What is human design?

Human design is a unique, new system for understanding what makes you uniquely you and how you can best fulfill your unique purpose in this life. The human design system is a synthesis of astrology, kabbalah, the I-Ching, and the chakras. It provides you with a method to understand the mechanics of your being, explore it, and experiment with it in order to find out what works best for you.

The science of differentiation

Human design is often called the science of differentiation, but what exactly does that mean? Human design calls itself this, because it is a system for understanding what makes you different from everyone else. The elements of human design can be rearranged to create millions of potential designs. That means the likelihood of any two people having the same human design is very low. You’re unique and your design is unique. Human design celebrates that uniqueness.

Human design is a system of archetypes

Human design can be thought of as a system of archetypes. Archetypes are recurring themes that occur across different cultures in mythology and art. All of the archetypes of human design are available to you. You may just experience some of them differently based on your design. As archetypes, they help us understand how certain parts of our design operate. They create a kind of shorthand or story to explain how we can optimally move through life.

Human design is not a personality test

I’ve had some people ask me if human design is a type of personality test. While personality tests like Myers-Briggs may seem to have similarities to human design, human design is different. One big difference is that your human design is based on your birth information and not on your answers to various questions. This is an important distinction. When you’re new to human design, your design may not feel right to you, or you might not identify with it. That doesn’t change your design though. As you learn more about it and start to use it, it will begin to resonate with you more. 

It also isn’t a set of rules or dogma

Human design isn’t a set of rules to follow. There’s not list of things to do or not to do based on your design. I often see human design “gurus” on social media laying out hard and fast rules on how to live a certain design type. This isn’t true to the spirit of human design. The goal is to experiment with your design to find the best way for you to live your design. It has always been an intention in human design for people to experiment with their design and find what works for them, not follow some list of rules.

Where did human design come from?

Human design has a very interesting origin. In 1987, two very special events unfolded that lead to the revalation of human design.

The first event occurred on the island of Ibiza. A marketing executive by the name of Alan Krakower, was contacted by an entity simply known as The Voice. The Voice spoke to him for 8 days and in the information delivered by The Voice was the human design system. Alan Krakower changed his name to Ra Uru Hu and began to teach human design.

Consecutively with the sudden appearance of The Voice in Ibiza, an incredible astronomical event took place. Astronomers observed a supernova, the explosive death of a star.

This is a greatly simplified account of human design’s origins. For more details checkout Ra Uru Hu & the History of Human Design. 

What are the key concepts of human design?

Human design can be a complicated system. There’s a lot to learn about human design. There are some core concepts though that will really help you understand what human design is and how it works.

The RAVE mandala and the RAVE bodygraph

Rave is the term The Voice used to refer to humans. There are two charts in human design. One is the human design mandala (pictured at right). 

If you’ve ever had your astrological chart done, the mandala may look familiar to you. Like an astrological chart, the signs are in a ring around the mandala. However, in the human design chart, the I-Ching hexagrams are also around the mandala. The mandala shows all the planets in their respective hexagrams or gates. 

In the center of the mandala, is the primary human design chart called the Rave Bodygraph. The bodygraph simply shows the 9 centers of human design (see below) along with the connections between them. Connections and centers that are colored in are said to be defined meaning that you experience that energy consistently. Connections and centers that are colored in are said to be defined meaning that you experience that energy consistently. 

The human design RAVE mandala showing the placements of the I-Ching hexagrams and the astrological signs.

See this Jovian Archive article on the human design chart, mandala, and bodygraph if you’d like to know more.

We are 9 centered beings

According to The Voice, human beings have continued to evolve (and still are!). The Voice explained that in 1781, humans completed an evolutionary step. In that year, everyone living had 9 energy centers instead of the 7 commonly used in the chakras. In human design, what was the heart chakra is now split into the heart or will center and the g-center. The traditional chakra of the solar plexus becomes the solar plexus and the splenic center. 

The magnetic monopole, design crystal, and personality crystal

There are three primary components that create your design and consciousness in human design. In your g-center, resides the magnetic monopole. A magnetic monopole is a magnet with only a north or south pole. A traditional magnet is known as a dipole because it has two poles.

