for the "not-self" because you tend to vacillate between the extremes when you are misaligned with your true nature. The not-self thinks in very black and white thinking, without any shades of grey. When you begin to live life uniquely, you become aware of the widespread rainbow of colors rather than just this and that. Ra said we could all write our own Rave I-Ching at some point because we are, each of us, very, very unique. 

Do you recognize yourself or others in each of these areas when you read your lines? What can you learn from accepting the nature of your Being, your Seeing, your living, breathing ALIVENESS?

Often when placed into context, the Line's name says it all, and you don't have to read the entire description of the Lines to your client. Speak from grokking, in context, and you can convey the meaning with so much for than words. The tone of your voice, the keynote names you choose to emphasize, the pauses in sentences, and inflection can give substance to the way you string together your words. Even if someone doesn't "get" it right away (and many won't), you're speaking the language that can unlock their genetic potential, and the keynotes take time to work their magic.

I can still remember how strongly the words "You're here to Mutate the System" rang in my ears from the first professional Analyst reading I got from Kumud. Did I know then what that meant? Heck no! In the last couple of years, I have seen how my teaching way changes, morphs, and mutates as my Design's embodiment deepens. A Manifestor makes an Impact. A Projector takes that Impact and softens it for use with their Others. No wonder I not only took Ra's recommendations of learning from fellow Projectors like Darshana and Becky, but I also gravitated to listen to Ra, Genoa, Alok and Lynette over the years!

Some lines are a learning process, and some lines speak to the quality of you. 

Hexagram Line Speak

  1. The 1st line description for each Gate will give you the foundation of that Hexagram.

  2. The 2nd line description for each Gate will provide you with the natural projection of that Hexagram.

  3. The 3rd line description for each Gate will give you the material way of that Hexagram.

  4. The 4th line description for each Gate will provide you with the externalization of that Hexagram.

  5. The 5th line description for each Gate will give you what others project upon that Hexagram is.

  6. The 6th line description for each Gate will provide you with the transitional nature of that Hexagram.

In some cases of Line descriptions, there are one-sentence line introductions in blue. This is not the case for all lines. When there is a blue description, it means that this is what you are learning about over your lifetime. Like how 6th Lines have a maturity process, so do the Line descriptions in blue. If there is no blue description, then it is a given. Blue lines are not a given, they are to be learned.

In the Rave I'Ching book, you will see a planet glyph associated with the lines listed next to them.

Because the planets are in a particular position in the sky at the moment of birth and they will activate the Hexagram and a line within that Hexagram when you are born.

When planets activate certain lines, they "fix" that Line either in detriment or Exaltation. The up pointed pyramid notes this or the down pointed pyramid-shaped triangle you will see on your chart and all the Line descriptive pages in the Complete Rave I-Ching.

Some things Ra has said over the years touch me very deeply. This audio clip is one of them. Awareness is everything in Human Design. 

The longer I have experimented, the easier it is to allow communication to flow without self-censoring or holding back because of the mind's fears.

Live your Design, and the Awareness you can communicate becomes richer, deeper, and more rainbow-like, shining like the sparkling dew in a garden of roses.

The more Unique your perspective, the more profound your Awareness, the more YOU you become.

Giving this gift of seeing to our clients, students, friends and family, when asked for, is one of the sweetest things I have experienced.

It is my desire that you too give this gift to yourself, and to the world.

Namaste, beloveds.

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Inner Authority: Material Willpower

Ego Authority: The Will To Do Something 

"Ego authority is very limited in the way it can occur because of the hierarchy of the authorities. In order for the ego to be the authority the chart CANNOT have a defined solar plexus, or a defined sacral, or a defined spleen. This means that there are only 2 channels that can activate the ego as authority: The 45-21 channel and the 51-25 channel. 

Ego authority is the authority of the will, of willpower. The ego center is essentially a 'me' energy. This is not to be confused with the 'self' of the G center. This is rooted in possession. Possession of things and of place. Who‘s first? Me. Who‘s in charge? Me. Who owns this house? Me. 

Two Channels 

There are two channels that create ego authority are the 45-21 and 51-25. This first channel is a manifested channel, and therefore anyone with 45-21 ego authority will be a manifestor. Of course, this is provided the sacral, spleen and solar plexus are not defined. The second channel is a projected channel and as long as the G center is not connected to the throat (which would make them an ego manifestor) people with the 51-25 only are ego authority projectors. 

45-21 Material People 

The dynamics of the 45-21 energy are straightforward. It is the focus of 'me‘ on material plane and the control that comes with that. This channel is called the Money Channel but it‘s not simply about money. It‘s about all of the elements of holding the community together in a particular order. This involves education and where one sits in any given status based organization. 

