The official name for Human Design Gate 17 is The Gate of Opinion. But I call it The Powerful Opinion because its primary action is to find logical solutions, answers, and ideas that will create collective harmony.
About Human Design Gate 17 – Gene Key 17
Archetype Name: The Powerful Opinion
In Action: create solutions with well-informed opinions
Keywords: your opinions, creating harmonious solutions, and logic
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Official Gate Name: Opinion
Human Design Definition: The ancient law that those who wish to rule must know how to serve.
Core Theme: Fear of Challenge.
Bodygraph Center: Ajna center and connects to the Throat center via human design gate 62.
Tropical Sign: Aries
(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 17
All energy in the Human Design chart exists on a spectrum of potential.
On the “positive” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 17 is the energy for finding logical solutions, answers, and ideas. Gate 17 is aware that everyone thrives when everyone thrives, and tends to be fair, unbiased, and committed to finding win-wins with it’s solutions.
On the other end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 17 is the energy for being dogmatic, authoritarian, or mentally inflexible. It can create disorder or disharmony by being narrow-minded can easily get trapped in black and white thinking.
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 17 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 17 is to notice your patterns of mental inflexibility, question them. See what results they are creating in your life and learn to reprogram your mental patterns when they aren’t creating the results you want.
My personal contemplation of Human Design Gate 17 (Gene Key 17)
Gate 17 is undefined in my chart, but it is one of the most significant undefined gates.
First, gate 62, the other side of the channel of acceptance, is defined in the unconscious sun of my incarnation cross.
I also have a small split definition between my throat and ajna, which can be bridged by gates 17, 23, or 11.
Those two things combined make gate 17 the most electromagnetically attractive gate.
Good thing I married a man with a hanging gate 17. 🤣
It’s been an interesting experience to get to know this gate.
What I’ve discovered is that I was holding a lot of “not-self” themes around gate 17.
I always thought that I needed to have an opinion about EVERYTHING. I wanted to be asked about my opinions, even when I didn’t have one. And I often felt bitter and resentful towards others who seemed to know and express their views easily.
Deconditioning gate 17 hasn’t been a matter of never having an opinion. I still have plenty to go around. (Read this, this, and this.)
The highest potential of our undefined places is becoming wise about how, when, and why we use that energy—and practicing non-attachment when we don’t consistently experience that energy.
With gate 17, I discovered that I only need strong opinions sometimes – when it matters. I can have opinions without making other people’s opinions wrong. And it’s beneficial for me to take in all sides before forming opinions instead of just looking at one side.
Gate 61 in my unconscious earth also plays a role here.
What I know is that I don’t know.
Truth isn’t objective- it is subjective.
Everyone is weaving their personal fabric of reality.
Embodying this is freedom.
And it has given me so much energy back– especially regarding my work with Human Design and the map.
Like every other topic on the planet, the Human Design space is FULL of opinions and people ready to tell you that you are doing it wrong. And I’ve had my fair share of people “coming at me” about how I approach the system.
There is no way I’d be able to handle the criticism if I was attached to my opinion being “right.”
Instead, I can take full ownership that I’m not trying to be right. I always tell my map clients to take what they can use and leave the rest.
As a 5/2, I aim to make Human Design practical, simple and empowering.
My ultimate intention is to help others trust themselves and embody their personal truth – even when it doesn’t match their chart.
I don’t believe that Human Design is the answer to all of life’s problems. It is a tool that helps us focus our attention inward – and that’s it.
Other people have different opinions.
And it isn’t up to me to decide whether that is right or wrong. It is up to me to trust myself and the path before me.
I pray that I continue to deepen into non-attachment around my opinions. And to let myself off the hook for managing the opinions of others.
Now it’s your turn to contemplate Gate 17
When you stand in the truth that the gifts of the 17 are always available to you (whether it’s defined in your chart or not)…
Are you attached to your opinions?
Do you ever find yourself trapped in black and white thinking?
In what ways do you benefit when you believe that you are right and others are wrong?
What if you let go of the idea that opinions are either right or wrong?
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 17.
And, if you have gate 17 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.