What Do the Planets Mean in Human Design?
Working with the planets in Human Design can be both a challenging but incredibly rewarding experience. Like Astrology, Human Design translates the positions of the planets in your chart into key insights like how you thinking and communicate, your values, how you learn, what motivates you, and more.
According to Human Design theory, as the neutrino stream moves from the sun and towards earth, they brush through the filters of the planets picking up subtle layers of their energy as they go. You can think of the planets like colors, as the neutrino particles touch them, they are dusted with a rainbow. The moment you are born, that unique color pattern is imprinted on your being and influences how you show up in the world. Yes, we are how we are because of multi-colored space dust, pretty cool huh?
How do Planets Differ in Human Design and Astrology?
While the typical astrological natal chart shows you the position of the planets at the exact moment of your birth, the Human Design chart uses two astrological metrics: the position of the planets at the time of birth AND their position three months prior to your birth (or 88 degrees behind the position at birth to be exact!). These data points paint the picture of your conscious personality as well as your unconscious motivations, dispositions, and tendencies. Blending them together, you can start to see how the many facets of your being integrate into the whole that is you! If you’re interested in seeing what all of this looks like in an Astro Human Design chart, here’s an example:
Astro HD chart
The unconscious placements are in red and the conscious are in black.
Ok so by now you may be thinking, that is a lot of information to calculate and may be wondering if you are going to have to learn how to read a natal wheel birth chart to grasp all this – and the answer is no … if you don’t want to. I’ve found it super helpful to learn astrology but as always, just because I did doesn’t mean you need to. The bodygraph view of the Human Design chart breaks down the positions of the planets on the left (unconscious) and right (conscious) of the chart.
Planetary glyphs
It is helpful to familiarize yourself with what the planetary symbols look like!
As a refresher, the numbers under the planetary glyphs are I Ching hexagrams, or gates, that are all associated with a zodiac sign. (P.S. here’s a handy Human Design gate cheat sheet with all this info and the centers) If you are already familiar with astrology then the planets will be a piece of cake – because they are the same in Human Design. If this is all new to you, I invite you to start with these descriptions and get to know your planets. How does their energy feel to you? Does one planet resonate more than another? The more you explore these archetypes for yourself, the more they will start to come to life. And then… one day, we’ll get into the transits and what that all means – but not yet!
The Planets in Human Design
Sun: Your identity and vitality. Your ego and personality. The gift you give to others.
Rising: Your first impression. How others perceive you. The flavor of your personality.
Earth: What grounds and supports you. Your connection to this physical reality.
Moon: Your emotional world and unconscious motivations. The part of you others don’t see. Intuition and instinct.
North Node: What you came to master in this lifetime. Lessons and areas for growth.
South Node: Talents from past lives. That which comes naturally to you.
Mercury: Your ideas, thoughts, communication style. What you’re meant to communicate in this lifetime.
Mars: Your drive, motivation, how you act, sexuality, connection to your physical body. Areas you may need to mature into.
Venus: Your values, ideals, aesthetic standards, relationship wants/needs.
Jupiter: Your philosophy and connection to spirit, luck, and joy. Expansion.
Saturn: Your inner rules, perceived limitations, boundaries, life lessons, keys to growing up.
Uranus: Your individuality, humanitarian aspects, revolution, where you stand out and shine.
Neptune: Your intuition, dreams, mysticism, addictions, spiritual genius.
Pluto: How you grow and evolve. Transformation, hard truths, transmutation, death, rebirth, realizations