In terms of authority, it means that such a person has to have the willpower to support their decision, to bring their will energy into play. There can‘t be any waffling about it. This person has to be able to forcefully say, with heartfelt conviction, 'This is for me. I will do it.' This is, after all, a manifesting channel. They have to have the complete conviction that they can control the endeavor, whatever it is. 

The ego authority, if the person decides to get a Ph.D. for example, they must have the full force of their will over an extended period of time. To do that, they must begin with a strong sense of will towards the goal. There must be a clear goal and utter conviction that they can reach the goal." 

- Excerpt from IHDS - Cartography 4 -  Authority (p.16)

In recent articles and discussions on the HumanDesign.Live network, the topic of Free Will vs No Choice has come up frequently. I'm also encountering it these days in interaction between people who have the Ego of the Heart center as their Inner Authority and those who have an Undefined Heart center altogether. Telling people with this Inner Authority that Free Will is an illusion and that therefore they should give up on imposing their willpower and manifesting their control is unlikely to lead to any success. They have no choice but to establish material control by making a commitment to a goal. It seems to me that for them, this illusion of Free Will isn't going anywhere.

The revelation of the Heart center was one of the most liberating insights Human Design brought to me when I first began studying the system. I was in an environment where a lot of new age spirituality was going on all over the place. I had sat in sanghas and participated in various group healing modalities where people came together to address 'the problem' of the ego, its perceived selfishness and tendency towards 'separation'. And the leaders of these circles had constructed a whole detailed logical process of step by step trying to eliminate it.

Defined Ego Center the Human Design System

To learn there was such a thing as a Defined and an Undefined Heart center, and that there was a significant distinction to be made between correct and healthy Ego and an amplified Not-Self distortion was absolutely mind-blowing to me. I have a fully open Heart center and I had been so seduced by these practices of demonizing the ego and habitually trying to shatter the ego of others at the slightest manifestation. Looking back now, it was terribly misguided and plain unaware. And I have a suspicion that a Free Will vs No Choice conversation could head in that direction too if we aren't careful.

The struggle of inconsistent Willpower that most of humanity experiences sets us up for envy and jealousy in the Not-Self. Those of us with the Heart center undefined see the Materialists who can consistently manifest their will on the material plane, who can assert their 'me' above anything else in their life, and then there's the instant temptation to condemn those beings because when 'we' try to do that things go sideways. 

The paradox to see is that the Ego serves its Tribe, that the 'me' of the Materialist is a function of its place in the hierarchy, inevitably supporting the community in its material wellbeing in one way or another. Their Willpower comes back around full circle. While in the Not-Self that 'me' becomes a self-serving menace in its blind disregard for others. 

When introducing newcomers to Human Design, this is often a very humbling conversation to have with people who have Defined Egos, listening to the abuse they have faced from people overreacting to them for no good reason (and it is particularly painful when these people are Projectors). People who try to break the ego of the other in the attempt to prove themselves superior (spiritually or otherwise). And if they can't then they suddenly fall into a black hole of their own insecurities, ironically looking toward the Defined Ego for some external validation of their worth.

This dynamic is a radical misunderstanding of how things work, and it is a blindness to who people really are. The correct Ego is an incredibly beautiful thing. I thank my lucky stars for the Defined Egos that have supported me and stood up for me throughout my life. I now enjoy watching the egoic masks emerge in order to face social challenges. It is deeply impressive to me to witness someone consistently putting their heart forward to maintain their own integrity, or on behalf of whatever or whomever they represent.

At first it can be a bitter pill for the Not-Self to swallow; to sit in the presence of a Defined Ego and come to terms with the fact that this other being has what you will never have and being put in one's place in this way. Yet, once accepted this becomes very sweet. You were never meant to compete with them.

Once you can be who you are and the other can be who they are, your awareness can be free to witness the beauty of their process of proving what they're here to prove, seeing how the Ego is applied to that end. It's no longer about 'oh I wish I could do / have that'. 

Once you've accepted your place, the hierarchy stops being a problem and the superiority/inferiority complex can start to dissolve. Nourishing resources can begin to flow downstream to you, and from you to others, in the way that is just right.

Enjoy your movie,

Hagen

The Mysterious Difference which Makes a Difference

This article is a response to a question from the humandesign.live community: 

“As a 6/2 MG with emotional authority, waiting is extremely difficult… Almost painfully difficult. If one is in a difficult place in life and has the urge to make a change, but there is no change to make, what should they do?” 

– Joshua French

Human Design Sacral Center - Life Resource of the Generator

In one of my recent articles '幽玄, Melancholy, Waiting, Art and Noticing', I connected certain Japanese aesthetic principles to our experiences of Waiting and Melancholy, using artistic work by Andrew Wyeth to convey the simple profundity of waiting for correct enlivenment to emerge on its own.

