I met the Human Design System on August 26th, 1995, the day after the New Moon. I’d been an astrologer for 23 years, but I was also super-busy with a production crafts, and an educational kit business to support my family of six. I had an appointment with Yola Ray, who wanted to give me a Human Design reading. I’d met Yola the evening before, at a new moon gathering near Taos. She had been leading a small study-group in the foothills nearby, having trained with Ra the year before. Someone had given Yola my birth time. Her intensity caught my attention. She was convinced from my chart that I would be instrumental to Human Design world wide, but she did not tell me that until after the reading.

I made my way towards her very small caravan trailer, where she lived in the middle of a field of dry, golden grass and wild sunflowers. It was late summer in the high altitude foothills of the Sanger de Christo mountains of New Mexico, where the light takes on a mysterious and mystical glow in the third week of August. I knocked and she called out “Come in.” I reached up to the small chrome handle to open her door. The handle was baking hot from the desert sun. It was 3 o’Clock sharp.

Having been a counselor and hypnotherapist over the years, I was interested in what made people tick deep down inside, and I was determined to find out. After two decades of doing readings I was no longer interested in telling people what to do. Yola was standing just inside the door. There were shelves chock full of books everywhere; Tibetan chanting was playing barely audibly from a windowsill tape player. She was obviously a scholar. It was peaceful in there. She begin reading my chart instantly, while still standing. There was no small talk. She acted like she only had a few minutes to keep my interest.

Information poured out of her husky voice. She wasn’t making the same mistakes people usually made when looking at  my astrology chart. Then she said something that took my breath away. “I don’t know what you are manifesting, but it has something to do with your ancestors.”

I had wondered about the same thing. Not long before, I’d had a memory flash-back to my great-great-grandfather’s life. I was heating a rare acid-wax to activate dyes in my shop. The grandfather was captain on a whaling ship. Suddenly, I was on the high seas; the swells were fierce and foreboding black in the Arctic Ocean. The sails slapped against the masts. They were rendering blubber in giant kettles. The fires roared. The smell matched the pungent smell of the wax I was heating. The door slammed on that memory and it was gone as suddenly as it came. I looked at the three thousand freshly dipped candles hanging on the opposing wall, still warm – their white surfaces felt as soft as skin, which got me thinking. “Whose business is this anyway?”

“I don’t know what you are manifesting, but it has something to do with your ancestors.” Yola repeated, looking at me intently. Yola would die in a few short months. The veils were getting thin. In twenty minutes the reading was over. There had been a blizzard of details. Yola had a stack of books prepared for me. “Study these,” she said, and I left. No money changed hands. It was all for the love of Human Design.

The next morning at dawn, I began to memorize the bodygraph. I’d cover one part with my left hand, and sketch what I could remember with the other.  Next came the gate locations by number. I’d studied multiple symbolic languages and I knew how to get the vocabulary inside; to see what it was like to think, intuit and to feel in that language. Channel names and locations came next, plus the Rave I’Ching delivered astounding insights about my life. I shared the graphics and the information about Channels with my children. We filled out charts for all our family and for their friends, drawing out the charts by hand.

Lasita Shalev was my constant companion in this investigation. Soon, the fall production cycle for my businesses began, so it was a super-busy time. Those early days of study were a thrill. I was shocked to learn how profoundly diverse people were. I became more patient and tolerant. I developed more interested and support for others as the work with Human Design educated me deeply. It was already doing its work to transform my life.

Before long, I met Ra Uru Hu, the visionary behind Human Design, who was teaching in Taos, a small town nearby. Those were the early days of Human Design. Ra soon revealed Type and Strategy in one class, and then Authority in the next live lecture.  Lasita and I were there. Then came Profile, and the extensive courses in the meaning of all 384 lines. We were there, too. I became a full analyst in 1998. This was an incredibly exciting and creative time for us and for Human Design.

After eight years study, recognizing my dedication and educational experience, Ra Uru Hu appointed me head teacher of the Human Design School in America, in the spring of 2003. That fall, he made me director of Human Design America. I moved to Santa Fe with my four children, now teenagers. Drawing on our experience of making educational kits and writing instructions, we produced and distributed books for students and teachers of Human Design across the globe. They founded the Human Design America youth group for hundreds of teenagers over a seven year period. Lasita and I produced over one thousand episodes of Human Design Radio to promote Human Design communications world wide. It was a lifeline for many people over the years.

Ra taught about the rapid evolution of the Solar Plexus and it was a deep inspiration for me. The awakening of the emotional Center as a new form of spiritual awareness struck a deep chord. As a counselor and therapist, I had witnessed firsthand transformations as people embraced emotional growth and worked hard to communicate with their loved ones. Human Design could map this transformation. This had vast implications for education and interpersonal communication. Solar Plexus awakening was likely accelerating for countless individuals.

I decided to found a truly modern and up-to-date education for Human Design America to keep up with this awakening. My vision was to create an innovative educational program that celebrated Personal Authority and embraced the individual on their journey of self-discovery. It seemed obvious that their moments of awakening were the reason they would seek an education in the Human Design, and they needed a modern and inclusive program to find out more about it.

Presently, at Human Design America, we foster a flexible and collaborative approach to learning. We value diverse perspectives and actively encourage candid and honest communication amongst participants. We strive to keep up with the latest insights as they emerge, and foster a life-affirming consciousness in a safe environment. We explore the foundational principles of Human Design in depth as they are found in the bodygraph. We pursue a team-teaching format, where a lead teacher with experienced assistants, create a welcoming environment for free inquiry, filled with diverse voices in animated conversation. We support students with invaluable tools to nurture self-understanding, decision-making, and personal empowerment.

Seeing this educational program come alive is truly the most rewarding experience of my life, and I am deeply grateful for students and teachers alike.