Gate 2: Where the soul dwells
Imagine a vast, open, fertile field. It simply exists, receiving rainfall and sunshine, hosting deep roots of trees, and sprouting grass and flowers. And generation after generation, it welcomes all sorts of grazing, buzzing and chirping creatures.
This receptivity encapsulates the frequency of Gate 2, The Receptive. What a perfect environment for your Higher Self to reside!
Whether or not you have this gate defined in your chart, you have an inner voice that whispers your truth to you if you listen closely. This voice knows exactly where you need to go and what you need to do next.
The Gate of Higher Knowing has been called since ancient times the voice of your “higher self.” Some call this the soul, and in Human Design it is the Driver, or the Magnetic Monopole.
The way Ra Uru Hu explained it, the body is a vehicle and the mind is a passenger inside. The Driver of the vehicle is the Higher Knowing we are talking about, our innate sense of direction as we move through time and space. Though your mind might want to be the driver or think it’s the driver, it is not.
Ra called Gate 2 one of the most important gates in the Mandala. It is purely yin energy, meaning that it is feminine, passive, accepting, and intuitive. It receives like the field receives sunlight and rainfall, and it knows the direction you need to go.
Gate 2 is located in the G Center, our central hub of Self, Love and Direction. It points down to Gate 14 in the Sacral Center to form the Channel of the Beat.
If you have this gate or channel, you are a “keeper of the keys.” Consider the metaphors here: keys, vehicle, driver. And the Sacral Center, being our primary source of life energy, powers this channel like a gas pedal through Gate 14.
If you look at the Body Graph, you will see three channels pointing from the Sacral Center to the G Center. These are the tantric channels, in that they weave life force power into spiritual direction.
The 14-2, being the Individual channel in the middle, serves to empower the Self in its unique individual direction. In this way, Gate 2 seeks the energy resources for itself, yet for the ultimate purpose of mutating the Tribe and the Collective.
This is why people with the Channel of the Beat have the ability to show the rest of us where to go. The great spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, for example, has Gate 2, as did Wayne Dyer, John Lennon and Ra Uru Hu himself.
Of course, knowing which direction to go does not always involve such high spiritual concerns. Consider the example of Martha Stewart, another Individual with this activation who has guided millions of people in the domestic arts.
As we know, all aspects of our design have a spectrum of potential expressions. In the case of the Gate of Higher Knowing, because it is part of the Individual Circuit, there will always be periodic melancholy to abide. It can be tempting to escape this feeling, either with substances or activity.
Surrendering, however, to these times when the pulse of knowing is off is the highest expression of receptivity. When we are in this open state, we are more able to recognize the voice of our Higher Self and heed its guidance.
Taking the Zodiac into consideration, Gate 2 falls in Taurus, the sign of the bull. Taurus is an unhurried, Venus-ruled territory preoccupied with sensual pleasures, and the bull is not at all the charging, angry one that might come to mind. This bull is grazing luxuriantly in a pasture of grass, echoing the I Ching name for this hexagram, which is Kun, or field.
Furthermore, Gate 2 lies squarely in the second decan of Taurus, which according to the Medieval texts of Agrippa is represented by a man holding a key, promising dominion over our world.
Indeed, Gate 2 holds the keys to our vehicle. All we have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride.
