Logic is always seeking the perfect pattern, and the perfect pattern is possible. But for the Abstract, there can be no such thing.

The great tragedy of the Abstract process and the Human Experiential Way is when you stand at the beginning, in the 41st Gate, you look out and say, "There are all these possibilities and if I do this, this, and this, I'm going to be rich, I'm going to be happy, I'm going to get that woman, that man, that dog, that thing..." And it collapses, and you begin to understand the Human Experiential Way.

Everything about desire is that desire is something that is going to be determined by the 30th Gate, The Clinging Fire. For me, this Gate is deeply fascinating, because it is the Gate of “the Fates.” It’s different from its parallel on the other side of the BodyGraph, the 18th Gate, that says, "I challenge all those with authority." The 30th Gate says, "I'm the authority and I challenge you," because the Fates never give you what you expect. And this Channel, the 41/30, is ripe with expectation that suffers because it can never get to that perfection it longs for.

The Fates stand in the way and say, "You thought you could do this, this, and this, and get there? Fool. No, we're going to stand over here in your way and we're going to make you take a different path," because the collective abstract process is not about repeating the same experience over and over again; that's Logic. The Abstract is about collecting experiences, one at a time. The 30th Gate is an emotional Gate, it rises and falls on that wave.

Look at the six lines of the 30th Gate and their themes, then look at the position of your own Personality Sun/Earth and the line of your Personality profile. These themes of Gate 30 show us how to deal with life itself: whether through ‘Composure’ (1st line), or ‘Pragmatism’ (2nd line), or ‘Resignation’ (3rd line), each of these aspects of the 30th Gate describe how we can accept the limitations of what the experience of life is.

If you have Gate 30 defined, the lines will tell you the healthiest way for how to deal with the Fates; because if you do not align yourself to the Fates, if you fight against them, that desire and the possibility for experience becomes an obsession — "But I want this, I don't want to go that way, I may never get that thing." And the Fates just smile.

(editor’s note: "The Fates” is used as an allegory to describe the process of Gate 30)

Ra Uru Hu was the Human Design System’s founder and messenger. Ra dedicated 25 years of his life to the development and teaching of the System around the world until he passed away in 2011.