"I’ve never met a personality test, astrology reading, or Buzzfeed quiz that I didn’t like. Call it ego, curiosity, or narcissism, but if a system claims to understand my personality traits and deepest desires, I’m all in. While I’ve dabbled in zodiac signs and am a fan of the Enneagram, learning about Human Design left me in awe. No matter how much I identify with the Type 2 Enneagram and how many times friends tell me “That’s so Libra of you,” finding my Human Design type didn’t just tell me the information I already knew but gave me insight into how I’m meant to live. Let’s let the experts explain.
According to Dana Stiles and Shayna Cornelius, Human Design experts and cofounders of Dayluna, Human Design is Astrology meets Myers-Briggs–but it’s a little more complicated than that. Created by Alan Krakower (who used the pseudonym Ra Uru Hu), Human Design is a very specific and detailed system to learn more about your emotions, energy centers, and life purpose. Dana and Shayna provide an insightful and helpful overview below that gives you the basics without overwhelming (I learned a lot!).
However, Human Design is incredibly detailed and can give you insight into everything from how your body digests food to what emotion you’ll feel when you’re out of alignment. If you’re interested in learning more, I recommend a book like Human Design: Discover the Person You Were Born to Be to dive deeper. But for an overview that will help you get started on your Human Design journey, read on for insight from Dana and Shayna on what Human Design is, finding your Type, and how to use the information to live out the life of your dreams.
What is Human Design?
Human Design is also called the Science Of Differentiation, the New Astrology, or the Science of The Aura. It’s a system that combines modern science with ancient modalities including Western Astrology, The I Ching, The Chakra System, and Kabbalah The Tree of Life. Based on your birth information, Human Design tells you how your energy is unique, how your aura works, how you are designed to make decisions/follow your form of intuition, what your unique set of gifts are, what your life purpose is, and much more. Once you know your Human Design type (more on that below), your Human Design Chart shows the blueprint for your unique energetic makeup and gives you the owner’s manual on how to operate your energy correctly.
The purpose of Human Design is to support you in experiencing personal alignment.
When we are in alignment, we feel less resistance and more harmony, abundance, and ease. Instead of swimming upstream, we learn how to get in alignment with the flow of energy that can support us in living our purpose, with less effort and struggle.
What sets Human Design apart from personality tests?
Like Human Design, personality tests like Enneagram and Myers-Briggs are tools that can offer insight into how you may be different from others. While we can find great meaning and support in systems like Enneagram and Myers-Briggs, they are self-assessments, whereas Human Design is not. In personality type systems, you are answering questions about yourself to see what type you fall into, whereas Human Design is based on a calculation from your birth date, time, and place. It is similar to Western Astrology since it is based on the information of your birth, but Human Design also uses specific energy systems (chakras) in addition to astrology at your time of birth.
Human Design is the inherent qualities that you were born with and will have your entire life. This difference between self-assessment systems and Human Design is important because, from a very young age, we learn and adapt to take on qualities that will make us be loved and accepted. It can be easy to define who we are based on who we think we should be instead of who we really are, without even having the conscious awareness that we’re doing it. Your Human Design shows you with great specificity what your soul inherently is, not who you have been conditioned to be.
What’s my Type?
You can generate your chart online for free using your birth date, time, and place. Look for the written category “Type” to see which Type you are. Every person falls into one of five different energy types: Manifestor, Generator, Manifesting Generator, Projector, and Reflector. These energy types describe how your energetic body (aura) is designed to function and the key role you are meant to play.
- Manifestors are here to impact and inspire others to make a change or start something new.
- Generators are here to use their ample creative energy to create, work on, or build what they love.
- Manifesting Generators are here to inspire others as they use their ample creative energy to create, work on, or build what they love in a diverse and varied fashion.
- Projectors are here to guide the energy use of others toward more efficiency and authenticity.
- Reflectors are here to empathetically feel the people around them to gauge the overall well-being of their environment.
I know my Type…now what?
Once you’ve discovered your Type, you will see that you have a corresponding “strategy,” or method to start putting your purpose into practice. By experimenting with applying this strategy to your daily life, you naturally start to use your aura correctly. Practicing this one aspect of Human Design is by far the most powerful place to start.
- Manifestors: Your strategy is to inform. This means communicating how you are really feeling and what you’re thinking of doing next with the world around you.
- Generators: Your strategy is to respond. This means focusing on being more present and tuning in your body’s positive energetic response to guide how you should use your energy in each moment.
- Manifesting Generators: Your strategy is to respond and then inform. This means focusing on being more present and tuning in your body’s energetic response to guide you about how you should use your energy in each moment and also keeping people in the loop as you go.
- Projectors: Your strategy is to wait for the invitation. This means not sharing your gifts, advice, or insight with others until they seem to be genuinely inviting you to do so.
- Reflectors: Your strategy is to wait for a 28 Day Lunar Cycle. This means giving yourself an entire 28 days to feel things out and find clarity before making any big shifts.
How can I use my Human Design to live out my life purpose?
Human Design supports you in building the confidence to navigate any new circumstance as the most authentic and aligned version of yourself. Fully understanding who you are and how your energy operates will lead to you naturally living out your life purpose. We often think of our purpose as one thing we came here to do, but really, our purpose is the energy we came here to be in all of the things that we do. When you dive in deeper, Human Design will show you many different facets of your purpose (beyond just your Type), but the amazing thing about Human Design is that even without knowing the deeper layers of your design, you can begin to naturally align with your purpose by starting with the given strategy and putting into practice the other insights Human Design can offer.
