Ep. 182: When Human Design is Disempowering

0:00This is the beginner's guide to human design. I'm your host, Madeline Evergreen. This podcast makes understanding your human design chart super simple and easy. Have you overlooked it your chart and seen all those shapes, minds, arrows and numbers and gotten lost in the descriptions? Me too! After countless hours of practice and study, I'm here to break it down for you. Now let's get into today's episode. I'm back! It has been a few months since our last episode. I took a little hiatus over the summer, and I'm so excited to be back with you on the podcast! If you are new to the beginner's guide to human design, welcome! I'm so glad you're here, and you could actually listen to this episode. It would be kind of an interesting way to start your human design journey. However, when you're done listening, go all the way back to episode number one and listen in order or pick out the episode titles that apply to your chart.

1:04And that is the best way to consume this podcast. But I'm guessing that many, many, many of you who are listening right now have been long-time listeners. I get messages and DMs and little chats going on over on Substack and Instagram. Every single day from people reaching out and saying, I listen to your podcast. I love it so much. Thank you for doing this. And I just want to say that those messages mean so much to me. And I love hearing how the podcast has been affecting you. So the best way to find me is over on Substack. My Substack is titled Glow in the Dark. It's going to be linked below. I'm also on Instagram at Healthy underscore Madeline. And something I wanted to share is how much fun I have been having with the Transit Reports over on Substack. So if you're unfamiliar, there are transits in human design. Transits are like energetic weather. So different gates or different gifts come forward and are amplified

2:06on different days depending on where the planets are in the sky at that time. And it makes us all feel different as a collective. And it also temporarily alters your personal human design chart. So you might feel like a little bit of a different person. This is why you have to take everything in human design that you hear with a grain of salt because you might learn one thing about yourself like you're not emotional. So things outside of you affect you. But there could absolutely have been transits hundreds of times in your life that actually temporarily made you an emotional in human design. So you can recall times or you know that emotions were stemmed from inside of you or you were kind of acting like an emotional. And now you're wondering, well, what's the truth? And the truth is is that when we make things really simple, if we don't even think about things like human design or gates or transits, when we make it very, very simple,

3:06us humans are highly affected daily by many factors, by our hormones, by the people around us, by the weather, the time of year, our financial situation. If there are different things going on in the sky, you know, whatever is happening energetically on the planet can have an effect on us. Toxins, what if there's toxins in the environment? So you want to know that your personality can feel like it changes constantly. And if you don't feel like you're always 100% accurately aligned with your chart, that's normal. And humans got by just fine all the way up until the 80s, 1980s, when human design was birthed into the world. So we don't actually need to know every single intricate detail of our human design charts in order to be a happy, healthy, powerful, incredible, aligned human being. But you're here because I'm guessing you think it's fun.

4:06It's so fascinating, isn't it? It's such an interesting experience to learn about your chart and to learn about your loved ones. And then I personally think that layering on the transits is even more fun, really fun. And you know me, I like to keep things simple and practical. Transits can get unbelievably complex. Like we could talk for hours every single day about the transits. I don't find that necessary. So what I do is I picked out the transit that affects everybody the heaviest or the most. And that is the sun transits. It's where the sun is. It's in a certain gate depending on the day. And so every six days the sun moves into a different gate. And that means every six days we all have a certain gate defined and we all feel it like 80% more than the other gates. So it really sheds light on your life experience during that time. A lot of people really enjoy learning these transits, the sun ones specifically, because it validates why they might feel off track that week.

5:11Or why they're so obsessed with something that week. Or why all of a sudden they're really good at something that week. Or they can't stop thinking about something. And the biggest feedback that I get from my substalk followers is that they actually say they love to listen to the transit reports after the transit is over because it helps them to stay out of their head. And it helps them to review back on the last week what was really going on when I got into that argument. Or when I bought all those things or when I started that project, what was really going on and often looking at the transit in retrospect will shed light on those things. And it just helps you to become more of a self-aware human and more of somebody who can be an observer of your life. So feel free to join all of us over on substalk for those transit reports. I also post a lot of really deep personal articles over there, things that share more about my own journey of going through my shadow work and my transformation process

6:16because I tend to go really, really deep. I love to excavate myself. I love a good death and rebirth. And if you know anything about astrology, I've got a Scorpio moon. I have got Pluto's glory in my son. And so those qualities make me somebody who wants to go deep. That's why my substalk is called glow in the dark. Because it's all about helping us all glow in our real life dark circumstances. We often get into yucky things or having a hard time, but can we actually glow through that? And I believe we can. And that's how I practice my life. So I share how to do that over on substalk. And you are welcome to join me there. Now I just got back from Europe a couple of days ago. I spent 17 days going through Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria with my husband, Christopher. And the main reason for that trip was because I was lucky enough to experience my level three applied astrology class live in person with Deborah Silverman in Zurich, Switzerland.

