Human Design Chart Symbols

See the symbols on your own chart

The fastest way to learn the symbols is to hold your own chart next to this page. Run your free chart first, then match each shape, line, number and column below to what you see. A symbol you can point to on your own chart sticks far better than one you only read about.

Each section below tells you where to look.

Start with the big shapes, then the lines between them, then the small numbers on those lines. After that, look at the two columns of planets on either side, each row showing a position like 41.6 (Gate 41, Line 6). The arrows near the top are the last thing to read. Your Type, Strategy and Authority (see How to Read Your Chart) appear first in the results, and they matter more than any single symbol.

What Human Design chart symbols mean

The answer to what Human Design chart symbols mean is that none of them are decoration. Your BodyGraph is calculated from your birth date, time and place, and every mark on it stands for a piece of mechanics: a Center that is consistent or open, a Channel that connects two Centers, a Gate with a number, a planet that activated it. Once you know the symbols, what your Human Design chart means puts them together into one picture.

There are six groups of symbols to learn. Shapes are the nine Centers. Lines are the Channels that join them. Numbers are the Gates, 64 in all. Colors show what is defined and what is open. The side columns list the planets that activated each Gate, one column for Design and one for Personality. The arrows are the four Variables.

It also helps to know what the symbols are not. They are not a rating, a horoscope or a personality quiz. They record how energy is arranged in your design, and the same set of symbols appears on every chart, arranged differently for each person. Once you have the key, you are reading mechanics, and mechanics can be tested in daily life.

A chart looks confusing because all six groups sit on one image. It is not random, though. Each group answers a different question: where is my energy consistent, how is it connected, which themes do I carry, and how do conscious and unconscious sides contribute? Read them one group at a time and the picture becomes orderly.

The system was originated by Ra Uru Hu, and Jovian Archive is its source. The symbols below follow that canon, so you can trust the names and numbers you see on your chart.

Quick symbol legend for beginners

Here is the legend in one table: six symbol groups, what each looks like on your chart, what it stands for, and a jump link to the part of this page that explains it fully. It is deliberately short, so you can see the whole system before you meet any detail.

Treat it as the map (and How to Read Your Chart as the method) for everything that follows. If a symbol on your chart, from a Center to a Gate, confuses you later, come back to this table, find its group, and jump to the explanation. Each group is covered once, in the order a beginner should learn it, so nothing is repeated.

Shapes and Centers in the Human Design chart

The shapes on your BodyGraph are the nine Centers. A Center that is colored in is defined: its energy is consistent and reliable in you. A Center left white is undefined or open: it is not empty or broken, it is where you take in and amplify the energy of the people around you.

Centers also fall into groups. Four are motors, which supply drive: Sacral, Heart, Solar Plexus and Root. Three are awareness Centers: Ajna, Spleen and Solar Plexus. Two apply pressure: Head and Root. Knowing which group a Center belongs to tells you what it does before you learn anything else about it.

Lines and Channels in the BodyGraph

A Channel is a line that joins two Gates in two different Centers. When a Channel is colored from one end to the other, it is defined: both Gates are active, and the two Centers it connects become defined as well. That is how a Center gets its color.

When only half of a line is colored, you have a hanging Gate. One Gate is active, but its partner is missing, so no Channel forms. The Center it touches is not defined by that Gate alone. The hanging Gates page covers this in depth.

A defined Channel gives you a steady, repeatable energy you can count on. It does not switch on and off the way an open Center does. This is why Channels get so much attention: they are the specific talents and drives you carry every day.

A practical way to check your own chart: find a Center that is colored in, then trace the lines touching it. At least one of them will be fully colored, because a Center is only defined through a complete Channel. If you see a colored line that ends in a white Center, you are looking at a hanging Gate.

What the numbers mean in a Human Design chart

The numbers on your chart are Gates. There are 64, matching the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching, and each one lives in exactly one Center. A number is a name, not a rank. Gate 64 is not better than Gate 3, just as a street address is not a score.

Each Gate also belongs to a single Center, so the number tells you where in the body of the chart a theme lives. Gate 34, for example, sits in the Sacral, while Gate 57 sits in the Spleen. When two Gates in different Centers are both active and match, they form a Channel, such as 34-57.

In the planet columns, a position like 34.3 reads as Gate 34, Line 3. The number before the dot is the Gate, the theme. The number after it is the Line, from 1 to 6, which adds the flavor: how that theme is lived. The table below shows the six lines.

Lines are the finest detail on your chart, and they are worth learning slowly. Start by recognizing the Gates that appear, then come back to the lines once the bigger shapes make sense. See Gates and Channels for the full set.

The six lines

A worked example: 34.3 means Gate 34 (Power) in Line 3 (Martyr). Read the Gate first, then let the line tell you how that Gate expresses itself.

What the chart colors mean

Color tells you what is defined (see Definition). A colored Center is defined: it works the same way in you every day. A white Center is undefined or open: it is sensitive, it takes in other people's energy and it amplifies it. White does not mean weak, and colored does not mean better.

