Channel 34–20 · Charisma

Meaning

Channel 34–20 is one of the 36 channels of the bodygraph, and Ulune calls it the channel of Charisma. It runs from gate 34, Power, in the Sacral straight to gate 20, the Now, in the Throat. It is the only channel between those two centres.

Its theme is energy turned into action at once. The Sacral, the centre of steady life force, reaches the Throat, the centre of speech and action, with no centre in between. A thought can become a deed in the same moment.

Someone with this channel defined can always act, and in Human Design is a Manifesting Generator. It often shows as a busy, effective person moving from task to task. The tradition names the risk kindly: doing a great deal without first checking that it is the right thing.

The tradition places the channel among the Integration channels, which it links with self-empowerment and the survival of the individual. Some teachers treat them as a group of their own, others as part of the Individual circuitry. Their energy serves one’s own life first, and it inspires others by example rather than by sharing.

In practice

• Defined by the Personality (both gates from the planets at birth): its owner knows they are always busy. See Personality and Design.
• Defined by the Design (both gates from the planets about three months earlier): the drive runs below awareness.
• Defined by both, or by one gate from each layer: the channel is just as defined. Only its colours change.
• Gate 34 alone, as a hanging gate: great power with no direct way out, which reaches for gates 20, 10 and 57.
• Gate 20 alone: a voice of the present, which reaches for gates 34, 10 and 57.
• Day to day: answering emails while cooking. The tradition suggests letting the Sacral respond first, with its gut yes or no, then moving fast.

Across traditions

• The I Ching: hexagram 34, Da Zhuang, places thunder above heaven, and Wilhelm called it The Power of the Great. Legge’s judgment asks strength “to be firm and correct” (Legge, 1882). Hexagram 20, Guan, places wind above earth, and Wilhelm called it Contemplation. The two are exact opposites, each line of one changed in the other: power that acts, and a gaze that watches.
• Astrology: gate 34 covers 0°07′30″ to 5°45′00″ Sagittarius, and gate 20 the same degrees of Gemini, exactly opposite.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune places thirteen bodies at birth, the Personality, and thirteen at the Design moment, when the Sun stood exactly 88° earlier. The channel is defined when gate 34 and gate 20 each hold at least one of these 26 activations, from either layer. The Sacral and the Throat then become defined.

The two gates face each other on the wheel, so a Sun in one puts the Earth of the same layer in the other. The two Nodes work the same way. Any chart with a Sun or a Node in gate 34 or 20, in either layer, has this channel.

Whatever else the chart holds, the Sacral is defined and joined to the Throat, so Ulune always finds a Manifesting Generator. Alone, the channel gives sacral authority; a defined Solar Plexus would make it emotional.

On the bodygraph, each half of the line takes its gate’s colour. Ink means the Personality, red the Design, ink dashed with red both. The line bends round the G centre, left of gate 10. A defined channel is drawn thicker, and its centres are filled gold. The Personality and Design views keep one layer each, so a channel made of one gate from each vanishes there. Without a birth time, a channel that another hour could change is drawn faint.

Correspondences