Human Design System: From 7 Chakras to 9 Centers

Client Questions:

“I'm curious about the relationship between the chakras and the wisdom centers. I read what Ra said about moving from a 7-centered to 9-centered being. Are the wisdom centers chakras? With chakras they are said to become underactive / balanced / overactive etc. In your opinion how does this relate to the centers and being open or defined? Do we balance our centers the same way as chakras?”

"Are the wisdom centers chakras?"

It would be technically inaccurate to equate the chakras' 7-centered model derived from the Homo Sapiens to our modern 9 centered Homo Sapien in Transitus because we didn't just add on two centers or split two into four back in 1781. We are taught that every center got an upgrade.

So although we have 9 functional centers within the body, we do not call them chakras to avoid confusion with the ancient strategic homo sapien, which we no longer are but remain conditioned by the mindset of controlling through mental processes of decision-making.

In HD, we call an undefined center an area of potential wisdom. You're working on specific learning described by the planets, which are there in dormant gate activations.

You have total wisdom potential in any completely open center. The totally open center indicates you've mastered that center thematic in a past life. In this life, you're working on your Ph.D. there, so to speak, because there are no longer specific themes but complete wisdom about all the ways that center can function. These are your most profound areas of susceptibility to conditioning and your most excellent places of potential learning.

"With chakras, they are said to become underactive/balanced/overactive, etc. In your opinion, how does this relate to the centers and being open or defined?"

Personally, I haven't seen the terms "underactive / balanced / overactive" used globally across the board in relationship to centers. Doing so might also be misleading because we all have our own sweet spots based on design, as activity and balance are unique to our functioning, depending on much more than definition.

For example, we have the Variable knowledge based on tonal cognition that leads us to live very different lives from each other even if we have similar areas of definition. And every channel expresses uniquely based on the planetary activations that create the “Channels” our consistent life-force or communication flow between the centers.

In HD, we use the terms Healthy/Unhealthy, which can show up in the Defined or Undefined states of any Center. The unhealthy functioning of the open centers tends to show up like the unhealthy of the defined center - only imagine it incredibly distorted, like an electric guitar plugged into an amplifier and turned up way too high.

I'll explain what I know from our HD perspective that I hope will address what I sense you may be looking for.

Defined energy centers are more likely to be overactive in the not-self, leading to dysfunction and dis-ease. This is really a problem with awareness (fear) centers because of biological stress on our body. and psyche. And it is especially a problem with our energy centers, because that tends towards the energy being misused because of mental decision-making.

Let's consider the Throat Center, which is not a motor, but often people use this center to decide when it is never a place of Authority (i.e., "I said I'll do that and I have to prove that I'm a person of my word, consistent and trustworthy so I'm gonna follow through with what I said I would do so I don't look foolish.")

Any throat center gate misuse or overuse can lead to biological dysfunction of the thyroid. Defined throats without connection to energy tend to talk too much, act too much, and give energy away to every impulse. The pressure to communicate and work is immense! Imagine that amplified without awareness by someone whose throat is being hooked up by a transit or a person. So they take action/speak because of the transit, not from a place of Authority, and now we have a similar problem - overuse because of conditioning.

However, take a typical example of a Manifesting Generator since there are many on our planet. In the not-self dysfunctional state (initiating rather than waiting for a response), an overactive MG can tend to have hyperthyroidism issues. See Angelina Jolie’s chart for example of a strongly defined throat. Angelina has an ego and emotional Manifesting Generator design with an Adrenalized Splenic Center Split.

Chronic overstimulation of the thyroid gland can degrade the thyroid's ability to function and turn into hypothyroidism over time. This starts out as overactive, which becomes underactive due to incorrect energy functioning.

The pure Manifesting Generator channel, 34-20 Charisma (the only sacral channel connection found as oppositions in the wheel creating direct generative energy flow to the throat), has more occurrences of removing the Thyroid gland due to overactivity.

If we contrast this with the natural state of a totally open throat center, whose natural functioning is silence, it tends to be quiet in a healthy state. This is its expression of what is balanced for it - quiet, until asked or invited to speak.

However, to an outsider, the totally open throat would be judged as underactive and would always be put under pressure to explain itself. See Lady Gaga’s chart for an example of a totally open throat center, which is that of a single definition pure sacral generator.

Lady Gaga’s Human Design Chart. She battles with the pain of Chronic Fibromyalgia

When the Throat is the only open center, then the entire being's not-self focus is on attracting attention, leading to thyroid issues when imbalanced. Make sense?

That is just one example; here is another common one. We can also tend to overuse certain kinds of energy to "get something done," concerning the misuse of substituting inappropriate energy when it is not designed to be used in that way.

