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Dharmen’s 84th birthday was in April. Together, we began his new Uranian cycle with profound gratitude for the precious experience of being alive – and for the unwavering love and connection between us.
The day before his 84th birthday, Dharmen had a stroke.
As we reach a significant age, living in a human body brings its own unique challenges. No one gets out alive, and you can't go back to how it was before.
This period of our lives is about finding a new balance.
Read moreAs of December, I am 70.
This vehicle has completed ten 7-year cycles. My body still has most of my original parts – a few missing, worn, replaced, or augmented. I feel healthier and more balanced than I was at age 49 years on my Kiron return, or even on my second Saturn return at age 59.
There is a view from here that I find interesting – no longer trying to get somewhere, and more interested in where I am, right now, inside. I move more – the need for the movement of the triple-split experience has become part of my rhythm, part of the dance to experience balance within. From an outside perspective, it might look like restlessness; from within, it feels like the necessary movement toward finding my inner balance.
I have become more patient with myself, though Dharmen would laugh if I said that, especially when I mention the word patience in the same sentence as myself.
I’m in less of a hurry to get ‘somewhere,’ and instead, I relax into my process of being, feeling, moving, and enjoying the experience now. Waiting is an active state of awareness. Over time, my experience has shifted from waiting for ‘something’ to being in the state of awareness in the now, or to finding myself lost in the mind’s story.
I live in the space of ‘everything everywhere all at once’ – the internal experience of the Right Arrow variables, as I perceive them. My body’s movements are part of that connectedness with everything — the spatial awareness of my location, my aura space, and how it interacts with the outside. There’s no hierarchy, no goal, no image to maintain — only feeling my way through space and time.
There is no goal of my thoughts, no grand point to reach, or figured out; there is only the moment-to-moment experience of the mind’s this and that. It doesn’t stop my mind from having its commentaries, but at this point, my mind’s commentaries are part of everything, not The Thing that I must obey.
Daily living, the routine tasks of caring for my body and surroundings, takes more time and attention now than it did at age 40 or even at 60. There’s more care involved, more present moments, more laughter. Less gets done, but with more feeling, more awareness.
Living in an aging body, the recognition that life is brief and that there is less ahead than has already been experienced is part of the awareness.
The gift of sharing the past forty years with Dharmen is carried preciously. I’m grateful for each day we share. There is only now for experiencing love. Now.
I also notice widespread changes across many levels in our homogenized world. Old ways are collapsing, and new ones are emerging unexpectedly. Amid climate events, wars, financial and economic challenges, political polarization, and fading or breaking cultural bonds, there’s a clear sense that change is on the way.
AI is rapidly infiltrating every app and program with implied consent, then continuously updating with new tricks to entertain restless minds. Finding how to turn it off is more difficult than ignoring its automated suggestions. Every screen seems to have gained a sense of movement and fluidity, as if static screens are too slow and boring to hold the distracted attention of the homogenized world. The infinite diversity and variety of life are being reduced to algorithms day by day.
I appreciate the gift of Human Design in my life every day. Having my own authority, not swayed by the winds of change, but sitting firmly within this vehicle and observing my experience—it’s beyond my wildest dreams of how life could be. There are no fireworks, no reward at the end of the road, but there is enjoying the ride. Ahhhh! Mmmmmm!
The obstacle is the mind itself. We live in a culture built on the mind’s narratives. As a species, we overvalue fantasy and the "dreaming of something better." We are trained to manufacture a life based on past imaginations, treating those thoughts as if they were reality.
Currently, 96% of humanity is caught in an endless loop: imagining a desire, pushing to make it real, and when it fails to meet the mind’s expectations, "figuring out" a new plan. This is the recipe for a life driven by the mind.
Read more‘No Choice’ is the theme for me right now. There is such a relaxation into the deep surrender to Inner Authority for me. Perhaps it is the relaxation of my nervousness in the emotional wave, or it is that my mind has finally accepted that the body is in charge of this or that decision, which allows me to relax. Who knows, but I enjoy the feeling that comes with reaching that place of acceptance.
Read moreWe're living in a time of significant decline, but we can take one decisive action: actively gathering and recording the transformative potential of Human Design. It is a legacy resource for future generations who choose to explore themselves through Human Design. It needs to exist so that future generations may have a unique experience of themselves and being alive.
Ra is gone; no one will be directly initiated into their Human Design experiment by Ra anymore. Many first-generation experimenters have already passed away, including Randy Richmond, Kathy Kinnard, Mal Brittain, Ilana Jagruti, Ed Stanton, Zeno, and Jurgen, to name just a few.
