human design

Walker, there is no path. The path is made by walking.

(Antonio Machado)

Just a small anthropological consideration…

I enjoy going back to my studies in Social Anthropology because I feel they are the start of the journey that brought me to Human Design. So please allow me to have an anthropological reflection regarding Human Design, regarding the introduction of Human Design as a synthesis, as the Science of Differentiation.

Synthesis is a way to establish common ground when it comes to the different worldviews cultures handle in contemplating our human existence…

One of the issues raised during my studies in Social Anthropology was what we could call “worldview”. Cultures have worldviews and they can be very different depending upon to the culture concerned: some are more abstract, others more logical, it all depends. But we all know it can be a rather subtle issue to find common ground; we see that every day in world politics, for example.

But when it comes to an issue like our conditioning, for example, addressing it anthropologically can become really subtle. Let’s take the dichotomy between nature and nurture and how to look at our own lives through this dichotomy: what is our nature and what is nurtured in us? For our western minds it might be obvious to grasp but not all cultures understand the concept of “nature” or “nurture” the way we do, or don’t apply such dichotomist thinking to their understanding of their relation with their environment. So anthropologically speaking, the nature / nurture dichotomy has its limitations as a universal criterion in order to conceptualize something as vast as our socio-cultural, inter-personal and inner-personal relations. The truly intelligent next step then is not to discard it, but to see that it can therefore not stand alone as a point of view and has to be integrated with other views so that it can be of real value to all.

I always wondered how we could ever come to an understanding that transcends those limitations of “worldviews” from different cultures and their ways of looking at things. An understanding that doesn’t impose one view on the other but rather puts one next to the other and makes it possible through their interaction to commonly observe something innovatively? The only way not to impose something or consider one view superior to another is through sharing because sharing establishes common ground, enhances perspective, opens up horizons and enables new understandings.

Synthesis is such a process of sharing. The term synthesis (with / placing) comes from Greek and is used to mean a process which combines together two or more pre-existing elements resulting in the formation of something new.

Human Design is a synthesis and as a synthesis proposes a flowering of something absolutely novel…

When I received my first education into Human Design I was astonished by its character. I had never been introduced to a real synthesis and I was impressed by the beauty of what synthesis really is: an interrelation of elements flowering into something totally new! The Human Design System is a synthesis that integrates worldviews that through their combination and sharing are enabled to establish common ground and a new perspective. It is a system that combines the understanding of logic with the experience of the abstract world, it integrates mysticism and esoteric views with exact science and exoteric views, it brings together understandings from cultures such as Chinese, Judeo-Christian, Hindu and Babylonian traditions with scientific understandings common to our modern globalized society and establishes an innovative cosmological view – “a worldview” - that can be experienced on an individual level in our daily lives.

The Human Design System, an unusual and audacious tool…

This website is therefore promoting an unusual and audacious tool: Human Design, the Science of Differentiation, offering a map of our uniqueness and practical tools that can help us to live out our uniqueness in our daily lives through the decisions that shape our journey. Human Design substantiates the understanding that unique decision making opens up a path in life that can truly be called our own. Decisions shape our journey, so if we keep on making decisions based on the density of our conditioning, we keep on living a life from our conditioned minds and the conditioning of others, which results in a homogenized life! While at the same time, the potential challenge of life, and its beauty, is found in uniqueness!

There is a unique way of taking decisions for each one of us that stands in contrast with the conditioning we have received in our lives…

Through a Human Design map we get a graphic representation of our unique contribution in this life: a blueprint, not of our sameness, but of what differentiates us from everything else, of what makes us truly beautiful, special and unique. With it, we are given tools for decision making that allow us to start experimenting with making decisions as ourselves; and those decisions ultimately enable our uniqueness surface and flower.

These tools for decision making in life are not grounded in our minds but within our body and its senses: some of us are designed to make decisions intuitively; others to let their emotions bring perspective first, others run on will power, some need periods of reflection. There are many tools for decision making and it all depends on the differentiated map of each one of us.

Beware though; the experiment with our Human Design map is not a journey offering instant gratification! On the contrary, it is a journey that makes us feel the power of our conditioning and its grips on us when it comes to taking decisions from our uniqueness.

There are many factors from our conditioning that may hold us back from being spontaneous even though it is our particular way of taking decisions! So instead of instant gratification, personal experimentation is the road that leads us to come to grips with our uniqueness and allows us to recognize the traps of our particular conditioning. Time, therefore, is a great and necessary ally!

But then again: don’t believe it, try it and enjoy the journey!

Human Design itself is absolutely unique so I understand it isn’t necessarily straightforward when looking at its proposal through the lens of conventionally accepted science or systems of explanation. But as all uniqueness, it has dignity and grace so in that sense it is best to go back to this basic standpoint that dignifies both Human Design and the explorer of it: don’t believe it, try it, experiment with it and find out for yourself!