This is the whole thing about the 2nd Tone. It's the thing that makes us so mysterious as creatures because it's the only thing we have that can recognize something that's never been recognized before. The world is constantly in mutation, we have new viruses, bacteria, and things that emerge all the time. Our immune system is based on what we came into this world with. We're equipped with a defense system for what's already there.

But mutation is going to bring new things into the world. It's the 2nd Tone that's waiting for this new stuff, and its job is to recognize it when it comes and defend us against it. In other words, it has a capacity to be attuned to mutation. It's an incredibly miraculous function, in that sense.

And of course, out of that, if you extrapolate that all the way up, and you get to the Color level of the Personality, you get to Hope. You get it at that level that we can grasp, perhaps, what this word actually means.

Most Focused Line: Maintaining Barriers

Everything about the 2 is that it's probably the most focused of all of the Lines; deeply, deeply focused. And it's deeply focused on maintaining barriers. In other words, not getting involved with all of those things that are not its responsibility so that it can keep an eye out, waiting to see what it can work with.

Theme of Projection: Others See into the 2

When we're dealing with the 2nd Line, like the 5th Line, we're dealing with the theme of projection. If you're a 2nd Line being, others see into you. This is where the dilemma comes for the 2nd Line being. This is where that talent that you don't think you have, but somebody else thinks you have, can create real dilemmas.

My classic illustration of a 2nd Line is being in their house, doing their thing, whatever it is. And that thing from the outside looks like something that is special, creative, different. When somebody sees them doing something, the moment that they confront them with that, “Hey, you're really good at this, you should really do this,” this is a whole different thing, because this is not something that's studied. This is not something that has that kind of depth; it's talent. It's just a gift. It's just something that's there.

Waiting for the Call

What happens to most 2s, which is the greatest dilemma for 2s, is that because of its nature—that it's here to be able to tune into these things that are new— everything about the 2 is that it's waiting for the call. If there is any keynote motto that really can align somebody who carries the 2 to what's correct for them is understanding this theme, because the greatest problem the 2s have in this life is that they don't know what call to answer. They have no idea what call to answer.

Remember, their gift is for what is unknown. They can be fooled by so many things, in the not-self particularly. And of course, they are fundamentally a hermit. When somebody has a 2nd Line profile, you say they're a hermit. It's no accident that the guru is a force that pulls those fields around to them, creating that communal hermitage where everybody comes together.

Excerpt from Teachers, Gurus, Priests, Prophets, Messengers, and Buddhas

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.