Variables in Human Design

Variables are the 4 small arrows drawn at the top of some Human Design charts. They are the most advanced layer of the system, and the most fragile: you need to know your birth time almost to the minute.

Where they come from

Each line of a gate splits again into 6 colors, each color into 6 tones, each tone into 5 bases. Variables read the color and tone of four positions:

• Determination: the design Sun (about 88 days before your birth). This is the part known as “digestion”.
• Environment: the design lunar nodes.
• Motivation: the birth Sun.
• Perspective: the birth lunar nodes.

Each variable has its own page, with its 6 colors, how common each one is and a 2-week test per color.

Each arrow points left or right depending on the tone: 1 to 3 left, 4 to 6 right. PHS groups determination and environment. It offers rules about how to eat (for example in calm surroundings, or one thing at a time) and about the kind of place that suits you (caves, markets, kitchens, mountains, valleys, shores).

Why the time has to be precise

Our engine calculates colors and tones for every position. A Sun color lasts about 4 hours, a tone about 40 minutes. We measured what a time shift changes across 2,000 random births:

With a time rounded to the quarter hour, as on many birth certificates, your variables are more likely wrong than right. That is why our calculator does not show them.

Our reservations

• Variables come from the founder and his school, and other sources pick them up less than the rest of the system.
• PHS gives rules about food. Nothing shows they have an effect of their own. If you want to change the way you eat, ask a nutrition professional.
• No study backs the system as a whole (details here), and variables are its finest layer.