Power Skills vs. Contribution: The Human Design of this week's Scorpio New Moon
Integrating Polarities for November 17-21: The Sun (and New Moon) are in Human Design Gate 14 (Power Skills), opposite the Earth in Gate 23 (Contribution)
Welcome to Integrating Polarities, a series that focuses on practicing the art of wholeness - weaving opposites, moving beyond the binary, and bridging the divide.
Every 5–6 days, as the Sun enters a new gate in the Human Design Mandala, I’ll share a timely transmission you can read like an integrative horoscope for the days ahead.
To learn more about the background of this project, read the first transmission.
This Week’s Transits:
The 🌞 is in the Gate of Power Skills (14)
The 🌍 is in the Gate of Contribution (8)
Tuesday, November 11- Sunday, November 16
Gates 14 and 8 ask you to align with what is truly yours to create and then offer it with style, conviction, and integrity. Gate 14 is the fuel of direction, the engine of personal power that says yes only to what your soul can actually sustain. Gate 8 is the subtle charisma that lifts a project, a message, or a mission into its fullest expression. Together, they describe a week of choosing the right work and then showing up in a way that amplifies the field around you.
With the Sun in Gate 14, your vitality is tied to what feels meaningful, resourced, and self-generated. You are meant to move toward what feels like true inner wealth, not performative striving. With the Earth grounding in Gate 8, your stability comes from authenticity. You are supported when you express your essence without trying to be impressive. Real contribution arrives when you share what is already alive in you.
This week’s New Moon brings an extra charge to Gate 14 as well. It resets your relationship with personal power and resourcefulness. The New Moon in Gate 14 asks you to clarify what you are actually willing to invest your life force into and what no longer deserves your energy. It is a clean doorway into a new cycle of right work, right fuel, and right direction. What you choose now sets the tone for the next lunar cycle and also seeds a longer arc of commitment that can carry you through the winter.
These two gates sit in the same circuitry and speak to each other. Gate 14 generates the power, and Gate 8 carries it into the world through individuality and creative contribution to a harmonious whole. This week, listen for what feels naturally resourced in you and let that shine help you contribute to the greater whole.
🌞 Sun in Gate 14: “Power Skills”
I’Ching: “Possession in Great Measure” (Fire over Heaven)
Gene Keys: Compromise → Competence → Bounteousness
Zodiac: Scorpio
Bodygraph Center: Sacral
🌍 Earth in Gate 8: “Contribution”
I’Ching: “Holding Together” or “Alliance” (Water over Earth)
Gene Keys: Mediocrity → Style → Exquisiteness
Zodiac: Taurus
Bodygraph Center: Throat
(Want to know which of these gates you have defined in your bodygraph? Download your Human Design Chart here to follow along with this series in a personal way.
If you have a gate defined, you will probably be more familiar with it’s energy, and it can be interesting to look at it’s polar opposite gate too!)
This week’s New Moon, remember that you are a bright star… among many stars
Gate 14: Power Skills
Gate 14 lives in the Sacral center in the HD bodygraph, and carries the deep pulse of personal resourcing. It is the inner engine that wants to fuel what is meaningful from the depths within. In Human Design this gate is mutative, self-generated, and oriented toward correct direction. It is known as “Power Skills,” because it describes our ability to invest life force into the work that leads to true prosperity.
As the last full gate of Scorpio season, Gate 14 asks us to make an honest inventory of what we have been carrying after going to the depths of our souls during the season of the spleen, the season of the witch. Scorpio’s long descent has brought us face to face with our cravings, our fears, and our deeper motivations. Gate 14 gathers that material and asks us a simple question: “What work actually deserves my energy now?”
In the ancient I’Ching, Gate 14 is known as Possession in Great Measure. The trigrams Fire over Heaven evoke the image of a bright flame shining in a vast open sky, or the sun at its zenith in the heavens, representing prosperity by the light it shines universally on everything on earth. It describes times when inner resources are abundant and the task is to steward them with clarity.
In the Gene Keys, Gate 14 moves from the shadow of Compromise to the gift of Competence to the siddhi of Bounteousness. The shadow of Compromise shows up when we give our energy to work that drains or distorts us. It is the feeling of being pulled off our own path because we believe we have no choice. The frequency lifts toward Competence when we commit to the work we can actually sustain, work that originates from our inner depths.
The moon meets the sun in Gate 14 this week, so it is a great time to align your consciousness with your emotional body, focus on what is yours to master and stop scattering yourself in a hundred directions. At the Siddhi of Bounteousness, energy becomes a natural overflow, where prosperity is not something that is acquired but rather fountaining out from within.