Take an Adrenalized Energy Projector (Root defined to Solar Plex or Spleen) who is attempting to sustain long hours of hard work using the adrenal system is a classic lifelong challenge of the unawakened to their design. As the adrenals are designed to be short bursts and not be "on" like the sacral energy resource can be, adrenal fatigue and chronic fatigue are common problems amongst energy projectors. *raises hand* See Jada Pinkett Smith’s chart for a visual example of an Adrenalized Emotional Energy Projector with a Splenic Throat split.

Throat not connected to motor example - Jada Pinkett Smith (issues with fatigue - her "red table talks" are very open and a beautiful example of a 6th line projector coming into bloom, by the way)

"Do we balance our centers the same way as chakras?"

In HD, we attune to correct decision-making to help keep us balanced. So anything your Authority agrees to can help you maintain equilibrium. Perhaps a salt-water bath to clean your aura? Do you prefer singing, toning, or chanting to raise your vibration? Do you respond well to walking in nature, gardening, or swimming in the ocean? Maybe you feel invigorated by pranayama breathing exercises, drawing, dancing, games, imagining, making love, and making music? Whatever floats your individual boat!

There are specific recommendations I invite people to experiment with to discharge stress and pressure based on channel configurations. I have studied Vedic sciences and it would be interesting to see the correlations but I have not systematized anything. I simply leave it to each individuals' authority to explore organically rather than strategically.

“What I want you to grasp is something very interesting. Where you have definition, you don’t have to learn. So, think about that incarnatively. In other words, this is stuff you’ve learnt, you’ve worked through, and you don’t have to learn about again. Now, remember I'm talking about the true self, but I want you to see something interesting in that; we’re all in an incarnative, ongoing process. And that each incarnation we come in with things that need to be learnt in order for us to go through our progressive process.
So when you're looking at definition, what you're looking at is ‘I graduated, I got my degree. I've learnt that’. In the sense that that is not a theme for learning in this life now. But the moment that you're looking at a center, and you see that there is more than one or two dormant gates in that center, you know there's a lot of work to be done, that has never been done properly in the past. In other words, here is somebody who has built up, incarnation after incarnation, a problem area in which this is somebody who really has to be nurtured, and really has to learn about what manifestation is. What the Throat is. What the voice is. What communication really is. All of those various aspects.
So, it’s something very interesting to look at. You're looking at your own Design. You can see very clearly “Ah ha!. My incarnation, I'm here. This is something that I have to learn this time”. Now, think about the not-self. The not-self can come back over and over again with the same lessons to be learnt. And they keep on adding up. And if you didn’t get it the last time, then you’ve got an extra dormant gate this time!
So, it’s one of those things to just think about. Because it’s an interesting thing to look at. But please don’t abuse people because you know that – “Oh, look at you there. 35 lifetimes and you're still working on that stuff!”. But it’s really important to understand that these are themes that are unresolved and they need to be worked through. I know that for myself in my 49 gate. I've been a great killer. And I've gone through all of the sacrifice / sacrificer, all of that stuff, but there's still a lesson that’s incomplete for me. That I am finally getting to meet in this life, now.
So, it’s one of those processes that you can really look at, those of you that enjoy that kind of stuff, and be able to say “Aha! This is something that I've always needed to work on. This has been there a long time”. And you can see that by the density that is there.
You can also see that when you're down to the point where there's only one gate, you can see that this is an opportunity to close out a process. Very important. The single gates that are there. Many people have single gates in open centers. The single gate that’s there, that’s the indication. Here's your closing theme. You can finally finish this thing off. And if you have no activations, no activations the is the final stage of perfection.
Long ago somebody said to me “If you could have any Design, what would you have?”. And I said “No activation whatsoever. Just a blank chart. No gates, nothing. Just pure white everywhere”. Because that is being one with everything. And so when you have centers that are fully open you can see that these are areas where you’ve gone beyond the corrective process, and the learning process, and you're starting a new process. In other words, a wisdom process. A transcendent process. In other words you're finally getting to your masters degree, your PhD. You're really at another level entirely.
So you can see that definition, the process is over, but after all with your definition you're working with it all the time and you’ve got to work with it correctly. It just means that you don’t have to go through a learning process there. You simply have to use it correctly. And when you have centers where there is activation but there is no definition, then these are areas where you're carrying from your line of incarnation stuff that is still not yet worked out, still not yet finished in your learning process. And when you get to the entirely open centers, no activation, that’s where you're finally free to seek the one, or to seek the whole.”
Ra Uru Hu

I invite anyone interested in learning more to join our IHDS approved Human Design classes for further information and mentoring. We share both what works and what doesn't in our live experiential groups. I hope that helps! Warmly, Laveena