Those of us who were direct students of Ra share our experiences as evidence of the experiment, which has succeeded and continues to provide each of us with a life like no other. We each experience ourselves and life with greater awareness. We can view Human Design as a path for individuals to realize themselves as passenger consciousness, experiencing this human life with empathy, acceptance, and a profound sense of love.
Read moreWe are undeniably living through immense global change, a mutation affecting everything from our weather to our societies. To navigate this, we must find inner stability and become the conscious observer, the 'passenger' within our own lives.
My personal journey, marked by emotional volatility and a triple-split awareness, was further complicated by conditioning, leading to fear and protective mechanisms that obscured my true self. However, by embracing Human Design, I freed my mind from its controlling role, allowing for a transformative shift.
Read moreHow do we enhance awareness?
We enhance awareness through the daily practice of being aware of our variables as we practice our strategy and Inner Authority. Awareness changes everything. It lets your vehicle live life fully while you relax and observe the experience.
It is the body that lives the life.* Each of us has a vehicle that vibrates with life. It operates at a specific frequency. Daily practice of our PHS regimen is an experiment in attunement of the body’s frequency and enhances our awareness of our Inner Authority—whether center or process-based.
Read moreThe not-self is the mind as the decision maker.* It is the 7-centered inheritance from our past. For centuries, everything—religion, culture, society—has taught us to let our minds lead.
This was somewhat controlled by the global cycle Cross of Planning background frequency, focusing on the 'greater good.' But those old systems were also deeply unfair, biased, and based on 'us versus them' thinking. Right now, we're seeing a lot of chaotic and irrational behavior from people acting on their individuality without self-awareness. As the guardrails of the Cross of Planning fall away, the warning from our future becomes clearer: Individuality without awareness is chaos.
We are designed to live as unique individuals and make choices based on our own Inner Authority, not by outside pressures. The 9-centered potential is about being aware in the present, in this moment. Remembering that we’re here to witness life and experience consciousness while in form is crucial.
It's not about stopping conditioning entirely. It's a natural part of life. The question is: how do we respond to it? Do we blindly follow the crowd, living a life driven by our mind's conditioning? Or do we observe the mind’s reactions to conditioning, developing a new sense of self-awareness that is aware of the patterns of the mind?
Each time we meet our conditioning, we can make a new decision. The challenge is enhancing our awareness of our Inner Authority.
Read moreWe have been raised to treat life as a problem to solve, a result to obtain. What action do I take next to get what my mind says is most important to do, be, or have? The mind has kept us distracted so we don’t feel alone. It has kept us busy, so we don’t notice the emptiness of its promises. It has kept us on the never-ending search for more, which is focused on the future and what to do next. When we no longer run our lives from this mental drive, it is a shattering of a deeply held illusion that has been projected outward as the way of life.
It is a kind of dark night of the soul.
Read moreHuman Design is not going to stop the changes that life is bringing. Crises will still happen. What was interesting to me was seeing that I have naturally changed how I deal with crises. I can let it be and still be me.
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http://magicislandibiza.com
NEW! We just received a special 50% discount for our students to the Event! Use the code THESECRETOFBEINGYOU after the subtotal on your registration order at http://magicislandibiza.com Code: THESECRETOFBEINGYOU
In 1999, we met Ra for the first time in Sedona. We each had an individual reading alone with Ra, and together, we had a partnership reading—one right after the other, all on the same day. He wore this funny little hat, and we sat with him next to his computer, our chart on the screen and the cassette deck spinning away. We still have the cassette recordings he made for us.
He said, ‘Do not trust me, don’t believe me—experiment and find out for yourself the validity of Human Design.’ Our experiments following our readings with Ra continue to mutate and transform our lives today.
Selen Parman contacted us this summer about the film documentary she is making and asked us to be interviewed for this project, called ‘The 4% Experiment’. She has involved many direct students of Ra to help bring this project to life in a meaningful format that honors Human Design and Ra’s impact.
Over the past few months, we’ve worked with Selen through online meetings, texts, and emails as her vision of this project has begun to take shape and context. It is a worthy endeavor and needs our support.
So, we are returning to Ibiza. This is the first time we’ve been there since Ra’s death. Ibiza has always held a special place in our beings. Not only is the island’s geology and history unique, but it is also the home of Human Design’s origin. It is where Ra taught live annual events. It is where his studio and classes were taught for many years. It is where we connected with many of our online Ra classmates who have become renowned teachers of Human Design.
