Centers

“Each and every one of us is a different aspect of Love.”
~ Ra Uru Hu

The bodygraph of the Human Design System consists of 9 centers, 32 channels, and 64 gates and these defines the basic characteristics of every single human being. These characteristics can be combined in so many different ways that it is possible to portray the uniqueness of each and every one of us in this bodygraph. But to understand yourself and others better it is often enough to gain a simple understanding of the centers, defined and undefined.

Defined/undefined/open centers

Centers that are colored in are so-called defined centers and indicate that a person has a certain quality or trait. Undefined centers are white, but can have gates (the numbers in the centers 1-64) that are colored in and therefore defined. This indicated an openness for perceiving the energy of others that will be nuanced by your own colored-in gates. Open centers are completely white and have no defined gates, so here the quality that others bring will be perceived without your own nuances.

OVERVIEW OF THE 9 CENTERS

Motor centers

Ego/Heart center
Root (also pressure center)
Sacral
Solarplexus/Emotional center (also developing awareness center)

A DETAILED LOOK AT THE 9 CENTERS

HEAD CENTER

Mental pressure, power of inspiration versus dumb ideas

Defined: 30%
Open: 70%
Organ: pineal gland

If the head center is defined there is always a definition of the ajna center as well. You perspective can enrich the world if you don´t lose yourself in thinking about your own life. The head center is a pressure center that puts mental pressure in the form of confusion, doubts, questions and an internal pressure to think into the world. Together with the other pressure center, the root, it builds the so-called pressure sandwich, that creates pressure from above and below.

The mental pressure of the ego-mind is expressed in the following themes:
Logic doubt about the future which forces one to find solution in one´s mind that will later blow up in one´s face. Confusion created by emotive and fragmented images of the past. These fragments are very scattered, but one still tries to make sense of them. Striving for realization there is nothing to do but wait for individual insights as they come and go and they cannot be controlled by repeatedly thinking about something. There is a constant urge to find solutions instead of letting them arise on their own! That is why there is no peace on the mental plane of this planet! The Not-Self is busy trying to answer questions that have no relevance whatsoever for your own life. Trusting your inner authority and allowing the mind to be an outer authority for others allows you to effortlessly find solutions for problems other people have, to make sense of something for them, and start a transformative process for them through a unique insight.

Open head center
The undefined head center can pick up other people´s thoughts. They can amplify them, thereby pressuring their own head to comprehend your own life. The wisdom lies in understanding who really is an inspirational force in the world and who creates only confusion (the power of inspiration versus dumb ideas).

Strategy of the Not-Self: “Are you still trying to answer the questions of others?”

AJNA

Mental awareness, mental box, mental processing, contemplation

Defined: 51%
Open: 49%
Organ: pituitary gland

Fixed way of thinking in the form of opinions, concepts, and theories.
Investigation. Here information will be processed, stories told, and individual insights explained. The Ajna is next to the splenic and emotional center a center of awareness, in this case mental awareness. It is meant to be an observer that notices what is happening and records memories. As we take in most of the information through our eyes that is processed in the Ajna center the ego-mind can use the Ajna´s close connection to all the other centers and makes it appear emotional, splenic, or powered by the will and therefore distract from our body´s wisdom. So the Ajna is the home base of the ego-mind and all its Not-Self strategies. The awareness potential of the Ajna center does not lie in its creativity, but its reactivity.

Open Ajna
Information is absorbed like a sponge, but there is no reliable way to retrieve the information if not asked. There is no fixed way of thinking which can create mental insecurity that will often be compensated by insisting on something.

Strategy of the Not-Self: “Are you still trying to convince yourself/someone else that you are right?”

THROAT

Communication, manifestation, metamorphosis, transformation

Defined: 71%
Open: 29%
Organs: thyroid/para thyroid

Everything in the bodygraph wants to reach the throat center, the center of communication, articulation, and manifestation. Here you find a fixed way of communicating through opinions, stories, or explanations. In this center many things are transformed, mutated, and eventually expressed.