7:21If you aren't aware, I've been going through levels one, two and three of astrology school since last February, 2026. And so I just completed level three. I'm so happy. I'm so part of myself for investing the time and money and energy to do this in person and all the way across the world. It was a phenomenal experience. And why I want to share that with you is just because I'm so happy about it. But mostly because what I really learned in level three fully applies to my human design knowledge and skills. We didn't talk human design at all. It wasn't about that. It was about astrology. But we mainly learned how to go really deep into a chart or into a person or into a one on one session to pull out so much more depth in their chart. And not just keep going wider and talking about more topics and you know opening up the fire hose and blasting it in someone's face with too much information. We learned how to go deep and I loved it.

8:25So book a session with me anytime I'm doing astrology readings. I spent the entire summer doing astrology and human design readings and I could really see my skills have massively grown because of my astrology training. But yeah, book a reading with me anytime I do human design. I do astrology. I do follow up sessions. You'll see what's available on there and all of that is going to be linked in the show notes. So let's get into it. Our topic today is called when human design is disempowering. This was stemmed because of a podcast that my husband and I were listening to as we were driving through Austria. And I decided I'm not going to share the podcast because it's I don't really have any positive things to say and I don't like bashing people but it was an astrology podcast and it was all about when to take a break from things like astrology or human design when it becomes too much. But what broke my heart is that the majority of what this host was talking about is all of the different ways that human design has felt limiting and disempowering and negative to her.

9:34And it got her in her head and it really messed her up and it was bad. And just as my husband pretty much everything she said I pressed pause and I was like, oh my God, she completely misunderstood what that concept means. Whoever taught her what that word means or what that thing is in her chart said it completely wrong. Like for example, she shared that she had a human design reading and the person told her that if she ever gives birth, it's going to be like deathly painful and awful and she's going to be a terrible mom because she's a manifest her. What? First of all, there's nothing nothing in human design that tells you what kind of birth you're going to have in the future. You know, astrology might astrology is way more about the detail and the story and the karma you're here to experience. But human design is not really like that. It doesn't tell you predictive things like this is what will happen to you or what kind of mother you will be. No, human design is an operating manual. It tells you how you operate and there's literally nothing in human design that is positive or negative. It's all neutral information.

10:44Think about if you were reading the manual for your stove. It's not bad that the flame turns on. It's also not good. It's just how it works. It's simply neutral information. Now if you turned on the flame and your hand was on the burner and it burned you, your impression will be that that's bad. That's dangerous. That's a horrible quality. Or if you are dying for a cup of tea and you need to heat your hot water and you turn on the flame and it boils your water and you're so glad, your association with the flame is that it's a wonderful thing and it's associated with tea and warmth and keeping yourself feeling good. But actually it's just flame. It's not good and it's not bad. And the way it's turned on is just neutral information. So that's what your human design chart is. And if something feels disempowering, it's because you don't understand it correctly. And maybe it's not your fault. Maybe somebody explained it in a way that is inaccurate or maybe somebody explained it in a moment where you were currently feeling triggered or you just somehow associated it with a memory.

11:56And then you took on a disempowered association. I do that all the time. I have to say with my astrology education, I've really struggled with this. There was about a two week period after I understood an aspect of my personal astrology chart where I was mad. Like I had a, I felt like I had a midlife crisis or I was like, this cannot be me. I don't want this part of my chart. I hate this aspect of myself. I don't accept that this is me. And it was really upsetting. And I had to own from the beginning of that breakdown that this is my impression of things. And for some reason there's a deep dark part of me. That's addicted to feeling bad about this. But I know in my head that human design and astrology are not bad or good. And somebody out there would see this quality that I have and think it's amazing. And they might want it for themselves. And so it took me two weeks to actually get through that.

12:56But the way that you can break through disempowered associations with your chart quickly is in a session, is in a reading or in some kind of group class where you can actually verbally talk to the teacher and have a communication back and forth. Or if none of that is going to be possible for you, hopefully you have a friend who's really obsessed with human design and you can share with your friend. Oh my gosh, I feel disempowered about this. Can you, can you help me reframe it with what you know about this quality? Can you help me see it in a good light or change my perspective on this? Because truly there's nothing bad about your human design chart. So today we are going to talk through a few of the examples that I've heard out there. Some of these I've heard repeatedly and it just gets me. It just makes me so mad. Oh my gosh, some of these things I've heard a little bit more sparingly, but there's unlimited amounts of disempowered people or impressions of their charts. And I don't want that to be you.

