The Stars Are Us

From within this experience we define as “life,” we all appear to walk separate paths. Each of us driven on by some unnameable universal motivator, incapable of being referenced directly yet somehow conspiring to define each of us as distinct and unique individuals. Like children of an absent primal parent; we know there must be some source of the thing we call “I,” yet we couldn’t tell you anything about it.

Further, as we grow and grapple with the sensations of uncomfortable mystery, we may, in the interest of pragmatism, convince ourselves that we are not the result of any design, and instead that our entire beinghood is some phenomena which stands miraculously divided from the rest of the processes in this Universe. Pure chance. Genetic lottery. Meaningless Coincidence.

That’s us. By pure meaningless coincidence all the myriad cells in our body come together in an expression of a harmony far outside of our direct control. By genetic lottery we find ourselves with passions, interests, and personalities which often cement us as quite distinct from our genetic parentage. By pure chance, we have the capacity to reflect, to strive, to define who and what we are and our relationship to the world around us.

Cynicism? Me? Never.

Some people might say that distilling or extrapolating some sense of meaning from the fathomless mysteries I just invoked is to grasp at straws. Perhaps, but to maintain that all is simply coincidence is to grasp at nothing at all.

The straw has more value, surely.

Meaning. For many of us who found ourselves attracted to the study of astrology in its various forms, it isn’t the desire to find or create meaning in our lives that drives us. It is the deep-down gnosis that “meaning” is already an insoluble reality in this experience; that the idea that we are all fundamentally meaningless coincidences is simply… unrealistic. It’s fantastical. It just doesn’t jive.

It is because we have always carried this awareness in our lives that the various systems of astrology are so attractive. Of course we are connected to the rest of Universe! Of course there is an order to the manifestation of things! Of course we are here because here is an experience we have chosen to have!

Okay, maybe the last one was a wee bit slippery.

I, personally, extrapolate the statement by asking myself the question: “What does it mean for the reality of human experience if the mechanics of astrology inform our reality at all? If who we are is absolutely not a coincidence?”

In any case, all of this is something of a preamble for the actual question I intend to explore in writing this:

“What is the value of Human Design, especially in relation to other forms of astrology?”

I’m going to assume if you’re reading this that you’re already at least somewhat familiar with some astrological system. I’m going to further assume that you’re over “the hill;” that you accept that the systems you are familiar with contain at least some truth, and that they have been useful catalysts for growth and insight in your own life.

If NONE of that is true for whatever reason, either ignorance or disdain, well… I’ll assume you’ve already concluded that you’d prefer to read something else, or that you’re sticking it out for reasons I cannot directly speak to.

In any case! What every system of astrology seems to lend is a capacity for self-identification and reflection. When we really sit with and analyze the details of our entire astrological makeup, we tend to come out of the process with a few new perspectives on ourselves and our relationship to others.

By seeing ourselves presented as a grid of archetypes in action; Pisces in Sun, Capricorn in Moon, etc; and especially when contrasting those archetypes to the placements of others, we have a strong framework for the exploration of identity. Whether or not you agree at the outset with your chart, there is an internal dialog which occurs which always causes you to peer more deeply into the mirror of self than you had previously.

Oh, I get along great with the personable Leos, but I always have trouble with those shifty Scorpios.

I may never need to ask an Aries what’s on their mind, and good luck getting a Taurus to do something unfamiliar.

As a Pisces, I tend to be a little too willing to sacrifice what I want in the interest of harmony.

This reflective capacity seems to be born from two factors:

The first, channeling a “pantheon” of archetypes which represent and depict the various essential components of human experience and individuality. This is not a distant science to that of Tarot, I Ching, or Futhark.

The second, ascribing those components to the individual by looking out at the cosmos and seeing those same archetypes reflected in the “extrahuman” spheres. One could spend quite a while belaboring the objectivity of this, and the mechanics which may or may not be involved, but this is the fundamental precept.

So… is Human Design different?

What makes that answer so intriguing is that it is a binary answer. Yes, it is different… and no, it is not.

It is not different, in that both of the components which are described above are also components of human design.

It is very different, in that none of that is the point.

In our terms, we might call human design a “6th line” system. That is to say; it contains within it all the capacities for self-identification and rumination of other astrological systems. Between the gates, channels, energy centers, and profiles we have all the mental stimulation and food for thought we could ever want from any astrological system. In this way it is the same in its richness of archetype and material, and it is built on the same “stuff.”

But, as a “6th line” system, Human Design is much less fundamentally concerned with “the stuff” than with providing a framework for which the consciousness which created it can evolve beyond the need for it.

Yes, you read that correctly. At its core, the goal of human design is to “transmute” the fundamental ideas about ourselves and our decision making that make the idea of astrology so tantalizing to begin with. To change the system from within the system.

The primary idea being that we as a species are not designed to live “from the mind.” The mind is a passenger, not a decision maker. It was never designed to be a decision maker. It doesn’t know what’s best for us, or how to get us to the place we want and need to be.

At best it makes educated guesses, and at best we have moderate successes.

It is because we want to make choices from the mind that we desire the insight of an astrological system, an “external authority.” Something to inform our decisions and help us plot a course, or make sense of what we experience.

Human design, however, theorizes that we are each in possession of an “inner authority;” an attribute of self which is designed to make choices for us, and which is definitely NOT the mind.

For those of us who live from this “inner authority,” and relieve the mind from its imagined role as the pilot and navigator in our lives, the value of astrological systems is greatly diminished. Some people will still be driven to study them, of course, out of personal passion. However, the mental “hook” of “knowing the astrological atmosphere can help you make better decisions” is absolutely obliterated.

And so Human Design builds on all of this plethora of information and insight to hammer home the final conclusion:

“We are what the Universe is doing in our place and time. Embrace it. This is a ride which is far beyond the mind’s capacity to navigate. The mind is the passenger.”

Conventional astrology will have you spending a lot of time and mental energy weighing the variables it leverages. It can bring you to eventually harden your identity, rather than soften and expand it. That is not to devalue it, but as I said in the beginning:

IF astrology in any form has truth, it points to an indefatigable nature of the essence of our journey here.

Human Design would use the term “choiceless.” While I have my own slightly divergent take on the fundamental nature of “choice,” (which I will save for another time, but which I foreshadowed earlier in this writing); the material world in which our lives unfold is indeed a ride, and we are choiceless in how it unfolds. Although our minds would like to believe otherwise.

Understanding that truth and how to live in harmony with it; that is the work of Human Design.