We will teach as part of The Return to Magic Island from October 24 to 28. Each day of this special event will feature presenters who were all direct students of Ra and have much to offer in their unique work with Human Design. We’ll be presenting a lecture on Awareness and Change, a topic that affects us all in our rapidly changing world. We are all participating to support fundraising for the film.
Can you join us?
It would be lovely to connect with you.
Read moreThere’s a noticeable change in the background frequency when the conditioned nodal viewpoint shifts.
On January 8th at 2:33 pm UTC time, there will be a significant change in the gates of the transiting nodes, which will last about four months as the nodes move through these gates.
Read moreHuman Design offers us a strategy for becoming aware of our experience of our Inner Authority. We can experience our unique vehicle being in the flow of life, of our experience of inner alignment. The potential is our unique embodiment of awareness.
Who is observing that experience? Who notices?
The dilemma we all face is discovering the frequency of being ourselves – becoming aware of the essence of this vehicle, both body and mind, form and personality, and what it feels like to observe life through this vehicle.
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March 19, 2020 - Spring Equinox 2020
A Gathering of Spirit - Free Online Gathering :: Wednesday, March 25 :: with Mary Ann Winiger, Dharmen & Leela Swann-Herbert
Link to download the recording from A Gathering of Spirit 3.25.2020 - https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/VoDdS0zLyW8WrxRzY3TP4byaMyI28eEDlgt1m2ZUrKO
We are living in extraordinary times, a cusp of a significant shift in human life. In response to this experience, Mary Ann Winiger and Dharmen and Leela have organized this gathering. There is no plan, nor is it a class, but purely a space and time where people around the world can come together in spirit. We cannot come together in form – but we can experience being together in the consciousness field.
We invite you to sit back, relax for a while, and enjoy seeing and listening to three very different perspectives from their experiments in living their design. Dharmen, Mary Ann, and Leela will be sharing their experience and perspective as a vlog or video podcast. For those who remember Jovian Radio – it’s like radio, but you’ll be able to see us as well as hear us.
For over 40 years, Dharmen and Mary Ann have been friends. In 1999, Mary Ann introduced both Dharmen and Leela to Ra and Human Design, and all three of us were his direct students. Currently, we are neighbors in Sedona, Arizona.
We have expanded our classroom to make room for everyone available to gather together. As this may be a large group, you will not have a microphone or camera access or chat screen capability.
The classroom will open at 18:30 UTC, and there is no reservation needed. If you are unable to attend, there will be a download available. It will be posted on our website, in our next newsletter, and on Leela’s Facebook wall. You are welcome to share this invitation with others.
Classroom Login: https://zoom.us/j/9482670879
Time Zone Converter: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter-classic.html
Introduction to Family Penta is a course designed to help reveal the hidden dynamics of your birth family. It will help you recognize how internalized conditioning pressures impact your sense of self, as well as current relationships. By learning penta dynamics, and realizing how your family penta was structured, you can discover acceptance and compassion, and let go of conditioned shame and blame.
Penta dysfunction can sift down through generations to cause stress in the here and now. When we examine penta roles in our birth family, we can recognize conditioning patterns that we have become identified with, or identified as needing from others. Working through our family penta helps us to understand the way the mind has turned life into a problem, that must follow a pattern to achieve specific results.
Family is not inherently good nor bad, but for most of us, it is a significant part of our life. Family penta take us away from our individual lives, and yet the family is the foundation of raising children, our communities, our societies. Recognizing that who we are as individuals is different than when we are in our family penta, can be a shattering revelation. When we learn these dynamics and can recognize how they operated in our childhood, we can begin to see how they impact our present life as well.
FAQs about Introduction to Family Penta with Leela Swann-Herbert
· I don't have my parent's exact birth time – can I still use this course?
Yes. If you don't have your parent's exact birth time, it still can be a valuable experience to take this course. If you have your parent's birth date and city of birth, you can use noon as general birth time. The truth is, if you don't have an accurate birth time, you'll never know their entire design.
The PentaGraph uses only 12 specific gates. If you would like, you can explore a range of birth times for their birthday, and see if anytime during that day one of these 12 gates is activated in their design. You will have an approximate chart using noon, that in most cases, is accurate enough for penta purposes.
During the course, we will be examining in depth the conditioning themes of these 12 gates, and their roles in the functional and dysfunctional family penta groups. Based upon your memories of your childhood, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the functions that were present or missing in your birth penta.
