Explore Human Design Authority

What is authority in human design?

Human design authority is your decision-making style or how best you are designed to make decisions. In the human design world, you will often hear, “follow your strategy and authority.” Strategy is how you are designed to interact with the world and authority is your decision-making process. The reason you hear “follow your strategy and authority” is this is the foundation of keeping your life in alignment with your human design blueprint. When you follow your strategy, which is tied to your type – manifestor, projector, generator, manifesting generator, reflector and you make decisions in alignment with your human design authority you will be met with much less resistance in life or dare I even say flow and joy.

For me I define human design as: 

Authority – The process with which you gain clarity and come to a decision. Your decision-making process.

There are 7 different types of authority in human design:

1. Emotional Authority – 58% of the population

2. Sacral Authority – 29% of the population

3. Splenic Authority – 8% of the population

4. Self Authority – 1.7% of the population

5. Ego Authority – 1.3% of the population

6. Environmental Authority – 1.6% of the population

7. Lunar Authority – .70% of the population

What is My Human Design Authority? 

In order to determine what your human design authority is you will need to get your human design chart, which you can do here. In order to get an accurate chart you will need your birth time. If you aren’t sure of your birth time you can pull a chart a few times throughout the day you were born to see how much it changes and work with a human design professional to discern which time may be most accurate. Once you have your chart, there will be a section on the chart that says authority or inner authority. As you can see in the image to the right.

Once you have your human design authority you will then be able to begin to make decisions in alignment with your strategy and authority.

The challenge with your authority, in general, is that so many of us are conditioned to rely on the head (and others) to make decisions for us. The goal for the head center within the bodygraph (and I will share more about the head center later) is to use that thinking in service of others.

For yourself, the goal is to rely on our own strategy and authority for the decisions we make. The challenge is the head is loud and convincing. It is the not-self spokesperson for all of the centers within the human design chart. The head center can be conditioned in all of us regardless of definition and on top of all of that, the head is a pressure center. The pressure to know.

We are conditioned from a very early age to seek the approval of others often betraying our own inner knowing. A big part of living your design and tuning up the definition in your life is learning to calm the head for yourself and lean into strategy and authority.

For me, I like thinking of your human design blueprint as a lighthouse. The strategy and authority are the beam of the light coming out of the lighthouse calling you back home again and again. It is beckoning you, encouraging you, quietly redirecting you. If you follow your strategy and authority you will always find your way home again. It is in following your strategy and authority that you will always be able to find your way back to yourself again no matter how far out to sea you go. The more you connect with our strategy and authority the easier it becomes to access it.

Let me give you an example, as a projector my strategy is wait for the invitation and my authority is emotional. For me, flow and ease looks like waiting for the invitation while I ride my emotional wave and get to an emotional neutral before making.

In my opinion, many of the human design resources out there don’t go deep enough to provide support with authority. To me honoring your authority is one of the key aspects of living a life in high definition. Authority is one of the pieces of human design that gives you a framework for your intuition. When you fail to make decisions in a way that is aligned best for you, you will most certainly be met with major resistance along the way.

For some of you, your strategy and authority may be the same. Take for example a generator that has sacral authority. This generator makes the decision in the here and now and trusts that is the right decision for them. Now a generator with an emotional authority cannot necessarily do that especially when it comes to a big decision in life. I will dive into more of the nuance of this later but this is something to be mindful of.

The authority in your chart is tied to the definition of the centers (with the exception of the lunar authority since only the reflector with no open centers can have this authority). In the chart below you will see the hierarchy of authority. For example, if someone has a defined solar plexus and a defined spleen, the emotional authority of the solar plexus will always trump the spleen.

The Centers Within The BodyGraph

I am including this here since this section references lots of the centers inside of the body graph. A few things to note, the G-Center is also known as the identity center and the Ego Center is also known as the heart center. I will use these names interchangeably.

On Overview of Authority

The 7 Types of Authority in Human Design

Emotional Authority Explained

You are here to ride the up and downs of your emotions and then make a decision on what is right for you. Making decisions on your highs or your lows will lead you down the wrong path. You gain clarity over time.

You will NEVER get to 100% certainty on a decision. If you are at 70 or 80% of the decision then you can trust it is the right decision for you. Learning to let others know that you need to sleep on it for a few days is a great way for you to honor your decision-making process. The amount of time varies from person to person.

In business and relationships that is simply saying, “thank you for x. I will need a few days to decide. Would you be willing to check back in with me?” Your clarity comes over time as you ride the highs and lows of your emotional wave and arrive at a neutral.

