Harmony isn’t easy. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true. Harmony is a practice. It sometimes requires facing difficult truths about ourselves. It can mean going through the often unpleasant process of breaking out of long held belief systems and behaviors. But we all have access to it, and the 11th Human Design Gate shows us where to start.

Last week, we explored Hexagram 26, which involves finding balance amidst the pull of the ego. Now, we move on into Gateway 11, which we call the gateway of “Harmony, Peace and Ideas.”

Harmony comes from within. It’s an amazing thing to recognize. Yes, we can go into very harmonic places. But even there, that sense of harmony is within, and emanates out into the world. It always looks like life’s happening on the outside, but in actual fact, our experience of the world all takes place on the inside. It’s our experience of it all that creates our world.

The essential nature of the 11th Gateway is that small ideas can yield large returns. All kinds of ideas can expand into all kinds of different realities that enrich our experience of life. So, the key here is balancing between espousing ideas that promote social harmony and embracing beliefs that are grounded in your present reality.

This gateway is in what we call the Collective Circuitry of the Human Design System, and Collective Circuitry is very much involved in sharing beliefs, ideals and rules and regulations. The 11th Human Design Gate has the means of recognizing what it is that society can really benefit from, what it is that brings potential harmony.

The ideas that pass through this gateway are either very practical, or they can be idealistic, unrealistic, dogmatic, even fantastical. So, the trick is in recognizing, when we get this flow of ideas, can they be practical and contribute to creating harmony?

Let’s see what we find as we explore this Human Design Gate line by line:

First Line: Progressing

The first line is always foundational in any hexagram. And one of the foundational aspects of harmony is living in, and aligning with, the present moment. That’s why the line is called, “Complimenting: Progressing by aligning with your immediate environment.”

We can have all these great ideas about how things were and how things could be, but the bottom line with all ideas is: can we relate to them right now? What’s the reality in this moment, in our immediate environment? How do you find harmony and peace and ideas in this particular situation?

Your ideas come and go, so finding the right company in which to share them is important. If certain ideas appeal to you right now, then it’s worth your while to find other people that embrace those ideas as well. The thing about first lines is you can easily recognize those who appreciate and will further your ideas. And this state of being on the same page with others brings about harmony.

Second Line: Being Independent 

The second line always has a natural, even innocent approach to things, and here it’s called “Being Independent: Peacefulness is protected through your alertness.” This alertness is focused on figuring out whether it’s okay for you to be independent, rather than fitting in with everybody else’s belief systems, ideas, and concepts.

Tolerance, resolution, and vision are required to maintain peace and foster your creative ideas. You’ll have seen that the world’s real thought leaders have always gone outside the regular mainstream. They’ve always gone looking into other possibilities. And that’s the nature of the 11th Human Design Gate. It’s about recognizing, when life is going along in a particular way, that there are certain things we can do that aren’t necessarily part of the mainstream but can bring about harmony for people.

Your expansive imagination is constantly checking all possibilities for a harmonious life. The key thing in the end is that we’re not all here to follow the sheep in front of us and go along with everybody else’s concepts and theologies. There are so many different pathways available to us if we stay alert to the potentials life has to offer.

Third Line: Allowing for Change

The third line is always in an experimental stage in life, always pushing the envelope, always the first one in to try out something new. And here, the line is called, “Allowing for Change: Maintaining peacefulness requires relevant and fresh ideas.”

Ideas keep bubbling up. But are they fresh or are they stale and old? Old concepts? Old belief systems? Are you able to engage with the changing of the seasons? You need to discern a difference between valuable ideas and those that are simply idealistic, because it all comes down to what is practical. What are the ideas that can be implemented in a way that brings about harmony?

As someone with the third line, you have a tendency to become lulled by an unrealistic attachment to harmony. The truth is that too much uninterrupted harmony is just plain boring. Life will not let us live in a state of flatline boredom all the time. There’s always a potential interruption. And the trick is to learn to embrace that interruption because it’s allowing you to promote new concepts and ideas in life.

Fourth Line: Sharing Ideals.

The fourth line is naturally influential, naturally able to reach a larger audience, and a natural promoter of harmony. And here the line is called, “Sharing Ideals: An ability to consider and convey ideas of merit to others.”

What often happens when the 11th gate is activated is that the ideas come through and you have nobody to tell them to. And I often say to people, “Be prepared. Ideas are just going to come your way out of the blue sometimes. And there might not be anybody to talk to about them or express what it is that just happened for you.” Write them down, record them in some way other, because if you don’t, these ideas will just evaporate and disappear.

What you might find is that this collection of ideas and concepts that came to you out of a blue can go into a book, they can go into a training, they can go into a memoir. These things still have value and can still find their target regardless of whether or not anyone is around to hear them in the exact moment in which they arrive.

Fifth Line: The Ruler Who Serves

The fifth line is called “The Ruler who Serves: Giving perspective through expansive ideals.” It’s an interesting concept that all rulers actually serve, but it is actually the essence of leadership. If they’re playing their role correctly, they are serving their people. Politicians are still civil servants whether they are aware of it or not.

The fifth line has that potential to see things that other people can’t see, and to be able to transmit these things and put them across to others. You overflow with beneficial ideals given either from a sense of service or from your insecurity. 

This is the interesting question for fifth lines here: Are you being true to yourself while you’re espousing these ideas, or are you looking around to see if anyone gets you? If everyone likes you? etc. Are you actually serving them, or are you producing what you imagine they’re expecting you to produce? This is an important reality check for the fifth line.

Sixth Line: Being Flexible

The sixth line in any hexagram gives the overview of the potential for that hexagram. You know what can really happen. You understand the possibilities for harmony on planet Earth. That’s why the line is called, “Being Flexible: Maintaining an inner balance as belief patterns change.”

We’ve seen the way that religions played out a thousand years ago. They’re very different from how they play out these days. They’re still working on the same basis, the same characters, the same central beliefs, but they’ve been morphed, they’ve been compromised, they’ve been translated, they’ve been put into different concepts and ideals, or different levels of importance.

We have to understand that in the coming years, religions are going to dissipate. And it’s not a good or a bad thing because in the end, all religions primarily have been pointing towards the growth, the empowerment, and the support of the individual. There is a natural movement away from dogma, where there’s only one perspective or one possibility, towards a more flexible understanding and interpretation of the universe, and God, or whatever it is that’s out there for you.

The bottom line here is that we didn’t come here to go along with somebody else’s program. The greatest regret people have at the end of their lives is they suddenly come to the realization that they’ve been living according to everybody else’s ideas, but they never really got in touch with their own life. They never lived true to their own nature.

So how do we break out of that? By being flexible. Embracing new beliefs allows you to maintain your sense of balance in changing times. This is where harmony grows. We are all looking to find harmony in our lives, and the 11th gateway shows us where to start looking: inside.

So, there we are, that’s the 11th Human Design Gate. We’ll check in again soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about Human Design and discover how your own Design informs and shapes your life, get your Free Human Design Report today.