Reference · The Chart
The Seven Authorities of Human Design
After type, the Human Design System asks you to know your authority — its rule for how your particular chart is said to reach a trustworthy decision. This page sets out the seven — Emotional, Sacral, Splenic, Ego, Self-Projected, Mental, and Lunar — in the system's own terms, and documents something the introductions usually leave out: authority, like type and strategy, was not part of the original transmission but a later addition. It takes no position on whether the system is true; it reports what it claims and what the record shows.
The seven authorities at a glance
| Authority | Center | How it decides | Who has it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emotional Authority | Solar Plexus (the emotional center) | By waiting out an emotional wave before committing — the system holds that for this design there is 'no truth in the now' | Any type except Reflector with a defined Solar Plexus — Generators, Manifesting Generators, Projectors, and Manifestors alike; the most common authority overall |
| Sacral Authority | Sacral (the life-force center) | By a gut response in the present moment — an immediate bodily yes or no, often described as a sound rather than a reasoned answer | Generators and Manifesting Generators with a defined Sacral but an undefined Solar Plexus |
| Splenic Authority | Spleen (the instinctual and survival center) | By a spontaneous instinct in the moment — a quiet awareness the system says speaks only once and is not repeated | Generators, Projectors, and Manifestors with a defined Spleen but no defined Solar Plexus or Sacral |
| Ego Authority | Heart / Ego (the Will center) | From what the person truly wants — the willpower of the Heart, said to be trustworthy only when a desire is genuinely its own | Certain Manifestors and Projectors with a defined Heart/Ego but no defined Solar Plexus, Sacral, or Spleen carrying authority |
| Self-Projected Authority | G / Identity center (the seat of identity and direction) | By talking a decision out and listening to one's own voice — clarity is said to surface in what the person hears themselves say | Some Projectors with a defined G center connected to the Throat and no defined motor center carrying authority |
| Mental Authority | No defining center — described as no inner authority; the head, ajna, and throat carry the processing | By talking a decision through with trusted sounding boards over time and noticing how it reads in different environments | Mental Projectors — charts with no defined motor or emotional center to carry an inner authority |
| Lunar Authority | No defined center — all nine are open; clarity is tied to the transiting Moon rather than to any inner center | By waiting a full lunar cycle of about 28 days before major decisions, sampling how a choice feels as the Moon moves through the whole chart | Reflectors — the only type, defined by a chart with no defined centers at all |
The centers, decision rules, and the ordering among them are the system's own terms, described here as part of its model rather than as claims this archive evaluates.
What an "authority" is
In Human Design, authority is read from which of the nine centers in your BodyGraph are defined, and in what order the system ranks them. Where strategy is a rule about how a type engages the world, authority is narrower: once a choice is on the table, it is the system's answer to which part of the design should decide. The system arranges the possibilities into a hierarchy — a defined Solar Plexus outranks a defined Sacral, which outranks the Spleen, then the Heart, then the identity center — so that a chart's authority is whichever qualifying center sits highest. Six of the seven are inner authorities, located in the body; the seventh, the Reflector's, is tied instead to the transiting Moon.
Where authority came from
The detail worth knowing is that authority is not original to Human Design. When Ra Uru Hu began teaching the system in the United States in 1993, the Four Types, Strategy, and Authority were not part of the material. He introduced them together in May 1997, at a chart-reading seminar in Taos, New Mexico — four years into his American teaching, and a decade after his 1987 account of receiving the system. The decision-making framework that now sits at the center of every reading was a later addition to it, and its arrival changed what the teachers who had built the American school were being asked to teach.
That history — the transmission, the teachers, and what the 1997 overlay did to the people who came before it — is the subject of the archive's two documentary books, ZENO and The Voice on Ibiza.
“The framework every reading turns on — types, strategy, authority — was introduced in May 1997 in Taos, four years into the American teaching.”
The seven authorities
- Emotional Authority The most common inner authority — the system tells this design there is no truth in the now, only clarity that arrives across an emotional wave.
- Sacral Authority The gut-response authority — a Generator design the system says knows in the moment, through the body rather than the mind.
- Splenic Authority The instinctual authority — the system describes a quiet, present-moment knowing that speaks once and does not repeat itself.
- Ego Authority The will-driven authority — the system says this design decides from what it genuinely wants, and can trust its own desire and promises.
- Self-Projected Authority The voice-led authority of some Projectors — the system says clarity comes not from a feeling but from hearing oneself speak.
- Mental Authority The one design the system says has no inner authority — clarity is drawn from trusted sounding boards and the right environment rather than a bodily signal.
- Lunar Authority The Reflector's authority — the system says clarity arrives not in a moment but across a full lunar cycle of roughly 28 days.
Sources: the authority framework and its 1997 introduction are documented from the primary record in ZENO and The Voice on Ibiza; see also the archive's note on validation and the reference on the five types. The system's own definitions are published by Jovian Archive and the IHDS.