All 64 Human Design Gates Explained in Detail
aka The Gates Library by Master Energy Healer, Christie Inge
Or keep reading to learn the big picture significance of the human design gates and how to read them in your chart.
My Human Design gates content is written through my heretical + alchemical lens. It may, or may not, align with the traditional Human Design perspective.
What are Human Design Gates?
In Human Design, gates represent the archetypal energies that up the human design bodygraph. Your defined human design gates are the energies that you have reliable access to. Your undefined human design gates are the energies that less reliable for you; they are portals into deep wisdom and discernment.
Defined Human Design Gates
FYI: defined human design gates are sometimes referred to as "activated" human design gates.
Your defined human design gates are the archetypes that you are incarnated to consistently embody in this lifetime. You can rely on this energy to create the life that you desire.
On your human design chart, you’ll be able to see your defined gates (aka activated gates) in two different places.
As shown in the above image, the first place you’ll see them is in the columns that flank the bodygraph.
The black column on the right represents the “conscious” side of the chart. You may also hear this side of the chart referred to as “mind” or “personality.” The conscious gates were in transit at the time of your birth.
The magenta column represents the “unconscious” side of the chart. You may hear this side of the chart referred to as “body” or “design.” The unconscious gates were in transit at 88* (about 88 days) before the time of your birth.
Within the columns, you’ll see a symbol and a number that includes a decimal. The symbol represents that planet, the number represents the gate, and the number after the decimal represents the line.
I’ll say more about the planets and lines later.
The second place you’ll see the defined gates in your chart is within the centers on your bodygraph.
Depending on which side (or sides) of the chart that the gate is defined, it will be colored in black or magenta.
Note that on a traditional human design chart, the columns and defined gates are colored in black and red.
Undefined Human Design Gates
Your undefined human design gates are the not as reliable for you. They will only be “defined” when you are with people who have them defined or when they actively transiting one of the planets.
That energy will be like a light switch coming on and going off. The contrast of these on and off cycles will show you how to use the energy wisely.
You’ll come to learn who to partner with to create certain outcomes and how to use the energy without burning out or staying in the not self.
On your human design chart, you’ll only see your undefined gates in the bodygraph. They will not be colored in. In my chart below, I’ve circled a few of my undefined human design gates.
Human Design Planet Symbols and Your Gates
Gates that are defined in your chart will play a significant role in your life. And that role will be “flavored” by the planet that the gate is in. (Technically speaking, the planet is in the gate!)
Here are the symbols and a brief description of what they mean:
☉ Conscious Sun – Your Divine Invitation
Your conscious sun is the most important placement in your chart and is the “aim” the soul wants to experience. It makes up about 70% of your energy. Everything else in the chart supports the suns brightest expression.
⊕ Conscious Earth – Your Stability
The energy that keeps you grounded, stable, and able to show up authentically.
Note: The conscious sun and earth are part of your incarnation cross. I do a deep dive on all four gates of your incarnation cross in the human design map.
☽ Conscious Moon – Your Relationship with Self
How you relate to your intuition, emotions, and needs. Often, the moon will be a significant part of your inner dialogue and the way you talk yourself through situations.
☊ and ☋ Conscious Nodes – Your Petri Dish of Purpose
The way you will observe your own growth and expansion. From birth until Uranus Opposition, the south node is the petri dish, and after Uranus Opposition, the north node takes over.
☿ Conscious Mercury – Your Currency
How you communicate and exchange value with your energy (aka not what you are saying, what you are being).
♀ Conscious Venus – Your Sense of Beauty
What you find beautiful about life and likely to place immense value on.
♂ Conscious Mars – Your Poison Arrow
The thing you must express in the world lest it poisons your mind, body, and spirit
♃ Conscious Jupiter – Your Expansion Excellerator
The thing that expands your consciousness when embodied in the high frequency and shuts down your consciousness when embodied in the low frequency
♄ Conscious Saturn – Your Caution Light
The thing you must keep in check to receive the bounty of Jupiter.
♅ Conscious Uranus – Your Quirks
The unusual or unique thing about how you express that energy. These tend to be more generational than personal because of the long transit time.
♆ Conscious Neptune – Your Maya
The illusions you get trapped in and fight to escape. This also tends to be more generational because of transit time.
♇ Conscious Pluto – Your Key of Truth
The things that unlocks the truth in your expression.
Conscious Versus Unconscious Gates
Your conscious gates are the expression your soul wanted to experience. And the unconscious side represents the trauma, wounding, and shadows that “block” the full expression.
No matter which side its on, though, the gifts of your defined human design gates are readily available to you. They 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.
Hanging Gates
Hanging gates in Human Design relate to the human design channels. A channel is created by two gates between two of the human design centers. When only one gate of a channel is defined, it is called a hanging gate. It is also quite common for family members to complete channels together.
In the below image, a few of the hanging gates in my chart are circled in orange.
Everyone has hanging gates in their chart and they play a significant role in how we relate to others. They are like magnets that draw others to us. We are most often attracted (both platonically and romantically) to people who have the “other side” of our hanging gates.
The more significant a hanging gate is in your chart – such as a hanging gate in your incarnation cross or one that bridges a split – the more attractive people with the “other side” will be.
I have a guide on relationship dynamics inside the human design map portal.
How Human Design Gates Become Defined
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.
The Most Important Human Design Gates
The most important gates of anyone’s chart are the gates of their incarnation cross because your cross represents your life purpose.
The conscious sun placement, in particular, is about 70% of your energy because of the size of the sun relative to the other planets.
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.
The "right time" to learn your human design gates
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.
Human Design Gates
Archetypal Meanings Library
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.