How to read your bodygraph
Your chart looks complicated, but it reads in seven steps — and every one of them follows from simple rules you can check yourself.
What you're looking at
A Human Design chart has three parts:
- Two columns of planets. One column (usually red) is your Design, calculated for the moment the Sun was 88° before its position at your birth — about three months earlier. The other (usually black) is your Personality, calculated for the moment of birth. Each column lists 13 positions: Sun, Earth, the North and South Nodes, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
- The bodygraph in the middle: nine shapes (the centers) connected by lines (the channels).
- A summary: type, strategy, authority, profile, definition and incarnation cross.
Each planet entry reads like 34.2 — that's Gate 34, line 2. Gates are the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching; each covers 5.625° of the zodiac, and each line one sixth of that. Our planets guide explains what each position stands for.
Step 1: Find the active gates
Every number in the two columns is an active gate. On the bodygraph, active gates show as colored half-lines sticking out of the centers: black for Personality, red for Design, striped when both activate the same gate. Most charts have between 17 and 22 different active gates, because some planets land on the same gate.
Step 2: Find the defined channels
A channel runs between two centers, with a gate at each end. When both of its gates are active — from either column — the channel is defined and drawn fully in color. There are 36 channels; the most common chart has three or four defined, and about 1 in 100 people has none at all.
Step 3: See which centers are defined
A center is defined (colored in) when at least one defined channel touches it. Everything else stays open (white). The nine centers are:
| Center | What it's about | Defined in |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Inspiration, mental pressure | 25.5% of charts |
| Ajna | Thinking, opinions | 46.2% |
| Throat | Speaking, acting, manifesting | 69.0% |
| G Center | Identity, direction, love | 59.6% |
| Heart | Willpower, worth, promises | 36.7% |
| Sacral | Life force, work energy | 69.7% |
| Solar Plexus | Emotions, moods | 51.4% |
| Spleen | Instinct, health, timing | 58.5% |
| Root | Pressure, drive, stress | 60.0% |
Four of the centers are motors — Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart and Root. That detail matters for the next step.
Step 4: Work out the type
Your type follows from the defined centers with four rules:
- No center defined at all → Reflector.
- Sacral defined, and a motor connected to the Throat by defined channels → Manifesting Generator.
- Sacral defined, no motor connected to the Throat → Generator.
- Sacral open, a motor connected to the Throat → Manifestor. Anything else → Projector.
"Connected" can run through other centers: a Root linked to the Spleen, and the Spleen to the Throat, still counts as a motor reaching the Throat.
Step 5: Work out the authority
Inner authority follows a fixed order. The first rule that fits is your authority:
- Solar Plexus defined → Emotional.
- Otherwise, Sacral defined → Sacral.
- Otherwise, Spleen defined → Splenic.
- Otherwise, Heart defined → Ego-Manifested (Heart connected to the Throat) or Ego-Projected (Heart connected to the G Center).
- Otherwise, G Center connected to the Throat → Self-Projected.
- Otherwise, a Projector with definition only in the Head, Ajna and Throat → Mental (sometimes called "no inner authority" or environmental).
- Reflectors → Lunar.
This order is why Emotional authority is so common — any chart with a defined Solar Plexus has it, whatever else is defined.
Step 6: Read the profile
Look at the Sun in both columns. Its line number in the Personality column is the first number of your profile; its line in the Design column is the second. Sun at 34.5 (Personality) and 40.1 (Design) gives a 5/1 profile.
Each line has a role: 1 Investigator, 2 Hermit, 3 Martyr, 4 Opportunist, 5 Heretic, 6 Role Model. The first number is the role you know you play; the second is how you operate underneath.
Step 7: Find the incarnation cross
Your incarnation cross is made from four gates: the Personality Sun and Earth, and the Design Sun and Earth. Its angle comes from the profile:
- Profiles 1/3, 1/4, 2/4, 2/5, 3/5, 3/6 and 4/6 → Right Angle (a personal path) — 64.4% of people.
- Profile 4/1 → Juxtaposition (a fixed path) — 2.2%.
- Profiles 5/1, 5/2, 6/2 and 6/3 → Left Angle (a path bound up with other people) — 33.4%.
The name comes from the Personality Sun gate — for example, the Sun in Gate 13 with a 1/3 profile gives the Right Angle Cross of the Sphinx.
Definition: how the pieces connect
Finally, notice whether all your defined centers form one connected group or several separate ones. That's your definition: Single (39.6% of people), Split (47.1%), Triple Split (11.7%), Quadruple Split (0.7%) — or none, for Reflectors. Splits explain why certain people seem to "complete" you: their gates bridge your gaps.
What to do with it
Reading a chart is the easy part. The useful part is living it: follow your strategy, decide with your authority, and watch your open centers for pressure that isn't yours. Start with the beginner's guide if you haven't — or get your free chart and walk through these seven steps with your own numbers.