What is “Authority” in Human Design?
- In a nutshell, “authority” is the way we gain clarity to make decisions. When you are presented an opportunity or a choice in life – how do you know what the right decision is for you? How do you know if something is in alignment for you? Your Human Design Authority is how you achieve clarity to know the right path forward.
- Authority is especially useful when you are making “BIG” decisions such as accepting a new job or relocating to a new city.
- There are 7 different “authority types” in Human Design.

How do I know what my “Authority” is?
- You can discover your Authority for free by going to myhumandesign.com and inputting your birth date, birth time and birth location. When you input this information you will get a bodygraph chart that includes your energy type, your strategy and authority plus much more.
Human Design Index – For a list of all Human Design articles on my site – CLICK HERE
Emotional Authority

The Energy of this Authority
- You have your own emotional wave that you can rely on.
How It Works
- Wait until your mood is neutral or you are feeling cool, calm and collected before making a decision.
- You’re not designed to know in the now.
Practical Tips
- Getting to know the pattern or cycle of your emotional wave is incredibly helpful and helpful to those around you
- Sleep on it
- Do not make decisions when you are feeling desperate for an answer or solution. Allow space for the “yes” or “no” to come to you.
Click here for an article dedicated to Emotional Authority – LINK
Sacral Authority

The Energy of this Authority
- Listening to Sacral means listening to your gut responses.
How It Works
- You will have clarity in the now when you are tuned into your gut responses. Your gut will give you a clear cut decision or direction based on the excitement level.
Practical Tips
- Gut responses are a physical response of excitement – can feel like butterflies in your belly, sitting up straighter, or a tingling in your spine. Figure out how your gut responses show up for you.
- Something will feel right /wrong but you can’t always explain why.
- The sacral does not do well with open-ended questions. It is better if others can ask you specific binary questions – Coffee or tea? Sushi or steak? Break things down so the sacral can react.
Click here for an article dedicated to Sacral Authority – LINK
Splenic Authority

The Energy of this Authority
- Splenic hits are your intuition. That instant knowing that something is right or wrong for you.
How it Works
- The splenic center often communicates through an instant vibration that feels like a deep recognition that a course of action is definitely right for you. It communicates in the PRESENT and is a “moment to moment” thing. It will evolve over time.
- When something is NOT right for you, the instant vibration can be experienced as instant unease, a knowing that a specific course of action isn’t safe or right for you.
Practical Tips
- The spleen energy center is like a cat – trust is important to building a relationship with this insightful energy center. When you receive your knowing in the now, acknowledge it even if you decide to NOT act on it.
- Your body might use the language of fear to communicate whether something is right for you or not. The trick is to decode what the fear messages mean.
- The lesson learned through this authority is really one of tuning in with what nervousness, anxiety and unease FEELS like in the body, and start learning when the body is EXCITED but scared or truly fearful and saying RETREAT.
- If the feeling is “excited-nervous” that is a YES and you will need to push through the uncertain thoughts from your mind about what the future might bring.
- If the feeling is “icky-uneasy-nervousness”, that’s a NO and the body’s way of saying “this is not meant for you”.
- The key for Splenic Authority is to avoid overthinking and over-analyzing your splenic sensations as they’re happening. Don’t try to rationalize the decision in the moment. Save reflection for AFTER the action.
Click here for an article dedicated to Splenic Authority – LINK
Ego Authority

The Energy of this Authority
- The energy of this authority is “If I want it to happen, I will make it happen”.
How it Works
- The energetics of the Ego / Heart center is not a thoughtful or reflective process. The Ego center is about motivation and has more space to talk. It is a loud voice that says “Do I selfishly want this thing or not?” or Will this help me feel like I am more in my power even if I can’t explain why?”
Practical Tips
- Pay attention and understand how this Authority speaks to you
- With this authority, it is important for you to just start talking about what you want to do and then pay attention to the things you say you want to. Doing this will help you bypass the Mind (Ajna) Center, which wants to analyze, rationalize and problem-solve. The idea is to hear, through your own voice, what you want, and then take action based on the energetic response of the Ego / Heart Center. Your voice is what leads you and your heart/ego say “yes” or “no”.
- An energetic “yes” that feels like your heart is being drawn to the “thing” in question.
- An energetic “no” feels like you are being pulled away from the “thing” in question.
Click here for an article dedicated to Ego or Heart centered authority – LINK
G Center Authority

