Ancestral Values vs. New Innovations: Integrating Polarities #6
October 20-27: Sun (& Moon) in Human Design Gate 50, opposite the Earth (& Chiron) in Gate 3
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:
New Moon in Libra - The 🌞 and 🌙 are in the Gate of Values (aka the Cauldron), The 🌍 is in the Gate of Ordering
Monday, October 20 - Saturday, October 25
We continue on with the Season of the Spleen as the sun travels through Gate 50 (The Cauldron/Nurturance) this week as we transition from Libra to Scorpio season. On Tuesday the 21st, the New Moon in Libra will happen in this Gate. Across the sky at the last degrees of Aries, the Earth will meet up with Chiron, the wounded healer in Gate 3 (Ordering/Innovation).
The sun and earth are always polar opposites as they transit the wheel of the year, and when another planet or luminary meets up with them in the same gate we can expect intensity of additional energy in that area.
New moons are points of new beginnings, seed-plantings, intention settings. This is the first Libra new moon we’ve had in 3 years that isn’t an eclipse, and it’s planetary ruler (Venus) is at home in Libra, so there are some positive astro-qualities and visions of hope that are downloading with this moon.
The opposition to the earth and Chiron makes that hopeful vision no less beautiful but certainly far more tender and raw, as the wounded healer is reflecting Aries qualities back to the new moon in Libra. This opposition between Sun/Moon and Chiron/Earth reflects the inherent tension: We have a new stew brewing in the Cauldron that holds community values (Gate 50), being reflected and highlighted by some pain points about how difficult it is to face our natural fear of chaos (Gate 3).
Chiron’s wound in Gate 3 could make us highly aware this full moon how difficult it truly is to start something new, to add new ingredients to an existing potion. But the wise, alchemical teacher within Chiron also reminds us that chaos is a perfect place to innovate from, and that we must do it with a spirit of playfulness and innocence.
Together, these gates describe the evolutionary tension between order and emergence, tradition and originality, collective ethics and individual experimentation. The Sun & Moon in Libra want to keep the same stew in the cauldron intact, while Chiron & Earth in Aries keeps throwing in new ingredients. What we’ll see this week is, if you try to silence either, the whole alchemy breaks down.
For the next 5 days…
🌞 Sun in Gate 50: “Values”
I’Ching: “The Cauldron” (Fire over Wind)
Gene Keys: Corruption → Equilibrium → Harmony
Zodiac: Libra > Scorpio
🌍 Earth in Gate 42: “Ordering”
I’Ching: “Difficulty at the Beginning” (Water over Thunder)
Gene Keys: Chaos → Innovation → Innocence
Zodiac: Aries > Taurus
(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!)
Integrating Gates 50 and 3: Innovating on our Values
The integration of Gate 50 and Gate 3 describes the alchemy of evolution. The Gates of Values vs. Ordering reveal the sacred tension between preserving what nourishes and allowing new life to take form. The Cauldron and Difficulty at the Beginning are two halves of a single cycle: one tends the vessel of culture, the other stirs the raw ingredients of emergent creation.
At its shadow frequency, this axis can show up as paralysis between maintaining peace (Libra) and provoking necessary change (Aries). You may feel torn between keeping things balanced and following the raw urge to disrupt what’s stagnant. Libra fears the chaos of Aries, and Aries resents the restraint of Libra. But this friction is precisely where meaning is forged.
When integrated, Gate 50 offers containment, a solid cast iron that lasts throughout generations. At it’s best, this gate is not about controlling the brew, but rather being a steady vessel for mutation. Gate 3 on the other side of the wheel provides the creative spark that keeps values alive and evolving. This week, the Sun and Moon together bring awareness to what’s worth preserving from the past, and Chiron and Earth teach that every living system must sometimes unravel to renew its integrity.
When I saw that unbelievable AI video that Trump posted of himself wearing a crown, flying in a “King Trump” and dumping literal poop on the American people , I think about Gene Key 50 — that’s what corruption (the shadow of Gate 50) feels like. Power with no care, leadership that’s lost the plot. But what I’ve learned about Gate 50 is that you can’t just dump out the whole cauldron when it gets gross. You can’t destroy the system and expect something better to magically appear. You have to innovate on it, re-season it.
