In this blog, we’re going to be going through the nine centers of your Human Design chart. We’ll go through each center and we’ll talk about:

• what it means if you have it defined 
• what it means if you have it open 
• some general information about each center 

… to help you on your Human Design journey and interpreting your unique chart. 

Open vs. Defined Centers

If a center is defined in your chart, it will be colored in. This means there is a defined channel of energy connecting it to another center of your chart, creating a defined and consistent energy flow within you from that center to another center. 

This creates a consistent experience within you that you can count on and lean into, while in other areas of your chart/body, energy may vary in the way it flows. 

These defined channels and centers represent quantum, subatomic, energetic intelligences, a wisdom beyond the mind, that will guide you if you let them. If you live in alignment with them, instead of following the whims of your mind, Life can be much easier. 

And, as each center corresponds to an area of your life, the centers you have defined represent the areas of life that you have a consistent, defined way of operating in. And your chart is the map to live how you’re designed to live in those areas of life, to help remove resistance.

If a center is open in your chart, it will be white. This means that there is not one consistent way that energy flows to and from this center in your body. There is not one way you are designed to operate in this area of life. You are open to all the ways. You are here to sample all the ways of operating in this area. You are here to be flexible and not biased with your way. This allows you to be a great guide in these areas as you observe and learn what works and what doesn’t in these areas. 

You can be very nimble in these areas, choosing the best strategy based on circumstances. . It’s important, though, to notice if you are comparing yourself to others and judging yourself because you don’t have “your own way” in these areas of life. That can diminish the gift of the openness. And the invitation is to lean into it even more.

The 9 Centers Connected to the Seven Chakras

The root center at the bottom of the chart corresponds to your first chakra The theme of this center is Drive, Motivation, and the pressure to go out and experience life. To go out and have an adventure. 

One center up from there, the sacral center is corresponding to the second chakra. This is the center of lifeforce and sexuality. It’s the pure creative life force energy that moves through you, often in the forms of desires and creativity. 

Continuing up the chart, two centers correspond to the third chakra: your spleen center and your solar plexus center. The solar plexus isthe center of emotions, relational intelligence,desires, and moods. The splenic center is the center of instincts and intuition, as well as health and survival. 

Moving on up, there are also two centers corresponding to the fourth chakra: the ego center and the G center. The ego center is the center of money, the material world, self worth, and willpower. The G center is the center of identity and direction. 

The throat center corresponds to the fifth chakra. It is the center of expression and manifestation.

The ajna center corresponds to the sixth chakra and is the center of mental conceptualization, where thinking happens. 

The head center corresponds to the seventh chakra, the crown chakra. It is the center of mental pressure. 

Now, let’s look at each center in more detail.

The Root Center

The root center is the center of drive and motivation. And, if you look at where it’s located at the bottom of your chart, it is at the base of your spine. This is where energy is entering into your system, creating a pressure to go out and use that energy. This is what creates the experiences of drive and motivation. 

So, if you have a defined root center (colored in), then you have a very particular and predictable way of experiencing your drive and motivation, dependent on which gates are defined in the root center and which channels are defined, ushering energy in and out of the root center in a consistent, predictable way. That really determines your unique flavor of experiencing drive and motivation. 

At a high level, a defined root means that you have a drive and motivation that you can count on and that is reliable and consistent within you.

If you have an open root center (white), you will not have one consistent way of experiencing your drive and motivation. You’re here to sample and be open to all the various ways of experiencing drive and motivation. Depending on who you’re with or where the planets are in the sky, you will experience it differently. 

60% of people have a defined root center. So, as you’re moving through the world with an open root center and your aura is intermingling with other auras, you’ll often be in the aura off someone with a defined root center. This will temporarily define your root center. And so, when in groups, you’ll often experience more drive and more motivation. And with that experience happening in your body, it’s possible you may think you can commit to more than you actually can. And when you get home out of the temporary root definition, you may find yourself exhausted and/or over-committed. 

