The Splenic Center is truly amazing! This center is the source of your instincts, intuition, and primal awareness. It's instantaneous, operating in the present moment, and is your internal guide to well-being. You must be fully present in the moment to "hear" what it is telling you. The spleen is deeply connected to survival, detecting potential threats, including things that threaten our well-being (including negative emotional vibrations). The spleen is also a source of our light-heartedness, laughter, spontaneity and our daring side.
Transcend Imaginary Fear
Grab your Human Design chart and identify the gates you have from the Spleen. This will help you see what fear may be holding you back. If you don't have your chart, go here to create one (make sure your birth time is exact).
Start recognizing when you notice the fear happening and work toward moving into the high expression of the gate.
Splenic Center Fear or Focus: Two Sides of the Same Coin
FEAR or FOCUS? They are the same coin, different side. When afraid, it can feel overwhelming, often pulling you into a state of panic. This makes it hard to focus which can disconnect you from your intuition.
On the flip side, staying fully present in the NOW transforms fear into focus, enabling you to hear and act on the guidance of your Splenic Center. Being in this state helps manage imaginary fear that could creep in.
Survival Fears vs Imaginary Fears
The Spleen's primal fear instincts are designed to save your life, but there is a downside...at some point these fears can turn into imaginary or irrational fear and put the brakes on life. It can operate like a "shadow state" within us. Fear can be a debilitating emotion. It can hold us back and keeps us stuck. It prevents us from having an impact. It pulls us away from our self-trust.
The good news? Having awareness the fear exists and where it comes from is like a doorway into a higher frequency to help you dissolve and overcome the imaginary fear or shadow state. Once you catch yourself spiraling from fear, you can allow your Authority to step in and guide you forward.
Gates from the Splenic Center
Each gate coming from the Spleen Center has a GIFT, but it also has a fear you're here to transcend. Each time we transcend the fear and don't allow it to get in the way, we build a greater sense of trust and well-being.
Learning about my own Splenic Center fears and high expression has helped me notice the fear is taking hold of me. I consider if the fear is rational or irrational (if my mind is involved, it's always irrational), and then I try to dig deeper as to why I'm having the fear. This is where mindset tools come in very handy! Overcoming the fear through radical trust in my Sacral Authority allows me to keep moving forward in life.
My Experience with gate 50
For example, I have channel 50-27, and gate 50's fear is the fear of taking on too much responsibility. It's a tribal channel so the fear mainly shows up as not wanting to take on a lot of duties or responsibilities outside my family because that will take away the energy and time I need to support them. To help me transcend this fear, I follow my Strategy and Authority, which is "To Respond" from my Sacral. When something is a "yes" for me, I am now able to observe the imaginary fear but not allow it to hold me back from what I want to do. I've also created a deep knowing around Gate 50 that says: "when I rise, my family rises" and when my Authority is guiding me, I will never take on too much responsibility that will leave them behind.
The Open Splenic Center: Feeling Others' Fears
Someone with a completely open splenic center does not have any gates on the spleen. When any center is open, the energy powering that center is inconsistent, there's more flexibility in the energy, and you can easily tap into another person.
When you are tapping into someone else's splenic center, the energy feels amplified in your body, making you very empathetic. It can feel as if your intuitive connection to others is heightened. You may notice you have intuition and instincts about other people, which might be described as a person feeling light or heavy, and the heaviness felt in someone is potentially a sign of misalignment.
In regard to your own personal instincts or intuition, you definitely have them, but they will be felt inconsistently. There may be times you feel really tapped into your instincts and times when you don't feel them as strongly.
Those with an open spleen are very empathetic to other's fears, anxiety, health, and instincts. You can feel other people’s fears, when others are being held back by their fears, and if they are toxic or unhealthy. Many great healers have an open or undefined splenic center. I highly recommend you become familiar with the fears of all the gates in the Spleen.
With time, you will become wise about each Splenic gate fear, and can potentially recognize which gate and fear someone has in their design.
If someone with an open spleen isn't aware of this ability to feel others, it can show up as your own fear, and your own health and toxicity. The key here is to avoid internalizing these fears and health issues as your own. Just the awareness alone can be life changing and freeing. Now you can use it as a source of wisdom and understanding and can "clear" yourself with just your awareness.
