Variable is about the ‘box’, it’s about the mind. It’s actually not even about the mind but what's behind the mind, and becoming what's behind the mind. Let me explain to you first what Variable actually is.

Okay, here’s the simple guide: There are four arrows. And what do they mean? Where do they come from?

This is about binaries, so you’ve got Left and Right, and you’ve got four possible combinations. There is the Personality Sun/Earth, the Design Sun/Earth, the Personality Nodes and the Design Nodes. These are the four possibilities for Left-ness and Right-ness. And when you calculate the combinations that are possible, you get sixteen different combinations of Left-ness and Right-ness.

Differentiation is fulfilled in Two Ways

Every single aspect of what is possible for each of us is because of a differentiated possibility that is inherent in our very nature. That differentiation is fulfilled in two ways: The first is you’ve got to deal with the body, because if you don't deal with the body, nothing happens.

That is why Human Design is predicated on Strategy and Authority. Strategy and Authority is not about awareness; its point is to align the vehicle correctly.

What Variable points to—these sixteen different combinations—is to the potential of a natural order. It is a natural order long lost, and not one we can recoup as a species. But we can take advantage of what is our place within that natural order.

The second (way) is about Personality awareness because all of this represents the consciousness field. And the consciousness field is rooted in one thing: the possibility of correct outer Authority. Your mind is at its best in outer Authority, this is what we‘re all here for; to be able to express our outer Authority, our unique awareness.

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.