The 'Quarter of Civilization' is the place in the wheel where we find 16 gates whose purpose can only be fulfilled when it materializes itself into some FORM. Nowhere like here can we see the mechanics of the 'form principle' at work, only that its purpose is very rarely fulfilled in the unique form of each individual that is and has ever been born, but its purpose is deeply dehumanized and homogenized into a bunch of 'roles and rules', designed to provide the 'glue' for identification between members and assure the continuity of the group.

This is how the evolutionary program imposes itself on human beings, starting with the way we are programmed at first in the family life, then in school when we meet children from families that are different from ours. That is followed by the recognition that all families are stuck together in the same 'plane of suffering', and finally we are driven to spend our whole life trying to make the world 'a better place' for the next generation, ha.

Just like intelligence is overestimated, so is the so-called 'spirit of civilization' in humanity. If there is a place where planet Earth reveals itself as the 'planet of suffering', as mystics have always called it, this place is the Quarter of Civilization. The only thing that changes here from one gate to the next, are the differences in the triggers for suffering, but there seems to be no escape from it. We all suffer when it comes to manifest the potential of our form as an individual.

Civilization is responsible for every level of disappointment in human beings, you can ask any good Reflector. It is the charade where the pretended superiority of mind over form is played out on a daily basis, in every home of every family, in every country of this world. And it isn't getting any better, or is it?

This is the place where homogenized human consciousness is literally framed and packaged with honor and pride, as the pre-established roles and rules are played out by every good father and mother in the examples that they establish for their children through the way they see them interact with the rest of the world.

Children have no rights in Civilization, and neither do women. Not really. In most countries, including some of the most modern in the western world, their rights do not even assure them sovereignty over their own bodies.

I do not think that I need to go much into how the whole history of all civilizations is a history of violence and destruction, but rather I would like to explain why it could have never been much different from how it is today. It is of common sense that nobody would care to preserve a world that has been built on the anger, frustration, bitterness and disappointment of human beings that had to sacrifice their individual lives for it.

You see, we are living in a program. Civilization is nothing but the helpless manifestation of humanity's vane beliefs in old dogmas. Not only that, but those dogmas are based on imaginary orders that originated so far back in the past that we can't really know nor remember it. The oldest of us was barely born a 100 years ago. What the hell do we know? The only truths we know for certain about the (our) form are a distorted reflection of our own personal fears, ignorance, and emotional immaturity.

After we have fulfilled the purpose of mind, and brought about an expansion in our individual mental horizon through the 'Quarter of Initiation', the program wants us to materialize that mental sense of purpose in the world of pure form.

It is one of those ironies that reveals that the program never wanted us to wake up as a species, because while the mental purpose in Initiation is carried out through a collective direction (Gate 13), the purpose of form in Civilization is carried out through a direction that is entirely individual (Gate 2). That is basically like saying that every generation of humans is designed to suffer by trying to live their individual lives by the limited perspective of the homogenized roles established by its social group in the previous generation.

Every vehicle comes with its driver, and every human live that is born into the world of form is a journey towards a secure death, no matter how mindful one wants to be about it. Gate 2 is the gate of the driver, yes, but it is also the core of Penta group dynamics, and gate 8 is its lock in the world of form. Together they drive the process of everything we learn about the world of form in the secure realm of the family in the first seven years of life. This is where children learn to identify with the world that they grow up to be familiar with, and learn to imitate and project the fears of their families onto the forms that are different from the ones that they have come to know in their limited perspective.

Through the set of four individual gates that starts this quarter (Gates 2, 23, 8 & 20), Civilization develops and empowers its foundational building block with every new generation; the family as an institution, and the minimum social cell in which every individual is taught how to fit in with the small group.

It is only through the second block of 4 gates (16, 35, 45 & 12) that humanity has acquired the ability to deal and interact creatively with forces that are different from one's 'own'. In other words, the possibility of exploring the potential for business and material expansion outside of the known borders of the world that is familiar to one by birth, both through the organized military powers of imperialism as much as through the organized cooperative powers of capitalism.

