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What are we doing here? 

No one seems to be able to remember where we came from, why we came here to planet Earth, or even what it is we are fulfilling here. It is all a great mystery, unique to each of us and yet, over the millennia, there have been myriad efforts to clarify our presence here. Religions, meditations, yogas and philosophies have been invented, and systems have come into being including, Astrology, I-Ching, Runes, Tarot, and many others that have been employed by some of the most intelligent hearts and minds to help us discover more about ourselves.

No one really knows where these systems have come from or exactly why they work, except that each one can show something of the truth about life on Earth. Why do we even want to know? Perhaps the answer is related to the fact that we are, after all, not Human Doings, but Human Beings. Being is the question, how to be?

In the course of many years of travel over this wonderful planet, I had the opportunity to experience a variety of readings from people with many different backgrounds. Some readings were simplistic, both in their format and in the information they produced, others were more mysterious and far reaching in their impact. One day, I was inspired to go visit a man who, I was told, would read my shadow. He did not actually read my shadow as it turned out, but he did employ his son, the apprentice, to go with me into the noon sunshine, and measure the length of my shadow. On our return, he made some calculations, which he fine tuned with some astrological data from my birth information and then further fine tuned with some numerology relating to my name. Finally, he rolled his chair along a lengthy bookcase seemingly stuffed with identical tomes, and pulled one out, rolled back to his desk, opened to a page and commenced reading.

From the moment the shadow reader started speaking until well after he finished, I was transported into the experience of another realm. It was as though I was quietly watching the description of sounds and images, which were spoken out and kept flashing through my consciousness. The shadow reader related details of my current and other lives, which, before that moment, I would have never imagined possible to relate. There were details of past lives, present life and future lives whose threads I could barely grasp, and yet I knew them to be accurate in their description.

When the reading finished, he looked up with a twinkle in his eye and asked if I had any questions; I was almost struck dumb. What was it he had just related to me? How could he have known every detail of my life? I asked him where the system came from and he told me it had been passed down from father to son for almost 5000 years. Then he asked me if I wanted to come and study with him, for he saw that I had the knack to read. Goodness knows why, but I declined. Never mind, he told me, it was perfectly all right, because sooner or later I would have to read it, or a system like it that would come into my life. His advice to me was to practice with any reading system to get comfortable with the idea of informing people about themselves. It would become a life's work.

Later that week, I was approached by a psychic palm reader and asked if I would like him to indicate to me a few things about reading a person's face and hands. In the space of ten minutes he showed me many signs to look for, and then told me that the only real way to learn was to go practice. And so it started. For 15 years I read the hands and faces of anyone who would show them to me, in photos, in person, gesturing on TV, it did not matter. At the same time I studied astrology, the I-Ching, Tarot, Numerology and everything else, trying to find out what this system was that the shadow reader had talked about.

In 1993, it appeared in my life. It was called the Human Design System.

In the first few days of 1987, an event occurred that possibly could have been a personal experience for everyone if we had been attuned to it, but was only felt by a few, and, so far as we know, chronicled by one. The event was the arrival of what has been called the Human Design System. The person who recorded its arrival was a Canadian named (Robert) Alan Krakower, a.k.a., Ra Uru Hu.

Ra has related his story to me a number of times and in a number of different ways. The gist of what I remember being told is that, one evening, while returning to his cottage on the island of Ibiza (a province of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea) he walked into a 'force-field' and was 'taken over' by what he described as 'the Voice.' He related that he had pushed open the door of his cottage and his dog, Barley Baker, had gone in first, growling and with all hackles raised, and had dropped to the floor as though shot. Ra had then been propelled to his desk and heard inside himself a question: "Are you ready to work?" To which, apparently, no answer was expected. Barley Baker remained supine, only to revive a number of days later.

For the next 8 days and nights, Ra was constrained to go through many experiences. What he has revealed, is an outline to a system that will have an enormous impact on the lives of everyone it touches. The Human Design System was delivered to Ra in its entirety but he was not shown what to do with it or how to read it... that is something which has been evolving by degrees ever since his fateful experience.

When I was introduced to Design in 1993, I knew it was the system I was to learn and begin teaching... the one the shadow reader had predicted would arrive in my life. The recognition was immediate, and I silently thanked the shadow reader for in some way preparing me for the process of learning this new system.

I studied Design intensely, seeking to make sense of all its aspects and integrate it into my life of giving readings for people. Slowly the process of Human Design has been evolving and, personally, I find that in my life many old unconscious patterns have evolved into a more conscious awareness through integrating an understanding of my design.

Over the years since 1993, I have watched my own and my clients' lives become more and more personally meaningful and relaxed as we have been drawn deeper into respecting, appreciating and loving who we are and how we live our lives. Communications with friends and family have dramatically improved through respecting our natural way of being. Situations, which in the past I would have spent hours and days wondering how I would resolve, have dissipated, leaving space for solutions to appear naturally.

As yet, the Human Design System cannot reach where the shadow reader's system could in describing past and future lives, but maybe that is not needed, and as an ancient sage in Nepal once told me: "There are many lives, Baba! This one is the most important!" Meanwhile, however, I am continuing research to discover if, through Design, other lives can be read. There is no question that Human Design is the tool for this time, at the opening of the Aquarian Age.

