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One of the more layered aspects of the Human Design chart are CHANNELS and GATES. Most people just research the quick description for the gate or channel and stop there, but THEY ARE MISSING SO MUCH GOOD INFO! I'm all about empowering you to get the deepest, truest info from your chart as possible, so to do so may I humbly present: The Weird Sandwich Metaphor.

All of the different influences and energies that impact your channels and gates are kind of like making a super-complicated, kind-of-weird, multi-ingredient sandwich. Each ingredient of the Weird Sandwich™ represents a part of the channel/gate we have to take into account when unpacking it.

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THE BREAD = THE GATES

If you are unpacking the meaning of a channel, you need to take the meanings of BOTH gates the channel contains into account. Each gate lives in a different center and carries a different gift or lesson, so it's like making a sandwich using two different types of bread. Unconventional, but think about what that would feel like in your mouth: in this example, you'd be getting both the flavor of the sourdough and the rye, as in a channel you get the energies and influences of both gates.

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THE CONDIMENTS = UNCONSCIOUS DESIGN or CONSCIOUS PERSONALITY

Next, we need to take into account where each gate lives: on the body graph, is it listed in the black column or in the red column, or in both? Gates in our black conscious personality are probably really easy to identify with. Gates in our red unconscious design might take a bit more reflection and introspection to really pinpoint how they play out in our lives. Often times, these influences are so innate to who we are that other people might see how they impact us more than we can!

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THE MEAT (PROTEIN OF YOUR CHOICE) = PLANETARY INFLUENCES

One or more planets live in each gate. Here's where astrology and Human Design intertwine: the gift or lesson of the gate usually plays out in the part of our lives governed by that planet...and we're either super consciously aware of it (if it's in the black conscious personality column of our body graph) or totally unaware until it's pointed out to us (if it lives in the red unconscious design column of our body graph).

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THE TOPPINGS = THE LINES OF THE HEXAGRAM

Finally, each gate and its corresponding planet both chill out on one of the 6 lines of the hexagram, which brings a certain energy to how that gift or lesson plays out in that particular (planetarily influenced) part of our lives.

Now, put both halves of the sandwich together and take a bite. Voilà! All of those different aspects give us clues as to how that particular lesson or gift from the channel will play out in our lives.

The process also works for hanging gates...just make half of the metaphorical sandwich. Same stacking process, but less ingredients.

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Let's put the Weird Sandwich Metaphor into practice, and we can use a channel I see frequently in my readings (which is also in my chart): 28-38 The Channel of Struggle.

THE BREAD = THE GATES

In Ra Uru Hu & Lynda Bunnell's book The Definitive Book of Human Design, a (dense) explanation of each and every channel is given. As a brief summary, these gates together form a channel that connects the Root Center to the Spleen and provides me with the energy I need to fight for my life to have meaning and purpose. I'm designed to have an impact and for my life to have meaning, and this channel fuels my search for purpose and service.

The bread here is a slice of Gate 28 and a slice of Gate 38. Here are their separate flavors:

Gate 28: The Gate of the Game Player (Fear of Death/Purpose): Lives in the Spleen Center and fuels our awareness of whether or not to struggle for purpose/meaning. Gate 28 is also a fear gate, and fear gates teach us recurring lessons over the course of our lives. The fear here is around taking risks and can surface as either a fear of taking risks OR a fear that life has no purpose unless you take risks.

Gate 38: The Gate of the Fighter: Lives in the Root Center and puts pressure on us to find the meaning in and our purpose in life.

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THE CONDIMENTS = UNCONSCIOUS DESIGN or CONSCIOUS PERSONALITY

One gate lives in my conscious personality, and one gate lives in my unconscious design, so I'd have two different condiments, one on each slide of bread.

