Strategy and Authority in Human Design: How the System Tells You to Decide, and How Far to Take It

What is Human Design, and where do Strategy and Authority sit within the system?

According to the Jovian Archive, the official site of Human Design, this is a system that describes itself as a "holistic self-knowledge system," published in 1992 by Alan Robert Krakower under the pen name Ra Uru Hu, after an experience he described as mystical in 1987. The system is generally classified as pseudoscience, and is noted for blending astrology, the I Ching, Jewish Kabbalah, Vedic philosophy and modern physics. The theologian J. R. Hustwit calls it a "trans-religious project" of astonishing scale, synthesised from seven or more traditions.

Within the structure of the system, the two concepts of Strategy and Authority are the parts most used in daily practice. They do not stand alone but are tightly bound to type (energy type) and to the energy centres in the bodygraph. Put briefly: type determines which Strategy you have, while the configuration of the centres determines which Authority you have.

This article follows Human Design's own conventions of presentation when describing its internal concepts, while making clear where something is a convention of the system and where something can be independently verified.

What exactly is Strategy in Human Design?

Strategy is a pattern of behaviour that the system holds to be "natural" to the way an aura operates, aimed at reducing friction when interacting with other people and with circumstances. It is not a life goal, nor is it moral advice, but a description of how that type is said to enter into things most smoothly.

According to the Jovian Archive, Human Design divides people into four energy types: Manifestor, Generator, Projector and Reflector, sometimes adding the hybrid Manifesting Generator as a fifth type. Each type has a corresponding Strategy. The four Strategies usually cited are:

• Manifestor: Initiate, then Inform
• Generator and Manifesting Generator: Wait to Respond
• Projector: Wait for the invitation
• Reflector: Wait a lunar cycle

What all four have in common is that they revolve around who initiates, and when to initiate. The Manifestor is said to be the one who opens things, but needs to inform first so that those around them are not pushed into a passive position. The Generator is said to be strongest when responding to something that has already appeared, rather than conjuring something out of nothing. The Projector is said to receive recognition best when a genuine invitation is there, rather than making the offer themselves. The Reflector, the rarest type, is advised to go through a full cycle of roughly 28 days before settling on a decision.

Why is "waiting" considered a strategy rather than passivity?

Because in the logic of the system, "waiting" here means waiting for the right signal, not waiting indefinitely. The Generator waits for something to arrive and for the body to have a yes/no response. The Projector waits for recognition from outside. This is a way of distinguishing action that has a basis from action taken under pressure. It should be said clearly: this is Human Design's internal interpretation, not a conclusion drawn from psychological research.

What is Authority, and how does it differ from Strategy?

Authority is the inner mechanism that Human Design holds to be where you should base your decisions. If Strategy answers the question "how should I enter into things," then Authority answers the question "what do I use as the basis for settling on a decision."

There is one very easy point of confusion: Authority is not the rational mind, and in many cases the system advises against making the rational mind the final arbiter. Authority is determined by which of the nine energy centres is "defined" and plays the leading role in a person's configuration. The forms of Authority usually cited include:

• Emotional Authority: move through the emotional wave over time before settling
• Sacral Authority: an immediate response in the lower belly
• Splenic Authority: an instant, quiet signal, usually arriving only once
• Ego/Heart Authority: based on will and on what is truly wanted
• Self/G Authority: based on speaking something aloud in order to hear oneself
• Mental/Environmental Authority: no personal inner authority, needing environment and a conversation partner
• Lunar Authority for the Reflector: wait a full lunar cycle

Why does the system split Strategy and Authority into two?

Because according to the system, knowing how you should act is still not enough; you also have to know which signal to use as your basis. A Projector with Splenic Authority and a Projector with Emotional Authority are advised to settle decisions on two very different rhythms, even though the overall Strategy is still to wait for the invitation.

A comparison table of Strategy and Authority by type

According to the Authority page of the Jovian Archive, the Projector also has one further form of authority, Ego-Projected, based on the Ego/Heart centre, alongside the Splenic, Emotional, Self and Environmental forms.

This table is the system's own way of classifying itself, not a scientific reference chart. It is useful in that it gathers in one place what Human Design says, so that the reader can see the whole picture instead of picking up scattered pieces.

The mechanism Human Design invokes to explain these two concepts

Human Design rests on two foundations: the bodygraph and the nine energy centres.

The bodygraph is a kind of chart in which the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching are placed at various positions on the body, sometimes drawn within a mandala overlaid on the 12 signs of the zodiac. The bodygraph displays the planets in the manner of a horoscope, and indicates which centres are "defined," meaning they operate stably and reliably in the language of the system.

These nine centres are a variant of the chakra idea. The context needs to be set correctly: chakras in Indian traditions are aids to meditation, described as centres of spiritual energy in the "subtle body." According to Kurt Leland (2017), The Rainbow Body: How the Western Chakra System Came to Be, Quest (Theosophical Society in America), medieval Buddhist texts from the 8th century CE mention four or five chakras, while Hindu sources give various numbers; the most familiar seven-chakra variant comes from Sir John Woodroffe's 1919 book The Serpent Power. Also according to Kurt Leland (2017), the modern Western view of chakras as real but esoteric energy centres began with H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophists in the 1880s, then was further shaped by Woodroffe and by Charles W. Leadbeater's 1927 book The Chakras. The rainbow colours and a whole range of correspondences with astrology, gemstones, Kabbalah and Tarot were all added later.