The four gates that are part of this second group have carried this material expansion out through the dynamics of the Manifestor spirit until 1781, but since then humanity has been increasingly stuck in evolutionary terms, divided into those who have the good fortune in one way or another to embrace the nine-centered mutation that is undergo, and those who are simply suffering the worst manifestation of humanity's extremes; the 'haves' and the 'have not'.

This is all part of what made Civilization 'get lost' in the materialistic realm before meeting the true anti-mundane qualities of the love of humanity that can be found in Gate 15. Now we still have the same problems as there were in a world of believers, only now we no longer have a god or ideology to hold on to as a belief that carries absolute value.

If over 2000 years ago Lao-Tzu could sense that humanity was losing touch with the natural order, the marriage between capitalism and science - brought about by the industrial revolution - has not only blocked the evolutionary wheel of human consciousness at the level of survival, but it has also given the power to multinational corporations to determine the politics of almost every government in the world.

Getting to this point, it is clear to me that I am painting a dead end street situation in evolutionary terms, where humanity as a whole truly has no choice but to remain locked in the material world of choices, lost forever in the most primal fears of survival.

You see, if the program wanted humanity to wake up and become more AWARE, it is through the next group of 4 gates that it would be digging in the world of form trying to find a 'new' approach that would bring more balance to the extremes shown in the previous image. Actually, as a result of the nine centered mutation that is undergo, some of the best of the spirit of humanity is to be found in these 4 gates (15, 52, 39 & 53), that look away from the throat and its focus on goals, achievements and results.

A whole new world could have arisen here if women had not given away their YIN power more than 2000 years ago to the monotheistic spirit of the masculine powers that shaped our families and societies until today. Instead of a world of empathy between equals, we have created one in which we learn to identify with the colors of our social groupings and the symbols of our material status. Instead of dealing wisely with the eternal pressures of life, we have simply accelerated our process growing accustomed to 'living in a hurry'.

Follow this link to watch a video of the metropolitan in Shanghai at 07:00 in the morning on an average working day, and see how we give ourselves the same horrible treatment as we give to the other species that we feed on. The machinery of mass production has grown to such levels of sophistication that it is totally dehumanized.

Well, from here there is only one way to go when going back to the throat in the next and final group of four gates (62, 56, 31 & 33). That is, we move on to mass thinking and the perpetuation of false role models in the name of political correctness and material progress. If you only consider the four gates that are harmonics to this last group, what you get is opinions (Gate 17) and Ideas (Gate 11) excusing and justifying the lameness of the same old collective roles (Gates 7 and 13) that has gotten us into the mess we're in as a species.

I think I made it clear from the beginning that I wasn't going to paint a sweet and romantic picture of Civilization, but who would expect that from a lover of human differentiation? This does not mean, however, that I do not love being part of humanity, or that I do not appreciate and even enjoy so many of its impressive achievements on the material plane. But it certainly means that, as my expectations of this material world of ours getting any better than it has always been have moved slowly but definitely down to zero, my capacity to value the world of form and rejoice in what is absolutely priceless about it - namely my own form as a medium for my experience - has increased proportionally.

It is the greatest of jokes that the only form we can never look at objectively is our own. That is what makes it so difficult to appreciate the value of having one. It is only when you live long enough by the consistency of your Strategy and Authority, that you identify so deeply with the unique frequency of your own form that you actually 'become it' to the fullest of your being.

This is the moment your mind is freed from the burdens of the suffering that comes with being born and living on the material plane, and you wake up every day to a world of your own, where all you see in your personal life is nothing but a reflection of the Spirit you are putting out with each and every breath that you take.

Alokanand Diaz, a 1/3 Emotional Manifestor, was one of Ra Uru Hu’s first students and has dedicated over 20 years to Human Design.