People with an open spleen are more prone to existential fears than someone with a defined Spleen. The more you live your design, the more capacity you will have for things that require courage. Start by taking little steps, which will accumulate over time, and over time you'll have more and more courage to be yourself and follow your heart, even if it's scary.
Fear and High Expression in the Spleen Center
Here's a larger PDF view of the chart...
Gate 48: Fear of Inadequacy
Gate 48 is the Gate of Depth. This gate provides a natural instinct for solutions and mastery. It's an internal intelligence that can't be grasped by the mind but rather the mastery and skills of gate 48 come from a deep, natural instinct. It's used to bring depth and dimension to a skill and logical, workable solutions to problems. This is amazing for helping recognize, correct, and perfect the world we live in.
The fear of inadequacy creeps in when someone feels they lack developing skills or depth, or feel they won't be able to explain or actualize their solution with enough depth, or when someone realizes they must wait for their depth to be recognized (projected gate) before they can share it.
My observations of my son with gate 48. Storytime :)
My 13 y.o. son's Personality Sun is gate 48, and he has the full channel 48-16. This means it is 70% of his personality, and I notice this gift and fear very prevalently in his life. I've witnessed him having wonderful problem-solving instincts, especially when it's a skill he is passionate about. I've noticed he becomes a sponge when he's lit up by and learning a new skill. It's all the thinks about. I've noticed gate 48 has a grit to it! He can practice something over and over for hours and hours and seems to never get tired of it. "One more time!" has been his favorite phrase since he could talk! He has a hard time stopping something he really enjoys! His desire to gain depth and mastery at the skill seem to make him very resilient and determined.
His fear of inadequacy shows up as looking for external validation about the things he does. He has a hard time seeing how good he is at a skill, but he is also a 2/4 profile, and the 2 line projection field makes that worse. From my observation, a sense of inadequacy about himself seems to be just below the surface of his soul, waiting to rear its ugly head.
Gate 48's programming partner is gate 21 (Control), so when he feels inadequate he becomes controlling. I also think the inadequacy is intensified because gate 21 is in an undefined Ego Heart Center, which is about self-worth. I always remind him he is worthy no matter what and has nothing to prove.
Here are some fun examples of gate 48 in my son's life.
From a very young age, he loved building forts. Give him some plywood, boards, a hammer, and nails and he was occupied for hours! One winter morning at 7am I was woken up out of my sleep when I heard a banging outside. I look out the window and there he was in his winter coat, in the freezing weather, hammering away on his new fort, lol! The grit he showed - that weather wasn't going to stop him.
At age 3, he begged my husband teach him to snowboard. My husband is a snowboarder himself, so he was happy to. They've gone to Mt. Bachelor every winter since then, but no matter how cold he was, how terrible the weather was, or how many times he fell, he kept going. To witness the resiliency in a 3, 4, 5, 6 year old was impressive! It's as if he innately knows repetition is necessary in order to get good at something. There have been many Saturdays on the mountain when the infamous "one more time!" was said and they stayed until the mountain closed.
This video made me laugh because he's talking about "if you can do this, you're a professional." That sounds like Mastery language to me!
Last example - he started playing soccer at age 6. After a couple years, he honed in on goalie. He didn't want to do any other position but goalie. I quickly realized this was his gate 48 wanting to master something, so instead of conditioning him to think he needs to try all the positions because he's young still, I encouraged him to focus on goalie. He asked me for "good goalie gloves" and from then on, he hasn't played any other position. During soccer season, he asks to stay after practice to have kids kick at him so he can practice stopping balls. The grit I see, once again, is being at practice until the sun goes down, in the cold, stopping balls over and over and over.
I have 3 tips for transcending the fear of inadequacy:
#1: The key to transcend this is to trust your depth. Remind yourself that your depth is a gift and it will continue to grow with experience and time. I always remind my son he is enough, adequate, and worthy just the way he is.
#2: Lean into practicing. Mastery takes time and consistent effort. The fear of inadequacy can dissipate when you immerse yourself in deep practice and give yourself permission to grow gradually.
#3: Rely on Strategy and Authority. Your Human Design strategy and authority guide you to make aligned decisions. Following them ensures you invest your energy in areas where your depth is truly valued, reducing the pressure of feeling inadequate.
In addition, the correct people will be drawn to you in order to initiate your depth.
