Psyched Out: Separating the Head + Mind Centers
There are perhaps no two other centers that are more intrinsically linked together and potentially misunderstood than the Head and Mind Centers. Visually they seemingly stand together while being apart from the rest of the bodygraph; the Head Center in particular appears isolated given its connection is only with the Mind, and they both rely on the Throat Center to join their energies to the bodygraph’s overall energetic flow. A great deal of the misunderstanding can be attributed to these centers because together they create the ‘mind’ that influences our consciousness. So much so that a staple tenet within Human Design is to be wary of the mind’s interference in our lives as we strive to decondition, connect with our inner Authority, and align with our authentic self. The mind is “a good servant, but a bad master”, as the saying goes, yet to understand the Head and Mind Centers we must start with the basics.
Knowing the kind of center the Head and Mind are helps to ground the analysis with a solid starting point; this allows one to comprehend how the energies of these centers operate and influence the Design. The Head Center is one of two Pressure Centers that exert their energy upon the whole by pushing it toward the three Awareness Centers — of which the Mind Center is one. The Head Center relentlessly exerts its energy of asking or wanting to know, which triggers what is called ‘inspiration’ within the System. By the Head’s very nature, it impels us into initiating mental activity. Concurrently, the Mind Center is providing the Design, and therefore the individual, with cognitive awareness at all times. Unlike the Splenic that functions only in-the-moment and spontaneously or the Solar Plexus that operates in cyclical waves, the Mind Center’s mental intelligence is always on — just like the Head’s ceaseless pressure energy. The Mind Center is boosted by the Head into analyzing, solving, conceptualizing, vetting, and formulating the inspirational energy of the Head into something cogent and intelligible.
The inherent connection between the energies and functions of the Head and Mind Centers makes them difficult to distinguish for those new to Human Design and often blurs the inner considerations of those further along their deconditioning journey. In the homogenized world, we are taught to value the mind’s influence over everything, to live in a world of strategy and active exertion at all times. We value action, not contemplation, for that is good enough to work and live it seems. However, this approach makes for a poor foundation to learn about ourselves. To break from this conditioned perspective, imagine a dark room with miscellaneous objects in it and with a fire pit in the center. Imagine the Head Center as the fire pit itself, illuminating the room with a vague, burning energy that reveals and provides the impetus to examine what is around. The Mind Center is represented by the shadows cast about the room in the light of the dancing fire. It depends on the inspiration, the fire’s light, to have something to make sense of; it wants to label, distinguish, identify, and theorize what the shadows are, what their forms mean, how long they last, where they came from and so on. The Head and Mind are intrinsically connected, yet independent entities.
The Head Center
The Head Center being the fire of illumination and energy of inspiration can be viewed as the generator of knowledge. For the Head, simply observing things is not enough because it must know what it does not and it must know more about what it already does. And yet to know there must be a reason to even bother thinking about what one observes. This impetus for thought is doubt. Doubt has a certain connotation that is not entirely wrong in this instance, but here the concept of doubt is geared toward a sense of being unsatisfied with the current knowledge of something or someone. The Head always wants to question reality, consider possibilities, and posit ‘what if’ scenarios. In some sense, the Head’s inspiration is another term for human curiosity — the very energy behind the ingenuity that led to our species’ dominance on the material plane.
Mechanically, the Head pushes this energy of inspiration and curiosity toward the Mind Center so that it can be turned into something less nebulous, something useful and practical. However, the kind of inspirational energy that enters the Mind for conceptualization depends on the gate conveying it. Ra Uru Hu described how the Head pressures inspiration through three time frames: the past via Gate 64 (the Gate of Confusion), the present via Gate 61 (the Gate of Mystery), and the future via Gate 63 (the Gate of Doubt). He emphasized time because time is the phenomena that contextualizes reality, composed of space and form, for humans that are mortal beings and thus limited in their perception of the universe.
Although the Head Center’s inspiration catalyzes our ability to conceptualize and interpret reality, it can become a problem for those unaware of their Not-Self’s interference. The misdirected pressure can lead an individual to focus on meaningless things, thereby wasting the energy with potentially self-destructive results. Remember, the Head’s doubt is what generates its inspirational energy. And now the connotation of doubt mentioned earlier applies because the end result of this misdirected pressure is a deep confusion and doubt about everything. This leads an individual to being filled with anxiety as the questions they ask are ultimately unanswerable or so trivial they fail to expend the energy. With a Not-Self at the helm of the Head Center, the Mind Center is then at risk of also being misled.
The Mind Center
Mechanically, the Mind Center receives information from the Head via three gates that correspond to the Head’s time frames of inspiration: the past via Gate 47 (the Gate of Realization), the present via Gate 24 (the Gate of Rationalizing), and the future via Gate 4 (the Gate of Formulization). Once more, the Mind is applying its analytical energies through the perspective of time to properly evaluate the inspiration.
The Mind Center, as analogized, is the shadows cast by the Head Center’s fire; it explains and conceptualizes the inspirational questions and doubts of the Head into answers, opinions, theories, lists, pros and cons, or other forms of elaboration. As mentioned before, the Mind operates on a constant basis because we must constantly make sense of reality in order to live within it and appropriately respond to what it puts before us. The mental intelligence afforded by the Mind Center completely dominates modern society despite it merely being an translator of the Head Center’s inspiration. This center is meant to just conceptualize by organizing one’s thoughts into mental reports that adequately describe and support the original doubt. Essentially, it fleshes out an idea into an actual opinion or theory that can be communicated with others via the Throat Center.
An important point, however, is understanding that the Mind Center is not a decider. Instead it acts like both attorneys in a courtroom, arguing back and forth, presenting the evidence for or against a proposed idea. Yet it’s not the judge that ultimately weighs the information to make a decision — that role is only fulfilled by one’s inner Authority. In fact, much of the conflict and disharmony in today’s society is a result of people making decisions and operating by their mental intelligence; this is further worsened by the Not-Self interjecting in the process. We risk becoming stuck in an endless repetitions of words and calculations, leaving our minds to become dominated by a useless chatter. A fear of being misunderstood, of not correctly knowing, or of being ignorant of the world forces us to act incorrectly and inevitably results in poor outcomes.
Cognitive Potential
The value of our Head’s inspiration working alongside our Mind’s mental intelligence is a powerful cognitive potential. It empowers us to question reality, discern the details about our existence, and presents this to our inner Authority for correct responses to be made. Provided we can resist becoming obsessed with knowing or with the need for control, we can liberate our being to embrace our Design. When we live out our authenticity we gain the ability to share our unique perspectives on things and add to the totality that forms the human struggle to progress and live. We must avoid the mind’s interference that drives us toward Not-Self behaviors, while being mindful of the world’s unavoidable conditioning. Better understanding the dynamics of our Head and Mind Centers reinforces our abilities to remain alert and aware of our thoughts, actions, and concerns. When properly understood, these centers become our reinforcements in life and not our saboteurs.