Finding The Human Design Gate of Your Ascendant
You guys know I’m a big nut for all of the esoteric systems that help us understand ourselves better.
I love exploring, astrology, numerology and human design, and have dabbled in many more.
What I also love to do, is explore the ways in which they do and don’t intersect.
I was taking a look at my human design map and was thinking how all of the planetary positions in my map are ? with my astrology chart. For example, my Conscious Sun being in gate 1 (the gate of creative self-expression) is a Scorpio gate, Which makes sense, because in astrology my sun is in Scorpio.
I realised that all of the gates have astrological signs attached to them and the astrological chart and the conscious side of the human design map are directly replicable of each other.
This is not revelatory information, as human design is known to be based off a combination of esoteric systems, including astrology.
However, what I realised is that if all of my astrological placements correspond with a specific gate in human design, which can then be revealed in my chart - perhaps I can do the same for astrological points of the chart that aren’t planetary.
Namely, the ascendant.
The ascendant, or rising sign, is one of the most important factors in your astrological chart, though it’s not a planetary placement.
I’d say it’s actually the most important, even more than your sun, because it dictates how the rest of your astrological chart will look like. I dictates which houses each of your planetary placements fall into, who your chart ruler is, key points related to career, relationships and home, how astrological transits will affect you and more.
There are many schools of thought on what the ascendant sign means. In traditional astrology it’s seen as your identity, outward appearance and the initial impression you give to people. In evolutionary astrology, it’s seen as the type of journey your soul has signed up for in this lifetime, to evolve as a soul.
Human design doesn’t give any importance to the ascendant. It’s focus is purely on the planetary and nodal positions of the moment of your birth (the conscious side) and 88 days before (the unconscious side).
But why not play with it?
“I wonder what human design gate my ascendant is?”, I thought. “Perhaps looking at the human design gate of my ascendant could give me more to reflect on, in terms of the journey my soul is on and the energy I give off.”
Seeing as my Mercury is tightly conjunct my ascendant in my astrological chart, it was very easy to figure out. I just looked at the Mercury gate in my chart, to find my ascendant.
My ascendant is gate 44 = the gate of alertness. It’s about the ability to understand and break past patterns, so that I don’t have to keep repeating them.
Which means that the journey I’m on as a soul, is to become aware of my patterns, inherited and brought in from past lives, so that I can break them and create something new for myself and for the family line I was born into. And that’s also the energy I give off to other people - that I’m here to understand myself and break my patterns.
But then I wondered how someone could find the human design gate of your ascendant, since the ascendant is not included. And if we’re finding the human design gate for the ascendant, why not also for the descendant (relationships), midheaven (career) and IC (home)?
So, here are the steps…
1 - Clink on this link to create your free astrological chart, if you don’t already have one. You need your birth date, time and place.
2 - Go to your astrological chart and find your ascendant. It will be placed as AS or ASC on the chart.
e.g Mine is Scorpio.
3 - Make note not only of the zodiac sign, but also the degree. You’ll see the degree as tiny numbers, written like X° or X° X’. Some softwares show the degree on the chart itself. With others, including the one I’ve attached, you can scroll down to the list and it will be written for you.
*This is hugely important, because every zodiac sign has about 6 human design gates associated with it, so you want to find the correct one.
e.g. Mine is in Scorpio at 9 degree 17 minutes. Written as 9° 17'.
3 - Click on this link to find the human design gate of your ascendant sign. Every gate is organised first into which zodiac sign it corresponds to, and then you can search for the right gate using your degree.
*This image comes from a Reddit poster who generously shared with a human design thread this helpful table. For whatever reason I can’t find who created it. I’ll come back to give credit if I ever find who created it.
4 - Google your ascendant’s human design gate to read and reflect!
Once you know the human design gate for your ascendant, you’re unstoppable. Go on a research binge and have fun with the new insights!
You can do this also for your descendant (relationships), midheaven (career + public image) and IC (home).
And if you want to further contemplate the energies of those placements, you can also use the sabian symbols of those placements.
Sabian symbols aren’t from human design and are strictly from astrology, but they can offer the same kind of insight into what a specific theme might mean for you and also require knowing the specific degree of your placement to get the right result. I did this once for my relocated midheaven, the energy my career and public image, based on where I now live, and I laughed at how accurate it was for my public work in the world on this location.
What’s the human design gate of YOUR ascendant? How does it resonate with you? Let me know in the comments below!
My debut novel “The Source of The Wind” is out! An uplifting, women’s fiction, that talks about difficult topics with a spiritual and magical twist 😉. Click “Books” if you want to find out more and choose where you’d prefer to purchase a copy. (Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Waterstones & more.) Or, if you want, you can support me by buying me a matcha! <3
Speak soon,
Love, Ella x