It is common knowledge that we are entering into the Age of Aquarius, although most people are not completely in agreement as to exactly when we are leaving the Piscean Age, and when the Aquarian Age takes effect. What is known is that in the year 1781, the planet Uranus, the 'ruling' planet of Aquarius, was discovered by the astronomer, Herschel.

If one studies the history of the world since 1781, it can be seen that man's practices and codes of conduct have shifted considerably. Some of the energetic effects we can expect with the shift from Pisces to Aquarius are a movement away from 'belief' and dogma to 'logic' and science; a change from the Master-and-servant arrangement of a hierarchy to a community relating together on a level of equality based in self-love and self-respect; a shift from separation and internationality to a feeling of a single planet and a global village. The dawning of the Aquarian Age can be summed up in one word: Synthesis.

The Human Design System is a synthesis of modern day sciences, including physics, astrophysics, bio and genetic chemistry, and at least four of the great esoteric systems of the age: Astrology, the I-Ching, the Kaballah and the Chakra system. These four esoteric systems are woven together to produce a chart for all known things, living and inanimate on Earth. Humans have the most complex design chart and inanimate objects the least complex.

Working with the date, place and time of birth, an astrological chart is drawn up, which relates the place of birth to the placements of the planets of our solar system, relative to the stars in the Universe all around us. Unlike astrology, which divides the sky into 12 compartments, or signs of the zodiac, Human Design further divides the sky into 64 equal compartments. The 64 relates to two things: the hexagrams of the I-Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes, in which there are 64 hexagrams each containing 6 lines, and the human genetic code, in which it was found that there are 64 genetic codons revolving around 6 amino acids. In Human Design, star placement is equated to genes; planetary placement relative to the stars is equated to activation within the genes.

Unlike astrology, which is read only from the chart of birth, Human Design draws up a second chart for a placement of the Sun exactly 88 degrees before birth. This relates to a moment when the fetus undergoes the phenomenon of the 'turning on' of the neo-cortex. So, in this instant, approximately three months before birth, the inherited genetic imprint is made. The information returned from this calculation exhibits all the genetic (unconscious) inheritance from parents but mostly from grandparents and those farther back in the family tree.

Thus, with two astrological calculations, the whole genetic makeup, both conscious and unconscious, is registered in terms of hexagrams and lines of the I-Ching. But there is more magic… and this lies in the body graph which is synthesized from an understanding of the Kaballah and the Tree of Life as well as the Hindu Chakra system.

Within the human body graph there exist 9 energy centers, each relating to an organ or gland within the human body. The centers are linked by 'channels', along which energy can be exchanged between the various centers. At either end of these channels there are 64 'gates'. The information from astrological calculations, converted into various of the 64 hexagrams, is then colored into the corresponding gates in the body graph. Conscious gates (from the moment of birth) are colored in black, inherited (unconscious) gates, in red. The result is a 'picture' of yourgenetic makeup of the person, the design of what it is you are here to play out energetically in your lifetime. Not only are the conscious traits obvious but also the unconscious as well.

The skill of rendering the body graph into words is one that will become more and more finely tuned over time. Just as the shadow reader had the benefit of 5000 years of input in experience, so will the Human Design system. However, even now it becomes clear that many things can be explained from a study of the body graph on all levels, spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, sexual, mystical, relational and material, to name a few.

Instantly, a person can be shown in their chart where and how they can consistently and reliably make correct decisions for their life, thus avoiding the frustrations and bitterness experienced from engaging in wrong pursuits and wrong company. Making good decisions is the cornerstone of a life that is satisfying.

Though most of us are trained from birth to 'go out and make it happen,' actually only 12% of the population are equipped energetically to do this, the rest of us being designed to wait until the 'offer' to do something is perceived clearly. Knowing whether we are designed 'to do', 'to manifest', or 'to wait for a response or an invitation' saves us untold grief and disappointment and gives us the key to managing our lives with ease.

While most of us are flexible and able to work with others in a cooperative way, others of us are designed to go their own way without role models, to literally 'go where no one has gone before.' This difference can be clearly seen in Design.

All of us are open to being 'conditioned' in how we live our lives by the people around us; conditioned to engage in life from 'their' point of view rather than our own. We are actually here to live our own life, and a Human Design reading makes it abundantly clear what is consistent in us and what comes and goes with the influences of people around us. Therefore, we can avoid hurt, frustration and disappointment and live the life we were meant to have.

Charts can be overlapped to see clearly what goes on in a relationship, be it one that is romantic, parental or business in nature.

Additionally, a medical team is collecting data on health issues corresponding to the presence or absence of certain hexagrams within the body graph. Their preliminary results are quite astounding, and have the possibility of making diagnosis and treatment much more simple and effective.

Human Design is an incredible tool that can show each of us exactly and precisely what we are here to live out. When you get a view of yourself from the inside out, there comes about a wonderful relaxation, self-acceptance and self-love. Various complications in communications on all levels of life can be erased when one perceives how one is designed to be. The age-old question of what we are doing here dissolves into an acceptance of how one is. We are given a most amazing device through which we can clearly see ourselves as a part of a greater whole in which we each have our own precious part to play.

Life on earth was never intended as a suffering brought about by us forgetting our interrelation with everything in the Universe. Rather, our life is a dance within all of Existence. Human Design reminds you of the music and the delight of your own unique dance steps.

Oprah Winfrey Human Design System Chart