How Energy Flows Through A Human Design Chart
I’m working on a fresh Human Design workshop (more on that soon!) and it’s challenging me to think about the flow of energy through a chart in a more personalized and practical way. Understanding our natural flow can help us more clearly honor our innate creative process as well as how we like to share and connect.
Instead of just talking about what each of the 9 energy centers mean if they’re defined or undefined- the crown, mind, throat, identity, sacral, root, spleen, heart and solar plexus- I want to explore what they actually get us to do. This is a practical guide to interpreting the flow of your own energy based on how your defined centers work together to create action, awareness, and expression. I’ll walk you through how this plays out in my own chart too because real-life examples often make the energy easier to spot.
Living into our natural rhythm is authenticity in motion! Pull up your chart and follow along to interpret what you likely already intuitively know about yourself. I find these types of exercises help us to believe in ourselves and harmonic energy even more.
The 9 centers in a chart have the energy flavoring of one or more of these ingredients:
- Give us direction around what we want to do: Crown, Identity & Heart
- Create inspiration to do something: Crown & Root
- Give us the desire to express something: Throat & Heart
- Drive us to do something: Sacral, Heart, Root & Emotions
- Give us awareness or clarity about something: Mind, Spleen & Emotions
Depending on which centers are defined in your chart, you can begin to understand how energy moves through your body naturally. Energy can either be initiated by the crown center, which creates pressure to know or understand something, or by the root center, which creates pressure to take action. The other centers in your chart then either process, express, or respond to this pressure.
Even if your crown and/or root centers are open, energy can still be activated in your chart through your defined centers, in a more internal and intentional way. External forces also play a role—astrological transits and other people’s auras can influence the energy within your chart. As energy is flowing, it moves from each of the centers through the 36 channels. But not all defined centers in your chart will be connected, you may have 2 or 3 “islands” happening. You need to look at what type of definition you have in your chart to understand this.
In my case, I have a split definition, which means I have two energy circuits in my chart- mini systems that don’t naturally talk to each other without the help of another person’s energy or a transit impacting it. About 45% of the population is a split type like I am, while about 40% have a single flow of energy in their systems, meaning they feel a more easy flow of energy internally- all of their centers are connected via channels. And about 10% are triple splits, meaning they have three mini circuits working separately internally. Basically, if you have two or more separate circuits, you’re going to benefit from being in collaboration with others who compliment your missing gates.
I always love using my own personal experience as an example to understand things more deeply. When I look at my chart, I get a sense for my two different energetic flows like this.
Defined Root & Spleen Motor- My Depth of Knowledge
The only pressure center I have in my chart is my root, so inspiration hits me here the hardest. Based on the gifts I have defined from this center, it’s usually one of these themes that I feel driven to explore more deeply, and often the urge is immediate since this center is all about action and drive.
- 39- I want to spark someone’s creative spirit
- 38- I want to take a stand for something
- 53- I see something that inspires me and I want to start something new
- 60- I want to bust through a roadblock
- 19- I get a strong sense for what people need emotionally and want to give it
As the inspiration flows in, my spleen is always filtering it in real time to decide what to do with it. The spleen is an awareness center and searching for clarity in the moment is its expertise! These are the types of questions I find myself asking a lot based on the defined gifts in this center. Also I notice these themes instinctually pop up all day long, especially in my conversations with clients.
- 48- How could I give wisdom, tools and resources to people?
- 50- How could I use my strong moral sense to guide people?
- 28- How could I immerse myself in this to maximize life?
I’ve come to realize that the energy that naturally flows between these two centers is responsible for my breath of knowledge. It’s what drives me to go deep in understanding concepts and experiences. Looking at all these gifts combined, it’s really no surprise I love studying creativity, authenticity, entrepreneurship and abundance.
This is helpful awareness for me because sometimes I struggle with the pressure from my root to take action immediately, especially because I have 5 gifts out of this center, including two of my greatest gifts, so it’s by far my most active center and the signature of my energy. I will always have a strong drive to take action but knowing this helps me slow down and take pressure off of myself so that I don’t get too far ahead of my own body. Allowing myself the space to go deep on whatever I’m inspired by is key for honoring this pattern.
Sharing knowledge can feel like a challenge for me though, like I’m missing a piece of the puzzle. So when someone else’s energy creates a bridge, suddenly I can speak, move, and express with so much more clarity. The gift here is really honoring my passion by studying the hell out of it and then when someone comes along who’s energy creates a bridge to my throat or sacral center, I can leverage their energy of care, intention, expertise, clarity or innovation to share what’s been percolating in me much more clearly. Something like writing also helps give form to what my body and intuition know but can’t always verbalize in real time.
Okay, are you getting a sense for how a combined motor like this works? You can reference the energy of your defined gifts with any Human Design books, this is one of my favorites. You may have to use your creativity a little to make sense out of how it resonates specifically for your experience!
Throat, Identity + Sacral Motor- My Expressive Engine
Unlike the root and spleen combo, this motor doesn’t get activated through pressure. I can activate my generator motor by leaning into the energies of these gifts first. It’s like I get to decide when I want to put the key into the engine! And the sacral center is all about desire, so allowing myself to follow that is everything and also is one of the areas I struggle the most with guilt. Who am to do what I want and create abundance in the world? Well, my chart says so and that’s helping me own it!
- 5- Honoring my organic flow and following what I’m intuitively being pulled by
- 14- Empowering others by helping them create abundance in their own lives
That firey energy then fuels my direction. I almost think of it like my why. To ground myself in the physical world first and do the same for others. Then based on the gifts defined in my identity center, this is what I absolutely love to create and give from that expansive energy.
- 2- Help people clarify their direction and vision
- 10- Help people love themselves more fully, even their shadows
- 1- Help people express themselves more fully
- 13- Help people process their past so they can move forward
Then, this is what ultimately flows from my voice in an authentic and aligned way. It’s how I (ideally) express my love to the world.
- 31- Confidently sharing suggestions or recommendations
- 8- Presenting things with a unique style and aesthetic
These three centers are activated and in flow most authentically when I allow myself to feel my own fire and run with it. They are my powerhouse for sustainable energy and aligned expression. I love creating from this place because it so easily flows and doesn’t feel as pressured as my other circuit does! When operating this way, I feel like my energy has an easy outlet via my throat.
Sometimes, I also flow through this sequence in reverse, and it would be thought of as using the manifesting side of my MG energy to initiate first then check in with my sacral desires around whether or not to build upon it. When I operate from this direction, it’s more of an informing vs. responding energy. So if I get an urge or download around sharing the way I see something with the collective or sharing my unique style, I roll with it because I need to get a taste of the action before knowing how deep I want to go on something. The key here as a Manifesting Generator is to allow myself to share little things here and there, go deeper when I want to and also quit when I want to.
Curious, how is this landing for you? How do you feel when you’re most in flow? Sometimes it helps to identify that and then use this framework to gut check your knowing! If you’re a client of mine, we can do this exercise in an upcoming sessions, let’s chat about it.
