Last week, we looked at Gateway 15, the Gateway of “Extremes”. Now the Sun has moved on into Gateway 52, which we call “Mountain”. So, where Gateway 15 gave us a sense of movement, interaction, communication and the extremes of life, Gateway 52 brings us into a place of stillness, calm, and quiet.

So, with that in mind, let’s have a look at the Life Themes associated with Gateway 52:

 

 

 

The Personal Life Theme: Service

So, on the bottom of the wheel we see that the Sun is entering Gate 52 (stillness, calm, the Mountain) and on the opposite side, at the top of the wheel, we have the Earth in Gateway 58, which is the Gateway of Joy, or “Joyous Vitality”. On the left side, we have the Unconscious Sun going into Gateway 17, and on the right side, the Unconscious Earth going into Gateway 18. So, this opens up the Personal Life Theme of Service.

 

• Gate 52 – Stillness, patience, and presence.

 

• Gate 58 – Embracing joy and celebrating life.

 

• Gate 17 – Examination. Seeing your way forward in life.

 

• Gate 18 – Constant review of personal improvements of how life is, or could be, lived.

 

Those of you familiar with Human Design will know that each one of these four Gateways is in what we call the Logic Circuitry, which is orientated toward the future, toward building a better future by bringing about improvements for the collective. Which brings us to the most important thing to understand about The Personal Life Theme of Service: It’s not personal.

Each one of these four Gates is also in the Collective Circuitry. So, we’re in a place of sharing here. This can mean sharing points of view, or sharing ways in which things can be improved, but it’s always about sharing, never about pointing fingers or apportioning blame—even when we are passing judgement.

What do we mean by judgement in this context? Part of this Tife Theme is made up of Gate 18 (the Unconscious Earth on the right side), and Gateway 58 (the Conscious Earth up on the top of the wheel). And this 18-58 makes up the Channel we call “Judgment”. But “judgement” here is unemotional. It’s not a about blame or punishment. It’s just about the facts. It’s about sorting out the facts from the nonsense—the things that don’t serve us, our community, humanity etc.

The great difficulty with service is that it can get disoriented. It can get tangled up in the tit for tat, quid pro quo mentality. It can get very personal: “I did this for you. What’s the payback?” And it’s not like that at all. This particular Life Theme is all about providing service, as a way of life, for the betterment of humanity. And it’s rooted in this Gateway of Mountain. It comes from a place of stillness and inner calm.

If you have this particular Life Theme, it’s important to remember to trust in your Type and Authority in order to know who and what gets your service. You’re naturally inclined to provide service, but if you’re doing so just out of habit with no regard to what it is that actually calls to you, you’ll find yourself constantly on the go, trying to fix everything without necessarily serving what it is you are here to serve.

 

 

 

 

The Fixed Life Theme: Stillness

The Unconscious Sun has moved on into Gateway 21, the Gateway of Control, which is in the Willpower Center. And on the Unconscious Earth side, we’ve gone into Gate 48, the Gateway of Knowledge.

 

• Gate 52 – Stillness, patience, and presence.

 

• Gate 58 – Embracing joy and celebrating life.

 

• Gate 21 – The Hunter/Huntress – Being very clear on what holds value for you in your life.

 

• Gate 48 – The Well, the unending source of knowledge.

 

So, we’ve shifted into the Fixed Life Theme called Stillness. But does that mean somebody with this Life Theme is absolutely static their whole life? Far from it.

People with this Life Theme basically have this quality of being calm on the inside while they’re very active on the outside. I met a client the other day with this Life Theme. She’s a dancer and dance instructor. She teaches people how to be really comfortable in their dancing, which is kind of a perfect distillation of this idea of stillness. In the middle of a flurry of movement, where every muscle in the body is straining and flexing, she’s there in the center of it, embodying that inner stillness, that inner calm that just knows exactly where the next steps are going to be.

It’s stillness, it’s calm, but it’s not grim stoicism. It’s a joyous thing. It goes back to the Joyous Vitality of Gateway 58. Why do anything if there’s no fun in it? And this Life Theme is not so desperately serious. It’s bound to be about fun. It’s a game of joy, having fun and being in that calm space inside while this is all taking place.

 

 

 

 

The Interpersonal Life Theme: Demands

After just three short hours in the Fixed Life Theme, the Sun moves on to what we call the Interpersonal Life Theme of Demands. This Life Theme is still very much concerned with how a society can improve itself, but the approach is very different.

This is the Interpersonal Life Theme, and people with Interpersonal Profiles (5/1, 5/2, 6/2, 6/3) often have the ability to arrange things for others. They are often great directors and leaders, and their direction is almost always toward improving things. People with this Life Theme often have a very particular quality of literally demanding that society improves itself. But be wary of pushing too much.

Change doesn’t have to be dramatic. It doesn’t always have to look like a big leap or a radical transformation. For those with this Life Theme, it’s about creating meaningful, incremental change. It’s a gradual process. Change—even small change—can be unsettling for people. That’s why people with this Life Theme must be intentional and patient. Your role is not to force things, or throw people headfirst into unfamiliar territory.

Resistance is a natural part of the process—society often resists change, even when it’s needed. So, if you have this Life Theme you’ll find you have more success when you can communicate clearly, and have a sense of humor with things. Your process is rooted in logic. Why should something shift? What’s the reasoning? What are the real, observable benefits? When you provide that kind of grounded information, and lighten the load (yours and theirs) with laughter, people are more likely to get with the program.

So again, the most important thing for The Life Themes associated with Gateway 52 is this idea of inner stillness. While all the world goes crazy around us, can we keep calm? Can we be joyful and bring a sense of fun to everything we do while we’re in the thick of things?

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

If you want to find out more about Gate 52, 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.