If you’re new to Human Design it can be annoying to try and figure out what all these new terms mean. So in this post, I’m taking my 10+ years in the industry and sharing the key things that I wished someone had explained to me when I was a total beginner.
First: Let's look at the numbers (aka your Profile)
4/6 Splenic Manifestor
On your Human Design chart, there is a number that is usually displayed in such a way that it looks like a fraction. (It’s not a fraction but it does appear that way!)
This is known as your Profile and it can tell you incredibly useful things about your inbuilt character.
Your Profile has two numbers and they both reveal something about how you relate to other people and life in general. There are no better or worse Profiles there is simply your natural tendency for how you’re designed to do this life.
If your Human Design chart shows that you’re the same Profile as listed in the title of this post then this means the following...
With a 4/6 Profile, your experience of life is going to look very different depending on the age you are now. Known in Traditional Human Design as the "Opportunist/Role Model" one part of you is a friendly social butterfly and the other part is… well, on something of a wild ride ;)
The “4” (aka the “4th Line”) is pretty stable. It likes stability and it likes people. This is the part of you that’s friendly, outgoing, a natural networker. You make a good friend and are always trying to build a solid web of relationships made up of good people.
You want lots of friends and kind acquaintances. You want people to have your back and you expect the same in return. The more robust your network the better for you and everyone who knows you as your opportunities for growth and success come through this network.
But this is only one part of you. Your “6” (or “6th Line” self) is quite a different character. This part of you is forever changing, mutating and adapting on its way to becoming the role model you were born to be.
For the first 29 years (or so) of your life, you’re going through a deeply experimental phase. You’re designed to ‘try all the things’ many of which won’t work out the way you hoped. You’ll make lots of so-called “mistakes” and probably collect a bunch of bumps, bruises and perhaps some breaks along the way. This is the time when you learn a lot by doing a lot.
If you’re reading this and you’re still under the age of 30, know that everything you’re learning you’ll have a chance to use later to help the people you know. Hold on, it gets better.
Around age 29, you go through your first Saturn Return. This marks a shifting point for you where you step back from the messy, intensity of life and you begin to reflect on the things you’ve been through. Over the next couple of decades, you slowly heal and integrate these experiences, ideally making peace with any shame you might feel about perceived “failures”, especially relationship failures.
The better you can heal, integrate and see a more objective perspective on the things you’ve experienced, the better a role model you’ll become when your Kiron Return happens at around age 50.
And while your Opportunistic 4th Line self has still been tending to relationships and connecting this person to that person, and sharing what it knows with the people in its network after 50 is when you really get to shine.
This is when you will influence your network the most. This is when you can share all that knowledge you’ve collected through the multitude of experiences you’ve had and the wisdom gleaned from them.
This is when you get to be an example, a role model, an inspiring illustration of what it can look like to truly be yourself.
Second: Let's look at the first term (aka your Inner Authority)
4/6 Splenic Manifestor
Knowing how to make powerful and aligned decisions in your life is arguably one of the most important things Human Design can show you.
When I didn’t know how to make decisions according to my energetic design my life was a total shambles. Once I learned about Human Design and understood my Inner Authority things began to change and have only got better and better over time.
The term Inner Authority points to the fact that you are your own best authority in your life.
You know what’s best for you if only you know where to pay attention when trying to make decisions. This is the power of understanding your Inner Authority. If your HD chart or report tells you that your Inner Authority is the one listed below (and in the title of this blog post) then I'll walk you through the meaning of that now.
Splenic Inner Authority isn’t that common but we have a lot of language to describe this decision-making process. This is a kind of spontaneous, intuitive knowing.
If this is your Inner Authority you literally have to ignore the mind, ignore people who tell you to “sleep on it” and ignore any suggestion that you need to justify your decision with a logical reason. That’s not how you make your best decisions.
Your deep gut knowing, on the spot, in the very moment the opportunity arises that’s when you’ll know.
As long as you’re paying attention, that is.
Third: Let's look at the last term (aka your Type)
4/6 Splenic Manifestor
The last part of this series of words we use to describe you in Human Design is your Type. Broadly speaking there are five Types.
(Although some HD teachers prefer to teach four Types many of us have found that splitting the population into five broad groups is more helpful. If you’ve seen this difference between teachers, or you do in the future, please know whether it's four or five, it’s not worth losing sleep over.
Type is an imperfect way of splitting 8 billion people into different groups. While the exact right way to split us into different segments might be imperfect it's still incredibly helpful, hence why most HD teachers on the planet teach about the concept of Type. So, let's get back to the blog post as we re-focus on what’s truly helpful.)
Your Human Design Type refers to how your aura (or energy field, it’s the same thing) behaves or interacts with other people. Some people are here to start conversations, others are here to respond, and one group of people are here to do a bit of both. Some are here to take other people in deeply so they can understand them really well, while others are here to be a mirror for the people they meet.
No one Type is better than any other; they are all just a little or a lot different from the others and are all here to do different things in this life.
As a Manifestor, you have a powerful, initiating energy that you take everywhere with you. You are here to birth brand new things from just an idea.
You are the spark that starts a process happening and the rest of us need to be that powerful person otherwise there’s nothing for the rest of us to do. It all begins with you.
Once the fire is started, you’re not here to keep it burning; that’s another person’s job. So, it's ideal to take roles that allow you to step out once the process has begun. This frees you up to create the next new thing.
Note: Solo time where you are not interrupted is essential for not only this creative process but also for your wellbeing.
4/6 Splenic Manifestor 🗹
And that's it! In one short blog post, you've now had a basic introduction to your Profile, Inner Authority and Type, and I even snuck in some info about your Human Design Strategy 😉
Inspired to learn more about Human Design?
Every word in this post was written by Caroline Southwell.
While AI is useful for many things it's still not very good at explaining the depth and nuance of Human Design. Instead, human beings who have been learning about and experimenting with the Human Design system for 10+ years are much better teachers of this content.
To learn more about your very human teacher, check out this page here.
ABOUT
Caroline Southwell supports conscious individuals to create lives and businesses they love using Human Design and Trauma-Informed Tapping. Learn more about her here.