It gives me great pleasure to present an interview from that fount of Human Design knowledge, Kim Gould, whose website “Love Your Design” is such a refreshing running resource to read and enjoy.  The Human Design System is an amalgam of 4 spiritual systems: Astrology, Kabbalah, the Chakra System and the I Ching.  It’s still very new to me, and I hope you find it just as fascinating!  I like the philosophies behind Human Design, and particularly its unconditional nonjudgemental approach, which gives you permission to be yourself.  There’ s nothing like beginner’s enthusiasm…

Lana:  Kim I love the approach of your blog.  It seems to have a lot of old baggage swept away and is very futuristic, and has drawn me to investigate the Human Design System. As Astrology is amalgamated with other esoteric systems, how do you feel that changes the Astrological picture?

Kim: Astrology gives me an immense wisdom bank to draw on when looking at how the archetypes play out in the Human Design Chart.  I draw from sources like Martha Lang-Wescott’s research on the Asteroids.  It’s great to know that there’s some solid observation behind the interpretations given.

My own observations of how a planet plays out in various Gates and Centres could expand our understanding of the meaning of that planet.  As we find links between Astrology and the I Ching, Tarot, the Kabbalah and other systems, we begin to see new links, new ways of thinking about the planets.

A great example is the new Dwarf Planets. We can see what energy centre they were in at the time of their discovery and what specific hexagrams of the I Ching (Gates Human Design) they have moved through since then.  For slow moving planets like Eris and Makemake this brings clarity to the newly arising archetype.  Makemake has been in the Solar Plexus Centre/Chakra since the middle of 2006, in a gate that connects our emotional and sexual energy.  Since Makemake was only discovered in March 2005, knowing about its placement in this Gate helps us understand that some of the foundational archetypal meaning of Makmake must be about the emotional and sexual experience, and how those two energies interact in a person’s life.

Lana:  That’s fascinating, especially about the dwarf planets.  Could you tell us a little of the background and origins of the Human Design System, and how you relate to that, e.g. how it has evolved for you.

Kim: The Human Design System was originally revealed in 1987 to a man by the name of Ra Uru Hu.  The original elements have been evolving ever since, with various people taking them in different directions.

The underlying ‘system’ is a precise correlation between the hexagrams of the I Ching and the horoscope.  Each hexagram is 5°37’30” of horoscope arc.  Each hexagram in the I Ching has 6 lines each of which is 56’15” of horoscope arc.

So for example, today (22 March) the Sun is at 1 degree Aries 31’32”.  In Human Design that would be Hexagram 25 line 4, except we call them Gates rather than Hexagrams.  To take it a step further, we then place that Sun position on the chart and Gate 25 is always found in the Heart Centre, in a position that relates to a connection between Ego and Innocence / Unconditional Love.

Unlike Astrology, a Human Design chart uses two sets planetary activations.  The standard chart uses the Natal Activations plus an additional Pre-Natal Activation, taken at 88 Solar degrees prior to birth.  This Pre-Natal Activation gives us access to a simple, natural self that operates under our conscious awareness.  We can literally see our sub-conscious at work in this layer of the chart!

I believe Human Design is a unique tool that brings us a whole new way of thinking about who we are, and how the human race is evolving.   There are many ideas in Human Design that are quite different to astrology.  Like, astrology though, each chart has its own very unique flavour and exploring that uniqueness is very liberating and empowering.

My personal journey has involved a lot of time spent alone contemplating what the transits reveal about the elements of the System.  I’m very tuned into the collective consciousness, and I pick up the subtle shifts and can then share that information with others through writing in my blog and doing readings.   It has always been very important to me that the person I’m working with has some sense of recognition of what I’m telling them, even if sometimes the new concepts of self take a while to sink in.

Lana:  Yes, I have recently realized that if you make a statement about something someone hasn’t yet experienced about themselves it makes no sense to them!  Right now I have a queue of people with a host of basic questions about Human Design …What would be the best way to start learning about it?  And as a question, to kick-off, many people are curious to know if there is any advantage to having centres filled in, or blank?

Kim: Well Lana let’s organise a Q & A webinar or blogtalkradio show with talkback and they can ask all the questions they want.  I’m writing a series of courses at the moment – some free some paid – which will be available soon.  There’s quite a bit on the web.  People can get a free chart on my site.

In answer to that last question, there is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in any element of the system.  A coloured centre has a different quality to an uncoloured centre.  We call the coloured centre ‘defined’ and they have a constant way of operating in the world.  When a centre is not coloured, or undefined, it is always being affected by the people around you.  There is perhaps a bias towards the coloured or defined Centres, but I don’t share that view and often approach the chart by focusing on what’s not defined since that is where we are most sensitive and can develop the most wisdom in life.

Lana:  Are you trying to drag me into the world of 21st Century technology with talk of a Webinar?  In that case, I can’t say no!  Here’s my next curiosity: Of the four systems used within the Human Design System (Astrology, Kabbalah, the Chakra System and the I Ching)  I am most puzzled about how the I Ching is used.  Could you explain the use and value of it in the evaluation of a chart?