Last night, my partner, my kid, and I played a game we often play- it’s called “family potion” or “family cauldron” — we add ingredients like love, peace, unity, unicorns, sparkles, sweetness and care, and mix them together between us. And because my kid is six, she thinks its super funny to always add in a big heap of poop.
Every time our potion starts to get yucky, we just keep adding more good stuff until the potion overflows - creating more room to add more positive ingredients in. That’s how Gate 50 works. Corruption is the signal that something’s out of balance, it’s not the end of the story. You heal it by continuing to add in what’s been missing - more integrity, more love, more vitality, more creativity, more life.
These are the ingredients that Gate 3- The Gate of Ordering, with the Gift of Innovation- brings to the stew. Gate 3 brings in the fresh ingredients when the stew has gone stale. It is the energy of Difficulty at the Beginning, the awkward yet essential force of renewal.
Corruption sets in when old structures forget how to evolve. The fire may still be burning, but the contents have lost their vitality through fear, rigidity, or repetition. Gate 3 arrives like a burst of creative weather, bringing curiosity, experimentation, and a bit of chaos that inevitably stirs oxygen into the mix.
In the Gene Keys, Gate 3 moves from Chaos to Innovation to Innocence. At first, it feels disruptive, like a child stirring the pot without asking permission, but that movement is what restores flow. Innovation reorganizes the ingredients so that nourishment can return. Innocence reminds us that creation is most powerful when it is playful and unforced.
When the cauldron feels toxic, whether in the world, a community, or within yourself, you do not need to throw it out completely. Bring in Gate 3 energy instead. Add curiosity, imagination, and honesty. Let things move again. Stir the mixture until it begins to breathe. The goal is not perfection but vitality.
Gate 3 teaches that real renewal never comes from control. It comes from the courage to make a creative mess and trust that, given enough warmth and care, life will find its new pattern. You don’t fix corruption by dumping the pot; you fix it by overflowing it with innovation, creativity, and goodness until the whole thing recalibrates. That’s 50’s path from Corruption to Equilibrium to Harmony - keeping the fire lit, tending the brew, and remembering that even the messy parts belong in the recipe if the heart stays innovative.
With the 50th siddhi of harmony, equilibrium is a constant active process of balancing polarities. Over time, the balancing act from one side to another tilts smaller and smaller. Being on the Libra-Scorpio cusp, both archetypes provide insight here. Libra, the scales, are always balancing opposites, and at this last gate of Libra season, the sway between the two scales is getting slower and more minuscule. Scorpio represents intimacy and merging, the deep harmony of integration.
In Libra season, the leaves fall to the soil but have not yet broken down into bits to be integrated into the soil. In Scorpio season, the composting begins, and the assimilation of the living with the dead begins in earnest.
In the I’Ching, the cauldron is represented by fire over wind. The wind below feeds the fire above to boil the pot and cook what was separate into a merged creative goodness. The cauldron is the ‘melting pot’, the place where imbalances are destroyed and dissimilarities merged together. On the cusp of Libra and Scorpio, we are adding ingredients to the pot and beginning to stir them together, breaking them down. As we move forward into Mars-ruled Scorpio season, we will begin to add more heat to transform the ingredients into something new, creating a transformative quantum leap.
The Chinese used a great rotund cauldron for cooking the sacrifice, called a Ting, which is the original name of Gate 50. We have a phrase “into the melting pot”, meaning to put our previous ideas into complete reconsideration, This is the symbolism of the Ting, the sacrificial vessel; greatest good fortune because we are made anew; success because change is brought about when existing structure is sacrificed.
This week, persist in gathering the ingredients for your life’s cauldron. When there is breakdown and decay, know that it is an essential process for transformational alchemy to occur. When we align the right historical values in our life and add in a little innovation and freshness too, we don’t need to superimpose hierarchical order for success- we can simply stir the fresh ingredients into the pot and let the magic happen.
THIS WEEK’S ASSIGNMENT (Oct 14-19):
These two gates form an archetypal conversation between what sustains life and what is struggling to be born.
