Part of the Human Design Atlas
The 48 Variables
Beyond your Type, Authority, and Profile sits a deeper layer of your design called the Variables. You will see them written as a string of letters, and on many charts they appear as four small arrows around the head of the BodyGraph. Together they describe something none of the earlier sections touch: how your body and mind are uniquely wired to take in life, digest it, and see through it.
There are four Variables, and this report gives each one its own page. The first two belong to your body. Determination describes how your system is built to digest, food first, but also information and experience. Environment describes the kind of physical setting your body thrives in. The second two belong to your mind. View, sometimes called Perspective, is the lens your awareness naturally sees through. Motivation is the fuel underneath your action, what correctly moves you. Alongside these four sit two supporting senses, Cognition and Sense, which describe your strongest design sense and the awareness stream of your personality. Those have pages here too.
Each of the four Variables points in one of two directions, and the direction matters as much as the value. A left arrow is strategic: active, focused, and structured, an energy that engages life deliberately and works best with consistency. A right arrow is receptive: open, observational, and peripheral, an energy that absorbs life as a whole rather than aiming at one piece of it, and does its best work relaxed. Neither direction is better. They are two different ways of being built, and most people carry a mix of both.
There are sixteen possible combinations of these four arrows, which is part of why two people with the same Type and Profile can still live and process so differently. Your own combination is summarised in the letter string on your details page, and decoded arrow by arrow on the pages that follow. Read them as a set: how you digest, where you thrive, how you see, and what moves you are four faces of one underlying wiring. Living them is subtle work, less about rules and more about noticing when life flows because you are aligned with your nature, and when it grinds because you are working against it.
Determination
Determination: 12 Values
Alternating - Appetite
The modality is Alternating, which fixes you to the other side of that binary.
Read the full page →Calm - Touch
The modality is Calm, which fixes you to one side of that binary.
Read the full page →Closed - Taste
The modality is Closed, which fixes you to the other side of that binary.
Read the full page →Cold - Thirst
The modality is Cold, which fixes you to the other side of that binary.
Read the full page →Consecutive - Appetite
The modality is Consecutive, which fixes you to one side of that binary.
Read the full page →Direct - Light
The modality is Direct, which fixes you to one side of that binary.
Read the full page →High - Sound
The modality is High, which fixes you to one side of that binary.
Read the full page →Hot - Thirst
The modality is Hot, which fixes you to one side of that binary.
Read the full page →Indirect - Light
The modality is Indirect, which fixes you to the other side of that binary.
Read the full page →Low - Sound
The modality is Low, which fixes you to the other side of that binary.
Read the full page →Open - Taste
The modality is Open, which fixes you to one side of that binary.
Read the full page →Stimulant - Touch
The modality is Nervous, also called Stimulant, and it fixes you to the other side of that binary.
Read the full page →Environment
Environment: 12 Values
Active - Mountains
Your modality is Active, and your arrow points left, which makes this deliberate and directed.
Read the full page →Artificial - Shores
Yours is Shores.
Read the full page →Blending - Caves
Yours is Caves.
Read the full page →Dry - Kitchens
Yours is Kitchens.
Read the full page →External - Markets
Yours is Markets.
Read the full page →Internal - Markets
Yours is Markets.
Read the full page →Narrow - Valleys
Your modality is Narrow, and your arrow points left, which makes this focused and deliberate.
Read the full page →Natural - Shores
Yours is Shores.
Read the full page →Passive - Mountains
Your modality is Passive, and your arrow points right, which makes this receptive and open.
Read the full page →Selective - Caves
Yours is Caves.
Read the full page →Wet - Kitchens
Yours is Kitchens.
Read the full page →Wide - Valleys
Your modality is Wide, and your arrow points right, which makes this open and receptive.
Read the full page →Motivation
Motivation: 6 Values
Desire
Yours is Desire.
Read the full page →Fear
Yours is Fear.
Read the full page →Guilt
Yours is Guilt, and this has nothing to do with shame or with having done something wrong.
Read the full page →Hope
Yours is Hope.
Read the full page →Innocence
Motivation is the fuel underneath your action: the hidden drive that, when it is running clean, makes your involvement in life feel effortless and true.
Read the full page →Need
Yours is Need.
Read the full page →View
View: 6 Values
Personal
Yours is Personal.
Read the full page →Possibility
Yours is Possibility.
Read the full page →Power
View, sometimes called Perspective, is the lens your mind sees through: the angle of the camera behind your eyes.
Read the full page →Probability
Yours is Probability.
Read the full page →Survival
Yours is Survival.
Read the full page →Wanting
Yours is Wanting.
Read the full page →Cognition
Cognition: 6 Values
Feeling
Yours is Feeling.
Read the full page →Inner Vision
Yours is Inner Vision.
Read the full page →Outer Vision
Yours is Outer Vision.
Read the full page →Smell
Cognition is your strongest design sense: the deepest layer of how your body reads the world, running underneath thought and well before words.
Read the full page →Taste
Yours is Taste.
Read the full page →Touch
Yours is Touch.
Read the full page →Sense
Sense: 6 Values
Acceptance
Yours is Acceptance.
Read the full page →Action
Sense describes the awareness stream of your personality: the perceptual channel your conscious mind naturally runs on as you meet the world.
Read the full page →Judgment
Yours is Judgment.
Read the full page →Meditation
Yours is Meditation.
Read the full page →Security
Yours is Security.
Read the full page →Uncertainty
Yours is Uncertainty.
Read the full page →Created by Peter Low, Human Design Practitioner. Part of the Human Design atlas.