I was browsing a beautiful old book we have of Chinese calligraphy; a photo of which I’ve featured above. I’ve always loved calligraphy, love the art of handwriting, and back in the day I studied graphology also; and today, in the way of water and art, I’ll introduce you to one of the advanced topics in human design: the variables. I’ll begin with a brief description of what the arrows mean, and I’ll then guide you through an example of how you may interpret them.
Before we begin though, I really need to emphasize that this is an advanced topic. I know that many people when they first learn about human design, they get really excited and seek as much information as possible; they gather bits and pieces from the internet, as we live in a world with a lot of online information, but the caution with this you may be aware of is that knowledge has an order, and when not in the right order, you may eventually feel lost or confused within the vastness of information.
Human design is essentially an experiment; and it is an experiment because it is meant to be lived out and lived through. The foundations matter, and this is why it is said that people should spend quite a few years of first mastering their strategy and authority, attuning to the language of their body and natural flow before they begin to dive into the deeper layers of their chart. The variables are not something you should worry yourself with in the beginning, because what matters most is first getting your body right and aligning to your strategy and authority with enough practice and experience. Once you build enough knowledge and have mastered a certain level, you may then seek deeper into the additional layers; otherwise, you may just limit your progress and end up lost and confused.
Often times when people seek answers to their questions from the perspective of human design, they seek something specific to hold onto, and often project that all the answers would be held in one single little piece of the puzzle. For example, they may think the problem with their relationships is a result of their profile, or certain gates or channels or variables; but the answer is often much more simpler than this: they just haven’t mastered their authority and strategy yet, and haven’t attuned to their body and natural rhythm and flow. While authority and strategy may seem “mundane or surface level”, these are the foundations and where often your answers are, and it is always upon which all else relates to and moves through.
So don’t make your life complicated; human design is meant to make your life easier, not complicated. Take information step by step, and have some patience with yourself. You can’t expect yourself to be a calculus genius in first grade, there are first other levels to move through. I constantly see people just being so confused and the lack of knowledge is what leads them astray; so don’t hurry the process, because it would be to your detriment.
The whole point of human design is for you to embrace who you are, but to do that, you need to unfold and explore the layers within you one by one, in their right timing and order; this will allow you the opportunity for a deepening and treasuring each part of you. Hurry itself is a sign of fear to our body, and in an age with a lot of information, which is unfortunately often incomplete or even worse, misleading, it is important to show dedication to yourself and your learning.
As you learn and build knowledge and practice, your awareness level increases and expands also, and you’ll then be able to absorb and perceive the additional layers in their right way; otherwise, it will be not properly applied and you’ll just end up confused, lost or feeling like there is something wrong with you or your design. Even something as “simple” as your digestion profile takes time to learn and de-condition. When you force yourself to learn or be exposed to information before its right timing, you essentially will limit your own growth in the process.
Now let’s dive into what the variables means, go through examples along the way, and I’ll then guide you through one of the variable profiles PRR DRL.
Let’s begin.
The Variables
When someone speaks of the variables they are basically referring to the four arrows on top of your bodygraph. As you know, the right side of your chart is the conscious mind or personality, and the left side is the unconscious or design, also showing your body.
In simple terms:
The top right arrow refers to awareness.
The bottom right arrow refers to perspective.
The top left arrow refers to digestion.
The bottom left arrows refers to environment.
Each of the four arrows may be facing either left or right.
Left facing arrows refer to masculine energy, active energy and directness, structure, routine, precision, control; it is about being goal oriented and often related to survival instinct or self, and more focus on structures already in place or some rigidity in the way of seeing and doing things, which is why it shows the past or the old paradigm.
Right facing arrows refer to feminine energy, indirect action, passivity, intuition, fluidity, flexibility, openness, receptivity, letting go of control; it is about taking things in, and it is said to refer to the future of our world and humanity, because this is a movement focused on others rather than self.
Example of Left and Right Environment
You may be familiar with digestion and environment, which are often discussed in beginner human design readings, and the arrows here show additional layers to these.
