Last time, we explored the Life Themes with the Sun in Gateway 2, the Gateway of “Receptivity”. Now, we move on into Gateway 23, the Gateway known as “Assimilation”. Gate 23 is in the Throat Center, which means it’s one of the 11 voices, or different ways of expressing ourselves through speech we have available to us. And this particular voice is the voice of “I know”, which is very different from, “I think,” or “I believe.” It’s a pure voice. It’s an individual expression. It simply says, “I know. This is what I’m putting forward.”
With that in mind, let’s have a look at the Human Design Life Themes associated with Gateway 23:
The Personal Life Theme: Explanation
With the Conscious Sun in Gate 23, we find ourselves in the Personal Life Theme of “Explanation”. The Earth is in Gate 43, and those of you who are familiar with Human Design will know that Gates 23 and 43 make up a Channel. It’s a Channel we call “Structuring” because it has the potential to lay the foundations from which new developments take place.
So, Gate 43 is the Gateway of “Insight” where we get these downloads, these flashes of inspiration. And then Gate 23 assimilates and tries to put these flashes of inspiration into words. The downloads coming in through Gate 43 are acoustic. It’s not necessarily a language. So Gate 23’s job is to literally translate and put it out in a way that other people can comprehend. Speech skills are a must for anyone with this Channel.
Gate 23 – Assimilation – Peeling away the non-essential to reveal what is substantial.
Gate 43 – Breakthrough – Receiving new perceptions and reforming old ways and habits.
Gate 49 – Revolution – Abolishing the “old” and supporting a “new” which is aligned with certain principles.
Gate 4 – Mental Solutions – The pursuit of the right solutions and the right timing for them.
The unconscious Sun is in Gate 49, the Gateway I call “The Rebel”, which looks to change the status quo where and when it is no longer relevant, no longer serving us. Meanwhile, the Unconscious Earth is in Gate 4, the Gateway of “Mental Solutions”, also known as “Youthful Folly”, because sometimes mental solutions aren’t really solutions, they are just Band-Aids, quick fixes for something that actually needs more evaluation. So, this Life Theme puts things out in a very direct way, and your audience either gets it or not.
People with this Life Theme will know that they have to be very particular in how they express things because they have a tendency to blurt things out. They get an impulse from the mind, the third eye, and all of a sudden out it comes. So, the question is, how do we translate this into something that people can actually comprehend?
Notable people with this Life Theme: Bono, Salvador Dali, Sid Vicious, Mother Teresa
The Fixed Life Theme: Assimilation
The Sun moves on into the fourth line of Gates 23 and 43, and we enter the Fixed Life Theme of “Assimilation”. The fourth line is always oriented towards getting people on board and pulling together in the same direction. So, when Gate 23 gets to the fourth line, the voice of “I know”, becomes the voice of “I know on behalf of ‘we’ or ‘us’”. So again, clarity is paramount. People with this Life Theme have to be so clear in how they put things out there. Is there an audience? Are they capable of hearing me? Am I relaxed while I’m saying it, or am I trying too hard to convince everybody?
Gate 23 – Assimilation – Peeling away the non-essential to reveal what is substantial.
Gate 43 – Breakthrough – Receiving new perceptions and reforming old ways and habits.
Gate 30 – The Clinging Fire – The infinite and unshakeable quality of desire.
Gate 29 – Commitment/The Automatic “Yes” – Making commitments from a place of grounded sincerity.
The Unconscious Sun in Gate 30, “The Clinging Fire” which is the Gateway of desire, those burning desires within that keep nagging at you, begging to be fulfilled. The Unconscious Earth has gone into Gate 29, the Gateway of “Commitment” or the “Automatic ‘Yes’”. So, people with this Fixed Life Theme have this agenda of offering things in a very assimilated way. But again, it comes down to one’s ability to get things across and then recognizing whether or not you have an audience that’s capable of hearing what you have to tell. Can you communicate from a place of engagement rather than from a place of pressure? Can you recognize whether your audience is having trouble getting what it is you’re trying to transmit?
The Interpersonal Life Theme: Dedication
The Sun then moves into the fifth and sixth lines of Gates 23 and 43, and we find ourselves in the Interpersonal Life Theme of “Dedication”. By the time we get to the fifth and sixth lines of Gate 23, the voice of “I know” becomes quite balanced, quite pronounced, and quite clear in what it needs to put across.
The fifth line is a natural leadership line. The sixth line is a natural overseeing line. And this Life Theme comes with a fair amount of responsibility because it has this sense of commitment. It says, “I’ve got to follow through. I’ve got to see this thing to its natural conclusion. I’ve got to take it all the way”.
Again, we have the Unconscious Sun in Gate 30, the gateway of desires, which can become all-consuming if they aren’t lived out. And then we have the Unconscious Earth in Gate 29, which commits to things all the way, with that emphatic, sacral “YES!”. So, my experience with people with this Life Theme is that when they get into something, they’re going to go for it. Whatever it is they’re receiving, they’re going to follow through on it. Which is why people with this Life Theme can have a profoundly transformational effect on the world around them.
Other notable people with this Life Theme: George Lucas, Jill Stein, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Roth, Cate Blanchett, Stephen Colbert
That’s the essence of the Life Themes associated with the 23rd Gateway. If you want to learn more about Life Themes, you’ll find them all in the Book of Destinies, part of the Human Design Trilogy which is available in all good bookstores and audiobook platforms.
If you want to find out more about Gate 23, we encourage you to dive into our blog series on the Book of Lines.
And if you’d like to learn more about how your Human Design informs and shapes your life, get your Free Human Design Report today.