Splenic Center
Body Consciousness
Full Existential Living
Spontaneity
Health and Well-Being
Values & Immune System
Biological Correlation
The Splenic Center is associated with our lymphatic system, the spleen and T-cells. The cells of the lymphatic system act like little ears, noses, and tongues all over the body. Ever alert, they are constantly listening, tasting, and smelling to make sure everything in our environment is healthy and in balance. If something isn’t, they warn us. This is the hub of our immune system. When T-cells (splenic soldiers which make up about one fifth of our body’s cells) are called into action, they attack and destroy anything that invades the body. Their job is to protect us from disease.
Children with undefined Splenic Centers (see Jovian Archives for your personal chart, to find out if your Splenic Center is defined or undefined), are probably the first to come home with any illness out there, like the flu, a cold, measles, or mumps. It is their body’s way of slowly building up a natural immunity to common diseases. The key to maintaining the health of these children is to allow them to heal completely after they are sick. Give them a few more days off from school to regain their full vigor. Teach them how to take care of themselves in order to strengthen their potential well-being. As adults, they will be sensitive to their health and to how they feel, learning about what food and health remedies work for them and what to avoid. Typically, they need gentler health remedies than those with a defined Splenic Center.
Those with a defined Splenic Center tend to take their health for granted, and benefit from regular checkups to make sure their hard-working Spleen isn’t concealing potential problems. When they do succumb to illness, they usually require a lengthy recuperation time. It is imperative that they heal completely before returning to a full, active schedule.
Awareness as Fear for our Survival
This amazing center, with its primal fears for our survival and well-being, is also a source of our light-heartedness and laughter, our spontaneity and daring. Its existential awareness, its awareness in the now moment, keeps us moving safely forward, while deep inside it steadily cleanses built-up toxins and the adverse effects of negative vibrations and memories from our system. (In review; of the nine centers in the BodyGraph, only three are described as awareness center - the Splenic, the Ajna and the Solar Plexus Centers. Awareness is what allows us to be conscious of our experience of life. The other six centers function on a purely mechanical basis.)
Awareness has evolved over millions of years, and each of the three awareness centers represents a different phase in that evolutionary process. The Splenic Center is the oldest. Its survival-driven primary awareness connects us with all life forms - plants, reptiles, birds, insects, and our closest relatives, mammals. As the oldest awareness center, and the center most common to all life, its essential function has always been to keep the form alive - literally keeping it from becoming someone’s or something’s lunch.
The work of this center is instantaneous, instinctual alertness for anything that threatens our well-being, including negative emotional vibrations. Fear is its mode of operating as fear for survival generates alertness. Over time, these primal fears evolved into a form of intelligence, a type of body awareness or body consciousness focused on what is needed to survive, adapt, and thrive in the mundane world. This intelligence remains alert and on guard within us to this day.
Of the three awareness centers, the Ajna (unique to human beings) is twice as strong as the Splenic and the Solar Plexus (not yet fully evolved as an awareness center) is twice as strong as the Ajna. The fact that the Splenic Center, with its responsibility for life-and-death, is the weakest of the three indicates how fragile life is. The not-self voices of both the Ajna and the Solar Plexus Centers can easily override the quiet little alert coming from our Splenic Awareness.
All awareness begins with fear, and each of the three awareness centers has its own fear frequency. Each gate in the Spleen represents a primary fear for survival. The Splenic system’s awareness is an aspect of our intelligence that is created each time we face and survive a fear-thrilled challenge to our existence, our confidence, and our well-being.
The 7 Gates of the Ajna Center
1. The Gate of Depth
The fear of Inadequacy. Awareness of a potential solution; or not. Fear that you don’t have enough depth or are seeking depth to resolve the fear.
2. The Gate of Intuitive Clarity
The fear of the Future. Awareness to hear the truth in the now or not. Fear of what the future will bring so you hold back.
3. The Gate of Alertness
The fear of the Past. Awareness through smell for the talents and potential of others, or not. Fear that the past baggage will catch up with you.
4. The Gate of Values
The fear of Responsibility. Awareness to be responsible for the preservation of others, or not. Fear of taking on responsibility or taking on too much responsibility out of fear.