In other words, Human Design takes an esoteric concept that had already been restructured many times in the West, and maps it onto an astrological chart mixed with the I Ching. That is why the system is classified as pseudoscience: the chain of reasoning is symbolic and self-referential, with no mechanism for independent verification.

What role does the I Ching play in Strategy and Authority?

The I Ching is the source of the structure for the 64 gates in the bodygraph. According to Tze-Ki Hon (2019, revised 2023), Chinese Philosophy of Change (Yijing), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the I Ching or Yijing is an ancient Chinese divination text, beginning as a divination manual in the Western Zhou period (roughly 1000 to 750 BCE), later turning into a cosmological text with philosophical commentaries known as the Ten Wings. From the 2nd century BCE it was among the Five Classics, and it became the foundation for divination practice across East Asia for many centuries.

The basic unit of the I Ching is the hexagram, made up of six stacked lines, each line either solid or broken. The sixty-four possible hexagrams form a reference system, arranged in an order known as the King Wen sequence. According to the Xici Zhuan, Part One (繫辭上), in the passage "the number of the great expansion is fifty," the traditional method of casting uses yarrow stalks, working with a bundle of about 50 stalks to produce numbers from 6 to 9.

Human Design does not use the I Ching for casting. It borrows the 64 hexagrams as a framework of 64 units of meaning, then assigns them to positions on the bodygraph according to birth time. This is a fairly free reuse, and it is a point critics often raise: the structure of the I Ching is detached from its original divinatory and philosophical context.

Comparison with the chakras and the "subtle body"

Three layers of concepts that are often mixed together need to be clearly distinguished:

• Chakras in Indian traditions: aids to meditation, varying in number by tradition, from four to seven, with some texts exceptionally speaking of 88,000 chakras in the subtle body.
• Chakras in Theosophy and Western esotericism: treated as real energy centres, tied to colours and corresponding to many other systems.
• The nine centres in Human Design: a system of its own, not identical to the seven chakras, though influenced by the second current of thought.

In Indian traditions, the chakras are said to lie along the spine, connected by vertical channels, and the practitioner progresses from the lower chakras up to the highest chakra opening at the crown of the head. In the Hindu tradition it is called Kundalini, in Tibetan Buddhism it is called Candali or Tummo. One notable point: chakras are described as having a location but no definite nerve node and no precise anatomical connection. This is the description given by the traditions themselves, and it is also why the concept cannot be verified by anatomy.

The copyright dispute: a milestone worth knowing

One detail that is rarely mentioned but matters to anyone wanting to study this seriously: on 3 June 2020, the Court of Florence ruled that there can be no copyright over the Human Design system.

The background: Human Design Italia, an association claiming exclusive copyright in Italy and over the Italian language based on a licence from Krakower's company Jovian Archive, sued the publisher Terra Nuova after Chetan Parkyn's book Human Design, Scopri la Tua Vera Natura came out in June 2019. According to Osho News (19/07/2020), Human Design goes to Court, the court held that the plaintiff had not produced evidence of holding exclusivity over the "Human Design system" or its teachings. These teachings consist of ideas, processes and methods of expression that may be freely discussed, referenced and illustrated by people who are not the author, without constituting an infringement of intellectual property rights. Nor is permission needed from any school or founder.

The principle invoked is written verbatim in United States copyright law (17 U.S.C. § 102(b)): no protection for "any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described"; internationally, the TRIPS Agreement, of which Italy is a member, also excludes ideas and methods from the scope of protection. From this it follows: if Krakower cannot hold a general copyright over his ideas, then he cannot transfer that right to anyone else either.

For the reader, the practical consequence is: you can read, write about, compare and criticise Human Design without asking permission from any school. This matters especially because many Human Design communities operate on a paid certification model, and newcomers easily assume they must go through an official course before they are allowed to talk about it.

How far should you take Strategy and Authority?

This is the part that needs to be said plainly.

Human Design has no empirical evidence for its claims. Type, Strategy, Authority and the nine centres are all symbolic structures, not measurable variables. No independent study in the sources referenced by this article confirms that a Projector who waits for the invitation will have better outcomes than someone who does not wait.

What this system can do, at a reasonable level, is create a language for self-observation. "Am I acting out of pressure or out of a genuine response" is a useful question, whether or not you believe in the bodygraph. "I need time to move through my emotions before settling" is also a reasonable reminder for many people, and it overlaps with advice on managing decisions in applied psychology, even though Human Design does not cite that source.

What this system cannot do is replace medical diagnosis, financial advice or legal decisions. Authority should not be used to delay a medical decision that needs to be made at once, and Strategy should not be used to justify not taking responsibility for consequences.

Should Strategy be treated as mandatory?

No. Schools within the Human Design community are not fully agreed on how binding Strategy is. One branch emphasises strict practice, treating failure to follow Strategy as the source of the Not-Self theme. Another branch treats it as a soft suggestion, to be used for reference. This article presents both readings and does not choose on the reader's behalf.

Should Authority be treated as your "true voice"?

This is a common way of putting it in Human Design literature, but it is easily taken as a claim about human nature. A safer reading: Authority is a label assigned by the system, used to remind you to pay attention to one specific channel of information (emotion, bodily response, instant intuition, will, speech, environment). Its value lies in forcing you to distinguish among those channels, not in being scientifically correct.