So it’s important for you to take a moment to follow your Strategy and trust your Inner Authority. Take a moment to exit the group aura of excitement and motivation to feel if it’s best for you in that moment to either go on the adventure or commit to it. There’s nothing wrong with utilizing other people’s root energy to motivate you in ways you might not be when alone, as long as your Inner Authority lets you know it’s good for you. 

If you don’t know what your authority is, download a free report here to find out.

The Sacral Center

The sacral center is the center of lifeforce and sexuality, your pure creative energy. And so as the energy comes into the root and then moves into the sacral center, it’s getting transmuted into lifeforce to be utilized for your unique purposes. 

If you have it defined, it means you are a Generator Type. About 70% of people on the planet are generators, one of the four major types of human design. This means you have a consistent life force that you wake up with every day, a consistent supply of energy that you are designed to utilize and completely use throughout the day in a way that is correct for you.

This doesn’t mean just saying yes to everything. 

A lot of generators say yes to too many things. It’s important to say yes to only the correct things for you. It’s important to trust your Sacral response to know which opportunities and relationships are correct for you.

If you have an open sacral center, this means you are one of the other 3 types: a Projector, Manifester, or Reflector. 

In this case, you don’t have a consistent supply of energy that moves through your system in the consistent way it moves through Generators. 

This does not mean that you don’t have energy and you’re not here to work. It only means that the way energy moves through you and supplies you is inconsistent. So, you won’t have the consistent never-ending supply that Generators do. This means you’re designed to use the energy when it’s there (temporarily defined by others’ auras or the planets) and to not force it when it’s not there. So, if you notice you’re comparing yourself to others and thinking you should be getting more done or if you’ve developed a coffee habit to try to keep up with everyone else, to let yourself take a breath. 

This is quite common for Projectors, Manifestors, and Reflectors because you live on a Generator planet (70% Generators) and so the way you’re raised often involves pressuring you to be like all the other Generator children. 

So take a moment to relax, let yourself off the hook, and realize that you are actually not designed to do as much work as Generators. You’re here to work but you’re here to work in different ways. 

Projectors, you’re here to be a guide and to observe and witness and absorb all the ways that generators are using their energy efficiently and effectively or inefficiently and ineffectively. Eventually, Generators will sense the wisdom you’re holding and will invite you to share it. Because, as you sample all the different ways that you can experience lifeforce and utilize lifeforce, you’ll learn a lot about it, which can help you help others to utilize their energy in ways that will support them and the world most optimally. Just make sure to wait to be invited (your strategy) before sharing so you ensure the person can hear you. 

“Waiting for the invitation” doesn’t mean to passively do nothing until someone asks you or invites you to share your wisdom. It means to actively wait, absorbing and learning. It also means to share what you’re up to in the world so people know what to invite you into. 

Manifestors, you’re here to initiate and inform. While you don’t have your sacral center defined, you have one of the other 3 motor centers (Ego, Solar Plexus, Root) connected to your Throat Center through one or more channels. This means you can use your motor energy to initiate quickly. And you’re here to do so. 

Since you can manifest things quickly, it’s important for you to inform others before you act, especially Generators, with their defined Sacral Center. They will have a lot of requests on their energy and will often be overwhelmed by what you’re initiating. If you inform them first, you remove resistance from your path and let everyone settle into what you’re initiating. 

Reflectors, since you have all nine centers open, you’re here to explore and be open to all the ways of being in all areas of life and reflect a collective reflection back to the collective over a longer period of time. You see things on a bigger scale than the other 3 types, as you find your consistency over a 28-day period. 

In general, if you’re not a generator, don’t push yourselves when you notice that your energy isn’t there. Let yourself rest.  It will be back and it’s perfect because it’s how you’re designed. 

If you’re a generator, just make sure you’re following your Sacral Response to say yes and no to the correct things.

The Spleen Center

The spleen is the center of instincts, intuition, health and survival. 

If you have the spleen center defined, it means you have a consistent way of experiencing your instincts and intuition. It also means you have a consistent way of your immune system operating. 

