Arrows / HD Variables

THE 4 ARROWS (Variables) in Human Design

Visible on most Bodygraph charts near the head

Left (Design side)

Right (Personality side)

TOP LEFT ARROW — Digestion / Brain Function

  • AKA: Dietary Regimen / Cognition
  • Left-facing (active): Needs routine, structure. Better with set mealtimes, consistency, and focus.
  • Right-facing (passive): Needs flow, variation. Better with grazing, intuitive eating, and fluidity.

✨ Think of this as your inner nourishment style—not just food, but how you digest life and information.

BOTTOM LEFT ARROW — Environment

  • Where your body thrives best.
  • Left-facing: You need to choose your environment. Active selection matters.
  • Right-facing: You are designed to be chosen by the right environment. More passive and receptive.

✨ Environment affects your health, creativity, and success more than you think.

TOP RIGHT ARROW — Motivation / Mind

  • Sometimes called “Determination” or “View.”
  • Left-facing: Strategic thinker. Needs planning, structure in mental work.
  • Right-facing: Receptive, big-picture. Doesn’t do well with micromanaging or rigid mental focus.

✨ This is about how your mind is meant to operate—not how society conditioned you to think.

BOTTOM RIGHT ARROW — Perspective / Awareness

  • About how you see the world.
  • Left-facing: Structured perception. Focuses on details.
  • Right-facing: Diffuse vision. Sees patterns, abstract ideas.

✨ This shapes how you experience time, possibility, and the future.

HD Terminology

All the terms you need to start reading a Human Design Chart immediately.

HUMAN DESIGN TERMS

🔹 Type

Your energetic design. There are 5 types:

  • Generator: Here to respond. Strong sacral energy.
  • Manifesting Generator: Here to respond and build.
  • Projector: Here to guide and see deeply.
  • Manifestor: Here to initiate.
  • Reflector: Here to reflect the environment.

🔹 Authority

How you are meant to make decisions:

  • Emotional: Wait through waves of emotion.
  • Sacral: Feel what lights you up in the moment.
  • Splenic: Instant knowing from the body’s intuition.
  • Ego, Self-Projected, Lunar, etc

🔹 Strategy

How to interact with life correctly

Manifestors: to inform before action.

Projectors: Must wait for invitation.

Reflectors: Needs a full lunar cycle to decide.

🔹 Centers

There are 9 centers (Chakras)

  • Defined (colored in): Consistent energy
  • Open (white): Sensitive to external influence, areas of wisdom or conditioning

🔹 Channels

Two gates highlighted together = a channel.

Creates defined centers and expresses a consistent theme or gift.

🔹 Gates

Individual themes or energies at specific points in the chart (from the I’Ching hexagrams).

  • Example: Gate 10: Behavior of the Self, love of being

🔹 Profile

Your life role, like an archetypal costume you wear. Example: 4/6 (Opportunist / Role Model).

Deciding to homeschool using human design

In the human design system the four arrows are called variables. Each of the arrows individually can give insight into making decisions about different areas of life.

People with left facing arrows often have a more structured streamlined routine. Therefore having tasks and set rules to follow are important.

Right facing arrows are described as being more receptive. These people thrive by going with the ebbs and flow of life.

The information he learns is absorbed through a variety a ways which include online courses, board games, field trips, hands-on projects, & so much more.

Being homeschooled allows my son to wake up at when his body is naturally ready. He does not have a rigid routine before school like finding an outfit, rushing to have breakfast, catching a bus, etc.

Most days he’s up by 9 or 10 AM.

There are many different ways Human Design can help you understand your child’s needs when it related to education and learning.

Book a session with me to see what learning style and environment fits your child.

Read more about the arrows here