The traditional convention uses red for Design, the unconscious side, and black for Personality, the conscious side. A Gate active on both sides is shown striped. Different tools draw this differently, so go by the column: Design is on the left and Personality is on the right, and that never changes.

One more point: color is about consistency, and it says nothing about quality. A white Center often becomes the place where people learn the most about the world, because it is open to everything passing through. A colored Center is the place where you are the same person in every room.

Design and Personality columns

On each side of the BodyGraph is a column of planets. Design sits on the left. It is calculated for the moment the Sun was 88 degrees of arc before your birth, about 88 days earlier. Personality sits on the right and is calculated for the birth moment itself (Type comes from both sides together). Think of them as two lists of the same kind of information, one from each side of your birth.

Each column has 15 rows: the 13 planets in canon order, then Chiron, then Lilith. Every row gives the planet and a position, written as gate.line. Reading the two columns side by side shows which Gates your conscious and unconscious sides each brought to the chart.

Notice that the same Gate can appear in both columns. When that happens, the Gate is active on both the conscious and unconscious sides, and traditional drawings mark it as striped. It tends to be one of the most consistent themes in your design, so it is worth noticing.

Planet symbols in a Human Design chart

Beyond the Sun and Earth, each planet adds its own emphasis. Mercury colors how you think and communicate, the Moon is the driving force, and Venus speaks to values. Read the glyph, then read the Gate and Line next to it.

A planet symbol tells you where a Gate's theme shows up in you. The Gate is the theme, and the planet is the setting. The same Gate under the Sun reads differently than under the Moon or Mercury, because each planet carries its own keynote.

The Sun and Earth carry the most weight. The Sun is the largest single influence in the chart, about 70 percent of the neutrino imprint with the Earth, and Earth is always the Gate opposite it. The table lists all thirteen planets with their glyphs, so match what you see on your chart to the row. See the Planets page for the full guide.

Chiron and Lilith also appear in the columns, but they are modern extensions and not among Ra Uru Hu's thirteen. They define nothing in your chart, so treat them as extra context only and do not let them change your Type, Strategy or Authority. See Chiron and Lilith for more.

A good habit is to read the Sun and Earth rows first, then the Moon and Mercury, and leave the outer planets for later. You will find the planets easier to follow once the Gates they sit on feel familiar.

What the four arrows mean in Human Design

The four arrows near the top of the BodyGraph, beside the Head and Ajna, are the Variables. The two on the left belong to Design and the two on the right belong to Personality. Each arrow points left or right, and the direction carries the meaning.

A left-pointing arrow is active, strategic and focused, and covers tones 1 to 3. A right-pointing arrow is receptive, passive and peripheral, and covers tones 4 to 6. The arrows are an advanced layer. Come to them after you are comfortable with Type, Strategy and Authority, and the Determination page is a good place to begin when you are ready.

Each arrow has a name. Determination and Environment belong to the Design side, and Motivation and Perspective belong to the Personality side. The table below shows where each sits on the chart, and each name links to a page of its own. For now, simply notice which way each arrow points on your chart, and save the rest for after you have lived with your Strategy and Authority for a while.

Many beginners jump to the arrows because they look distinctive. Resist that. They refine a chart that is already understood, and they confuse one that is not yet clear.

The full system is on Human Design Variables.

How to read Human Design chart symbols in the right order

1. Shapes first: notice which of the nine Centers are colored in and which are white, because this one glance already tells you where you are consistent and where you are open.
2. Lines next: follow the Channels between Centers, noting which are fully colored and which are hanging Gates with a missing partner.
3. Numbers and columns third: read each Gate and Line in the Design column on the left and the Personality column on the right, starting with the Sun and Earth.
4. Arrows last: the four Variables refine a chart you already understand, so save them until Type, Strategy and Authority feel natural.

That is the short version of the reading order. The full method, including how to connect these layers to Type, Strategy and Authority, lives on How to Read Your Chart, and it is the best next stop once the symbols feel familiar.

Common mistakes when learning Human Design chart symbols

• Reading white as empty or bad. A white Center is open, which means it is sensitive to others and can become wise through that sensitivity. It is not broken, missing or a flaw in your design. Many people feel relieved once they see open Centers as a place of learning.
• Treating numbers as a score. Gate numbers are names, so a higher number is not better and a lower number does not come first. Each number simply points to a theme in a Center. Comparing numbers between charts teaches nothing.
• Mixing up the two columns. Design is on the left and Personality is on the right, whatever the colors look like. Going by the column prevents most confusion between tools. Check the column before you read the color.
• Starting with the arrows. They look distinctive but they are the most advanced layer. Begin with the shapes and your Type, then work toward the Variables. Skipping ahead rarely helps. The arrows reward patience.
• Reading one symbol alone. A single Gate or Center means little without your Type, Strategy and Authority around it. Context is what turns a symbol into meaning. Always return to the top of the chart.

Next steps

Run your free chart if you have not yet, then read your Type, Strategy and Authority in that order. After that, the planets guide will show you what each row of the columns is saying, and How to Read Your Chart ties every layer together, so each new symbol lands in a place you already understand. Take it one layer at a time.