Human Design Variables – a note from Dr Karen Parker
Dr Karen Parker doesn’t teach Human Design variables. Variables speak to motivation and drive, themes that are interwoven into the entirety of the chart. To truly understand your motivation and drive, you need to understand the interplay between all the parts of your chart, not just the variables.
It’s too easy to want to codify and label parts of the chart, such as the variables, without looking at the synthesis of all of the parts of the chart and the entire story that the chart reveals. When we grossly simplify this process by only looking at one element to tell us “everything” about important aspects of life – such as motivation and drive – we miss the main point of the chart.
Your chart does not reveal what you are, but HOW you are. In addition, every element in the chart represents a potential with a shadow side and a high side. We’re not a “this” or a “that”. We are living possibilities that are responsive to life in every single moment of our existence. It’s up to us to consciously choose how we’re going to respond and how to de-condition ourselves to increase our capacity to make great choices.
In addition, motivation and drive go beyond the chart. Sometimes the things that drive us are love, compassion, purpose, and mission and these core human drivers can push us to transcend the drivers in the chart. The chart is a tool that explains how we run, but it doesn’t always explain what we are driven to run toward.
Given that caveat, let me explain what those who teach Human Design variables say about them.
Human Design Variables – an Overview
Human Design Variables are advanced components that provide detailed insights into four key areas of our existence: the Mind, the Body, the Environment, and Perspective. Each Variable is divided into two main categories, forming a combination that believers claim uniquely characterizes how we function and interact with the world.
- Digestion: This Variable addresses how we best process information and nourishment. It reveals the optimal ways for us to absorb and digest both food and experiences, enhancing our physical and mental well-being.
- Environment: This Variable focuses on the ideal surroundings that support our growth and well-being. It highlights the type of environment where we thrive, whether it’s a bustling cityscape or a serene countryside.
- Awareness: This Variable delves into our level of consciousness and how we perceive reality. It determines our natural inclination towards either a strategic or receptive way of thinking and processing information.
- Perspective: This Variable defines our unique viewpoint and how we are best suited to observe and understand our experiences. It explains how we perceive the world and our place within it.
What Is A Variable In Human Design?
Nothing in Human Design is a prescription. From your Type to your profile to your incarnation cross – Human Design gives us tools to use as we go about our lives.
Variables are another tool for transformation. Variables point to our awareness and our life experiences.
Your variables guide you on how you are designed to absorb, process, and learn information which leads to how your perspectives are shaped. Variables can be extremely helpful in understanding your not-self (To learn more about the Not-Self, Click here.) and how to best decondition from societal expectations.
Your variables guide you to the true nature of your awareness. They show where you are decisive, attentive, and vibrant by nature, and where open, peripheral, and tolerant. Essential aspects of your variable include the best environments and nutritional guidelines for your unique design.
The Four Variables In Human Design
“Variable addresses what Strategy and Authority cannot: correctness in the realms of mind and awareness. It guides us in aligning the mind to its natural intelligence, rather than attempting to align it with the Not-Self. This alignment makes possible a deeper harmony with our Design, greater peace of mind, and, ultimately, connects us to our potential and our journey of transformation.” Ra Uru Hu
Humans are divided into five aura frequencies, and each frequency has a distinct outlook on life. This is your Quantum Human Design type. Determining your type gives us the ability to live with less resistance and serves as the foundation for our Inner Authority. The four variables classify each of us into one of the 16 Variable families, highlighting the characteristics of our awareness patterns and the development of our consciousness.
Variable highlights the four places where each human has the ability to transform and change. Variable identifies the best manner for you to function as well as the best approach for you to absorb information and feel awareness.
Variables can be discovered deep in your genetic code. When you live with your design, you have the potential to be able to express your Type’s signature, (peace, satisfaction, success, surprise) and live out the possibility of your entire individuality when you are living in alignment with what is right for you.
In Human Design, each arrow represents a specific area of your life path and the direction of each arrow determines, or rather shows, the nature of your personal energy. Energy is complicated and can not truly be summarized in binaries such as: good/bad, or masculine/feminine. For the purpose of discovering how your variables can be beneficial, we will break down energies into left-arrow energies and right-arrow energies.
