Authority
The chart says “No Inner Authority”. Most people read that and think we have nothing. That is not what is happening.
Ra: “It’s not like you don’t have an authority. You do. But it gets honed through expression.”
sounding board . echoing back
The official label
Inner Authority in Human Design means a "body" center is defined and reliable enough to make decisions in the moment. Sacral. Spleen. Solar Plexus. Heart. G. One of those, defined, and you have something to listen to inside.
For the Mental Projector that does not exist. Nothing is defined below the throat.
Ra was direct about it: “There is no Inner Authority because there is nothing below the Throat. There isn’t anything there that is reliable.”
And Ra elsewhere softened it. Not no authority at all. “There is no direct inner authority in the same way that for a Reflector there is no direct inner authority. But there is still a way of finding that (inner) authority.”
“The Mental Projector is the only example of definition that has no Inner Authority.”
What we actually have
Just because not a single center decides for us does not mean there is nothing. Everyone has a way of arriving at decisions in alignment with their design. Ours is just shaped differently.
It has been called several things. "None" Authority. Sounding Board Authority. Environmental Authority. Process-oriented Authority. They are all describing the same mechanic.
The decision does not arrive right away in or from your body (centers below the throat). It arrives through a process of expression and time.
“Even with the Mental Projector and its Outer Authority, there is a personal Authority that is based within the mechanic of the design.”
Genoa Bliven
“It’s been called the sounding board authority. It’s been called an environmental authority and it’s been called no inner authority.”
Amy Lee
“The only way in which you can truly come to grips with any kind of decision is by being able to process that through feedback. Through feedback. That is, you really need to hear it come out of your system. You need to hear yourself express it.”
How the process works
The mechanic is simple to describe but needs time to be lived. You take the invitation, the offer, maybe even a question, and you "talk" it through several aura fields. Different people. Different rooms. Different days.
You are not asking them what to do. You are not handing them the decision. You are using their presence (their defintion) so you can hear yourself think out loud from a different perspective.
And somewhere in one of those conversations, often when you least expect it, you hear yourself say a sentence again and the thing is suddenly clear, like "click".
This is also why we cannot decide in the moment. The first hit we get on something big is almost never the whole truth of it.
“You really need to hear it come out of your system. You need to hear yourself express it.”
Ra
“All Mental Projectors need to discuss with others what is before them until they finally hear their truth spoken.”
Ra
“A Mental Projector samples the decision-making process through those moments of articulating the particular subject.”
Ra
“You need to talk about those things, not because what anybody else is going to respond to it. It’s so you can hear it.”
Ra Uru Hu
“The only way you can find any Authority, and it really isn’t even really an Authority, is that the best thing you can do it go through the experience of taking that offer and discussing it, your Outer Authority gift, as many times as possible with different people. Not looking for their advice, not giving them power over you in that sense.”
A clear line
This is the line that has to stay clear. The mind is the only thing defined in us. So it is tempting to think the mind decides for us.
It does not. The mind is built to serve the other, not the self. Ra said it many times in many ways. The mind is for the totality. The mind has extraordinary value as outer authority. But it has no business making your decisions in the moment.
Our inner authority is a process of talking it through and finding clarity over time. It is not the conclusion the mind arrives at in the now, on its own.
The mechanism
It is acoustic. That is the strange part. The decision happens in the act of speaking, not in the head.
You can think about something for weeks and not move. But you talk it through with some different people across some days, and somewhere in the middle of one of those conversations, you hear yourself say a sentence and you just know.
The mind is a delight. But the mind never has Inner Authority. Ra: “Minds can have extraordinary value for the Other as an outer authority but they never have inner authority in guiding the life.”
“You really need to hear it come out of your system. You need to hear yourself express it.”
Ra Uru Hu
“All mental projectors need to discuss with others what is before them until they finally hear their truth spoken.”
Ra Uru Hu
“A mental projector samples the decisionmaking process through those moments of articulating the particular subject.”
Ra Uru Hu
“You need to talk about those things… not because what anybody else is going to respond to it. It’s so you can hear it.”
Ra Uru Hu
The other side
This is the part most people miss. The fact that we have no (direct) Inner Authority is not a defect. It is the structure of a very specific role.
Inner Authority is for guiding your own life. Outer authority is for guiding everybody else (on invitation).
The Mental Projector is the only configuration in the entire system designed purely for the second one.
“The Mental Projector is supposed to be at head of the pack like a rocket because this is the only variation of any configuration that is here to specialize in outer authority.”
Next
That is the Strategy page.
Work with me
One at a Time
Starter Reading
an audio recording of everything you need to know about your chart
One on One
Clarity Talk
A safe space for your pain, questions and the possibility to gain clarity
Self-paced Learning
Crack Your Code
A deep and rich course on all about human design . in your own time
Unique Beautiful PDF
Personal Gate Report
All your activated gates . delivered to your inbox