Cosmic Human Design

Cosmic Human Design Info Sheet and Chart Explanations/Legend

**Note: this document is intended only to represent my interpretations of the key parts of the Human Design system and literature (and be a helpful guide for people of course), and is not intended to represent or replace the official Human Design stance, view, or definition of these terms

This document will lay out the meanings and different possibilities for each of the fields on the Cosmic Human Design chart:

Type: A person’s type is a synthetic designation that Ra added to Human Design after pressure from many in the system’s early years that the chart could use some labels to help people better understand what appeared to be a set number of natural patterns emerging through the different combinations of channels within people and (in my opinion) a combination of the theoretical and observed behaviors corresponding to those combinations of channels.  I will refer to there being 5 unique types here, although some believe 4 types is sufficient.  

The types are, in order of prevalence:
Generator – Defined sacral and cannot have a motor connected to the throat (~36%)
Manifesting Generator – Defined sacral, but has a motor connected to the throat (~34%)

Projector – Undefined sacral, no motor connection to throat (~20%)

Manifestor – Undefined sacral, but has a motor connection to the throat (~10%)
Reflector – All centers are undefined (~<1%)

Authority: A person’s “inner” authority is, according to Human Design, what a person can always rely on to make correct decisions.  This usually comes from a center in the BodyGraph, namely the Solar Plexus, Sacral, or Spleen, but the Heart, G center, and Ajna can also be the authority.  The Reflector has no source of authority they can always rely on within themselves, and are advised to wait out a full cycle of the moon(~28 days) before making major decisions.  Authority follows a hierarchy, meaning that if a person has one of more of the following centers actived in their bodygraph, the higher one will take precedence.  (Why this is so is, in my opinion, a topic worthy of much more debate than I have yet seen)

The authority hierarchy is:

Solar Plexus

Sacral

Spleen

Ego-Manifested(Channel 21-45, heart-to-throat)

Ego-Projected(Channel 51-25, heart-Gcenter)

Self-Projected(G center connected to throat)

Environment(Ajna, Head, or throat connected to each other in any combination, e.g. ajna-to-throat, ajna-to-head, or all 3 together) *note: according to the Definitive Book of Human Design, this authority is not itself considered to be an “inner” authority(because it involves the ajna center, or mind, this is what Human Design consistently refers to as a person’s “outer” authority)
Lunar(Reflector’s cycle of the Moon)

Profile: The combination of the Personality Sun’s hexagram line and the Design Sun’s hexagram line.  For example if your personality sun is 45.1 and your design sun is 36.3, your profile would be the 1/3 Each of the lines also has an archetypal name, which reflects the characteristic function of the line within the hexagram as a whole. These meanings are as follows:
Line 1 – Investigator

Line 2 – The Hermit

Line 3 – The Martyr

Line 4 – The Opportunist

Line 5 – The Heretic

Line 6 – The Role Model

The analogy of a house works particularly well for getting a feel for the different lines. Line 1 is the foundation, the first floor of the house.  Line 2 is like someone dancing in their living room with the window curtain wide open, somewhat oblivious to anyone outside the house looking in at them.  Line 3 is the stairs, the transition from the first to second floor. Line 4 is the foundation of the second floor.  Line 5 is like someone in a second floor room peeking out at the scene below them, but unlike the 2nd line not able to be seen from the outside.  Line 6 is on the roof, with a full view of the entire countryside, but perhaps not able to easily come down.  These lines form 12 possible combinations, called Profile, with characteristic personality traits corresponding to both their conscious (personality sun) and unconscious (design sun).  In addition, the profiles are divided into 3 categories of “Incarnation Cross”(see next topic) depending on whether or not a line of the “lower trigram”(of the hexagram, lines 1-3 are the lower trigram) or “upper trigram” (lines 4-6) is in the personality sun. Briefly, the Right angle profiles are more focused on playing out their personal destiny, while the left angles are more focused on society as a whole.  The juxtaposition is equipped with all the tools for a very “set” trajectory. The 12 profiles are:

Right angle(66%):
1/3 – Investigator/Martyr

1/4 – Investigator/Opportunist

2/4 – Hermit/Opportunist

2/5 – Hermit/Heretic

3/5 – Martyr/Heretic

3/6 – Martyr/Role Model

4/6 – Opportunist/Role Model

Juxtaposition (the so-called “fixed fate”)(~1-2%):
4/1 – Opportunist/Investigator

Left angle (33%):

5/1 – Heretic/Investigator

5/2 – Heretic/Hermit

6/2 – Role Model/Hermit

6/3 – Role Model/Martyr

All the profiles are unique and more than the sum of their parts, which would take far too much space to go through in this sheet.

