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Archives for July 2010

The Emotional Waves of the Solar Plexus

In the Human Design system a defined Solar Plexus is powered by waves of energy that rise towards joy and happiness and fall towards sadness and despair. There are three types of waves and they each behave a bit differently.  The truth is that whether we have an emotional wave or not we are all impacted by emotions as we interact with others. Here is a newer take on an old classic song Emotion.

To understand how emotions flow, here is an overview of the three waves and a chart highlighting the connections called channels that they make to the other centers.

Tribal Wave

The Tribal Wave is the mildest of the three waves. The emotional feeling that is part of this wave flows up and down in a gentle way and most people may not even notice its flow.  It can often work like a ratchet within family or community relationships. For example, someone in your group/family may do something that irritates  you. The first several times you brush it off and ignore it. However over time it builds up an emotional charge until the wave cannot sustain it any longer and it  snaps,  coming into expression in the form of an outburst like “Stop doing that!’.  It also might take the form of disconnection or distancing from the iritant person like a timeout. In a more severe cases it could result in a complete disassociation from the person or the group.  This is a tribal energy and the connection demands that to be part of the tribe we live by tribal rules or we get out of that tribe.

Individual Wave

The Individual wave is the most dramatic wave of the three. This wave travels in big swings up toward joy and euphoria and big swings down to pain,  saddness and despair.  These swings are rhythmic and vary in length depending on the individual.  An up and down cycle can range from daily to yearly with most falling somewhere in between. One of the struggles of this wave is at the bottom it can feel like it is never going to come back up. Too much mental focus on this can actually prolong or create a stuck pattern in the down cycle. It is important for someone with this wave to understand it will go up and down and if you are down the up side is on its way.

Collective Wave

The Collective wave is like an escalator. It rises and rises toward joy and happiness in a slow and steady way. But this energy is not sustainable and like a bubble it pops, falling abruptly down to sadness and sorrow. The bottom of this wave does not last long as the wave begins building again back toward joy. When the wave drops it can lead one to question what happened. In relationship it might be the question of “Did I say something wrong?”. But in the case of this wave it is just energy that has run its course and needs to drop back to rebuild again.

Here is a Chart of the Emotional Wave Channels

(click on chart for larger image)

The Will Center – Are you worthy?

The Will center in Human design is also the home of the ego. This is pushy energy to get or posses material things. It can also be about getting your way, staking your place or enforcing your ownership. The will center is intertwined to the heart and it’s processes which is why it is often called the Heart/Will center. Improper or over use of that pushy will energy can lead to health problems with the heart, the blood and the gall bladder.


Heart/Will Center

Underlying all this is a burning question. Am I worthy? The will center and it’s energy want to prove that you are! That you are worthy to have a nice car, a big house or a place at the table. That you are worthy because you get good grades or your team wins or you look great. But the catch in proving all this is that the will and or the heart must work and then rest. In our western society we are often conditioned to push, push push and forget about the rest. This is a recipe for disaster. It is not surprising that the rate of heart, blood and gall bladder health issues are so high!

Now about 35% of the population have defined Will centers and that means they have consistent energy to do this willful pushing. With a defined Will you are more likely to recognize when you have pushed too long and take a rest. The people with the undefined Wills have a harder time, as they often don’t know when to stop pushing. They also don’t always have will energy around them so when they push they don’t have the defined energy to support the push and it puts a greater strain on their body. Open or undefined Wills can often struggle with worthiness. In school for most a B+ is a sufficient grade but the open will center will continue to push for that A just to feel worthy.

Overall, a good strategy is to use the will energy sporadically. Like a runner when you need that kick to finish. For accomplishing things that we often think take will power like dieting or quitting a bad habit, using other strategy not will power is a better route to success. For example, if you are trying to cut down on caffeine, don’t go into Starbucks. Strategy like that can go a long way in helping you accomplish what you want with out straining your heart.

Gates of Direction – The cross of the Sphinx

The Gates of the incarnation cross of the Sphinx are here to provide direction. Even if you do not carry any of these gates you receive direction as you encounter individuals that carry this cross. Each gate has an orientation of direction. Ra uses a metaphor of the car to illustrate this. Gate 2 is the driver and also home to the magnetic monopole. The monopole is the magnetic energy that pulls you through life and also attracts things to you. As you can imagine the driver has the best view that is made up of multiple lines of sight. Gate 13 is looking in the rear view mirror. They only know what has gone by but can use that to determine how to go forward. Gate 7 is looking through the windshield watching for what is in the future. They know nothing of the past. Gate 1 is in the passenger seat, not really looking out but contemplating the here and now as the car moves forward. They are in the moment.

In this diagram I have highlighted the 4 gates of direction. As you can see they are all of the G or Identity center. They are here to provide direction for the all of us Humans.

In this chart below we breakdown the different aspects of the gates. The chart gives the direction of orientation, the Gate name and the I’Ching name. As you can see the directional aspect of each gate in the chart is different. While Sphinx’s do have all 4 of these gates,  they will give you direction as oriented by their lead gate.


(Click on chart for a larger view.)

Here are sample charts for George Clooney actor, Bob Cousy basketball legend which is of the incarnation cross of the Sphinx.

In the chart below you can see that Suz has the gate 13 as her lead gate, (circled in red). By looking at the chart above, we see that gate 13 provides direction by looking at the past. Suz guidance or direction to you will be based on her view of what has been. This direction does not necessarily come verbally, it may come to you just in passing by spending a moment or longer in the energy of Suz.

Gates of the Vessel of Love

The Gates of the incarnation cross Vessel of Love are all of the G or Identity center. While not unique it is less common for all the gates in one’s incarnation cross to be on the same center. Since all 4 cross gates are of the Identity center there is going to be a big impact by these people as the leading part of there identity is fueled by the love aspect underlying all these gates. If you carry one or more of these gates you to have the consistent energy of the love in that gate that you carry forward each day.

In this diagram I have highlighted the 4 gates of the Vessel. As you can see they are all of the G or Identity center. Thus they are all coming from the self. The self or the souls perception and expression of different aspects of love.

In this chart below we breakdown the different aspects of the gates. The chart gives the High level aspect of the gate and the love aspect. This is how the energy is going to be expressed out of each gate. Again if you have a defined gate it is going to be a more consistent exprience and expression for you. If you are undefined in one or more of these gates it will be inconsistent but possibly more diverse a range of expressions for you.


(Click on chart for a larger view.)

The chart goes into further depth by giving you a keyword on how each gate will be expressed depending on which line in the chart it is defined with. To give you and example look at my chart at the bottom of this post. I have the gate 46 in line 6. If you look that up on the chart you will see that the keyword is integrity. So Integrity of the love of the body. I am fairly athletic and have a sense of pride about being in shape. When I am in physical shape I feel better about myself and when I am injured or out of shape, lacking integrity I feel inadequate. I think earlier in life I was more judgmental about people who did not take care of their bodies. While I find this embarrassing or shallow, part of it is just a natural expression of my defined gate 46 line 6. Obviously this is one example. You can go thru and look up any gate line combination. If your gate is undefined, I believe you will be most influenced by the personality profile line in your design. So if you are a 1-3 profile with an undefined gate 25 your most likely expression is selflessness in the love of humanity. This is a person that might commit random acts of kindness every now and then.

Here is my sample chart which is of the incarnation cross of the Vessel of Love.