Befriending your intuition; understanding the Spleen

Intuitive awareness isn’t exactly celebrated in the West, for its culture is predominantly built upon the principles of logic, proof and reason. While these masculine energies are indeed valuable, it has permeated the energy of Western society almost to the exclusion of intuition and instinct, therefore rendering this inexplicably powerful force less valid in the current paradigm. In Human Design, intuition, fear and immunity are governed by the Spleen. This energy centre is the understructure of our awareness and is responsible for our survival. Pretty important huh? In its simplest expression, the Spleen is home to the “feel good vibes”… or the sense that “something doesn’t feel quite right”. It has profound capacity to protect us from illness, toxic people and unsafe situations to ensure our wellbeing. 

How you individually relate to this energy will depend on whether your Spleen is defined, open or whether this magical awareness centre is your authority (your inner decision-making guide).

None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith. Paulo Coelho

DEFINED SPLEEN

To have Splenic definition is to trust your instincts. It is not an intellectual process - it requires being open to the esoteric. Like feeling the power of a gale and not seeing it. 

A defined Spleen knows what is healthy for it. It has a consistent - and if expressed healthily, a reliable - way of dealing with the “fear” of being in the world. With a defined Spleen, you have a way of operating that ensures your survival and a consistent and reliable immune system designed to maintain homeostasis. It’s not uncommon for those with a defined Spleen to take their health for granted and overdo it. Often they miss the niggling symptoms that signal illness and only become aware of being sick in the moment when it feels like it’s hit you all at once. Healing fully in all areas of your health is essential to your wellbeing and longevity.

As the Spleen is not your authority, you shouldn’t act impulsively on intuitive hits that involve big life decisions such as moving country or entering/leaving a partnership. You should honour situational impulses such as the hit to walk down another street, leave a restaurant if the impulse arises or buying a lemon, ginger turmeric shot even if you feel “fine”.

OPEN SPLEEN

An open spleen relates to survival and wellbeing by way of noticing who and what externally makes it “feel good”. This inherent openness you carry makes you highly sensitive to the “health” of others and the outside world. You must, therefore be selective in choosing who and what is good for it based on whether it supports your wellbeing or not. You are encouraged to take full ownership of cultivating your “feel good vibes”.

A challenge in relating healthily to the open Spleen is this: you do not carry an innate or consistent way in which to feel secure and as a result, attaching to the energies of others is a common way the open Spleen likes to provide itself with a false sense of security. All open centres in Human Design can fall prey to conditioning, thus activating what is called the “not self” - a feeling or sensations that indicates that you are operating outside of your true nature. For the open Spleen, the “not self” is holding on to what isn’t good for you. Whether it’s a partner, friendship, job, bad habit, exercise regimen… if it doesn’t “feel good” to you and you find yourself overwhelmed with a sense of fear, it’s time to let go.

Instead, your open Spleen will do well to cultivate wisdom about health, wellbeing and can become very well-versed in the multitude of ways intuition may present itself to others. It is not uncommon for those in the healing arts or practitioners of health to have an open Spleen, for they’ve learned how to develop a healthy lifestyle and take good care of their wellbeing and as such, can gift this knowledge to others.

SPLENIC AUTHORITY

To have Splenic authority is to let your intuition guide your direction in this life. As is often the case, that which we feel most disconnected from is in fact our path to power. Often clients I read for that have Splenic authority struggle with consistently trusting their intuition or noticing it taking over in the present moment. Often because they are far too ruled by the mind or emotions.

The Spleen’s awareness can only ever work in the moment and speaks to us once. Ideally, we honour the impulse or hunch before we wonder whether it’s logical or aligns with the habits or rituals we’ve created for ourselves.

With Splenic authority, you are designed to have an immediate knowing of what is healthy or correct for you in terms of directions (physically and figuratively), opportunities and other people. You TRUST your process and respect it isn’t logical or explainable. Surrendering to your inner knowing is essential to not only your health and wellbeing, but to you expressing your individuality and potential fully in this lifetime. I encourage anyone I meet with Splenic authority to cultivate a level of spontaneous abandon in their day to day life and practice being more mentally fluid around routine and ritual so that when the moment arises to trust and immediately act on their inner knowing, they aren’t blocked for the logic rooted in habitual behaviour.

While Splenic authority mostly applies to major areas in your life - know that your Spleen is always looking out for you. It might tell you to go to an event you previously had no interest in going to. Do it, perhaps there you meet the person who offers you the opportunity you’ve been yearning for.

If you find yourself analyzing your intuitive hit in the mind, you’ve gone too far and cannot turn back.

Embrace the mystery of your inner knowing and surrender to its guidance because you can TRUST that your Splenic authority knows your path better than you do.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. Martin Luther King, Jr.