Understanding Human Design

Explore the transits of September 2022

Shantamo · August 29, 2022 ·

In September all big planets are retrograde. They are like actors standing against the light. A good time to look at our role in the society, and at the feelings and thought patterns the global situation brings up.

A Time for Intimacy

On the fifth Venus enters in the sign of Virgo, in the Gene Keys this position corresponds to Gate 59, Intimacy. The New Moon on August 27 introduced this theme, which will be with us until the Full Moon on Sept 10. Whatever comes up in our relationships asks for our attention now. When we can look honestly at our own contribution to the situation and take full responsibility for it, Venus generously rewards us.

Mercury retrograde

On Sept 10 Mercury goes retrograde, until Oct 2^nd. Since this is a personal planet, we feel the effects directly in our life. Make sure to communicate clearly, double-check business deals, exercise patience with malfunctioning devices (and blabbering people).

The Dilemma of Judgment

A side effect of the retrograde movement is that Mercury is most of the month in Gene Key 18, with its keynotes of Judgment, Integrity, Perfection. In this Gene Key, we collectively use mental energy to judge ourselves and others. Nothing is ever good enough. The potential of the Gift of Integrity is to heal our mind from these patterns, which have developed as reactions to emotional wounds in the past.

When we can look at our judgments objectively, we discover that they are not personal. They are like bumps, or creases in the mental field, of which we are a contributing and receiving part. Our thoughts are not our own, they vibrate on the mental plane, constantly interacting there with a collective in space and time. What we heal in ourselves contributes to the healing of the field, thereby loosening the identification with judgment for everybody. The essential quality of Perfection arrives when all judgment has fallen away. Those who live within this quality wish that everyone can experience the same. Even if their own work is over, they stay around to support others. This Gene Key is connected to the tradition of the Bodhisattvas.

Power of Imagination

From Sept 10 to 22, Mars and Neptune activate Human Design Channel 35-36, Transitoriness. Be prepared for a rich and varies bouquet of experiences, with a common thread of the power of imagination to lighten up times of crisis. That comes from Neptune in Gate 36, whereas it serves Mars well to move forward gently. These are treacherous waters to cross.

The Channel of Money

The last ten days of the month bring gentler energies. On the 23^rd, the autumn equinox, make sure you are in a place and with people that feel right to you. On this day Mars changes Gate and activates the Channel of Money with Chiron. Now there is a beneficial influence to advance your material circumstances. Be clear about your boundaries, so that Mars’ energy does not feel held back or used. Then your initiatives are not only good for you, but can also benefit other people. Because the deeper purpose of this Channel is to create prosperous communities, you will feel fulfilled when that happens. The material flow may also increase, especially when Earth joins this Channel in the first week of October.

How best to live with less

Shantamo · June 28, 2022 ·

‘Less is more’ sounds kind of cool and New-Agey. But how is it to actually experience it in one’s own life?
For many of us living with less is becoming a reality. In response, I have found a way I can offer you more for less.

First the transits for July. After that we will look at how to best to live with less, including my contribution.

The two main energies this month are pressure and limitation.

Pressure

From July 1-12 the Sun goes through Gates in the Root Center. In the 2^nd week Mercury joins, and from the 21^st onward Venus traverses the same Gates. The Root gives the drive to do, to move, to love NOW. Do we have the space for that, or do we face constraints?

Limitation

Pluto sits firmly in Gate 60. The Gene Keys frequency bands here are Limitation, Realism, and Justice. This is divine justice, the flow of the Tao. On its journey into matter, the Tao encounters limitations. Seen from the essence, everything is as it should be. Even if it is resistant, matter finally flows with change. Understanding this brings the Gift of Realism. We get access to the hidden magic of reality and can bring it into our life.

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The main energies of pressure and limitation meet right away in Channel 3-60, with Mars and Pluto, from July 1 to 7. It’s called Mutation, and its deeper function is the organic renewal of structures. Gate 3, Beginnings, pushes against the Limitation of Gate 60 until it gives way. Then something in the structure of reality changes.