13:59Like you cannot go on any longer feeling bad or unpleasant about a part of your chart. It's just a waste of your energy. And I'm here to help you to turn that around. So let's go through a couple of examples. This one I hear pretty much every day and it just is so upsetting. I'm a projector. So that means I can't do anything on my own and I have to be invited to do anything. Incorrect. Almost every single projector I've ever done a one-on-one session with thinks this and we have to start the session clearing this up. It makes me so mad that projectors think this and I don't know who out there is saying this, but it's not true. So yes, it is true that the strategy for a projector is called waiting to be invited or waiting for the invitation. A strategy is how you're meant to use your energy type correctly. What is the purpose of a projector energy type?

15:04Projectors are here to give their advice, their wisdom, their perspective, their opinion on things. That's to make it very simple. So if they want to give their advice, their perspective, their wisdom, their opinion on things, the strategy to do that well is to wait for the invitation. Great. Being a human being and living life isn't 100% giving advice and opinions. What about eating, exercising, sleeping, socializing, throwing parties, getting married? All of these other things that you do, 99.999% of your day projectors, you probably don't need to be invited to do that. If you want to go grocery shopping, that's not you giving your advice. That's you doing a normal activity. You don't need to be invited to do that. If you want to, I don't know, start a podcast. You don't need to be invited to do that. The way that you market yourself, the way that you promote yourself will look different than other energy types.

16:09And we could get into that another time. But you can do almost everything yourself. It's just that when you're going to be delivering advice, delivering your perspective saying, this is what I think. When you're going to say that, you need to be invited. And if you're not, it doesn't go well. It doesn't go well and you know it. It doesn't go well for any human. So that actually applies to all of us. But from projectors, it's especially unpleasant for people to receive your amazing advice without the invitation. And here's why. It's not because we hate you and we want you to shut up. Nope. It's because you have a way of penetrating into everybody so deeply that if someone's not ready to feel exposed, if somebody's not ready to feel fully seen, your advice will be so jarring to them. They literally can't tolerate it. And your nervous system will shut down because they feel unsafe, not because of you, but because of them, because you penetrate into them and you saw something that they weren't ready to show.

17:15And that's why you need to be wait, you need to wait because people are sensitive and you don't know that and that's okay. So let's go to the next example. Oh, I'm a manifestor. So that means I'm repulsive. Oh my gosh, you guys come on. Do you really think that there would be a whole system out there that is meant to help people be better humans? And in the system, they say this, this section of people are repulsive. No. What? Like, think about nature. Why would you want something to be repulsive in nature? No. This is ridiculous. If you think that come on, like, I'm sorry, you, you, you have some kind of addiction to feeling bad about yourself. I'm really sorry to say that. We all do. But that's a problem. You actually think that being a manifestor means that you're repulsive. You're thinking that because manifestors or us are called repelling. Repelling is a neutral word. It is not bad or good. Guess what else a manifestor is? The most magnetic of everybody. What what what's a magnet? How does a magnet work?

18:33Well, one side attracts the other side repels. That's why it's called a repelling aura. Can we get over the fact that it's not called a magnetizing aura? Like, let's just move on. Who cares what the word is? It's important that you understand the definition and the practical application of it. So as a manifestor, you are like a magnet. You attract heavily from one side of you and you repel intensely from the other side. You know, most of us would kill to have that quality. Talk to talk to the reflectors. Talk to all of the reflectors who have really negative people in their life that they can't seem to get rid of. I bet a reflector out there would love that repelling aura. Oh, that would really solve a lot of their their long term issues. Wouldn't it? So manifestors, what this means is that you have an energy that's on a very clear path. You are like a train driver. Your train is going to Switzerland. Boom. It's going there. It's not going to Paris. It's not going to Mexico. It's going to Switzerland. And it's a direct straight. You're going that direction. You're not very enough. That's you as a manifestor.

19:45The people that don't got the people that don't want to go to Switzerland are going to be disinterested in your train. They don't hate you. They don't think your train is stupid. They aren't repulsed by your train. They're repelled. They go, oh, I'm not going to Switzerland. I'm going to hungry. So I'm going to take this other train. Neutral information people. It's not about you. It's about where does your energy want to go? And the people that are not going to serve the mission of where your energy wants to go are not going to be interested in being in your sphere. Or maybe they're your friend, but they don't really want to be involved in your business. Like they're not going to be attracted to that part of your life where that part of your train is going. Oh, my gosh. Does that even make sense? Now, let's talk about the other side of your magnet, the magnetizing one, the attracting one. If your train is going to Switzerland, the people that want to go to Switzerland are going to be drawn to your train.