Gate 50, The Cauldron, holds the moral fire of the values that nurture the tribe, the instinct to preserve what nourishes life. It asks you to tend to your values with care, as living principles that evolve with you. This week, notice where your ethics or responsibilities feel heavy or outdated. What rules, habits, or relationships have become ceremonial husks rather than true containers of nourishment? Let the flame beneath your cauldron burn steadily, not frantically. Recommit to what keeps you, and those you love, genuinely well-fed in spirit, body, and purpose.
—AND ALSO—
Trust the raw pulse of Gate 3, Difficulty at the Beginning. This is the gate of mutation, order created out of chaos, and new patterning. It’s the part of you that feels awkward, fearful or uncertain at the edge of transformation. Don’t be afraid of the mess. All creation begins in confusion. Like a new moon, it’s just the beginning of a cycle. The key is to allow order to emerge organically rather than forcing it. This is innovation- when we give space for our lives to reconfigure themselves into new patterns of meaning.
Reflection Questions
What values have I inherited that no longer sustain me or the collective I serve?
Where am I resisting necessary change because I fear losing stability?
What chaos in my life might actually be the beginning of new order?
Where am I holding too tightly to what “should” be stable?
How can I honor my values while allowing them to evolve?
What part of me fears being seen as “disruptive” when I’m simply being true to the next phase of my growth?
Is Gate 50 or 3 defined in your chart? Let me know how it shows up for you in the comments:
The next gate the Sun will enter on Monday, Oct. 20 is Gate 28: The Gate of the Game Player, aka the Gate of Struggle. It is across the wheel from the Earth in Gate 27: The Gate of Caring. 28 vs. 27 is the axis between personal meaning and collective nourishment, the tension between playing for your own destiny and sustaining the lives of others. Gate 28, The Game Player, seeks purpose through challenge; it tests the edge of life to discover what’s truly worth living for. Gate 27, The Gate of Caring, pours its energy into feeding, protecting, and maintaining others. Integrating these polarities asks: How do you balance the instinct to survive with the impulse to nurture?
We’ll dive into that next week.
Until then, all my very best.
xox
A
The 6 Human Design Gates of Scorpio Season
Here we are in Scorpio season already- the season of the witch, the underworld, of going deep, and of reclaiming our power begins on Tuesday, October 22. Here are the 6 Human Design gates of Scorpio season, drawing in descriptors from the I’Ching and the Gene Keys as well. Read through and let the words wash over you- do they evoke any feelings or sensations for you?
Gate 50 (Libra/Scorpio cusp):
October 18-24, 2024 (26° 22’ Libra to 2°00’ Scorpio))
Human Design: The Gate of Values
I’Ching: Fire over Wind, or “The Cauldron”
Gene Keys: Gift of Equilibrium
Gate 28
October 24-30, 2024 (2°00’ to 07°37’ Scorpio)
Human Design: The Gate of The Game Player
I’Ching: Lake over Wind, or “Test of Fate”
Gene Keys: Gift of Totality
Gate 44
October 30- November 4, 2024 (07°37’ -13°15’ Scorpio)
Human Design: The Gate of Alertness
I’Ching: Heaven over Wind, or “Coming Together”
Gene Keys: Gift of Teamwork
Gate 1
November 4- 10, 2024 (13°15’- 18°52’ Scorpio)
Human Design: The Gate of Self-Expression
I’Ching: Heaven over Heaven, or “The Creative”
Gene Keys: Gift of Freshness
Gate 43
November 10-16, 2024 (18°52’ - 24°30’ Scorpio)
Human Design: The Gate of Insight
I’Ching: Lake over Heaven, or “Breaking Through”
Gene Keys: Gift of Insight
Gate 14
November 16-21, 2024 (24°30’ Scorpio- 00o07’30” Sagittarius)
Human Design: The Gate of Power Skills
I’Ching: Fire over Heaven, or “Plenty”
Gene Keys: Gift of Competence
As I read through these, I get a distinct sense of power- not in the sense of personal power, per se, but in the sense of holistic power, power that comes from within and from below, power that arises from working from our gut instincts and deepening our relationships with others.
Stay tuned for how it all unfolds…
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