What Is Human Design? Here's Everything to Know

People want to have as much insight into their actions, personalities, and futures as possible, as evidenced by the abundance of self-help tips, personality tests, and astrology-based content and apps there are out there. And I think this is for good reason. Even 50 years ago, there weren’t many options for “finding your purpose” or “chasing your dreams.” Roles were more or less laid out for you, and there wasn’t much space to explore your options or ask what it was you even wanted to do with your life.

Fast forward to today. We have automated jobs, the internet, feminism, and more. Our lives look a lot different than the “go to school, get a job because it pays the bills, get married, retire, die” narrative many found themselves trapped in. We actually get to ask questions around whether we even want to get married or not, what it is we love to do, what our gifts are, and how we can turn those passions into a career and life we actually love and thrive in. Despite the natural consequences of a sped-up world, this is truly an exciting time to be alive as we continue to learn what it means to evolve in consciousness together.

For those who haven’t figured out just what it is they want to do with their lives, or even with their next week, having a tool or system that gives you insight into what that path might look like for you can be incredibly helpful. Enter: Human Design. Since Human Design is a little newer on the scene, for those who aren’t familiar, here’s a breakdown on what it is and how it might help provide more clarity into who you are and what you’re here for.

What Is Human Design?

Human Design is the study of our energetic auras – a guide for how we’re meant to most powerfully utilize our energy in the world and how we’re wired to make decisions, as well as a blueprint highlighting our inherent gifts. It combines wisdom from astrology, Kabbalah, the Hindu-Brahmin chakra system, the I Ching, and quantum physics. Human Design is also known as the Science of Differentiation – highlighting the uniqueness and individuality of each person while also stressing the importance that when we all live into our unique designs, we thrive together collectively.

Human Design was initially created as a system for parents to be able to lean on when raising their children – allowing them to honor the originality of each child and help encourage them in their energetic gifts.

How Can I Find Out What My Human Design Is?

You’ll need your exact birth time (down to the minute, and yes, it matters!), as well as your birth location, and then you can plug it into Jovian Archive’s chart finder or My Body Graph’s to get your (free) personalized chart.

What Makes Human Design Different From Astrology or Personality Tests?

Human Design promises to share your unique energetic blueprint and insights into how you best engage with opportunities and other people all from the time of your birth. Personality tests require questionnaires, which can sometimes be distorted by our conditioning or biases, and astrology provides more cyclical wisdom depending on the location of the planets and celestial beings at any given point in the year as it relates to you and your birth time.

All systems have the potential to be incredibly helpful depending on what it is you’re looking for and what resonates with you the most. Human Design is different in the way it provides validation to the things you already know to be true about yourself deep down and gives you a road map for deconditioning from the world’s messaging so you can have permission to step more fully into the true self you came here to be.

How Will Knowing My Human Design Benefit My Life?

Knowing your Type in Human Design can help tell you if you’re someone who is here to create more energy for yourself and others by learning how to follow after the things that light you up or to be someone who is meant to tweak and improve the energy that’s already here with your innate wisdom and openness. It can show you how to best look out for opportunities that come your way and whether you’re here to initiate them (Manifestors), respond to those in your path (Generators and Manifesting Generators), wait for others to invite your wisdom in (Projectors), or wait for your lunar cycle to play out before offering your unique reflective wisdom back to those around you (Reflectors). Human Design promises to explain how you’re wired to make decisions and how to tap into the wisdom of your body to make them depending on your Authority. It can give you a framework for how you best learn and share these learnings with others through your Profile, and when you dive deep into the Gates and Channels in your chart, you can learn about your unique strengths and how these can come together to illuminate your purpose and what you’re here to offer back to the world.

What Type of People Would Benefit Most From Learning Their Human Design?

Human Design seems to resonate most with people who are realizing they want more out of their life and who are ready to step out of the status quo that perhaps someone else laid out for them. It’s for people who find themselves feeling tired or rundown and can’t figure out how to create more energy and joy in their daily life. It can be incredibly helpful for anyone wanting more insight into how they’re wired to work and seek out opportunities, wanting more clarity on how to take next steps in their life, or who just needs some affirmation into the amazing gift they’re here to be! And lastly, it can be an incredibly beautiful tool for parents who are wanting a better understanding of their child’s unique makeup and how they can best honor it while raising them.

How Can I Learn More and Dive Deeper Into My Design?

For starters, just knowing your Type and Authority has the potential to provide you with so much value, and while it’s newer, there is lots of free knowledge out there on Human Design. To read more about each Type and their Strategy, along with the different Authorities, you can find the high level of those here. If you want to dive deeper into your individual design, you can find any Human Design expert who offers readings or a detailed description of your chart and order those from them.

It’s easy to feel a little inundated by all the different personal-growth tools and systems there are out there. But all that matters is finding what speaks to you and helps encourage you into the best version of the person you already are, because you deserve to have the most incredible experience of this life possible.

Sara Bacon is a Human Design expert. You can check out her 20-plus-page Design Guides that will give you a thorough and holistic view of your design, as well as her readings. You can also check out more of her Human Design content over on Hi Def’s Instagram and blog.