20:49I want to go there. That's where my hotel is going to be. That's where my vacation is. So I'm getting on this train. And I kind of am excited. I'm happy to be here. I'm on the right train. I've got somebody leading the mission. And I feel safe with that. And so that's magnetizing. Again, it's not really about you. It's not good or bad. It's just that the right resources and people are going to be attracted to you. The wrong ones will fall away. You do need to develop a little bit of a thick skin because it is sad when certain things are plucked out of your life or certain people fall away because they're not really on board with what you're doing and where you're going. Yeah, that's sad. But it doesn't mean that you're a repulsive human that people automatically hate. That's just ridiculous. So let's go to the next example. I have indirect light digestion. So I'm only allowed to eat at night in the dark. Wrong. We're not going to get all into what the digestive types are here. I have a really affordable workshop on that.

21:55You can visit studiotimeout.com slash human design to see my list of classes and workshops. It's right on there. But essentially people think that indirect indirect light digestion means that you can only eat in the dark. And that's ridiculous. If you actually learn about what indirect light means, it means that when you are under the sun and it's beating down on you or when really bright lights are on you, you are going to go a little bit more numb. You're going to feel really relaxed. You're going to feel like you can't really think or have a deep conversation learning and studying and working might not be best for you under extreme direct light. So what does work best for you is indirect light, maybe sitting in a in the shade under a tree, maybe sitting indoors with the lights turned low, but you have light coming in through the windows and it's just not blasting on you. And those are the times when your brain can turn on so that you can digest information, you can work best, you can eat food and feel better in your belly when you're when you're not under the blazing sun.

23:01So why do you think that whoever invented human design, let's say God, but use whatever word you want. Why do you think God would make a digestive type that says, ha ha, you chunk of people can't ever eat in the light, ha ha, you have to eat in the dark all the time. No, that is really silly. Like come on, no one would design a group of people like that unless they're going to be nocturnal people or something. Like that's really inconvenient for a lot of cultures. So of course it doesn't mean that you can only eat at night in the dark. And it means that if you're trying to eat under a really sunny situation or with a ton of lights on you, you probably will not digest well in your brain goes, no, and you need to take an app. The next one, I'm a reflector, so I have zero control over how I feel day to day. No, yes, you do have a difficult time controlling how you feel physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally.

24:09All of those things, yes, it's a little bit challenging for you because you're so wide open, but it doesn't mean you have zero control over how you feel. Absolutely not. If you are being so affected by your environment that you're constantly miserable, drained or getting sick as a reflector, it means that you're not acting like a mirror, you're acting like a sponge. Change the way that you operate at an energetic level reflectors are mirrors. They're not sponges. When you're in a negative environment reflectors, you're here to reflect that back. You're not here to become it or to take it on or to take it home with you or to make it yours. Change the way that you see yourself in those situations and literally embody yourself as a mirror and stop accidentally embodying the sponge where you soak in all that negativity. That's one very simple way to have some control over how you feel. You can also gain skills. Like conversation skills, mindset skills, attitude skills, behavior skills, planning skills,

25:18you can develop skills that help you to get through through challenging environments or people while still being an energized empowered human being. I like to think about Sandra Bullock when I think about reflectors. Oh my gosh, that's so funny. My husband and I just saw practical magic to last night for our six year wedding anniversary and I loved it. Oh my gosh, you have to go see it if you love witches. It was so fun. I absolutely loved it. But Sandra Bullock is supposedly a reflector and she's had a really successful career. She's been on red carpets, which is probably a reflector's worst nightmare. I would assume she's been on movie sets. She's worked with tons of different people. I'm sure that she's been in a lot of settings that have been difficult for her, but clearly somehow she's making it through. I have no idea how she's doing really. I don't know Sandra Bullock, but something is working for her, something. And as a reflector, I'm going to assume that she has probably gained some skills on how to be a mirror. That's probably why she's an incredible actress and not a big sponge where she takes it all home with her and now she's a rack and she can't go to work the next day because she's too unhappy.

