Gate 41: The fuel to experience everything, everywhere all at once
We’ve all heard the saying Hunger is the best sauce. This is because everything seems more tantalizing when we are in a state of lack, and nothing fuels our desire like scarcity.
In Human Design, this is how Gate 41 works. Called Decrease in the ancient I Ching, the Gate of Contraction describes the fuel of potentiality when our resources are absent or somehow limited. We experience this as a deep craving for feeling and experience, usually involving others.
Traditionally, this is the archetype of the gardener trimming his plants so that new growth can occur. The names Contraction and Decrease refer to the energy of pulling back to prepare for more expansion.
In real life, Gate 41 expresses itself as an urge to live life, to have yet another experience. We dream up or concoct all the things we could possibly do. According to the Human Design elder Chetan Parkyn, it is as if we are both the filmmaker and the star of our own movie.
In the Bodygraph
Gate 41 is found in the Root Center, and it reaches for Gate 30 (Clinging Fire) in the Solar Plexus (or Emotional Center). Together they form the Channel of Recognition, a Design of Focused Energy.
Gate 41 on its own produces endless adrenalized pressure to do yet another thing. It is Gate 30 that regulates this desire, focusing it on the one experience worth clinging to.
Experience destined to be shared
This is Collective circuitry, and its drive is not personal, even though it might involve experiencing things with people close to you. The purpose of this energy is to experience life in a dramatic narrative punctuated by emotions high and low, and then ultimately to share what you’ve learned with the community and even the greater society.
Felt experience is the goal, to be lived out through the Sensing Circuit and shaped by the Emotional Wave over time. The experiences become the stories of our life and provide a vital source of our wisdom as a Collective.
Pipe dreams and castles in the air
If this is your definition, you are a dreamer, and you have the capacity to make your dreams real. Daydreaming and envisioning new stories and adventures with people you enjoy and love is an everyday thing for you. There is no fantasy too big, no what if too outlandish or ambitious.
Perhaps you are obsessed with fantasizing and searching, impatient to recognize what is worth doing. There can be a sense of nascent feeling, or of dwelling in its possibility. Yet when the energy of emotional Gate 30 isn’t available, the plump (imagined) grapes are forever dangling out of reach. You need the Clinging Fire to focus your energy on the experience that is worth it.
Imagine all the people…
As any two gates in a channel, they are drawn to each other. My favorite example of this electromagnetic connection is John Lennon (writer of the song Imagine) with Gate 41 and Paul McCartney with Gate 30.
Gate 41 is the beginning of the human experiential way. In Human Design, it represents where our stories start. The Gate of Contraction actually marks the beginning of the Rave Mandala. In the HD world, we celebrate the Rave New Year when the Sun moves into this special gate.
The Gate of Labor Contractions
Amy Lee of the Human Design Collective has a beautiful way of describing the Gate of Contraction. When a mother births a baby, her body literally contracts, and she is quite unable to focus on anything else than the experience.
And by focusing her energy on this one thing, a new life is able to emerge. It is this way with all stories: we pull our focus and energy back from all other things in order to experience the birth of a new story. And this story can then be weaved into the fabric of our Collective narrative.
