We move into the Quarter of Initiation when the Sun transits Gate 13 on February 2 2023 at 9:18AM (UTC)
Gate 13 is The Listener and the 13th Hexagram in the I Ching is called The Fellowship of Man. Its keynote is “universal ideas and values in an ordered framework which inspires humanistic cooperation.”
The energy of the Listener draws people to them. They are here to hear your stories, and even secrets. People with an activation in this Gate are natural-born listeners, and take in the collective stories. As a magnet, they have experienced this even as a young child, with people unburdening in a way they do not often do. People are often surprised what they share.
Each Gate has six lines, like each Hexagram, and by understanding these six lines, we come to better understand each Gate/Hexagram. We can look at the first line, the foundation, to see the overall theme. For the 13th gate, line 1 is about openness and so each of the six lines is the role of openness, which is needed for the success of fellowships. Secrets and hidden agendas lead to their breakdown.
The six lines of the 13th Gates are:
line 1 – Empathy : The ability to relate and commune with everyone with equanimity
line 2 – Bigotry : The risk, always present, that fellowship can only exist for a particular type, whether racial, religious, national or intellectual. (Openness through tolerance/not)
line 3 – Pessimism : The belief that what is best can never be achieved. (Openness being conditioned by suspicion/not)
line 4 – Fatigue : The point of exhaustion eventually reached when one is too tired to fight. (Openness leading to fatigue or vulnerability.)
line 5 – The Saviour : The ability to overcome all obstacles for the betterment of humanity. (Openness to each person having a role.)
line 6 – The Optimist : The ability to accept any limited interaction as a necessary step towards greater union. (Hope that openness will lead to better relationships/not)
(keynotes from The Definitive Book of Human Design by Lynda Bunnell)
Quarter of Initiation
“So, this very first quarter is called Initiation with its mystical theme: The witness returns. In a way everything starts. We can see it in one’s life, we can see in an evolutionary process of civilization and mankind. We can see it building a house. You name it.
So, everything starts here. Everything starts here in that quarter. And it’s called, when it starts something, Initiation. What we know about initiation, this is purpose fulfilled through the mind. But please do not mix it up with making decisions with the mind, because when I was not very familiar with Human Design and when I heard about purpose fulfilled through mind, I was just thinking, first of all I have an open Head/Ajna. I should make my decisions with the Sacral Center.
That’s interesting that I have it’s my quarter where I was born in, my purpose is fulfilled through the mind. And of course, it’s fulfilled through the mind because you can learn so much. You can really apply the mind as an outer authority without using it as an inner authority.
Everything starts here with the mind. The mind plans and of course the body makes a division. But here this quarter is about exploring the human consciousness. So, that really means every single gate that we will look at is really dedicated to a mind as outer authority and in one way or another, having the topic and the thematic to explore human consciousness with that general theme of a hexagram.”
– Dr. Andrea Reikl-Wolf from Journey Around the Wheel with Cathy Kinnaird
The Human Design Mandala which encompasses 360 degrees of the Zodiac and 64 Gates can be divided into quarters. Each quarter’s theme is how a person born in that quarter is here to fulfill their purpose. Aquarius (from Feb 2 on), Pisces, Aries, and Taurus (including up to 13°15′ Taurus or around May 3) are part of the Quarter of Initiation. This is an interesting link between these signs not often looked at.
Purpose fulfilled through the Mind means having clarity, understanding through the Mind (ours and others), and can include educating, explaining, conceptualizing, and sharing experiences of being in bioform. Interestingly, out of the 16 gates of the Quarter of Initiation, six are part of the Solar Plexus and only two are in the Ajna centre and the Channel of Initiation is part of the Heart/Ego/Will centre. It is about learning to surrender to our form consciousness, for the evolution of consciousness on the mental plane.
Do you know which Quarter you belong to?
If you are interested to learn more, Living in HD is a monthly report of transits and a topic through the Human Design lens. Launch prices – $7 Canadian/month or $70 Canadian/year.
