The official name for Human Design Gate 28 is The Gate of The Game Player. But I call it The Darkness Whisperer because its primary action is to face the darkness of life by taking conscious risks with courage and tenacity.
About Human Design Gate 28 – Gene Key 28
Archetype Name: The Darkness Whisperer
In Action: face the darkness in life with courage
Keywords: risk, shadow, and courage
Download All 64 Human Design Gates Cheatsheet (for free!)
Official Gate Name: The Game Player
Human Design Definition: The transitoriness of power and influence.
Core Theme: Fear of death and purposelessness.
Bodygraph Center: Spleen center and connects to the Root center via human design gate 38.
Tropical Sign: Scorpio
(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 28
All energy in the Human Design chart exists on a spectrum of potential.
On the “positive” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 28 is the energy for facing the darkness in life with courage. Gate 28 embraces the wisdom of fear and allows fear to walk alongside as it navigates life. In this relationship with fear, gate 28 finds deep joy in overcoming obstacles and can find meaning in purpose in all of life.
On the “negative” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 28 is the fear of dying before “finding” or fulfilling a purpose in life. It avoids stillness, silence, and slowing down and attempts to dispel fear with risky behavior. It can easily find itself lost in depression, hopelessness, purposelessness, and meaninglessness.
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 28 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 28 is to become intimate with your fear — especially the fear of death — and master working with it consciously; I recommend the book Walking Each Other Home by Ram Dass . It will also be very beneficial to proactively practice any and all forms of shadow work. I teach a specific method in the Human Design Map portal.
My Personal Experience with Human Design Gate 28 (Gene Key 28)
Gate 28 is defined in my chart 4 times:
- Conscious North Node in 28.2
- Conscious Mars 28.1
- Conscious Uranus 28.5
- Unconscious Uranus 28.2.
In astrology, anytime we have three or more planets in the same sign, it is known as a stellium, which is a fancy word for super important. The energy of the stellium will be like a golden thread that runs through your whole life, creating ripple effects in the rest of your chart.
And, well, with Gate 28 being all about our relationship to death, this one belongs in the “you can’t make this shit up” category.
Death met me early in life.
It was a Wednesday and my second grade teacher pulled me to the side to tell me that my great grandfather had died.
A couple of years later, a grandmother. A popular girl died in a tragic accident during high school. Two close friends died by suicide shortly after.
During my first Saturn return, one of my brothers died in a car accident at age 25, followed quickly by an aunt and my grandfather.
Then, in 2020, my other brother died of a drug overdose at 36, and my grandmother, less than two months later.
The reminder that life is fragile, dotting my life like sprinkles on a cupcake. I learned fast and early that life can change in an instant and in ways you never imagined possible.
We are living AND we are dying. At the same time.
And despite our rugged attempts at trying, we can’t actually run from the reality of nature. The dance between life and death is the way that it is.
For the first part of my life, death was difficult for me to process. Like so many in the West, I was ill equipped and poorly supported in grief and loss.
The world often seemed cruel – like a sick karmic joke. And I found escape in drugs, binge drinking, and sex with strangers. I fell into dark holes of believing that life had no meaning and that I had no purpose except to suffer.
My relationship with death started to shift after my first brother died, though.
In all honesty, I can’t say that I processed his death in a healthy way. But, it did mark a pivotal moment of awakening for me.
As the weeks turned into months, Saturn’s message was clear:
I could not continue the path I was on. I had to change. There were no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.
The first shift in my awareness was that we have a choice in how we handle grief. We can use it as fuel for expanding our consciousness or we can use it to collapse in the face of life.
Within a few years, I was well on my path with shadow integration work. I had heard about it in my very first training as a coach and was hooked instantly.
Human Design, or even astrology, were not on my radar yet. But, I was consciously walking away from the toxic religious conditioning of my childhood. And I was starting to be recognized for my natural projector gifts as a guide and truth teller.
