The 9 Centers in Human Design: Defined and Open
The centers in Human Design are the nine geometric shapes in the bodygraph: Head, Ajna, Throat, G Center, Heart (also called Ego), Spleen, Sacral, Solar Plexus, and Root. Each one stands for an area of life: inspiration, thinking, expression, identity, willpower, intuition, life force, feelings, and drive. Historically, they go back to the chakras, except that Human Design counts nine centers instead of seven.
Whether a center in your chart is defined (colored) or open (white) changes how you experience its theme: as reliable energy of your own, or as a receptive place where you take in and amplify other people's energy. This pattern also determines your type and your inner authority.
On this page you'll find all nine centers at a glance, their groups by function, and the path from center to type and authority. The free Human Design chart calculation shows you in just a few minutes which of your centers are defined.
The nine centers at a glance
| Center | Theme | Defined | Open |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head Center | Inspiration, mental pressure, and the big questions | A reliable source of inspiration lives within you: questions and ideas arise steadily from your own depths. | The questions and ideas of the people around you resonate in you: they echo through your thinking, and over time you recognize which ones truly hold up. |
| Ajna Center | Thinking, concepts, and certainty | Reliably, your mind organizes impressions into clear concepts and positions — your line of thinking can be counted on. | Agile and versatile, your thinking can try on a wide range of perspectives and let them go again. |
| Throat Center | Speaking, acting, manifesting | With a reliable, recognizable voice you get to the point — your words carry weight and set things in motion. | Adaptable and many-sided, your expression tunes itself to every room — you sense exactly how communication works there. |
| G Center | Identity, life direction, and love | A stable inner compass reliably shows you who you are and where you belong. | Identity, for you, is fluid: in the right environment, with people who do you good, you instantly feel like yourself. |
| Heart Center | Willpower, self-worth, and promises | Reliable willpower carries you: what you set out to do, you see through, and you can stand up for your worth with confidence. | You clearly feel the ambition and willpower of others — and quickly feel spurred to prove yourself. |
| Spleen Center | Intuition, instinct, and well-being in the moment | Quietly and spontaneously, your intuition speaks up — an inner yes or no that senses early what suits you. | With fine sensitivity, you pick up how people are doing on an instinctive level — you often notice before anyone else when something is off. |
| Sacral Center | Life force, work energy, and the sacral response | As the engine of your daily life, your energy for living and working renews itself again and again — whenever you respond to a genuine inner yes. | Work energy from your surroundings flows through you — for stretches, you outperform everyone. |
| Solar Plexus Center | Emotions, the emotional wave, and clarity over time | Emotions move through you in waves — highs and lows are your natural rhythm and the source of your depth and warmth. | Other people's feelings resonate in you — you often know how someone is doing before a word is spoken. |
| Root Center | Pressure, drive, and a healthy way of handling stress | A constant drive is at work in you: the power to turn tension into action without pressure throwing you off. | Pressure from outside quickly feels more urgent inside you than it really is — and often it isn't even yours. |
Each row leads to the full article; the “Defined” and “Open” columns show how the same theme expresses itself with a colored center and with a white one.
What a center is in the bodygraph
The bodygraph is made up of three building blocks: nine centers, 64 gates, and 36 channels. The gates are the small numbers along the edges of the centers, and each center has its own: the Head has three, while the Throat has the most with eleven gates, which makes it the most densely connected center. Each pair of opposite gates forms a channel, and every channel connects two centers.
A center is defined only through a complete channel, that is, when both gates at its ends are activated. Then both connected centers are colored in. No matter how many individual gates are activated in a center, it stays open as long as no complete channel connects it to another center. Most people have between three and six defined centers; in the Reflector, all nine are open.
Defined or open: what the difference means
A defined center works consistently and in a fixed way — this is where you shape your environment. An open center has no fixed energy of its own: it takes in what is happening around you and amplifies it. That is where conditioning comes in, but it is also an area of learning. In the system, open centers are considered the places where, over the years, you can develop deep wisdom about other people. Open does not mean weak. Three examples:
- With an open Root, you often feel the time pressure at the office more strongly than the people it comes from. The question to reflect on: Is this task really urgent — or does it only feel urgent because everyone around me is in a rush?
- With a defined Solar Plexus, your feelings move in a wave of their own, and clarity only comes over time. When it is open, you take in other people's feelings, often amplified, and learn to tell which feeling is yours.
- With a defined G Center, you carry a stable sense of self within you. When it is open, direction comes to you through the right places and people rather than through a rigid self-image.
No configuration is better than another. How each individual center shows up in both states is described in the overview article on the nine centers.
The centers by function
Besides its theme, each center has a role in the system. Some belong to two groups.
- Pressure centers: Head and Root. The Head creates the pressure to ask questions and be inspired, the Root the pressure to get things started and see them through. At the top, inspiration presses into thinking; at the bottom, life energy presses into action.
