Rachael Stella, Author at RachaelStella.com

Alignment begins with the mundane

The notion of following your inner guidance can sound simple; master the recognition of how your body communicates with you, honour it, and be on your way to alignment and living your purpose. But it’s not necessarily that straightforward.

So many of us have been conditioned away from recognising and following our inner knowing. We’ve been taught to make decisions based on logic, following rules, doing the “right” thing, pleasing others. Often to the point of becoming completely numb to the whisperings (or screams) of our body. And so, we begin this path of alignment & discover it to be a rocky road.

A simple example:

I was supposed to be going out with my family on the weekend. I knew my period was on the brink of starting. I made an effort to ensure things at home were taken care of & that I was organised and prepared. Then, my flow began, and with it came pain and heaviness. My body wanted nothing more than to sit with my feet up, on the couch, and rest. My mind went into overdrive.

“I should push through.”

“Maybe I’ll feel better later.”

“I’ve pushed through before, I should do that again.”

“Maybe others will be upset or offended if I don’t go.”

“Maybe others will think I was faking it.”

“Maybe I’m being weak and selfish.”

“Maybe it’s not as bad as I’m telling myself.”

Even though my body was winning over, and logic was telling me that resting was the thing to do, my mind continued to argue vehemently. It took discipline and restraint to sit with the thoughts, and not let them take the reigns.

This is my conditioning. My Undefined Heart still finds it challenging to feel worthy of prioritising myself & my inner guidance, and every attempt to do so is followed by second guessing myself. My Defined Head & Ajna have me looping a state of confusion over what is right and what is wrong, and where my values lie.

I’m not perfect at following my inner authority. It’s an experiment and a practice, and often my mind wins out. But every time I make an aligned decision, the next aligned decision become a little easier. I’m reconditioning myself to honour my inner guidance over my thoughts.

This is where the journey of living your purpose begins; in the mundane, day-to-day decisions and actions.

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Purpose: Honouring the Truth of You

Living your purpose isn’t about doing or achieving. It’s not about living up to some ideal. Living your purpose is about being yourself, the fullest essence of who you are, you at your most authentic when you strip away the conditioning and programming that has led you to pretend to be someone you’re not.

We try to fit purpose into a specific career, job, business, or a certain level of perceived success, but that’s not what it’s about. And yet, when you’re embodying your truth, you may well find yourself working a job or building a career or business that aligns with your purpose, because when you’re embodying your truth, everything inevitably falls into alignment. When you prioritise authenticity, you’re not willing to spend your time doing something that doesn’t feel right. But purpose is so much more than a job title or your work in the world.

Purpose is deep. Whilst we might summarise our purpose in one paragraph or one word or one aspect of our Human Design, each of those single elements has a ocean of meaning for us to dive into and explore. And ultimately, no one else can tell us our purpose; we can only be guided towards where we will discover and learn to embody it for ourselves. This is what Human Design offers us; a blueprint of our energy, a map that serves as a guide to embodying our inherent truth and expressing the gift frequency of who we came here to be. Our Human Design points us towards our purpose through our Type, Strategy, Authority, Profile, Definition, Defined Centres, Undefined Centres, Incarnation Cross, Nodes, Gates, Channels, Variable … it’s incredibly nuanced, intricate, and unique. The challenge is to remember that purpose is not something to achieve, or improve or fix within ourselves; it’s who we inherently are.

I’ve spent the past month embarking on the Venus Sequence, within The Gene Keys Golden Path; another avenue for exploring purpose. This is a journey of exploring relationships, emotional wounding, and opening your heart. The Gene Keys is a system that stems from Human Design. I see it as a more yin, feminine approach, that for me is supported by the more yang, masculine approach and foundation I have established through my process with Human Design. I already incorporate The Gene Keys into my work, but I’m looking forward to expanding how I integrate it to further enrich the ways in which I serve.

The Venus Sequence begins with a contemplation of our purpose in relationships. Something I didn’t anticipate was that this contemplation would bring insights into the emotional pain I’ve experienced during the past 3 years; my Gene Key here is 7.5, which holds themes of division, guidance, virtue, victimhood and self-pity, and leadership. Contemplating division within my relationships has brought many tears, as well as the recognition that of course, there is purpose in my experience. My mind has grappled with how to transform this shadow, to realise my purpose of guidance and leadership. I can see how I’ve allowed division to keep me hiding in so many ways, trapped in my mind’s illusions of perceiving myself as a victim of division & what that means for who I can be in the world – I’ve been scared to own my gift of guidance, scared to own my clarity and how that clarity can be of service to others.