5. The Gate of Continuity
The fear of Failure. Awareness of what can be transformed, or not. Fear of failure holds you back from doing what you want to do.
6. The Gate of the Game Player
The fear of Death/Purpose. Awareness to struggle for purpose, or not, not taking risks out of fear. Fear that life has no purpose unless you take risks.
7. The Gate of Correction
The fear of Authority. Awareness of the pattern that needs to be corrected, or not. Fear of being judged by others and or too much self-judgment.
The Defined Splenic Center
First of all, 55% of the population is defined, and 45% of the population is defined in the Splenic Center. Again, if you want to know if you are defined or undefined, visit www.jovianarchive.com for your free and personal Human Design Chart.
The Splenic Center is responsible for our surviving and thriving with a sense of well-being in the world. It manages our instinct, intuition and taste which are processes for discerning what is or isn’t healthy for our survival. Its non-verbal recognition operates in the present moment, in the ‘now’. This vital, spontaneous information is what we call intuition, gut instinct or a hunch, it allows us to make trustworthy spontaneous judgments/decisions. Moment-to-moment awareness, however, means that the Spleen never repeats its first alarm. If we do not pay close attention to those little alerts immediately, we will miss their warning which is always rooted in what is needed for survival right now.
Those with a defined Spleen Center as their Authority must listen to their intuition, do what it tells them to do, and not let their not-self or anyone else’s mind distract them from following their own instincts, which are trustworthy and produce reliable results. They then remain alert and protected, feel good, and can enjoy the benefits of a strong immune system. They can project a state of well-being that is envied by those with undefined Splenic Centers who do not consistently feel good. Living fully in the present moment with a care-free but prudent abandon is the by-product of a deep attunement with existence. It requires an ever-growing dependence on their vehicle’s awareness, their body’s intelligence, to guide them and protect them throughout their life, second by second by second.
The mind is not an authority, even though its loud, reasoned thinking can easily overwhelm the Spleen’s subtle messaging system. When a person received a sudden warning, there is no time and no way to figure out why the Splenic Center sent the message. Existential awareness cannot be rationalized; it must simply be trusted. Understanding the fuller perspective of an experience can only happen by looking back after the fact. And what is not correct for a person one moment, may be correct 30 minutes later that day. For the Spleen, the present moment is all that matters, all it is aware of.
After years of letting the mind override the intuitive knowing and awareness of the Splenic Center, people can end up completely out of touch with their instincts, put their life at risk, and suffer unnecessary ill-health and unhappiness. They ‘think’ they dare not follow their body’s intuitive intelligence, yet it can be disastrous for them not to.
The Undefined Splenic Center
Seven primal fears reside in the Splenic Center, and when the center is undefined, these fears are easily magnified. Those with undefined Spleens need to face each of their fears, one by one, in order to become fearless in a healthy way. This is how they develop awareness, and honor and learn from their fear rather than suppress it or pretend it’s not there. Confronting and handling the fear makes them stronger and less frightened each time the fear returns. The result is a sense of well-being. If they are unable to do this, however, the conditioned not-self may become overwhelmed by the fears.
Those who are born with an undefined Splenic Center enter the world with fundamental fear that they are not equipped to survive here on Earth. They are also open and sensitive to the lack of well-being in the world and interpret this personally. When people in their environment with defined Spleens condition them, they feel better and safer. They grow up unconsciously seeking and clinging to people with defined Spleens for the security and sense of well-being it seems to provide - regardless of what else comes with it. They typically end up holding on to what is not good for them, and this can lead to all sorts of unhealthy dependencies, especially in familial relationships such as children with an undefined Spleen who have splenically defined parent. Even if the parent is abusive, these children will do everything they can to hold on to the parent simply to access the conditioned ‘feel good’ frequency of the defined Splenic Center. They will be terrified if sent to their room alone, and often feel rejected, abandoned, and fearful that they cannot survive. This causes them to cling to the security of the parent even more, eventually creating an unhealthy dependency. Because of this early conditioning, the not-self minds of these children will convince them to hold on to what is not good for them as they mature.