Pluto almost always remains in Gate (or Gene Key) 60 from the beginning of this year until Jan 2025. In this time, we can expect many limitations. Our financial freedom may be restricted, or we cannot live where we wish to (wars, refugees, immigration laws) or go wherever we want (lockdowns). On the longer term, Pluto prepares us for Gate 41, the start Codon in Human Design from where things come into being, and the developments that will come afterward.

Watch the video for more perspectives on the role of Pluto in the coming years and how you can use the New and Full Moon in July to your benefit

Ra Uru Hu has made a prophecy that humanity has entered into a Great Change of our collective consciousness and the way we live together. In my understanding Pluto is a major catalyst for this process.

The frequency levels of Gene Key 60 are Limitation, Realism, and Justice. This is divine justice, or the Tao in its flow. On its journey into matter, the Tao encounters limitations. Seen from the essence, everything is as it should be. Even if it seems fairly inert, matter finally flows with change. Understanding this opens you to the Gift of Realism. You can kind of look under the hood of what we call reality. You stop fighting with what you previously saw as limitations because you see that they are just the possibility that happens to actual right now.

Gate 60 is also involved with the question whether our human laws and structures reflect the divine order, which by nature expresses as a flow. That means that our human-created structures need to be adapted from time to time in order to remain relevant.

Consciousness cannot be stopped, even if those forces that want to hold on to old structures would start a nuclear war, or subject the world to a technologically controlled, ever-tightening set of restrictions. And, as far as I can see, the new generations are aligned to the new consciousness. The old ways no longer make sense to them. If you are young, take heart, trust in what you feel deep inside and go on living and sharing it. You have the future on your side.

Earth and Pluto

From July 19 to 24, Earth joins Pluto in Gate 60 and moves each day through one of its six Lines. It’s like a quick overview of the energies that Pluto will provoke the next years. The Lines also describe our responses to the perception of being limited. For instance, the first Line is about accepting restraints gracefully, whereas the third Line tends to deny any limits and goes ahead anyway. And then pays the price. It’s its way to learn the value of timely self-restraint versus self-indulgence.

If you have these Gates or Lines in your Chart, take a good look. These are good opportunities for learning, and making your life easier as a positive side-effect. If you want some support, book a session with me. Now for a special, friendly summer price.

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Uranus

Since April, Uranus stations in Gate 2, Receptivity, and will stay there for the remainder of this year. From July 25 to Aug 2, Mars traverses the same Gate. Neither of these planets is really at ease with being receptive.

They want to act or speak instantly, rather than wait and yield to some Higher Self. Until July 30, the desire to move and express is reinforced by positions of Sun, Mercury and Venus. If you can, insert a pause before moving outwards. Take a deep breath, become aware of your surroundings and inner climate. Right action arises out of it.

Did you feel kind of mental the last months?

That’s understandable. The Moon Nodes have been in Channel 23-43, which (sometimes obsessively) aims to bring insights from the mind into words and concepts. On the last day of the month the Nodes move into Gates 2 and 1, highlighting the potential of the individual to be a conduit for pure creativity.

Peace on the horizon?

From July 31^st into August, Earth in Gate 19 activates the Channel of Sensitivity with Saturn in Gate 49, 5^th Line. Opposing parties may find the opportunity to sacrifice (which is the Siddhi of Gene Key 19) some of their fixed standpoints to come together to find common ground.

We all share the same DNA, with minor variations. It makes me sad that we still seem to need wars to resolve our differences.

Living well with Less

Unlimited Supply

Perhaps good to remember that the supply of mindfulness, or consciousness, is unlimited. And this stuff satisfies in the moment you apply it. This is not against exploring the outer world, which is part of living on this beautiful, interesting planet. It’s about how you go about it: trying to fill up an inner void, or engaging with each situation as it unfolds, without insisting on a fixed outcome.

