Exploring your unique decision making process

In Human Design, your authority is your decision making process. 

This part of Human Design is about learning how to make decisions from our body rather than our mind, because we often let our mind run the show. When this happens, we can end up making decisions based on our past experience, rather than what we actually need in the moment, or what we need to move forward in the future. 

Why connecting to your Authority in Human Design matters

Often, the way that we make decisions is connected to how we were taught to make decisions. This can either by our parents, teachers or anyone who guided us from an early age. 

For example:

If you have two Generator parents with a Sacral authority (the traditional gut feeling). They will be designed to make decisions by listening to their gut. As such, they may teach you to do the same. 

The thing is, as a Projector, Manifestor or Reflector, you don’t have access to that gut response or gut feeling that everyone talks about. This is because you have an undefined Sacral Centre. The energy here isn’t consistent – this means relying on your gut instinct is not consistent either. Only Generators have a reliable ‘gut feeling’ in the moment. As a result, Projectors and other non-Sacral design types can end up feeling lost when it comes to making decisions. This is down to years of being told to ‘listen to their gut’.

The mind wants to keep you safe

Alternatively, you may have been taught to analyse your decisions in your mind before making a decision. Your mind is not the best place to make decisions from. This is because the mind is stuck in a holding pattern of trying to keep you safe. It is constantly ensuring everything is the same as it was for you yesterday. 

The mind makes decisions for you based on what you have already experienced, in order to protect anything from changing. And this isn’t ideal when you’re looking to make a change in your life!

However, when you tune into your authority, you can learn to make decisions in the unique way that you were designed to.

What is my Human Design authority?

To understand what your authority is in Human Design, you need to look at your unique body chart. You can download yours for free right here! 

Got your chart? Look at the right hand side where you’ll find a list of your Human Design information including your ‘authority’. Sometimes it might be listed as ‘inner authority’ or ‘outer authority’.

What are the seven authorities in Human Design?

There are seven different types of authority in Human Design:

1. Emotional Authority

2. Sacral Authority 

3. Splenic Authority

4. Self Projected Authority 

5. Ego Manifested Authority / Ego Projected Authority

6. Sounding Board (Mental) Authority 

7. Lunar Authority

Decoding your Authority

Your authority is decided based on which of the centres in your chart are coloured in, and which of the centres are white. Your authority will always be tied to a centre in your chart that’s coloured. This is because it’s the defined areas of our chart that are the true us, meaning they are the parts that are consistent and reliable for us. Ideally, we want to make a decision from us and not from an area of our chart that is white or open (not us).

Out of all the Human Design types, the Projector has the most possibilities for different authorities. For example, a Generator can only be Emotional, Sacral or Splenic authority. Whereas a Projector can be five of the seven different types of authority. 

In comparison to other HD types, Projectors have a lot more diversity in how they are designed to make decisions.

The Reflector is the opposite with only one authority (Lunar authority) available to them.

Connecting with your authority is an ideal starting point if you are just dipping your toes into your HD experiment. Start with small decisions and follow through with what your authority is telling you. Much of this process is about rebuilding trust with the body after years of likely making decisions from the mind.

The 7 Authority types in Human Design

Emotional Authority

Emotional Authority is connected to your Solar Plexus Centre and is around 43% of the population. 

There is no truth in the Now

If you have an Emotional Authority the important thing to know is that your decisions are all connected to your emotional state in that particular moment. Therefore, as an Emotional Authority there is never any truth in the now. When you have to make a decision, your ideal response is ‘can I come back to you about that?’ rather than giving an immediate response. 

The Emotional Authority is governed by the Solar Plexus which functions in emotional waves. If you are in a high emotional wave (excited) you’ll likely say yes, and if you are in a low emotional wave (frustrated or upset) you’ll likely say no. Your emotions can cloud the correct answer or decision.