What I am beginning to recognise is that even within the division of the past 3 years, even amidst the wallowing in victimhood and self-pity, there have been glimpses of beginning to embody guidance and leadership. Even when it was sacrilege to do so, I owned my unpopular opinions. Even when it divided family, friends, community and strangers, I stuck to my deeply considered values and convictions, with the clarity that I was doing so for reasons that felt ethical, virtuous, right, and good. In the face of vilification and condemnation, I was demonstrating what it means to be true to yourself.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but throughout the height of the division, I was living an aspect of my purpose; perhaps not my higher purpose, but beginning to head in a positive direction. This is but a surface level of one example of how my purpose has shown up in my life. The point is, amidst our greatest challenges, lies our purpose. “Your purpose is designed to be unlocked by life. It calls upon you to evolve through your challenges and it emerges progressively over the course of your life as you move through breakthrough and transformation.” (Richard Rudd)

There’s a subtle distinction between trying to improve or fix or achieve our higher purpose, and embodying the higher purpose that is already within us. The shadow expression of our purpose is not something to try and eliminate, but rather to forgive and accept, such that we can unlock the gift expression. This brings us back to where we began: honouring the truth of who we are at our deepest essence.

If you’re ready to explore the depth of your purpose through the lens of Human Design (with a sprinkling of Gene Keys), I’d love to be your guide. Learn more here.

Photo by Carlos de Miguel on Unsplash

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Human Design Authority – your inner decision making authority

For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt trepidation in my decision making. Over-analysing, over-thinking, and hoping I’ve made the right choice, have been my default.

The spiritual and self-help world taught me that aligned decisions are not made through the intellect and mind; they are not the domain of the soul.

Whilst this message resonated, and I understood the head is not for decision making, I was confused about how to tap into my soul’s guidance: should I go with my gut feeling, follow my heart, or trust my intuition? What was the difference? What about when they contradicted each other? Why did it feel difficult to effectively tune into this communication?

Understanding my Human Design has gifted me some insight as to why I have felt so much confusion around my decisions. Even better, it has given me the tools to reliably make correct, aligned decisions from my own unique body wisdom.

Whilst this is something I’m still learning to lean into given a lifetime of conditioning, it is such a relief to finally let go of the constant unease around my every move.

This is available to all of us.

It’s found in your Authority.

Your Human Design Authority is your inner decision making authority, which tells you how to reliably make energetically correct, aligned decisions.

The soul alerts the body way before the mind can intellectualise what the soul desires, so our mind and logical thinking is never our decision making authority! But where within our body we can reliably tap into to experience this soul communication is different for different individuals, dependent upon our Design which shows us the energies we have consistent and reliable access to.

There is a hierarchy of Centres that determine your Authority; whichever Centre you have Defined (coloured-in) that is highest in that hierarchy, is your Authority.

To find out your Authority, generate your free Human Design chart at here.

Solar Plexus: You are designed to take your time when making decisions, to wait through your “emotional wave” and make your decision from a place of emotional neutrality. Making rash decisions from an emotional high or low, no matter how sure you believe you are in the moment, is a risky move. For you, there is no reliable truth in the now. Get comfortable with the phrases “I’ll get back to you,” “Let me sleep on it,” and “I’m going to give myself some time to make my decision.”

Sacral: You are designed to go with your gut feeling. This is a very “in the moment” decision making authority, that operates in response to what you are presented with. You either feel an openness and expansion towards something, or a closing and contraction away from something. It’s a yes/no, either/or way of operating. Remember to remain present to what you’re feeling right now, don’t get caught up in your head with future tripping and worry.

Spleen: You are designed to make decisions based on an instantaneous intuitive inner knowing. There is no logic to your authority, so if you are reasoning out your decision, you know you’re off track. This can be challenging to surrender into within our society and programming, so it might take you some time to practice, starting small. It’s also an incredibly fleeting feeling; blink and you’ll miss it. You’ll need to develop a sense of what it feels like in your body, so that you can recognise it and allow that recognition and confidence in it to build over time.