The Summer Special

The current situation made me wonder: how I could offer more for less. So that my work remains accessible for many people. Here’s my solution. I call it the Summer Special. Look at it here

Is the Channel of Charisma a Tantric Overachiever?

Shantamo · September 2, 2021 ·

The Channel of Charisma (or Being Busy) : 20-34

This is the only direct connection, or ‘direct flight’, between the life energy of the Generator center and the manifesting capabilities of the Throat center. Of the six next-closest connections – so to say with one stopover in another center – three go through the Self center, which gives us our sense of purpose and direction, our place in the greater whole. They all involve a stage of transformation of the life energy before it can be manifested. That manifestation then has an element of guidance, of sharing with others. The other three include the Emotional and Spleen centers, which is a story in itself.

Manifesting

Not so the 20-34; it is pure life energy expressing itself. It does not think, it does not tune in, it does not consider others. It finds fulfillment in action. People with this Channel are the essential Manifesting Generators. The Manifestor element, the one which initiates the action, needs to learn to inform others before they act. They do not always manage, the impulse to act can be too strong. In that case, they do well to apologize if there is a negative consequence for someone else.

If you are with a 20-34 person, accept their apology. It’s a bit different when they use ‘I can always say sorry afterwards, but I have done it anyway’ as a strategy. Then we have moved into mental territory, away from the pure energy of this Channel.

Generator

Manifesting Generators need to learn to honor their Generator part too. Once they commit their life energy to something, this part will complete it, even if they drop down from exhaustion afterwards. This exhaustion happens when the Manifesting part has moved too quick, without checking back with their life energy. This check-in is not mental, it is an energy process, and it can be very quick once you’ve got the knack of it.

Two-thirds of humanity has the Generator part active, and they know from birth how to do this. Our upbringing, with its emphasis on thinking, conditions people away from this natural knowing. When Generators unlearn these mental habits, their life force rises up by itself and they ‘just know’ when to say yes or no.

Generators and Manifesting Generators are Human Design Types, along with Manifestors, Projectors and Reflectors. Each Type has its own strategy. Knowing your strategy assures that you use your life energy in the most efficient and satisfying way. In a short and specific session, called ‘Laser Beam‘, I illuminate your Type and teach you the corresponding strategy.

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Other Influences

There are two other possible influences on the Channel of Charisma. They are gate 57, the Gentle, and gate 10, Treading. These gates, when defined, add their own Channels with gate 20 or 34, or with each other. Three or four gates can also combine here. When the 20-34 is activated with one or both of these other gates, its flavor changes. This is really an interesting corner of the Human Design Chart!

Pure Energy

The non-thinking, pure energy part of the 20-34 is mesmerizing. It is also called the Channel of Charisma. The gates that constitute this channel, 20 in the Throat and 34 in the Sacral center, are opposites in the Wheel. Their axis goes through the center, from where all manifestations – the 64 hexagrams – originate and into which they disappear. We could say that in the middle is a black hole, like in our galaxy. From one side matter disappears there, while probably from the other side it is a white hole, where things come out.

The hexagrams of the 20 and the 34 complement each other; you could also say that they annihilate or melt into each other. They are a kind of natural, unconscious tantric partners. Perhaps that contributes to the fascination of this Channel. An interesting side-note: of all the gates that come out of the Sacral, only this one is considered non-sexual, because it is pure life energy. It’s called the gate of Power.

Natural tantrikas

So are people with this channel natural tantrikas? In a way yes. The question is whether they are aware of it. Although a plant or animal is naturally in tune with existence, it seems they miss the self-reflection to know this of themselves. I would say that the ’20-34s’ need to follow the same path as the rest of us here, in terms of being aware of the union of opposites. I define tantra here as the union of opposites, and the tantrika as one who has realized this union within themselves. The sexual union is an outer manifestation of this, and several tantric traditions use it as a starting point.

