The Human Design chart, often called the BodyGraph, is a visual map of your unique energy blueprint. It combines multiple systems to show how you’re designed to use your energy, make decisions, interact with others, and move through life. At first glance, the chart can look complex — with shapes, lines, numbers, colors, and arrows — but each part plays a specific role in understanding how you’re wired.
In this overview, you’ll learn what a Human Design chart is, a high-level look at the energy types, energy centers, gates, and channels, the meaning of the red vs. black lines, and what the arrows represent.
If you’re new to Human Design, start with the Human Design Guide to understand the foundational concepts and how all the pieces of your chart work together before diving deeper into each component.
what is human design and the bodygraph chart?
- Human Design is a system created in 1992 by Alan Robert Krakower (aka Ra Uru Hu), which brings together principles of The I Ching, Western Astrology, the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the Hindu-Brahmin chakra system, and quantum physics to create a chart called a BodyGraph. This chart is calculated using your birth date, time, and place.
- Human Design provides a guide to living in sync with our true nature. The BodyGraph chart reveals what aspects of our energy type, skills, and traits we should lean into to experience flow and acceptance of our true selves.
- Human design is an experiment. Lean into it and see what happens. We can always go back to our old ways!
human design energy types
- In Human Design, Energy Type is the first thing that identifies someone, similar to your sun sign in astrology.
- Think of the “energy type” as the science of the aura. It is how we are designed to use our energetic body to get us to where we are supposed to be in this life.
- Energy type tells us how we are supposed to be exchanging energy with the world around us.
- Everything in life is an energetic trade between people and opportunities with the universe or a higher power.
- Human design says that each energy type has a specific way it is supposed to use its energy.
- When we use energy incorrectly, we encounter resistance, experience struggle, and/or put a lot of energy into things that don’t give us much back.
- When we use energy and exchange it correctly, we eliminate the resistance. Things start to feel more effortless, and the things that come to us are MEANT for us.
- If you do nothing else in your HD journey, just master your energy type – you don’t need to do anything else. Everything else in the chart falls into place.
- The Energy Types are…
- Generators
- Manifesting Generators
- Manifestors
- Projectors
- Reflectors
energy centers
- There are 9 energy centers in a chart
- The 9 energy centers are represented as square, diamond, and triangular shapes in the chart.
- Each center is either white or has color.
- Energy centers are instruments that can be used to our advantage, whether they are defined or undefined
- If a physical organ associated with an energy center has been removed, the energetics do not go away. The aura of that organ/center remains.
the 9 energy centers in human design
- Crown or Head Center (Pressure) – Inspiration, anxiety, mental pressure
- Ajna (Awareness) – Conceptualization
- Throat (Manifestation) – Communication, manifestation, action
- G – Center (Identify & Sense of Direction) – Identity, self, love, direction
- Ego or Heart (Motor) – Ego, will power
- Sacral (Motor) – Sexuality, life, creativity
- Solar Plexus (Awareness & Motor) – Emotions, feelings, nervousness
- Spleen (Awareness) – Intuition, instinct, fear, immune system
- Root (Motor & Pressure) – Life fuel, pressure, stress
ready to go deeper into your human design?
Your authority is one of the most important parts of your Human Design, but it works alongside your strategy, profile, centers, and gates. If you’re ready to understand your full design, explore Aligned by Design.
color vs. no color
- When an energy center, gate, or channel has a color that is considered “defined.”
- Wherever we are defined (or have color) in a chart is where we have our own energetic “stuff” going on, and we are less likely to pick up on the energetics of others in this area
- When an energy center, gate, or channel is white or empty, that is considered “open” or “undefined.”
- Undefined or white areas are places where we can flow a bit and try on different aspects. It doesn’t mean we are never that.
black lines vs. red lines
black lines represent the “personality” side of the chart
- Personality side – traits we are born with and are more conscious of.
- The conscious black gates represent themes we are aware of and recognize as part of our personality.
- On a conscious level, we have influence over these aspects of ourselves. We are also aware of them and can observe them.
red lines represent the “design” side of the chart
- Design side – traits we may be unconscious of, especially early in life.
- The unconscious red gates are themes that are part of our design and manifest whether we understand them or not, and they are aspects of what drives our “vehicle.”
- These traits are, in essence, the parts of ourselves to which our mind has to surrender.
- They represent what is going on in our unconscious and also what we have received as part of our genetic inheritance.
- In my experience as a Human Design Reader, the older we are, the more likely we are to be aware of our unconscious traits.
striped gates – both black and red
- The gates that are striped are energetics that we manifest both consciously and unconsciously.
- When we have both black and red in a gate, it is life saying, “you are like this inherently, and we are going to give you an extra dose/energy for that thing. Focus on these gates this time around.”
gates in the chart
- Gates are the numbered areas on the chart that are embedded in each energy center (see image above)
- The 64 gates in Human Design are associated with the 64 gates in the ancient Chinese book of divination called the “I Ching,” which is over 1,000 years old.
- Anytime connecting gates both have color, this is considered a “channel” (see below)
- Any time one gate has color, and the corresponding gate does not, this is considered a “hanging gate.”
energetics of gates
- Our defined gates inform our worldview. They are the lenses through which we see life.
- Gates are energetics that we must master ourselves, and then we can help others master them as well.
- Each gate has its own energy, and Human Design is the practical roadmap on how to use these energies. Each energetic can be…
- Used in a positive way or a negative way towards ourselves or others
- Activated with lack and fear, or we can activate it with truth and abundance
- Embraced or shied away from it because of conditioning
- The gates themselves are mapped according to planetary activations listed on the right and left-hand sides of the chart. If a number is activated by a planet, that gate will be defined.
channels in the chart
- Channels connect two energy centers in a chart.
- Any time a channel connects two energy centers, both centers will be colored or defined.
- As with gates, the energetics of a channel can be…
- Used in a positive way or a negative way towards ourselves or others
- Activated with lack and fear, or we can activate it with truth and abundance
- Embraced or shied away from it because of conditioning
- Wherever we have a full channel, we can do the completion of that energetic process ourselves.
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Disclaimer: Human Design is a very complex system and this description is not intended to be comprehensive.
Reference: Human Design: The Definitive Book of Human Design, The Science of Differentiation by Ra Uru Hu (paid link)
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