What does it mean to progress? To evolve and grow? It can be a very subtle thing, so slight we might not even be aware of it at the time. We go through one experience after another in our lives and eventually we look back and find that we’ve changed in some way, we’ve made progress as a result of our experiences. So how do we do this with intention? How can become more watchful, more aware of the experiences that will bring about progress in our lives? The Human Design System points the way.

Last time, we explored Hexagram 16, which showed us how to focus our enthusiasm and energy on things that actually serve us. Now, the Sun is moving into Gate 35, which we call “Progress.”

As with the last few Gates we’ve been looking at recently, Gate 35 is in the Throat Center. And it’s also in the Collective Circuitry, specifically, the Collective Abstract Circuitry. And the Abstract Circuitry is very much about looking over your shoulder, looking back, looking for reference points and joining dots from things that have gone before.

So, where the previous Gateway, Gate 16, was on the Logic side, which involves doing things over and over again, practicing and improving each time, on the abstract side, once is enough. It says, “I’m here for the experience and that’s that.” So, Gate 35 is essentially here to measure the quality of the experience. To see if we’ve moved forward at all. Have we progressed? Was it a worthwhile experience?

Everything in the abstract circuitry has a beginning, a middle, and an end to it. It’s a cycle. With every book we pick up and we read, there’s a point in time where we finish the book, we close it, and we put it back on the shelf. The same is true with experiences. It’s cycle, a progression. And these cycles of experiences become spirals for growth in consciousness. Why enter into an experience at all unless there’s going to be some sense of achievement, some sense of growth, some sense of spiraling upward?

It’s all about advancing, and there are many ways we can advance. We can read a different book, we can go to a different movie, we can include meditation our life, we can decide to start living more in alignment with our Human Design, and so on. There are so many different ways of playing within our lives. So many ways to have new experiences. It’s an unceasing drive to explore every aspect of human nature, and to qualify life by comparing all manner of experiences.

Let’s see how this works as we look at Gate 35 in the Human Design System line by line:

First Line: Holding Steady

The first line is called “Holding Steady: Accepting setbacks as part of life’s progress.” When you enter into an experience, you’re either going to feel satisfied by it, like it brings you a sense of fulfillment, or not, you might feel let down by it all. And in that sense, it’s a bit of a setback.

Whether you see yourself as right or not, it is always possible to take rejection personally. And here, I mean rejection in the sense that things didn’t work out as expected. But does anything work out as expected? Is life turning out as expected? Does life actually make sense? Life is certainly not logical. Life is all about having experiences, and you never really know how it’s going to turn out. But there’s the risk in this first line that you’ll take the rejection personally, like somehow life didn’t like you, it didn’t give you the outcome you were looking for.

Your inner harmony sees negation as a sign to refine your perception of experiences. When we’re talking about the possibility of being fulfilled in life, it all comes down to attitude. That’s the bottom line. What’s your attitude when entering into anything? What’s your attitude when getting out of bed in the morning? What’s your attitude when engaging with your family and loved ones? What’s your attitude in any particular moment in time? How are you going to experience it? Is it just same ol’, same ol’? Or are you spiraling up in consciousness?

Second Line: Growing

The second line is called, “Growing: Every interaction brings potentially new experiences.” Everything keeps on moving. The whole world is spinning through space. Everything is shifting all the time, and yet there’s a potential to just slip back into the old traditional, tried-and-true ways of interacting with the world.

Sometimes your endeavors are held back until you are available to receive assistance. Sometimes we just cannot find our way through. We can’t see how to progress, how things are going to expand, what it is that’s going to enhance our life, bring new possibilities, a new sense of uplift and progress.

Inner balance and virtue copes with unproductive times until your inspiration returns. We cannot guarantee that inspiration will always be there. Sometimes we need a nudge. Sometimes we need somebody to come in and brighten our day. Sometimes we need to go and brighten somebody else’s day. And then, suddenly, things start moving again, and that sense of progress, evolution and expansion returns.

Third Line: Combining

Here, the third line is called “Combining: Sharing experiences with others.” Third lines tend to be daredevils. They’re the experimenters, the ones who jump in without really checking what the consequences might be. And this naturally means that they have issues around commitment. But here the line says, “Evolution comes when you fully experience life in the company and trust of others.”

