Definition

Meaning

Definition describes how the coloured parts of a bodygraph hang together. A centre is defined when a complete channel reaches it; defined centres joined by defined channels form one connected group. Definition counts those groups.

• Single definition: all the defined centres form one connected whole. Human Design reads this as a self-contained way of processing life: such people tend to work things out on their own.
• Split definition: two groups that do not touch. The tradition teaches that people with a split often feel something missing between the two parts. They are drawn to those whose gates bridge the gap. Taking time, and spending it with others, helps the two halves come together.
• Triple split: three separate groups. Variety tends to suit these people, because different contacts connect different parts.
• Quadruple split: four separate groups, which is rare. The tradition sees things coming together slowly, over time and through many encounters.
• No definition: no centre is defined at all. Only the Reflector has it.

Definition is not a measure of worth or of strength. A single definition is not better than a split; each describes a different rhythm of taking in and making sense of life.

The groups are joined, in the tradition’s reading, by the people who carry the missing pieces. Where a person has one gate of a channel and another person has its partner, the channel is complete between them. Such a lone gate is called a hanging gate, and the gates that would close a split are often called bridging gates. Planets passing through the sky can do the same for a while.

The definition is also what makes the white, undefined centres stand out: everything outside the coloured groups is where a person takes in others’ energy.

In practice

• A single definition may find it natural to decide alone and may not feel a strong need for others to think things through.
• A split definition may notice that a certain friend or partner makes them feel whole. The tradition suggests seeing this as a gift of the relationship, not a lack in oneself.
• A triple or quadruple split may feel clearest after moving among several people and places: a busy café, a market, a shared workspace.
• Decisions, for split definitions, often benefit from a little extra time, so that the parts can meet.

Origin and history

Definition belongs to the system Ra Uru Hu said he received on Ibiza in 1987. He set it out with Lynda Bunnell in The Definitive Book of Human Design (2011). It is one of the basic keys of a chart, read with type, strategy, authority and profile. Chetan Parkyn’s Human Design (2009) presents it the same way.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune casts the Personality and the Design and defines every channel whose two gates are both coloured, with the centres at its ends. It then treats the defined centres as points joined by the defined channels, and counts how many separate groups they form. No defined centre gives None; one group, Single; two, Split; three, Triple split; four or more, Quadruple split.

Ulune does not distinguish narrower kinds of split, such as how many gates would be needed to bridge one. Without a birth time, the definition is marked ~ whenever another hour of that day would give a different count.

Correspondences