At the adult level, those with an undefined Spleen who are in a relationship with a defined Spleen that is no longer healthy for them, will say things like: ‘It will be better tomorrow’ or ‘Maybe the therapy will work’ or ‘What about the children?’. This is the dilemma for many battered women who go back to abusive spouses. The deep fears of survival, the attraction to be with a defined Spleen, can blind them to who is good for them and who isn’t, or to when to hold on to a relationship and when to let go.
When an undefined Spleen is temporarily defined by a defined Spleen or passing transit connection, it can experience a deceptive sense of security. The mantra for someone with an undefined Splenic Center is ‘never make a spontaneous decision’. Being spontaneous, except in potentially harmful or threatening situations, poses a risk to the undefined Spleen because it cannot trust the ever-changing impulse of the moment. The not-self of the undefined Spleen is attracted to spontaneity in an effort to feel good and make the fear disappear, but it usually comes with a high price.
When undefined Spleens are in the aura of a defined Spleen, they are naturally under pressure to be spontaneous. In most cases they are unaware this is happening, but what they end up doing is living the life of the person pressuring them. It is not their life, however, and it may not be safe for them. If they follow their Strategy and the guidance of their Authority, they avoid the temptation to be impulsive. Impulsive decisions made in the moment from a conditioned undefined Splenic Center may cause them to let go of beneficial things as well. ‘Oh, I Don’t need that (or them) anymore.’ Once the conditioning is broken, however, they realize they made a mistake and let go of something that really was good for them. Sudden decisions made without relying on one’s consistent Authority can have long-term consequences.
People with a healthy orientation to their undefined Spleen can discern the difference between what is their own need to attend to, in terms of some aspect of their health, and what is a lack of well-being coming from the environment. When they are with unhealthy or deeply unhappy people and find themselves feeling ill, they understand that they are probably absorbing the other person’s ill health or unhealthy vibrations. They can sense when someone or something is not good for them. They can be turned into their instinctual and intuitive awareness, yet know this is not the authority for their decisions. They pay close attention to their health and nurture their body’s resilience. They understand how important it is to face their fears, and how to deal with the fear of survival. They develop the wisdom to know how intuition works, who has it, and who does not. Ultimately they can become highly intuitive themselves. Their undefined Spleen is never a reliable resource for making decisions, however, because it is very vulnerable to the conditioning in their environment. By entering into new relationships through their Strategy and Authority, they get the correct Splenic conditioning in the lives.
The wisdom that comes over time through the undefined Splenic Center allows many professional healers to bring great benefit to their patients. When they step into their client’s aura, there is a spontaneous recognition, a sense of whether the person is healthy or ill, and what might be out of balance. Such intuitive empathy emerges as the undefined Spleen learns to distinguish between what it is filtering through from others, and what energies are its own. Intuitive awareness or wisdom about someone else is available to the undefined Spleen only when it does not identify with what the other person is experiencing.
The Rare Case of the Completely Open Splenic Center
There is a healthy and natural level of fear in all of us. When children or adults with a completely open Splenic Center lose contact with the fears that keep them alive and healthy, they can become insecure and fearful of everything. They do not know what to be afraid of, and can also become fearless to the point that they do foolish, risky and unhealthy things.
The same wisdom of the undefined Spleen, described above, is enhanced by their complete openness to the full range of instinctual and intuitive intelligence vibrating through this center. This awareness includes the ways laws, values and or our entrepreneurial endeavors nurture, protect and ensure the survival of our offspring, thus promoting the growth of a healthy society.
The Conditioned; Not-Self Talk of the Undefined Ajna Center
The not-self mind is the spokesperson for the undefined centers, and tells us what we should say or do. Noticing this talk is essential to deconditioning. Here are some examples o what the not-self mental monolog could sound like with an undefined Splenic Center: Let’s not do that because it makes me insecure of because I’m afraid or I feel fearful every time I think about doing it. Let’s not say that because it might upset that person. I’m afraid that I will feel inadequate if I do that. I’m not going to do that because I might fail. I’m afraid of doing that because I’m afraid of what the outcome will be or what the future will bring, or I’m afraid of the responsibility or the criticism. I can’t do that because I might lose my connection with that person. They might leave.
Excerpt from Human Design: The Definitive Book of Human Design, The Science of Differentiation by Ra Uru Hu