The Sun is in the Gate of Change ✨ The Mandala 64 Walk
A Guest Post by Jahje Ives of The Art of Human Design (June 1-6 · Sun in Gemini, Gate 35)
Hello and welcome to another week in the Mandala 64 Walk, a practice of feeling into the energies of the 64 gates of the Human Design Mandala as the sun travels through each of them each week. Every gate, based on a hexagram of the ancient Daoist I’Ching, is what I see as a ‘micro-season’ of the larger Zodiac season- it’s always fascinating to me to see how the Gates correlate with the Zodiac signs they land in.
At the beginning of this project, I put out a call for contributors to write about a particular gate that feels personally meaningful to them. This week’s gate, The Gate of Change (35), was selected by Jahje Ives, a brilliant artist and human design guide who I met last year at the High Desert Human Design conference in Santa Fe (speaking of which, you should totally come this year!) .
Jahje is creating an amazing deck called The EmbodieHD Landscape: The 64 Gates where she has created portraits of 64 individuals who have each of the 64 gates defined in their chart. She also writes the Substack The Art of Human Design- follow or subscribe to her newsletter here:
Thanks so much for being a part of the Mandala 64 Walk, Jahje!
(PS. If YOU would like to be part of this project and write about one of the 64 Gates, I’ve still got openings, and would love to share your experience and insights- you don’t have to be an expert, just a felt experience. Please DM me with the gate you’re interested in!.)
“I’m fucking going for it”
Leaps of Faith with Jahjehan Ives: Mercury & Jupiter in Gate 35
Gate 35 is the energy of “I wonder what might happen if?” and then you go and do the thing. In traditional Human Design, it’s the Gate of Change, in the I Ching it’s the Hexagram of Progress, and in the Gene Keys, it holds the shadow of Hunger, the gift of Adventure, and the siddhi of Boundlessness.
I have a lifetime of experience with this Gate as the only channel I have in my chart is the 35-36 channel. I am foundationally built to take the leap of faith.
Or at least that’s how I like to think of it. Gate 35 for me shows up as “here’s what happened when I stretched and did that thing that made my gut twist”. It’s why I often find myself sharing what I’ve done and helping clients emotionally calibrate their own leaps and bounds when you say, “I’m fucking going for it.” and DO.
The Gate of Change & Progress
Gate 35 lives in the throat center and carries the energy of the storyteller who regales you with tales of how they pushed beyond what they thought was possible and what happened when they did.
This gate has the capacity to shift others through sharing your lived experience. It’s part of the collective circuitry meaning your experiences aren’t just for you. They become the medicine of possibility and a gateway into expansion for others too.
In the IChing Gate 35 is called Progress and I believe progress begins when we are open to change, trust in the flow of life, and see each transition as an essential part of our journey.
I often say growth requires discomfort. That’s because growth is taking us to a place we’ve never been before and our nervous system likes business as usual, it likes to know what to expect, it likes consistency.
But growth is going into the unknown with the understanding that while we may not see the end of the path yet, if we begin we will get there eventually.
When we can let go of the fear that change will take something away from us and instead learn to flow, to maybe even find joy in the unknown, and to trust that every experience is an invitation to grow then we are truly free to progress.
That said one of the challenges of Gate 35 can be that when the flow for progress takes too long, the restless jump ship. In the Gene Keys 35 carries the shadow of Hunger, which can show up as restlessly moving from experience to experience.
This can be an endless hunger of constantly needing something new to feel fulfilled and being unable to find contentment in what is. So you move on to the next thing, thwarting progress by chasing the next adventure instead of staying and exploring what might still be unfolding.
Gate 35 is defined in my Mercury and Jupiter
In my own chart, I have Gate 35 defined in my conscious Mercury as 35.2 and in my conscious Jupiter as 35.6. So for me, this energy dwells in what I speak about, what I teach through, and what I naturally expand into (and find my fortune through).
Which makes perfect sense as I’ve always been an artist and a writer and much of what I create comes directly from my lived experiences. Some of my most potent work has come from moving through the emotional wave of the 35/36 channel, processing an experience deeply, and then turning that experience into art or writing that inspires others.
That’s the core of the gift of 35 for me. It’s not just about having experiences. It’s about synthesizing them to share in a way that helps others move beyond their own limitations.
This gate lives in my throat center, which is one of only two defined centers I have in my chart alongside my emotional solar plexus. I’m an Emotional Manifestor, so I speak and create from my emotional truth as my experiences move through me and become tangible.
The 35/36 is called the Channel of Transitoriness, though I like to call it the Leap of Faith Channel because that’s what it feels like.
Again and again, my life has been shaped by taking leaps into the unknown (Gate 36) and then sharing what I discovered on the other side of them (Gate 35).
What’s interesting is that the things that tend to impact people the most — the artwork that resonates most deeply, the stories that bring in clients, the moments people remember years later — are almost always born from that vulnerable place.
I used to feel self-conscious about that.
I used to think I was oversharing and talked about myself too much.
Someone would tell me what they were going through and I’d immediately respond with, “Oh, when I went through something similar, here’s what I learned.”
Now I realize that’s the medicine of Gate 35.
The gift is being willing to share the story. To reveal the vulnerability. To say: I’ve been there too and here is what I learned.
Because through that sharing, people begin to see new possibilities for themselves.
Can you give a specific story where this gate showed up or felt relevant in your own life? What did it feel like in your body?
An example of this gate in my own life was closing down my old business, Baby Jives Co, a company I had built over fifteen years that was still successful and “working” from the outside.
But it no longer felt aligned.
So 3 years ago, I took a massive leap of faith and walked away from it to completely reimagine my life.