The Prophecy of Ra

Are you into prophecies? Here is a little bit of the Human Design prophecy (yes there is one, it came through Ra and Steve Rhodes has given an excellent description of it in his book: ‘The Prophecy of Ra Uru Hu’). Ra postulates 2027 as the year of the Great Change, when the world moves into a new era of 400 years. In this period, people with the 20-34 will be at the forefront of what’s happening. Their inborn ability to ‘merge without thinking’, or even being aware of it in our sense of the word, may be pivotal in the new direction of life on this planet.

For all the others, watching and experiencing people with this channel, aside from being inspiring, and sometimes exasperating, can be a window into things to come. And for those who have this channel in their Chart: you have something good coming up for you!

Human Design Types and energy

Shantamo · April 30, 2021 ·

Your Type, one of the three main Keys in Human Design, describes how your life energy functions. If you do not know your type, you can request a free Chart here, and I will send your Type Description along with your Chart.

To know how your type interacts with other types can be really useful. It helps to understand that many difficulties between people are no one’s fault. Or, seen from the positive side, it shows us the best ways how we can work and live together.

Basic Introduction to Type Interactions

There are five Types. Here they are, with the approximate percentage of the total population for each of them :

Manifestors	11%
Generators	34%
Manifesting Generators	33%
Projectors	21%
Reflectors	1%

These can be categorized in two main groups: Manifestors, Generators and Manifesting Generators are energy Types, while Projectors and Reflectors are non-energy Types.

The energy types have centers activated in their Chart that want to do something, manifest something, or both. They are pre-programmed for action. Doing makes them happy and then, at the end of the day, they can enjoy a well-deserved rest.

Does this mean that Projectors and Reflectors, the non-energy Types, are just hanging around, waiting for the other ones to put food on the table, and maybe a beer as well? Actually, it is good if they allow this side in them. They often feel something is wrong with them, because the vast majority of humanity -more than 75%- is so active. They then try to be just like an energy type, forcing themselves to a higher pace than is good for them. Their body does not like this, so it often leads to health challenges. Moreover, they are missing the role that is meant for them. What could that be?

Back to the energy types: if they do not have anything meaningful to do, they become dejected and feel useless. Their energy level decreases and they feel an unsatisfied sense of tiredness at the end of the day. They can actually get kind of grumpy. Because they tend to be so involved in their activities, it is not so easy for them to take a step back and see how what they do fits into a bigger context. They end up moving in a circle, having forgotten how they got into it and what could be the sense of it all.

Here non-energy types can help. They naturally stand back from life a little, observing what goes on, and often wondering about it. They can sense the bigger picture, and what the energy types would need to do to realign themselves. They are potential guides. But they need to wait for the permission of the energy types to be guided. With that yes, a beautiful synergy happens. The energy types provide the life force, the non-energy types contribute the overview. They are equal, and together they can create miracles.

This is not to say that we cannot be happy and fulfilled on our own. It is a description of the general dynamics between groups of people and how they can support each other. A little understanding of the other type can make our interactions much smoother, and so raise the energy level of the whole group.

The Dance of Covid and the Planets

Shantamo · November 5, 2020 ·

My dear colleague Marga has mapped the development of Covid-19 with the planetary transits. In this guest blog she presents her conclusions.

These are astrological notes that I took during the months of lock-downs and unlockings, originally published in June as facebook posts, in reference to the main facts and tendencies of Covid-19 pandemic all over the world. I also inserted links of relevant information excerpted from the media. I am now editing and integrating information for people who are not so acquainted with the HD system and also adding more references to facts and events.

It all started when, while reading an article, I realized that the beginning of the outbreak in Italy happened during the so called Incarnation Cross of Contagion, last February 14th.