For example, if you have gate 48 defined, you’ll have the consistent instinctual ability to see the solution when someone can point out the problem. If you have gate 32 defined, you’ll have the instinctual ability to know where to be conservative to create continuity and sustainability over time. If you have gate 44 defined, you have an instinctual nose for people you can consistently count on. 

The defined spleen is about trusting your instincts and intuition in the way it consistently gives you information. The instincts and intuition of the spleen is an instant knowing, an instant yes or no before thoughts or emotions can arise. 

If you have an open spleen, that means you don’t have a consistent way of experiencing your instincts and intuition. Of course, you do have instincts and intuition as we all do, it will just vary how you experience them. As the planets are moving through the sky and as you’re moving through different people’s auras, you’re going to be experiencing your instincts in different ways. And you get to sample and play and explore. You’re not biased as you don’t have one way that is your unique way. 

As with all open centers, be careful not to compare yourself, questioning why you don’t have “your” way of tapping into your instincts? Or to question, “Why aren’t I that instinctual!?” You’re not designed to be. You’re designed to be flexible and to learn how instincts and intuition operates in many different ways. 

One other thing to know about having an open spleen: there’s a potential for you to stay in relationships, communities, or environments that are not good for you for longer than necessary. This can happen because, if you’re around someone who has a defined spleen, that defined spleen is going to make you feel more safe, since the spleen is also the center of health and survival. They’re consistent health and survival mechanisms are going to create the sense of safety within you without you even realizing it. So, even if they’re not treating you well, you may feel inexplicably safe with them and scared to leave. 

So, with an open spleen, it’s really important you create your own safety through what is consistent within you. And to remind yourself that you are safe. As you live more and more in alignment with your design, you will create lots of safety and security for yourself. 

The Solar Plexus Center

The solar plexus center is the center of emotions, desires, moods, and relational intelligence.

If you have a defined solar plexus center, it means you have an emotional authority and you’re here to wait out your emotional wave before making a decision. 

With every decision big or small, there’s an energetic, intelligent mechanism that kicks off called your emotional wave. It might start at a high or low point, but it’s going to wave between those extremes. Over time, the amplitude of the wave will get smaller and smaller until it kind of evens out. And that is when you’re going to have emotional clarity. (You can find out more in this article on the Authorities of Human Design.)

Don’t try to force decisions. Give yourself time and space to ride out that emotional wave. Notice your mind wants to make meaning out of the highs and lows of the wave and resist that temptation. The wave could take hours, minutes, days, weeks depending on the size of the decision. Wait it out and you’ll be able to clearly know the decision based on the wisdom of your body, not an emotional extreme. 

If you have an open solar plexus center, that means that you’re here to explore many different ways of navigating relationships, of expressing emotions, and of experiencing your desires and moods. Notice if you compare yourself to others and think you should have one way of experiencing your emotions. You won’t. 

If you have an open solar plexus center like I do, you may tend to avoid having uncomfortable conversations, speaking uncomfortable truths, or setting boundaries that you need to set. You may be unconsciously nervous about the emotional intensity that may result.  So be really aware of that tendency and trust your authority to guide you to the right moment to speak those uncomfortable truths and to trust that you and the person in front of you will have the tools necessary to navigate the discomfort of the emotions that arise. 

With an open emotional center you can also take in and amplify someone else’s emotions, which can increase the intensity. But, as long as you can keep their emotions separate from yours, which takes practice, you can use it as a great gift of empathy and understanding.

The Ego Center   

The ego center is the center of money, the material world, self worth, and willpower. 

If you have it defined, you have a defined way of navigating the material world. And you’ll likely have a consistent sense of self worth and willpower. This willpower isn’t about forcing your way through life, as society often defines willpower. It’s an energetic intelligence that you have consistent within you and can count on. Use it for what’s correct for you, not to force your way through opportunities that aren’t correct for you. 

Trust your authority to know which opportunities to say yes to and no to.

