Here is a brief look at a celebrity’s Human Design chart, focused mainly on Incarnation Cross and Defined Gates and Channels. These are just a few of many aspects and layers of a chart. Our purpose here is to give you just a partial glimpse, through Human Design, into this person’s energy dynamics.

Rodney King – A Lightning Rod for Change

Born: April 2, 1965 Sacramento, CA  7:00am
Died: June 17, 2012

Rodney King was a lightening rod for explosive racial tensions and issues of injustice during his life. His death in 2012, at only 47 years old, brought these major issues—and an opportunity to assess the progress we have and have not made—back into our collective consciousness.  Let’s look at what his Human Design chart tells us about this hapless hero who made such a big impact on our world.

BACKGROUND (and a refresher on the historical impact he had)

On March 3, 1991, Rodney King, then a construction worker, was brutally beaten by several Los Angeles police officers (with several more officers watching) after he led them on a high-speed chase because he wouldn’t pull over for speeding. Drugs and alcohol were found in his system, but not in significant quantities.

The beating incident might have gone unreported and unsubstantiated (his word against theirs) but a nearby resident happened to catch most of it on videotape. The beating, and shots of King’s bloody and bruised face, were subsequently seen on newscasts all over the world.

Even with this irrefutable evidence, a white jury acquitted the officers of any wrongdoing during their trial just over a year later. The officers claimed King had resisted arrest and force was needed—although the videotape clearly showed he was not fighting back.

The local public outcry immediately ignited six days of violent riots in Los Angeles and subsequent widespread unrest and racial tension in cities throughout the US.

King’s famous plea for peace, “Can we all get along?”, occurred during those initial LA riots that resulted in 53 people dead, over 2000 injured, and $1 billion in damage.

King then filed a lawsuit against the city, and in April 1994 two of the officers were convicted of violating his civil rights and each sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison. King won nearly $4 million in that suit, though much of it went to his lawyers.

But King was not without his personal issues and challenges. He was divorced twice and racked up numerous alcohol and drug-related arrests as well as armed robbery and a spousal abuse conviction. In May 2008 he went into rehab to finally deal with his addictions.

Sadly, his fiancée found him dead June 17 (Father’s Day), at the age of 47, at the bottom of his swimming pool. No foul play was suspected.

RODNEY’S CHART

Rodney King was a Projector, with 7 of his 9 energy centers Open… meaning he was very subject to the influence of other people and of social pressures. It also means he probably suffered from a great deal of confusion and overwhelm from the inexplicable volumes of energies he took in and amplified daily.

Talk about feeling like a cork bobbing on the ocean and being knocked over by every single wave!

Projectors often have an unwitting way of annoying or irritating others, but Rodney’s chart shows clearly why his life in particular was riddled with “being in the wrong place at the wrong time” and rubbing people the wrong way.

What doesn’t specifically appear on the chart image above but shows on a regular chart is the Incarnation Cross—which is the story or path of a person’s life. Rodney’s Cross was the Cross of Tension. The purpose of this Cross is to create tension and/or break tension to restore the flow of energy and abundance.

How fitting his Cross was when we look at how his life unfolded! He became famous worldwide for “being at the wrong place at the wrong time” (to quote the media), and he caused us—as an entire culture—to admit to and examine the unspoken injustices we continued to perpetrate (and tolerate) against blacks and other minorities in the early 90’s.

He provoked TENSION in a big way, and the result was a restored flow of justice and compassion. It was a rocky path to that result… but our national tolerance of institutionalized racism essentially came to an end because of Rodney and the “incident” he provoked.

Not surprisingly, he had the energy of Provocation (Gate 39) in a prominent place in his chart (unconscious Earth). He also had the Gate of Shock (Gate 51) in his conscious Moon (also highly prominent). The Moon holds energy that drives us. He was driven by shocking people and being shocked (and finding himself in shocking circumstances!).

Shock also serves the purpose of initiating the rest of us, as well as the person who carries the energy, into the love of spirit and into a greater awareness of our connection to Source/God through unconditional love.

The man was DESIGNED to provoke and shock us into reconnecting with our essential humanity.

It was undoubtedly a tough role to play, but didn’t he fulfill his role for us magnificently? His chart also contains Gate 8, the energy for making a big contribution to the world—which he certainly did.

With so many Open Energy Centers in his chart, especially his Open Throat Center, it’s no wonder he repeatedly drew attention to himself.  His arrests, addictions, and incidents were unconscious attempts (albeit “low expression” attempts) to get the recognition and energy he needed.

It’s also not surprising (though certainly not inevitable) that he resorted to drugs and alcohol. He probably used them to numb himself from the confusion (Gate 64, which shows up 4 times), sensitivity (Gate 19), dramatic emotional highs and lows (Defined Emotional Solar Plexus), shock (Gate 51), and the challenges of earning a living as a Projector—especially as a man.

[To be clear, not all male Projectors have trouble earning a consistent living but it does tend to be more challenging for them than other Types, and our society still “expects” men to be “breadwinners and providers” which adds to the pressure.]

A few other significant and relevant energies he had were aloneness (Gate 40), fighting for a good cause/fighting for the underdog (Gate 38), friction (Gate 6), abundance of spirit (Gate 55), and the issue of having integrity or not (Gate 26).

Although there is much more I could say about him from his chart, I believe I’ve hit the high points. But I would like to add a compliment. Despite his challenging life experience, he did not appear (but I did not know him so can’t say for sure) to be bitter—a theme which many Projectors display when things don’t go well for them.

As evidence of that, here is a BBC quote of King’s comments about his own legacy. “Some people feel like I’m some kind of hero. Others hate me. They say I deserved it. Other people, I can hear them mocking me for when I called for an end to the destruction, like I’m a fool for believing in peace.” That doesn’t sound bitter to me. I believe that he initiated himself, as well as our nation, into closer awareness of God/Source/Unconditional Love, and that he really did believe in peace.

May you rest in peace, Rodney King. You fulfilled your mission on this planet–your “destiny”— and we are grateful to you.

Comments welcome below.