The official name for Human Design Gate 13 is The Gate of The Listener. But I call it The Sounding Board because its primary action is to create containers of deep listening while holding the frequency of forgiveness.
About Human Design Gate 13 – Gene Key 13
Archetype Name: The Sounding Board
In Action: hold space and listen with empathy
Keywords: listening with empathy, forgiveness, and being a keeper of secrets
Download All 64 Human Design Gates Cheat Sheets (for free!)
Official Gate Name: The Listener
Human Design Definition: Universal ideas and values in an ordered framework that inspires humanistic cooperation.
Core Theme: Listening to other people’s secrets.
Bodygraph Center: G center and connects to the Throat center via human design gate 33.
Tropical Sign: Aquarius
(Want all of the correspondences and keynotes for the gates of your incarnation cross? The Human Design Map is for you.)
The Energy Spectrum of Human Design Gate 13
All energy in the Human Design chart exists on a spectrum of potential.
On the “positive” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 13 is the energy for listening to others’ secrets while holding the frequency of forgiveness. The 13 believes everyone needs someone who can listen with empathy, compassion, and grace. It feels deeply connected to others by listening to their stories, experiences, and challenges.
On the “negative” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 13 is the energy for being a dumping ground for people’s secrets, challenges, and darkness. And it can struggle with an unwillingness to forgive and hold onto anger, blame, and resentment.
If you don’t like the results that the “negative” side of the spectrum is creating in your life, you can raise the frequency of Gate 13 with a number of boundaries, practices, and tools.
(I cover the practices for the gates of your incarnation cross in The Human Design Map.)
The most important thing to raise the frequency of gate 13 is to be mindful of your energy boundaries; know and communicate your limits around listening to others. A key indicator that you are out of balance in this department will be bitterness and resentment.
My personal contemplation of Human Design Gate 13 (Gene Key 13)
I don’t have gate 13 defined in my chart, but interestingly enough, it is connected to recognizing my gifts with the Human Design system.
As a 5/2 profile, I’m in the “double projection field,” which means that people aren’t really seeing me – they see their projections. And an essential part of my karmic role is to be able to “call myself out” for my natural gifts and talents. Otherwise, I can get caught in a web of projections and expectations that have nothing to do with me.
And, depending on how long you’ve been in my orbit, you may not know that I came to Human Design kicking and screaming. I didn’t plan on Human Design being a part of my energy healing business and definitely had no idea that it would eventually become the “face” of my business.
In hindsight, I realize that, like so many other projector types, I was deeply resistant to being seen, recognized, and invited in natural and easy ways. I was deeply attached to the story, and it needed to be hard and complicated to be successful.
Many synchronicities helped me work through my resistance to ease, but one of them was connected to gate 13.
I was listening to some music on Spotify and felt the heavy weight of the lyrics. I could sense the burden of being a keeper of the secrets and not knowing what to do with the betrayal, lies, and shame.
The thought popped into my head:
This song sounds like gate 13.
That may not be surprising if you’ve come to know me because of my depth of knowledge (and sheer fascination) with the human design gates. Today, I can rattle off endless information about every gate in the chart. I can tell you all of its mechanical details, wax poetic about the beauty of its full spectrum, and tell you what it means in different placements.
(Inside the Human Design Map portal, there are all sorts of fun ways we work with gates and channels, including business, relationships, and transits.)
But, at that time, I couldn’t tell you much about them – not even the ones in my own chart.
So, being the Human Design stalker I am, I looked up the artists’ birth information, ran their chart, and saw gate 13 in their conscious sun.
Looking at that chart, I had a moment of calling myself out.
Until then, I’d had multiple moments when looking at charts where I could see that I had a unique understanding of energy. And that Human Design gives me a shortcut because now I have language for expressing what I always intuitively knew.
But, this moment was different because of its precision (shout out to gate 62 in my unconscious sun ;)).
It was crystal clear that I have a special connection with Human Design, and gate 13 was working its magick on me.
It was like I’d whispered into the ears of the Universe and told it that I was ready. I would no longer hold shame about the “woo-woo” nature of my gifts, the illogical way that I know things, and, most importantly, I began forgiving myself for waiting this long to claim my genius.
From there, I’ve gone on to create wild, wild success.
Every day, with the Human Design Map + Portal, my blog, and emails, I help others understand and own their genius. I help them stand boldly in who they are and to clear the “blocks” that get in the way of their higher purpose. It blows my mind constantly.
But that is the beauty of…
….having your secrets held with unconditional love and forgiveness.
…being able to stand vulnerable before a listening ear and knowing it will all be OK.
…giving voice to your deepest, most intimate parts and trusting that it will be met with empathy and Grace.
That is what happened for me that day. And I will never forget it.
Now it’s your turn to contemplate Gate 13
When you stand in the truth that the gifts of Gate 13 are available to you, (whether it’s defined in your chart or not)…
Are you able to hold space for other people’s stories with forgiveness?
Are you able to hold space for your own stories with forgiveness?
What are your boundaries around listening? How are you honoring those boundaries?
I encourage you to take some time with these questions. Take them out into your world and let their answers reveal themselves to you. Intend for deeper levels of clarity about gate 13.
And, if you have gate 13 in your Human Design Incarnation Cross, be sure to check out The Human Design Map where I go super deep into each gate of your cross.