For example, when it comes to environment, a left facing bottom left arrow may show you may feel more comfortable in a stable environment, or something or somewhere where you need to feel some control. Activity may give you peripheral vision, and it is important to have something you do each day that grounds you or gives you some consistency. When you find a place you like, or people you like, it is better to stick with that and revisit that, rather than constantly changing. It actually also shows that relationships are important for you, so you need to be quite discerning with the people in your circle, and your environment too may deeply affect you, so it needs to be healthy for you and your energy. You are here to be observed in your environment when you are in your correct space.
If it is a right facing environment arrow, then what serves you better is more changing, flexible spaces, and you may be more comfortable living a nomad life. Feeling a sense of movement opens you creativity, and helps you thrive. It’s important for you to listen to your intuition and listen to your body, and when it’s time to move you need to move, or when you feel you need some change you may simply just re-arrange some furniture; but you need to learn to listen to your intuition rather than be conditioned and mistake emotional imbalance for intuition. A helpful tip may be to think about what you need and how you’d like to feel in your environment, and then seek it out. You are here to observe, rather than be observed, and you need the right relaxed space for you to do so.
Now let’s move deeper, and suppose you have a valley environment. Right facing bottom left arrow means “wide” valley environment, and left facing bottom left arrow means “narrow” environment.
Valley environments in general are all about people watching, and acoustics are really important here – so having people with whom you communicate well is key, and quality over quantity is key also. You may need a certain level of balance between both visibility and retreat, and expansion of information as you may be quite curious, or ideally, you may need an exposure to worldly things whether art, music, books, cultures, foreign languages etc. Sound in general is really important for you.
For the narrow (left facing) environment, the importance here becomes that you need to feel energized by your environment. You may feel better walking down the narrow cobblestone streets, or having long narrow hallways or corridors with art from all over the world in your home. Sound and meaningful connections with people need to close by for you.
For the wide (right facing) environment, you need to feel relaxed in your environment. You may like looking out far horizons from your window, i.e. feeling a sense of expansion, and you may be more partial to natural landscapes and literally valleys, or places from where you take in sound from farther away.
There are many combinations of the four arrows you may have; some people have all right or three right or three left etc. I’ll guide you through the example of PRR DRL, and let’s first understand what this means.
PRR refers to the (P) personality or right bodygraph arrows of awareness and perspective, and if both are right facing it then becomes RR.
DRL refers to the (D) design or left bodygraph arrows of digestion and environment, and if digestion is right facing and environment is left facing, it then becomes RL.
In general, the first thing this shows is someone who is a right being, having three right arrows, showing that you are someone who is part of an evolutionary movement, a bridge to what is coming. You are designed to have a new receptive brain system, perspective and mind that are open and future oriented, while you also need your environment to give you a sense of stability, as activity here may give you more peripheral vision.
Awareness refers to how we learn, assimilate and recall information and knowledge; and this shows you have receptive awareness which means it is often best to take a step back and see the bigger picture of what is unfolding until things become clearer. The feminine energy connected to your awareness refers to patience, meditation or times of retreat, being process oriented, heart focused, open, flexible and collaborative – all of which increase your awareness.
With a right facing awareness, you are a deeply aware being, open to perceiving and receiving things not always felt nor seen nor understood by others. You have the ability to see beyond the veils and beyond the surface of things, and are deeply and intimately aware of your surrounding and other people’s feelings and situations and inner worlds also. You are perceptive and innovative, and all inclusive; but your level of awareness may not often match those around you, so don’t expect them all to understand what you are able to understand.
You are meant to stay flexible and move and not get stuck in things; be like water and stay fluid. Discernment is key here because you need to recognize that other people’s awareness level may not be as yours yet. It is important to stay creative as you essentially have the ability to release awareness into the world through whatever you are doing, and you are here to show the new ways of being, thinking, perceiving, relating and the future itself.
As a primarily a right being you are not here to concern yourself with goal oriented things or making goals happen, or limiting yourself in some rigid ways of working; so while this way of life is often not yet the norm in our world, you need to stay rooted in who you are, and follow your own flow and timing of life. You are here to take things in and receive them and then discern as things get processed naturally, so the key is not to hurry the process.
The “rightness” in the arrows is about taking things in (i.e. receiving) from outside and then allowing people to draw it out of you as they engage with you or come across your craft, thereby releasing awareness into them. As a right being, the environment becomes very important for you, which we’ll discuss shortly below, and you need to be aware that right beings often think about others and are others oriented, which shows the need for you to discern properly also whom you choose to surround yourself with.