Incarnation Cross: The incarnation cross is formed from the 4 gates(and lines, e.g. whether they are right, juxtaposition, or left angled) comprising a person’s personality Sun/Earth and design Sun/Earth.  It’s called a cross because, since a person’s design date and birth date are approximately 90 days or degrees apart, and the Sun and Earth form an opposition(a straight line on the mandala wheel), the combination of the 4 will look literally like a cross.  There are 3 different possibilities for every hexagram, one for the Right-angle possibility, one for the juxtaposition or fixed fate and one for the Left-angle possibility for 192 unique incarnation crosses(although more advanced Human Design courses further break this down into even more combinations, or “specific” crosses.)  The incarnation cross is said to describe the outlines of the basic objectives or characteristics of a person’s life when they are “living” their design correctly.  

Channels: The first channels field lists, in parentheses, the different channels in that person’s bodygraph.  The second field is the name and keynote description given to the channel in standard HD literature. Channels are said to make up a person’s “life force energy,” or the energy that is most consistently “them,” and is always active.  Although keep in mind if a channel has one or both unconscious parts, that person may not easily be aware that this “consistent” energy is always there for them (but other people can usually find this much easier to see.)

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The next fields concern characteristics derived from the “color” and “tone” of, mainly, a person’s Sun/Earth gates and their design and personality North/South nodes.  (The color is the level below the line, and the tone is the level below the color.  These are supposed to represent even deeper levels of information encoded by the neutrino stream.  So even if two people have the same gate and line, say 4.4, they may and most likely will have a different color, for example 4.4.5 (5 is the color) vs. 4.4.1 (1 is the color), and a different tone, e.g. 4.4.5.2 (2 is the tone) vs. 4.4.1.6 (6 is the tone).  

Brain: This field concerns mainly the diet that the physical brain needs to function optimally, comes from the Design Sun/Earth, and is either “active,” or “left” if their design sun tone is 1-3, or “passive” (“right”) if their design sun tone is 4-6. Basically, the “active” brain benefits more from a regular, consistent diet than the “passive.”  In fact, fasting for any length of time can be very unhealthy for the “active” brain.  The “active” brain finds malnutrition very devastating as occurs in famine or impoverished areas of the world.  On another note, the “passive” brain can be prone to overeating (because it doesn’t need as much nutrition to function) and things like obesity, diabetes etc. One of the 4 left/right distinctions that make up the Variable.

Environment Style: This comes from the tone of the Design North/South nodes, and can be “observed” or “observer,” with “observed” corresponding to “left” and “observer” corresponding to “right.” One of the 4 left/right distinctions that make up the Variable.

Determination: Comes from the color and tone of the Design Sun/Earth, and represents the physical brain  and the type of digestive system needed to support it. The first value in parentheses comes from the color and has 6 possibilities, the second comes from the tone and has two possibilities, depending on if the tone is “left” or “right.” The more “primitive” and “rigid” digestive systems begin with the 1st color, while the digestive system becomes more sensitive towards the 6th color.

The 6 Determinations with the left or “active” variant on the left and the right tone or “passive” variant on the right..:

1 Consecutive Appetite Alternating

2 Open Taste Close

3 Hot Thirst Cold

4 Calm Touch Nervous

5 High Sound Low

6 Direct Light Indirect

Cognition: Again comes from the tone of the Design Sun/Earth and there are 6 possibilities.  The first 2 tones represent the splenic binary, tones 3 and 4 the ajna, and tones 5 and 6 the solar plexus.  Cognition is like whatever sense it represents, like smell or touch, if that sense doesn’t feel right to you in your environment, then it will present difficulties as far as your cognition and ability to think correctly goes.  

