Last time, we explored Gateway 7, known as the Gate of “Uniformity”. Now, the Sun has moved on into Gateway 4. In Human Design, Gate 4 is the Gateway of “Mental Solutions” but the literal translation from the Chinese is something like “youthful folly”. The idea behind that, as far as I can make out, is that despite what we’ve all been taught from a very early age, you cannot solve things with mental solutions—not in the long term. You can do quick fixes, Band-Aids. You can manage things on a temporary basis. But long term, it takes much more than the mind alone to bring about lasting satisfaction. That’s not to say that these mental solutions can’t come in handy. There’s a time and place for a good quick fix. But for lasting solutions, we have to go somewhere else in our being.

 

 

 

 

So, with that in mind, let’s have a look at the Human Design Life Themes associated with Gateway 4:

 

The Personal Life Theme: Explanation

As the Sun enters Gate 4 and the Earth enters Gateway 49, we find ourselves in the Personal Life Theme of “Explanation”.  Gateway 49 is the Gateway of “Revolution”, but in my view of it, this works in three distinct levels: The lowest level is the Rejection. It’s an outright knee-jerk rejection. It says, “You don’t belong, go away. I don’t want to have anything to do with you.” The next level is Revolution. And revolution bases itself purely on principles. It says, “I’ve got my principles, you’ve got your principles, and we’re just going to have to fight over it. We’ll overthrow the whole thing if we have to.” It has no constructive and lasting result. The highest level is the Rebel. And the Rebel doesn’t go along with the crowd. The Rebel says, “I see what you’re up to and I don’t buy it. You go and have your revolution. Knock yourself out. I’m keeping an eye on you and what you’re up to, and I’m just going to be over here doing my own thing. I’m not fan material.”

At some point, we’ve all been encouraged to fight for or seek revolution in one way or another. We’ve all had the feeling that something massive has got to change, but as long as it keeps going round and round, it stays stuck in a cycle of Revolution and never becomes an Evolution. And that’s what the true Rebel is up to. The Rebel is causing evolution.

 

• Gate 4 – Mental Solutions – Finding the right solutions and the right timing for them.

 

• Gate 49 – Revolution/The Rebel – Doing away with the old in service of creating a consciousness evolution.

 

• 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.

 

The Unconscious Sun is in Gateway 23, which is in the Throat Center, and the Unconscious Earth is in Gate 43, which is in the Third Eye Center. And the connection here, 43-23 is the Channel of “Expressing Insight”. So, this particular Life Theme has a constant connection between the Mind and the Throat Centers. Which means that when an insight comes in, it’s going to come right out. And since it’s unconscious, you won’t necessarily know exactly what it is that’s going to come through.

 So, what I always say to people with this particular Life Theme, is that you’ll want to be very alert to what it is you say. Watch what comes through. And probably the most important thing about this Channel is tone of voice. It’s very acoustic. It’s in the Individual Circuitry, and it has the power to be very transformative, but tone of voice is the absolute key to allowing this Channel to express things in a way that can be more readily received.

And that goes for all of us during this moment in time. Blurting things out erratically is a very quick way to alienate and disenchant your audience. So again, tone of voice is key. But so is timing. It’s important to be attuned to the right times to speak out. Pay attention to your Type and Authority, and check in: “Am I being called to say something in this moment? Do I actually have people around me who are capable of hearing what’s about to come through?”

 

Notable people with this Life Theme: Magic Johnson, Mila Kunis and Halle Berry.

 

 

The Fixed Life Theme: Solutions

 

 

As we move on into the 4/1 Profile, we still have the Sun in Gate 4, and the Earth in Gate 49. But now, we’re shifting into the 4th line. And we also see that the Unconscious Sun has moved on into Gateway 8 and the Unconscious Earth into Gateway 14. And this brings us into the Fixed Life Theme of “Solutions” (though it could also be called the Fixed Life Theme of “Formulations”).

 

• Gate 4 – Mental Solutions – Finding the right solutions and the right timing for them.

 

• Gate 49 – Revolution/The Rebel – Doing away with the old in service of creating a consciousness evolution.

 

• Gate 8 – Holding Together – Creating trust and providing outlets for novel concepts and ideals.

 

• Gate 14 – Prosperity – Embodying ease in situations involving resources of property, wealth and affluence.

 

Gateway 8, the Unconscious Sun, is a gateway of coordination, of cooperation. It’s called “Holding Together,” and it’s involved in getting people to contribute to a common interest in creative ways. Gateway 14, the Unconscious Earth, is the Gateway of “Prosperity”.  So, there’s really a potential here for us all to expand in our sense of wealth and wellbeing here.

I’ve always loved the expression “think outside the box”. It’s something we’re often encouraged to do in life (even though the people encouraging us to do it often don’t really mean it). But, when we’re talking about the 4th Gateway with the 4th line, there is no box. There are no limits or boundaries whatsoever on what can be provided as a solution or formulation. So, people with this particular (and quite rare) Life Theme potentially have an extraordinary ability to see way beyond the limits of other people’s vision. They can just zone in on something and know precisely what needs to happen.

 

The Interpersonal Life Theme: The Rebel.

Now we go into the 5/1, 5/2, 6/2, and 6/3 Profiles, and we find ourselves in the Interpersonal Life Theme of “The Rebel”.  Some people call it the Life Theme of Revolution, but I prefer to look at the more evolutionary possibilities of the Rebel.

The Conscious Sun is in the fifth and sixth lines of the 4th Gateway and the Earth is in Gate 49 with the fifth and sixth lines. And here, we see that people with this Life Theme have potentially powerful ways of giving guidance or leadership to people, guidance that possibly opens them up to entirely new pathways in life. On the Unconscious side, Gates 8 and 14 are both in what we call the Individual Circuitry, and both are very much involved in putting forward ways to morph or launch or move things in more creative directions.

All of this makes up the Rebel. And when we think of the Rebel here we might think of somebody like Robin Hood. Which is not to say everybody with this Life Theme is on a mission to take from the rich and give to the poor, but this is the general energy around this Life Theme—they’re seeking to expand on people’s possibilities in life, and going about it in their own iconoclastic way. And you’ll probably recognize these traits and tendencies in some of the people who have this Life Theme, including Ben Affleck, Napoleon Bonaparte, Jennifer Lawrence, Magic Johnson, and Steve Carell. It’s an eclectic list, but you can see, if you’re familiar with their work/stories, that they definitely did things their own way, they followed their own frequency, and were able to bring people along with them for the ride.

 

That’s the essence of this Life Theme. 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 4, 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.