· I'm not interested in my past family, but my current family. Can I still use this course?
Yes. I recommend that you use your birth family as the foundation for understanding penta dynamics. Our birth penta is our formative experience, and most deep-seated conditioning, about family. It shapes and colors the way we function in our adult families, in our workgroups, and our social lives.
The desire to 'fix' your present family group is often rooted in an attempt not to repeat your parent's mistakes or to recreate your pleasant childhood experience within your current family. Neither approach will work, as every family penta is unique; no two group experiences are ever the same. The inner work of family penta is to realize and become aware of what is the family structure, not what it should be or could be if wishes come true. The work is to discover how you can function uniquely inside and out of penta groups. The value of family penta work is in the experience of awareness and acceptance, and the discovery of a deeper appreciation for your self.
· I'm not sure I'm ready to look at my birth family. Can I still use this course?
The value of looking at your past is in finding the threads of the fabric of your present. Many of our mental expectations and drives for results in our lives arise from our birth family conditioning. We often have big feelings about our formative family that we'd rather keep submerged. The difficulty is that when a situation is similar enough to our birth penta dynamics, those feelings will leak out, often in our present penta groups.
Designed to meet you where you are at in your experiment, this course structure provides six weekly classes with new material on the family penta structure. Following these lectures are weekly experiments that are exercises in self-discovery and awareness. Our live class meetings starting with Class 2, will be organized around the weekly experiment discussion, complete with student's family PentaGraph and family member charts. How you participate in these discussions is up to you: you can share in class with the group, or you can share by email that I read for you in the group. The students that participate in the discussion will receive personalized feedback and coaching. Or, you can listen to the experiment discussions and lectures, and work through the experiments on your own when you are ready.
· I'm new to Human Design. Is this course for me?
Yes. Active experimentation with strategy and Inner Authority is the basis for all exploration in Human Design, and the only requirement for this course. Are you ready to take this course? You've been asked, invited, initiated, and informed.
· I'm interested in taking the Family Practice Certification Course, and I see that Introduction to Family Penta Course is semester 1 of 2 for this advanced HD professional certification. How does this work?
Family Practice is designed to coach and engage family members with their process of self-discovery within the context of their family penta. To prepare for Family Practice Practitioner Certification, personal experience and training in family penta form the foundation provided through the Introduction to Your Family Penta Course. Also, learning to utilize the family penta analysis as a basis for coaching a family is vital. Learning how to coach families and how to design a coaching plan for a family is presented and practiced in the Family Practice Certification Course.
Family Practice Practitioner Certification is available for certified Human Design Analysts and current PTL students. Introduction to Your Family Penta and Family Practice Certification Course are both required before submission of a final exam for Family Practice certification. The final exam consists of the student's analysis of a family penta and a Family Practice coaching plan for the family.
For Course Registration and Information: https://www.ihdschool.com/courses/1262/introduction-to-your-family-penta
This recording was an experiment for me to explore the podcast format for a question/answer session. Individuals sent me their questions and charts, and 5 of them were chosen for this recording.
What I learned from my experiment was that Q&A’s aren’t my format without the person being present, asking their questions. With no real experience of the person, I just get their words. Words are always mind; so, I got a lot of mind-oriented questions: how do I figure it out? What’s my future going to be like? What does this mean?
I get that people are struggling with the mind. People first learn about Human Design, for the most part, wanting their life to be different. But they have a particular way in mind of how that life should be, could be; if only this or that were different, then they’d get a result they think they want. At some point, there has to be the recognition that Human Design is about awareness, not about manifesting the mind’s persistent illusion.
What this experiment has shown me is that there is a lot of work to be done to help people recognize that Human Design is the mechanics of awareness. We’re here to be aware of our particular experience of living in our unique vehicle of body/mind. Not lost in its stories, not trying to push to make our life into what we think it should be – even if that ‘should be’ is what we think we understand about Human Design. Human Design information is simply the generality, a finger pointing towards our individual experience, not the experience itself.
The Wisdom of Openness – Podcast with Dharmen
This recording was an experiment for me to explore the podcast format for a question/answer session. Individuals sent me their questions and charts, and 5 of them were chosen for this recording.
Playing time: 30 minutes mp4 video format
With the mechanics of Human Design, the path to self-love is a binary path. On the one side, we have to train the mind to observe the experience of the present moment, the life that the body is experiencing. In order to train the mind, we have to be able to see the conditioning blinds, the persistent illusion that the mind is focused upon. When we can see the conditioning stories, we can begin to observe what is beyond them.
