Intro Guide to Human Design: Type
Forget asking “what’s your star sign?” Everyone is currently obsessed with asking “what’s your Design?” As a relatively new system founded in 1987, Human Design brings together multiple ancient modalities including Astrology, the I-Ching, Kabbalah, and the Chakra system, which is then fused together with the contemporary disciplines of quantum mechanics, astronomy, genetics and biochemistry.
With so much information densely packed into a chart, Human Design reminds us of how incredibly unique we all are and that there is no one way to thrive in this life.
Jaclyn Michelle has written a post for Oui We on Human Design back in 2018, which traces her personal journey in discovering HD plus the origins and benefits. This post will focus on introducing the Types. Jaclyn has an excellent blog at Interior Creature and specializes in Human Design chart analysis.
Go to this link to get your free Human Design chart to find out your type.
“Human Design opens the door to the potential of self-love, a love of life, and love of others through understanding.”
—Ra Uru Hu, the founder of Human Design
Human Design fundamentally differs from any other personality or psychology based tests you’ve done before (and trust me when I say I’ve done a lot). HD is a pragmatic and logical system, where intellectually learning about your design is not the same as experimenting with these principles in your actual life.
It is why all HD literature and the founder Ra Uru Hu emphasizes the importance of experimentation—by playing with your personal Strategy and Authority (the foundations of your chart), you begin to empirically understand this body of knowledge through direct experience.
Like many other modalities such as somatic psychotherapy or even Kundalini Yoga, HD encourages us to get out of our minds and listen to the intelligence of our bodies, which are constantly providing us with biochemical feedback about our choices and actions on a daily basis.
Entering into the experiment is one hell of a journey, where no one can tell you exactly what it will look like or where you will end up. Nobody can make that choice except for you—it’s a radically selfish process of beginning to realign with who you were born to be. So, are you ready?
Deconditioning
The whole premise of HD is to align us back to how we are authentically designed to operate and move through the world. Society tends to reinforce the idea that there is only one way to achieve success or have a happy relationship, and that doing anything that deviates away from what is considered the ‘norm’ couldn’t possibly work.
But there are many routes which will take you to the same destination, and none of them is any better than the other. In fact, some routes are just not going to be enjoyable or fit for your unique energetic blueprint; I’m sure we can all relate to the feeling of banging up against a brick wall over and over again, meeting resistance when we’ve been doing everything “right” according to the rule book!
In essence, HD helps to develop self-trust, self-love, and self-acceptance. It is only a matter of deconditioning all the programmed beliefs you have picked up from parents, peers, media, and society, in order to truly align with your personal truth and design.
Deconditioning can be a long process—HD is not about “quick fixes”. But through consistency in honoring your design and making decisions as yourself, life begins to get easier. You begin to feel more and more comfortable in your own skin.
The fundamentals: Strategy and Authority
The only two essential keys to take away from HD are Strategy and Authority. It can be tempting to want to go into all the fascinating small details, like determination or the gates but without a concrete grasp of the basics, it loses any pragmatic application and becomes just more intellectual information. The idea is that when we deeply master our Strategy and Authority, we will start to live our entire design effortlessly, without being necessarily conscious of it.
There are four types in HD, which is determined by the definition (what is coloured in) or lack thereof in the chart. Each type has a different aura that communicates and engages with others and the world in different ways—hence, each type has a specific Strategy that will allow one's energy to flow with ease. Using our strategy is how we begin to live a life with less resistance.
Authority refers to body-centred intelligence and the way we are designed to make decisions. Mind is never an inner authority for making decisions—it is not reliable as it feeds on societal conditioning and mental anxieties. Your authority is your inner truth that you can consistently trust to make the right decisions for you. For the sake of length—and not to overload you just yet—this article will just cover the strategies for each type.
Generators & Manifesting-Generators
Strategy: to respond
Generators and Manifesting-Generators make up approx. 70% of the world’s population. Their type is determined by their defined sacral centre, the red square second from the bottom of a chart. They are the creative life force of the planet, their open and enveloping aura taking in everyone and everything around them.
Generators are absolutely magical. This incredibly powerful sacral centre pulling life towards them. The key is to stop initiating, to wait for life to come to them. The conditioning since birth to chase after everything you want (or think you want) is not correct for Generators, in fact it doesn’t work for any type except for Manifestors.
It is about letting go of the mind trying to make decisions for you and instead trusting in whatever shows up in front of you. The strategy for all Generators is to wait to respond. Waiting doesn’t mean you have to passively wait on your couch for things to happen. Waiting is an active dance with the universe, as you respond moment-by-moment to the physical stimulus in your environment.
From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, you are responding. And response is rooted in the sounds that come from your sacral centre, the “u-huhs” or “uh-uhs”. It is a visceral, body response which communicates only in yes or no. There is no reason behind those answers—you can’t possibly rationalize them with your mind. To be a true Generator is to radically trust and surrender to response, to your sacral.
You are here to be asked, not here to be told what to do. To treat a Generator with respect, ask them yes or no questions. Would you like pizza or sushi for dinner? Do you want to go the park with me? Giving concrete options to Generators is key. Don’t ask them the dreaded, “what do you want for dinner?” because they have no idea until the options are presented in front of them.
The signature of a Generator is satisfaction—they are here to be satisfied with what they do, using up all their sacral energy so they can go to sleep and fully recharge. Never set a bedtime as a Generator. Go to sleep when you have exhausted all your sacral energy—you will find that if you have not used up your energy in satisfying ways, it will be difficult to get to sleep.