Perspective in human design refers to how we are designed to view the world and our approach to manifesting our goals and dreams – and again it connects to you through your feminine energy, which is also known as having “peripheral perspective”; what this essentially shows is that you hold depths of wisdom, and it is about feeling a sense of fulfilment i.e. it is not about the specifics or rigorous planning or goal oriented processes or rigidity of strategies, because the purpose here or how you view the world comes through the feeling. Your perspective feels.
Right beings are open, intuitive, fluid, and you have the ability to see things no one else sees yet; but you can’t just say it or blur it out because often others may not be able to absorb it yet, it’s not in their awareness yet. So just allow others to approach you, and take things from there. You see and feel and perceive in a very deep ways, and are perhaps quite attuned to that which only the subtle senses may perceive, so you should learn to trust your own timing and flow of life, and wait for the right people to seek you for the insights you may offer them,
You are quite attuned to see future cycles, patterns and new ways of doing things, because you have an innovative perspective and far distant vision. People in our world rarely are able to feel comfortable with innovative approaches, so sometimes we just need to take things slower and know they may not be open to realize what we already see. As a right being you may often not know how much you actually know until people pull it out of you, which is why relationships are important.
As you are a right brain i.e. receptive brain (not active which is left brain), you need to relax, rest and not stress. This isn’t about strategy or structures or goals, this is about creativity, intuition, and staying flexible and open. The right brain is a new brain system, so you hold treasures which need to be pulled out of you rather than finding them from outside, and you shouldn’t lock your brain in anything already existing or structured in our world, as it will just make you feel unwell.
Your environment is the only left arrow, which basically means that as right being you need the right relationships and environment in your life to give you the sense of stability to open to your creative open self. Your environment is really important for you as it is your only left facing arrow, so here is where you can be active in your choosing and decision making.
People outside of us only define us through our “leftness” i.e. activities, so when we have a lot of right in our variables it’s something we know but others can’t define us by. You are not here to be as others, nor do as others, not have a life defined by old paradigms and categories. You have your own way of moving and movement, so you just need to embrace that and not let yourself be swayed by other people’s inabilities to understand the uniqueness that we all are as individuals and by those who are just too afraid of letting go of old structures and rigidities of seeing and being in the world.
As a left environment, with all three other right arrows, you need to have at least one stable or consistent activity in your day such as morning walks or writing on your laptop to satisfy that leftness. You need to feel some sense of control in your every day, which opens your rightness further. It’s good to have at least one meaningful relationship or person to share with, whom you can rely on, or have some stability and comfort and security in your home environment.
As a right being you may often not know how much you know and your deep wells of wisdom and far sight, until people pull it out of you. Let those who see recognize you and approach you, but know that your well is not for everyone to drink or take out of. Activity leads to peripheral vision, so It is good to keep yourself busy with things that you love and enjoy to do and give you pleasure and excitement.
It is your presence itself that moves awareness into people and opens them too.
Both digestion and environment relate to our body, and having a left environment, along will all other arrows right facing, is actually a very beautiful thing. It’s kind of like you carry calligraphies within you, worldly stories and art, landscapes and languages; and if you can recognize the immense gifts and treasures of this, you may infuse new air into them as you move them, thereby releasing new creativity and awareness for others also. It’s like the art I’ve been sharing throughout this writing. Both the new and so-called old merge together, yet one is because of the other and both may be married in new ways, harmonious ways, beautiful ways.
With this variable profile you are what the future is. With your rightness being you move in a different way in which beings meet, because it’s the future. It’s important for right beings to know their inner self and not define themselves by others, so that you may allow your inner treasures to be brought to the world. It is important for you to just surrender and allow people to come into your aura and receive the awareness that you may give them.
You are not here to do as others do nor worry about what you do or what others think, and you shouldn’t define your life by “what” you do. You have your own timing and natural course of your life, and your beauty is that you hold the future itself and its wisdom and higher awareness that naturally release when you just live your life and stay true to you. You are in many ways here to introduce the newness of the future in our world by merely being yourself, being present and just doing what you love to do, while still treasuring and honouring the path we’ve all come from.
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All featured art is from my book “Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy”, December 12th 2005, Beijing.
