What is the Difference Between Human Design and Gene Keys?
Human Design vs. Gene Keys
Human Design and Gene Keys are both trending systems of self-knowledge. And yes, they’re related. You can think of Gene Keys as a spin-off from Human Design.
Human Design came into being in 1987 through a man named Alan Krakower. Gene Keys came through one of his students, Richard Rudd, in 2002. “Came through” is my euphemism for channeled.
Similarities between Human Design and Gene Keys
Both systems are the result of a mystical or visionary experience of an individual.
Both are based on your time, location, and date of birth.
Both use the ancient Chinese wisdom of the I Ching as well as astrology.
Both speak to your gifts and purpose.
These two systems are different from personality typing (such as the enneagram or Myers-Briggs) because they’re based on your birth information and not on self-assessment. For this reason, they might not resonate with everyone.
What is Human Design?
Human Design combines different traditions, including astrology, the Kabbalah, the I Ching, and the chakra system. After Alan Krakower downloaded the complex system during an eight-day mystical experience on the island of Ibiza, he changed his name to Ra Uru Hu.
Human Design gives you a blueprint for how your energy works best, especially concerning others. There are five types in Human Design. Each type is meant to operate differently according to their recommended strategy.
Human Design shows you how best to interact with others and the world.
A Human Design chart is called a bodygraph. On the bodygraph, there are little lines called gates. Every chart has 26 gates activated out of a total of 64. Why 64? Because that is the number of hexagrams in the I Ching. Every gate in Human Design is based on a hexagram in the I Ching.
The gates reveal a deeper level of understanding of your energy mechanics beyond your type. They speak to your individual gifts.
What are the Gene Keys?
Gene Keys are heavily based on the gates of Human Design. Therefore, every gene key is based on an I Ching hexagram. You’ll notice the same numbers activated in your Human Design chart as in your Gene Key sequences.
Richard Rudd was a longtime student of Ra Uru Hu. It took him seven years to write his seminal book The Gene Keys, which came out in 2009. Ra Uru Hu died in 2011.
Gene Keys does away with type, strategy, and other prescriptions that are part of the Human Design blueprint. It streamlines the system down to its gates (calling each one a gene key) and offers a path of self-study and contemplation.
Gene Keys takes you on an inner journey to unlock your highest potential.
There are a few different paths, or sequences, that you follow based on your unique configuration of gene keys. The first sequence is called the Activation Sequence and consists of your primary four gene keys. These are the same four gates of your Human Design incarnation cross. Both the Activation Sequence (Gene Keys) and the Incarnation Cross (Human Design) have to do with your life’s purpose and what you came here to do.
How to use both systems
I’m a Human Design reader and not a Gene Keys student. But when I wanted to dig deeper into my Incarnation Cross (28/27 31/41), my Human Design mentor recommended that I look into my Gene Keys.
Reading about my conscious sun (gate 28) in the Gene Keys book was helpful. It offered a more in-depth explanation and one that I resonated with. It helped me understand my purpose better.
While I personally see Gene Keys as one man’s interpretation of Ra Uru Hu’s work, others view it as a separate system in its own right and reject Human Design.
Like any system, Gene Keys and Human Design are best used as tools and not as dogma. As always, use what’s useful. Notice what triggers you. Let go of what no longer serves you.
*
Do you want to know what your incarnation cross means in Human Design? Book 1:1 Life Purpose Reading with me.