Last time, we explored Hexagram 21, learning how to wield our various forms of control in ways that are both advantageous and responsible. Now, the Sun is moving into Human Design Gate 51, which we call “Arousing.”

We also call it the Gateway of “Shock.” In life, we’re bound to have a shock every now and again. Something comes out of the blue and just completely shakes things up. For people with Gate 51 in their charts, part of the learning curve is to understand how to deal with constant shocks until they become experts at dealing with shocking situations. They also have to be aware of their ability to shock others and know how to do that responsibly.

We all have shocks in our lives. We get sick, we get fired, we get in an accident, somebody says something to us that completely jolts our whole perspective in life. Something happens that just shifts the whole program for us. We’re bumbling along in life and all of a sudden—BAM!—everything’s changed. But in that moment of shock lies an opportunity—if we are willing and able to take it. It’s an opportunity to re-experience our innocence, from a place outside our accumulated knowledge, to engage with life afresh, and with new eyes. It’s an opportunity to recognize that our old, familiar ways of doing things no longer serve us, and it’s time to step into something completely different.

Let’s take a look at Human Design Gate 51 line by line:

First Line: Arousing

The first line provides the foundation for the whole Hexagram. And here, the line is called, “Arousing: Growing through disruptions of all kinds.” Sooner or later in life, you’re going to get a shock. Something’s going to shake your life up. And all of a sudden you are initiated into a completely different view of yourself.

Dramatic change can be alarming until you accept all the transformations that it brings. We’re not here to have a static life. We’re not here to just follow along with whatever it is that we’re told to. We’re here to be disrupted every now and again. And what do you do in that moment? Do you complain about it, and try to hide from it, or do you say, “hang on, here’s an opportunity to grow, to expand, to be more creative in my presence?”

You’re very sensitive to shocks and the upsets that they bring, often wishing to avoid them. There’s a tendency here to hedge your bets, to see if you can sidestep the potential upset to your life as you know it. But when you do that, all you do is miss out on the possibility for potentially amazing growth.

Second Line: Surviving

The second line is called “Surviving: Recognizing temporary upsets for what they are.” And what are temporary upsets? They’re exactly that: temporary. Shocking moments, even the big ones, are not the end of the world. Even if it has caused a massive change in your life, you’ll find a way through.

Everything comes around. And if you wait patiently, you transcend shock and apparent defeat. If everything has gone wrong and you can’t find a way through it, be patient. It’ll come around. All of a sudden, you’ll see the consequence or the openings or the possibilities or the life lessons within the shock and disruptions that take place.

So, on one side of it, you can confidently take well timed evasive action in overwhelming situations. You can see the shock coming and know when to jump. On the other side, mental indecision will often cause you to miss the right time to act in shocking situations. You can get caught up in trying to find an old solution to deal with the problem, rather than recognizing that you should just get out of the way before you get flattened.

Third Line: Being Composed

The third line here is called, “Being composed: Learning to honor the laws of nature.” Nature is very good at delivering shocks. Nature has her own pattern, her own timing. Everything runs in cycles and seasons. And within those seasons, things begin, they grow and change, and they come to a conclusion. Life explodes into bloom and sooner or later withers and dies, and new things sprout up as a result.

The third line always has the potential to be the first one into any situation. You like to experiment, even with shock. And you’ll often find out that you can actually manage shock quite well. In times of shock, you either grow through calmly realigning with the inherent changes, or not. The third line is brilliant at realignment and adaptation. So, in terms of crisis management, you can be really competent and capable here.

The other side of it is that you may take shocks as a personal affront to your ego, which compels you to struggle with life. When you take personal affront to a shock, it’s often because you are caught up in a personal, inner agenda. You’re caught up in expectations about what is “supposed” to be happening. But the whole nature of Human Design Gate 51 is that it takes us out of the expected, tried-and-true way of doing things and shocks us into a completely different life perspective. So, the question is, can you calmly realign by adapting to whatever the shock is?

Fourth Line: Being Unstructured

The first line was about learning how to deal with shocking situations. The fourth line echoes and expands on how to deal with these shocks, and it’s called “Being Unstructured.” It involves having flexibility, an ability to be unstructured in terms of what happens in response to potential shocks.

The fourth line here is goes beyond habitual reactions, it goes outside the box. Sometimes a particular shock situation just isn’t in the manual. It’s something totally new, and in order to deal with it, you’ve got to invent a whole new approach.

The fourth line is always concerned with bringing people on board and getting everyone on the same page. So, in this case you are gathering people together, showing them that the old rules are not going to apply in this situation, and bringing them along while you launch into a completely new perspective.

Fifth Line: Being Reliable

The fifth line is called, “Being reliable: Accepting all the changes that repeated shocks bring.” Fifth lines have the ability to look over the fence, to look beyond, to have the imagination, to see the ways in which we can engage with a shocking situation.

You reach your goals by following your inner guidance through all manner of disruptions. With fifth lines there’s always the potential to get distracted by other people’s expectations, what they think you should be doing. But you can recognize what’s going on, you can see the approach that’s needed, and you know you need to engage with it according to your own inner truth, and not necessarily as a full-time rescuer.

You also have the ability to see other people’s truth. You can see what’s needed in the lives of individuals around you. That’s a very powerful thing, but the potential drawback is that you may become engaged with fixing disruptions in the lives of others and lose track of your own journey. If you’re just constantly on call, involved in everybody else’s chaos, forever rescuing them, you can easily lose track of what’s going on in your own life.

Sixth Line: Regenerating

The sixth line is called “Regenerating: The phoenix rises from the ashes anew.” When there’s a big disaster, a big shock, a flood comes and washes everything away, or a tornado rips through town, the sixth line just says, “okay, we’ll rebuild. We’ll get it all back together again.”

Shock brings you dramatic shifts. It shifts you out of old beliefs and understandings into new ones. It breaks us out of a knowledge base. It breaks us out of a rule book. But even though the sixth line knows that we can rebuild, it also knows that we’re going to rebuild in a different, novel way. The shock has told us we cannot go back to where we were.

Your nature is to endure, grow, and even flourish through all forms of intense challenges. Make no mistake about it, Gate 51 is intense. Shocks are inevitable. The bottom line is what are you going to do about it? Are you going to run for the hills? Or are you going to check in and get clear on how you’ll reinvent, how you can play within the shock, how you can grow from it? That’s the challenge for all of us. Remember that within the shock lies the potential for a massive initiation into a completely different and fresh experience of life.

So, there we are, that’s Human Design Gate 51. We’ll check in again soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about how your own Design informs and shapes your life, get your

Free Human Design Report today.