Begin with noticing how your sacral responds to certain people, to your work, to food, to anything which is presented to you throughout the day. Does your body feel expansive or does it immediately contract? When your sacral communicates no, it simply means it does not have the energy to commit to that task. You develop trust in this response by honouring its answer.
Manifestors
Strategy: to inform
Manifestors are approximately 9% of the populations and they are the born initiators, those that are here to open doors. They have an aura which is selective and self-contained—they are the only type where their aura does not merge with the energy of other types. What defines the Manifestor is having a motor centre connected to the throat, but no sacral definition.
They are the trail blazers, the mavericks, the leaders—they are here to do things in their own way, to not play small, and to follow the urges that arises from their own inner authority. People are either going to get them or they’re not. Manifestors have to understand that the people who are meant to be around them are going to be attracted to their energy, and the ones who are not will bounce off. Having a selective aura is truly a gift! It is a form of protection.
The Manifestor strategy is to inform. Interestingly, it is the only strategy which is entirely political and not rooted in the mechanics of the body graph. It can feel incredibly hard for them to do. Before they act on their urges and impulses, they need to inform those around them of what they’re doing. The Manifestor is all about impact—any decision that they make can leave a ripple effect in their wake. It is important for them to consider who will be potentially impacted by their decision, to check in with their authority of who needs to be informed before taking action.
Notice that it is not “asking” others for permission. Informing is about communicating in statements, purely relaying the information. To treat a Manifestor with respect, you cannot tell them what to do. But you can inform them with information and from that information they will make a decision.
All Manifestors want to do is manifest in peace, which is actually their signature theme. Informing others is what allows them to meet less resistance and less anger, so they can go about and do their thing. It is a matter of allowing others to prepare for their impact.
Projectors
Strategy: wait for the invitation
Projectors are non-energy beings and make up around 22% of the population. This doesn’t mean they have absolutely no energy—rather, they have inconsistent fluxes in energy, which fundamentally differs from the regenerating nature of the sacral centre (all Projectors have an undefined sacral and no motor centre connected to the throat).
The Projector aura is focused, absorbing, and penetrating. It deeply hones in on “the other”—they learn who they are through their relationships and interactions with other people. Their gift is in their ability to recognise and guide energy, not in how much energy they expend.
The strategy for the projector is to wait for the invitation. Since their aura can be almost aggressive in the way it penetrates other people’s energy, their needs to be consent from the other. Their needs to be formal recognition beforehand of who they are, of what they have to offer. By not waiting for the invitation, Projectors will only meet resistance and bitterness when they feel unseen by others. The invitation is a form of energy preservation, waiting for the right people to truly see and value you.
There needs to be an invitation into the big things in life such as work, relationships, and finding a place to live. But again, “waiting” does not have to be passive. Projectors are here to master systems, and their time waiting in-between invitations is used for study and preparation. They do not need an invitation to go about living their lives. All they need to do is make themselves visible to others so they can be invited. Projectors are all born with a neon sign glued to their forehead saying INVITE ME. Their aura will speak for itself!
Self-recognition is essential as a Projector. It is only through self-recognition first, will recognition come from the outside. They are the only type here with a signature for success, which is not just based on monetary value by the way. It is that sweet, sweet feeling of recognition by the other of our inherent gifts.
You are here to enjoy life, to not be in the hustle and grind of working yourself into exhaustion. That is Generator conditioning—you are not here to work. Of course, this can take great practice and discipline in a world which tells us that our value is on productivity. But you must begin to trust in your process and your unique timeline.
Reflectors
Strategy: wait for lunar cycle
Reflectors are the rarest type and make up just over 1% of the population. They have no definition in the chart (all centers are colored white) and are incredibly open to taking in the world around them. They are designed to reflect back on the health and state of a community, being deeply wise about their environment.
They have a totally unique perspective and are here to discern who is ready for change, who are the “outsiders” in the community that are different from conditioned globalized consciousness. Their objectivity makes them the ultimate fair judges of humanity, being able to see clearly both sides of the same coin.
Whilst Reflectors are incredibly open, it does not make them weak. Where we are open in our charts is where we have the potential for the most wisdom, thus Reflectors are potentially the wisest of us all. Reflectors are designed to take in this vast spectrum of energy from others, the community, and the transit program. They are described as having “sampling” and “Teflon” auras. Their aura can open and close, similar to the Manifestor in the sense that it can be difficult for them to merge with other aura types.
Environment is crucial to Reflectors. It is important for them to ask how any environment makes them feel, to sample it and see how it feels within their body. This is an indicator whether a certain place or community is correct for them.
Their strategy is to wait a lunar cycle. Throughout the month, Reflectors gain access to different parts of themselves, different perspectives, as the moon moves through all 64 gates. It is a process of collecting information to see whether they will come to a solution by the end of that time frame; the answer to the decision will reveal itself all on it's own.
To truly live as a Reflector takes courage and discipline in honoring your timing. It is important that those in your life never pressure you to make a decision in the moment, and those who do try to force you to “hurry up” are not correct for you. It is so important to preserve your energy and perspective for those who truly recognise your uniqueness.
What type are you? Have you experimented with your Strategy? Let us know below!
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Chiara Christian is a writer and 3/5 Emotional Projector, currently residing in Sydney, Australia. You can read more of her writing on her website, where you can also book a Human Design session to go deeper into your chart. You can find her on Instagram @mysticalheretic