Why I Don’t Use Type In Human Design

If you know anything about your human design chart, it’s probably your Type. 

When I started teaching Human Design, back in 2004, I classified people according to whether they were Generators, Projectors, Manifestors or Reflectors. A bit later we added Manifesting Generators to the mix, although not without some controversy.

Knowing your Type is a key aspect of understanding Human Design. So we are told.

But these days I don’t use Type anymore. Here’s why.

Generators

So let’s imagine that I meet someone at a party and they bounce up and say “Hi! I’m a Generator”. What does that tell me about them? It simply means they have a defined Sacral Centre. Since 75% of people have a defined Sacral Centre, this isn’t an earthshakingly personal piece of information. Their chart could look like this:

Or like this:

They’re both Generators. Even if you don’t know anything about Human Design you can see there is a profound difference between these two charts.

The first chart belongs to Pink.

the second one to John Lennon.

I’m sure you’ve already figured out that these two are going to be very, very different people.

Pink has four separate areas of definition, which means it’s very busy in there and can take her a long time to get everything working together. With all her Centers defined she needs to follow her own path, but with a quadruple split she also needs to collaborate with others to get anything done.

That’s a very delicate mix!

John Lennon had one single area of definition and the rest was open to the collective consciousness. He was profoundly affected by the energetic zeitgeist, especially as his one channel contained the highly creative and dreamy stellium of Neptune, Venus and the Moon. In fact, a lot of the time I expect he wasn’t even sure if he was really here on the planet or not!

While Pink has a strong sense of self and direction (her G Centre is connected to her Throat), Lennon floats along and waits for things to happen. (Although Lennon did have the G connected to the Throat in his Spiritual Expression layer).

If I was doing a Human Design session with Pink and John, and wouldn’t that be wonderful, I would talk to them both about their defined Sacral and how they are designed to respond to life.  But that’s where the similarity would end.

Projectors

A Projector is someone who has an undefined Sacral Centre, and doesn’t have a motor (Solar Plexus, Heart, Sacral or Root Centre) connected to the Throat Centre.  That’s about 20% of people on the planet, which means there are about 1.4 billion Projectors.  Again, nothing too personal going on there.

So let’s say I’m still at that fantastic party where I met Pink and Lennon, and along comes two more people who say ‘hey there, nice to meet you, we’re both Projectors!’.    

Well, here’s their charts:

And this:

Again, there’s very little in common between these two charts, other than their undefined Sacral Centre. The first chart belongs to Freddie Mercury.

and the second is Charlie Sheen.  And yes, it was a hell of a good party .. lol.

Freddie Mercury had one channel connecting the Head Centre to the Ajna Centre, giving him a very inspired mind.  He was known for his genius in writing songs – Bohemian Rhapsody being a great example.  Mercury was always going to have to play in a band, to give him a connection to the Throat, and to ‘give voice’ to his songwriting.  

He surrounded himself with a close knit group of friends, which would have helped him give some solidity and form to his experience of life.

Like Pink, Sheen has lots of different areas of definition.  He has all three awareness centres defined – Ajna/mental, Spleen/physical intuitive and Solar Plexus/emotional – but they aren’t connected so they’re not talking to each other unless he’s around the right people.  

Sheen has the capacity to be pretty switched on, but in a very fragmented way that can create confusion all around.  It probably doesn’t help that his Mars is saying ‘hey lets do all the wrong things with all the wrong people, that’ll be much more fun that checking in with my own inner awareness!’.

The one thing both Freddie Mercury and Charlie Sheen have in common is they don’t have a motor centre (energy) connecting to the Throat Centre. So they both have inconsistent access to energy because they don’t have that constantly generative Sacral defined, and they don’t have any other energy that they can express whenever they want. Their energy, and how they express it, is always dependent on who they are with. That’s what I’d like to talk to them about!

In Human Design, Type is just your starting point

Looking at Type in Human Design is useful, but it’s usefulness is limited.  It’s a bit like knowing what sign your sun is in.  You’re an Aquarian, I’m Cancerian, she’s a Libran.  At least in astrology there are 12 signs, in Human Design we’re all bundled up into only 5 piles and one of those piles – the Reflectors – has only 1% of the population in it!

And while the strategy for your Type is useful, it’s not the silver bullet of consciousness that many try to make it.

Once we have a basic understanding of our design, there’s no need to be limited by simplistic labels. Start experimenting with your strategy, but don’t lump yourself in with billions of other people without really tapping into the true magic of Human Design and delving into the uniqueness of who you really are.  

One way of doing that is to look at what Type your channels are.

What “Type” Are Your Channels?

I was just reading an article written by a Manifesting Generator. It was saying .. “Oh it’s terrible how ignored Manifesting Generators are”.  What! Isn’t being ignored something that’s supposed to happen to Projectors? Let’s look at a Manifesting Generator chart and see if we can figure this out!

Travolta’s type is a Manifesting Generator because he has the Sacral Centre defined, and it is connected to the Throat Centre. This is the classic Manifesting Generator channel.

 

But he has two other channels as well. And they are both Projector type channels. One is a Mental Projector channel and the other An Emotional Projector channel. They are Projector channels because because:

• they don’t connect to the Sacral Centre – that would make them Generator channels
• they don’t connect a motor to the Throat Centre, which would make them Manifestor channels.

 

So John Travolta is one part Manifesting Generator and two parts Projector. While it’s important for him to understand how that Manifesting Generator channel operates in his life, it’s also crucial that he understands he is part Projector. Mentally and emotionally, Travolta can feel a lack of recognition, and a sense of disconnection with himself. In other words, there are parts of him that can feel ignored.

The Projector Channels in the Human Design System

Here’s a chart showing all the Projector channels.  There are 21 Projector channels in the Human Design chart, out of a total of 36.

Unless you have only one single area of definition, you are almost certainly going to have at least one Projector channel in your design.

One of the profound gifts of the Human Design System is that we can see these ‘dispossessed’ aspects of self on the chart. They are often floating off to the periphery of our lives without access to communication with the world or the energy to act on their own behalf!

Most of us use relationships to correct the situation, but this is usually only a bandaid solution.  Until we can truly connect with our own Projector aspects, recognise and nurture them, we are only operating in a small part of ourselves.  And how can the rest of the world recognise Projectors and the gifts they bring if we can’t even recognise our own inner Projector?

I’d like to create more Human Design Types, maybe call them Manifesting Projector, or Projecting Generator … why not?

There are more powerful reasons why I find Type too simplistic. Asteroids, Galactic Planets, Subtle Layers and Holographic Human Design. But those are for another day.

Curious about Human Design? Read more articles here.