Gate 23 in Human Design is the energy for articulating insights, knowing how to break complex subjects down into relevant, digestible parts, and communicating them at the right time, for just the right people. Do you have this Gate in your chart?
Gate No: 23 – The Gate of Assimilation
Location: The Throat
Connects to: Gate 43 via the Channel of Structuring
Sign: Taurus
Circuitry: Individual – Knowing
Biology: Thyroid, Parathyroid
Weaving Straw Into Gold
Gate 23 is the energy for breaking down complex subjects and communicating what they mean, how they work, and why they’re important, so that peoples’ very lives get transformed for the better.
According to my teacher and the founder of HDSchool, Katie Irvine, Gate 23 is “the voice of change.”
Having nothing to do with hay or greed, I think of Gate 23 sort of like the story in that creepy, old fairytale, Rumplestiltskin, about a little jerk who could weave straw into gold.
‘Assimilation’ is that power: to weave ideas into catalyzing words. Just like old Rump turned hay into gold for the king.
Gate 23 also just happens to be my Conscious and Unconscious Jupiter. (Jupiter stands for the power we behold to create transformation and reach expansion. So whichever Gate Jupiter was in at the time of your birth holds a lot of weight if you want to up-level on your soul’s journey in this lifetime!)
Reach out if you’d like to book a session on that!
I think Gate 23 is what’s made me an ace ghostwriter, a role I’ve fulfilled for dozens of corporate types who were all vying to be regarded as thought leaders in their fields, but who had zero time and even fewer language chops to slap together 1K words that made clear sense.
So they’d hire me. I’d listen and take notes as they’d download all the million-and-one things they knew, over the course of a half-hour phone call, about finance, software, green technology, real estate or some other topic.
And then I’d return to my desk to figure out just how in the world I was gonna piece together an article for them that would make their big, complicated brains relatable and understandable to the masses, and so that it could be publication-worthy in a trade magazine or high-traffic online news site.
I got behind the wheel and gave spinning their straw into gold my best shot.
Sure, I got overwhelmed in the process. Sure, I doubted my abilities. Sure, I’d have to look stuff up or call them back to ask clarifying questions.
But often when I felt lost on which direction to go with an article, I’d go for a walk instead, then return later to my work to conduct some independent investigation about their particular field, and eventually the pieces and paragraphs would start to come together like a quilt. One square at a time. Each thread sparkling with little glimmers of gold.
I’d work at fine-tuning, and moving squares around until they fit just right. Pretty soon, I’d have a draft that my clients were genuinely pleased with, 99 percent of the time.
I didn’t view this ability to ‘assimilate’ information as a superpower back then. I just saw it more as just a necessary skill if you were gonna call yourself a writer.
But my clients often looked at me wide-eyed and slack-jawed after reading my drafts. I was called a “unicorn” more than twice for my ability to turn their complicated, technical ramblings into something cohesive and compelling — and which actually garnered clicks and expanded their networks while helping them to build that sought-after reputation as a thought leader.
Designed to Communicate
Gate 23 has truly been expansive and transformational for me. That’s because Assimilation is the energy for knowing something (clearly, well & thoroughly) or not.
When it knows, it’s built to communicate that knowing outward; powerfully enough to transform others’ lives.
When it doesn’t fully understand a thing yet, 23 still ‘just knows’ that every subject can be split apart, studied, explored, understood and communicated in a whole new way.
So it learns about its subject matter from new angles, creating evocative awareness and insights that it’s then driven to deliver, at the right time and for the right audience.
Flashes of Genius, or the Murmurings of a Weirdo?
But Gate 23 isn’t always so reliable and amazing. It definitely has its drawbacks, and I’ve experienced those, too. Loads of times.
This ‘knowing’ and awareness must wait, patiently (infuriatingly so, sometimes), to be shared, or else risk being seen as some kinda weirdo.
A) If 23 doesn’t fully know a thing, its message gets garbled and others just won’t get it;
B) Gate 23’s insights must be invited in. If they’re not asked for, people look at you like this:
Image credit @shvets-production, Pexels.com
Our messages can be dropped at the absolute wrong time or in front of the wrong crowd. Which makes them want to avoid us.
This can be hard when you’re a business owner who knows she’s great at assimilating info, but winds up blathering on about the subject matter at hand in front of all the wrong people who definitely aren’t interested in becoming customers.
Which is kinda how my first eight months of being a Human Design reader went!
Bottom line: Like it is for so many Gates in the chart, timing is everything for Gate 23.
Wait For It…
In the high vibe, this energy waits to deliver its knowing for the right timing and the right audience.
When it does so, it speaks eloquently, clearly, and changes people’s lives through its knowing. It delivers flashes of genius and earns a reputation as being one, having the potential to be regarded as a thought leader in any subject.
Rejection is a Bitter Pill
In the low, or shadow, vibration, this energy is impatient and impulsive.
It can’t wait to spout its knowing and it wants to share everything immediately.
So it will communicate all the groovy new stuff it’s learning whether it’s been asked to share or not, and regardless of the timing or audience.
Others then often back away from the misaligned 23, experiencing this energy as too blunt, too bold, or too weird, what with all its offbeat conclusions and strange ideas.
When others don’t receive 23’s knowing with open arms and understanding, 23 has a tendency to get really sad and withdrawn. It feels disappointed, bitter and becomes afraid to share its insights with anyone in the future. So be wary of the tendency to shut down, if this energy sounds familiar. Your message are meant to be shared; just have patience!
23 can also be so desperate to be ‘right’ that it will blather on forcibly, thereby alienating itself because it seems like a know-it-all.
It can forget the strength and breadth of its true power, which, remember, relies on both the right timing to share its transformational awareness and the right people who’ll be ready to receive it.
No small feat, but possible nevertheless!
Hold tight, 23. Your time to change the world through your communicative superpowers is coming!
The true gift of Gate 23 is in how it embraces its ability to understand things, waits for the right time to share them, and communicate that knowing confidently, so that other people’s lives change for the better.
If you have this energy in your chart and would like to know more about how it is working inside you to collaborate with all your other elements to make you the radiant badass you are, book a 1:1 session with me!!
And make sure you’re signed up for e-news updates, attend a workshop (announcements get posted on my socials & in the newsletter), or join my in-person HD Meetup Conversation group!
I can’t wait to help you tap into your true badassery so you can start feeling great, attracting what you want, and experiencing more ease, flow, peace & satisfaction in your life!
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