Of course, being a Non-Sacral Projector, I write from a point of view that asks us to value non-productivity and patience. Not only as a safeguard against rash mental decision-making, but also in the awareness of being careful with the energy we have. 

Life is not a simple formula of energy availability and its general application. The energy any one of us carries is specific. It isn’t to be used for just anything because someone out there thinks we should. It’s there to be used for what we love. Our context is what enlivens our spirit and enriches the world in turn. And in order for our forms to function they need a healthy balance of activity and rest, no matter what Type we’re talking about.

This balance is naturally something you can only find yourself. Nobody else can know when enough is enough for you. 

Others can only observe your signposts and what you’re broadcasting. At best they can tell when you’re approaching or have passed your healthy limits and ask you some good questions to help you orient yourself according to your Type, Strategy and Authority.

Neither can your mind tell when enough is enough - until it has surrendered to the body. Only then might it be sensible enough to recognize when it is time to stop after registering the body’s intelligent cues. Learning the language of your own biology is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself, which takes a significant amount of time and feedback – especially if most of your defined Channels are unconscious.

Having said all of this, consider then the perspective of a 34/20 Triple Split Manifesting Generator with all Centers below the Ajna defined according to a DLL PLR Variable - including a fixed ‘sports’ Channel between the Root and the Spleen.

Don’t worry if the sentence above still reads like an alien language or total gibberish to you. What I’m saying is that we’re looking at a person whose body needs to be actively moving and physically exercising to be healthy. Someone who is designed to be busy with a tremendous amount of energy building up that is ready to engage. Someone with an energy resource that must be depleted in a fulfilling manner every day.

It isn’t necessarily the best advice to tell this kind of Design to ‘stop doing’, dressed up with beautiful Zen poetry or Taoist philosophy. It may be a tempting avenue in order to prevent Not-Self chaos. After all, for the Emotional Wave there is no Truth in the Now. But recommending they get into a habit of ‘non-doing’ may equally lead to aggravation.

The Way of The Generator

“Sacral Beings Have to Work. The Sacral is about work. It’s why I call Generators slaves; they’re workers. Sacral beings have to have work. They have to be able to use their energy. They have to use their energy effectively. They have to live through their work. 

Everything about Sacral beings is about work. Think about the horror of life when you do not work the work that’s for you. Think about the horror of life of being busy working at something that you don’t like and don’t enjoy, and it’s not for you; it’s a horror. 

Because everything about a Sacral being is about the beauty that’s possible for them in doing what feels correct for them to do. That they use their energy properly, that they use their energy efficiently. It’s about work. Are You Ready? 

I have a joke, a trick, that I did for years when I was doing readings. A person would sit down beside me and sort of try to get comfortable. And before I would turn on the recording machinery, I would say, “Are you ready?” Most of the people that come to me are designed to respond in one way or another. When I met the Voice, the first thing the Voice said to me: “Are you ready to work?” 

- So, are you ready?”

 – Ra Uru Hu (The Way of the Generator)

It’s important that the Generator works, and that the Sacral energy is used in a regenerative manner. This doesn’t mean it can’t be correct for you to have a meditation and stillness practice – it depends on your Design, follow S&A, you know the drill - but one thing is for sure: the Sacral energy must be used to the point of satisfaction.

So let’s make an essential distinction here between waiting and doing nothing. The concept of 無為 ‘Wú Wéi’, popularly referred to as ‘non-doing’, is a Taoist term. To provide some continuity with my last article, I can invoke Alan Watts here for translation: ‘Wú Wéi’ basically means ‘not to force anything’. It is to act in accordance with the flow of nature. Not resisting it, nor trying to push it in a certain direction we think it ‘should’ go.

The dilemma is the mind’s fearful tendency of forcing life down a conditioned pathway.

“ … in the end, you have to see that the greatest enemy you have is your mind, because your mind hates your Sacral. It hates it. “How dare you, you grunting, groaning thing have control over my life. Here I am with my vocabulary, my education, and my wonderful knowledge, and here is this, “uh-uh” telling me what to do.” The mind wins most of the time because that’s the way you’ve been conditioned. You’ve been conditioned to believe that what you think is what is correct for you, and that what you think is how you’re supposed to live your life. And it’s all a lie—your mind isn’t going to accept that lie until your Sacral is living your life for you, and not your mind. 

And your mind will be in there screaming; it doesn’t stop. It’s not like your mind is going to surrender to your Sacral and say, “Oh, isn’t it nice to be awake!” It doesn’t do that. It says, “You’re being an idiot, look at the rest of the planet. They’re all running around like crazy; you should be doing that, too.” Because that’s the mind. Your greatest battle is with the mind.” 