In human design, the magnetic monopole could be considered your soul or spirit. It is the driver of your vehicle or form. The magnetic monopole, hold the design crystal and the personality crystal together in the form (more on them in a moment) which creates the illusion of separateness. It also attracts experiences, people, and opportunities to you in order for you to fulfill your purpose in life.

The design crystal and personality crystals can be thought of as shards of universal consciousness. In other traditions this might be thought of as a piece of the divine. The design crystal creates your physical forms, and your personality crystal forms your ego consciousness or personality. 

Conditioning in human design

The primary goal of engaging in the experiment of living your design is to decondition. Decondition means understanding the ways the conditioning affects you. It’s also about understanding what energy is yours and what is being projected onto you. Let me explain that a bit more.

Conditioning in human design is simply anything that pulls you away from your authentic self. In human design, there are multiple sources of conditioning including the openness of your design. When you have an open center, the energy of people the same centered defined can make you experience their energy in your open center. Deconditioning is about connecting with your body and energy to recognize someone else’s energy and then not acting from it.

In addition to conditioning through your openness, you can experience conditioning through your family and upbringing, generational energetic patterns, past lives, and obviously through social pressures. Human design helps you understand what you’re doing because you feel you “should” or that you’ll be more accepted and what you actually want to do.

Why does human design matter?

Human design connects us with our best most authentic selves

In human design, we talk about conditioning. Conditioning is anything that pulls you away from who you truly are at your core. Conditioning can be a result of the open areas of our design, through the influence of other people, the media, our families, and generational patterns. When we’re fully aware of how our energy is designed to operate, we become more attuned to the various forms of conditioning and how they impact our lives. Using our human design, we can truly see who we are at the core of our being and return to that person. We come home to ourselves and as a result, we show up differently in the world.

Human design makes you aware of your personal narrative

Are you aware that you tell a story about yourself and your life? Every one of us does, it’s a story of our own understanding about who we are and how things work and it’s one that we’re often not even aware we’re telling. As a result, this story can often limit the experiences and opportunities available to us in life. Each of us creates our personal reality in the present moment through our thoughts and beliefs. Our story acts as a filter between us and the quantum field where unlimited possible realities exist. If our story doesn’t allow for a certain reality, then we cannot access that possibility in the quantum field. When we understand our human design, we begin to see how our energy and our conditioning contribute to this personal story. We can start to rewrite that story and through rewriting it, we can access greater possible realities in the quantum field.

Human design gives you a fresh perspective on your so-called flaws

Sometimes, you may think that certain traits that you have are flaws. You go through life thinking something is wrong with you. Often, when you learn about your human design, you realize that these are just characteristics of your design. Then you begin to realize that those traits are actually powerful gifts. Human design can really help you connect with who you are and see your “flaw” as your superpowers.

Human design aligns you with divine timing

Ever agonize over a decision? Human design helps us confidently know what to do and when to do it. In human design, there are 5 energy types, and each type has a strategy. This strategy is that type’s superpower for deciding what to do. Strategy takes us out of our head and connects us to actions that align with our unique energy. Complementing strategy, is authority. Our authority helps us decide when to do things. If you’ve ever asked yourself if this was the right time to do something or feared that you might be rushing into something, authority helps make that clear. Together, our strategy and authority align us with divine timing so that we can take the right actions at the right time.

Human design connects you with your inner wisdom

We have a saying in human design: “The mind is never the authority”. Human design helps you get out of your head and connect with your body. This is important because when we’re connected to our body we can feel our inner wisdom there. Our energy centers create pulses and sensations that help guide us in the right direction. We call this inner authority because it arises from our own inner knowing, not from thinking it through with our mind or from other people telling us what to do.

Human design helps you celebrate what makes you unique

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, human design is the science of differentiation. Marketing and social pressures try to push us to conform. Human design, however, celebrates the differences and what makes us unique. Human design sees that having diverse personalities and designs makes all of humanity better. 

Begin the experiment of living your human design

If you’re ready to learn about your human design, decondition, and begin the experiment of living your design, a human design foundation reading is a great place to start! This ready will help you understand the 3 key of your unique human design–type/strategy, authority, and profile.