My Gate 28 lives in my conscious personality, which means I'm probably super aware of how this fear energy plays itself out in my day to day life. And I am! For me, quitting my corporate job to start this blog and take on clients was a HUGE risk. As I've shared, I had zero idea when I turned in my resignation what interior creature would turn into. What I did know, however, was that I had lost my sense of purpose and I needed to take steps pretty drastic steps to find it again.

My Gate 38 lives in my unconscious design, which means it's such an innate, unconscious part of who I am that I a) might not have realized that it was integral to who I was until it was pointed out to me or b) just assumed everyone felt that way. The latter is true for me. I just assumed (wrongly) that everyone was fueled by this inner push to find meaning in the madness of life...and the more I seek with this awareness now on my radar, the more I realize how incredibly different and unique each person's individual driving force is.

THE MEAT (PROTEIN OF YOUR CHOICE) = PLANETARY INFLUENCES

I have three planets in this channel, so three different slices of meat, two on one slice of bread and one on another.

My Gate 28 lives in my conscious Saturn. We're going to go deeper into each planet soon, but Saturn is all about discipline, judgment, and restraint. The lesson I'm learning about taking risks in an effort to find my purpose is all about relying on my strategy & authority to help me discern which risks are the *right* risks for me to take, being disciplined and not trying to live out anyone else's purpose but my own.

My Gate 38 lives in two planets: my unconscious Moon and my unconscious Mercury. The Moon brings the energy of what drives us in life. I've never been comfortable just "collecting a paycheck" and I've always looked for jobs where there was an aspect of service or some way I was contributing to the greater good. Anything else just didn't feel in alignment. My unconscious Mercury also lives here, which is all about communication...so it makes total sense, upon reflection, that my journey toward finding my purpose lead me here: to create a space where I teach and write and talk about Human Design, a system which allows people to live their most authentic life :)

I'm also a Pisces, so spending my days talking about feelings, emotions, energy and all things woo seems super on brand heehee

THE TOPPINGS = THE LINES OF THE HEXAGRAM

I have three different lines impacting each gate and its corresponding planet, so each piece of meat gets paired with a different type of topping.

My Gate 28 and my conscious Saturn live on line 2 of the hexagram, the Hermit. As I'm trying to determine my purpose, I'm going to feel this push and pull between wanting to be alone in my Hermit cave, nerding out about all the things I'm passionate about and give my life meaning. BUT Hermits can't stay in their caves forever, and actually need to come out and interact with others so that they can determine what their talents and gifts are, and how to use them to benefit the community. How this played out for me: when I first started reading charts, it took a former colleague/close friend to tell me that I had a real talent for it and needed to share it with other people for me to take my practice public. Without her calling it out as a gift, I don't know if I would have had the courage to take the risk that lead me to where I am today.

My Gate 38 and my unconscious Moon live on line 5 of the hexagram, the Hereitc. The Heretic is the "stranger of consequence" and is often looked to to solve the problems of others. Sometimes, this is absolutely what the Heretic is here to do, and other times...not so much. My search for purpose involves being of service to others, and my lesson through this channel is to make sure I'm using my strategy and authority before jumping in to solve each and every problem...as not all problems are mine to solve. This comes up in my readings ALL THE TIME. Many times, people come to me on the precipice of making a big change, and want my take. I have to be very clear that I can only tell them what their chart says, and that our charts aren't psychic blueprints, and whereas I can weigh in with my opinion or what my intuition says about the guidance their chart provides, I can't make that call for them.

Gate 38 and my unconscious Mercury live on line 1 of the hexagram, the Investigator. Investigator energy needs to get to the bottom of things via a shit ton of research. There's a reason why I feel super uncomfortable with the terms "channeled" and "intuitive" as they apply to Human Design readings, in general, and w/r/t mine specifically. All of my readings are THOROUGHLY researched and have their foundation in what the experts in the area have to say, starting with the man who channeled the system in the first place. How all the parts of the chart come together is the intuitive part, but that can't happen without grounding myself in the research FIRST. As I live my purpose and search for meaning, my inner research nerd is going to get super indulged :)