Aquarius Comes Of Age

There’s a lovely sweep of energy from the Capricorn to Aquarius gates in the Human Design chart. Jupiter and Saturn will move through them during 2021. Saturn continues to move through these gates until early 2023. The Aquarian gates help us discover what’s no longer working, and bring beautiful whispers of subtle steps to birth the new.

This subtle, persistent, guided stepping is a new way of being, a dance that integrates the masculine/active principle and the feminine/receptive principle, and we are in a time of learning how it’s done.

Yin/yang and Wu Wei

The gates in Human Design are rooted in the 64 hexagrams of the ancient Chinese book of Wisdom called the I Ching. For over 4,000 years the Chinese have been observing the relationship between humanity and the cosmos. It’s fundamental premise is that things are always changing and the most effective way for us to engage is wu wei – to do by not doing.

Not doing is not the same thing as doing nothing; it is active engagement without struggle. We live in a participatory universe, what we pay attention to matters, our actions are the butterfly wings of creation. Our strongly masculine culture applauds heroic action, winning against all odds. In wu wei, trying to win is a kind of losing. There is a violence against reality when we try to impose our individual will upon the world.

Instead, we are learning to partner. But, partner with what?

Life is Change

The ancient wisdom of the Chinese tells us that the only constant is change, and that it is change we need to pay attention to. Where do we feel uncomfortable? When do we have too much of something we don’t need anymore? Who should we be spending our time with? When do we need to let go of making progress and go mop the floor or wash our hair? What resources do we need before we can take our next step?

The gates of your Human Design are a set of instructions for how you are uniquely designed to interact with the process of change. It tells you what kinds of change you will naturally pay attention to, where you are designed to participate, how you can best respond.

The Capricorn to Aquarius gates are active for us all right now, with Pluto due to shift to Aquarius in March 2023. In Human Design, that shift – from Capricorn to Aquarius – happens specifically in Gate 41. (Although the first stirrings of Aquarius are in the previous gate – 60.4)

You might know Gate 41 as the Human Design New Year gate, Decreasing.

It’s known as the New Year gate because it’s the only gate to carry a start codon – start something new! Why would a gate called Decrease be the starting point? Because we have to let go of everything that’s no longer alive in our lives, and only in the ensuing emptiness can we imagine what we want to create next.

This voidal space of Gate 41 is the powerful magic of new beginnings, but it’s possibility can sometimes be felt as annihilation, as abandonment, as nothing-ness, as lack of potential rather than chaotic profusion waiting to come into form.

The emptiness is a place of vulnerability, sensitivity, imaginal longing. And these are the themes of 2021, as Jupiter and Saturn move through the early stages of Aquarius – Gates 41, 19, 13 and 49. The Uranus-Saturn squares will shake the foundations of our old lives to ensure every last aspect of what’s done shatters and falls, and we will continue to feel their influence for many years.

Gate 19 – Approach – a great growing energy, as if spirit whispers to you to partner with it in some beautiful new creation. You can only know the next step.

Gate 13 – People in Harmony – brings alliances that allow us to take greater risks, to imagine bigger change, to follow our vision with more courage and tenacity.

Gate 49 – Radical Change – has us marching out to meet corruption, to demand truth, to align with the whole unfolding creative process of change. This gate heralds a new time. Saturn will reach this gate in March 2022, about the time of the US Pluto return.

Gate 30 – Clarity – your capacity to live in ways that cultivates clarity, supports your inner light to be lived in your external world. Learning to maintain what nourishes and supports a gentle, constant illumination.

What are You Responsible For?

And in the beautiful space of new beginnings, what might grow? How can you arrange your life so you can take responsibility for what is seeking to move through you?

A great, growing energy coming from source, asking for your full participation, seeking to reach fruition and be realised. You draw close and gaze upon the subtle energy as it approaches you, paying attention and taking responsibility for each step, waiting patiently over developments and staying in touch with the nature pace of growth.

Adapted from Hilary Barrett I Ching for Hexagram 19 – Approach

Waiting is not about being passive and doing nothing. Initiating is not about forcing events. Reflecting is not about disengaging. Each one of us has a responsibility to what our souls came here to do in this life. You are here to participate in change, to choose what you are paying attention to, to carefully and persistently weave your visions into reality both alone and in alliance with others. Radical change is upon us. it will seem to happen slowly and also quickly. You are a participant. What is calling you?