Gate 14 is wired into the mechanics of the Sacral center, which means your body knows before your mind does. When you use your energy well, you feel a hum of satisfaction in your cells. When something is off, the response flattens or feels like a gutteral 'uh-uh’. This gate teaches prosperity through embodied truth instead of through ambition or performance. As the final gate of Scorpio’s depth work before we launch into the action of fiery Sagittarius, it asks you to follow the current of what feels alive and quietly withdraw from everything that does not.
This is the part of the year when the descent becomes honest. We have walked through the dark waters of the underworld and Gate 14 asks us to carry forward only what is real.
This week, measure the value of your commitments by how your body responds. If you feel a steady internal yes, you are aligned with the power this gate offers. If you feel yourself tense or over-explain, you are likely slipping into compromise. Follow what feels inherently resourced and let that become the foundation for the adventure of Sagittarius, the next season of your life.
Gate 8: Contribution
The earth in Gate 8, the final gate of Taurus, grounds this week with the energy of authentic contribution. It lives in the Throat center and is all about personal power becoming visible through unifying expression. While the Sun in Gate 14 asks you to choose the work that is truly yours, the Earth in Gate 8 stabilizes you by encouraging you to share that work in a way that feels natural rather than performative.
In the I’Ching, Gate 8 is known as Holding Together. It speaks to gathering around what is true and offering your presence as a unifying force. You contribute most when you embody what you believe, not when you try to match the expectations of others. Like every constellation is made up of individual suns, the grounding force of this week’s energy is to flame your individual fire but remember it is most powerful when connecting with others.
The Gene Key for Gate 8 moves from Mediocrity to Style to Exquisiteness. The shadow shows up when you mute yourself or dilute your voice to fit into the group. The gift arises when you express your perspective with clean self-trust. At the highest frequency, your presence lifts others simply by being itself.
As the grounding force of the week, Gate 8 reminds you that your path is strengthened through honest expression. Share what feels alive, trust your natural tone, and let your contribution ripple without trying to engineer its impact.
Integrating 14 and 8
Gate 14 and Gate 8 form a quiet but potent polarity between our inner competence and our contributions to the outer world. Gate 14 shows you where your real fuel lives, and Gate 8 shows you how to offer that fuel in a way that feels unmistakably like you for the benefit of unified and cooperative relationships. Together, they teach that prosperity is not produced through effort alone but through alignment.
When you invest your energy in what feels inherently resourced (14), your contribution becomes clearer and more magnetic (8). When you express yourself with authenticity (8), you reinforce the direction your Sacral has already chosen (14). These gates work as a circuit: one directs the power, the other broadcasts the signal.
This week, let your body tell you what deserves your energy, then let your voice, your style, and your presence that contribute to the world reflect that choice. When the inner yes and the outer expression match, your path strengthens.
THIS WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT (Nov 17–21):
Gate 14: Feed Your Inner Fire
This week, become a responsible steward of your own creative fuel, choosing pursuits that expand your vitality rather than compromise it. Its assignment is to pour energy only into what you truly want, trusting that aligned desire is the most reliable compass for sustainable prosperity.
—AND ALSO—
Gate 8: Contribute Your Truth
Express your individuality without waiting for external validation, contributing your unique flavor to the collective because it is true to you. 8’s assignment is to offer your creative signature with courage and consistency, knowing that authentic influence comes from the resonance of your heart as it connects with other hearts.
Reflection Questions
Where do my authentic desires (14) meet my authentic voice (8), and where do I still compromise either for external expectations?
What creative contribution wants to move through me now, and do I have the fuel and alignment to sustain it without forcing?
How can I let my unique expression guide my use of energy, so that what I offer the world is both true to me and supported by my natural vitality?
Is Gate 14 or 8 defined in your chart? Let me know how it shows up for you in the comments!
The next gate the Sun will enter (late on Friday, November 21) is Gate 34, the Gate of Power. It is across the wheel from the Earth in Gate 20, the Gate of the Now.
Next week, we are asked to channel our life force into what is immediate and true. Gate 34 brings raw, responsive power that wants to act from instinct rather than obligation. Gate 20 brings presence, awareness, and the ability to recognize what is correct in the moment. Together, they form the archetype of embodied truth in action.
Where this week invites us to focus our energy on what we can sustain and then share the essence of that work, next week asks us to stay rooted in the present and let our natural power move cleanly through us. See you on Friday for that update!
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Cheers,
Alison
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