Gate 8: The Gate of Contribution

Gate 8 in Human Design is the energy for contributing to the greater good by having the courage to express your unique self and to share your innate gifts. Do you have this Gate defined in your chart? Learn more about it here!

Gate 8: The Gate of Contribution/‘Holding Together’

Center: The Throat

Channel: 1-8 The Channel of Inspiration

Circuit: Individual-Knowing

Zodiac: Taurus

Biology: Thyroid, Parathyroid

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Gate 8 is driven by a yearning to make a meaningful contribution to the world. It wants to roll up its sleeves, support its team and chip in to make a positive difference.

When we’re in the highest expression of this energy, we understand a few essential, yet tricky, pieces of our vibrational puzzle. For example, we know that:

A) if we really want to make the impact we so long to make, we wait for the right timing or right audience to actually invite our energy for contributing into their orbit;

B) our ability to contribute as profoundly as we desire actually comes from us having the courage to be our weird, offbeat, outside-the-box selves. No matter how many furrowed brows we receive.

After all, the energy of Gate 8 that’s coming out of the expressive Throat Center is powered by the fuel of its partner, Gate 1, the Gate of Self-Expression, located in the identity-oriented G-Center.

Given this configuration, Gate 1 provides the creative sense of self and the unique direction that bolsters whatever way 8 outwardly expresses its contributive self.

Consider the impact that founder, CEO and creative genius behind Offbeatwed.com, Offbeathome.com, and the Offbeat Empire, Ariel Meadows Stallings, has made on our culture.

“…it’s safe to say I’m a hard-working high functioning eccentric. I’m simultaneously my own trophy wife and femme daddy. I’m a spiritual adolescent and a chameleon and a projection screen for your own internalized battles with aspects of yourself. This is all to say, I’m just one more finger of the same divine hand as you.”
Ariel Meadow Stallings, Author, Executive, Founder of the Offbeat Empire

She infuses her ‘eccentric’ perspective into everything she creates, which is what made me resonate with her website and writing so much.

Back in 2009 and ’10, when my husband and I were planning our wedding, we detested the traditional advice blogs about how we should put this major event together. We loathed the typical taffeta and lace motifs. Were turned off by the same boring old vows and the expected religious rituals.

We altogether rejected the Wedding Industrial Complex and wanted to do things our way. We just didn’t really know how to express that, until I stumbled across offbeatbride.com (now known as offbeatwed.com).

It informed us on the expansive possibilities that existed out there in the lesser-talked-about realm of weird weddings, which we could adopt for ourselves as we envisioned our matrimonial spectacular.

No, we didn’t dress as medieval knight and maiden. Nor did we host a seance at the reception.

But because of the explosion of possibilities that came into our awareness from Stallings’ website, we got motivated to home-make all the food on our menu for 160 people (they still rave about our meatloaf and roasted root veg to this day) and ditch the dry ravioli and green bean almondine. It inspired us to hire some friends who worked in the wait-staff world to serve it rather than go the traditional banquet route.

It got me giddy enough to cloak every surface in burlap (which was offbeat back then!), tie the knot the self-uniting Quaker way, and to hang bike wheels adorned with fake vines and party lights from the barn ceiling as chandeliers.

Without the creative, eccentric, offbeat contributions of Stallings’ publication to guide our path, we’d have maybe had a boring, typical, or just weird wedding that didn’t land well for our guests. Instead, people still talk about ours as being the most fun, most creative one they’ve ever been to.

See how one “high-functioning eccentric’s” courage to express her weird self turns out to be 1) inspiring thousands and thousands of people to express their uniqueness too, and 2) transforming our culture and beliefs around what sacred unity looks like?!

Dimming Your Light Just To Fit In

In the shadow state of Gate 8, we have no idea where to dive in, what we possibly have that we could contribute, or how our efforts could even help.

The low-vibe 8 doesn’t recognize its own value.

Imagine if Ariel Meadow Stallings didn’t realize how magic her way with words is, never started a website, and didn’t have the courage to show her eccentricity. She’d have never been able to make her profound contribution to the nuptials niche!

Imagine how many BIPOC, disabled, queer, neurodivergent, widowed, senior, polyamorous, LGBTQI+ and non-conformists would have nowhere to look for wedding advice!

Thankfully she had the courage and commitment to let her light shine.

But others of us who either have this energy defined in our charts or are simply being influenced by it when the Sun transits through it, may not be fully utilizing the magnitude of Gate 8.

Sometimes we so desperately want to fit in with the crowd, especially as tender tweens, that we can tend to shun our own uniqueness, hide our vibrance, and push down our impulse to express our true selves.

We can get caught up in ‘doing’ all the time as our way of feeling accomplished (“If I just stay busy, I’ll get a lot done and feel better about myself!”), when we really need to be pausing to feel into where we’re being guided.

If we can do that, we can begin to understand how truly valuable our energy is. And we can learn where to funnel it for its best, highest use.

Helping vs. Helping At

In the low frequency of 8, we might be trying to live according to what we ‘think’ is our life’s purpose — contributing our energy for the sake of helping ‘at’ others, but in a way that’s really not needed or asked for.

But having no real direction here, acting without an invitation, pushing without waiting for the right time to jump in, almost always backfires.

It causes us to unintentionally, unconsciously overlook the fact that our lot in life is actually to simply BE our beautifully unique, weird selves.

If we can take a break from all the doing and just be for a sec? We begin to make our greatest contribution ever!

But It Takes Courage

As with all the Gates along that central column of the bodygraph, watch for tones of melancholy here.

It can be really scary sometimes for folks who are desperate to express their true, transformational, eccentric selves — especially if whatever they feel is the real ‘them’ is considered to be outside the bounds of what’s ‘normal’ or ‘acceptable’ in their community or culture.

Deep sadness can set in, even depression, self-doubt, all the tough conditioning stuff — because it’s very hard and rather lonely to try and function in a world where you feel completely different from everyone else, and where it seems nobody will ever understand you.

***Above all else, your safety matters most. If you feel that expressing your real self would put you at risk of harm among your family or community, or if you have thoughts of harming yourself due to feelings of isolation and depression, help is available, and the world needs you.

Text 988 immediately or click here to get in touch with a Suicide and Crisis Lifeline expert.

The true power of Gate 8 is having the courage to show our creative weirdness. Through it, we inspire others, transform outdated paradigms, and make that positive contribution we so desperately yearn to make on the world.

To align with Gate 8’s highest vibration, consider this:

What kind of legacy do you wish to leave behind?
How are you currently working to make a contribution to your community, family, team, or to the world?
Are your efforts being recognized, invited and appreciated, or are you ‘helping at’ others who don’t really want/need it, and forcing your contributions before the time is right?
Do you recognize your own, inner power to make a meaningful difference in the world?
Who or what in your orbit could really use some help right now?
Do you have the courage to express your unique self: fully, authentically, and unapologetically, and regardless of what others might think of you (as long as you’ll be safe in doing so)?
Can you embrace the truth that the act of you expressing your true self is, in fact, the valuable contribution you are here to make in this world?!

Do you have Gate 8 defined in your chart? If so, how has it shown up for you?

If you’d 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!!

Or, if you want to discuss how it is challenging your kiddo, please reach out for mentorship.

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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!