Last time, we explored Hexagram 19, which empowers our search for connection and unification in a disconnected world. Now, the Sun has moved on into Gateway 13, which is in the Abstract Circuitry in the Human Design System. Abstract Circuitry involves sharing experiences, and the 13th Gateway is very adept at pulling stories out of people, which is why we call it, “The Listener.”  

We’ve all got a story to tell, but most of us rarely get the chance to tell it. People with the 13th Gateway make it easy. If you don’t have the 13 in your Design and you’re around people with the 13, you’ll likely find yourself telling them everything. Spilling the beans. They just naturally tune into what’s going on with you.

Our common purpose in these times is in pursuing common goals, namely expanding all possible levels and varieties of human experience. We’ve gone through the information age and we’re coming out the other end of it. There’s so much information around and whether you’re looking at things on YouTube or TikTok or TV or Emails or whatever, you’re being exposed to all kinds of different stories and experiences. And the 13 is accumulating all these things, listening to all these different activities.

The 13 listens on very different levels. It highlights the difference between hearing and listening. Listening basically means you absorb the sound. It resonates within you, and as such, it shifts something of the experience that you have in your life. It’s very different from the more passive experience of simply hearing and remembering some bit of information.

If you have Gate 13 in your Design, you will sometimes sense people making a beeline for you, drawn to someone who has the ability to listen to their story. To hear and perhaps commiserate with their sense of being lost, or in despair, knocked astray in their own life journey. Your Gate 13 has the means to reorient people in their lives, to put them back in orbit again, however, just because you are a magnet for lost people does not mean that you have to actively engage in their situation. Sometimes a gentle smile, patting someone on the back and wishing them good luck is all that’s needed.

Let’s take a closer look at what this means in the Human Design System line by line:

First Line: Being Open

The first line always lays out the foundation of the Hexagram. Here, the line is called “Being Open: Relating to and communing with everyone equally.” It says, “no matter who you are, what your background is, how important you might think you are, how disastrous you think your life situation is, I’m wide open. I’m a listener. I’m a part of the fellowship with mankind.”

Your friendliness with others aligns the world around you. You might see, if you’ve got the 13th Gateway in your Chart, that you are a natural friend. It doesn’t matter who it is, people are just going to find you. And what does it take to be friendly? Essentially, it’s just a matter of pausing to listen, seeing what’s going on in other people’s lives. Why are they crossing your path in the first place?

Your sensibility spreads the feeling of harmony and connectedness through everyone. You just have this sense of people being embraced in one way or another. They’re welcome. Now, that doesn’t mean that every Tom, Dick, and Harry has carte blanche to come and ruin your day for you by telling you dreadful things. It’s just that people are drawn to you, and your friendly disposition will enhance the atmosphere.

Second Line: Being Fair

The second line always has a natural approach to things, and as long as they stay natural, everything goes very well for them. But the moment things become complicated or overly sophisticated, they can get into trouble.

The second line here is called, “Being Fair: Seeing two sides to every story and remaining unbiased.” You have the possibility of humoring and clarifying in all interactions. You may not agree with someone’s story, but you can accept that life is an experience, and we all learn things as we go along, and this is just where that particular person is coming from at this time.

One aspect of second lines is that they don’t necessarily like being interrupted. So, if a total stranger comes up and starts telling you all these dreadful things that are going on in their life, your natural response in that moment might be to tell them to go bother somebody else. Especially if you feel that this person has disrupted your natural flow.

Even still, the bottom line with the second line is fairness. If someone has a story to tell, it may not be for you, or you may not be in a space to hear it, but you can honor this person and their story all the same.

Third Line: Being Self-Reliant

Third lines are experimental. They jump into experiences sometimes without necessarily knowing the repercussions. They’re risk takers. And here, the line is called “Being Self-Reliant: Mistrust and failure cycle through blindly following others’ advice.” So, in the arena of listening, this means relying on yourself, rather than uncritically trusting or following someone else’s story.

This is a call to work things out for yourself, dig a little bit deeper. Find out if there’s really something there. There’s nothing like being taken for a fool or taken advantage of by someone you trusted.

Everyone’s got advice out there. There’s all kind of good advice available, but it’s most important that you examine that advice. Listen to it, by all means, but check in with your own Type and Authority to determine if it’s something you really sense resonates with you, and you’re clear to follow through on.

Fourth Line: The Whisperer

Fourth lines have a very particular place in any hexagram. Lines 1-3 are very personal, but by the time we get to the fourth line, in terms of the Human Design System, this is where there’s a twist. The third line doesn’t always automatically connect with the fourth line because it’s always about risk-taking. It can take off in different directions without linking with the fourth line at all. The fourth line takes things on in a very different way. And here, the fourth line is called “The Whisperer.”

We’ve all heard about horse whisperers and dog whisperers. Well, somebody with Gate 13 with the fourth line can hear things without anybody actually saying a thing. We might say it’s a sort of clairaudience. It just penetrates through. Somebody comes into the room, and they already know what’s going on with them. They’ve automatically picked up what it is that’s happening.

The flip side of this is that your sensitivity to hearing a great inner depth is exhausted when exposed to plain noise. You either hold dearly to those who honor your nature, or actively seek solitude in silence. This essentially means that there are some people who get you, some people who understand that you can see them at a tremendous depth. There is a call to embrace these people, and be leery of the ones who don’t get you because they will simply leave you exhausted and overcommitted.

Fifth Line: Living Symphony

The fifth line is the leader, the visionary, the guide. And here we call it, “Living Symphony: Finding a purpose in, and for, everyone and everything.” Everything has its cadence. Everything has its frequency. And the fifth line has that ability to tune into all these different variations of themes.

You have a gift for finding the purpose in and for everyone and everything. You have this natural ability to take people who have been knocked out of orbit, people who are unclear about where they are in life, and find them a place in the orchestra of life.

Of course, there is a flip side to this. When you’re a magnet for people tracking you down and looking for direction, you have to be really careful. Again, it comes down to checking in with your Type and Authority. The bottom line is, are you going to let yourself get wiped out helping everybody, or are you going to be very clear about who and what gets your attention, and how you’re going to give this guidance and this connection?

Sixth Line: Expounding Universal Fellowship

The sixth line has the overview of the whole Hexagram. And here, the line is called “Expounding Universal Fellowship: Seeking the best in everyone and everything, everywhere.” And you’ll find, if you’ve got Gate 13 with sixth line, everybody’s quietly watching, wondering what you’re up to, looking to you as an example.

Your friendliness looks for the best outcomes in everyone’s life. You’re looking to get everybody to feel included as part of the human story and to share their experiences.

The question for all sixth lines involves over-commitment. There’s the potential to sense that you are overcommitting yourself, which can cause you to withdraw completely. You’ll see there’s part of your life where there’s an inclination to want to back away a little bit to avoid becoming exhausted by the work of getting everybody included in the story.

The key is to recognize that we are all having our own experiences here. Some horses simply aren’t going to take a drink even when you lead them to watter. And that’s the bottom line. It’s great to share experiences with other people, but at the end of the day it is just a sharing. It’s not necessarily something that happens on a deep and profound and personal level. It’s a story. It’s the makeup of a story. And this brings us back to what this whole Hexagram is about: Listening. And Listening is something where you pick up the frequency of everything inside you, and then you make your evaluation from there.

So, there we are, that’s the 13th Gateway. We’ll check in again soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about the Human Design System and discover how your own Design informs and shapes your life, get your Free Human Design Report today.