Open throat
People with open throat often have a strong need for attention as they are not clear if they will be heard or not. An undefined throat has no fixed way of expression, but takes in all the pressure of everything unsaid or undone by others. Talking or acting in order to try to get rid of that pressure they hurt their own energetic system and often are even resented for it. If one learns to perceive, but not to act on it, one will be asked and heard. Silence is golden!

Strategy of the Not-Self: “Am I still trying to attract attention?”

G-CENTER

Identity, love, direction

Defined: 46%
Open: 54%
Organ: liver

The G-Center is the compass, it leads us on our path in life, it sets the direction and thereby allows us to be at the right place at the right time, and also guides our love. It is the home of our identity and governs our behavior and the way we bring our love into the world. Here you get access to the higher Self and your own soul geometry.
Open G
The open G has no fixed identity and changes according to its environment, it is a social chameleon. This open spiritual heart can lead to a search for a fixed identity and a clinging to one particular identity. By accepting this complete openness you gain access to a world full of different forms of love, different roles, and directions, and can become a barometer for the authenticity of others and the qualities of different places and spaces. In the right environment there will be the right people or to be precise the right people will bring you to the right places and you will see it through the places themselves.

Strategy of the Not-Self: “Are you still searching for love and direction?”

SPLEEN

Intuition, instinct, taste, survival

Defined: 53%
Open: 47%
Organs: spleen, lymphatic system

The splenic center was our first awareness center. It is the seat of the immune system and allows you to know through your fears when your physical safety and survival are threatened. Through its connection to the reptilian brain it governs our survival instinct and influences the physical sense of well-being and health. The splenic center can detect the smallest changes in the environment and leads to the correct instinctual reaction. Here lies the ancient animal-like instinct of the human being. Toxins will be filtered and cleansed like in a washing machine.
Open Spleen
The body´s well-being can seem compromised by a physical sensitivity and requires a gentle and considerate treatment of the physical form, the body. The lacking sense of physical well-being can lead to a clinging to things and people that seemingly bring a better feeling state. There is no guarantee when the washing machine is turned on and no real sense if something is healthy or detrimental to survival, so cautiousness allows for the survival to be ensured. The wisdom of the open spleen lies in being able to assess someone else´s state of health and to encounter the fears of the world with equanimity without falling prey to them.

Strategy of the Not-Self: “Are you still trying to hold on to what is not good for you?”

EGO/HEART CENTER

Willpower, self worth, the material world

Defined: 35%
Open: 65%
Organs: stomach, heart, gall bladder, thymus gland

The heart or ego center in the Human Design System has a completely different meaning than the usual references to it of most spiritual traditions. It is a motor center and revolves around the material world. Its functions are often misunderstood because it is neglected that it always connected to the wellbeing and success of the tribe or empowerment of individual´s connectedness to the whole of creation. It is not simply egocentric, only revolving around its own interests that are suggested by the ego-mind. The ego has the willpower and stamina to hold the tribe together, to keep it safe, to bring in the necessary resources, and manage them. Its courage allow the individual to dare to jump out of the safety of the tribal context into the void of all-one-ness and follow its very own path in life.
Open Ego
The open ego is rarely aware of its own self worth and therefore tries to do anything, achieve the impossible, and make promises to prove its worth. The wisdom of the open ego lies in the knowledge that there is nothing to prove, nothing to promise, and nothing to achieve, but that all there is completely trusting your very own inner authority.

Strategy of the Not-Self: “Are you still trying to prove something and to make promises?”

