Purpose is an interesting concept for the mind; that there must be some higher valuation than the physical life of the body, a reason for this personal existence, and that there is something that must be done or accomplished. Fame, fortune, love, family: the mind recognizes on some level that these cannot be ends within themselves; that they are a means towards an end…but what is that end goal? Ahhh, it must be your purpose in this life. It has to be something more than simply survival, you have to make a contribution, leave a legacy behind.

It is easy to think that the incarnation cross is the recipe for fulfilling this purpose in life. Strategy and Authority are the means, and the incarnation cross is the purpose. When I first met my incarnation cross, it was fascinating to my mind. How was I going to make this happen? It seemed like a script, that if only I could figure out how to follow it, I’d finally have the life I was supposed to have.

Following this stimulating line of thought, in the year 2000 I researched my cross, and found I was born on the Right Angle Cross of Rulership, in the Quarter of Mutation: “the rulership of bullshit” as Ra called it in the early days (pre-2000 Global Incarnation Cross lecture series). That statement alone took out a lot of the enthusiasm from this line of inquiry. Who would want their purpose to be one of selling the tribe on their power, like the example of George Bush? (Bush was topical at the time) Being a good marketer was something I could imagine, but it was very far away from my life’s path as I began my experiment as I was working in retail operations, managing store openings across the country, not in a sale and marketing career at all.

What I began to realize, was that purpose is something that would take care of itself. My work was to develop a sense of my Generator strategy, and learn to observe my emotional wave to find the awareness of clarity through my Inner Authority. I could experiment and see if S & A would bring me to my correct path in life, whatever that would be; and that somewhere, someday, perhaps I would meet my purpose.

Incarnation Cross is a Signpost, not a Goal

Years later, I have a different take on the whole topic of purpose and my incarnation cross. It’s the mind that wants to have a goal, a purpose that it can imagine that will allow us to live beyond the grave in this earthly realm – a lasting legacy.

Purpose in life is for experiencing, not for imagining. The purpose of this life is to self-realize consciousness while in form. We are a binary consciousness being – we are here to learn to be conscious of both body and mind – not as a goal, but as an in the now experience of being awake. The passenger speaks through the personality, but is not The Personality. There is a vast difference between the passenger observing the body/mind experience, and the mind imagining what the experience could, should or would be, or interpreting the experience.

The incarnation cross gives us the trajectory of our magnetic monopole – that which holds the Body and Mind/ Design and Personality together in the illusion of their separateness. It is the monopole that pulls us along our specific geometry in life, which provides not only the life experiences, but the maturation process for the expression of what has been learned; our specific wisdom gathered in this life.

My Incarnation Cross - What I Observe

When we get down to the specifics of our incarnation cross, we are looking at 70% of our neutrino imprint. These are the Gates and Lines, or themes of our Design and Personality Sun and Earth through which we externalize our purpose. Our cross is not something we ‘do’ but what we are here to be an expression of, and to embody through our practice with Strategy and Inner Authority. It’s not something we look up in a book and then figure out how to make it happen.

For me, the value of learning about my particular Incarnation Cross is as a signpost of my life’s trajectory. Not to figure out how to make this trajectory happen; but rather, is this what I observe in my life? Has my path aligned to my trajectory? In the Quarter 4: Incarnation Crosses by Profile, for the 4/6 Right Angle Cross of Rulership 4, Ra points out: ‘The thing that really needs to be understood is that the very brotherhood/sisterhood of the 4th line is rooted in some kind of censorship...4/6s always appear to be friendly, and it doesn’t mean that they are. It’s just a mechanism, after all.’

Now, 18 years into my experiment, I have an experiential foundation for this signpost through my experiment with Strategy, Inner Authority, and PHS. My 6th line body tends to be aloof for the most part, with the mature recognition that my mind’s story is futile. This allows the natural censorship of my very direct expression – to edit out the mind chatter, and get to the objective observation that I can share with the other. However, if I get caught in taking ‘life’ personally, the maturity goes out the window, and the mind’s stories appear real; I can lose my objectivity, and out will come a personal, ego-driven, mean expression.

I watch on a daily basis how my conditioned mind can express the uncensored version at times; and, at times I watch how my moment by moment awareness naturally expresses a censored account that edits out the internal dialog – that speaks through me. This gives me the feedback as to when and how I have strayed from my path, or observing that I have relaxed into being aware of what needs to be expressed, without any personal agenda.

The Gates of the Cross

The body is what lives the life, and the design consciousness provides the navigation through the Inner Authority – either Center or process based. It is what gives us the experience of this unique path in life – how it lives, where it goes, what it takes in and digests from the external world.

The Design Gates of the cross provide the foundation for the development of awareness. One of the great misunderstandings of the design side is the idea that we cannot be aware of it, that it is unconscious. It isn’t unconscious to the body. It is only unconscious to the personality until we begin to observe the life of the body; then the body’s consciousness slowly reveals itself to our personality awareness.

The Personality Gates of the cross provide the potential expression of life’s trajectory. We begin from a deeply conditioned personality that is run by the mind’s agenda; and that is what we express. Over time, if we persevere with our strategy and Inner Authority, and learn to observe the mind’s conditioning stories, we gradually develop a personality that functions from its 9-Centered potential of what we can express: our unique experience of awareness of this life, a life that is beyond compare. In this way, the totality is enriched, and we experience and express our particular purpose in life – our Incarnation Cross.

Leela Swann-Herbert has been teaching Human Design mechanics since 2007. Trained by Ra Uru Hu, she began her experiment in 1999, and brings a wealth of experience to her understanding of Human Design. She is also an author of “Your Own Authority - A Beginners Guide to Human Design,” available from our eBook shop.