the meanings library by Christie Inge
My Human Design content is always written through my heretical + alchemical lens. It may, or may not, align with traditional HD views. And, this page contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of my affiliate links, I may make a commission.
Want to skip the explanations about the mechanics of the human design gates?
In Human Design, there are 64 gates that can potentially be defined in your bodygraph and these gates represent archetypal energy that all humans carry.
The gates, and their meanings, originated from the 64 Hexagrams of the Chinese I Ching; they correspond to the astrology degrees and the bodygraph centers.
This is the rave mandala that shows the gates, Iching hexagrams, and astrological signs and degrees. The image itself is from Genetic Matrix.
Each of the Human Design Gates correspond to just under six astrological degrees and the exact degree determines the line the gate is in. Each of the six lines is just under astrological degree.
At any given time, each of the 13 placements in Human Design is “transiting” a gate and your chart is a snapshot of those transits at the time of your birth.
With 64 gates having 6 lines each, there are 384 possibilities for each placement in the chart.
For example, in the chart above, the conscious sun (the top placement in the black column) is in Gate 26.2.
At the time of their birth, the sun was transiting Sagitarrius at 18* 1′, which corresponds to gate 26 line 2.
Each gate in the chart represents archetypal energy that all humans carry and all gates exist on a spectrum.
The gates you have defined in your chart are the gates that you incarnated to embody consistently in this lifetime. And the gates that are undefined in your chart are the gates you incarnated to embody occasionally to develop wisdom and discernment.
The exact placement in your chart will determine the role that a gates archetype will play in your life.
For example, if a gate is in your incarnation cross, it will play a significant role in your purpose in life. But if it is defined in one of the outer planets (like Pluto), it will play a more significant role in unwinding generational and collective patterns. (I’m planning to write a full post about planets soon.)
But, no matter if or where a gate is defined in your chart, its gifts of it are available to you at all times and can help you navigate life in both practical and magical ways.
They can help you “raise your frequency” with specific practices and tools unique to that archetype.
I cover the exact practices for all four gates of your incarnation cross in the Human Design Map.
It is often said that you “should” focus on your strategy and authority when you are first starting out.
I personally don’t see Human Design that way and think you should start at whatever points gets you experimenting instead of just learning. That is the whole purpose of the Human Design Map that I make – I want to provide so much detailed information that the only left to do is actually experiment.
Besides, the gates are the energetic underpinning of your strategy and authority. Here is how that works…
Your strategy is determined by your Human Design type.
Your type is determined by your center definition.
And your authority is determined by center definition within a hierarchal structure. For example, anyone with a defined solar plexus will have an emotional authority, even if their spleen is defined.
Center definition is determined by channel definition.
And channels are created when each gate of the channel is defined in one of the placements.
So, you can’t get strategy and authority without gates. If you are most drawn to the gates and lines, start there.
In fact, the original Human Design transmission didn’t include type, strategy, or authority (among other things). It only focused on centers, channels, and gates.
And while that doesn’t mean that type, strategy, and authority aren’t helpful – they 100% are – to say that they are the “most” important place to start would be a complete discredit to the origins of the system.
The most important place to start is wherever gets you actually experimenting instead of just consuming information.
I personally find that the nuances of the gates can really bring your chart into practical focus. Each gate has a frequency spectrum that is easy to spot once you know what you are looking for and can guide you to practical action to start taking immediately.
And as a 5/2 profile, I am all about the practical application of the whole chart. That is actually the whole purpose of this library – to get you started immediately.
So, all that to say, there is no dogma here. If you are drawn to understanding your gates, do that. Just don’t get lost in a learning rabbit hole and really look at it as an opportunity for experimentation and healing.
The most important gates of anyone’s chart are the gates of their incarnation cross because it represents the life purpose.
In my post on the incarnation cross, I explain the significance of the conscious sun, conscious earth, unconscious sun, and unconscious heart. And you can and use this library of gates to help you understand the gates that are in yours.
When you are ready for a deep dive on the gates of your incarnation cross, I do that in the Human Design Map.
Click the pink buttons to go to the gate that you are interested in.
Go ahead and bookmark this page to refer to as you learn about the different meanings of the gates in your Human Design Chart. And when you are ready for a deep dive on all four gates on your Incarnation Cross, order your Human Design Map.