Last time, we explored Hexagram 45, which showed us how to manage the delicate balance required for good leadership in our tribes and communities. Now, the Sun is moving into Human Design Gate 12, which we call “Standstill.”

Starting with Gate 23, we’ve been in a sequence of Gates that are all in the Throat Center, each one with its own unique voice. Gate 12 is the last of these voices for now, and it’s the last of the individual voices which express something novel and different and new. And with the name “Standstill,” you might be able to guess that the expression here comes out of a pause, a break in the action. A moment where the winds shift, and the words and expression suddenly take a new direction. It can be a moment of hesitation. We’re going about our lives and suddenly we run into a roadblock, and we have to regroup, take a breath, and take stock of what it is that’s happening here.

It’s okay to pause, to be inactive in word and deed until the moment is right to express. The Human Design Gate 12 is certainly a voice, but it raises the question: does anything actually need to be said? It’s okay to have silence. It’s okay to have quiet. It’s okay to have a complete review of your life and the path you’ve been following. And if you find that you need to adjust that path, that you need to find new options, new ways forward, that’s okay too.

We tend to get very busy with life. We put our heads down and just go for it. But when we have an opportunity to go for a walk in the woods or sit in the park, we allow ourselves to stop, to lift our heads up and take in the world for a moment. That’s the essence of the 12 Gateway. When we’re totally overthinking our lives, Gate 12 gives us this opportunity just to stop, breathe, and check: am I being true to myself?

Let’s take a look at Human Design Gate 12 line by line:

First Line: Standing Still

The first line is called “Standing Still: Appreciating how a harsh world aids your inner sense of freedom.” Even if everything feels like it’s against you and everything’s going downhill, just stop, have a review. You still have your inner freedom. Nobody can take that away. Whatever the roadblocks are, whatever the holdups are—It doesn’t even matter if you’re in jail—you can still be free in yourself. It’s an opportunity to shift the attitude, to have another look at things and realize that you don’t have to be held up by this anymore.

Withdrawing from the mainstream, you relate with those who appreciate your individual needs. There are other people who actually understand the nature of individuality. They understand what it is to be true to their nature, regardless of whatever is going on around them. But a great many people don’t. They just don’t get it. So, by avoiding many social interactions, you find harmony in your own world. The more you can find those people who resonate with you, the better off you’ll be.

On the other side of this, you tend to justify unreasonable isolation, regardless of the effect it has on others. This isn’t simply about cutting yourself off from the world. It’s about being discerning about who and what really contributes to your life. Where are the shackles? Where are the places in which you get held back in life? Where is the freedom limited? You can take stock of this and make the necessary adjustments without just cutting everybody out of your life.

Second Line: Standpoint

The second line is called, “Standpoint: Staying with your own truth aligns you with your own inner contentment.” All of us know when we’re content and when we’re not content. When we’re not content, we’re stressed out, we’re running around like headless chickens, we’re fulfilling everybody else’s wishes, or we’re stuck with some unrewarding job. But, even within those circumstances, it’s possible to find contentment.

The 12th Gateway gives you the possibility to find that contentment. Can you find five minutes out of your day to be content? Can you make it 10 minutes? Can you make it an hour? A couple of hours? What does it take for you to find contentment? Finding contentment is always an inside job.

Your inner discipline is selective in its commitments, or you lapse and become agitated waiting. When there’s a roadblock, when there’s a nothing going on, you have an opportunity to find that contentment, to be content doing nothing. But instead, what often happens is we get all worked up and agitated about it. We feel like we “should” be doing something. We’re here on this Earth as human beings, but somehow, we’ve all become human doings. Always compelled to be on the go, to be “productive” every waking second of every day trying to justify our presence here. Gate 12 reminds us to stop and just be for a moment, or maybe longer.

Espousing firm principles, you eliminate the possibility of being unbalanced by others. Second lines are very natural, even unsophisticated. And as such they are very susceptible to being interrupted by other people. So, this is a reminder to be clear in yourself. Take your own standpoint. Be clear on what works for you and what doesn’t.

Third Line: Resurging

The third line is called “Resurging: Forgiving yourself for any past missteps allows you to move on gracefully.” In life, there are natural holdups and there are also cosmic holdups. They just happen every now and again. Without any rhyme or reason, everything grinds to a halt. You thought everything was going along beautifully and then it all just stops. And the third line can very easily take this on.

