Today’s task:
Look at your human design chart to identify opportunities for money-making success.
Building on yesterday’s post, today’s task is to 1) download your human design chart if you’ve never done so and 2) take a look at it in greater detail.
What I’m talking about is distinguishing between your defined and undefined centers, and recognizing that you’re wealth-building capacity lies in your defined centers.
For those of you who are new to this system or unfamiliar with it, I’m going to take three steps back.
What is human design?
I like to think about human design as astrology on steroids, although it’s really a combination of a lot of different systems. It’s kind of a like a personality test (think Gallup strengths tests you may have taken in school or for work, Meyers-Briggs, etc.), except it goes way deeper and points to really interesting parts about your personality that you wouldn’t otherwise get to learn.
All of the teachings of Human Design come from a textbook that was basically channeled through one guy back in the 80s. Wild, right?! I didn’t know that until I read this article from Goop.
What’s cool about the system is that it’s bringing together principles of The I Ching, astrology, Kabbalah, Hindu-Brahmin chakra system, and quantum physics. And what happens when you put in your information to a bodygraph generator, it will spit out an image like the one that follows:
What you’re looking at is called a bodygraph. It’s basically a summary of all the systems that were described above, based on the date and place of birth. And it tells you a ton about yourself.
How do I download my human design chart?
I’ve used Jovian Archive and never had an issue. There are tons of other free options out there, but this one has been just fine for me.
Ojo: You have to know the time and place of birth in order for this to work. So maybe task one is really: Find your birth certificate. I know that if you’re off on this, you’re not likely to get an accurate reading.
What is a defined or undefined center?
The different shapes that you see in the bodygraph – the triangles and the squares – are your centers. In the map above it shows which one is your head, ajna, throat, identity, heart, spleen, and root. These all connect to chakras. Anyone who has a consistent yoga practice has most likely heard these terms before, and understands that each of these places within our bodies represent an energy center. Or a place through which energy travels in our body. For example, when we start having a sore throat, or we lose our voice, there’s often an imbalance in our throat chakra. This could be related to a number of things, including an inability to express how you feel about a particular topic, perhaps something related to your diet, or even things related to your ability to be understood. Feel free to go deeper into this topic.
When you have a defined center, it means that the shape is colored in.
When the center is undefined, the shape is just an outline.
Based on what little I know about human design so far, your defined centers are your power houses. According to Human Design Tools, defined is felt as a consistent energy that you radiate yourself, versus an undefined center is where you take energy in from the world and amplify it.
Using the previously linked article as a guide, here’s where I land with mine:
Undefined head → “Pressure to figure things out and influenced by ideas of others. Use your Human Design Strategy to figure out which ideas to take action on.”
Defined ajna → “You have a built in filing cabinet, information goes in and sticks. Fixed way of thinking.”
Defined throat → “You speak in a specific voice based on what gates or channels are defined in or connected to your Throat Center.”
Defined identity → “You have a fixed sense of direction and sense of self – who you are and you can either embrace it or resist it. Your “why” may be something you have known since you were little.”
Undefined heart → “You are here to be wise about what is truly valuable., but until you understand this, you may undervalue yourself. You do not have consistent willpower, you may run on fumes of energy from others, but you need to rest. Even though society tells us to push through, it’s not true, you are designed to rest and re-source.”
Undefined solar plexus → “You are an emotional empath, you can feel other people’s emotions. You may avoid truth and conflict because it’s hard to feel strong emotions – especially if they are negative. Be a screen, not a sponge – let the emotions go right through you and not get stuck.”
Undefined spleen → “You have varied ways of receiving intuition. You are highly sensitive and can be medically empathic – where you feel others’ health. You may struggle in society’s definition of time because you can get lost in time.”
Defined sacral → “You have sustainable workforce and life force energy. Even if you dislike what you are doing, you can force yourself to keep going.”
Undefined root → “You are under pressure to do things, you might even have a never-ending to-do list that you maintain because when everything is done, you will be free.”
Connecting your human design chart to farm finances
This is the part that I get most excited about – thinking of the application of human design for building wealth and being very strategic about how to bring money to your life in a way that flows.
Ideally, I would design my business strategy/offerings around things that align with my defined centers, because that’s where I have consistent access to my energy. To recap the information from above, that would include:
- Ajna (mind center)
- Throat
- Identity
- Sacral
If I were to make a recommendation about how to leverage this in business, I would probably ask them questions like:
- What can you do that is intellectually stimulating? (Ajna)
- What will allow you to communicate/share your ideas/knowledge with others, or speak publicly? (Throat)
- What would allow you to follow the path of your identity (that you’ve probably known since you were little)? (Identity)
- What would bring you pleasure to do? What would allow you to nourish your community? Bond with others? Complete cycles? (Sacral)
Here’s my gut feeling after I read through this:
- Focus on something that allows me to learn along the way
- Create an offering or sell to a market channel that allows me to share my ideas with others (connection over something more isolated)
- Continue operating in the space of sustainability and food systems
- Find ways to continue traveling
- Develop something that has a clear start and end date versus an ongoing project to give myself the satisfaction of closure
Now think about how this applies to starting my own farming operation:
- Farming = learning. Every day will hold a lesson. I’m sure I’ll continue to listen to podcasts while in the field and read for fun, so no worries there. Check!
- Focus on market channels that connect me with others – probably more direct marketing than wholesale, for example. I’m not likely to want to do institutional sales but focus more on creating experiences for people to come together (nourish my community), like on-farm events, catering weddings, or something of that nature.
- Think about my products from cradle-to-grave. Before anything is planted, things have a home, and along the way any losses or inefficiencies are accounted for and have a home, even if in a different market.
- Visit other people’s farms and learn about their operations. Record interviews, share with others.
- The season naturally operates by cycles, which is great. But creating a natural stopping point for me in the year to step out of the farm stuff is critical for rejuvenation and recharging. This is where travel might come in. As it relates to any online courses I might offer, there would be clear start and stop points instead of an open call for clients that’s ongoing. This gives me something more concrete to work with.
I think that’s enough for one day. Tomorrow we’ll probably dig into the channels and explore what those are all about. With the transit of the sun, channels are ignited in a way, which means that they’re supercharged, giving you access to energy in a different way in your chart. Stay tuned!
