What is a Human Design chart?

A Human Design chart, also called a bodygraph, is a diagram calculated from your birth date, time and place. It shows nine centers, which are either colored in (defined) or white (open), joined by channels, and it names your type, strategy, authority and profile.

How do I read a Human Design chart?

Start with the type and its strategy, then your authority, then your profile. After that look at which centers are colored in and which are white. The channels and gates come last, because they add detail rather than the headline.

Is Human Design real or scientific?

Human Design is not supported by scientific evidence. No controlled studies back its claims about types or centers, and Wikipedia describes it as pseudoscience. People who use it generally treat it as a reflection tool, not a prediction.

How is Human Design different from astrology?

Astrology reads the planets by sign, house and aspect. Human Design uses the same birth data, but maps planet positions onto 64 gates from the I Ching and builds a bodygraph of centers and channels.

Do I need my birth time for Human Design?

Yes, and a small error matters. Your type and profile can change if the time is off by even a few minutes, so use the time on your birth certificate where you can.

Human Design explained

What Is Human Design? A Plain-English Guide

Human Design is a personality and self-help system, created by Ra Uru Hu in 1987, that turns your birth date, time and place into a chart called a bodygraph. It sorts people into five types and nine centers. It has no scientific support, so use it as a prompt for reflection.

Human Design in one paragraph

Human Design is a system that combines a birth chart with ideas borrowed from the I Ching, the Hindu chakra system, Kabbalah and modern genetics and physics. You enter your birth date, time and place, and it draws a bodygraph: nine centers, 36 channels, 64 gates and a type with a recommended way to make decisions. It is a self-help framework, not a science. The sections below explain what is in the chart, where it came from and what to make of the criticism.

Who created Human Design, and when?

Human Design was created by Ra Uru Hu in 1987. Jovian Archive, the company that publishes the system, gives his birth name as Alan Robert Krakower (some outlets reverse the middle names). He was born in Montreal in 1948, worked in advertising and television in Toronto, and moved to Ibiza in 1983.

By his account, in January 1987 he spent eight days and nights in contact with a “Voice” that transmitted the system to him. Wikipedia describes this as an alleged mystical experience. He first published the system in book form in 1992 as The Human Design System, under the name Ra Uru Hu, taught it for the next two decades and died in 2011. Jovian Archive was founded in 1999 and has been run by his family since his death.

What is in a Human Design chart?

A Human Design chart is a map of nine energy centers, linked by channels and built from gates. Each part has its own page on this site:

Type. One of five: Generator, Manifesting Generator, Manifestor, Projector or Reflector. Each comes with a “strategy” for acting on decisions.
Authority. The part of the chart you are told to trust when you decide, for example sacral, emotional or splenic authority. There are seven.
Centers. Nine, such as the G center, the sacral center and the solar plexus. A colored center is called defined, a white one is open.
Gates and channels. There are 64 gates, one for each hexagram of the I Ching. When two gates in different centers are both active they form one of 36 channels, and that is what colors in the connecting line. Browse all gates and channels.
Profile. A pair of numbers such as 3/5 that describes your role in the world. There are twelve.

How the chart is calculated

The calculation uses two moments. The Personality side is the position of the planets at your birth. The Design side is the position of the planets when the Sun was exactly 88 degrees earlier along its path, which is about 88 days before you were born. Each planet lands in one of the 64 gates, and which gates are active decides which channels and centers are colored in.

That is why the birth time matters. Over a few minutes the Moon, Ascendant and fast-moving points shift, and a shift can move a gate or a line and change a type or profile. If you only know a rough time, treat the result as a first draft.

How to read a Human Design chart

Read a Human Design chart from the top down, with the type first. A short order that works for most people:

Find your type and its strategy. This is the headline of the system.
Read your authority, the part you are told to consult for decisions.
Check your profile, the two numbers under the chart.
Look at which centers are defined and which are open. Open centers are where the system says you absorb and amplify other people.
Only then read the channels and gates, which give the detail.

The quickest way to practice is to calculate your own chart and read the page for each part as you meet it.

Is Human Design real?

Human Design has no scientific support. There are no controlled studies showing that the five types describe real differences between people, and its core idea, that neutrinos carry information that shapes a baby before birth, is not accepted physics. Wikipedia opens its article by calling it a pseudoscientific theory and practice, and the skeptic Brian Dunning argued in 2021 that the system is essentially untestable because it makes no predictions that could be proven wrong.

Jovian Archive’s own position is that Human Design is “not a belief system” and that skeptics are right to ask for evidence. Many people use it the way others use a personality quiz: as a vocabulary for noticing how they react. That is a sensible way to treat it, and it is how this site presents it, as entertainment and self-reflection.

Is Human Design a cult?

Human Design is not a cult in the formal sense, but the question is worth asking calmly. Here is what is established and what is not.

What is established:

It dates from one man’s reported experience in 1987.
It is published by a family-run company that licenses a paid network of schools and certifications. Jovian Archive says it does not certify practitioners itself.
A 2020 Italian court order, as reported by Wikipedia, found that no copyright can exist over the system’s ideas and methods, which went against the company’s claim of exclusive rights.
No membership organization that requires devotion or dues has been found.

What critics say: some former students and commentators describe parts of the community as cult-like, pointing to treating the system as absolute, reverence for the founder, pressure to use only approved teachers and expensive certification paths. A former practitioner who wrote about these traits said explicitly that it is not a full-blown cult and that many practitioners are balanced.

What practitioners say: Ra’s quoted advice was not to believe him but to try it for yourself, and the publisher says the system does not require belief. Its own education director has publicly agreed that teachers should not answer disagreement by calling it conditioning.

Whether the wider community is “a cult” is an opinion that no authority has settled. A practical test applies to any teacher or course: are the prices and claims clear, can you disagree, and can you leave without being shamed?

Where to start

Calculate your free Human Design chart. No account is needed.
Read the page for your type, then your authority.
If you want to compare with a partner, use Human Design compatibility.
If you want the chart on your phone, see the best Human Design app comparison. Hum is our own Human Design iPhone app and it is on the App Store.

Questions people ask

What is a Human Design chart?: A Human Design chart, also called a bodygraph, is a diagram calculated from your birth date, time and place. It shows nine centers, which are either colored in (defined) or white (open), joined by channels, and it names your type, strategy, authority and profile.
How do I read a Human Design chart?: Start with the type and its strategy, then your authority, then your profile. After that look at which centers are colored in and which are white. The channels and gates come last, because they add detail rather than the headline.
Who created Human Design?: Ra Uru Hu, who was born Alan Robert Krakower in Montreal in 1948. He said the system was given to him over eight days in January 1987 on the island of Ibiza. He published The Human Design System in 1992 and died in 2011.
Is Human Design a cult?: There is no evidence that it is a cult in the formal sense, and no membership body demands devotion. Some critics describe parts of the paid training market as cult-like, and the official publisher says it is not a belief system. Both views exist, so judge by how a teacher behaves.
Is Human Design real or scientific?: Human Design is not supported by scientific evidence. No controlled studies back its claims about types or centers, and Wikipedia describes it as pseudoscience. People who use it generally treat it as a reflection tool, not a prediction.
How is Human Design different from astrology?: Astrology reads the planets by sign, house and aspect. Human Design uses the same birth data, but maps planet positions onto 64 gates from the I Ching and builds a bodygraph of centers and channels.
Do I need my birth time for Human Design?: Yes, and a small error matters. Your type and profile can change if the time is off by even a few minutes, so use the time on your birth certificate where you can.

Reviewed November 9, 2026 by Twelve Houses Editors.

For entertainment and self-reflection.