SACRAL CENTER

Lifeforce, sexuality, procreation, persistence

Defined: 70%
Open: 30%
Organs: reproductive organs

The sacral center is another motor center and the seat of the gut instinct. Here life is regenerated and maintained. Its creative power is reactive to the stimuli of its environment and it that reactivity its innate power and energy are set free. Patience is key because it is necessary to wait for something from the outside to react to tame the ego-mind´s influence that wants to use the sacral center´s power by acting proactively and that eliminates the regenerative process that happens with the correct use of sacral energy and is the only way a generator can feel satisfaction in life. The key is to use this immense power reservoir in a healthy and fulfilling manner and that can only happen if you trust your inner authority.
Open Sacral
The focus is neither on work nor on productivity, but on the quality of life. It is important to know when enough is enough to be able to live a balanced life and bring out your real qualities.

Strategy of the Not-Self: “Do you know when enough is enough?”

SOLARPLEXUS/EMOTIONAL CENTER

Emotions: moods, desires, sensibility

Defined: 50%
Open: 50%
Organs: kidney, prostate, pancreas, nervous system of the solarplexus, lungs

This is another motor center and also a developing awareness center. Not many know how to live with this power and therefore we find all these emotional problems and issues in the world nowadays. As emotions are in constant movement time is the essential ingredient to allow clarity to arise. By allowing a free flow of the ups and downs of the emotional waves we receive the varied fields of human experience and can also gain a comprehensive, yet individual perspective on it. Emotions come in the form of moods, desires, and sensitivity.
Open Emotional center
Openness here makes you receptive to the emotional world of others, but you lack a fixed way of being able to digest them and that can become very unhealthy. You can seem highly reserved or display the qualities of a drama king/queen by expressing amplified emotions of others. Here you find fear of confrontation and truth. The wisdom of the openness lies in the clear assessment of other´s emotional states and in accepting life in its complexity and completeness.

Strategy of the Not-Self: “Are you still running away from confrontation and truth?”

ROOT

Pressure, driving force, stress

Defined: 68%
Open: 32%
Organ: adrenal medulla

The root center is a pressure and motor center. It is a grounding force and is the driving force for any of life´s processes. It is a physical pressure that is created through adrenaline and stress hormones. The ego-mind can also use this power for its purposes and lead a person to complete exhaustion.
Open root
Experiencing the pressure of others and trying to get rid of it leads to becoming and getting things done faster and faster. The only problem is that the pressure remains no matter what as it comes from the outside and no matter how fast you are you cannot get rid of it. So the hamster wheel continues. Stress and adrenalin have detrimental health effects and so people with an open root are here to relax into their own timing, to live and do calmly instead of buying into the time and deadline pressure of the world today.

Strategy of the Not-Self: “Are you still trying to finish something and be faster to get rid of the pressure you experience?”

OPEN CENTERS

“Open centers are the playgrounds where we can become wise.”
~ Dharmen and Leela Swann-Herbert

Open centers receive and amplify the energies of the defined center, but are not where the energies originate. Most of the time though the mind identifies with what we are NOT!

EGO Are you still trying to prove something? Is there still something in you you are trying to improve? Are you still making promises and trying to keep them?Gibst Du noch Versprechen und versuchst sie zu halten? Oder erlebst Du schon, Or have you already begun to see that you are perfect just as you are in this moment?

SOLARPLEXUS Are you still afraid of confrontation and truth? Or have you begun to allow life´s emotions to flow through you without identifying with them and therefore you are free to be cool enough to confront what needs to be confronted instead of running away from the truth?

G-CENTER Are you still searching for love and direction? Or are you accepting the complete openness of your spiritual heart and can feel connected through all that there is?

SPLEEN Are you still trying to hold onto things even if they are detrimental for you? Or can you already feel who and what is healthy or not for you?

AJNA Are you still trying to convince yourself and others you are right? Or have you found your openness for all possible ways of thinking without having to stick to one in particular?

HEAD Are you still trying to answer questions that have nothing to do with your life? Or can you already see what is a good inspiration or not?

ROOT Are you still trying to escape the pressure by getting everything done as fast as possible? Or have you learned how to relax and be and do everything on your own time?

SACRAL Do you know when enough is enough?

THROAT Are you still looking for attention? Or can you wait until your unique contribution is invited by others?