Human Design Made Simple

WHAT IS HUMAN DESIGN?

Human Design is a system that brings together ancient spiritual wisdom with modern scientific knowledge to rewrite the rules when it comes to success, abundance, purpose, love and life so that everyone is empowered to thrive. Human Design as we know it today was introduced to the world by a spiritual guru called Ra Uru Hu in the 1980s, and draws upon four ancient wisdoms.

WESTERN ASTROLOGY

Astrology can help you understand your place in this world by mapping your unique connection to the movements of the celestial bodies.

Astrologers believe that when you possess the knowledge of how the Universe influences you, you get to decide how to work with that instead of against it – Human Design experts know this to be true, too.

Like your astrological birth chart, your Design is based on where the celestial bodies were in the sky at the time of your birth. But a Human Design chart can take you further than your astrology, because in addition to looking at what was happening in the sky at the time of your birth, your Human Design takes into account the celestial events of a major moment in utero – the moment your soul entered the body three months before you were born.

THE CHAKRA SYSTEM

Rooted in Hindu and Buddhist traditions, the Chakra system charts the energetic centres of the body. Traditionally, the Chakra system focuses on seven main Chakras, running down the spine (Crown, Third Eye or Mind, Throat, Heart, Solar Plexus, Sacral and Root). Human Design expands that list of energetic Centres from seven to nine, adding the Splenic Centre and splitting the Heart Chakra into two: the G Centre and the Heart, Ego or Will Centre).

You’ll learn more about the Centres on page 41.

THE KABBALISTIC TREE OF LIFE

The Tree of Life, which originates in Judeo- Christian mystic traditions, is an ancient symbol for how the Universe was – and how energy continues to be – created. Over time, the Tree of Life diagram also became associated with spiritual and energetic evolution on a more individual level.

The Tree consists of ten nodes, representing spiritual and energetic stages, or the pit stops along the path to spiritual and energetic enlightenment. These nodes are connected by lines that represent the process of moving from one stage to the next.

Human Design maps an energetic movement and evolution that is similar to what we see represented in the Tree of Life. In your Human Design chart, you’ll see lines connecting your energetic Centres to each other – we call these Channels and, like the lines in the Tree of Life, they communicate the way that energy moves from place to place in your body and your aura.

THE I CHING

The I Ching is a Chinese text that dates back to the eighth century BC. Its name translates to ‘Book of Changes’ – so, like the Chakra system and the Tree of Life, it charts energetic change and evolution.

According to the I Ching, human beings are capable of 64 distinct types of transformation, known as Hexagrams.

Your Human Design chart features 64 Hexagrams, too – we call them Gates. Gates are the points of entry and exit into each energetic Centre, and they function differently for every individual. You can learn more about Gates on page 268.

Sixty- four also happens to be the number of genetic components in your DNA, hinting at a deep connection between your energetic and biological makeup.

SO, WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?

At this point, you might be saying to yourself, My spiritual practice already incorporates one or several of these ancient wisdoms; what does Human Design have to offer that I’m not already getting from my current practice?

Or, you might be wondering, If Human Design is a synthesis of four ancient ideas, what makes it relevant to my life right now?

Well, get ready . . . because here’s the mind- blowing part – the fifth, final and crucial component of Human Design is quantum physics.

Unlike these individual spiritual disciplines on their own, Human Design uniquely synthesises the elements of ancient wisdom with cutting- edge science. Understanding Human Design doesn’t open up some vague, metaphorical connection to a higher power; it gives you the scientifically backed tools to tap into the very real energy of the Universe and its direct impact on you, your body and your life path.

Allow me to explain.

Quantum physics is a scientific field that explores the behaviour of subatomic particles, like electrons and photons. One of the fundamental principles of quantum physics is the idea of superposition. You’d need a whole book to get into the weeds on superposition, but essentially it means that subatomic particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously until they are observed or measured.

Human Design makes the case that our energetic blueprint is influenced by the movement of subatomic particles within our bodies. Quantum physics backs this up – according to the science, everything in the Universe, including our bodies, is influenced by these tiny particles called neutrinos. As these Neutrinos pass through you and the celestial bodies, they imprint you with the energies of each planet. This imprinting becomes your birth or natal chart.

You can think of the elements described in Human Design, which you’ll learn all about over the course of this book, as the macro- level manifestation of the quantum activity taking place inside of us.

WHAT ARE NEUTRINOS?

Neutrinos are elusive subatomic particles. The sun produces roughly 70 per cent of all neutrinos that travel through our solar system, while the other 30 per cent of neutrinos are emitted by other stars in our galaxy and a small amount come from the planet Jupiter.

In 1991, Ra Uru Hu, the founder of Human Design, wrote that neutrinos had mass – and that as an energetic substance travelling through the universe, they have the capacity to connect human beings to the wider energy of the Universe, thereby underpinning the science behind Human Design. Mainstream science didn’t catch up to the idea that neutrinos had mass until nearly 20 years after Ra’s publication, when Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald won a Nobel Prize for discovering neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos do have mass.

Now let’s come back to the idea of superposition in quantum physics. Superposition aligns with certain aspects of Human Design. Remember how particles can exist in multiple states at the same time? Well, so can we, energetically speaking. Human Design suggests that we are a combination of different energy types, Centres and Channels. These different aspects can come together in unique ways to create our individual Design. It’s like a symphony of energies, all playing their part simultaneously. By pairing these basic facts about quantum physics with the personal truths you’ll discover in your chart, you can start to accept – and even find power in – the many conflicting multitudes of energy playing out through you at all times.

And, just as observing or measuring particles collapses their wave- like behaviour into a specific state, Human Design acknowledges that our experiences and conditioning can influence the way our energetic blueprint manifests. It suggests that societal conditioning, social influences from family, friends, neighbours and colleagues and our own choices shape our energy Centres and the way we express ourselves in the world. In a way, it’s like our conscious awareness collapses the probabilities and potentials of our energetic Design into a specific expression.

But – another way of being also exists.

Just because you are who the world has made you doesn’t mean you were born to be what the world has made you, or that who you are now is all you can ever be.

What you’ve been conditioned to be and what you’ve been Designed to be are different, simultaneously existing versions of you. The great experiment of Human Design is the act of opening the box, seeing the cat for what it really is and accepting the reality of who you were born to be over the enforced conditioning of who you are in this incomplete moment. This deconditioning, or ‘reconditioning’ as I like to call it, is the ultimate answer to uncovering your true potential, rejecting what you’ve been told and instead owning what is true for you on a soul level, so that you can live your life to the absolute fullest.