Understanding your Human Design Authority and how it can help you make decisions
Along with your energy type and Strategy, your Authority is another key part of truly understanding yourself through Human Design. Strategy and Authority in fact work as a beautiful team together, helping you to make the most aligned decisions and allow your life path to unfold in it’s most authentic way.
If you aren’t already familiar with your energy type then check back on this post to gain insight into your unique way of operating.
While your strategy gives you insight into how to move through the world, your authority is like your own personal inner decision maker. I like to think of it as a compass that helps our body point towards it’s true north.
When I began my own Human Design experiment, this was one of the things that I found most fascinating to play with. As a Manifesting Generator with sacral authority, I had always been aware of what I called a ‘full body yes’ to making decisions, but understanding how the sacral works gave me the confidence to truly trust these body based senses. It also helped me understand why decisions I had made from a place of ‘should’ or obligation, or that had felt quite flat and heavy in my body, always drained and depleted me.
Going against the grain
Conventionally we are taught to use our mind when it comes to making decisions. To analyse, think things through, weigh up the pros and cons and rationalise. However, in Human Design we like to look at the mind as a passenger and our Authority as the driver. The passenger can help and assist, but doesn’t run the show!
A sure sign that we have bypassed the power of our own Authority is when we find ourselves overthinking, trying to rationalise and second guessing ourselves. Our authority is a felt sense in the body, it doesn’t always ‘make sense’ on paper, but it truly is an incredible tool that so many of us ignore because we haven’t been taught how to use it.
When someone is a little out of sync with their own authority, it can take practice to fall back into attunement with it, so I always encourage people to practice using their authority with the small, everyday decisions first. The more you tune into it during these times, the more easy it is to access it when something bigger comes into your field.
There are seven different authority types and most chart readings will tell you what your authority is quite clearly in written words. If you haven’t familiarised yourself with your authority you can do so by running your chart here.
Emotional Authority - Wait for clarity
Around half of the population has emotional authority. The invitation here is to wait for emotional clarity before making a decision. What this means is that, rather than deciding from a high or low state of being (peak excitement or very low moments for example), it is ideal for you to allow yourself to ride your emotional wave and come back to a more neutral place before making any committments. From this settled place you will feel what people often explain as an ‘internal click’ where there is a quiet knowing and the decision feels as though it is coming from a steady place. It is ideal for you to sleep on things, or at least give yourself a little breathing room before committing.
Sacral Authority - Trust your gut
This is a very body-based authority. Your sacral speaks in physical sensations, sounds, and gut responses. When the sacral 'lights’ up at something it is telling you whether you have the energy to pursue something or not. There is a practice to connecting with the sacral, so learning what your own personal body ‘yes’ and ‘no’ is can be experimented with. For some a YES might feel like a surge of warmth, a tingling sense of excitement, a pull towards something or an involuntary ‘mmm’. A NO might feel heavy, flat, or produce that instinctive face-scrunch of ‘urgh’. You may even sense ‘nothing’, or simply feel a bit ‘meh’… which is also a sign that it isn’t a yes. Anything other than a full body YES is a no… or sometimes a not yet. Get used to asking yourself, and answering very honestly, ‘does this light me up?’ and if the answer is no, try to trust that rather than convince yourself using the mind that you ‘should’ do it.
Splenic Authority - Intuition
The splenic voice is the most quiet of all the authorities. It is an instantaneous intuitive response and comes from a sense of deep primal instinct. People experience it as a flash of inner knowing that arrives in the moment and is then gone, it may be words, an inner voice, even a smell or scent, or simply just an inexplainable knowing that you need to do something. Having a Splenic authority is calling you to connect deeply with your intuition, even if it doesn’t make sense, and get quiet enough to hear the messages. For this reason practices that bring you to stillness and quiet are important. If you find yourself hesitating or going around in mental circles, you have likely already ignored your intuition and moved into your head.
Ego Authority - Willpower
When your heart is truly in something, you can make anything happen! Essentially, when you have Ego authority you are designed to do what you genuinely want, and only commit to things that your heart is truly in. There is an almost ‘selfish’ approach that is needed here, because when you commit to something you need to have the willpower to see it through. If you find yourself making decisions from duty or obligation you have likely ignored your own authority and your energy will be compromised. Get used to asking yourself… ‘is my heart really in this?’ and ‘do I feel motivated to make this happen?’ to ensure you stay aligned with your own inner compass.
Self-Projected Authority - Talk it out
You have an inner knowing, an ‘I just know’ quality that often arrives without clear explanation. The way you access that knowing is by hearing yourself speak it out loud. Not to receive advice or feedback, but simply to hear your own voice give shape to what is inside you. Those with a Self Projected Authority have a strong sense of identity and it is crucial that they feel a decision will support them in moving in the right direction, a direction that makes them feel authentically expressed. It is also important to ensure you have trusted spaces you can ‘talk it out’ in with the knowing that you won’t be given opinions. Simply the act of translating feeling into voice is where the magic happens. If you don’t have a trusted person to speak it out to, you can try voice noting to someone, or simply recording your voice to get the clarity needed. As you speak you will feel the decision settling in your system.
Environmental or Mental Authority - Be in the right space AND talk it out
Your inner guidance comes from your environment AND from talking things through with the right people. This is a slower, more deliberate authority with truths that arise over time. This authority weighs and balances before arriving at a conclusion and depends on the people and spaces they are with. You have the unique ability to amplify and intensify others’ perspectives and ideas and then turn them into wisdom, which is an incredible skill but only when they are the ‘right’ people, so being intentional with who you surround yourself with is vital.
Lunar Authority - Wait a lunar cycle - Reflectors only
Due to the beautiful vast openness in a Reflector chart, the invitation here is to wait for a full lunar cycle — 28 to 29 days — before committing to significant decisions. As the moon moves through all 64 gates, a Reflector gathers the full spectrum of information they need and provides you with the opportunity to place yourself in different spaces, with different people, to get a complete picture in order to make the most aligned decision. A decision that feels good to you. It may not be possible to wait for a full lunar cycle for every decision, so when that time isn’t available to you then prioritise placing yourself in the most correct environment, one that is uplifting and makes you feel good, to support your decision making.
Once you have understood your energy type, your strategy and started experimenting with your authority, so many parts of your life will naturally start to fall into place. The most important thing to remember is that there is no ‘perfect’ here, let yourself test out what feels right to you and see what your inner compass starts to guide you towards.
If you want to go deeper you can book a Human Design Reading with me here to begin exploring the many layers of how you can use Human Design in your sacred business.
In my next Human Design article I will be sharing a little more about how you can use your Signature and Not Self themes as important messengers to guide you in your life and your soul work.