Left arrow energies:
- Active
- Logical
- Analytical
- Competitive
- Neutral/Objective
- Goal Oriented
- Critical
- Compelling
Right arrow energies:
- Passive
- Open
- Intuitive
- Team Oriented
- Subjective
- Patient
- Moral/Ethic
- Just
Most people will have a combination of left and right-facing arrows in their design, but there are some who will have all left or all right-facing. If you have all arrows facing one direction your variables are known as quad-left or quad-rights.
How Can I Find Out My Human Design Variables?
You can find your variables on your BodyGraph near the Ajna and Head Centers. These arrows will be colored in either red or black, based on your profile lines in your chart.
Visit Human Design Chart for your FREE BodyGraph
How Are The Variables Determined In Human Design?
Your Variable is calculated from the locations of your Sun and Earth, as well as, the North and South Nodes of the Moon when you are born.
Variables originate in another layer of the BodyGraph that is underneath the hexagram lines. This other layer contains three values that are called, Color, Tone, and Base. “Tone is the inner frequency of the neutrino’s movement through your Personality and Design crystals, and this inner architecture of what we call the crystals of consciousness is what determines your Variable.” Tone contains aspects of your mental and physical design.
Why Do Human Design Variables Show Up As Arrows?
You may be familiar with the concept of left-brain, or right-brain thinking. The left brain is logical and structured, while the right brain is emotional and creative. This idea of how the brain works is highly attached to social conditioning and carries the weight of positive or negative connotations to the descriptions. Logical is cold, and emotional means that you are immune to logic. Left is often associated with masculine energies and right is associated with feminine energies.
Left-facing Arrows
Think of left-facing arrows as pointing to the traditional view of left-brain thinking, or masculine energies. Structured, logical, or precise.
Right-facing Arrows
The right-facing arrows are the traditional view of the right brain or feminine energies: emotional, open, or fluid.
Human Design Variable #1: Digestion
Human Design Variable number one is for digestion and this is the top left arrow of your chart. Digestion refers to how we take in information and how we set routines.
Left-facing Digestion Variable Arrow
You benefit from having structure and consistency in your everyday routines. When you have a regular schedule and know what to expect ahead of time, you flourish and feel more empowered to face the day.
You’re also someone who probably has no problem eating the same thing repeatedly. Lean into developing routines and timetables for yourself; this is beneficial for you. You can also take in and assimilate a great deal of information.
Right-facing Digestion Variable Arrow
You don’t need to follow a set, predictable pattern or timetable. You can mix things up every day and make room for greater flexibility in your schedule so that you can approach things with a more flexible mindset.
You enjoy experimenting with your food, so feel free to try a variety of things. Take your time when learning and taking things in so that you may properly absorb them. You absorb knowledge in a broader, more generalized manner.
Human Design Variable #2: Environment
The second Human Design Variable is for environment and is the arrow on the bottom left. This variable represents physical spaces and the consistency in which we use routine.
Left-facing Environment Variable Arrow
You perform best in a predictable setting. You probably enjoy going to the same places each day to sleep, eat, and work. When you visit a new place, you need some time to get comfortable with your surroundings and truly get to know them before going on to something else.
Enjoy the consistency of going to the same places and sticking to what works because this is probably how you will feel the most comfortable.
Right-facing Environment Variable Arrow
You like having options for where you spend your time and variation. It’s beneficial for you to travel and spend time in various settings, changing where you work and how you conduct yourself on a daily basis.
While maintaining discipline in your daily plans and routines, try not to be overly strict about it. Allow yourself some freedom and movement, and explore various settings and activities to see what appeals to you.
Human Design Variable #3: Awareness
Variable number three is for awareness of how we learn and understand information. This arrow is on the top right.
Left-facing Awareness Variable Arrow
What works best for you is to pay attention to details, nuances, and getting granular with how you process information. You should fully immerse yourself in the information since this will help you remember it better and make it easier for you to recollect and explain it to others. You learn best by paying attention to what is right in front of you and keeping your head down.