With the Emotional Authority you can literally observe your wave in real time. Notice how you feel about an opportunity one day, then notice that you can feel the opposite about it the next. There is never any truth in the ‘now’ moment for the Emotional Authority.

Sleep on it!

Your task is to place some space between important decisions and giving your answer and using that space to balance your emotional state. Sleep on it, go for a walk, try and give yourself some space to come down a gentle emotional wave rather than riding a tidal wave before deciding what to do.

Waves are never flat, they can be choppy or calmer, but they never stop moving completely, and that’s the same for your emotional wave. This means you mean never feel 100% certain that a decision is a yes or no, and that’s OK. Even after taking some time and space you may only be 70% sure of your answer. 

Over time, whilst practising giving yourself space to answer, you’ll start to gain clarity on what a yes or no really feels like for you. Ensure you don’t get trapped into never making a decision because you don’t feel 100% certain. 

100% certainty is often never available to you if you are an Emotional Authority. 

Sacral Authority 

The Sacral Authority is governed by the Sacral Centre – which is the response motor. This is an Authority only available to Generators and Manifesting Generators and this is the traditional ‘Gut response’. Your answer is always available in the moment –  it is an immediate yes or no, and it comes from the pit of the stomach. 

The Sacral authority often has an audible noise that comes with its answer ‘mmhm yes!’ or ‘uuhhh no’. The next time you are making a decision, look out for these noises, or listen to someone else who you know is a Sacral authority and see if you can notice it in them.

Often the noise that comes immediately after the question is the clue to your correct answer. You may tend to hear your Gut but then move the question up to your mind, which takes over the decision making process, trying to justify what it thinks we should do, rather than listening to the body. Listen to that first audible noise and that Gut yes or no!

Splenic Authority

The Splenic Authority is governed by the Spleen centre –  the awareness centre that governs intuition. This is the traditional ‘intuitive response’. 

What does your intuition say? It’s important to recognise that intuitive response is different to Gut response (see Sacral Authority above!). An intuitive response is an internal knowing and it’s only available in the moment that the question is asked. When asked why you’ve made that decision you probably won’t be able to tell anyone why – you just ‘know’. 

If you’ve been used to making decisions from your mind – analysing situations and thinking about what is best – rather than listening to your intuition (most of us!), then it’s important to start building back trust between yourself and your intuition. 

You can do this by following through on decisions where you have a knowing of the answer. Start with small decisions such as what to eat for breakfast, listening if there’s an intuitive knowing from inside and FOLLOW THROUGH. 

Be sure to pick fairly insignificant questions to start with so there is no resistance to follow through with your intuitive response. This is how you begin to re-establish trust between you and your Splenic intuition.

Self Projected Authority

The Self Projector Authority is governed by the G Centre – the centre that processes the themes of identity and direction. 

This Authority is reserved exclusively for Projectors. If you have this Authority your chart will only have defined (coloured in) centres from the G centre and above. The Spleen, Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart and Root will be white (inconsistent), and therefore no good to rely on for making decisions.

With exclusively centres at the top of your chart Defined, the energy is focused very much in the mind and – as a reminder – you shouldn’t be making decisions from the mind. 

The Self Projected Authority is about getting decisions outside of you, outside of your head, so you can hear the correct answer. You are designed to speak what you are thinking about your decision out loud in order to hear your words back. You are designed to listen to the tone and vibration of your own words to come to your decision. 

To be clear, this doesn’t mean asking someone for any advice. You can speak out loud to a trusted friend or coach, as long as they are happy to simply listen, or you can literally speak out loud to your phone voice notes and listen back to them.

The Self Projector Authority was born with a natural behaviour of speaking things out loud. Often as children they may have ‘talked to themselves’ and possibly trained to stop speaking out loud and to keep it inside their head instead. 

Remember, it’s part of your design to speak out loud and listen back. This is how you hear your own correct answer.

