On a Human Design chart, the colored centers are called defined. The system describes them as your steady way of working in that area, whoever you are with. They are also the easiest part of the chart to check on yourself.
How a center becomes defined
A center is defined when at least one channel touching it is complete, meaning both gates of the channel are active in your chart. A channel always joins two centers, so nobody has exactly one defined center. You have zero, or at least two.
Across 20,000 random births between 1950 and 2010 run through our engine, people have 4.8 defined centers out of 9 on average:
| Defined centers | Share of charts |
|---|---|
| 0 (Reflectors) | 0.9% |
| 2 or 3 | 18.2% |
| 4 or 5 | 47.8% |
| 6 or 7 | 29.3% |
| 8 or 9 | 3.8% |
More defined centers does not make a better chart. The system simply describes more steady areas and fewer areas where you pick up what is going on in other people.
Defined or undefined: the practical difference
A defined center works the same way whether or not anyone is around. An undefined (open) center takes on the color of the people near you: the system says you amplify what others are going through there (see open centers). Take the Solar plexus, the emotions center. Defined, your moods follow their own wave. Open, your mood mostly shifts with the room you walk into.
Defined centers also drive the calculation: they give you your type and your authority. A defined Sacral makes a Generator, and a defined Solar plexus gives emotional authority.
The 9 centers, from most to least often defined
- Throat: defined in 69.3% of charts
- Sacral: 68.0%
- G center: 60.9%
- Root: 60.2%
- Spleen: 57.5%
- Solar plexus: 51.2%
- Ajna: 46.9%
- Heart: 36.4%
- Head: 26.8%
Common traps
- Treating a defined center as a talent. The system talks about consistency. A defined Throat means a regular way of expressing yourself, which can be slow or clumsy.
- Trying to define your open centers. A chart does not change. What can change is how much room you give other people in your decisions.
- Explaining everything with the chart. Your mood also depends on sleep, work and how you feel physically. No study supports Human Design.
Get your chart and pick one of your defined centers. For 7 days, rate that area out of 10 each evening twice: once for the time you were on your own, once for the time with other people. Do the same for one open center. If the gap between the two scores is smaller for the defined center, the chart got that point right. If not, you know what to make of it.