Have another peek at your human design chart.
Now that you know what the numbers in the chart mean (“Gates and Lines,” “Profiles“), let’s talk about what the shapes mean.
You’ll notice a diagram in the center of your chart, which kind of looks like a fancy perfume bottle. This is called a “BodyGraph.”
This diagram has three components.
First, there’s the collection of squares and triangles (nine, to be exact). These represent the energy centers of human design.
Second, there are 64 numbers peppered throughout the nine centers on the BodyGraph. These are the gates of human design.
Third, there’s a whole network of bar-shaped pathways linking certain squares and triangles together on the BodyGraph. These are the channels of human design.
Let’s go through these three concepts one at a time. Well, not gates. We already did that in “Your Life in HD: Gates and Lines.” In any case, we’ll start with energy centers.
The nine energy centers are the machinery of the human body and mind.
Everything we ever think, feel, do and express is driven by currents of subtle energy passing through these “electrochemical hubs.” As we discussed in “The Basics,” the nine centers are responsible for:
“…the primal functions of willpower, fitness, survival, and forward movement; and the restlessly human characteristics of expression and emotion, identity, and of thinking and making sense of the world around and within us.”
As you might expect, these centers are vastly complex… even though they’re represented in your chart by shapes we learn in preschool. Yet even those basic shapes serve a purpose in the human design system: They provide clear landmarks for interpreting activations and connections within your chart, because that’s where the real magic happens.
In “The Basics,” we explained how the 64 gates are the 64 themes of the human experience. These themes are clustered together within different energy centers based on shared qualities: There are themes of love and survival, themes of change and expression, themes of fear and anxiety – just to name a few. Energy passing through the nine centers is flavored by these themes and their patterns (lines), adding up to create your unique human design. You’re literally made of the energy that passes through you, and the BodyGraph is a way to visualize the system as a whole.
Take a moment to see which gates appear highlighted on your chart’s BodyGraph. (You’ll notice they’re the same ones listed in the two columns of numbers.) These are your active gates, the ones that are imprinted on you. These active gates are forever a part of your unique human design; their themes manifest regularly throughout your life, according to specific patterns. (See “Gates and Lines.”)
Now let’s shift gears and talk about all those pathways linking the squares and triangles together.
As we mentioned above, these are channels, which are the links between different thematic aspects of ourselves. These are the hallmarks of humanity.
There are 36 different channels in the human design system, with an additional hallmark being the absence of any active channels. When none of the nine centers are defined, it creates the very rare “sampling” nature of being that is the hallmark of the reflector energy type. (See below.)
Each channel represents the merger of two complementary themes. For example, Gate 1 (“Self-Expression”) and Gate 8 (“Contribution”) are complementary themes, associated with the centers of Identity and Expression, respectively. When both of these gates are activated in a person’s human design, they form the “Channel of Inspiration,” the hallmark of a creative role model, someone with the driving energy to freely express their individuality and to market their work to the world around them.
Like a prism bending light to create a rainbow, a channel reveals deeper potential within two themes. Without contribution, self-expression can suffer in isolation; without self-expression, contribution can struggle to leave an impact. One is the yin to the other’s yang.
When two complementary themes are activated as a complete channel, it’s not just the themes themselves that are impacted. The entire energetic system to which they belong changes too. Channels link the nine energy centers together, and the hallmarks of the channels literally define who we are.
Think of your BodyGraph as a house with nine different rooms.
Each one of these rooms contains many different light fixtures – lamps, chandeliers, strand lights, track lighting, sconces. When a channel linking two centers is activated, those two centers become defined energetically; they hum with a constant energy signature, which translates into a consistent way of living out their themes. In a sense, the lights are always on in these two rooms linked together. Without active channels, the lights in the nine rooms tend to flicker rather than shine with uninterrupted light. Energy centers that aren’t linked together by active channels, called undefined centers, create inconsistent energy. This doesn’t mean that these people are “low-energy” in the way we usually understand the phrase. Inconsistent energy just means it varies, and if it varies, it doesn’t translate into a consistent way of being.
As we mentioned, the number and type of active channels you have imprinted on your unique human design will determine, at the most fundamental level, how you’re designed to interface with the universe and how to optimally do so. They determine your energy type, your strategy, and your decision-making authority, which coincidentally are the next topics in this introductory series!
Read more about energy type in our post entitled “Your Life in HD: Energy Type.”