To my surprise, shadow work seemed like a language that my body already knew how to speak. As I worked with clients, going into the depths of someone’s shame and fear was like a normal day at the office.
I was not afraid of it. I held space for the kind of darkness that most people don’t even know exist. And, through the mystery of Grace, people seemed to be “healed” in my presence.
And, by healed, I mean they were able to see themselves clearly – as a fractal of the Divine – in the Great Mirror of life. My words, shaking them awake and forcing them to surrender under the weight of their Divinity.
And while it looks different and my role isn’t the same, now, I still hold space for that kind of healing today inside the Human Design Map portal.
It’s one of the reasons I love Human Design so much – it is like a fast track to the shadows that are in desperate need of our attention, acceptance, and unshakeable love.
And when we meet ourselves there, eyes wide open, miracles happen.
Our consciousness expands and we become capable of holding a broader spectrum of frequencies in our lives. The highs become higher and the lows become lower, and none of it is better or worse. We embrace our wholeness.
(You’ll learn “how” inside the Human Design Map portal.)
It has only been recently that I’ve made the connection between all of that and death.
Richard Rudd, of the Gene Keys, talks about the connection between purpose, shadow, and death all the time. And it was his work, on Gate 28 (Gene Key 28), that opened me up to the connection to begin with.
But it wasn’t until my second brother died, in 2020, that it all started to click.
As weird as it sounds, his death was a profoundly healing experience around purpose and death for me. I write about it in my post on Gate 15, which was his conscious sun.
One of the things that became clear was that it is only the ego that dies.
His soul continues to live and breathe. He is with me. I can hear him laugh.
His wild hearted essence still permeates my life. His purpose is alive and well. Minus the attachment.
And when we are transforming our shadows into light, when we are facing the deepest darkest parts of ourselves, we are letting go of attachments.
(You’ll learn how all that works – in the context of your Human Design – inside the Human Design Map portal.)
Our ego – the parts of ourselves that are attached to being seen as good, worthy, enough – dies. The strings of attachment turning to ash in the fires of Fierce Grace.
We understand, however briefly, that we are whole. We let go of the shame. We become humbled by the power of unconditional love.
And then, we do it again and again. Meeting ourselves there.
Dying. Dying. Dying again.
I have often joked that I’ve lived many lifetimes in this one life. Or that past me would be dead or in jail by now.
The transformations I’ve gone through are nothing short of wild AF. Like, how in the world did I go from being a strung out addict to being a guide to thousands inside the Human Design Map portal?
I understand now that it is because of all of the attachments I’ve let go of.
In the words of Carl Jung, I would rather be whole than good. Trying to be good was killing me. And letting go seemed like the only choice to make.
That isn’t to say that it is easy or that I always navigate it with Grace. It gets messy AF and I have moments I’m not proud of.
But, I do take comfort in the thought that only the ego dies. And that I’ve done that a million times already.
Affirmations for Human Design Gate 28
Using your Human Design to create affirmations is a powerful way to activate the full potential of your chart. Here are some affirmations for Gate 28:
I face the darkness of life with courage and tenacity.
I transform challenges into meaning and purpose.
I alchemize shadows into light.
Inside your Human Design Map, you’ll get a full list of empowering beliefs for your type + strategy, authority, profile, and all four gates of your incarnation cross and show you how to go from affirmation to full-on embodiment. In the meantime, be sure to also check out my post on how to make Human Design affirmations work.
Now it’s your turn to contemplate Gate 28
When you stand in the truth that the gifts of gate 28 are always available to you, (whether it’s defined in your chart or not)…
Are you making the meaning you want to be making with your life? Are you living with purpose and intent?
Are you summoning the courage to live YOUR life?
What if you knew that you were innately worthy and whole? How would that change your ability to live with courage?
If today is your last, are you making the most of it? And is it really worth it to keep shoving parts of yourself into the shadows?
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 28.
And, if you have gate 28 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.