Your expansive nature brings progressive change to your own and others’ lives. You have the ability to really blossom here in your aptitude for going into things that are different. You can go off and find something new, find something novel that everyone can share in.

On the other side of this, you tend to take a pivotal role in everything, often disregarding other people’s roles. You can get so focused on your own experience, on being the first one to jump in, that you can tend to neglect or ignore the others who are along for the ride. The bottom line is, you’re here for the experience, for the uplift, for the shift in consciousness. And if others join you, that’s fine too.

Fourth Line: Being Impulsive

The fourth line is called, “Being Impulsive.” As opposed to the third lines, who are more than happy to go their own way, fourth lines tend to gather people around them. They have an influential tone that says, “We’re all in this together.” But the thing is, everybody is having their own experience even when they’re all ostensibly doing the same thing.

With the fourth line, there’s a deep yearning to have others share the experience, the advancement, the progress, with you. This can lead you to push for progress at any cost. So, the key, when it comes to the Human Design System, is to check your Authority when you are pushing for experiences without any obvious goals. If you’re just diving into the experience and taking other people with you whether they’re ready for it or not, it can lead to a fallout.

Your inner integrity recognizes the significance of change and the opportunities it brings, but on the other side of it, you push for excitement at any opportunity. Sometimes precipitating crises. It’s in your nature to be impulsive, to want share experiences, but you have to be really careful. You have to be very clear on what the experience is. You have to be sure that all the bits and pieces are in place before bringing people along with you.

Fifth Line: Being Honorable

Fifth lines are the leaders, the guides. They can see all the potential outcomes. They can see how experiences can be extraordinarily fulfilling and uplifting for people. And here, the fifth line is called “Being Honorable: Tempering expectations in favor of progress.”

There’s always a balance to be struck when it comes to expectations in life. And the fifth line is able to see when the excitement might not be in balance with the likely outcome of an experience. So, it’s a tempering presence. It says, “let’s do this one step at a time. Let’s go into this with our eyes open.” You don’t let the excitement of expectations get the better of you and pull you into things that will likely lead to disappointment.

You enhance experiences by giving of yourself, whether you feel personally benefited or not. This is the honor coming into play. You’re keeping a very clear eye on everybody else’s experiences. It gives you a great sense of progress in your own life when everybody has a great experience. When they feel looked after and cared for. You look for the benefits for everyone.

The other side of it is that your generosity brings expansion for everyone, often without a sense of personal fulfillment. Your great gift of being able to bring people along into these fulfilling, expansive experiences can leave you feeling drained. It requires a good deal of balance to make sure you are not completely sacrificing yourself and your own fulfillment for the sake of everyone else’s fun and progress.

Sixth Line: Reflecting

The sixth line is called “Self-Examining: A readiness to reexamine and realign your outward feelings.” Sixth lines are always in this position of having the overview of everything. We might say they’re the wise ones about the nature of progress and experiences. And the sixth line here is really watching, gauging the balance of the experience. Making sure that people have an amazing experience, but without having to pump them up or provide for them all the time.

Regretting any experience impels you to modify your ways simply, or with a complete overhaul. You only need to do an experience once, and repeating anything gets very old very quickly. There has to be some sense of modification each time, some new presence is involved in it.

You can see that the experience is available for everybody, and yet certain experiences are not going to bring any sense of progress. They’re just going to be boring, mundane. So, you look to see whether we can tweak it a little bit, or if it’s better to just scrap the whole thing and start over.

You have the self-discipline to be fair with others when you implement change in their lives. You have the ability and the self-discipline to do whatever it takes to make people feel fulfilled and bring about that sense of completion for the collective. On the other side of this, your drive to instruct other people in ways that change their lives can be unpopular. You put out rules and regulations, you put up stopping blocks because you feel responsible for the collective. It’s just part of the deal. But it’s not always popular with the people who are suddenly fenced out of having an experience.

So, as the Sun goes through this 35th Gateway, do you feel that sense of uplifting in the experiences you bring into in your life? Do you feel that uplifting in our consciousness? Are you finding that place of fulfillment? And always remember the bottom line: What’s your attitude? What’s your attitude in this moment? Are you open to the experience?

So, there we are, that’s Gate 35 in the Human Design System. We’ll check in again soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about how your Design informs and shapes your life, get your Free Human Design Report today.