Incarnation Crosses in Human Design are fixed configurations of the Sun/Earth binomial on the HD Zodiac wheel during the solar year. They’re calculated at the actual position of the Sun on a given day and at 88° of Solar arc – roughly 3 months before. Considering the Zodiac wheel, the Earth is always organically opposite to the Sun. So we have basically points in space-time that make a specific configuration for each moment of the solar year. The Crosses always occur more or less at the same time in the year, lasting 2 hours to 4 days (according to a fixed structure), and they bring a special climate, imprinting life with their peculiar energies. Each Cross happens 1, 2 or 4 times in a year, in the different seasons, with shifting of the reciprocal positions of the Sun and the Earth and following a predetermined pattern ruled by the motion of the Sun.
Another important observation I made it’s that on February 13th, one day before the Contagion Cross, planet Saturn had entered Gate 60, Limitation (26°22′ Capricorn to 02°00′ Aquarius), after 30 years, and it seemed particularly relevant in a moment in time when all the world was basically locked, limited, restricted… And even if I am not an expert of transits, I decided to go deeper into planetary positions, to see if they could really explain, or describe, what was – and still is – going on.

Marga Eleonora Scroppo is a Human Design reader, Life Coach, musician, and former professional poker player. She currently lives in India.

Marga on the web

So here is the timeline more or less as I originally presented it, with some clarifying notes.

Phase 1: China

17 November 2019: first case tracked down in Wuhan

We all know that word about a new disease, that was killing people in China, spread all over the world around December 2019, but of course it is pretty obvious that it often takes a while before a new virus gets isolated and identified. I did some research and from an article on The Guardian I learnt that, “The first case of someone suffering from Covid-19 can be traced back to 17 November, according to media reports on unpublished Chinese government data. The report, in the South China Morning Post, said Chinese authorities had identified at least 266 people who contracted the virus last year and who came under medical surveillance, and the earliest case was 17 November – weeks before authorities announced the emergence of the new virus”. (excerpted from Https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/first-covid-19-case-happened-in-november-china-government-records-show-report )

Emblematically, on this very date, we entered the Incarnation Cross of Contagion (17/11 to 20/11).

As of course a virus does not come out of the blue, I have been wondering if the previous Cross of Contagion – 18/8-21/8 2019 – could have been relevant, even though it was really impossible for me to retrieve such information. But, while looking for something else, I came across this headline:

“Virus might have emerged in august”

Https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/virus-may-have-emerged-in-august/article31798472.ece

So, there it was! Another little piece in the planetary puzzle, even though hypothetical…

We have 4 crosses of Contagion every year: February, May, August and November. They probably beat the clock of seasonal flues in different geographical areas with no much fuss, but this time something went differently. Maybe the interplay of Neptune in Pisces (63 cusp 22) and Mars surfing from Virgo (47) to Sagittarius (5 cusp 26)? Or the transit of Mars in Leo (29) during the August 2019 Cross of Contagion (29-30; 8-14), followed a few weeks later by the opposition to Neptune? Neptune, according to traditional astrology, is connected to viral and bacterial infections. And Mars is connected to immunity. Some astrologers do say that Neptune/Mars relationship (opposition in September 2019, square in January 2020) has played a role into it.

Another interesting event: on the 20th of January we had the Fixed Cross of Restriction (a fixed cross happens only once in a year), in Gate 60.4 and, 2 days later, the Chinese government enforced the lock-down in Hubei region.

Phase 2: Italy and the rest of the world

14 February 2020: first Italian (and European) cluster and acknowledgement of possible community transmission in Codogno, Lombardia. The rest is history, we all know what happened. Literally something that will be remembered in history books…

And on the very same day we entered the Incarnation Cross of Contagion (14/2 to 17/2) again… The day before, 13/2, Saturn had entered Gate 60, the Limitation or Restriction, reinforcing the climate set up by the Cross of Restriction on the 20th of January. Around this time restrictions started to take place everywhere, culminating in lock-downs and travel bans all over the world a few weeks later. On the 12th of March WHO declared Covid-19 a worldwide pandemic.

The thing that really struck me about this planetary position is what the traditional I-Ching hexagrams narrative – on which HD Gates are based – has to say about it:

Line 1: don’t go out of your home, not even to the courtyard.
Line 2: don’t go out of the door of your home: danger!
Line 3: the one who cannot restraint himself will complain.
Line 4: restriction fulfilled.
Line 5: better to sweeten up the restriction.
Line 6: bitter restriction: perseverance will bring disgrace.

