We have evolved within the human body over thousands of years, adjusting and shaping our bodies and their functions for countless and unknown experiences. Disease and illnesses have had their sway over the course of history, and always, to date, the human body has adapted. It is said in a study in Europe, that the descendants of those who recovered from Bubonic Plague in the Middle Ages have a greater immunity to the depleting disease of AIDS.

No one in the Western world will deny that in these days we are being exposed to greater and greater changes in our lives. Our bodies and all aspects thereof are being exposed to greater levels of stress, pollution, ozone depletion, and genetically modified foods and medicines. Can we adapt successfully, and who will survive the coming ages?

In this article, we examine the body's function and response from the viewpoint of Human Design in three areas: The Sacral Center (The Sex Center), The Spleen (The immune system), and the Self Center (The Liver). We also look at the Design of legendary Jimi Hendrix to see some of the correlations between Design and health.

The Sacral Powerhouse

The Sacral Center gives us access to Life Force energy. It provides us with the power to fertilize, impregnate, and nurture others and ourselves, and also to forge our way through life. It is the center in Design we call the "Generator" Center because of its apparently ceaseless supply of living energy. People who have this center defined in their chart can "keep on keeping on" when the rest of us tire. They can appear to be one-paced and do not appreciate, on any level, being interrupted while "in the middle of something." Many of the world's great athletes who involve themselves in "repetitive movements" in their sport, for example tennis players, have a defined Sacral Center.

In general, the great thing that people with defined Sacral Centers must establish for themselves is to what activities and to which people, they are going to give their "Life Force" energy. The recognition comes through responding from their Sacral Center, allowing the affirmation of Life Force energy to present its own wisdom in relation to any commitments, rather than, for example, trying to rationalize a situation from the mind, or feel forced through the pressures of stress to commit.

In physical terms, if the access to or supply of Life Force energy is interrupted or misdirected there can be a breakdown in that person's health and well-being, leading to exhaustion and depletion.

The Spleen, "Feel-good" Center

The Spleen Center relates to our Immune System and is always looking out for our physical health and well-being. It embodies the senses of Taste, Smell and Intuition, senses that, moment by moment, guide us into situations that are healthy for us, and away from situations which are hazardous for us. There are many expressions in language which emphasize the Spleen's capacity to engage with our environment and alert us to our circumstances: "It leaves a strange taste!" "I smell a rat!" "Something tells me.....!"

People with a defined Spleen Center in their Design usually feel good about themselves and often have the capacity to make everyone else feel good about themselves as well.

However, there are limits for people with defined Spleen Centers. If the person with a defined Spleen Center takes on too much in their life, disregarding their Intuition, taste or Instinct, their Spleen Center may become overloaded and fail, causing them to become very, very sick.

People with undefined Spleen Centers characteristically get sick often as children, but, provided they rest and recover completely from an illness, their immune system adjusts. As the person gets older, they become stronger and stronger in health.

Typically, in times of sickness, a defined Spleen Center can process drugs, particularly Allopathic Chemical remedies, whereas, undefined Spleens cannot consistently process drugs. Undefined Spleen Centers, being highly sensitive, can adjust and heal through lightweight dosages of lightweight medicines, for example, homeopathic and "gentle" herbal remedies.

The Self, Liver Center

In Human Design, the Self Center gives us access to our sense of direction, purpose, and love in life. The eight gates which make up the Self Center in the body graph connect into the twelve signs of the zodiac and, when the sun passes through them, align with the eight seasonal high points of the year, including the solstices, equinoxes and other festivals marking the middles of the seasons.

People who have defined Self Centers typically know where they are going and how they fit into the scheme of events in their life, more obviously so than those with undefined Self Centers. Defined Self Centers are consistently connected into the ways of the world. They appear to routinely fulfill a sense of purpose, either through their life direction or through their sense of belonging and love connections with others.

People with undefined Self Centers constantly push the boundaries of life as though they have no limits at all. It appears sometimes that there is no consistency in what they do, where they go, or with whom they are affiliated. When someone with an undefined Self Center brings all their friends together, those friends will be really puzzled in trying to see common ground among everyone present. There can be an experience for someone with an undefined Self Center that occasionally they are "lost in space," and disconnected from the run of life around them. The most important key for them is to connect with the "right" people; people who recognize and appreciate them, so that they connect into a healthy personal direction in life.

Some examples of people with defined and undefined Self Centers are Sir Winston Churchill and Amelia Earhart.

Since the Self Center is associated with the Liver, the influence of alcohol can blur the sense of direction and the appropriateness of relationships. Typically, people with defined Self Centers can process alcohol easier than those with undefined Self Centers.

The Design of Jimi Hendrix

Jimi was born on November 7, 1942 in Seattle, Washington. In his Design chart he has a defined Throat (Expression) Center connected to a defined Self (Liver) Center. He has a defined Sacral (Sex, Life Force) Center connected to a defined Emotional (Solar Plexus) Center connected to a defined Root (Stress) Center. Defined Centers are continuously and consistently available energetically. He also has an undefined Spleen (Immune) Center and an Undefined Ajna (Mental awareness) Center. Undefined Centers turn on and off, energetically, depending on who else is present in the aura.

Jimi has open Heart (Willpower) and Crown (Inspirational) Centers. Open centers have no gates colored in on them in the Design. With an open center in a design, the person is not necessarily attuned to the nature of that center in the same way as if they had some gates colored in. Thus, Jimi, with his open Willpower Center, can be oblivious to the competitive nature of the world, or can, from time to time, be completely overwhelmed and consumed by it. Also, with an open Crown Center, he can be a pure conduit for inspiration, or he can be beset by doubts, confusions and mental pressures, which are a part of other people's realities and which he cannot easily assimilate into his own life.

By Design, Jimi expresses himself as a natural leader with an incredible power of direction in his voice. He relates in such an intensely intimate way that he cannot be ignored by anyone. He is also deeply provocative, spirited, moody, romantic, melancholic and potentially depressive. He is an Emotional Generator, which means he is designed to respond to life from a place of being clear, emotionally. Rushing into things is always a source of problems and frustrations for him. Open hearted, it is always hard for Jimi to know what it is he wants until he is involved in it, and he is not designed in any way to be competitive.

Open-minded, he has the capacity for far reaching thoughts and to be inspired by things that might appear ordinary and everyday to others, until Jimi brings his own particularly powerful expression to them. With an undefined Spleen Center, Jimi does not always necessarily feel good about himself. With his extensive (natural) swings in mood, to the highest and lowest extremes through his adrenalized and emotional nature, he easily gets drawn towards mood-enhancing drugs, which his undefined Spleen has great difficulty in processing.

Jimi's very survival depends on his being able to decline commitments to people and things about which he does not have emotional clarity. His downfall comes through mixing alcohol (which his defined Self/Liver Center can handle) with drugs (which his undefined Spleen Center cannot handle) in an attempt to align his moods to the world around him. Jimi might still be with us today if he had found the clarity to align his world to his moods.

Next month: Health Part 3, The Throat, Ajna, and Crown Centers.