26:35So if that's a helpful example, just think of Sandra Bullock and reflectors or whatever other reflector out there, you know of that inspires you. Okay, another example. I'm a non-emotional. So everything I feel must be false and I have zero of my own feelings. A, wrong, that's the wrong impression of that. That's not what that means. Being a non-emotional means that typically things outside of you that happen are going to make you feel emotional. Seeing a bird die, watching your mother cry, seeing a baby giggle, watching a movie and having something happen in the movie, feeling the grief from the old woman sitting next to you, those things really affect non-emotional and then it evokes your own feelings. It doesn't always mean they're only feeling what the person next to you is feeling. It means that what's going on outside of you emotionally is going to trigger things inside of you to come up.

27:41So it's ridiculous to think that a human being like half of the population would be walking around with no ability to have their own emotions. How silly would that be? Like why would God or whoever make people like that? No, non-emotionals you do have your own feelings. But they are triggered or pulled out of you usually by something outside of yourself. That's why when you're home alone and no one's around and you're feeling good, you just are good. You're like, why can't I be this consistent all the time? Why can't I just feel this neutral and this light always? It's because there's not a whole lot going on in your environment that's making you feel big feelings. And let's go through one more example before we wrap up today. My spouse is a projector and I'm a generator so we cannot sleep in the same bed or else we're always going to be out of alignment. No, not really, maybe. But not really. I don't know if you guys all know, but there is sleeping advice for the different energy types.

28:44Certain energy types do well sleeping in the same room or same bed and certain ones don't. I have a whole episode about that so go back and scroll back to find it. I think it's just called sleeping advice for the energy types. But it is correct that projectors and generators typically don't do well sleeping in the same bed, but it is also possible. If the generator really gets out all of their energy before bed and gets into bed and just passes out and they aren't still holding on to energy from the day, that can help the projector to sleep. Because what often happens is that the generator is still stirring up energy all night long and the projector is taking it on while they're trying to sleep and then they have bad sleep. Also, projectors, if you learn how to put up energetic boundaries, if you cut cords before bed, if you have an intention of getting into bed and not taking on your generator partners' sacred energy, that could work for you. We are powerful people and our intentions do actually have an effect.

29:47So we don't always have the ability to have a perfect life like separate bedrooms that might not work in every single household and that doesn't mean that now you're disempowered and you're never going to get to go to sleep again. Absolutely not. It's an opportunity for you to learn how to take control over your own energy and become an incredible boundary maker. Energetically. And to get into bed, rock solid strong that you are in your own energy regardless of who's in the bed with you and you are going to have a peaceful sleep. Take responsibility for that own that and watch, I bet it will help you. So it's a two-part job there. It's not just the projector, it's not just the generators responsibility, but it's both of you learning about your own energy, highs and lows and how to have boundaries and how to clean up your own energy so that you can be respectful of those around you and do the best that you can for yourself. So I hope that these examples today were enlightening and inspiring. It's okay if they were triggering. I'm not afraid to trigger people.

30:57Sometimes we have to hear hard things or hear hard truths, but what I don't want you to feel is disempowered. I want every single person leaving this episode right now to feel like you are so much more powerful than you're ever going to be able to conceive. And absolutely nothing, including your human design chart, can tell you that there's something bad about you. And if you can't get it out of your head, if you are stuck in that belief, I really can relate. Like I really understand I completely have been there myself. And that's when doing a one-on-one reading is going to clear all of that up for you and you're going to feel so much better. It's like a priceless experience to have that weight you've been carrying lifted. So as we get ready to close out here next week, we are going into a brand new series on the podcast. It's going to be all about the high road and the low road of the six different lines. And we're going to get, oh my gosh, my words. We're going to get into the 12 profiles as well.

32:03So I love talking about the high road and the low road. I've been kind of bringing that into the transit reports a ton so that you can learn the high and low road of the transits. But now we're going to talk about the high road also known as the positive embodiment of the different lines and also the low road, the negative embodiment of the different lines. Lines are like one, two, three, four, five, six. There's six of them and they're what make up your profile in human design. So you might be a two, four or a one, three or a three, five or four, six. Those numbers are lines. And I have lots of episodes all about the lines and the 12 profiles are ready. Episodes 32 to 37 are all about the six lines and episodes 55 through what is it? 66 are all about the 12 profiles. So I definitely suggest you go back and relisten to the episodes about the lines or at least listen to yours. And then maybe go listen to your profile episode as well or listen to all of it if you want to really go down a rabbit hole.

33:09And I can't wait. I just can't wait to dive into a little bit more teaching, a little bit more empowerment. And in the meantime, come and join me over on Substack. You can look me up a glow in the dark over there. And we can chat, we can continue conversations and just keep the fun going. Thanks for listening everybody and I will catch you in the next episode. Music