Juxtaposition Cross of the Now (20/34)

The Juxtaposition Cross of the Now is named for Gate 20 and Gate 34, two of the four Integration gates, directly connected to one another. Human Design reads Gate 20, from Hexagram 20, Contemplation, sitting in the Throat, as awareness and expression that occur now rather than in reflection; and Gate 34, from Hexagram 34, The Power of the Great, sitting in the Sacral centre, as pure power, most potent simply being itself rather than aimed at anyone. Juxtaposition Crosses form their own family, belonging only to the four line one profile, and Human Design reads them as the tightest, least steerable of the three kinds.

Its design half is Gate 37 and Gate 40, which are in fact the two ends of one channel, Community. Gate 37 sits in the Solar Plexus and is read as the warmth of family and friendship, the bargain that holds a household together. Gate 40 sits in the Heart or Will centre and is read as the willpower to work, held against a real need for aloneness and rest.

So this cross is unusual among its cohort in carrying not one but two whole channels, an immediate power on its surface and a domestic bargain beneath it, with no gate left standing alone on either half. The same four gates, reversed, also underlie the Juxtaposition Cross of Power. Both hexagrams are old texts; pairing them this way as a life direction dates from the system's founding in 1987.

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

The Juxtaposition Cross of the Now is named here for Gate 20 and Gate 34. Its first article reads Gate 20 as awareness and expression that occur now rather than in reflection, now the more exposed gate, and Gate 34 as pure power, most potent simply being itself rather than aimed at anyone, the two forming one of the system's whole Integration channels rather than two separate pressures. What it does not trace is where the four gates sit on the wheel itself, the Human Design mandala's division of its sixty four gates into four Quarters, and by that measure this cross draws one gate from each of the four.

Gate 20, the personality gate here, falls in the Quarter of Civilization, purpose fulfilled through form. Gate 34, its personality partner, falls in the Quarter of Mutation, purpose fulfilled through transformation. Behind them, Gate 37 falls in the Quarter of Initiation, purpose fulfilled through mind, and Gate 40 falls in the Quarter of Duality, purpose fulfilled through bonding.

So the present awareness and the raw power the first article reads joined in one channel on this cross's surface answer to the arcs of form and transformation, while the household bargain and the willpower to work beneath them answer to the arcs of mind and bonding. The same pair, exchanged, is this cross's own reversal, the Juxtaposition Cross of Power, and, held instead in the Left Angle family, the Cross of Duality, both orderings; the Right Angle family carries the identical pair too, as the Cross of the Sleeping Phoenix, both orderings. Four gates, four different Quarters, no pair sharing an arc: even with two of its own four gates already locked into one channel, this cross still draws its Quarter reading from every corner of the wheel rather than concentrated in one.