Beyond Aura Type, Strategy, and Authority

Human Design content creators tend to focus heavily on aura strategy and authority. And I get it—that’s what people are drawn to, and it’s what Human Design emphasizes as the key to making aligned decisions and beginning the deconditioning process. When you’re just starting out, it makes sense to first explore your aura type, strategy, and authority to see if Human Design resonates with you. That’s why I offer an energetic diagnostic before diving into a full reading.

But when we focus solely on the aura, we risk turning Human Design into just another way to generalize and compartmentalize people. And that’s the opposite of what it was meant to do. The point of Human Design is to illuminate the unique, differentiated expression of every individual—not to box people in.

It reveals how conditioning pulls us away from our true selves and how the mind and body function both together and separately. It also sheds light on how our relationships shape us, showing the ways we’re conditioned through connection and how that very conditioning can serve our growth.

Human Design Is Not Just About Decision-Making

Yes, strategy and authority help guide decisions, but Human Design is ultimately about understanding your unique energetic makeup and learning to forgive your Not-Self. It’s about seeing your True Self—beyond the roles, labels, and narratives you’ve absorbed over time.

The aura is the container that holds all of our energies together in quantum. It’s the energetic field that determines how our energy interacts with the world and how we’re conditioned to be what we’re Not. But to truly understand who you are, you have to go deeper—into the intricate energetic factors that shape you.

Your aura is a torrus field, a mechanical energy field holding your mind and body energies together in quantum. It’s also the connection to Source, so the aura can be thought of as our Soul.

Understanding Human Design allows your conscious mind to be on board when your aura/soul sends your body green flags (strategy) or red flags (not self theme).

The Power of Conditioning: A Personal Story

To illustrate how much conditioning shapes us, I’ll share a personal example. My friend Rachel and I were born on the exact same day, month, and year, so we are both 5/1 emotional projectors LAX Masks. The only differences in our bodygraphs are slight shifts in the moon and Venus. And yet, those small variations had a profound impact. The shift in Venus defined the Prodigal Channel for me—that alone is a major difference in how we express ourselves. Even though we both have Pisces moons, they fall in different gates, meaning we express our Pisces energy in entirely different ways. The elements below the bodygraph (our substructure: variables, motivation, view, digestion, environment, cognition, etc) are also mostly different.

But beyond the mechanics of our charts, our conditioning was wildly different. When I look at her life and mine, I can see how our individual experiences shaped us in ways that uniquely brought out the strengths within our designs. Some of the overarching themes may be similar, but the perspectives we developed because of our conditioning are completely distinct.

I’ve also worked with twins who share nearly identical charts, differing only in their base crystal. Despite this, they have vastly different ways of thinking, behaving, and perceiving the world. Why? Because their conditioning—especially their relationship with each other—was a huge part of their developmental field. Many twins lean into their differences to establish individuality, creating distinct expressions of their shared design.

The Conditioning Field: Your Greatest Mirror

A significant part of who you are can’t be seen in your Human Design chart because the conditioning field that developed your Not Self is uniquely yours. Conditioning isn’t a mistake or a flaw—it’s a mirror, reflecting who you are by showing you what you’re not.

For many people, it takes years of deconditioning before their true traits fully emerge, especially if much of their definition is unconscious. Most of us have been running on narratives shaped by external influences for so long that we don’t even recognize them as conditioning. Regardless of how you’re defined in your chart, you’ve been shaped by the stories, expectations, and judgments of others. And it takes time—sometimes a lifetime—to unravel that and uncover who you truly are.

Human Design gives you the map to your mind and body, but it's not the territory. The map doesn't show you where to go or what to do, but how to interpret your uniqueness. But experiencing your unique frequency and path reveals itself over time.

Regardless of how well you think you know yourself, you’re still going to wrestle with Not Self for as long as you’re alive. Duality is part of the human experience. You can try to escape conditioning by avoiding it or disengaging, but everywhere you go, there you are.

There’s no hiding from Not Self, it's the homogenizing force that demands to be seen, especially as you follow your strategy and authority. How you interact with the world—whether through resistance, avoidance, or surrender—is part of both your conditioning and your design. It’s a paradox, but that’s exactly what Human Design is: a paradox.

The Mind, The Body, and The Paradox of Being Human

The human mind is both wildly powerful and profoundly limited. It can create entire worlds and move mountains—but it can also be constrained by its own perceptions. That’s a paradox.

The body is a powerful conduit, holding all of your codes and soul contracts. It’s the channel through which Source communicates with you. And yet, it also stores trauma, conditioning, and deeply ingrained patterns. Another paradox.

The mind is the culprit of Not Self because it assumes it’s in control. In reality, it’s only processing information that it's receiving internally (via the body) or externally. Regardless of how the information is received by the mind, it's processed through the lens of conditioning.

Conditioning is not all bad, we can be conditioned by helpful influences that encourage our uniqueness. But we will all be affected by negative conditioning at some point. 

Most of the time negative conditioning is a harmful infliction that happens to us choicelessly when we are younger. When we are harmed, the inflicted trauma is stored in the body. That harmful behavior can create conditioning by the mind to perceive everyone/everything through the lens of that trauma.

Human Design allows us to witness that conditioning and understand the strengths that were developed by that conditioning. Then the mind that is searching for answers is satisfied. Over time, the mind starts to love the Not Self, and trust the body.

Embracing the Complexity of Your Design

If you take one thing from this, let it be this: Human Design isn’t here to box you in—it’s here to set you free.

But true freedom comes from understanding both your design and your conditioning. It’s not about avoiding duality but learning to navigate it with awareness.

Your mind will never be the ultimate authority—it’s too limited in scope. Your body will never be free from conditioning—it’s too deeply enmeshed in experience. And yet, both are essential parts of your journey.

That’s the paradox of Human Design. And that’s the paradox of being human.

This is exactly what we explore in Blooming Your Design, my immersive Human Design course. It’s designed to help you move beyond just knowing your type, strategy, and authority—to truly embody your unique design.

If you’re ready to step into a deeper understanding of yourself and integrate Human Design into your daily life, I invite you to join us. Learn more and sign up here!