I will admit I didn’t know much about John Legend until the last couple years. I had heard his name and of course had heard his #1 song hit “All of Me”. He surfaced in my reality when he played the part of Jesus in a live TV production of Jesus Christ Superstar last year with Sara Bareilles. John is now famous for being one of very few people to win an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards).
John joined The Voice this winter as the newest coach to participate in this seasons singing competition. I really enjoy The Voice as they show a lot of talented artists. Most of all I admire that the coaches are always encouraging the competitors, trying to help them succeed. If you have never watched the show here is a brief explanation. There are 4 coaches who are in chairs facing away from the stage. The artists do a blind audition to the crowd and if the coaches hear someone they would like on their team, they press a button to turn around and watch the rest of the artists performance. If more than one coach turns around, each coach makes a pitch to the artist hoping the artist will choose them. Once the coaches have filled their teams the competition begins and in the end 1 singer emerges a winner. The coaches are so positive that even when an artist is not selected, they get advice or direction of how they can improve and sometimes with the comment, “Then come back and try again”.
So what does this have to do with Human Design? As I watched the new coach, John Legend, interact with the artists and other coaches there was part of his behavior that I couldn’t quite grasp. From my viewpoint, while he often made very positive or praising remarks, there was an energy there that I couldn’t quite place. At first I thought he lacked sincerity, but that wasn’t it. So as the season progressed I continued to observe and ponder. Was it Ego? Well Ego is a button or filter of mine, but no that was not really it. So I turned to the tool that I know the best to help understand this human behavior.
To give you a glimpse, here is some of his interaction in the first show.
After looking at his chart I see that this energy/behavior is hard to put a single word or classification on as it is a blend of several energies, but they are all there in his chart. Here is my analysis of contributing energies.
- Gate 40 -Aloneness – I can do it alone I don’t necessarily need to be in the tribe or get close to the other coaches.
- Gate 6 – Friction – I have my arm out and unless I allow it you can’t come inside my inner circle.
- Gate 1 – The Creative – I am me, this is who I am, this is my creative expression, take it or leave it as I don’t care.
- Gate 36 – Darkening of the Light – I am not sure about this experience that is going to happen, so I will proceed with caution.
- Open Solar Plexus – I don’t want your drama or emotions.
Then if you look at his design as a whole:
John is the Cross of Service he is here to bring joy to life. He has attributes like gate 1 of knowing who he is and gate 43 of knowing what he knows. He has the gate 48 of going deep and with his cross gates he is confident of who he is, what he can do to bring joy to life. With the open Solar Plexus and other mentioned attributes, warm and fuzzy is not part of the package. With a defined Ajna he is likely to be more fixed in his actions and approach to things in life. Maybe this comes of as slightly wooden but not exactly. Lastly with line 5 in his profile he has the magnetism that the 5 carries and he draws us in. But the 5 doesn’t always love and attention and needs to withdraw so another barrier like factor but not exactly.
With John’s accomplishments he certainly is a Legend and now through this exercise I feel like understand him a bit better. We often like simple answers but through Human Design we can see that we are complex beings with a lot of different energies that can interact in so many different ways. The sum is not always clear or can be summed up in a single expression, but through Human Design it can be understandable.
Here is John’s chart.
Below the chart is Beauty and the Beast with Ariana Grande.