The Energy of this Authority
- The voice of this center often expresses itself as an intense inner knowing.
How it Works
- With this authority, you may find yourself saying to yourself, “I JUST KNOW! I don’t know why or how, but I know what I know.” This authority is a gentle, subtle knowing that something is right for you or something isn’t.
- Only you will be able to understand or recognize this knowing, and it’s not your responsibility to do anything but get to know and to trust how it shows up for you. Some have described it as a physical sensation near the center of the chest when they have this knowing.
Practical Tips
- You have a strong sense of direction and clarity comes when you share your thoughts with others. You will be able to tell which direction you should be going in by speaking out loud to others. To be clear, you do NOT need their advice – you just need the process of putting thoughts into words to a sounding board. The idea is to hear, through your own voice, what you want, and then take action based on the energetic response in your G- Center. Your voice is what leads you and your G-Center says “yes” or “no”.
Click here for an article dedicated to G-Center Authority – LINK
Mental Authority

The Energy of this Authority
- The energetics of this authority is all about observing the world around them and seeing what is the right thing to do. This authority is all about your razor sharp observations, opinions and thoughts.
How it Works
- Your Mental Authority calls you to have a deep reliance on your Ajna or Mind center and it is important for you to be able to take your razor sharp thoughts and ideas and bounce them off someone you trust so you can gain clarity so you can make big decisions. When you are able to do this, it allows you to listen to yourself as you express your thoughts out loud and allow you to connect to how you really feel (in your body) about the decision.
Practical Tips
- Mental Authority is not about making actual decisions from our Mind Center. It is about leveraging your thoughts and ideas via your voice to show you whether or not the thing is correct for you. Keep in mind that not everyone will make a great sounding board for talking out your decision
- If you have this Authority, keep in mind that because so many of your energy centers are undefined (or open), you are vulnerable to the conditioning influence of others so you need to be a ruthless curator of the energies you allow around you.
Click here for an article dedicated to Mental Authority – LINK
No Inner Authority

The Energy of this Authority
- This authority has a wispy and ethereal vibe because it is ruled more by moon than the sun. Every month or lunar cycle there is a theme for this individuals
How it Works
- Answers of “yes” or “no” do not come in the now. Ideally, you allow the world to give you direction over the next 28 days (a lunar cycle)
- When talking to others, you are using them as a sounding board and not seeking advice from them. You are using your open centers to access your bodily information as you are speaking through your voice.
Practical Tips
- Remember, this only applies to big decisions – not small things like what to eat.
- If you can’t wait a full lunar cycle, respond with decisions that buy you time.
- You don’t have to wait for the lunar cycle to create things.
- If you get clear before the end of your 28 day cycle – after you have learned to trust yourself you can decide before 28 days (but it is better to wait).
- Don’t isolate yourself during this time. You need the flow of energy from others and environments to help you gain clarity.
- You don’t have these moment to moment strategies that are consistent for you. It is more about living with your own set of rules and following the beat of your own drummer
Click here for an article dedicated to No Internal Authority – LINK
Disclaimer
- Human Design is a very complex system and the descriptions in this blog post are not intended to be comprehensive.
If you are interested in all things Human Design, check out the Free Resource Library for free printable PDFs and digital products designed to support your Human Design journey.
Sources
- Human Design: The Definitive Book of Human Design, The Science of Differentiation by Ra Uru Hu. (paid link)
- Jenna Zoe (www.myhumandesign.com) Reader Training Level 1 & 2
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