Ego/Heart: Also known as Ego Projected or Ego Manifested Authority. You are designed to be led by your heart. It’s all about you, your ego, what you want, the desires of your heart. It can feel almost criminal or scary to start operating in this way, given that it’s about self-prioritisation. It may be a learning curve to release the compulsion and expectation to prioritise everyone else above yourself. For Ego Manifested Authority, talking your decisions out will be helpful whether to yourself or with a trusted confidante, not for others to provide input but for you to hear your heart articulating through your voice, where your desire and passion can be communicated.

G Centre: Also known as Self Projected Authority. You are designed to make your big decisions in life based on what you are being magnetically drawn towards. You project your direction in life, and tuning into that will align you with your correct decisions. To connect into this self-projection, you need to talk your decisions out, whether to yourself or with a trusted confidante, not so they can provide input but so you can hear your identity speaking through your voice and tune into the direction it is taking you. Be sure not to make rash decisions, no matter how sure you’re feeling, without first talking them out; you could find yourself being pointed in a different direction.

Ajna: Also known as Mental Authority or Sounding Board Authority. You don’t have consistent and reliable access to body wisdom for your decision making; you rely upon your energetic openness from below the throat. You are designed to make decisions by carefully curating your inner circle of trusted relationships, and then using them as a sounding board for your decision making, where you lead the conversation and invite them to productively contribute their opinion of what they believe is right for you. This is not a free-for-all where others tell you what they think you should do! Your sounding board allows you to hear your own and others perspectives, feeling into how they land in your body over time, leading you towards correct decisions.

None (Lunar): With no defined centres, you don’t have consistent and reliable access to body wisdom for your decision making. Where possible, your decisions are best made by waiting for a complete lunar cycle, whilst the moon transits through each of the 64 gates of the Human Design mandala, giving you the opportunity to experience each of the archetypal energies through your body to bring you perspective over time for clarity. Whilst this is the ideal, it’s not always possible; in these situations, defer to the Sounding Board decision making process as an alternative. You are very tuned into your environment, so ruthless curation and strong boundaries are critical for you.

If you’d love to explore your Authority in more depth, I’d love to work with you! Check out my offerings here.

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash

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Understanding your Human Design Type

Your Human Design Type is the broadest aspect of how you are energetically designed to engage with the world around you. It’s the first thing we look at within the Human Design system, and it determines your Strategy; the way for you to operate in the world without resistance, become aligned with your authentic self, and “win” in life.

The following analogy, which I learned (and tweaked) from Brittany Eastman, can help with understanding your Type and how you are designed to fit into and contribute to the collective.

The Manifestor, as an initiator, forms an idea and is designed to make it happen. The Manifestor informs everyone “I’m going to go on a day trip to the forest today, it’s going to be epic and so much fun! I’m not sure how I’ll get there yet, but will work it out. Who’s in?”

The Generator is designed to respond to what comes towards them in their external physical reality. Our Generator responds to the Manifestor’s idea with excitement: “That sounds awesome! Count me in! I’ve got a car, so I can take a carload of us.” The Generator helps the Manifestor fulfil the vision because she has a vehicle that can drive them to the destination, and the key to her ignition is her excited response. The Generator also has a GPS system fitted in her car, so she has the ability to get to the destination in a focused and direct manner.

The Manifesting Generator (MG) is also designed to respond. “Yes! That sounds ace! I’m in too! I’ve got a car as well, I’ll take the second carload.” The MG has rounded up her passengers & driven down the street before the Generator is even off the couch. The MG’s vehicle doesn’t have a GPS; she wings it, knowing that she will find her way there. If the MG gets 2 minutes down the road and her car’s engine warning lights up because the motor is on the verge of dying, she’s realised that actually, she’s not so excited about this day trip now after all. At that point, it’s important for the MG to take the passengers back home so they can catch a lift with someone else, otherwise they’ll all end up stranded and no one will be happy.

The Projector is the person in the traffic report helicopter, who hovers in the sky looking down upon the road network, and with her unique perspective she’s able to see where the traffic jams are. She broadcasts her traffic report via the radio, into the vehicles of the Generators and MGs who are tuned in and receptive, offering advice and guidance on which roads to avoid and which route to take in order to arrive at their destination in the most efficient time possible.