– Ra Uru Hu (The Way of the Generator)

And so when we bring our mental decision-making to a halt in order to ‘Wait to Respond’, ‘Wait for Recognition and an Invitation’, etc., it can be disorienting at first. We can look to the 5th Gate for understanding the nature of this Waiting game a bit better:


Gate 5: Waiting – Fixed Patterns: Fundamental attunement to natural rhythms. Waiting as an active state of awareness. 

 Ra would say it is like a pregnancy.


This is not about doing nothing. It is about not betraying natural rhythms through forced mental initiative. The mind’s burden of decision-making is then transmuted into simple active awareness - our witnessing presence to that which is unfolding.

In my previous article I used the term ‘dwelling in nature’, and this is what I was referring to. If we could imagine for a moment a forest hermit dwelling in the natural landscape, immersed in the natural rhythms of the elements, flora and wildlife. No longer attached to ‘the world’, and yet in their attunement still waiting for ‘it’ - waiting for the call.


Dwelling in the form principle, there's this obvious mystery at work:

What’s the next response gonna be?

Which environmental input will evoke my body to respond?


It’s such a mysterious thing that everything we’re conscious of at any given moment is happening on its own. We don’t ‘do’ any of our sense perceptions. The filtering of that information is all done for us, and we can just enjoy the outcome. This kind of active awareness is not the same as 7 centred hypervigilance. There is the allowance for the unknown to remain unknown for as long as it likes, and at the same time there is curiosity about what is being revealed.

What am I noticing in this moment?  

What are my senses bringing to awareness?

Where might my eyes want to go of their own accord, moment by moment, if I don’t force them down the same old tracks?

Love is our context for life and work. 

And yes, to anyone else reading, I know Ra’s descriptions can sometimes be heavy to digest, especially in times of pain.

In your case, Joshua, as a 6/2 with the alienating change of scenery Saturn has recently brought to your life, while it's vital not to skip over any shadows, joining Ra in experiencing the mind as an enemy may not be the most supportive perspective either.

The mind may not be a friend at this point – and friends in general may seem hard to come by in a polarized and distracted environment. But there’s no energy to waste on battling the mind in isolation. Storms of the mind pass on their own eventually.

 “..If one is in a difficult place in life and has the urge to make a change, but there is no change to make, what should they do?”

In our brief conversation you recognized the pain was coming from your gut relative to your current working environment. In BG5 career coaching we emphasize environment as being a vital point of intervention. It is your environment that determines the nature of the information you receive. In the ‘wrong’ environment, there may be nothing satisfying for you to respond to.

Scientist and anthropologist Gregory Bateson coined an amazing definition for information: ‘a difference which makes a difference’. 

So much is changed by noticing differently. We fall into places and people according to where our eyes go and what they pay attention to. We can align to different information simply by turning our head (or not even that). We could be miserable in the shadows and just and inch to the left find ourselves basking in the sun. 

The mind is great at imagining mountainous obstacles where the tiniest detail could make all the necessary difference. In times of pain and total overhaul of what we value, renewed appreciation for the small can shift our realities around.

Unconditioned Beauty

Bateson called beauty ‘the pattern that connects’, and I think that’s quite on point. Not only is Gate 5 the Gate of Waiting, it is also the Gate of Fixed Patterns, with which we connect into the wondrous world of plant life. It reflects the fractal patterning of nature that connects the microcosmically small to the macrocosmically vast. The Channel of Rhythm 5/15 is shared by all biological life and defines the aura of the biosphere as a whole.

One tiny moment of glimpsing unconditioned beauty is an information imprint that can scale up fractally across your life. It’s like that brief instant where you decide not to react and catch your breath instead of engaging in someone else’s drama. It can change the course of the rest of your day - and beyond.

In such moments, you may remember the difference between right and wrong, correctness and incorrectness, at a level the mind may not immediately grasp - but the body does. This isn't any conditioned idea of what is beautiful, but a deep impression of beauty in which the external world reflects your unique nature back to you.

Unconditioned beauty and love go hand in hand, and they are the hallmarks of our unique trajectory. This is the magic of the G Center and its Magnetic Monopole, the Center of the Higher Self, Transcendent Love, Direction and Creative Self-Expression. It is all already there.

Now, to answer your question, Joshua, I cannot tell you what should be done - that would be disempowering to you. I’d say this is a crucial time for you to discover for yourself who you really are and where your source of power and authority really originates from.

However, where is the unconditioned beauty showing up? As you wait for the next response, as your body processes the hope and pain of your emotional wave, how do your senses bring beauty to your active awareness? 

And perhaps - has the time come to change your job?

Strength to you in your transition to the roof, brother.

Hagen