Saturn slowly moved through these lines, pacing the different phases and moods of the lock-down, and became retrograde on the 11^th of May. Then it lingered on the 6^th line, “bitter restriction: perseverance will bring disgrace” with all the problems and conflicts that everywhere people were facing, tired and exhausted of being quarantined. Jupiter had entered Gate 60 on the 20^th of April, complicating a situation that was already becoming very tense. While Saturn is at home in 60, because it has itself an energy of restriction and limitation, Jupiter is at total unease, because it wants to expand and freaks out in restraint. It also gives a sense of confidence and optimism, that in this case can translate in the idea that it’s ok to let go of any kind of restraint, including mask and social distancing, creating a false sense of being safe, especially since it also turned retrograde on 15^th of May, at the same time when we entered the next Cross of Contagion (15/5-18/5), starting a “phase 3” of openings and increasing infections in the states of India who had, up to that point, limited the spreading of the virus, and of exacerbation of the situation in the Americas and in Russia.

Phase 3: India, Brazil, US, Russia

Between the Cross of Contagion of May and the following one in August (17/8-20/08) the countries who were very affected in Phase 2 saw less infections and restrictions. While US, Brazil, Russia and India took the stage with massive rates of infections, with different problems to face and different attitude of the people towards the issue of restraint (self-quarantine, mask, SD etc.)

This phase saw a temporary relief of Gate 60 with Jupiter moving out on the 6^th of June, retrograding in 61, and Saturn slowly stationing and retrograding on the 6th line of the Gate, detached and distracted enough not to take anything seriously about Limitations… with Jupiter, Pluto and Uranus screaming from the Channel of Awareness (61-24), and Neptune in Pisces stirring the waters of Information/Misinformation from gate 22. It was indeed a tough battle…

Phase 4: The Second Wave

Soon after the Cross of Contagion in August, on the 24th of the same month, Saturn too regressed to 61, leaving a long moment of interregnum, till it turned direct again on the 29^th of September, indicating that the climate of Limitation would return by the time it entered 60 again on the 4^th of November, pacing through 60 again and aligning with the last Cross of Contagion of 2020 on 16/11-19/11 and bound to make its final exit from 60 on the 3^rd of January 2021. Also Jupiter is bound to return to 60 on 2^nd of December and complete its tour of the Gate on the 28^th of the same month.

So I guess we will not be really free of restrictions and limitation – and of the virus – until the beginning of the new year, but if the dance of Saturn and Jupiter in and out of 60 and around the Crosses of Contagion provides indeed a description of what has happened, we can say it is likely that we will be free of it by the beginning of the new year, with a wake to the Cross of Contagion of February 2021 (13/2-16-2). Neptune will be lingering in Pisces for a long time, but it has made peace with Mars during the June conjunction and the fact that the sextile will be during the Cross of Contagion on February 13th makes us hope for the best. The next square from Gemini will be in April 2021, but it will be a wading square, probably just the wake of Covid-19… I am not a champion at predictions, but it all makes sense to me and we will all see how it will actually play out very soon…

Till then, the call is to caution, patience and wisdom… other strong Saturn themes…
After that, Saturn will move to 41.1, the start codon Gate, marking a completely new phase. The last time this shift from 60 to 41 happened was December 1991 that saw the end of the USSR after a whole 30 years of Restrictions that affected the whole world and that became so symbolically evident in 1961 with the building of Berlin Wall with Jupiter in 60 (barbed wire phase), soon followed by Saturn (cement and concrete phase). And the story of human Limitation can surely be traced back, analyzing all the 29-30 years cycles of Saturn starting in 60 and ending in… 60. But that’s, maybe, for another article…

Marga Eleonora Scroppo

Disclaimer: these are just notes and not an exhaustive analysis of the whole Human Design astrological picture during this time. I hope that someone more expert than me will take on the task and fill in the blanks.