The Human Design BodyGraph, or your Human Design chart, is a map of your energetic makeup, featuring Centers (which are like chakras), Channels, and Gates.

The 64 Gates correspond to the 64 hexagrams of the I-Ching, and they represent specific energies and themes that influence various aspects of our lives. Each of the 64 Gates is connected to one of the nine Centers and plays a role in how energy flows through us. If you want access to a library of blog posts I’ve written on every single one of the 64 Human Design Gates, click HERE.

Now, in your Human Design chart, you have all 64 Gates. Some will be defined (or colored in), and others will be undefined (or not colored in). And whether or not you have a certain Gate defined is determined by the time, place, and date of your birth.

The Gates that you have colored in can indicate certain aspects of your personality, your traits, and your talents, as well as potential strengths, challenges, and wisdom completely unique to you, and each Gate holds a particular energy and potential. When a Gate is defined in your chart, it indicates that you have greater access to that particular energy throughout your entire life. Understanding which Gates are active in your chart can provide deep insights into your personality, into your behavior, and into your life path. And understanding your defined Gates can also provide a whole lot of clarity and guidance on what to do when you face obstacles in your life and how you can navigate the obstacles that you do face in life more easily and more effectively.

So, on your Human Design chart, you'll have your BodyGraph in the Center of it. That's usually the outline of a human body with shapes and lines over the top of it, depending on what Human Design software you're using. The Gates are always going to be the lines that you see, and each line or Gate is connected to an individual number in one of the nine Centers. This tells you what Gate number it is.

But this is not the only place where you will find the Gates on your Human Design chart. On the right and left sides of the BodyGraph, or the shadow outline of a body, you will see columns with blocks of decimal numbers in them. The number before the decimal point represents the Gate number. For example, I have 16.3 in my Human Design chart in the right hand column, so that would be Gate 16.

The placement of that Gate number in the columns is also important. The numbers in the columns on the right side indicate what you are more aware of, and the Gate numbers on the left side indicate what you might not always be completely aware of. And whether a Gate number is associated with the Sun, Moon, or a planet is also incredibly significant and important.

Now, Gates do not function in isolation. Each Gate is part of a larger system and interacts with the Centers, Channels and other Gates. In your chart. Gates form Channels when they connect with other Gates, which creates a flow of energy between two Centers. And this interconnectedness means that the energy of one Gate can influence and be influenced by the Gates and Centers that it interacts with. So make sure that you always consider how a Gate fits into the broader context of your BodyGraph and that you don't just see it as its own standalone system or trait.

And while your defined Gates have a much more pronounced influence and effect on your life, the Gates that are activated by the transits can also play an important role in your life. Your undefined Gates, or the ones that aren't colored in, can be activated by the transits, and this can also play an important role in your life. Transits, interactions with other people through their charts, and life experiences can activate any of your undefined Gates temporarily, which can influence your behavior and your experiences.

It's also important to remember that although Gates represent potential energies and themes in your life, they do not dictate your fate. They can highlight areas where you may have innate strengths or challenges, but how you engage with these energies is completely up to you. Human Design definitely emphasizes free will and your ability to make conscious decisions, so the Gates can provide you with a map, but it's completely up to you to choose how you want to navigate it.

You will also have defined Gates in prominent places in your Human Design chart and define Gates in not as prominent places. When I am looking at a person's Human Design chart, I usually put extra emphasis on any Gates located in the following places: their Sun Gates, Earth Gates, Moon Gates, Mercury Gates, Mars Gates, and Venus Gates. These are indicated by the glyphs that you'll see next to the numbers in the columns. For example, at the top of the columns are the Sun glyphs with decimal numbers underneath them, which indicates which Gates are your Sun Gates.

Now, the placement of a Gate in one of the nine Centers is also incredibly important to look at because each Center has a theme as well. If you have a Gate defined in your chart, is the Center that it is connected to also defined? This has a bearing on how that Gate will be expressed in your life and how you can maximize its influence and effectiveness.

Each Gate also is part of a Channel, and there are 36 channels in Human Design. When two Gates connect, they form a channel. So you might have a full channel defined or just one of the Gates. Whether you have only one Gate defined in a Channel or both, Gates defined in a channel also can have a big influence on how the Gate is expressed in your life and how you can best work with its energy.

Every Gate also has both positive and challenging aspects where its energy exists on a spectrum of higher and lower frequencies. And I think that this is where the real magic lies, as this can be a powerful tool for self-discovery and self-awareness. And the frequencies of each Gate are not good or bad factors, but they are merely different ways that the traits of a Gate can manifest depending on different factors, which can include your own awareness, your conditioning or upbringing, and your commitment or lack of commitment to personal growth. And understanding the spectrum of frequencies with a Gate can help you harness the Gate’s energy more effectively and more mindfully. When you can recognize both the light sides and the shadow sides of each Gate, this can help you have a more holistic understanding and better personal growth in whatever area that the Gate represents.

When you study the Human Design Gates that are defined in your own Human Design chart, this can bring about some profound shifts in your personal life. But where it gets even more powerful is when you start understanding how the Gates in your chart interact with the Gates in the charts of the significant people around you that you are in relationships with. When you are in the presence of another person (or in the presence of their aura), your Gates interact with that person's Gates in significant ways. Understanding the unique energetic blueprint of your most significant relationships as seen through the Gates in Human Design can really help you understand how to both leverage the strengths that exist in the relationships around you and how you can more easily navigate any challenges in those relationships. If you’d like to dive deeper into the energetic blueprint of your relationship with another person, get my Relationship Connection Reading HERE.

And where working with the Human Design Gates gets even more fascinating is when you start working with the transits of the Sun, Moon and planets as they make their way through the Gates. Transits in Human Design refer to the movement of the Sun, the Moon and the planets and how they interact with the Gates in your chart, whether these Gates are defined or undefined, because each person has all of the Gates in their chart, whether they have them defined or not.

Just as the Sun and planets move through signs in astrology, they also pass through Gates in the Human Design system. And when the Sun, Moon, or a planet transits a Gate, it can activate or highlight that Gate’s themes in your life.

Also, based on your unique Human Design chart, you will have what I like to call power transit activations, or areas of your individual chart when lit up or activated by a transit of the Sun, Moon or planet through your Human Design chart can help propel you much faster toward creating the life that you want by capitalizing on these energies.

It's important to make clear that the Human Design Gates or the transits in Human Design do not predict specific events or outcomes. They can highlight potential themes and energies you might encounter. But how these show up in your life depends on a lot of different factors, including your choices that you make, your environment, and your interactions with others, where Human Design can be a very important and effective tool for self awareness, but it's not a predictive system.

Understanding the transits, though, in relationship to your Gates, can be a powerful tool to help you navigate life. This can help you align with the natural rhythms and energies at play within you and also around you to help you make more informed decisions and to resonate with a deeper understanding of your feelings and experiences. Paying attention and understanding the transits in relationship to your unique Human Design Gates can be like having a roadmap for your own personal and spiritual growth. If you're intrigued by this and want more information, get one of our Power Transits Readings by clicking HERE.

In closing, the goal of Human Design is not for you to master all of the information about the 64 Gates or about all of your defined Gates, but instead for you to understand and work with them in a way that aligns with your authentic self. So, it's all about awareness and integration, not perfection, and not just learning a bunch of knowledge and facts. When you can embrace the energies of your Human Design Gates in a balanced and conscious manner and in a way that is authentic to you, this can be way more beneficial than striving for mastering the information, then striving for mastery of learning a bunch of information on this topic.