How Do I Calculate My Human Design Chart?

How Do I Calculate My Human Design Chart?

Your Human Design chart is a one-time calculation that becomes a lifelong reference point. Unlike a daily horoscope, it is frozen at the moment you took your first breath, so getting the inputs right matters far more than running the math again. Here is how the chart is actually built, what you need to feed in, and what to do with the output.

The Three Inputs You Cannot Skip

To calculate a Human Design chart, you need exactly three pieces of information:

• Birth date – the day you were born.
• Birth time – ideally to the minute. The chart shifts roughly every six minutes of clock time because the planets and Nodes keep moving in the background calculation. A one-hour error can flip your Type or Authority.
• Birth location – the city or town, not the hospital. The location sets the timezone and geographic coordinates, which determine which part of the Earth was facing which part of the sky at your moment of birth.

If you do not have a precise birth time, the chart is still partially usable, but Type, Authority, Profile, and the Incarnation Cross should be treated as provisional until a rectified time is found through conversation with a trained analyst.

The Four Systems Fused Into One Chart

Human Design is unusual because it is not a single system. The chart blends four older traditions simultaneously:

• I Ching – the 64 hexagrams, which become the 64 Gates.
• Kabbalah – the Tree of Life, which becomes the 9 Centers and the 36 Channels connecting them.
• The Hindu-Brahmin chakra system – which gives the chart its body-centered language and the logic of defined versus open energy.
• Western astrology – the tropical zodiac with the planets, Nodes, and the lunar nodes as used in the chart.

The calculation overlays all of these onto a single wheel. Each planet, when it sits in a zodiac sign, lands on a specific Gate, which in turn activates a part of a Center. The Moon moves fastest, so it changes Gates roughly every two and a half days, and that is usually what people notice when they compare charts with siblings or friends.

How the Calculation Actually Works

Step by step, the engine does the following:

1. Convert birth data into a precise Julian date and a sidereal time for the birth location.

2. Place the planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, plus the North and South Nodes) into the zodiac wheel.

3. Map each placement to a Gate (1–64) and a Line (1–6), creating 26 individual "Activations" – one for each planetary placement including the Rave Mandala positions.

4. Connect the dots between Gates that share a Channel, which lights up a Center when both ends are activated.

5. Determine the Type by which Centers are defined (Generator, Manifesting Generator, Projector, Manifestor, or Reflector) and the Authority by the internal decision-making center that is defined.

In about 30 seconds of computer time, you get the full BodyGraph.

Using a Calculator

You do not need to do this math by hand. The official Jovian Archive generator at jovianarchive.com is considered the reference standard because the system was channeled through Ra Uru Hu, and his own calculator is what most analysts use. Other reputable options include MyBodyGraph and Genetic Matrix. Free calculators will show your Type, Authority, Profile, defined and open Centers, Channels, Gates, and Incarnation Cross. Paid versions typically add the Transit calendar and the Variable (PHS – Primary Health System) information.

Enter the data carefully, double-check the timezone the tool infers, and save the resulting chart as a PDF. You will refer back to it often.

What the Chart Gives You

A complete chart is rich. Beyond the headline features, look for:

• Your Profile – the two Lines that dominate your personality and body themes, written like 4/6 or 1/3.
• Defined and Open Centers – where you have consistent, reliable energy versus where you amplify, contract, or sample other people's auras.
• Active Channels and Gates – the fixed themes and talents you came in with.
• The Incarnation Cross – the four Gates that frame the larger life theme you are here to work with.

After You Have the Chart

The chart is a map, not a verdict. Read it as a description of how your energy is wired, not as a label to live inside. The gift of a defined Center is reliable access to a specific kind of energy; its shadow appears when you over-identify with that energy or use it as a substitute for inner authority. An Open Center is not a flaw – it is a place designed to sample wisdom from others, provided you stop mistaking other people's certainty for your own.

Calculate once, then spend years living into the picture it paints.