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Humanity is at a crossroads. The question is, do we live out the same-old, survival driven life like our ancestors? Or, do we find a way to become more conscious of being alive, and relate to life from a sense of communion?
If we are to survive as a species, we have to begin to take individual responsibility for moving from a mentally driven life, to a consciously experienced life. And that work can no longer be put off, can no longer be a nice dream of someday.
The change from survival to communion is not a matter of belief or ideals. If it was only about ideals, then we could all think our way into a felt-sense of communion, of connection. However, ideology does not change lives, it only creates mental identification.
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At the new year, at this time of new beginnings, it is easy for the mind to step in and create all kinds of expectations and projections. Setting goals or resolutions about what could be, what you should chase after, what you hope and dream will happen, what you think you want, all based upon the mind’s interpretations of life. The dilemma is that those interpretations never seem to deliver something of genuine value.
For those of us who are actively experimenting with the strategy of our design and our Inner Authority, the new beginning of the year can bring something quite different: the experiment of being here. What is my life like when I let go of projections about the future, and learn to be present? What is my life like when I wait and discover what life brings, moment by moment?
When we begin our HD experiment, for many of us, we cannot begin to fathom the fullness of waiting – it seems to the mind that waiting is boring, that It is empty. This is because the mind thinks that waiting is waiting for something specific, something that should be chased after, something that we want to have happen. That’s not waiting, that’s expectation. And, as we discover if we are fortunate, expectation is pretty boring and empty.
There is a luxury in waiting. Ra said it best: waiting as an active state of awareness. It’s a moment by moment relaxation into the fullness that life is – not what it could be or could bring, but what it is, in all of its infinite variety. Whether it is being present to brushing our teeth, or gazing out the window, life is full, it is breathing through us.
What holds us back at times, is fear. Fear of the future: What if this happens? What if that doesn’t happen? The mind can create quite a story to justify projections and expectations, swirled with a false-sense of urgency that can create anxiety. Then the mind can get busy trying to figure out how to avoid the fear and anxiety, and suddenly, we are off and running with plans about the future, rather than being present, here, now.
The key that Dharmen and I have discovered, is to come back to the body. Is the fear actually happening right now? Is that thing that my mind is scaring me with, actually taking place? And, if it is taking place, is my body ok? (mostly, it is not actually taking place…just a scary little movie that the mind is projecting…)
Is the body ok? Is the body relaxed and at ease? If not, is there a physical adjustment that can be made, so that the body feels relaxed and at ease? Is the body ok with not being relaxed and at ease? Can we observe the body’s pain, and not turn it into a story of suffering?
Something that not many of us have discovered: It begins with learning how to be present to the body. Not what the mind thinks the body should be or could be; but rather: what is the body’s experience right now? Each of us are trained to pay attention to our thinking, and to ignore the body. The dilemma is that awareness is not found in our thinking, but it is found when we connect with our body’s consciousness. And that is a moment by moment experience.
Not many of us may realize: each of us have a unique way to be present. It is built in to our HD mechanics, in our variables. This is why we offer the Transformation Course series, to help each individual access and become grounded in their unique way of being present.
The mind would like to think that awareness, that being awake, is one and done. That when we discover our way of being present, then we’re done. That one experience of awareness, should become always aware. That’s not life. Life comes and it goes, awareness comes and it goes. It is not a static thing, being here. It is a dynamic process of settling into the body/mind vehicle and learning our unique way of being present, and discovering the beauty of being here, moment by moment.
Leela & Dharmen
As I am a Generator, it may seem strange that I have made the lunar path part of my daily Human Design experiment. Some of you know that my partner, Dharmen, is a Reflector. The life of a Reflector is discovered through their relationship with the lunar path. Therefore, since he’s a Reflector, it would seem logical that I would study the lunar transits so that I could have a sense of what he is Reflecting at any given time. Wrong assumption. Here’s 5 reasons why I explore with the Path of the Moon.
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About Us
Trained directly by Ra Uru Hu, Dharmen and Leela are IHDS-certified advanced Human Design teachers.
As life partners for over forty years, they bring profound wisdom and a deeply integrated understanding to their students.
office@thesecretofbeingyou.com
The Rave BodyGraph TM and Rave Mandala TM are registered Trademarks of Jovian Archive Corporation. All Rights Reserved © 2026 Secret of Being You