The Reflector works at the roads authority, in the control room, in front of the wall of screens that display the live feed of all the CCTV cameras situated across the entire road network. Her computer is hooked up to all the incoming information about the road system, so she has an amazing overview of how well it’s working; she’s tapped into the general condition or health of the road system as a whole, enabling her to provide reports for the roads authority so that issues can be addressed and improvements made.

This analogy demonstrates how each Type works together in co-operation and synergy. Each with their own role to play, they have a unique contribution to make to the collective. No one Type is better or worse, more or less valuable, or more or less desirable. They’re all unique in their own incredible way, with their place in society, and if they try to force their way outside of that natural and inherent way of operating in the world, they’ll encounter resistance and struggle.

Please keep in mind, this is a basic analogy to kickstart understanding of Type. It’s not about imposing limits on what a person is capable of. It’s important not to jump to conclusions about what people can or cannot do or achieve based on Type, without a deeper understanding of the nuances of their Human Design and consideration of their unique attributes; Type reveals how we best engage with the world, but it’s such a small part of who we are as individuals.

Discover your Type by generating your free Human Design chart here.

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

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Why do the planets influence our energy?

As a soul, you chose to incarnate on earth at this time. You wanted to be here, you had reasons for choosing to be here, you had things that you wanted to experience.

Your soul chose a portal in time through which you would be born, during which you would be encoded with all the energies necessary to fulfill those desires, to fulfill your life’s purpose.

That portal was your precise time of birth.

The breath of the stars streaming through you in that moment, bringing with it the material information imparted by the configuration of the planets it passed through along the way, encrypted specific cosmic energies into your being. Human Design allows us to explore those energies that you were born with.

This “breath of stars” is a stream of miniscule cosmic messengers called neutrinos. Numbering in the billions, neutrinos produced by our sun, the stars of the Milky Way, and Jupiter, pass through every part of us and our planet in every moment of every day, carrying and imparting material information as they go.

This celestial information steam has travelled via the planets, picking up information from them as it goes. When the neutrino stream arrives on Earth, it imparts this material information it collected from the planets, as it passes through us.

The moment of our birth, being a significant timestamp in our earthly experience, is recognised as also being a significant neutrino imprinting moment, where we are encoded with the energetic information carried by the neutrino stream from the planets, to form our conscious personality energetic design aspects.

Three months prior to our birth is also recognised as a significant neutrino imprinting moment, where we are encoded with the energetic information to form our unconscious design energetic design aspects.

Where the planets were situated in these two key moments determines the nature of the energetic information picked up and imparted by the neutrino stream, and hence which gates and lines – energetic themes – are activated in our Human Design chart.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

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You were born for this

You were born for this.

You are equipped with everything you need to make sovereign, aligned choices.

Now more than ever, whilst the world yells about misinformation, trusting the experts, and not doing your own research, you need to make sovereign, aligned choices.

Now more than ever, when you can get lost down a rabbit hole of information, evidence, statistics and opinions, you need to make sovereign, aligned choices.

Now more than ever, as logical, black and white, definitive, blanket approaches prove futile, you need to make sovereign, aligned choices.

Now more than ever, as you perhaps feel yourself going against the grain, you need to make sovereign, aligned choices.

Now more than ever, as you face choices that perhaps don’t feel easy to make, you need to make sovereign, aligned choices.

Now more than ever, in the face of propaganda, coercion, manipulation, opposition, criticism, shaming & division, you need to make sovereign, aligned choices.

Now more than ever, you need to trust in your own discernment, in your body wisdom, in how your soul consciousness communicates with you. Trusting in your connection to a higher source has never been more critical.

Now more than ever, as this ride gets more and more wild, you need to make sovereign, aligned choices.

Know that you were born for this.

Know that you are equipped with everything you need.

With love, from Rachael x

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What is the significance of your Human Design chart?

The Human Design system is all about energy.

Your Human Design chart is an energetic blueprint. It represents the energies you have reliable and consistent access to, the energies you don’t have consistent and reliable access to, and the energy circulation through your system.

This knowledge provides a framework for how you best operate in and interact with the world around you.

Each gate in the HD chart represents one of the 64 archetypal energies laid out in the ancient Chinese I’Ching.

According to the HD system, humans have the potential to access each of these 64 energies. The chart show us which of these 64 energies we have consistent and reliable access to, and which we have inconsistent and unreliable access to.

But it’s more nuanced than just a combination of 26 activations of these 64 energies.

