The official name for Human Design Gate 21 is The Gate of Hunter/Huntress. But I call it The Resource Manager because its primary action is to respect and understand the value of community resources-time, money, energy, and people (including yourself)- and manage them with integrity.
About Human Design Gate 21 – Gene Key 21
Archetype Name: The Resource Manager
In Action: understand, value, and respect all resources
Keywords: control, taking charge, and managing resources
Download All 64 Human Design Gates Cheatsheet (for free!)
Official Gate Name: Hunter/Huntress
Human Design Definition: The justified and necessary use of power in overcoming deliberate and persistent interference.
Core Theme: To be in control of circumstances.
Bodygraph Center: Will center and connects to the Throat center via human design gate 45.
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 21
All energy in the Human Design chart exists on a spectrum of potential.
On the “positive” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 21 is the energy for understanding, respecting, and valuing all resources. For gate 21, energy management is all about balancing yin and yang, masculine and feminine, push and pull. In this way, gate 21 easily manages the mundane resources of its family, community, or company in a way that empowers everyone.
On the “negative” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 21 is the energy for controlling others to appease your ego, fearing your own power and authority, or feelings of low self-worth due to people-pleasing.
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 21 with a number of boundaries, practices, and tools.
(I cover the practices for the gates of your incarnation cross in The Human Design Map.)
But, the most important thing to raise the frequency of gate 21 is to channel your controlling energy into things (careers, hobbies, habits) that will benefit from precise control.
My personal contemplation of Human Design Gate 21 (Gene Key 21)
Gate 21 is undefined in my chart.
But my husband has it defined in the unconscious sun of his incarnation cross. And learning that shocked me (gate 51 in my conscious earth!).
I can usually sense the gates in someone’s chart from a mile away. But, in my experience, “controlling” and my husband just did not go together.
In his everyday demeanor, he is incredibly respectful of every living thing he encounters (gate 19!). He has never tried to control me in any way, shape, or form. And he definitely isn’t the stereotypical picture of someone who tries to control the world.
So, it truly baffled me (and made me check my ego!) that he has gate 21 as such a prominent placement.
Similar to my initial feelings about the “salesman” of gate 26, I was full of negative judgment about what it really means to be a person with gate 21 defined.
As all judgments do, this pointed me to my shadows with gate 21 and the “controlling” parts of myself that I’ve often rejected.
With my Aries rising + my conscious Earth, I’ve often been called domineering, headstrong, and pushy. To be honest, I’ve often chalked this up to being “about them” and not at all about me. 🤣
But, when I look more closely at some of the taboo shadows of gate 21 – control freak, rebel, passive-aggressive – I see myself written all over it.
(I cover the golden and taboo shadows for the gates of your cross in the Human Design Map.)
I’m human. When my life is out of control, I tend to try to control the world around me. I am not immune to thinking that if other people change, if circumstances were different, or everything is in its “right” place, all would be well with the world.
As I’ve explored and integrated those shadows, I gained access to the full spectrum of energy potential in gate 21. And, because it can only work that way, my husband came into clearer view.
I saw his list of every single thing in the freezer.
I appreciated how he makes impossible things fit in a suitcase and pack the car when we travel.
I noticed how well he manages money and his natural ability to rein in the stuff of life.
And then I had a nice little chuckle because I remembered that his job title is Fixed Asset Manager. He literally gets paid to manage resources.
What?!?!?!
Color me shocked. How did I miss that?
Because I was in judgment of anyone who comes across as controlling. And I was in judgment because I was rejecting those parts of myself.
What I teach people inside their Human Design Map really is true.
Every gate (line, center, channel, etc.) in the chart holds a spectrum of energy potential. It is our judgments, of ourselves and others, that keep us from accessing all of it.
But when we open our hearts and face the truth of our wholeness, we access our greatest potential.
It is literally all right there in the chart. Even in the gates we think are terrible.
Now it’s your turn to contemplate Gate 21
When you stand in the truth that the gifts of gate 21 are always available to you (whether it’s defined in your chart or not)…
What is your relationship with control?
Do you judge yourself or others for being in control?
In what “positive” ways does control manifest in your life?
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 21.
And, if you have gate 21 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.