Type Signature & The Life We Deserve
The mind will tend to take knowledge like Human Design and turn it into a literal set of rules to impose on ourselves in order to control or improve our lives. However, it was offered as knowledge to be interpreted through our lived experience, along with a healthy dose of common sense.
The potential is to realize the perfection of what we naturally are, not so that we can get something better or even what we imagine would be good. This is a non-moralistic potential to awaken to receiving a life so unique we could not have dreamt it up, a life so surprising that we can be amazed at the way it unfolds. It may upend our notions of propriety and safety. And while we can surrender to the unknown, we can also respect the pace and timing in which it reveals itself to us.
Waiting in this context is not about becoming passive or overly restrictive in how we go about life. It can be an active development of an inner witness that watches what is happening and the body’s inner response to it, the inner authority. Waiting helps us to interrupt the compulsive behaviors and attitudes we have adopted to cope with a world that seeks to homogenize us.
The strategies and concepts offered by this system point to an awareness of frequency, resonance and the life force energy that animates us. They are not static, perfect laws to live by. Invitation is a frequency. Response is an experience arising from the body. We can each discover what these words mean to us personally in a way that verifies whether or not they hold true.
The best Human Design teachers advise us not to believe in it, just try it. We don’t need to understand it all before we try it. We can play with it. Some have called it a revealed knowledge rather than a created system. And in turn, it can reveal itself to us if we are open to exploring it.
When we talk about navigating decision making, Strategy and Authority are the tools. These are the inner authority mechanisms that root us in the body’s natural awareness or response. If there is no inner authority (Reflectors and Mental Projectors), then there is a process through which you can experiment with developing awareness of what is correct.
Another very simple tool for self-study is to examine our own experience of the Signatures and Not-self themes that go with each Type. The keynotes for these are simple enough, but they become significant when we recognize them as experiential qualities and signposts of living according to our nature.
The Signature theme is experienced when the aura is able to function without resistance. The Strategy for each type was developed to support the free flow of life force energy through the body and energy field of the individual.
Generators: The signature theme is Satisfaction. This is the sense of energy well spent, of satisfying work. If you are a Generator, this experience probably carries a particular quality for you. It refers to work in general and specifically to work as energy expended in any way.
The Not-self theme is Frustration, which can feel like gears grinding, like fighting for energy to be used in a way that we are either internally resisting or that is met with resistance from the outside world. It can carry a sense of futility or trying to drive through a roadblock. It can feel irritating and exhausting.
Questions: Did I initiate without waiting for something or someone to cross my path? Did I start something motivated by my mind? Did I listen to my gut response? Did I wait to feel my energy move toward something and engage? Did I override my body’s own internal resistance?
Projectors: The Signature is Success, not as achievement but as a sense of being recognized and appreciated for what we naturally are. This can come through something as small as a fulfilling conversation or as big as being invited to serve a particular role or purpose in relationship. If the success is experienced in a job or career, it is often through work that doesn’t feel like work. It can feel like being recognized and compensated for something we offer freely and naturally.
The Not-self theme is Bitterness which, as it sounds, leaves a bad taste in our mouths. It is the sense of being unrecognized or overworked in a way that takes the sweetness out of an experience. What’s left is a sharp, often edgy feeling of something like resentment internally and the experience of feeling ignored, dismissed or resisted by the outside world.
Questions: Did I initiate without waiting to feel recognized or sensing that the energy was open to me specifically? Did I act out of a need to be recognized rather than waiting to be invited? Was I welcome in this situation or did I push my way in? Did I overwork or over-give in hopes of succeeding where I wasn’t welcome?
Manifestors: The signature is Peace, a sense of ease or contentment in being able to do what we want without interference. It comes with a sense that the impact we create can move freely.
The Not-self theme is Anger. It’s true to its name as the fiery feeling in reaction to having our forward movement interfered with or obstructed. It can feel like an inferno internally and like a blast through the external forces that seem to be trying to control or block our actions.
Questions: Did I take action without considering who might be affected? Did I inform others of what I was going to do before I did it? Did I fail to communicate my intentions or expectations?
Reflectors: The Signature is Surprise which is a sense of fulfillment in discovering what is unique and beautiful in the world around us. There is a brightness to it almost like joy.
The Not-self theme is Disappointment in people, in organizations, in the environment around us and the world in general. It can feel like the beauty, specialness and vitality of the world is being lost.
Questions: Did I initiate instead of waiting to be initiated or approached? Did I act out of impatience or fear of not being seen? Did I take action prematurely because I was feeling invisible? Did I wait long enough to find my clarity over time?
Each of these themes can act as an experiential indicator of whether we are aligned with the natural flow of energy through us or not. We can then back track to see if we followed our strategy and listened to our authority, as a way of refining our awareness.
Often resistance results either internally or externally when the mind is trying to control life, rather than letting it come to us and respecting ourselves enough to be selective in our interactions or forthright in our communications, in the case of Manifestors. When we are really following strategy and authority, we can expect our minds to be at least occasionally surprised or unnerved by what the body shows us.
The experiment may not bring us the life we think we want or that others think would be good for us. It often takes patience and courage to test for ourselves and to resist what has been conditioned in us as normal. It may not be easy or a quick fix for what challenges us and causes suffering. But it has the potential of waking us up to life as it is, as we were designed to have it. We can discover, as some have called it, the life we deserve.
