Your Soul Map

By Acyee Brown and Asha Ramakrishna

Have you tiptoed into Human Design but felt like it didn't take into consideration your own ancestral lineage? Have you been skeptical of the blended systems that make up Human Design or wondered how accurate it could be because you haven't seen a lot of diversity in the field? Your Soul Map examines those very questions through intense interviews with leaders who are pushing the edges of societal beliefs and demanding equal value for those who have experienced less privilege. The lens used in this book reveals some of the inadequacies seen and felt by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color thereby validating and bringing to the light more areas in need of healing and liberation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Human Design Press
• Release date: Apr 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9781955272650

Book preview

Foreword

There’s a big elephant in the Human Design room that we don’t often talk about.

Human Design is a synthesis of Eastern (Vedic) and Western astrology, the Chinese I Ching, the Hindu chakra system, Judaic Kabbalah, and quantum physics. And while the system itself is a synthesis that makes it into a whole new creation, Human Design often ignores its cultural roots, glossing over those components. Maybe that’s because Human Design is young—younger than many reading this—and with most everything else in life, it takes time to mature, to grow, and get back to its origin.

We are waking up to the fact that we must deeply honor and respect the culture and practices of people and become cognizant that integrated patterns exist deeply embedded within groups of people that are as true and real and important as the choices they make. We must acknowledge the origins—the roots and foundation—of the synthesized parts of Human Design and the parts of the chart containing elements of spiritual practices or cultural identity. It is important that we acknowledge and respect the origin of each facet and extend our gratitude and honor instead of simply taking and making use of without authority or right.

The beauty of humanity is that we are a giant cosmic puzzle with billions of utterly unique and non-duplicable pieces. We are simultaneously an individual piece of the puzzle and an integral part of the whole. Appreciate the different pieces, explore and learn from them, savor them, but do your best to make sure that they stay protected and in integrity.

Human Design teaches us that we are all different. We all have our own experiences and inner wisdom that we bring to the table. There is no one way to share Human Design.

As this powerful system grows in popularity, it is vital we remind ourselves that the purpose of Human Design is to help people remember their own inner authority to find their own way and truth. We must continue to expand, mature, and grow in the ways that we use Human Design as a tool for liberation. We must also remember that even though, at the heart, there are core elements of our human story that inextricably entangle and unify us, we are all unique, vital beings with very different histories and experiences. Human Design reminds us that there are an infinite number of paths and truths to our soul curricula. 

Thank you, Asha and Aycee, for bringing this painful and closeted conversation to the forefront and for helping us remember that our true beauty is in our diversity and in the full expression of who we are.

Karen Curry Parker

March 2023

Introduction

When we started out on this journey, we wanted to create a book that showed Human Design from a Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) lens and perspective, and frankly, our disposition was one of disdain and anger. This sacred rage fueled the motivation to birth a book into the world that could make the wrongs right. In the process, we have come to realize that the voices and experiences that we heard through the interviews and through our own synthesis have become a love letter to Human Design and humanity and have also allowed us to see the system with appreciation and understanding of its evolution. We now want to dissect the system from a lens of appreciation and investigation and see how a beautiful system can also have harmful roots, and how we, as stewards of such a system, have a desire and influence to create space through language to heal its roots. It is a living system, and as such, it has room to evolve and adapt to better serve the whole. We recommend you have your Human Design chart at hand to reference as you read this book. You can get your free chart at www.geneticmatrix.com.

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Like any other system, there are always two sides to a coin; there are those who want to maintain the system and those who want to evolve it. We can see how purists have a deep respect for the origins of any holistic framework, and how precious the preservation of the origins of Human Design is in maintaining integrity. It is like somebody creating naked goat yoga without giving proper reverence to an entire healing system of yoga and all its limbs; we understand that yoga itself needs to evolve with humanity; can this be done while honoring the roots of such a sacred lineage? We believe that similarly, Human Design can both be honored, revered, critiqued, adjusted, and reborn to meet the needs of an evolving human experience. Anything that has a great foundation must evolve; that is the nature of all things that serve. The era of having BIPOC modify systems that are created by and for non-BIPOC (consciously or not) needs to cease. We are in a time where we can evolve and also prioritize those who have been marginalized by society; now is the time. What is not always understood is that this is not only about doing the right thing, it is also about shifting our attention toward the liberation of those least encouraged to be liberated; that is how we make Human Design better.

One of the most healing interviews we had through this process was with Karen Curry Parker. Karen is one of the OG Teachers of evolving Human Design, especially for Gen X and Millennials. Many of us have learned Human Design through her lens, and it is an important one to understand. Karen has a cultural and spiritual background in Judaism and Kabbalah, which has influenced her work in ways that differentiate her from her original teacher, Ra Uru Hu. Karen knew Ra on a personal level since she worked in his organization and studied with him extensively before his passing. This gives her insight into the original system, the founder, and the need for change. Her voice in the community has been imperative for many of us who needed a woman’s perspective, and her compassionate nature (Gate 50) has offered a space of integrative healing and the embodiment of the Human Design system. What we know today is that the way she has been teaching is rooted in the ethos of the Kabbalah (more on this later). Just as Karen repositioned the teachings of Human Design with the Judaic foundation, we also want to introduce the other foundations that make Human Design and open the scope so that it can serve BIPOC.