- Awareness centers: Ajna, Spleen, and Solar Plexus. They stand for three kinds of awareness: the Ajna processes questions into concepts and certainties, the Spleen as the center of intuition speaks quietly and only in the moment, and the Solar Plexus brings clarity that takes time.
- Motors: Sacral, Heart, Solar Plexus, and Root. They supply energy: life force and work energy, willpower, the emotional wave, and drive. The Sacral is considered the only motor whose energy renews itself.
- Throat: The Throat Center is the outlet for expression, action, and manifestation. Every center that wants to speak or act needs a connection to it.
- Identity: The G Center in the middle of the chart stands for identity, direction, and love — a kind of inner compass.
Centers, type, and authority
Your type is neither chosen nor determined by a test; it follows from your defined centers. Two questions are decisive: Is the Sacral defined? And is there an unbroken connection from a motor to the Throat?
- Sacral defined: Generator; if a motor connection to the Throat is added, Manifesting Generator.
- Sacral open, a motor connected to the Throat: Manifestor.
- Sacral open, no motor connection to the Throat: Projector.
- No center defined: Reflector.
Everything else about strategies and how common each type is can be found under the five types.
Your inner authority also follows a fixed hierarchy of the defined centers. If the Solar Plexus is defined, emotional authority always applies. If it is open, the Sacral decides, followed by the Spleen, then the Heart (ego authority), and after that the G Center connected to the Throat (self-projected authority). If no center below the Throat is defined, this is called mental orientation; Reflectors, with all nine centers open, have lunar authority. All seven are explained under authorities.
How to find your centers
For your chart, you need your date, time, and place of birth. The calculation of your bodygraph then shows you at a glance: colored centers are defined, white ones are open. A good way to read it is to look at type and authority first, then the individual centers, and finally the gates and channels.
Your basic pattern stays the same for life. Alongside it, the planetary positions of the day, the transits, have their effect: wherever a planet stands, that gate is activated for everyone — for a few hours in the case of the Moon, for several days in the case of the Sun. If a planet occupies the partner gate to one of your gates, your channel is complete for that time, and an otherwise open center is temporarily colored in. On the transits page, you can see which of your channels the sky is completing right now.
Frequently asked questions about the centers
What are the centers in Human Design?
The centers are the nine geometric shapes in the bodygraph, the Human Design chart. Each center stands for an area of life, such as thinking, expression, identity, willpower, intuition, life force, feelings, or drive. They go back to the seven chakras, but Human Design counts nine. Whether a center is defined or open shows where you work consistently and where you take in energy from your surroundings.
How many centers are there in Human Design, and what are they called?
Human Design has nine centers: Head, Ajna, Throat, G Center, Heart (also called Ego), Spleen, Sacral, Solar Plexus, and Root. The three upper centers, Head, Ajna, and Throat, stand for inspiration, thinking, and expression. The G Center, Heart, and Spleen stand for identity, willpower, and instinct; the Sacral, Solar Plexus, and Root for life force, feelings, and drive.
What is the difference between defined and open centers?
A defined center is colored in the bodygraph. It works consistently and in a fixed way because a complete channel connects it to another center. An open center is white: it has no fixed energy of its own and takes in and amplifies the energy of its surroundings. Open does not mean weak. Open centers are areas of learning where, over time, you come to understand a great deal about other people.
What are the energy centers or motors in Human Design?
All nine centers are often called energy centers. Strictly speaking, four of them supply energy, and they are called motors: the Sacral with life force and work energy, the Heart with willpower, the Solar Plexus with the emotional wave, and the Root with drive. Whether a motor is defined and connected to the Throat helps determine your type, for example Generator, Manifestor, or Projector.
What does the Spleen Center mean in Human Design?
The Spleen Center is an awareness center and the seat of intuition, instinct, and well-being in the moment. It speaks quietly, only in the now, and only once, without arguing. With a defined Spleen, you have a reliable inner radar; if the Solar Plexus and Sacral are open, it is your inner authority. With an open Spleen, you sense subtly how others are doing and learn to tell which caution is your own.
What does the Throat Center do in Human Design?
The Throat Center is the center of expression, action, and manifestation: this is where inner energy turns into words and deeds. With eleven gates, it is the most densely connected center, because every center that wants to speak or act needs a connection to the Throat. With a defined Throat, you express yourself in a reliable, recognizable way; an open Throat adapts its voice to whatever environment it is in.
How do I find my defined centers?
You need your date of birth, the most accurate birth time possible, and your place of birth. From these, the free Human Design chart calculation draws your bodygraph: colored centers are defined, white centers are open. At the same time, you see your type and your authority, which follow from the defined centers. Your basic pattern stays the same for life; transits only color in open centers temporarily.
The nine centers are the framework of your chart: your type and authority follow from them, and they show where you reliably draw on your own energy and where you take in the energy of others. Both have their value. If you want to know how your centers are distributed, calculate your chart and then read the articles on your defined and open centers.