Solar Transit for Sept 27-Oct 2nd
Gate 18: the Gate of Correction
Hello dear! Grab your favourite drink, and get comfortable because we’re going deep and contemplative with this.
We continue to traverse the rave mandala counterclockwise with the solar transits, and now we are firmly in Libra season.
We are now in Gate 18 with the themes of critique and judgment!
This gate is located in the Spleen centre, in Libra season. Its harmonic gate is Gate 58: The Gate of Joy, which forms the Channel of Judgment when connected with Gate 18.
New to Human Design? See if you already have this energy from when you were born, or you experiences energy inconsistently, by pulling up your own Human Design bodygraph here.
So, what is the energy of this gate?
This gate gives us the ability to see the flaws in just about anything.
This is the energy of being able to identify the areas of improvement, driven by the motivation of achieving joy and pleasure for all.
High expression of this gate:
In this energy, we can be gifted objective critics.
We can see what’s wrong in things and enjoy meeting the challenges to improve them.
This energy is vital to the collective and to the world for the abilities to ‘correct’ that which could use improvement.
It is important to wait for the invitation to bring your gifts of fixing things. Without an invitation, your offerings may be met with resistance. However, when your gifts are brought out when invited, your gifts are received as vital and brilliant.
We use this energy towards critiquing larger systems in the world around us in the high expression.
The high vibration of this gate 18, its Gift frequency, can be seen as Integrity. Knowing that every human judges, but being able to judge with detachment from your identity and not reacting to each judgment that you or others make. Using your judgment in the name of striving for excellence, demanding a higher standard out of life for the integrity of the whole collective.
And the most enlightened vibration of this gate, its Siddhi frequency, can be referred to as Perfection. It is an extremely select few on our planet who vibrate at this frequency. Knowing that there is a paradox that the world is already perfect as it is, and yet there is still much that can be improved. At this highest frequency, the power of the mental vibration and its ability to influence reality becomes apparent.
Low expression of this gate:
Judging subjectively instead of objectively and impersonally.
When you turn this skill of criticism and judgment towards individual people including yourself, this becomes detrimental. You may bring upon comparison with other people and their lives, driven by feeling either superior or inferior to others. Remember, that we are all unique beings, we cannot compare ourselves to each other.
Identifying with our judgments of things or people is the low vibration that affects others, not the specific judgment itself. A rose in bloom never compares itself to the rose next to it, it just blooms in all of its glory.
Judgment is often interlinked with a victim mentality. Often resulting in gossip, complaining or worrying, from a place of disempowerment. Judging others and identifying with it can make us feel falsely superior and safe.
When our judgments become a core fundamental aspect of our identities, or our friend groups are formulated around the commonality of our judgments, these are signs of being in the low expression.
“Would I rather be right or happy?” - Richard Rudd asks in regards to this gate. Needing to be right, or feeling challenged holistically for who you are because someone disagrees with your judgment, requires a detachment or letting go of the tight grasp that judgment has on you.
“All judgment is self judgment. Because we humans perceive ourselves as separate from each other, we miss this vital fact.” - Richard Rudd
Systems change lens:
Gate 18, carries an energy of rebelling against authority, or gaining its power through critique. Like, critiquing and judging our parents as we grew up, particularly as we began to find our voice as teenagers. This gate’s energy reminds me of the energy of public protests and marches, drawing attention from the world to send a message to governments to address and injustice. In both cases, demanding that the world meets our high standards. In my twenties, I was involved in grassroots youth social movements, and our conversations so often were filled with a victim mentality of our judgments of oppressive systems, politicians and powers. We felt seen and understood amongst each other, feeling angry about the same thing, towards the same things. Now looking back at those times, and now understanding my Human Design, I can see how each of us were feeling righteous in our low expressions of this energy.
noun: integrity
the quality of being honest and fair
He has a reputation for integrity in his business dealings.
He's a man of the highest/greatest integrity.
the state of being complete or whole
Without music, the film loses its integrity.
They are trying to preserve the cultural integrity of the community.
The earthquake may have damaged the building's structural integrity.
- Britannica dictionary
I feel that shifting from the low expression to the high expression of this, is a process of maturing. We mature from a victim mentality, feeling powerless, judging others for how they do things & the impact they have on us, to a place of relating with integrity, in both meanings of the word. In other words, upholding integrity, not only from a heart-based, honest and fair service, but with integrity of our whole world. Knowing that when one of us is wounded, then the collective is wounded, it means that the whole is not fully healed.
So with this energy, how do we become healthy, loving citizens on this planet and use the energy of gate 18 in the service of higher standards for the whole? Using integrity with our judgments, means approaching others who represent what we are judging, with respect, firmness and a level of detachment. That I am not the victim. That I demand better for all, I have a high standard, and my judgment identifies where we are falling short.
Emi’s Personal Reflection:
I have this gate defined, in fact I have the full Channel of Judgment (18-58) defined, so this is a consistent energy for me. This is one of my favourite gates, because I can see it activating so clearly in my life. When I began my Human Design journey, this was one of the easiest themes and characteristics that I could identify with immediately. I've always known that I am quite a critic, and can be harsh on how I judge systems that we interact with in our world and how I critique individuals, including myself.
My inner critic is very deep, and can be very relentless. I was clearly in the low expression far more often than I was in the high expression. As I contemplated this gate, I realise that detaching myself for identifying with my judgments and from anyone's judgments, allowed me to experience more love. I could have more love for myself, and more compassion, and more openness for how my judgments might evolve over my lifetime. I also felt more love for others, that despite their judgments, critiques or complaints, about politicians, men, society, certain religions, anything, that I could still love them as a person because I came to realise that judgments are only the reflection of what we all feel inside towards ourselves. Our judgments are often only projection, in essence.
The other piece I realised, is that it's far easier for me, and far more of a natural gift to identify what is wrong with something, than to come up with suggestions for how to improve it. That is something that I have become more careful with in my interactions with others. It was too easy for me to walk into a room and be the harsh critic, or the Debbie Downer to indicate the flaws in an otherwise exciting plan forward. And when people would ask me, “well what should we do instead?” sometimes I had an answer, but the times that I didn't, I felt like I should have kept my mouth shut in the first place. Not in a self-deprecating way, but simply in a managing myself way. Watching how I use this energy, and knowing now that it is a projected gate, meaning that it is best used when invited, I am far more careful nowadays to verbalize this gate’s energy.
Reflection prompts:
Watch how you critique or criticize things in the next week.
Ask yourself, “what do I criticize harshly in my life if anything / anyone?”
Why do I criticize or comment on areas of improvement? What is it for? What am I achieving when doing this?
What do others gain when I do this?
What is my vision for an improved world or system that ensures the integrity of our whole planet?
If you were to have a saint come and visit you, who told you that you and your life are already perfect, how would they describe it to you? (Whether or not you believe what they say, let yourself do this exercise for fun to see what comes out.)
How to use this gate information - learn more here. I wrote a blog post so it does not take up space in this newsletter, for you to learn how to deeply work with the gates.
If you’d like to get a coaching with me to learn more about your Human Design and how you were designed to work with these energies, find out more about my offerings here. I offer a 1 time reading with the call recording + a report. I also offer coaching packages where we can have several calls to support you in coming back to your most authentic self and living a life of alignment.
