Human Design · Throat center

Gate 16: Skills

Enthusiasm poured into practice.

When it overshoots

Enthusiasm without the practice.

At its best

Talent earned by repetition.

Carried and open

In a chart that carries it

Carried natally, the pleasure of honing a craft is amplified, and a little daily practice goes a long way.

In a chart where it is open

Without this gate, a teacher’s zeal is infectious; borrowing it to start a practice is fine, and keeping it up is the work.

When it is in the sky

Enthusiasm meets practice, and repetition turns interest into skill. Rehearsal is unusually rewarding.

The six lines

1. Line 1, The InvestigatorSkill starts with fundamentals repeated until they are dull, and the dullness is the foundation.
2. Line 2, The HermitTalent shows itself before anyone has named it, and someone else is usually the first to call it skill.
3. Line 3, The MartyrPractice is mostly a record of mistakes corrected, each failed attempt sharpening the next.
4. Line 4, The OpportunistA craft grows fastest in company, where enthusiasm is shared and passed from hand to hand.
5. Line 5, The HereticPeople may assume mastery and ask for it; showing only what is genuinely known keeps a reputation honest.
6. Line 6, The Role ModelAcross years a skill becomes a way of seeing, and teaching it becomes the natural next step.

Channels through this gate

• The Wavelength · 16-48Talent. Depth and enthusiasm together. Skill built on repetition, expressed with energy. With Gate 48, Depth.

The same figure in the Book of Changes

Gate 16 is hexagram 16, Enthusiasm, read by an older tradition.