Gates
Hexagram is a Greek word that literally means “six lines”; each hexagram is indeed represented by a different combination of six lines that can be full –– (Yang) or broken – – (Yin), and there are only 64 possible such combinations.
As said in the previous sessions, in Human Design, the 64 hexagrams of the I-Ching are called gates and their singular numbers, names and description are based on the features of the 64 traditional hexagrams.
For example, the first I-Ching hexagram, number 1, in Chinese is called Ch’ien, that can be translated in many different ways, all referring to a strong male principle: the great, the sky, the creative, the tremendous and so on.
In Human Design is called The Gate of Creativity and it is connected to creative self-expression, empowering of the self and inspirational leadership.
As you can see from the illustration below, it is made of six full, or Yang, lines:
Gates/hexagram in Human Design – remember – are transposed on the Zodiac, and thus they become portals of the neutrino stream that from outer space descends on us and imprint us with cosmic information.
It is the presence of a planet in a gate that makes this imprinting the most significant, exactly like it happens in Astrology.
For example, Gate number 1, the Gate of Creativity, is in Scorpio, precisely between 13°15’00” and 18°52’30”. On the Calendar, the Sun cycles those degrees approximately between the 6th and the 11th of November every year.
Every person born during that interval will of course be a Scorpio, but from Human Design perspective they will be characterized by the Gate of Creativity, which will add precious information to the classical astrological perspective. A Scorpio born on the 13th of November – Sun in Gate 43, the Gate of Breakthrough – will be very different from a Scorpio born on the 7th! So much so that in Human Design we don’t even really consider the Zodiac signs as such, even though a good Human Design practitioner will know that information very well.
In Human Design we consider the positions of all 13 astral bodies, including the Earth itself, in two different moments in time, birth and 88-89 days (88° of solar arc, to be more precise) before birth, so in a chart we have up to 26 gates activations. Sometimes two or more planets can be conjuncted in the same gate, so in that case we will have less than 26 single activations and a one or few double or multiple ones.
The plot thickens even more if we consider the line of the gate where the planet is positioned…
Lines
Each gate, like each hexagram, has six lines on which the planets move and this gives us 64×6 different positions where they can be at a certain moment in time, for a total of 384.
Each line, regardless of the gate, has a meaning of its own.
We count the six lines starting from down going up: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th.
We will not go into the details of gates and lines meanings on this website, as they contain a vast spectrum of connotations, implications and nuances.
Nevertheless it is very important, in understanding Human Design, to keep in mind that they exist and represent very important and foundational elements of it!
Channels
In Human Design, gates are not only connected to some degrees of the Zodiac, but also to the energy centers system and every gate has its own place in one and only center.
As you can see in the illustration below, gate number 1, the Gate of Creativity, is situated in the Self center and connected to gate number 8, the Gate of Contribution, in the Throat center, through a small pipe-like channel.
Every gate is connected to AT LEAST another gate and a few gates have multiple connections, for a total of 36 channels.
The channels are the more mysterious and complex elements of the Human Design system, because not only they connect gates by resonance, but in doing so, they also connect and define – remember this word – the centers where the gates are positioned, creating a beautiful network, or, as in Kabbalah, a Tree of Life, an interconnected organic circuitry of meanings, values, sense and significance.
Channels are not just the mere combination of two sets of meanings: when two gates get together they create a whole new dimension. For example 2-14… (TO BE CONTINUED).
Channels occurs in our chart when planets position themselves in the correspondent gates, and they really represent the expression of who we are and also our best resources.
They also temporarily occur when we have only one gate and a planet is passing on the other, or when we meet someone who has it in their chart. This opens whole new dimensions in our life and really opens us up to the world of other people and to the universe itself. This interconnectedness is our very reality!
It is something big to take in… tremendously significant…
It has been said that Human Design mandala expresses the mechanics of human existence, but the way I see it, there is nothing which is further from the truth and if I had to create a new word to describe it, I would say that it expresses the organics of it… Of course one can always chose to remain in the mechanics and live just in the basement of their being, but let it never be said that it is our only possibility!
Human Design is an incredible map of our being and of our connections to people, to life, to the cosmos and, if well understood can really become an incredible tool for self-knowledge, expansion, growth and empowerment.
