Above is a fascinating image of deeper underlying mechanics we term "Mirror Gates" that is helpful in our understanding as Analysts (which you can learn about in Semester 1 of our Professional Analyst Training).
Fascinating as it is, this and other mechanical structures are not necessary to explain to your clients in an Overview or even a Foundational Chart Reading.
True, the information and technical detail in a Human Analysis are very important. But a chart reading isn’t about the information and technical detail in totality.
It is possible to have every piece of information ever delivered about a Human Design chart 100% memorized and still not be able to deliver a quality Foundational reading.
The Human Design System is logical, organized, and integrated.
While the mind will make it confusing, complicated, and fragmented...
Especially when the chart reader is not deconditioned nor educated correctly.
Which leaves their client walking away confused, not empowered, and either doubting the system, the reader, or worse, doubting themselves.
I remember being approached for partnership by a self-proclaimed professional Analyst who did not have any certifications to speak of, yet created their own Analyst Training program. This young person reached out to me over four years ago with flattering words about my HD work, sharing how much they admired my success and wanted to collaborate with me. They then (without being asked, or asking) promoted their training program and their readings in my Human Design Facebook group by sharing a Soundcloud link to a sample "career reading."As a professional BG5 Career and Business teacher and IHDS Professional Teacher, I was curious about their offering to train Analysts, so I listened.
Their sample reading was not effective in terms of giving the client a good picture of their career. The story told about the bodygraph was a disjointed collection of mechanics (though accurate in theory) about the gates and how they functioned, what they did, and all kinds of facts not necessarily applicable in context were included.
A Person is not a Gate nor a Line nor a Color
The reading itself was not especially specific to the human that the chart was being read for, in that though the words used may have been technically accurate, they were not woven together in the depth and breadth of the holistic analysis that we teachers are taught by Ra to train our students to explain the graph.
I know it takes a long time to gain proficiency translating the bodygraph in ways applicable and practical to the individual. Reading the chart is an art that is a sacred duty between the reader and their client. The poetry of keynoting is a calling, a passion, a purpose, and all of us refine our abilities over time.
Ra wanted people to wait 7 years to start analyzing charts professionally, but he settled on half that time and made it a requirement for teachers instead. It takes a full 7 years for your cells to decondition from the not-self purpose (your mind's false stories that drive your actions). This is why it takes a long time and a lot of training to meet the requirements to become a professional teacher.
A lot of the deeper HD realms are revealing but distorting when you get too "mind-y" about it. The most common mistake I see is people taking one aspect of the chart, going on and on about that one aspect, and talking in "snippets of Ra" without putting everything into the holistic context of that person's design.
Here's an example.
Recently, a student shared in my class about feeling disempowered when somebody told her "you are not here to lead, ever" because of her psychological Motivation being Innocence.
When the student questioned the reader, because that statement didn't feel good to her, she was told: "no, never."
This student's design had a multitude of consistent leadership gates in a Defined Throat, giving her Influence and Oversight, both consistent Leadership Traits. And she had a Public Relationship strength, a primary leadership channel within a small group that is designed to be recognized for her ability to represent and speak for the group's direction and identity. She can, in fact, hold a leadership role if her Authority says yes.
Remember, we are not just one aspect (in this case, the color) of a gate. We are a holistic Being with a multiplicity of layering, including current cycles that show the whole picture of what we are currently living out, depending on our age.
So as you perhaps dive deeper into the Human Design System, I want to remind you of what the most important thing is.
Stay on the Chart's Surface
If you could only tell someone ONE thing about their Design, what aspect would you choose?
Personally, I would give them their Authority.
Strategy is useless without Authority.
The strategy gives the mind something to do while you wait for deconditioning to kick in enough to shift the cells back to their more natural, you could say, or innocent state of Being.
Yes, Profile is always fun, like a magic trick. Definitely speak to them according to the Public Role they play in their life's work. However...
Everything about living rightly to align to your design hinges around Being Your Own Authority.
If someone is new to Human Design, remember not to get lost in the woods of details that do not matter to them yet.
(Overwhelming them with too much information, too soon is a classic mistake I too have made).
Learn to weave your client's Authority in and out of the Analysis, to bring them back home to themselves. The deeper layers are there to be uncovered within by them through the Authoritative process of their own experience.
Take appropriate phrases that lead them to discover the channels of their strengths in truth, couch those life-force and life-giving phrases to resonate with key aspects of who they are, and layer those truths at the beginning, middle, and end for them to experiment with.
People remember things if you repeat them often enough in different ways.
Repetition is the mother of all Learning, as Ra would say.
Remember FIRST, to ask yourself as you look at a chart:
What CAN the energy (life-force) do?
If you haven't given your client a solid HD Foundation in their specific Authority, the reading is just "mind candy" that may be utterly fascinating, but not as practical, useful, impactful, or helpful as it could be.
To deliver an effective analysis, the key takeaway must always be how they can trust themselves. Encourage and teach them how they can be their own Authority, remember that. Don't supplant their innate call towards alignment with your theoretical learning of one aspect they may have, because when anything is taken out of context with the rest of their design, it is inaccurate.
Remember, everyone has everything in the Bodygraph either consistent (defined) or flexible (undefined). We all have seeds of potential planted places that you cannot see when you are looking at a human design birth chart. That natal design is not the whole picture of a life story. That natal design is a frozen moment in time, showing us what is reliable and trustworthy to make decisions from. It also shows us what is designed to be learned and lived in this life, to become wise about through experience.
Please consider that when you position yourself as the person who knows better than them (because you may be further along in your studies) and give ultimatums "No, you are NEVER here to lead" you take away their power of Authority. Give your client their Authority, give them their power back. This is their Experiment.
What I love about teaching these Analyst Professional Training courses is that we are embarking on a profound educational journey into all the various layers and aspects of YOU over quite a long time, and you cannot help but come to a profound personal awareness when you study the layers of this system.
What I love most is watching my students transform and blossom as their own Authority, with is a process both magical and mysteriously beautiful, making each of us the hero in our own journeys through life.
Professional HD courses as laid out by Ra are very effective at revealing to you how you have made and will continue to make life hard, full of resistance and difficult.
Because the not-self looks to others for confirmation, approval, validation, and acceptance, we are all lost to that tendency unless we wake up to our own sovereignty.
To make it very simple, just remember: each person is their own Authority on and for themselves.
How they can be their own Authority in the way they are here to live in Truth is the most important thing to get across in a chart Analysis.
Warmly,
Laveena
PS. As an IHDS/BG5 Teacher dedicated to developing HD Professionals, I value empowering fellow HD lovers who want to be successful in making a career out of helping others know themselves. If you have taken courses already but wish to sharpen your professional skills, we have a 70% discount for repeating any IHDS professional training course with us.
Just email office@humandesignlifecoaching.com with the name of your prior IHDS teacher to request to Audit (repeat) the class of your choosing. Professional Certification classes like Analyst and Guide Training include regular study groups to practice the poetry of keynoting, ask questions and discuss in a community of your peers.