Kim: I had never even read the I Ching when I first discovered Human Design.  And you don’t need to know anything about any of these other systems – Astrology, Kabbalah, Chakras and I Ching – to understand your design.

When I evaluate a chart, I start out by looking at the Centres – what’s defined, what’s connected, what’s conscious.  This is a level of evaluation that can easily be overlooked when people want to gain as much information about their charts as possible.  But the Centres alone can reveal an astonishing amount of information.

After that I begin to look at the detail of planets and gates.  The Gates are the same as the Hexagrams of the I Ching, so it’s important to observe where the personal planets are, they give great meaning to our lives and can be a wonderful source of contemplation.  They are often quite startling accurate.

A great example is Princess Diana, who had her Sun in Gate 39 line 1, the commentary for which reads:

“When one encounters an obstruction, the important thing is to reflect on how best to deal with it.  When threatened with danger, one should not strive blindly to go ahead, for this only leads to complications.”

Well Princess Diana certainly did encounter an obstruction that was very dangerous!

As well as the actual commentary that we can find in any I Ching book, we can also look at the structure of the hexagram – is it ying or yang, shallow or deep, how do the trigrams relate to each other?  For example, Princess Diana’s Gate 39 is a yang hexagram, it’s trigrams are Water and Mountain, giving a quality of letting go of impatience (water) and struggle (mountain) and allowing time to properly understand a situation – this takes us from a shallow understanding to a deep understanding so that we can move forward with the natural flow (water).

Lana:  You seem to use a huge number of asteroids and other heavenly bodies in your work, and enthrallingly so!  How important are they, and could you let us know a little about your view of the meaning of Chiron?

Kim: Well firstly Lana let me say that we can tell a huge amount just from the mechanics of the design.  As I’ve said, just knowing what’s coloured in your chart, which centres are connected to each other, what reaches the Throat Centre for expression, where there’s gaps between Centres, etc.  These ‘mechanical’ aspects of interpretation are so important.

I use the asteroids to bring a more subtle flow to the energy of the chart.  For example there may be quite a difficult gap between, say, the Heart and the Throat. These gaps are often places where people struggle immensely in life and they often have physical symptoms in that precise area of the body.  When I look at the asteroids I might find that there is a Dwarf Planet that bridges the gap.  This gives us a way to explore how we could create a bridge between those two disconnected parts of a person’s energy field.  I also look at fixed positions – fixed stars, the Galactic Centre, black holes, etc, when there is an important connection with personal planets.

Chiron is the one asteroid included in the standard chart.  In my work, Chiron is a place in the energy field where we may have specific sensitivity.  That sensitivity is always a place of great power, but to begin with we may need to examine the possibility of wounds that need to be addressed. In Human Design we can see which energy centre Chiron falls in, and we also get to see the Pre-Natal Chiron in the chart as well, so we can track family patterns of wounding.  I find working with Chiron extremely powerful.

Lana:  That spurs me on to use Fixed Stars and deep space objects such as Clusters in my work more.  How much of your work is mental analysis, and how much of it is spiritual intuition?  And though it is not written yet, how do you see your work evolving?

Kim: Great questions Lana.  I have Mercury and Uranus creating one channel from the Crown to the Ajna, and another with Moon and Ceres.  So I work with an inspired creative mental energy.  The connection between the two centres means that I can’t separate the Crown from the Ajna – they always work together as a team.

My work is all about evolution.  You would be aware of the idea of the archetypal expression of the planets evolving.  Saturn is a great example.  I also see the I Ching, the Kabbalah and Chakras evolving.  As these elements shift, so does our understanding of the Human Design System and therefore our understanding of our energy fields.

For example, my Moon is in a Ajna Gate that says I’m oppressed and exhausted and that’s all there is to it.  Not very cheery!  When I work with people with this gate in their personal design, I know that they have a role to play in helping people shift the way they think.  When we think in the wrong way we create a life that can feel oppressive and exhausting.  When we think in a more natural way we create a whole different life.  If someone has this Gate in their personal design I can support them to be more empowered by explaining that this evolution in their thinking is actually part of their role in the evolution of all humanity.

I work specifically with helping people to understand themselves in this new reality we are entering.  Most of what we know about how to be happy and successful isn’t working anymore.   Using Human Design I can show people a whole new way to experience themselves and a whole new way to make decisions that is really unique.

My main focus is to help people to recognise more subtle layers of self that have gone unacknowledged, and to support them to bring them into their daily reality.  I do that through exploring the different layers of the multi-dimensional charts and the archetypal layer of the natal chart and then helping people to anchor it through the main integrative layer.  It sounds complicated, but when it’s your own chart it just flows so easily and naturally because the recognition is there for you.

Kim’s Blog:

http://www.loveyourdesign.com/blog/

Kim’s Website is also a mine of information:

http://www.loveyourdesign.com/

Kim’s BlogTalkRadio Show:

http://www.loveyourdesign.com/radio.php

E-mail me from my Contact page if you would be interested for a Webinar to take place ~ Lana


Date: Mar 25th, 2010 · Comments RSS · Tags: Interviews