Ego Authority (Projected & Manifested)

The Ego Authority is governed by the Heart Centre which manages the themes of Will Power, Self Worth, Material items and the Ego itself. This Authority comes in two forms – Ego Projected (for Projectors) and Ego Manifested (for Manifestors).  

If you have the Ego Authority, your chart will show you don’t have access to the traditional Gut response (Sacral) or an Intuitive knowing (Spleen). Your Solar Plexus (Emotions) will also be open, so the best place you can make decisions from is the Heart. 

The Heart makes decisions based on what’s best for itself, given its connection to material goods, self worth and ego. When I first tell Ego authority individuals this they think it may come across as selfish,  but it is far from it. The Ego Authority individual is making a decision to best support themselves, in order to then support others. If you are making incorrect decisions in life, taking you to situations and experiences that are not for you, you will never be able to support others. Listening to what’s best for you first, is part of your design. As an Ego authority, you are designed to listen to your heart and make decisions based on what’s best for you. This can also involve speaking out loud and listening to the tone and vibration of your voice when you are speaking from your heart.

Environmental / Sounding Board Authority 

The Environmental Authority is often sometimes called the Sounding Board Authority too. Similar to the Self Projected Authority, it is a decision making process that’s exclusively reserved for Projectors.

Where the Self Projected Authority has the G Centre defined – and therefore a consistent and reliable sense of direction – the Environmental Authority doesn’t have access to this. 

Your centres are defined only in the Throat, Ajna and / or Head Centres.

The G Centre governs the themes of identity and direction. When it is open (white), it is absorbing and amplifying those themes as you move throughout your day. You are designed to be fluid in who you are (identity) and where you go (direction). How you feel changes based on where you are and who you are with.

To put it simply, your environment impacts your decision making. If someone calls you and asks you a question whilst you are in the supermarket – they’ll get a different answer than if they asked you the same question whilst you are walking in the woods.

Every environment deeply impacts how you feel.

You’re designed to make decisions in a similar way to the Self Projector Authority – by speaking them out loud and listening to the words coming back. You need to get your decision process outside of your mind in order to make the correct choice. You do this by speaking. However, before you do this ensure you are in an environment that feels safe and stable to you. 

If you are in a busy supermarket, or a jam packed office, you’re going to be absorbing and amplifying a lot of information that isn’t you. This could impact your decision making. 

Tips for Environmental/Sounding Board Authority:

• Make a list of your big decisions and set some time aside each week to go on a walk
• Have a coffee at home either alone or with a trusted friend who is happy to listen
• Speak out your thought process to arrive at a decision for each of your questions

Lunar Authority

The Lunar authority is exclusively available to the Reflector. As a Reflector, all of the centres in your design are white. Your Aura is sampling. As you move throughout the month, you sample a taste of each of the gates as they activate through the transits of the planets. 

Reflectors are incredibly sensitive to energy for this reason. It can feel like they have a ‘Projector’ day and then a ‘Generator’ day’. Various elements of their chart are activated during each 28 day lunar cycle. 

The Lunar authority is designed to wait a full lunar cycle before making a decision. This is because they need to sample the energy of the planetary transits throughout the month in order to get a full picture.

Of course, practically Reflectors can’t wait 28 days to make every decision. However, the Lunar Authority timescale is a nod to the patience required by Reflectors to make big life decisions. For example moving city, a new relationship, a new job. 

Like the Emotional Authority, it’s possible you may never feel 100% certain with your answer and you may only feel 70% clear. 

What’s important for the Lunar Authority is not to avoid making the decision indefinitely. 

Once the 28 days are up, you have the energetic information you need to make a choice. 

Ensure you don’t get caught in the trap of never making a concrete decision after that time period is up. 

Stepping into clarity & alignment with your Authority

Understanding your authority in Human Design is akin to discovering the compass that guides your journey through life. In a world where decisions often stem from conditioned responses or over-analysis, tapping into your unique authority offers a path to truly authentic decision-making.