So, third lines always have to maintain a sense of humor. Remember to find the humor in those things that don’t apparently work out right the first time.

Everyone makes mistakes. The greatest lesson in life is to absolve yourself and not repeat them. Third lines are prone to a bit of messiness sometimes because they’re the experimenters, the pioneers. They’re always the first ones to check anything out.

Attuning, through watchfulness, to the fragility we all suffer in relating with each other. When you think about it, verbal communication is a miracle. To be able to say something and be fully understood by another person is an amazing thing. But it’s a fragile thing. There’s so much that can go wrong or get lost in translation. And with Gate 12, you’ve got to be really clear about what and how you are communicating. Is this a moment to speak? Is this the time to say something? Because whatever it is that comes through Gate 12 has the potential to be transformational. It can take things out of the ordinary and move them into something very new and different.

Fourth Line: Prophesying

The fourth line is called, “Prophesying: The ability to know when change is coming and the need to be ready.” Anyone that’s got the fourth line has the gift of sight. We might even call it clairvoyance.

Your inner attunement with the workings of nature can foresee and express change. You can see into things. You can see the likelihood of outcomes. And it’s kinda scary sometimes. After all, things are scary enough right here in the present tense, let alone looking down the road into the future. In a world that is coming unglued in many ways, you might see the future but have trouble relating it and knowing what to do practically.

This clairvoyance is a gift, provided you use it well. Knowing the future and knowing how to tell of it are two very different things. Some things can be revealed, others can be really upsetting, even earth shattering for people. So, when you see something, how do you tell it? When you prophesize something, when you see something down the road, how can you say it in a way that’s not threatening? How do you convey it in a way that makes people understand and feel comfortable with it? There’s a great deal of responsibility around imparting to other people what it is that you see.

Fifth Line: Establishing

The fifth line is called “Establishing: Aligning with those aspects of your nature that are empowering.” Fifth lines are the natural leaders, the guides, because they can see the potential outcomes of things. So, the fifth line here is in a situation of being able to empower others through what it is it gets to say, what it expresses, and what it gets involved with.

You intuitively know the people, places and things that are empowering, and you either utilize this gift or disregard it. It’s almost like a game of chess. Everything’s laid out on the board in front of you and you can see some of the potential moves. And then comes this moment where all of a sudden, you get the whole thing. You get the game. You can see all the moves for all the possible outcomes.

That’s what this fifth line has the capability of doing. It absorbs all kinds of different input from all different sources, but you have to stay true to your own way. You have to find your own truth within all these different possibilities.

Sixth Line: Transforming

The sixth line is called “Transforming: Amazing changes come out of periods of standstill.” If you have Gate 12 with the sixth line in your Chart, you’ll know that you can say something to somebody, and suddenly everything changes. And it’s because there’s been a pause. The regular run of things has come to a standstill. There’s a break in the action, and sixth lines can just say, “This is what’s going to happen. This is where it’s all going.” It’s a complete non-sequitur with whatever’s gone on before, but it can open the space for a huge transformation to take place.

Inventing your own rules, you stand apart from the normal expressions of social behaviors. Individual circuitry literally stands outside of the rules. It doesn’t necessarily break them, but it has the means to invent its own. In this moment of standstill, where the normal run of things comes to a stop, it lays out something completely different. It expresses completely new and empowering social conditions. This can mean a complete change to the family setup, or the corporate hierarchy, or even society at large. It’s just a total break in the continuity.

On the other side of this, if you lose track of your vision and true purpose, you easily get stuck in time-worn expressions. If you’re not operating from your own truth, you can get bogged down by the expectations and/or resistance from others who don’t want change, who can’t see the vision, and so you go back to the old tried-and-true.

The standstill offers an opportunity for great transformation, but it requires a steady hand and a clear vision. Otherwise, nothing much happens. So, make use of the standstill, make use of those moments in time where absolutely nothing is moving, and let’s see what happens.

So, there we are, that’s Human Design Gate 12. We’ll check in again soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about how your Human Design informs and shapes your life, get your Free Human Design Report today.