Here is a brief look at a celebrity’s Human Design chart, focused mainly on that person’s defined channels. Channels are just one of many aspects and layers of a chart. Our purpose here is to give you a quick glimpse, through Human Design, into this person’s energy dynamics. (Article co-written with Karen Flaherty)

Brad Pitt

Birth info:  Wednesday, December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, OK

Background

Born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, with humble beginnings, Brad Pitt has been the heartthrob of women worldwide for almost 30 years. He grew up in Missouri and attended the University of Missouri where he majored in journalism and acted in several fraternity shows. Just weeks before graduation he left for Los Angeles, ready to take on any job while breaking into the acting field. His first major film role was in Thelma and Louise in 1991, playing the young hitchhiker they meet in their travels which helped to solidify his role as a new sex symbol. Before that he was in soap operas and sitcoms on television, including Dallas, and since then has appeared in over thirty movies, garnering multiple Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and one Golden Globe award thus far. This year (2012), he was nominated for his roles as both actor and producer in Moneyball.

His Chart

The only theme or channel in Brad’s chart is the Channel of Struggle, which is the 28-38. This is an Individual Channel which means Brad is here to be different and not to ‘fit in.” He marches to his own beat and with his romantic partner, Angelina Jolie, he has found his Individual match. This is the channel of one who goes his own way, no matter what the path brings. While his “struggles” by general standards may have been mild, they were undoubtedly unique. Can you imagine being this much of an Individual and having been named “the Sexiest Man Alive” not once but twice – in 1995 and 2000? It probably wasn’t even on Brad’s radar when he left Missouri in 1986.

However, in looking at the entire chart, Brad’s other gates are fairly evenly distributed between the Individual, Tribal and Collective circuits. So, for example, his Individual gates include traits such as Struggle (28), and “Knowing what’s worth Fighting for” (38) as a theme in his life, but also Shock (51), Provocation (39), and making a Creative Contribution to the World through self-expression (1). Some of those gates may explain his penchant for playing tricks on colleagues with George Clooney.

Tribally, he has the gates for Ambition (54), Principles (and revolution!) (49), the Treasurer (21), and the Warrior/Peacemaker (6), and so makes a wonderful father, romantic partner, and business partner.  Finally, as someone who has contributed mightily to the overall collective of humanity, he has the gates for Crisis (36), Correction (18), the Listener (13), and Ideas (11). Overall, it makes his outlook and persona balanced as well as unique.

As a 4/6 Profile – the Opportunistic/Role Model – Brad Pitt could be the poster child for this profile. He has jumped at many opportunities but also been quite astute at passing on the ones that don’t seem right, as any Opportunist would. As a Role Model in his early days prior to 30 years old, he was living as the Experiential Learner (or Martyr), trying many things to see what worked and what didn’t work. Between 30 and 50 years old (he’s now 48), he’s been in a bit of retreat mode, or as we call it “on the roof”. He’ll be moving into his Role Model phase in the next year or so, and we can expect to see much more of Brad as a leading man, producer, family man and philanthropist.

With so many Open Centers (7 out of 9), he takes in (and amplifies!) others on many levels, making it relatively easy for him to identify with and BE each role he has played on screen. As a box office megastar, this Projector now has the luxury of many offers and invitations coming his way easily, but he probably struggled to get noticed and land jobs when he was first starting. As he steps into his full Role Model phase in a few years, it would be a natural progression for him as a Projector to dabble in some sort of directing capacity as his career continues to evolve.

He may or may not be consciously aware that it is stimulating but also at times exhausting for him as a very open Projector to be around Angelina’s defined Sacral energy (she’s a Manifesting Generator—read about her chart here) consistently, as well as the natural chaos of having so many young children around. At times we can see the strain on his face, and we only hope he learns to manage his energy well and to get the alone time that so much energetic openness—plus his Gate 40—demand.