The gates are broken up into 6 lines represented by the hexagram lines of the I’Ching; the line placements of each of your activations therefore give one of six different influences to how each of your gate energies is expressed.

The energies are also flavoured depending on which celestial body is activating it, determining what that energetic theme means for you.

When there are gate activations that form a channel, that creates an additional energy that is consistent and reliable within you. The channel is also a communication link between centres, making the energetic themes of those centres consistent and reliable for you.

The specific combination of uniquely flavoured and expressed energies you have, and the configuration of your circuitry that determines your energy flow, is what makes you operate in your unique way.

Add to all of that, the fact that every single energy can be expressed on a frequency spectrum, from shadow to gift to full embodiment.

Are you getting an idea of how complex and nuanced your energetic makeup is, and how it might be expressed in any given moment?!

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How is your Human Design chart determined?

Your unique Human Design chart is based on the position of the sun, earth, moon, lunar nodes, and planets of our solar system, at the time of your birth.

The Human Design system uses the Rave Mandala to represent the space of the orbits of the celestial bodies within our solar system, split into:

Astrological signs (inner wheel)
Gates (based on the I’Ching) (middle wheel)
Lines (based on the lines of the hexagrams of the I’Ching) (outer wheel)

The position of the sun, earth, moon, lunar nodes, and planets at the time of your birth, as well as 3 months prior to your birth, is mapped onto the Rave Mandala.

These 26 placements at these 2 key times activate gates, and lines within the gates. See my chart below, and note the activated gates (coloured wedges / spokes of the wheel), the celestial bodies and lunar nodes that are activating them (the symbols sitting in the spokes), and which astrological sign they sit in (zodiac symbols in the inner wheel). For example, the sun was placed within gate 2 at the time of my birth, which is in the sign of Taurus.

These gate activations are transcribed onto the BodyGraph – the visual representation of your energetic flow. They determine your activated channels – 2 activated gates joined together.

You can see below that my activated gate 2, located at the bottom of the yellow diamond (G Centre) in the middle of my BodyGraph, is connected to my activated gate 14, located at the top of the red square (Sacral Centre), creating a channel.

Your activated channels determine your “defined” Centres (which are based on the chakra system). So my activated channel comprised of gate 2 and gate 14, gives definition to my G-Centre (the yellow diamond that gate 2 sits in) and my Sacral Centre (the red square that gate 14 sits in).

Think of the BodyGraph like an electrical circuit board; the activated gates are like electrical wires, and when connected, they “switch on” the definition of the Centre, represented by the Centre being coloured in.

The configuration of your defined Centres and channels determines your Human Design Type; Manifestor, Generator, Manifesting Generator, Projector, or Reflector.

It also determines your Definition (single, split, triple split, quadruple split).

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A Permission Slip to Just. Be. You.

Being seen for who you truly are.

Seen. Acknowledged. Recognised. Confirmed. Affirmed.

Having your existence, the truth of the human your soul chose you to be, witnessed by another, and reflected back to you.

A beautiful thing occurs: you come to see for yourself the truths that you’ve been blind to.

The truth of the things you’ve made wrong about yourself, that you’ve tried in vain to change. The truth of things you’ve tried to force yourself to become.

You receive a permission slip to let all that go, and to Just. Be. You.

And you chuckle at the ludicrous notion that you even needed such a permission slip. That who you are could ever be anything other than divine perfection.

Human Design shows you the truth that you actually knew all along, you just couldn’t see it.

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Know Thyself

No one can ever know you better than you know yourself.

And yet, how well do you know yourself?

Human Design doesn’t tell you who you are. With roughly 250 humans born every minute across the world, there are hundreds of people with the exact same Human Design chart as you, and yet each one of you are not the same.

Human Design does tell you the energetic gifts that you were born with, that you have consistent and reliable access to. It does tell you how you are designed to energetically engage with the world around you.

Experimenting with the application of this knowledge in your everyday life brings you into energetic correctness, into soul alignment. This is what will ultimately illuminate the truth of who you are, that you already knew on some level, but perhaps didn’t have the audacity to admit to yourself, let alone anyone else.

Human Design is a framework to know thyself. It cuts through the conditioning, the fears, the projections, the beliefs, the perceived limitations, to shine a light on You, in all of your divine glory.

Human Design holds the potential of affirming your divine magnificence. The ultimate permission slip to be yourself.

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