The official name for Human Design Gate 23 is The Gate of Assimilation. But I call it The Alchemical Wordsmith because its primary action is to communicate radical ideas and be recognized for your ability to initiate transformation with your words alone.
About Human Design Gate 23 – Gene Key 23
Archetype Name: The Alchemical Wordsmith
In Action: communicate radical ideas
Keywords: words, speaking the truth, and transformation
Download All 64 Human Design Gates Cheatsheet (for free!)
Official Gate Name: Assimilation
Human Design Definition: Amorality. The awareness and understanding which leads to the acceptance of diversity.
Core Theme: Communicating individual insights.
Bodygraph Center: Throat center and connects to the Ajna center via human design gate 43.
Tropical Sign: Taurus
(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 23
All energy in the Human Design chart exists on a spectrum of potential.
On the “positive” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 23 is the energy for speaking the truth. Gate 23 believes that getting right to the point is the most effective way to communicate and is able to speak the truth with clarity and grace.
On the “negative” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 23 is the energy for being seen as weird or “out there” for speaking truths that are too far from the vibration of its audience. It tends to talk “at” people rather than waiting for the right timing/people.
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 23 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 23 is to create the inner (and outer) space necessary to hear the voice of your inner wisdom. You cannot communicate your message if you don’t know what it is.
My personal contemplation of Human Design Gate 23 (Gene Key 23)
When I first wrote about Gate 23, the writing revealed that I was holding onto some conditioning with it.
Gate 23 is undefined in my chart. But, Gate 43 (the other side of the channel of structuring) is defined and is part of the small split between my ajna and throat. Gate 23 is one of the gates that would bridge that split.
One of the common experiences with hanging gates (like my hanging 43), especially when they hang in a significant spot in our chart like mine, is that we can get really bound up in believing that we need to be more of the gate we don’t have defined.
(I talk more about the effect of hanging gates, splits, and channels inside the Human Design Map portal.)
Our hanging gates tend to represent the places where we feel inadequate. We often tell ourselves that if we could be more like that (Gate 23 in my case), then, and only then would we be perfect and “whole.”
As I saw gate 23 approaching in the sun transits, I found myself mentally searching for something really profound to say in this post.
I went back and forth between looking for something I said in the past that triggered a quantum leap for someone else. Or maybe something that triggered a quantum leap in my own life.
I thought about clients and people I’ve hired who have gate 23 defined.
I even started mentally making a list of “profound” statements I could share.
And, like a lightning bolt, I saw clearly what my mind was doing.
My mind was trying to compensate for my perceived inadequacy by finding something to say.
This is hilarious to me now. How cute of my brain.
See, one of the primary themes that happens between the head/ajna and ajna/throat channels is surrendering to Divine Timing.
From the head to the ajna, we can’t force the ajna to produce insight. And from the ajna to the throat, we can’t force the “right” words to come out or make others receive our words. All of that is left to the mystery of synchronicity.
And with Gate 23 specifically, there is a high probability that when we share insight that people aren’t ready for, it won’t be received at all.
It is like a square peg, round hole scenario.
Trying to force it to happen will never work.
A square peg can’t go through a round hole unless the round hole is big enough to receive it.
I can so clearly see now how I’ve often tried to force my words to create instant transformation for others.
As I’ve said before, I do have a way with words. And sometimes, they do land in a way that “changes everything” in an instant.
I’ve watched it happen countless times.
But, sometimes not.
True to my design, sometimes my words are more of a slow burn as I translate esoteric concepts (like I do in the Human Design Map!) or as I tell stories that take time to percolate and simmer.
I often need others to “pull” the profound insights out of me.
No matter how much I try to force “words that change everything,” the energy doesn’t work that way.
It works when the square peg finds the square hole. OR when the round peg finds the round hole. Or when the round hole is big enough to fit the square peg.
And none of that is up to me.
We are here to dance with others, to do what is ours to do, and to let the Divine Mystery take care of the rest.
And the best shot we have at the pegs aligning with the holes is to be in integrity with ourselves and to allow the Universe to do its part.
What a sigh of relief! And I have to say, that awareness is pretty profound.
Now it’s your turn to contemplate Gate 23
When you stand in the truth that the gifts of gate 23 are always available to you (whether it’s defined in your chart or not)…
What words have “changed everything” for you? Why?
What words have you said to someone else that “changed everything” for them?
Do you trust the mystery of life to deliver the right words at the right time? Or do you try to force square pegs into round holes?
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 23.
And, if you have gate 23 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.