I had encountered Human Design in 2020 and it gave me language for things I had intuitively known about myself my entire life. But three years ago, I dove all the way in to my studies and certifications.
And I remember thinking: I don’t fully know what this next chapter looks like but I know I have to trust where this energy is pulling me.
And honestly? The last few years have been an ongoing lesson in surrender. Surrendering into not knowing where the leap lands or when it ends.
It feels like being out on a vast ocean riding wave after wave after wave. Hoping the waters will settle only to realize that the waves never truly settle. You just get used to the waves and learn how to ride them.
So even though change can happen in an instant, it can also unfold in waves.
3 years ago I also received a wave of inspiration that I’ve been riding since (the paintings I’m sharing here are part of it) illustrating the 64 Gates of Human Design.
This project is another leap of faith as I know I’m creating something that wants to exist and can already see it completed but it’s taken its time unfolding and been a huge labor of love. But I know when it’s finally here, one of the most meaningful parts (aside from having created this) will be the story of becoming the person who stayed with it long enough to bring it into reality.
The 35-36 channel is one of the few manifested channels in the human design chart. Which means what you speak can easily become your manifestation.
So the question becomes what would you like to choose?
Would you like to choose the energy of:
“That’s a beautiful dream, but it probably won’t happen for me”?
Or would you like to choose:
“I don’t know exactly how this is going to unfold yet… but I’m willing to take the leap. I’m willing to see what becomes possible if I don’t give up on it.”
That, to me, is the heart of progress in Gate 35.
A Creative Practice to tap into Gate 35
Play with watercolors (my favorite media) by just adding color onto your paper and seeing how the colors interact with each other. Explore line, marks, how the colors flow. Just let go and see what gets created. And if it turns into a mess, tear it up to create a collage or write little notes to inspire your progress.
Or if you like a bit more structure, take an emotional experience you’ve moved through that really impacted you and turn it into a creative piece (painting, poem, photo, etc) and share the results along with a little bit of insight into why you created it.
Set a timer for 5 minutes and use your notes app (or paper if you prefer) to speak out a list beginning every sentence with “What if…” to make a list of all the possibilities you can dream into. Then pick one and take the first step forward and see what happens.
If you enjoy journaling, here are a few questions you can ask yourself and see what comes:
What leap(s) am I waiting to take?
What’s holding me back?
What’s the worst that could happen if I did this?
What’s the best that could happen?
Go on an adventure. Take yourself somewhere you’ve been yearning to go - maybe a new hiking trail, maybe a new city, maybe a new shop, maybe a new country. Take the leap. Have the experience. Tell someone what you learned.
The 64 Gates: The seeds, weeds, and growth themes that shape our life story
I see the 64 energies as the building blocks of all the potential archetypes that live within us to create our unique story. I think of them as an inner landscape living inside the chart that holds the seeds, weeds, and growth themes that shape our life story.
The Gates are my favorite part of Human Design because they are where our real nuance emerges and when we begin to understand how they flow through us we can use what we learn to navigate our life in greater flow with our natural gifts and potential challenges.
Of course when I first started learning human design the Gates were the part that eluded me the most. That spurred my creative urge that has been unfolding exploring the 64 Gates through different individuals who I photograph and interview to learn about their own experience with specific gates.
The results are now culminating in a card deck called the EmbodieHD Landscape with the resulting illustrations, contemplative prompts, seeds and weeds reflections, and inspirational mantras to explore these themes within yourself and your life.
I’ve been sharing these artworks and interviews on my site and substack as I go and finally after 3 years of growing this I’m excited to be finally launching it this September on Kickstarter.
You can learn more about the EmobodieHD Landscape and sign up to be the first to know when it launches here: https://www.jahjeives.com/blog
How to work with Jahje
Jahje Ives is a Human Design guide, transformational coach, and intuitive artist who helps people navigate seasons of life reimagining with greater clarity and growing self-trust. Using Human Design, creative storytelling, energetic release, and embodied art practices, she guides clients beyond limitations and into the full bloom of who they are becoming.
When she’s not coaching or teaching, Jahje loves to hike the parks around Philadelphia with her family or retreat to her studio and create intuitive artwork using crystal watercolors. She is currently completing the EmbodieHD Landscape, an illustrated exploration of the 64 Gates of Human Design and the 14 celestial bodies that will become a card deck and expanded body of work.
Website www.jahjeives.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jahjeives/
and https://www.instagram.com/jahjehan
Substack https://substack.com/@jahjeives
Thanks so much for walking the Mandala 64 with Jajhe and I!
See you in 5 days for the sun in Gate 45: THE GATHERER.
PS. If you’d like to have a physical, IRL way to deepen your learnings of Human Design, the I’Ching & the Gene Keys- and how they fit into the Zodiac Wheel and the Bodygraph, you can order a copy of my Mandala 64 deck!
I have a few decks left in hand and not sure when the next preorder will be, so get yours while it’s hot! <3
Mandala 64 is a learning and oracle deck I created last year, with one card for each gate, plus 14 cards for each of the planets and luminaries that transit through the gates.
My favorite practice is to pull the card for the current gate and place it on your altar for the week. Let it sit in your field. It’s one of the most embodied ways I know to learn the gates - not through study but through slow, repeated encounter.
I also offer Astrology & Human Design Readings and 1:1 Coaching that weaves together Astro64, embodiment and breath, and creative practice. View my offerings on my website:
Participating in the Mandala 64 Walk is free. Paid subscribers get my undying gratitude, as well as access to my live rituals for each of the Holy Days through the year, plus extra goodies along the way. The next ritual is for Summer Solstice, which corresponds with Gate 15: Extremes… hope to see you there!
 | A guest post by
|