A Human Design chart (also called a bodygraph) looks busy at first: 9 shapes, lines everywhere, dozens of numbers. It still reads in a simple order. Here is how, starting with what matters most.
Where the numbers come from
The calculation takes the position of 13 bodies (Sun, Earth, Moon, lunar nodes and planets) at two moments: your birth, and the moment the Sun sat 88 degrees earlier. Across our 2,000 random births, that second moment falls 87 to 92 days before birth, 89 on average. That gives 26 positions. Each one lands in one of the 64 gates and on one of its 6 lines, hence numbers like 13.4 (gate 13, line 4).
On our calculator, the technical chart lists these 26 positions in two columns: “Conscious (birth)” and “Unconscious (design)”. The system says the first describes what you know about yourself, and the second what shows in you without you noticing.
The drawing, piece by piece
- The 9 centers. A colored center is defined: the system describes it as a steady way of working for you. A white center is open, a place where you pick up what other people are going through. More on the 9 centers.
- The lines between centers (channels). A channel joins two gates. When both gates are active, the channel is complete and both centers it joins become defined. See the 36 channels.
- The colors of the lines. On our charts, a dark half comes from your birth, a red half from the earlier date, and a teal half from both. Other sites often use black and red for the same thing.
- Half lines. A gate that is active without its partner gate shows as a half-filled line. It colors the center without defining it.
The reading order
- Type, worked out from the defined centers and how they connect. Read it first.
- Strategy, which comes with the type.
- Authority: how you settle a decision.
- Profile, two numbers taken from the lines of your two Suns (see the 6 lines).
- Definition: whether your defined centers form one block or several islands.
- Open centers, then channels and gates one by one.
- The incarnation cross, the most symbolic part, best kept for last.
The first five are plenty for your first month. Gates one by one add a lot of text, and the more sentences you read, the more of them will match you by chance (the Forer effect).
This week, read only your type and your authority. Each evening, write down one decision from the day and how you made it. On Sunday, compare your notes with your authority page, then with a different authority picked at random. If both fit equally well, keep the chart at arm’s length.