If you have an open ego center, you don’t have a consistent way of making money, experiencing your self-worth, or experiencing your willpower. Sample and surrender to many different ways of making money. Don’t make yourself wrong for not having one consistent way of making money. It’s more through an exploration process for you, that you create abundance in your life. So don’t try to force one way. Let it be easy. Learn and explore. 

Also, since you don’t have a consistent way of experiencing your self-worth, you may find yourself trying to prove yourself to others… and even to yourself. You may find yourself getting defensive and taking things personally. You may find yourself automatically undervaluing yourself. Or you may try to control your environment in order to feel in control and worthy. It’s important to keep reminding yourself how valuable you are, deeply grounding into the parts of your chart that are defined and that you can lean on and that feel consistent within you and stable. If you’re a reflector, lean on the the consistency of the28 day cycle of the moon, the consistency you can experience over that time. And also lean on your amazing ability to see such a bigger perspective that is deeply valuable to society. 

Practice. If you notice yourself getting defensive or trying to prove yourself, just take a step away, take a deep breath, and come back to the truth of who you are. Then try to engage from that place. It’s all practice.

The G Center 

The G center is the center of identity and direction. 

The G and ego centers together, correspond to the fourth chakra, the heart chakra. The fourth chakra is the middle chakra of the seven, dividing the lower three chakras (drive, energy, emotions) from the higher three chakras (expression, conceptualizing, higher vision). The heart mediates between your higher self (higher frequency, higher vibration, non-physical) and your lower self (ego, identity, and physical). 

While the ego center corresponds more to your lower self (money, material world, willpower, self-worth), the G center corresponds more to your higher self (your “true North” identity and direction in life). 

If you have a G center defined, it means that you have a consistent, clear sense of where things need to go. This could be the direction of your Life, of relationships, projects, or of other people’s lives. However it is unique to you, based on the defined gates and channels of your G center, it will be consistent. You can rely and lean on your ability to know the direction things need to go in. 

If you have an open G center, you’re not designed to have one consistent direction in life. You’ll likely have many different directions. It’s important to let your authority guide you to each of these different directions and to guide you away from them when it’s time to move onto the next one. Be careful not to force yourself into one direction because you were told you should. 

Allow the openness, the flexibility of the open G center to take you from one direction to the next for exactly as long as you’re designed to be there. The most important decision to make when you have an open G center is about your environment. It’s important to get yourself in an environment where you are recognized and appreciated for who you are, your gifts, and your expression. Once you’re in that rate environment, everything else can flow much more easily from there. 

The Throat Center 

The throat center is the center of expression and manifestation. 

If you have a defined throat, it means you have a consistent way of expressing and communicating that you can count on and rely on. 

For example, if you have Gate 56 defined, then you have the natural ability to be a very gifted storyteller, eliciting emotions through others. If you have Gate 62 defined, you have the natural ability to have a great eye for details. You can use the facts and details you see in complex situations to make the intangible easy for others to understand. 

If you have an open throat center, you are open to many different ways of expressing. You might find that when you’re with different people, you actually start to talk like them or express like them. 

You are here to sample all the different ways of expressing and communicating and to see what works and what doesn’t work, which can help you be a great guide. It can also help you communicate much more effectively as you get to pick and choose different speaking and communication styles based on your audience and situation. 

While someone with a defined throat has a consistent way of speaking that is uniquely theirs, which is powerful in its own unique way, be careful not to compare yourself to them. Be careful not to judge and wonder why you don’t have your unique way of communicating. Your flexible communication style lets you adapt to many circumstances and it’s important for you to really surrender in to that. 

The Ajna Center 

The Ajna Center is the center of mental conceptualization. It’s where thinking happens. It’s where the mind tries to figure out all of the information that’s coming in through the head center, tries to make sense of the past, and tries to make sense of the world. 

If you have a defined ajna, then you are have a consistent way of thinking through things. For example, if you have Gate 11 defined, you might have a fountain of ideas that are always coming up, some of which are for you, some of which are to be shared. If you have Gate 17 defined,you’ll naturally form opinions  based on what you’re noticing in the world and it’s important to share those opinions as opinions, not facts (unless you also have Gate 62 defined and gathered the details and facts to support the opinion). 

