The official name for Human Design Gate 18 is The Gate of Correction. But I call it The Wholeness Doctor because its primary action is seeing the wholeness in all things.
About Human Design Gate 18 – Gene Key 18
Archetype Name: The Wholeness Doctor
In Action: see wholeness and healing potential in all things
Keywords: healing, wholeness, and clearly seeing
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Official Gate Name: Correction
Human Design Definition: The vigilance and determination to uphold and defend basic and fundamental human rights.
Core Theme: Fear of authority.
Bodygraph Center: Spleen center and connects to the Root center via human design gate 58.
Tropical Sign: Libra
(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 18
All energy in the Human Design chart exists on a spectrum of potential.
On the “positive” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 18 is the energy for seeing the wholeness in all things. Gate 18 understands that the only thing that needs to be “fixed” is the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and about others. It easily sees the stories of brokenness that are playing out in the collective and helps others to transform those stories into wholeness.
On the “negative” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 18 is the energy for beating yourself up with negative self-talk or being hyper-focused on the flaws and mistakes of others. It drives complaining, gossiping, worrying, and needing to be right. This, of course, only perpetuates stories of brokenness.
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 18 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 18 is to proactively practice compassion (Metta meditation can be a great tool for this) and see the perfection in all that is. Really look for what is exactly right about everything. And find a cause that you can channel your ideals into.
My personal contemplation of Human Design Gate 18 (Gene Key 18)
My unconscious Pluto is in gate 18.6. My conscious Pluto is in gate 48 (the gate of depth) and is conjunct with my conscious sun (human design gate 57).
On the conscious side, Pluto is the place where we go through a rebirth in our lives. It takes us into the deepest shadows of our psyche and brings us out the other side with a new sense of integrity and wholeness.
When Pluto conjunct the sun, it brings a whole new level of intensity to the (astrology) chart. It creates a drive for “truth”, depth, inner transformation, and self-realization that is unrelenting.
The unconscious side of our chart represents the “wound”, trauma pattern, or shadow that “blocks” the full expression of the conscious side.
The potent combination I have brings my absolute obsession with shadow integration work and self-realization into sharp focus.
(I teach shadow integration as an essential part of deconditioning once you have your Human Design Map.)
And helps me to see more deeply how gate 18 in line 6 has played its part.
When I was around 30, I was in my very first training as a coach. Debbie Ford (may she rest in power) was a guest lecturer and I became enraptured with her work.
My copy of her book The Dark Side of the Light Chasers is well worn with highlights, underlines, and notes.
Her work is what brought my conscious awareness of what the shadow is. It opened my eyes to the idea that we are already whole and that the whole word lives inside of us.
The part that I was most enamored with was her thoughts about judging others. In the book she writes:
“Once we accept the fact that each of us embodies all the traits in the universe, we can stop pretending that we are not everything…
We adopt prejudices from our families and friends. “You’re different because you are fat and I am skinny. I am smart and you are stupid. I am timid and you are brave. I am passive and you are aggressive. I am loud and you are soft spoken.”
These beliefs maintain the illusion that we are separate. They create internal as well as external barriers that keep us from embracing the totality of our being. They keep us pointing fingers at others.
The key is to understand that there is nothing we can see or perceive that we are not.
If we did not possess a certain quality, we could not recognize it in another.
If you are inspired by someone’s courage, it is a reflection of the courage in you. If you think someone’s selfish, you can be sure that you are capable of demonstrating the same amount of selfishness.
Although these qualities will not be expressed all the time, we each have the ability to act out any quality we see.” ~ Debbie Ford
In hindsight, I can see that this was the beginning of “being on the roof” with gate 18 in line 6. I was at the end of my first Saturn Return; it was a pivotal time when I began to unwind my inner and outer critic.
(I cover how to interpret planetary seasons, such as the Saturn Return, inside the Human Design Map portal. If you are already a client, you can dig in here.)
I began taking full ownership of the parts in others that I judged harshly and the ongoing inner work of stepping into a sense of wholeness.
As I have done that work, it has opened me up to the depth of my gate 48. You really can’t go very deep into anything if you aren’t willing to confront the inner critic.
And, I don’t just mean that on the “understanding yourself” level. I also mean it very practically (says my 5th line profile!).
There is no person, no system, no lineage, no leader, no bloodline who is without “fault.” And when we allow that to hold us back, in our search for perfection, we get stopped dead in our tracks. We write them off before we even have a chance to understand on any kind of real level.
Ra Uru Hu, the original channeler of Human Design, immediately comes to mind. He wasn’t exactly the most stand up guy and did some pretty questionable things; things that today would have had him “canceled” in a heartbeat.
But, the beauty that he brought into this world with Human Design is unmistakable to me. All along the way, in the depths of my studies, I’ve had to remind myself of Debbie Ford’s words:
“The key is to understand that there is nothing we can see or perceive that we are not. If we did not possess a certain quality, we could not recognize it in another.”
I’ve reminded myself that he was a human being, just like me, and that he was perfectly flawed, fallible and whole.
And when I look at it that way, on purpose, it allows me to reclaim my own shadows and move deeper into this system that I love so much.
What a beautiful dance of shadow and light.
Now it’s your turn to contemplate Gate 18
When you stand in the truth that the gifts of gate 18 are always available to you (whether it’s defined in your chart or not)…
What is your relationship with your inner critic? Do you use it to perpetuate harm to yourself? Or do you use it as a gateway into wholeness?
What about the part of you that criticizes and judges others? What would it be like to use every one of those moments as an opportunity for compassion, healing, and wholeness?
What inner or outer judgment can you transform today?
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 18.
And, if you have gate 18 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.