Personality vs Design in Human Design: Understanding the Two Sides of You
Before we go any further, if you don’t know your Human Design, all you need is your date, place and exact time of birth and you can generate your chart for free HERE. I suggest saving your chart somewhere handy so that you can refer back to it as you read through this article.
You’ll notice when you look at your Human Design chart, that there are two columns with planets and gates: one on the right hand side and one on the left.
I know my first inclination when I was starting to explore my Human Design was to pay more attention to the personality side. But what I’ve learned as I’ve deepened my studies in Human Design and gone onto become a reader, is that both sides are equally important. And you are both. Your chart is not split into two. Your Personality and Design come together to create your full expression and influence how you operate, relate, act and respond.
And understanding the difference between them and the different ways they influence you can help bring clarity, self-compassion and insight into how you navigate life.
So with that being said, let’s explore these two sides of your chart in a little more detail.
The Right Side: Your Personality
The right-hand side of your chart reflects your Personality and this is calculated from the exact moment of birth. Your Personality reflects the energies you are consciously aware of:
How you see yourself
The traits you recognise
Strengths and tendencies you can describe
The parts of you that feel familiar, chosen, intentional
The challenges you can easily identify with
This side of your chart is linked to your mind, your conscious sense of self and ego. It’s the “you” who you know you are.
The Left Side: Your Design
The left-hand side of your chart reflects your Design and this is based on the planetary positions approximately 88 days/3 months before your birth. This layer reflects unconscious patterns:
How your body moves through the world
Traits you don’t fully notice in yourself but others see clearly
Automatic behaviours and instincts
Gifts you don’t always realise you have
Patterns that operate beneath the surface
This side represents your body, intuition and subconscious. The “you” that sits below your conscious awareness.
Practical Reflection
As an exercise to start noticing the difference between your Personality and Design I encourage you to look at your chart and reflect on the following:
Look at one Planet and Gate on your Personality side and consider: How does this show up consciously in my life?
Look at the corresponding Planet and Gate on your Design side and consider: How does this show up unconsciously or how do others experience this in me?
For example, my Personality Mercury is in Gate 15 which is known the Gate of Extremes. Gate 15 brings an energy of acceptance for diversity, swinging between extremes, ebbing and flowing and an appreciation of rhythm and flow rather than sameness and consistency. This is something that rings true for me, I don’t do things by halves, I’m all in or all out, go big or go home, I’m one or the other. I tend to swing between cycles of doing and resting or doing something intensely and then moving on. If we bring in the lens of communication as this relates to Mercury, I find that the way I communicate also varies significantly. It ebbs and flows, sometimes it’s on and sometimes it’s not and I also have very varied ways I communicate depending on who I’m with and my audience.
My Design Mercury is Gate 22 which is known as the Gate of Grace. This Gate brings an energy of natural charm, grace, magnetism that creates ease and harmony within a social setting. It also brings an eye for aesthetics, beauty and art and also a deep emotional sensitivity and intuition for the emotional states of others. When I first came across this gate, and to be honest even still now, I don’t resonate with the idea of me being easeful, graceful or charming in social settings, if anything I’d probably describe myself as a little socially awkward. This is an example of how my conscious interpretation of how I’m acting may be perceived differently by those around with me. But I do resonate with being able to pick up on subtle social cues and emotional undercurrents and if we consider this through the lens of Mercury and communication, I can see that this emotional sensitivity almost instinctively and unconsciously informs how I communicate and what I say.
Bringing Them Together
As I said in the beginning, it can be tempting when you are first exploring Human Design to pay more attention to the conscious side, perhaps thinking that because it is conscious or more obvious, it must be more important.
But the truth is both your unconscious Design and conscious Personality are equally influential and your Design shouldn’t be overlooked just because it may not show up as loudly.
What I love about Human Design is that it shows us the wisdom and importance of tuning into our unconscious self, our body’s intelligence, intuition and wisdom…something that tends not to be valued in our society which places more importance on our mind, logic and intellectualisation.
And so the real wisdom comes from understanding, honouring and living in alignment with both sides of ourselves. Because when you recognise both layers you discover:
Why some of your traits feel more natural while others surprise you
Why people might respond to you differently than you expect
Where you might be over-looking a strength or gift that is waiting to be expressed
Where to bring more attention to the parts of you that have been hidden
As always, please remember there are many moving parts to Human Design and nothing works in isolation or should be interpreted in isolation.
And of course if you’re looking for a more personalised approach, you can book your reading HERE and let’s dive deep together.
With love,
Alice x