Sacral Authority Explained

You can trust the instant response of your gut or inner knowing. The sacral is designed to provide clarity in the moment. The response comes in the form of (typically) ah-huh (yes) or uhn-un (no) and can be felt by the inner pull or push of the body. Almost like a lighting up from within.

When a hesitation or a hmmm occurs, this is a moment to pause before committing. More often than not asking again in a different way or asking later, clarity will come. Having this authority means your knowing comes in the now.

With sacral authority, you can trust your inner pull to create boundaries, and know what is correct for you, what you have energy for, and whose energy is correct for you. Trusting your sacral response will lessen resistance in your life and maximize your joy in life.

Splenic Authority Explained

You have the gift of a quiet inner knowing like a whisper in your ear. Splenic authority is a high evolved survival intelligence that alerts us to which people, places and paths are correct. You will “know” instinctively when something is correct (or incorrect) for you. This is the gift of divine timing.

When you have splenic authority it is imperative to be grounded, present, and tuned in to what your body is telling you. The splenic authority whispers and does not repeat itself.

When you have splenic authority this center is constantly and spontaneously communicating with you through your senses. It is here to decide in the present moment. It is designed to keep you safe, moment to moment, day in and day out.

Ego Authority Explained

You are designed to have an impact here and you must trust your voice. With this type of authority, it is especially important to bypass what the mind thinks you should say and trust the blurting out or what you are saying in the moment to guide you.

What you do say in the moment without thinking about what’s correct for you to move forward with. An example would be a small child, exclaiming that they want to go to the playground. He or she didn’t let the mind convince them of what they should say, they didn’t overthink, they blurted. Their ego authority took over and is guiding them to what they want.

Surrendering to the truth of your voice is key assuming you have the energy to take action. As an ego authority, you will experience periods of rest and periods of work. Lean into your authority to determine if you need some downtime before leaping forward again.

Self-Projected Authority

You can rely on what you say because you have a powerful voice of identity. Listening to what you say is key for you to accept the right invitations. Get out of your mind and let go of “trying to figure out what to say” Simply respond. Let go of overthinking or thinking at all. You can trust your own voice in that moment.

Connect with and ask yourself “will this make me happy?” or “will this allow me to express my creativity?” or “am I heading in the right direction?”

Discussing your decisions with others is helpful because you can listen to the level of enthusiasm that this decision might bring. Let go of decision-making of the mind and embrace listening to what you are saying without thinking or relying on the mind.

Environmental Authority Explained

You are here to receive sensory information from your environment by way of your open centers. Environmental Authority occurs only in mental projectors which have no defined centers below the throat.

With this authority, your surroundings impact you greatly. You must first always ask yourself, “Is this the right place/environment for me?” This could mean the physical space or the culture of a place. The tendency here would be for your mind to chime in and take over the decision-making process, instead, allow your body to lead. You will notice within your body what feels right for you.

You can have a series of trusted advisors but do not ask for their advice instead use them as a sounding board so you can hear your own feelings about the decision at hand.

Lunar Authority

You are here to connect with the lunar cycle and wait 28 days before making important decisions. You contemplate and discuss with trusted advisors (your inner circle) before deciding. It is in talking to others that you will finally hear yourself and one day arrive at a deep sense of inner knowing on what is correct for you.

Clarity comes with the reliable and repeatable pattern of the moon. Slow down and do not let the outside world rush you in your process.

You are a mirror of your environment. Finding your people and place in the world is key. This will bring you delight, ease, and joy in the journey of life and your waiting 28-day process. Reflectors are the only type that will have Lunar Authority.

Human Design Authority Distilled

When it comes to living in alignment with your authority in human design it takes time to fully integrate and build trust with your authority. While it is always present we often have not been living in alignment with our authority. Therefore we have taken on conditioning and we need to reestablish a connection with it. I always encourage clients who have just learned their authority to have fun with it and experiment with small decisions first. I recommend looking back at times in your life when you have made decisions that have worked out well or haven’t and break down step by step the decision-making process you went through. This can anchor you in trusting your authority. Lean into authority as it helps you avoid turbulence and resistance in your life. Over the coming weeks, I will create more in-depth posts on each of the 7 authorizes so that you can dig deeper. In the meantime, you can download my Human Design Made Simple Book or if you are ready to dig deeper consider joining HD Your Biz or HD In the Wild.

Got questions about your authority? Feel free to put them in the comments. 

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