The 6 cognitions are:

1 Smell

2 Taste

3 Outer Vision

4 Inner Vision

5 Feeling

6 Touch

Environment: The meaning of this one is at least pretty self-explanatory.  The ideal environment for you to be in.  It is determined from your Design Nodes.  There are 6 environments, with 2 variations of each, for a total of 12 unique values.  The first word in parentheses comes from your Design nodes’ color, the second from the tone.  There are 6 “left” environments, which generally means being active is better for you, and 6 “right” environments, generally meaning being passive is better for you, you like to sit back and take things in.  Also, the first 3 or “lower” colors, 1-3, denote a “hardscape,” whereas 4-6 denote a “landscape.”  Generally hardscapes are more urban, dense, environments with less space, and indoors.  

The 6 environments, with the “left” or “observed” variation on the left and the “right” or “observer” variation on the right:

1 Selective – Caves – Blending

2 Internal – Markets – External

3 Wet – Kitchens – Dry

4 Active – Mountains – Passive

5 Narrow – Valleys – Wide

6 Natural – Shores – Artificial

Mind: Comes from the personality Sun/Earth tone and corresponds to the “leftness” or “rightness” of the tone.  Can be either strategic for tones 1-3 or receptive for tones 4-6.  One of the 4 variables

View Perspective: Comes from the personality Nodes and corresponds to the “leftness” or “rightness” of the tone.  Can be focused for tones 1-3 or passive for tones 4-6.  One of the 4 variables.  So the “left/right” distinctions that make up the Variable are: Brain – Environment Style – Mind – View Perspective

Motivation: Comes from the color of the Personality Sun/Earth and can be thought of as giving an extra character to whichever line you have.  Since it is your main personality expression, it can be thought of as the underlying motivation of your personality.  There are 6 variations, and keep these in mind when thinking about the particular line you have.  And again, we have 2 variations of each of the 6 colors here, which is actually given another name: the Trajectory, which follows.  
The 6 Motivations are:

1 Fear

2 Hope

3 Desire

4 Need

5 Guilt

6 Innocence

Trajectory: Comes from the tone of the personality Sun/Earth and is the direction you are headed.  Should be read with the motivation.  For example the 1st motivation is Fear, and the 2 trajectories for fear are the Communalist and the Separatist.  Fear of an unstable foundation leads you on either of these 2 trajectories.  Again, the word on the left is the left, or “strategic” or the right, or “receptive”(since we are still talking about your mind) variant.  The trajectory is where you are heading.  You actually start out on the other side though, so keep that in mind.

1 Communalist – Separatist

2 Theist – Anti-Theist

3 Leader – Follower

4 Master – Novice

5 Conditioner – Conditioned

6 Observer – Observed

Sense: Also comes from tone of the personality Sun/Earth and is the “sense” in which your mind works.  Analyze this while contemplating your Motivation and Trajectory.  All of these really go together.  This is the “sense” in which the intelligence of the person operates, perhaps what they are chiefly concerned about  when you really get down to it. Or they have a particular gift for always thinking about things in these terms.

1 Security

2 Uncertainty

3 Action

4 Meditation

5 Judgment

6 Acceptance

View: Based on the color of the personality Nodes.  This is the “perspective” from which you consciously are viewing things.  Someone with “possibility” sees things in terms of possibilities, they see more possibilities than most.

1 Survival

2 Possibility

3 Power

4 Wanting

5 Probability

6 Personal

Transferred Motivation: Now “transference” is a mechanism for motivation and view that says when you are in a not-self mode, you will go to the corresponding motivation or view.  In other words, you’ll be motivated by something that just doesn’t work for you, or see things in a way that is totally incorrect for you. So, this describes those incorrect motivations. If you have the 1st motivation, you will go to the 4, the 2 to the 5, the 3 to the 6.  So really, on the personality side, these colors form a binary, which is always moving back and forth or either in transference or not.  

1 Fear -> 4 Need

2 Hope -> 5 Guilt

3 Desire -> 6 Innocence

4 Need -> Fear

5 Guilt -> Hope

6 Innocence -> Desire

Transferred View: Similarly, the same process takes place in the View, again from the Personality Nodes, how you view things.

1 Survival -> 4 Wanting

2 Possibility -> 5 Probability

3 Power -> 6 Personal

4 Wanting -> 1 Survival

5 Probability -> 2 Possibility

6 Personal -> 3 Power

Personality and Design Chains: The numbers follow this format gate.line.color.tone for each personality and design gate, except Chiron and BlackMoonLillith, which have no impact on the chart and don’t activate gates in the BodyGraph.