And if you have an open ajna center, it means you’re open to many, many different ways of thinking things through. It means you may not be as decisive or opinionated as someone with a defined ajna. And, this isn’t a bad thing. Notice if you judge yourself for this because of the pressure of society to have strong opinions. And instead, lean into the power of the open ajna. While others can only see their one way of thinking, you can see all the ways of thinking something through. You can see all the perspectives. 

This allows you to have a very creative, flexible mind that thinks outside of the box. 

The Head Center

 The head center is the second pressure center of the chart, the other being the root center at the bottom of the chart. So, at the bottom of the chart, the root is the pressure to go out and experience life. At the top of the chart, the head center is the pressure to think and “figure things out”.

The key word is pressure. You’re not actually designed to figure it all out, only to experience the pressure to figure it all out. 

In this center, you have Gate 64, the Gate of Confusion, Gate 61, the Gate of Mystery, and GAte 63, the Gate of Doubt. The beautiful lesson of this center is the very paradox that, as a human, you’re designed to feel the pressure to figure it all out but to not actually figure it out. The pressure itself is an energetic intelligence you’re designed to be with, without trying to “fix it”. Yet, society has taught you to try to figure everything out, make sure everything is known, and to control as much as you possibly can. But the paradox is that you’re designed to live in the unknown with this pressure. You’re designed to let the pressure be resolved through the synchronistic opportunities and relationships you come across by following your Authority, not by figuring it out with your mind. 

So, it’s important to rebuild your capacity to be with the pressure of the head center without trying to figure it out. 

If you have a defined head center, you can have a great gift for supporting others to understand and make sense of their life, past, and next steps. You can be their synchronicity. Just be careful not to try to figure out your own life in the same way. You’ll get stuck in your mind and miss the wisdom of your Authority guiding you to the answers. Depending on the gates you have defined in the head center, you can help people navigate their confusion, inspire others through your musings about the mysteries of the universe, or help others navigate their doubt. 

If you have an open head center, it means you’re open to both the inspiration of others and the thoughts of others. So be really careful not to get lost in other people’s inspiration, following a path their excited about. It’s easy for your mind to drop your entire path and to follow another path because the inspiration entering through your open head center is so intoxicating. 

Make sure to leave that person’s aura and give yourself some time to determine if their direction is your direction from your Authority, not from your mind. 

And, with an open head center, not only will you be thinking all of your thoughts, you’ll sometimes be thinking other people’s thoughts that are floating in the quantum consciousness field between all beings. As the energy of the thoughts flows into your aura, you’ll end up thinking and worrying about things that aren’t even yours to worry about. 

Keep reminding yourself that you don’t have to have it all figured out, you don’t need all the answers, and it’s okay to not know.

Living How You’re Designed

In fact, that is the main message of Human Design. You’re designed to “not know”. To let yourself be guided by a wisdom that is uniquely yours, beyond logic and the mind. And to let your mind do what it does best, support you along the path that your Inner Authority guides you on. The mind and the neural pathways and protection patterns that get formed in your childhood can muddy your Truth when you try to figure out your life through your mind. 

On the other hand, the signals of your body as you learn and practice how to listen to them, and you begin to trust them, are clear and unmuddied. They  are a wisdom that is uniquely yours that you can count on. And when you can trust that wisdom over your mind or anyone else’s opinion, you get to reclaim your power and create the life you desire wiith much more ease. 

That’s what I’m really inviting you into: to trust yourself, not me, not anyone else. I’m inviting you to lean on yourself as the “the final say”, the truth holder, and the wisdom keeper. 

If you haven’t already, I invite you to download your Free Personalized Report with your unique Human Design chart and a Method to integrate it into your daily life. In it, you’ll find out about your Type, Strategy, Authority, and Profile. And you can continue the journey of building that trust in yourself. 

If this post resonated with you, I invite you to join the “Human Design Applied” Facebook Group where you’ll find support and inspiration to embody your Human Design, align to your truth, and trust yourself like never before!