In Karen’s words:

One of the core tenets of Judaism is a principle called Tikkun Olam, which means our role in each generation is to move ourselves toward healing the world; it’s our obligation. And I think I would like to see everybody look at their Design as a soul curriculum and a path for them to fulfill their obligation, to do their part, and to heal the world. (Karen Curry Parker, personal communication)

The truth is that all of us are in constant negotiation with the world and its demands and aligning to our soul curriculum requires effort. In many ways, this alignment is an individual journey, and you first must be present to your Human Design chart. Explore it, decondition the parts that have seeped in to mold us according to the expectations of the world, and arrive at an understanding that allows us to embody the pieces that belong to us. Living out our individual soul curriculum and helping each other do the same seems to be much of what we all hear Karen expressing in everything she does and teaches.

In public discourse, the integrity and character of Ra, the founder of Human Design, is very much in question. Many of us wrestle with perpetuating a system that was created by a white man that seemed to have had controversial ethics. Many modern-day spiritual leaders who carry transformational wisdom have displayed moral dissonance, making many of us question the validity of the teachings they hold. Yet, we see how the teachings help us, so we struggle to make sense of endorsing their channeled wisdom. We do believe that it is time to hold leaders to greater standards of behavior, and part of the reason for investing our time and energy here is to rectify what we can control in Human Design: our own sovereignty within the system.

In comparing Osho¹ to Ra, Karen says:

"If you can take Osho out of the inspirational quotes, what Osho says is truth with a capital T. How Osho showed up, maybe not so much. I think this has always been my intention with Human Design, to leave the ickiness behind. There’s truth in Human Design, but the people part is kind of messy.

"To a certain degree, I think it’s okay that the people part is messy, as long as we can see it and we don’t defend it. I think that in the beginning especially when you go back and you read, say the Book of Lines or the Book of Changes, or the Black Book when Ra originally downloaded his initial experience with The Voice, his love for humanity was palpable. Like I literally can’t read sections of it without crying because I’m so moved by how beautiful the story of humanity is when Ra started transmitting this system; he had seven years of a transit that brought him Sacral definition.

"And then the Gate 5 moved out and his Sacral got open. All of a sudden, all that energy just went away. He no longer had Sacral definition. That’s all his energy to the Throat. He had children, he had some unprocessed trauma. I look at him with, Kavod². A Jewish principle of compassion.

When I look at him with compassion, I’d say he was a vessel for a brilliant system. He was a beautifully flawed human being and everything that he shared was processed through his filter. You have to disengage from his filter and make it your own. We try to look at it with compassion. That’s all I can say because otherwise, I get mad. I am not mad at Ra. That’s the thing, I’m not mad at Ra. I think Ra was flawed, profoundly flawed. I’m mad at people who perpetuate the mythology of Ra, especially those people who know better. (Karen Curry Parker, pers. comm.)

Similar to how much the spiritual communities have taken the truth in teachings and set aside the humans who steward the teachings, we want to create a space where Human Design gets to flourish outside of one human. Then it can be handed to those who want to heal the fractured pieces, re-indigenize the parts, and allow the system to evolve and mutate in service to humanity. Especially communities that need it most.

Why This Book and Why Now

You are here to be the highest form of who you are and nothing else. Love that. ³

—Asha Ramakrishna

With all the information about Human Design on the internet and in books, and all the mythologies about the system, there is still a lack of BIPOC representation and communion. What we have come to realize is that Human Design is a beautiful system that can provide personal autonomy and freedom to oneself while on your soul’s journey. The teachings of the system, however, are limited by the identity and experience of the leading Human Design teachers. This is at no fault to them, but the current educational Human Design models lack the depth and richness of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. We believe that when we liberate those that are oppressed the most in our world, we liberate all.

One example to help us see how this path to liberation can work is tuning in to the notion that:

Until Black Women Are Free, None of Us Will Be Free. ⁴

—Barbara Smith

In the spiritual community, there is an undertone of assimilation that doesn’t allow BIPOC to feel safe enough to bring the entirety of our experiences and lineage to these systems. As BIPOC, we often feel as though we have to take what is and be okay with it and modify these systems to fit us without the support of non-BIPOC leaders. That brings an us-versus-them mentality and isolates our existence. This highlights the necessity to deepen a body of work to meet us in our current reality and allow us to fulfill our truest potential. Human Design is a soul map that allows us to stay in alignment with who we truly are. For BIPOC, experiencing our truth has been stripped away over time, and systems like this can help us come back to our souls in the truest form.

The era of code-switching⁵ our soul’s journey and ancestral experience is over. We no longer want to deny our rightful place and power in the world. Many of us have been told that we aren’t worthy; worthy of love, worthy of wealth, worthy of freedom, or anything that’s good in the world. Yet we persevere and continue to fight for a fraction of what is available to us. This is no longer our desired reality and many of us aren’t going to lay down and just take what has been given to us. We want more, we demand more, and we are creating sacred spaces so that those who look like us can thrive as much as anyone else.

The highest expression of a human being is visible through the Human Design map. We are able to see the unique expression of our soul and life curriculum, and we are able to ground in the areas of our gifts and our challenges. When we divorce ourselves from the expectations of society, our DNA, capitalism, our families, religions, and everyday life, we are able to drop into having a life partnership with our incarnate soul, the unique expression