The official name for Human Design Gate 5 is The Gate of Fixed Patterns. But I call it The Time Alchemist because its primary action is to stay true to the natural rhythms, patterns, and behaviors that keep you healthy.
About Human Design Gate 5 – Gene Key 5
Archetypal Name: The Time Alchemist
In Action: create healthy habits, rhythms, and rituals
Keywords: habits, routines, and expanding time
Download All 64 Human Design Gates Cheatsheet (for free!)
Official Gate Name: Fixed Patterns
Human Design Definition: The fundamental attunement to natural rhythms. Waiting as an active state of awareness.
Core Theme: The energy to set and repeat patterns and rituals to ensure consistency.
Bodygraph Center: Sacral center and connects to the G center via human design gate 15.
Tropical Sign: Sagittarius
(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 5
All energy in the Human Design chart exists on a spectrum of potential.
On the “positive” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 5 is the energy for consistency. Gate 5 trusts in the rhythm of life and, in that trust, is empowered to create habits, routines, and rituals that truly work.
On the “negative” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 5 is the energy for becoming so obsessed with establishing perfect habits and routines that you never take any action. This is especially likely when you feel overwhelmed by too many opportunities and choices for how to invest your time.
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 5 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 5 is to pay attention to your needs, values, and intentions and use those as the jumping-off point for habits, routines, and rituals that work for you.
My Personal Experience with Human Design Gate 5 (Gene Key 5)
Gate 5 is defined in my conscious and unconscious Neptune.
I call the Neptune placement your “maya.”
In the East, maya is a term that describes the illusion of being separate from the Divine. Maya is like a web that we tangle in and struggle to get out.
The maya is an essential part of the Divine game of Hide and Seek.
“God likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside of God, he has no one but himself to play with! But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.”
Alan Watts, The Book: On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
If you’ve been in my world for more than a minute or have your Human Design Map, you have undoubtedly seen my references to “forgetting and remembering.”
“We forget and remember. And we forget again.”
Trevor Hall, Kala, Bowl of Light
As I mention in the map, in this game of Divine Hide and Seek, we aren’t supposed to stop forgetting. The real journey is in remembering. And remembering to remember.
Being human means to forget.
Neptune is the place where we forget who we really are. Neptune makes this illusory game fun.
For me, with gate 5 in both of my Neptune placements, habits, routines, and rituals have been a key in playing the game.
I’ve fought hard to overcome a number of destructive habits.
I’ve stopped binge eating and drinking, drugs, sex with strangers, and people-pleasing.
BTW, if you want to learn my process, step-by-step, for using spiritual alchemy to overcome habits that prevent you from remembering, I teach it in the Deconditioning Toolbox, which is included when you purchase your Human Design Map.
All of those habits were how I hid from myself. As I mentioned in my post about Human Design Gate 24, they were all ways to escape the mystery of silence (24).
And when we hide from ourselves, we step further and further away from who we really are.
And, in keeping with gate 5 in both Neptunes, for me, it has really been a process of coming back to myself, again and again.
Eating, drinking, drugs, and sex have all been places where I transform illusion into clarity of my Divine I AM.
At this point, I’ve given up the idea that I will never engage in “bad” habits or struggle with creating supportive rituals and routines. I’m trying to never say never, tbh.
Because even after quitting drugs, drinking, binging, and sex with strangers, I’ve come to understand that habits, routines, and rituals will likely always be a gateway into transforming the maya.
Because I’m not supposed to stop forgetting. I’m supposed to keep remembering.
So, I will keep using the energy of Gate 5 to help me discover more about myself, what I need to feel supported, and what helps me remember.
If you want support as you remember to remember, get your map and go on the journey inside the map portal.
Affirmations for Human Design Gate 5
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 5:
I flow through life.
Life is happening for me.
My life unfolds in Divine Timing.
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 5
When you stand in the truth that the gifts of Gate 5 are available to you, whether you have it in your chart or not…
What are your deepest intentions in your life?
What habits are preventing you from living from those intentions?
What habits would support your intentions?
What are the clues in your life that your habits, routines, and rituals are actually working for you?
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 5.
And, if you have gate 5 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.