Right-facing Awareness Variable Arrow
You normally view things in a “big-picture” way. You want to zoom out and take everything in at once, and you approach learning in a way that is more fluid and free-flowing, without needing to be overly rigid or detailed with how you process knowledge.
You have a talent for recognizing overarching patterns and connecting ideas in a way that no one else can. Give up on the more conventional educational approaches and study things in a way that allows you to interpret and make sense of them.
Human Design Variable #4: Perspective
On the bottom right is the fourth Human Design variable. The fourth variable represents perspective and how we set goals and approach manifesting our wants and needs.
Left-facing Perspective Variable Arrow
Your specialty is creating thorough plans and establishing clear goals. Release any guilt or criticism you may feel for being detailed and very clear about what you want in life.
You get your ideas through writing them down and outlining your aims and dreams, therefore don’t be shy about putting your intention into the Universe in this manner. You’ll probably benefit from incorporating strategy, using company planning, and defining precise goals.
Right-facing Perspective Variable Arrow
You don’t place as much emphasis on the specifics of your objectives or ambitions. It’s better for you to concentrate on the emotions associated with obtaining or receiving those goals.
In your career, how do you want to feel? Home? regular life? It’s okay just to have a rough notion of what you want; there’s no need to create a specific strategy or roadmap outlining how you’ll get there. Just having a general sense of what you want is sufficient.
How The Human Design Variables Affect Your Life
Because of your unique Human Design, you have the potential to be particularly differentiated from other people. Our intelligence presents itself in a very specific way in humans because of how we were created and when we are living in harmony with our design. This particular cognitive potential is referred to as cognition in human design.
The basis for the organization of our mind is tone. Cognition is your particular process of knowing through perceiving, experiencing, reasoning, and understanding. It is the outcome of your perceptions. Everything alive is built to interact with cognition – learning, remembering, and utilizing knowledge in order to maintain survival. This is the basic principle of how human evolution works.
The power of using your strategy and authority releases our individual cognitive potential. It takes a strong dedication to living your design as you go on your life path, and understanding your variables can help you determine the best way to approach choices and decisions.
Your variables are excellent tools for changing your awareness, and they can have a significant impact on your thought process. Additionally, they can provide you with helpful hints that can support the best possible operation of your brain and other bodily systems, which can then support the best possible operation of your mind.
Four Human Design Variables – 16 Different Combinations
There are 16 possible combinations of your variables:
- Active digestion, observed environment, strategic awareness, focused perspective.
- Active digestion, observer environment, strategic awareness, focused perspective.
- Passive digestion, observed environment, strategic awareness, focused perspective.
- Passive digestion, observer environment, strategic awareness, focused perspective.
- Active digestion, observed environment, strategic awareness, peripheral perspective.
- Active digestion, observer environment, strategic awareness, peripheral perspective.
- Passive digestion, observed environment, strategic awareness, peripheral perspective.
- Passive digestion, observer environment, strategic awareness, peripheral perspective.
- Active digestion, observed environment, receptive awareness, focused perspective.
- Active digestion, observer environment, receptive awareness, focused perspective.
- Passive digestion, observed environment, receptive awareness, focused perspective.
- Passive digestion, observer environment, receptive awareness, focused perspective.
- Active digestion, observed environment, receptive awareness, peripheral perspective.
- Active digestion, observer environment, receptive awareness, peripheral perspective.
- Passive digestion, observed environment, receptive awareness, peripheral perspective.
- Passive digestion, observer environment, receptive awareness, peripheral perspective.
How To Learn More
Being aware of your variables can be very beneficial to how you live your life. Variables are a much deeper dive into your Human Design and can feel challenging at times. Quantum Human Design coaches are here and ready to guide you through your variables, as well as other details in your chart.
Find a Quantum Human Design Coach here.
If you are ready to become a certified Quantum Human Design Coach please click here to view our certification programs.
We aim to enlighten, educate, and empower people to achieve their goals using Quantum Human Design.
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