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).
When I originally wrote this contemplation (2022), I had been writing the Human Design Gates Library for many months. I’d written it in the order of the sun transits and only had a small number of gates left to go.
There were many layers of work that went into getting the library published. My part was to write these personal contemplations and my due date was a couple months before the transit itself. This allowed plenty of time and space for my team to do their part.
And one thing I found quite magical was how the timing of writing the contemplation seemed to be perfectly aligned with something happening in my life at that time. It didn’t matter that the transit itself was 2 months away.
Which, side note, because the Human Design gates are symbols of human archetypes, they are always relevant. You could pick any gate at random and find the benefit of contemplating it right then and there. The transits simply shine specific light onto them and give us the opportunity to see them through that specific lens.
Anyway, back to the 4.
For whatever reason, when the due date for the 4 originally came up, I put it off for over a week. I had no energy for it.
I’d been in a deep hole of unprocessed anger and the idea of writing about forgiveness felt like a cosmic joke.
As you may already know, I’m a 5/2 profile and my aura is surrounded by the “double projection field.” Which essentially means that my karmic role is to clean up karma by being on the receiving end of two different types of projection.
(You’ll learn more about your profile and karmic role in the Human Design Map.)
Learning about my 5/2 profile was the thing that got me hooked on Human Design. Coming to understand the double projection field shifted my entire perspective. In an instant, I saw myself, my life, and my relationships with crystalline clarity.
Lifetimes of shame and anger melted and my heart cracked wide open.
Richard Rudd, the creator of the Gene Keys, says the fifth line’s main inner work is forgiveness. It took me some time to really understand why he said that. It is because of the mechanics of the projection field.
The 5th line is on the receiving end of projection to be the hero, the savior, the one who can fix all that ails someone. Other people, often at their rock bottom, are looking for a savior and hang their hope onto the 5th line. And the 5th line will be none the wiser – it will all be projection.
And anyone in a projection field (the 5 or the 2), cannot stop the projection from happening. Just as the one who is doing the projection can’t stop it.
It is mechanical, not personal. It’s all part of the karmic web we weave in this game called life.
The only thing those in a projection field can do is to be clear about what is theirs to own/do and let the rest go. And when they do that, it creates a cascade of events that have the potential to rapidly transmute disempowered patterns of karma.
And, whether we are conscious of it or not, letting go of what we think others should have done is what forgiveness is.
But it isn’t a process we can force. It is a process of leaning into what is real and alive in any given moment. And loving ourselves through it. Even when it hurts like hell.
This is particularly important with the 5th line because, sometimes, being projected upon in “incorrect” ways cuts down to the soul. The fantasy breaks that you are being seen for who you really are and you discover that the other person only had what you could do for them in mind.
And that is exactly where I was, back in 2022, when the original version of this contemplation came due.
I’d been on the receiving end of an incredibly painful and wildly incorrect projection. I was devastated, confused, and questioning the foundations of a long lasting relationship.
But, something about this felt different.
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 would just accept anything ever said about me and call it fact. I let people blame me for crazy shit that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with their inability to process their own shame. I took on other people’s shame, despair, and hopelessness and made it my own. 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 “the roots” of what other people think, feel, and do in response to my energy.
Just like I recommend my 5th line map clients, I operate on the assumption that everything is a projection. And I’ve put it in the realm of mechanical and karmic, rather than 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. And it doesn’t always happen in an instant.
But this particular instant, just as Gate 4 was coming due, I crossed an important turning point.
It stung like a mother fucker. But I could also see the ridiculous nature of the projection. There was no hemming and hawing. No wondering what I’d done to deserve it. And no taking on bullshit.
My feelings of anger came in strong and hot, showing me where my boundaries are and how to reconcile them.
I don’t take on the 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.
In those moments, everything I had been practicing came to life in a whole new way. I just let the anger be there. I felt it, in my body, and allowed it to bring focus to what belongs to me and what doesn’t.
I leaned into what was real and alive.
Suddenly, there was no part of me that believed the other person should have behaved differently.
And I began to feel grateful for the incorrect projection. I reveled in the opportunity to gain deeper clarity about myself, my boundaries, and what I will and will not do.
I felt compassionate gratitude that this person had zero capacity to take responsibility for themselves and their decisions. I felt grateful that they poured their disappointment onto me like hot honey.
I returned it to sender and 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 trying to doesn’t just hurt me, it hurts them, too. It steals their opportunity to own and heal their shit, and my karma isn’t having any of that.
In those moments, it was obvious. 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.