Right Angle Cross of Consciousness: Incarnation Cross Meaning

Doubt and Confusion are an unusual pair to find in a life theme. In the Right Angle Cross of Consciousness they are two of the four gates, gate 63 and gate 64, both of them in the Head centre. The other two are gate 5, Fixed Rhythms, in the Sacral, and gate 35, Change, in the Throat. The Head is a pressure centre, tied in Human Design to questions and mental pressure, and this cross holds two of its three gates. Read as a theme, it sets inquiry beside rhythm and beside the wish for new experience. As a Right Angle cross it is described as personal destiny, with profiles 1/3 through 4/6.
Two Head gates in one cross
The Head centre has three gates: 61, 63 and 64. Consciousness holds two of them. Gate 63, Doubt, belongs to the channel 4-63, Logic, and gate 64, Confusion, belongs to 47-64, Abstraction. They are opposite each other on the wheel, so each variant gives them to the Sun and Earth of one side.
What two Head gates do not define
Having two Head gates does not define the Head. A defined centre needs a complete channel, and neither partner gate is in the cross. What the pair adds is a theme in which questioning is built into the foundation. One reading is that Doubt asks whether something holds up, while Confusion lives with the unfinished picture before it clears.
A cross touches gates, while only channels define centres. Consciousness touches three centres, the Head, the Sacral and the Throat, and defines none of them. The Head holds the two questions, and the Sacral and Throat gates hold the rhythm and the change.
Rhythm and change on the other axis
Gate 5, Fixed Rhythms, is a Sacral gate and one end of the channel 5-15, Rhythm. Gate 35, Change, is a Throat gate and one end of 35-36, Transitoriness. These too are wheel opposites. Set against the Head gates, the axis suggests a theme that holds steady patterns beside the pull of new experience.
That is an interpretation of the gate names. A cross brings these two gates into the picture and does not say which will feel stronger. Neither gate defines the Sacral or the Throat on its own, since the partners 15 and 36 are not in the cross.
The Sun can sit in either end of this axis: gate 35 about June 1 to 7 in Consciousness 2, and gate 5 about December 3 to 9 in Consciousness 4. In those two the Throat or Sacral gate opens the cross, and the Head gates arrive on the Design side.
Head gates in the Sun and in the Design
The Personality Sun gate sets the variant. Consciousness (63/64 | 5/35) starts with gate 63, the Sun about March 1 to 7. Consciousness 2 (35/5 | 63/64) starts with gate 35, about June 1 to 7. Consciousness 3 (64/63 | 35/5) starts with gate 64, about September 3 to 9. Consciousness 4 (5/35 | 64/63) starts with gate 5, about December 3 to 9.
Dates can vary by about a day from one year to the next, and the Design side and Earth gate also decide the cross. In the first and third variants the Head gates carry the Personality Sun and Earth, so the conscious side opens with a question and the Design holds rhythm and change. In the second and fourth the order flips: the Head gates move to the Design, and the conscious side holds Change and Fixed Rhythms.
On the Design side, Consciousness holds 5/35, Consciousness 2 holds 63/64, Consciousness 3 holds 35/5 and Consciousness 4 holds 64/63. So the two Head gates are conscious in two crosses and unconscious in the other two, and the Sacral and Throat gates take the opposite seat each time.
The third Head gate and its partner
Gate 61, Inner Truth, is the one Head gate that Consciousness leaves out. Its channel partner is gate 24, Rationalization, and the two together form 24-61, Awareness. If gate 61 is active elsewhere in a chart, it sits alongside the cross and changes nothing about which cross the chart carries.
Completing Logic and Abstraction
The same holds for the other partners. Gate 4 would complete Logic with 63, and gate 47 would complete Abstraction with 64. If other gates in a chart complete either channel, the Head becomes defined and the cross gains a channel to work through. Only the full bodygraph shows which of these is true.
Each partner would link a different pair of centres. Logic and Abstraction both join the Head to the Ajna, since gates 4 and 47 are Ajna gates. Rhythm, 5-15, would join the Sacral to the G centre through gate 15, and Transitoriness, 35-36, would join the Throat to the Solar Plexus through gate 36.
Two questions sit in the Head, while rhythm and change fill the other axis.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if gate 61 is also in my chart?
Gate 61, Inner Truth, is the third Head gate, but it is not part of this cross. If it is active elsewhere in your chart, it simply sits alongside the cross and does not change which cross you have. A Head centre becomes defined only through a complete channel, not through having several gates.
Does the Sun in the Head always mean Consciousness?
No. In variants 1 and 3 the Personality Sun is in gate 63 or 64, about March 1 to 7 or September 3 to 9, but other crosses also open on those gates. The Design Sun and Earth have to match as well, so a calculated chart is the only way to confirm the cross.
Which centres hold the other two gates?
Gate 5, Fixed Rhythms, is in the Sacral, and gate 35, Change, is in the Throat. Neither defines its centre alone, because the channel partners, 15 and 36, are not part of the cross. They do give the cross a foothold in a motor centre and in the centre of expression.
How long does the Consciousness cross last?
The cross is based on the Sun and Earth positions at birth and at the Design moment, so it is not something that starts or ends. In Human Design it is described as a lifelong theme. How strongly it feels present may vary from one period of life to another, and that is a matter of experience, not calculation.