The Types - Aura and Strategy
We each have a unique way through which we meet life and interact with others. Aura is the energy field that animates the body, and determines the way we encounter life, and the other. In Human Design, our definition (what's colored in the bodygraph) determines our aura, and the mechanics of our operating system.
There are four primary auric types, and along with those types, four primary ways of meeting life, known as strategy. Strategy is a tool that provides us with awareness to enter life correctly as ourselves, decreasing resistance, and helping us each to welcome the life we are uniquely here to live through our specialized roles.
The four types are the Manifestor, the Generator (including both the pure Generator, and the Manifesting Generator), the Projector, and the Reflector. While Human Design is about differentiation, and every individual has their own decision-making authority, each of the four types have a general theme. Below is a general overview of each of the four types.
Experimenting with Strategy is the first step in living one’s design, as it opens the doorway to one’s built-in geometry, guided through the body and observed through the mind, rather than the other way around. It can be extraordinarily revealing to witness the behavior of the body and the mental process as two distinct mechanisms. When the mind takes its rightful place as a filter of consciousness (analyzing, processing, formulating, and imagining), rather than a mechanism of control and determination about what to do with the life, the intelligence of the body leads the way - through Strategy, and inner Authority.
Manifestor
Strategy: To Inform
Existential Question: What is my impact? (Who/what am I impacting?)
Signature: Peace
Not-Self Theme: Anger
The Manifestor aura is created when one of the energy centers (Ego, Solar Plexus, or Root) is connected to the throat, and the Sacral Center is undefined. The Manifestor aura is here to have an impact, and is designed not to be deeply influenced by the other. You can see this in the closed and repelling nature of their aura that has a tendency to push things out of the way. The only type that is here to initiate, Manifestors can be loners, peacefully going their own way.
Though they may not be aware of or understand that others may experience them as hard to know or penetrate, their path is one of following their own impulses, without getting “buy-in” from the crowd. Their energy initiates the other, and sets things in motion. While they may carry the burden of getting things started, or creating ripples in a social interaction, they can be powerful innovators in bringing things from the causal plane to the world of the generators, who then bring things into form.
It can be helpful to teach the manifestor child to ask permission (for the sake of their own safety and learning curve around the impact they bring), then as they mature, teach them to inform. Their strategy of informing the other isn't a form of control or telling people what to do, but rather a way to develop more trust in their relationships, so they experience less resistance in the impact they have as they initiate and do what they're going to do.
The Manifestor child can become shut down or angry at an early age with a parent who is uncomfortable with their self-initiating independence. The parent whose only strategy is to control the child can leave the manifestor child feeling as though they aren't free to live their life, or more existentially, to be who they are. In learning to track their impact, and inform, they can experience greater peace in their lives, free to go their own way.
Generator
Strategy: Wait to Respond
Existential Question: Who am I? (How do I use my energy?)
Signature: Satisfaction
Not-Self Theme: Frustration
Whenever you see the red square defined, you're looking at a Generator aura type (inclusive of both Pure Generators and Manifesting Generators). The generator has a robust and enveloping aura, carrying extraordinary life force energy to build and sustain through satisfying work.
The inherent functionality of the Sacral Center is to respond to life itself, through what it envelops. It communicates energetically (like a gut sensation, feeling energized and turned on, or turned off and unavailable), or through Sacral, gutteral sounds "uh huh, uh uh," in response. The Generator can learn to re-ignite this powerful motor by being asked yes or no questions and noting the response in their body or through their voice (“sacral sounds”), independent from what the mind thinks.
The Generator is often mis-directed from its inherent body intelligence at a young age, being told what to do, having imposed tasks and bedtimes, or when expected to be the work horse for something it's not built for, later becoming a slave to the demands of others, rather than tuning in about whether they actually have energy for what's being asked of them. The best way to respect a Generator is to ask them, and let them respond from their sacral sounds and energy.
Having internalized the demands of others, the adult Generator who acts prematurely, attempting to push things along or use their mind to determine the way ahead, can experience great frustration and exhaustion or burn out. When the Generator waits for life to come to it, paying attention to their natural response to what they encounter, they get to see what their energy is truly available for, living in a deeply regenerative, satisfying way.
Projector
Strategy: Wait for the Invitation
Existential Question: Who are they? (Who is the other?)
Signature: Success
Not-Self Theme: Bitterness
The Projector aura is derived from connections in the bodygraph that leave the sacral center white/undefined, and they do not have a motor connected to the throat center. Absorbing and penetrating, their aura is naturally probing, focusing on the other with lazer precision, and taking them in deeply based on their own capacity for recognition.
Here to guide the other, when they are probing without being recognized and formally invited, it can feel quite invasive to the other. This is why it is essential for the Projector to wait for the other to ask for their guidance. It is then, as a “midwife” of the energy world, that their true gifts shine, assisting primarily generators to tune into and optimize their own energy, in a highly specialized way.
Spending a life trying to keep up with the Generators, or initiate like the Manifestors, Projectors can feel quite invisible and exhausted. When they are not living as themselves, this invisibility leads to a cycle of absorbing the resistance of the other, in turn feeling bitter on top of warn out. As the Projector learns to master their craft and their frequency, waiting to be recognized and invited for who they are, rather than what they can "do," they have the opportunity to experience the sweetness of success they so long for.
The waiting for a Projector is waiting to see who really recognizes them. Their role is one of bringing awareness and guidance to the manifest world, when invited. This mutual recognition protects the wellbeing of the Projector, encouraging them only to accept those invitations which are truly correct for them, and with whom they can experience their signature of success.
Reflector
Strategy: Wait a full Lunar Cycle
Existential Question: Who is different?
Signature: Surprise
Not-Self Theme: Disappointment
The bodygraph of the Reflector is noted by the absence of definition, or color in the centers. This whiteness lets us know that the aura of the Reflector is very open, but it also has a kind of "teflon" quality to it. As things come through and slide off, the Reflector is sampling energies of its environment and the transit field. While the other types are Solar beings (more entrained with the Sun), the Reflector is attuned to the Moon, and as such becomes clear by waiting at least one full lunar cycle (29.5 days) before making any significant decisions. Taking this time allows them to experience things from different perspectives, as the moon moves through the wheel, activating all the gates of the bodygraph. This Lunar Cycle provides a patterned consistency in the Reflectors life, otherwise characterized by so much changeability.
The Reflector potential is to be a mirror to "the program” itself, as the ultimate cosmic weatherman/woman, reflecting the frequencies of what they are sampling. The signature of the reflector is delight and surprise, the when they encounter something that stands out amongst the backdrop of a homogenized world.
Place and community are extraordinarily significant for the reflector. If they are in the right place with the right people, they will have the life that is correct for them. Being a kind of canary in the coal mine, if they are experiencing ill health or disappointment, the Reflector can look to their associations as an indication to discern what's really going on.
Because they witness the multitude of injustices and distortions in the world through their openness, the reflector can often feel disappointed. The flip side is their unique potential to become objectively wise about the bigger picture.
When they can recognize themselves as a fluid reflection of the world around them, they may begin to see the gifts inherent in that changeability, and appreciate the rare, unique role they have to play. Through the Reflector's maturation process, they can become wise counsel to any community or organization they are a part of, often times simply by being in the room.
To learn more, read about the centers here, or contact me for a consultation.