Human Design · Throat center

Gate 20: The Now

Speech in the present tense.

When it overshoots

Talking to fill the moment.

At its best

Saying the true thing now.

Carried and open

In a chart that carries it

Carried in the chart, the gift for speaking in the moment is amplified, and the immediate word can be trusted.

In a chart where it is open

Left open, pressure to answer instantly tends to come from others; taking a breath first is allowed.

When it is in the sky

The present tense wins. What is said now carries further than what was planned.

The six lines

1. Line 1, The InvestigatorSpeaking in the present begins with paying full attention to it, before a single word is chosen.
2. Line 2, The HermitThe right word arrives in the moment without rehearsal, and it carries weight precisely because it was not planned.
3. Line 3, The MartyrSpeaking too fast teaches when to wait, and a few of the words said now will need taking back.
4. Line 4, The OpportunistPresence passes between friends, and a shared moment says more than a long explanation could.
5. Line 5, The HereticOthers may want an immediate answer; giving what is true right now, rather than everything, is enough.
6. Line 6, The Role ModelOver time being present turns out to be the whole practice, and words were only its surface.

Channels through this gate

• Awakening · 10-20Commitment to higher principles. Being yourself, in the present tense, out loud. With Gate 10, Behaviour of the Self.
• Charisma · 20-34Where thoughts must become deeds. Doing, now. Busyness that is genuinely yours. With Gate 34, Power.
• The Brain Wave · 20-57Penetrating awareness. Intuition spoken in the moment it arrives, once. With Gate 57, Intuitive Clarity.

The same figure in the Book of Changes

Gate 20 is hexagram 20, Contemplation, read by an older tradition.