Astrologer's Take on "Human Design"

In the early 2018 a friend asked of my opinion on HD (Human Design), which was supposed to be a system similar to astrology. Back then I had no idea what she was asking me about. In fact, my first thought was to answer her "I have no idea" and move along with my life. My mind was curious though. Since I had some free time, I decided to do basic research.

Turns out HD is a system that is intended to help decipher the unique Design of our Being and learn how to use it in order to live our life accordingly to the potential we were born with instead of trying to be someone else. What you learn helps in e.g. better decision making, as one lives in accordance with the design, the true nature. HD has quite an esoteric theme, being a mixture of astrology, I-Ching, Kabbalah and the chakra system used in yogic tradition.

In astrology we input the birth time and get a Natal Chart, while in HD we get a Body Graph and a Birth Chart, the latter composed of the planets. Astrology-Human Design; so what are the similarities and differences between these two systems of self-understanding?

Read and find out :-)

1. Positions of the planets upon birth

These two systems share a common foundation - the position of the planets in sky at the exact time of birth. So in order to have either your natal chart or body graph accurately generated, you need the birth time. 

This leads to another conclusion that is not mentioned directly: the planetary make-up is a major factor determining our unique blueprint and set of talents. The celestial geometric configuration of the moment tells us what characterizes the moment itself, which would be our life. "As Above, So Below." 

So it like astrology and HD use the same basic ingredients in order to create this fantastic, satiating meal. The differences start to appear once we put emphasis on certain fruits/vegetables, perhaps the amount of water in the recipe etc. Different example: both astrology and HD use the same letters of the alphabet, capable of create many different words. Depending on the arrangement of those words, we get a unique statement.

2. Putting emphasis

The astrological chart is created for this exact moment in that exact location. There is a big chance that at the very same time you, dear Reader, were born, another baby entered this world someplace else. And while you may share the same planetary make-up, the Ascendant and Medium Coeli will be different. The latitude and longitude of our birth place with the birth time allow us to calculate the astrological houses.

Human Design does not place that much importance on the birth place (at least in the initial stages of creating the various HD graphs). In fact, the birth place is only needed to calculate the correct time zone that is needed to get accurate planetary positions.

For example: a person born at noon in France will have a different natal chart than the one born in Germany at noon (assuming both counties have the same time zone). In Human Design, both of them have the same charts.

3. The ecliptic

Here is where the two self-discovery systems start to part ways, for real.

Source: https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Hopkins,_Anthony

The astrological and HD's point of view is a geocentric one - we are entities born on this planet Earth at the specific time (astrology and HD) and place (astrology). The natal chart is a portrait of the relationships between the planets placed on this "imaginary wheel" around our planet called the ecliptic - it is the Sun's apparent path throughout the year. The zodiac signs are a "system of division" of the ecliptic.

That is mostly it. Now the "real" astrology starts, which is reading the natal chart. Each planet has its own symbolism that is altered depending on where the planet is positioned, its contact with other planets etc. etc. 

Human Design does the same thing - interpreting the planets on the ecliptic - although it takes it to a whole different level!

Anthony Hopkins' Rave Mandala

This is a mandala-view (called Rave Mandala) of Anthony Hopkins. Notice that the ecliptic has several divisions:

- in the inner most circle you can see the Body Graph inspired by the Kabbalah and chakras. 

- further out, there are the planets. Look closer and see that there are two pairs of each planet colored in black and red with the Earth glyph included in (the circle with a cross). In its calculations, Human Design depends on two sets of dates, one of them being our birth moment (black).

- numeric signature of the Gates corresponding to specific portions of the ecliptic.

- a set of solid and dotted horizontal lines called hexagrams (I-Ching), also the Gates signature.

- the zodiac signs (astrology).

- the quarters of the mandala.

In astrology, each planet is within a sign and a house. In Human Design, each planet is "within" a certain Gate (from 1 to 64). This is a big difference regarding the interpretations of the planetary influences upon us, but essentially these two systems are about translating the positions of the planets on the ecliptic. 

4. The planets

Here is the Body Graph of our dear Anthony Hopkins:

Anthony Hopkins' BodyGraph

HD uses the primary planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto ... along with Earth and the Moon's Nodes (North and South one). Their meaning is the same as in astrology. The list is pretty much fixed. 

Astrology has much greater pool of elements to choose upon in the natal chart. There are countless asteroids, arabic parts, other calculated special points (e.g. Vertex) and most importantly the Ascendant-Descendant and Medium Coeli-Immum Coeli cusps. 

Why only use those planets? Why add Earth? 

What would happen if you wanted to add more chart elements to the HD Body Graph? I will tackle these questions in the next parts.

5. Knowing the birth time to the minute

Astrology is precise and many times the accurate birth time is needed in order to correctly read the natal chart. The common issues astrologers have is e.g. the Ascendant is in early/late degrees of a zodiac sign - meaning that being born just a minute earlier/sooner makes a TREMENDOUS difference. 

HD seems to not have this issue (though only seems to!) ...

[Comment: thank you all for the feeback that helped me understand this particular aspect]

If you know the mean planetary speed than you will come to realize that being off with the birth hour by e.g. 60 minutes often times won't affect the Gates in which planets are found. The main contentious issue is that of the Moon (thus the Gate symbolized by it in HD). The Moon is the fastest moving planet of all - by a large margin. Its daily aprox. speed traveling through one sign is 13°, while the second place is held by the Sun, aprox. 1°. 

And yet HD requires knowing the birth time to the minute as those changes affect a series of difficult to notice chart elements. Elements often times impossible to see without the help of additional HD software. For example: a few minute difference changed the look of the "arrows" (called Variables) seen in the upper portion of the BodyGraph.

In my opinion a skilled interpreter of HD will be able to deal with the birth time uncertainty much easier and faster than an astrologer. The minute differences of the birth time in HD will (more often than not) influence the details of the diagram than its absolute foundations. 

If you're uncertain of your birth hour, Human Design is the safe option. Putting little emphasis on the birth location is the reason for it.  

Then again one might wonder whether one's Design is really unique. To be honest though, astrology has the same issue when it comes to e.g. twins born one right after the other - their natal charts will be practically the same and the two can still differ in character and life choices being made. This only proves that the outcome of our life is ultimately not about our map of potentials (the cards we were dealt with), but our consciousness (how we decided to play with those cards). Some cards are easier to play with, some are more difficult - only we forge out fate.

Summary

This is it when it comes to the basic differences between astrology and Human Design. The Body Graph and all those colored (or not) squares and triangles are actually inspired by the Kabbalah and the chakras, so there is no direct link to astrology. 

The most important thing to remember about these two self-discovery systems is that they have the same foundation i.e. the planetary positions at the moment of our birth. They differ in the way of presenting how those planetary influence us.

In my opinion, it is not that one system is better than the other. It is like comparing apples to oranges - you can do that, but why? Apple are apples, oranges are oranges. Just like with any other system design to aid human self-realization, it is the interpreter that makes the reading be an accurate reflection of our personality. So be sure to find the right people for you. And remember:

You Are Way More Than Any System Can Tell.