Magnetic Monopole


Personality Crystal:
The Witness - Who you think you are.
Design Crystal:
The Vehicle - What you say, think, do.
Magnetic Monopole:
The Attractor - Your Uniqueness.


Male Rufous
Wing beat: 61 per second.
Longevity: 5 years 11 months.
Migration distance: 2041 miles.

The Magnetic Monopole Holds the two sides together

In Human Design one of the things we work with is a variety of elements such as personality, design, authority, defined centers and channels. What brings everything together is the magnetic monopole, which sits in the G Center. It is the larger context in which all of the elements combine to make a unique person.

To think that any human is reducible to simply the various system components apparent in a chart is to overlook what's really going on. Virtually all of the serious literature produced by people over the millennia makes reference to something else; spirit, soul, the divine, etc. There is a bottom line to be found in all of this. Put simply it is "You are not in charge".

There is a species of hummingbird that lives in Alaska. In late summer they begin a roughly 2000 mile journey that takes them down the Rocky Mountains into Mexico where they spend the winter. In the spring they fly up the California inland coast back to Alaska. Now, hummingbirds have a metabolism that requires them to eat every 2 to 3 minutes or they die. Think about that.

So this is not a flock of birds winging their way on a leisurely journey to the land of winter sun. In order for them to feed that often there must be a constant source of food along the way. Well, weather patterns can cause the flowers they need to bloom earlier or later from year to year along that 2000 mile path, yet these hummingbirds unfailingly time their departure in accordance with weather changes that have taken place a thousand miles away.

And they sure don't think about it or plan it. They don't teach it to their offspring. They're not in charge of that migration or what they might encounter along the way. They're plugged in to the world in such a way that they simply go where they must and use what they have to survive the journey. All they really do is utilize the strategies of their design.

As people we think we are in charge, the personality is convinced that it is, and we do, in fact, make countless decisions that would seem to prove it. But those decisions are small ones. Should I have lasagna or a steak for dinner? In the larger context of our lives though, we can't simply decide to become famous and rely on it happening. Marry and have perfect children? Of course you can't guaranty any of that.

In terms of our life journey we don't know where we are going because we are not the driver. The monopole is the driver because only the monopole holds it all together. Our personality thinks it does, but it is simply along for the ride. Our design, our body, is simply the vehicle. The monopole is the driver. The monopole says "It's time to go here" and off we go, much like the hummingbirds.

Like the hummingbird we, in a sense, migrate. We move from our past to our future pulled by our monopole which is setting the direction based on its sense of climate, of environment. It takes us wherever it decides that it needs to go when it decides it's time.

We don't get to pick where we are going any more than the hummingbird gets to pick its winter destination. Within each of us the monopole, through some ancient and perfect connection with everything else, knows when and where we need to go. It holds us together as well as holding us to our geometry.


Cross of the Sphinx
Cross of Love

Of course we are much more complex than hummingbirds so we can easily complain, misunderstand, whine, rebel, etc. But make no mistake - it's to little avail.

What we can do is follow our own survival strategies. If your design is that of a hummingbird you've got to eat nectar - not some other kind of food. Maybe sometimes you get to pick whether or not you eat nectar from a red flower or a blue one or even a hummingbird feeder, the variations are subtle.

Our strategies and our authority, these are what enable us to undertake the migration successfully because they let the monopole do its job without us getting in the way. The gift of Human Design is every person can use it to see what strategies they are designed with. Are you a hummingbird? A deer? A beetle? Do you have sacral authority? Splenic? Emotional? If you follow your design you will find that when the monopole impels you toward your future that you can trust it.

While setting our direction (as specified in the Cross of the Sphinx in Gates 7, 1, 2, and 13) is the function of the monopole, the property of the monopole is love. Not the love of passion, but the love of being. This love is specified in in the Cross of the Vessel of Love in 25-Innocence, 46-Serendipity, 10-Behavior of the self and 15-Modesty.

When, by living our design, we trust the monopole to move us, we move in innocence with no personal agenda. We take care of the physical body, knowing that it’s where it’s supposed to be and is equal to the task. We behave as the self that we actually are. We love others because we know that essentially we are all of equal value in this world regardless of the extreme differences that we think we see.

There’s a bit of beauty and magic in this. If you go where you should you can’t help but love existence, and conversely if you love existence you can’t help but go where you should.