Gate 57: Fear of the Future
Gate 57 is the Gate of Intuitive Insight and the most intuitive gate in Human Design. It operates on an inner sound/vibration level, and it's constantly scanning and screening its environment. To tap into this intuitive knowing you must be consistently grounded in and connected to your body consciousness. In other words, you must be present in the moment. If you're connected to gate 57, your intuition will empower your ability to hear what you need in the moment, such as a sense of what's safe, healthy, and good for you and what is not.
To transcend your fear of the future, you must be alert and focused in the now to hear the messages from the Spleen - that little voice that only speaks once and softly - and act on those hunches immediately. When you're listening and paying attention to your intuition now, there is no tomorrow to fear.
Gate 44: Fear of the Past Repeating Itself
Gate 44 is the Gate of Awareness and it has an instinctive memory of past experiences held deep within the cellular memory of the body. Gate 44 is known as the gate of the nose because it can "smell" when something's right or wrong in a literal and a symbolic way. ie: "I smell a rat" or one client I had told me she could literally smell when someone was sick.
Someone with this gate knows intuitively whether the past is worth repeating or not, based off past successes and failures. There can be a fear of past baggage that might catch up with you. It can also create a reluctance or even inability to move forward in life — a sense of "getting stuck in the past." There can be a manipulation of your memories of the past and twisting the story in order to influence people in a particular direction.
These people also intuitively know who truly belongs with them and who loves them for who they are. Trust in others, such as your friends, is huge here. If you have a lot of distrust or start isolating yourself from people, this is a signpost of the low expression. To transcend this fear of the past repeating itself, you must first trust. You are striving for Teamwork and working harmoniously with others.
What can you learn from the past that can help you now and in the future?
Gate 32: Fear of Failure
Gate 32 is the Gate of Success and is focused on constant evaluation through instinctively recognizing what can and cannot be transformed. Any fear of failure can halt any grand ambition you're capable of.
There's a balance between wanting to transform and evolve and also staying conservative with risks. Remember that evolving always comes with a risk of failure. If you're ultra conservative, life can't transform and change. Following your strategy and authority ensures your efforts align with your purpose.
There can be a fear of personal failure and fear of failing those within your tribe (ie: family, friends, career, etc.) If the fear of failure is stopping you in your tracks, did you follow your strategy and authority? If yes, take a deep breath and push through it. Nothing would ever get done if we let the fear of failure stop us.
Gate 28: Fear of Death
Gate 28 is the Gate of the Game Player. The Daredevil. It represents the search for true purpose. Remember, the spleen is in the moment, so purpose can only be in the moment. When you’re fully present, the fear of death and purposelessness dissolves as your focus shifts to experiencing life rather than fearing its impermanence.
In addition, having a fear of death and purposelessness can actually inspire people more into their individuality. When you face your fear of death and the fear that life has no meaning, you will feel a renewed sense of vigor and a deeper surrender to life than ever before. Without this fear holding you back, you will realize your life is precious beyond belief and from now on you must give yourself fully to every moment.
Gate 18: Fear of Authority
Gate 18 is the Gate of Correction. Someone with this gate has the intuitive ability to know what needs corrected for the sake of improving it and making it better. It has great diagnostic insight! This awareness directs you to the source of a weakness or imperfection, and focuses your thinking on ways to correct, modify, or replace it. It's your way of cleaning out what isn't healthy or restoring vitality to something that has been corrupted.
The fear of authority involves resistance to being told what to do and being judged, criticized, or controlled by others—especially by people or systems perceived to have power or influence over you. This fear arises from Gate 18's innate ability to see and correct what is out of alignment, and it doesn't want people trying to override that.
With gate 18, you certainly don't want to turn this correction on yourself or others. This gift is only to be used outwardly on life. If you feel any internal criticism creeping in, focus on what is right and what is working, not what is wrong. You may be aware of what's wrong and can work to correct it, but you don't need to keep your attention there. Focus on solutions, not problems. Also, this is a projected channel so be wary of offering unsolicited advice.
Here's more information about the Nutrition & Health with gate 18.
What is your experience with fears from your Splenic Center? Do you notice when fear holds you back? Which fear do you want to transcend?
Sincerely,
Kelly
xo
This is great! I love that you answer the question-“how do I move past the fear(s)?”