How to Read Your Human Design: Circuits
Ever been called self-absorbed? Or even felt that way yourself and thought it was a ‘bad’ thing? Or perhaps you know someone a little like that and have judged them harshly!
Well, Human Design comes to the rescue yet again with a fresh perspective when it comes to learning how to read your human design chart and the three human design circuits.
Learning to read your Human Design Chart and understanding your Human Design Circuits is a huge eye-opener when it comes to how we connect and judge others. In this blog, we will explore:
- What are Human Design Circuits and Channels
- The three main Human Design Circuits and their sub-circuits
- How to see what circuit you are more dominant in
What are Human Design Circuits?
When you are learning how to read your Human Design chart, one of the key areas you can look at is your Human Design circuitry. Your circuitry is all about how defined energy circulates through the channels within your design.
Every gate and channel fits within three main Human Design circuits – Individual, Collective and Tribal. Each has key themes that explore how you connect, interact and impact others through your nature, values and principles.
It can also reveal areas of resistance and conflict with relationships and where you have been conditioned to live outside of your innate nature.
For example, those with more individual circuit channels running through their design can be labelled as self-absorbed or come across as only interested in themselves especially when compared with someone who has more Tribal energy, meaning they have a large interest in family and their immediate community. Understanding your circuitry can be the key to releasing others’ expectations of you and following your own bliss. Read on to find out more about each of the three circuits.
What are Human Design Channels?
Let’s take a quick moment and recap on what a channel is in Human Design. A channel consists of two opposing gates (numbers) that meet and connect two energy centres (the shapes) together.
There are 36 different channels, each with its own set of traits and gifts that make you unique. They can be categorised into the three different Human Design circuits outlined below. Grab a pen and paper and take note what circuitry your own channels lie within.
Curious as to what each channel means? Keep an eye on the Human Design Blog page as I work my through each of the 36 channels and 64 gates in 2023.
Human Design Individual Circuitry and Channels
People with Individual Channels are driven by the determination to follow the beat of their own drum and direction and bring change to the world.
The Individual Circuit group consists of three sub-circuits: Centering Circuit, Knowing Circuit, and Integration Circuit.
If you have a large number of gates and in particular channels, in the individual circuits, you may notice the following themes play out in your life:
- Capacity and responsibility to create change in the world
- Desire to bring transformation to the Tribe and Collective (without being rejected first)
- Drive for uniqueness – this inspires, empowers and/or awakens the potential in others
- Deep passion to be true to oneself
- Exploration of the creative and melancholic inner world
- Strong intuition
Human Design Individual Circuitry: Centering Circuit
One of the Individual Circuits is the Centering Circuit. It consists of the following two channels:
- Gates 34 – 10 Channel of Exploration
- Gates 51 – 25 Channel of Initiation
Human Design Individual Circuitry: Knowing Circuit
The second sub-circuit of the Individual Circuit is the Knowing Circuit. It consists of the following nine channels:
- Gates 3 – 60 Channel of Mutation
- Gates 14 -2 Channel of the Beat
- Gates 1 – 8 Channel of Inspiration
- Gates 61 – 24 Channel of Awareness
- Gates 43 – 23 Channel of Structuring
- Gates 38 – 28 Channel of Struggle
- Gates 57 – 20 Channel of The Brain Wave
- Gates 39 – 55 Channel of Emoting
- Gates 22 – 12 Channel of Openness
Human Design Individual Circuitry: Integration Circuit
The last sub-circuit of the Individual Circuit is the Integration Circuit or sometimes referred to as the Human Design Integration Channels. It consists of the following four channels:
- Gates 34 – 57 Channel of Power
- Gates 34 – 20 Channel of Charisma
- Gates 57 – 10 Channel of Perfected Form
- Gates 10 – 20 Channel of Awakening
Human Design Collective Circuitry and Channels
People with Collective Channels are here to drive the collective forward by sharing the learnings from experimentation and experience.
The Collective Circuit Group consists of two sub-circuits: Understanding (Logic) Circuit and Sensing (Abstract) Circuit.
If you have a large number of gates and in particular channels, in the collective circuitry, you may notice you are more interested in the following:
- Survival of humanity as a whole
- Creation of infrastructure (literal or metaphorical)
- Sharing opinions, dilemmas, solutions, expectations, fantasies, inventions
- Being more objective and impersonal
Human Design Collective Circuitry: Understanding (Logic) Circuit
One of the Collective Sub-Circuits is the Understanding (Logic) Circuit. It consists of the following channels:
- Gates 52 -9 Channel of Concentration
- Gates 5 -15 Channel of Rhythm
- Gates 7 -31 Channel of The Alpha
- Gates 58 – 18 Channel of Judgement
- Gates 48 -16 Channel of the Wavelength
- Gates 63 -4 Channel of Logic
- Gates 17 – 62 Channel of Acceptance
Human Design Collective Circuitry: Sensing (Abstract) Circuit
The second sub-circuit of the Collective Circuits is the Sensing (Abstract) Circuit. It consists of the following channels:
- Gates 53 – 42 Channel of Maturation
- Gates 29 – 46 Channel of Discovery
- Gates 13 – 33 Channel of The Prodigal
- Gates 41 – 30 Channel of Recognition
- Gates 36 – 35 Channel of Transitoriness
- Gates 64 – 47 Channel of Abstraction
- Gates 11 – 56 Channel of Curiousity
Human Design Tribal Circuitry and Channels
This Tribal circuit connects us to life and each other through the senses, bloodline and loyalty. The Tribal Circuit Group consists of two sub-circuits: Defense Circuit and Ego Circuit.
Key themes that play out in those who have a large number of gates and in particular channels in the Tribal Circuit Group are:
- Part of something bigger than oneself
- Allocation and management of resources and agreements
- Deep desire for Tribe to survive and thrive – on all levels
- Energy for reproduction, child-raising, caring, nurturing and love.
Human Design Tribal Circuitry: Defense Circuit
One of the Tribal Sub-Circuits is the Defense Circuit. It consists of the following channels:
- Gates 59 -6 Channel of Mating
- Gates 27 – 50 Channel of Preservation
Human Design Tribal Circuitry: Ego Circuit
The second Tribal Sub-Circuit is the Ego Circuit. It consists of the following five channels:
- Gates 54 -32 Channel of Transformation
- Gates 44 – 26 Channel of Surrender
- Gates 19 -49 Channel of Synthesis
- Gates 37 – 40 Channel of Community
- Gates 21 – 45 Channel of Money
How to read your Human Design Circuitry
When learning to read your human design chart and you are looking at the circuitry component, you will want to see how many channels you have in each circuit, and if one more is dominant. Some people will have a relatively even spread across two or three circuits, others will be really high in one and low in the others.
Personally, I have very high Individual and Collective Circuitry – particularly the gates associated with being self-absorbed. I know that being self-absorbed no longer needs to be a bad thing because I have seen evidence of how much my own self-reflection and self-work has had huge ripple effects on those around me.
Human Design really can offer us fresh perspectives and insights into what makes us, us and how our energy works. It can highlight areas that we have known or sensed but not quite been able to articulate.
Working with your gates and channels and understanding the overarching circuitry themes of your Human Design can be really eye-opening to just how different we are. And how we can so easily get caught up in our judgements and expectations of others, without fully understanding them.
Once you’ve explored your own circuitry, why not check out your loved ones too!
Meet The Author
Amy Doyle
Amy is a Holistic Counsellor who helps her clients move from this idea that they are broken or missing pieces of their own puzzle, to owning their story, claiming back all parts of themselves and merging together as one team to allow them to rest and be in their deepest expression.
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