The official name for Human Design Gate 4 is The Gate of Formulization. But I call it The Forgiveness Decoder because its primary action is to allow forgiveness to be the ultimate solution..
About Human Design Gate 4 – Gene Key 4
Archetypal Name: The Forgiveness Decoder
In Action: to harness the healing power of forgiveness
Keywords: logic, forgiveness, solutions, possibility
Download All 64 Human Design Gates Cheatsheet (for free!)
Official Gate Name: Formulization
Human Design Definition: The energy to beguile and succeed despite ignorance. Freedom from retribution.
Core Theme: Fear of never-ending chaos.
Bodygraph Center: Ajna center and connects to the Head center via human design gate 63.
Tropical Sign: Leo
(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 4
All energy in the Human Design chart exists on a spectrum of potential.
On the “positive” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 4 is the energy for harnessing the healing power of forgiveness through objective logic.
Gate 4 has a deep inner knowing that forgiving isn’t the same as forgetting or permitting “bad” behavior. Forgiveness is letting go of the idea that the past should have unfolded differently.
It understands — logically — how humans work and how the patterns of the Universe flow. They see that in matters of the heart, forgiveness is often the only thing left to do.
On the “negative” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 4 is the energy for using misguided logic to perpetuate negative beliefs, emotional patterns, and behavior towards yourself and others.
It uses logic as a weapon against itself and others and sees problems everywhere and in everyone. Its mental intolerance leads to an inability to forgive and move forward.
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 4 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 4 is to be mindful of how you are using logic. If logic is creating more pain and mental suffering, it isn’t serving you. Practice shadow work like it’s your job. You may also benefit from The Work of Byron Katie (but be mindful not to use it as a weapon against yourself or others!).
My personal contemplation of Human Design Gate 4 (Gene Key 4)
The way life works is such a beautiful mystery to me (says my Human Design Gate 61).
At the time of this writing, I have been creating the Human Design Gates Library for many months. I’ve written it in the order of the sun transits and only have a small number of gates left to go.
And one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how the timing of the “due date” for each gate lines up with whatever is going on in my life, even though I am writing them a couple of months in advance of their sun transit.
This Gate 4 post has been sitting in my “to write” queue for over a week.
I’ve been in a deep hole of unprocessed anger and the idea of writing about forgiveness has been haunting me.
I’m a 5/2 profile and as I’ve said a gazillion and a half times, my profile was the part of my chart that changed everything for me. It shifted my entire perspective on myself, my life, and the things I’ve experienced in relationships in an instant.
Richard Rudd, the creator of the Gene Keys, says that the fifth lines main inner work is forgiveness. And I think that is because of the way the projection field works. We can’t stop the projection from happening because it is mechanical rather than personal. The only thing we can really do is be clear and let the rest go (aka forgive).
So, while I don’t have gate 4 defined in my chart, it really does seem like things always come down to forgiveness for me.
Just before this post came “due”, I was on the receiving end of an incredibly painful and wildly incorrect projection.
In the past, especially before I understood my human design profile, I would take these projections on by making them about me.
As a result, I became the world’s biggest people pleaser. I’ve taken incorrect blame pointed at me and transformed it into internal blame and shame. I bent myself into a million different pretzels trying to make sure that no one ever felt disappointed on my watch.
Over the years with HD, though, I have learned to really deeply question what other people think, feel, and do in response to my energy.
I’ve started operating on the assumption that everything is a projection. I’ve used blame and shame as a signpost that there is something “mechanical” happening rather than something personal.
And this really magical thing happens where, from that perspective, I can see what actually is mine and what is theirs. When something is mine, I take full responsibility for it and I let the rest go.
It has taken conscious effort and a metric fuck ton of deconditioning.
But particular projection landed completely differently. It was a true turning point in working with the double projection field of the 5/2.
I could instantly see the ridiculous nature of the projection.
And my feelings of anger were stronger than ever. They were potent and clear.
The wisdom of anger always points back to boundaries. Sometimes those boundaries are physical but, more often than not, they are emotional or mental.
And I now have a mental boundary of not taking the mental burden of other people’s projections. I let them bounce off of me and will no longer spend hours, days, weeks, months, years ruminating on them.
At first, when this projection landed, I went into defensive mode and could feel a sense of shame rising up. I started to question myself and wonder what I had done wrong.
But then, everything I have been practicing came to life in a whole new way.
I started to simply allow the anger to be there. I felt it, in my body, and began to feel into my boundaries.
And, most importantly, I started to use the anger to shore up my boundaries, to become even more clear about what is mine and what isn’t, and to communicate that with more clarity than ever before.
Then, yesterday, a miracle happened.
There was no longer any part of me that believed that this experience should have happened any differently.
I felt grateful for the incorrect projection. I felt grateful that this person had zero capacity to take responsibility for themselves and their decisions. I felt grateful that they poured their disappointment on me like hot honey.
Because through this experience, I saw myself more clearly than ever before and I acted with a level of integrity that I am proud of.
By processing my anger and embodying its wisdom, I naturally moved into forgiveness.
I literally cannot control what other people see in me and forgiveness was the only logical thing left to do.
Now it’s your turn to contemplate Gate 4
When you stand in the truth that you are worthy of receiving the gifts of gate 4 (whether it’s defined in your chart or not)…
What is your relationship with forgiveness? Do you see it as the only logical solution sometimes?
What “bad” experiences have you become grateful for?
In what ways have you used logic against yourself and others? And are you willing to forgive yourself for that?
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 4.
And, if you have gate 4 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.