09. The Head Center

Kelsey: 00:00

I sometimes think about the head center as being where we plug in to the collective consciousness, like sort of internet, the worldwide consciousness web. When people have a defined head and therefore Ajna, they have a very unique and particular way of plugging in and accessing knowledge and information when they're conditioning others, their way of thinking and processing and dealing with the mental pressures of life is very unique. And so that unique way of thinking can be a gift to the world at large, but also especially, and maybe most directly to those of us who are undefined in the head and Ajna who are being conditioned by all these different unique ways of thinking. And it's important for the defined head people to be mindful, not to turn this mental pressure that they're consistently feeling inwards because the mind is always a tool for the outside world. It's a potential outer authority for others.

It's not meant to be something that you point inwards and use it to disrupt or interfere with the knowing of the body. Welcome to the Living Your Design podcast. I'm your experimenter, Kelsey Rose Tortorice. This podcast is an audio only release of the full length in-depth human design foundations course I've been teaching over the last several years. It is a no bullshit, comprehensive, embodied introduction to the human design system that will challenge your ego mind and support you in your process of reuniting with the unique wisdom of your body.

In episode one, I speak a bit about the process that led me to releasing this course for free in podcast form, and I offer a few notes that might be useful to contextualize and clarify what you'll hear in this episode and beyond. I recommend giving that short intro episode a listen if you haven't yet. The LYD podcast is part of a larger living body of work, a growing archive of my teachings about consciousness through the languages of astrology and human design, hosted in an online community space where I stay in orbit with my students, mentees, alumni, peers, and collaborators. For more information about how to connect with me and tune in to my archives and ongoing live teachings, including how to access the original LYD course complete with videos and slides, stay tuned to the podcast or check out patreon.com/kelseyrosetort. Thank you for tuning in to my transmission of living your design.

It's a deeply personal and somewhat vulnerable share that I feel honored, humbled, and excited to release into the world. I hope that it helps you remember and come home to yourself. And we're back with our second of the two pressure centers, the head center. The head center and the root are gonna be very similar in some ways. The way that we talk about both definition and openness in the two pressure centers, and specifically the way we talk about what the not self of those two undefined or open pressure centers can sound like, or look like, or behave like.

There's gonna be a lot of similarities because in both cases, we're dealing with centers that give us either a fixed internal sense of pressure for definition or provide us with the experience of amplifying external pressure. So themes of pressure, urgency, etc., that kind of stuff is going to show up in both the root and the head center. So again, you'll see some similarities from the last video about the root center to this one. However, with the head center, we're not talking about physical stress or adrenaline or pressure because we're no longer in the pressure center of the body with the head center. We're in the pressure center of the mind.

The head center is the mental pressure center. It provides the impetus for thoughts to begin. This is the pressure to think the pressure to conceptualize. It's the source of inspiration, doubt, mystery, and confusion. With a defined head center, you will have a fixed and consistent source of mental pressure.

One way that I like to think about the head and the Ajna together, which we haven't gotten to the Ajna yet, so we'll come back to this idea when we're visiting the Ajna, is that the head center sort of asks the question and then the Ajna conceptualizes in order to come up with an answer. So for people with a defined head, one way of thinking about it is that you might have a similar set of questions that you're always sort of asking a similar orientation that you feel a mental pressure to want to mentally explore and mentally conceptualize the question or the impetus begins in the pressure center and then is answered or played with or cons conceptualized in the Ajna center. You can't actually have a defined head without having a defined Ajna. So I'm just gonna go forward to this slide really quickly to this sentiment here. The head can be defined in connection to the Ajna alone.

All three of the channels in the head center lead to the Ajna. And so anyone who has a defined head center also has a defined Ajna center. So we're not only talking about like a fixed set of questions or a fixed kind of mental pressure that stays with you in regards to what it is you're inspired to think about or answer with definition in the head center. We're also going to be, we're talking about automatically a defined Ajna as well. So a fixed set of questions and way of conceptualizing in regards to those questions.

For people with a defined head, the mind is often active processing the particular familiar questions that are important to you. The defined head center is going to trust their own pace and way of figuring things out because there's a consistency to the way that the defined head will experience and deal with the mental pressures. The defined head can inspire others with their mental prowess and insights When someone is defined in the head and thus also the Ajna, the way that they sort of download information. I sometimes think about the head center as being where we plug in to the collective consciousness, like sort of internet, the worldwide consciousness web, when people have a defined head and therefore Ajna, they have a very unique and particular way of plugging in and accessing knowledge and information and pressure and questions and all of these things. And so when they're conditioning others, their way of thinking and processing and dealing with the mental pressures of life is very unique.

And so that unique way of thinking can be a gift to the world at large, but also, especially, and maybe most directly to those of us who are undefined in the head and Ajna who are being conditioned by all these different unique ways of thinking. The gift of being able to inspire others with the head pressure, with the defined mind is an external gift that you're able to offer the world. And it's important for the defined head people to be mindful, not to turn this mental pressure that they're consistently feeling inwards because the mind is always a tool for the outside world. It's a potential outer authority for others. It's not meant to be something that you point inwards and take that def defined pressure and use it to disrupt or interfere with the knowing of the body with somatic knowing.

For those of us with undefined heads, mental pressure is not fixed and consistent for us. It's inconsistent and it's picked up and amplified from others. Similar to the root center, right? Undefined root people don't have a fixed way of dealing with stress, but they feel the physical pressure and urgency and stress of the world of the outside forces in their world, very strongly in their body because of the amplification. So for those of us with an undefined mind and undefined mental pressure system, we are taking in and ping ponging and amplifying all of the mental pressures of the world.

All of the questions, all of the pressure to think, to figure out, to resolve, to consider. And because of the inconsistency with the undefined head, inspiration can come very loudly and sort of distract us and, and pull us really quickly, but it's also not consistent. So we're very easily inspired, but also not always inspired the way the defined head. I'm not sure that we would say they're always inspired, but they will have a consistency that they can trust, like a rhythm in a way of being inspired with their own mental pressure that they learn to rely on versus the undefined head center isn't really able to rely on any type of consistency in terms of what will inspire us or when we'll be inspired. So it's okay for the undefined head center to not always feel inspired, although the not self of that center might crave inspiration.

And the undefined head center can feel a pressure to answer everyone else's questions and to find questions that don't actually matter to you because those pings of inspiration and ideas and questions and doubt and confusion, they're a part of the movie for the undefined head center. There's something that is meant to come in, be observed, but not attached to. And so in the not self for the undefined head center, we will sort of succumb to that pressure by fixating on it and identifying with it and thinking that we have to figure these things out. We have to answer these questions. We have to follow all of these inspirations and ideas.

Because that's not what's correct mechanically for the undefined head center, it's good to remember that it's healthy for the undefined head center to be comfortable with the mystery of the unknown and the magic in the uncertainty, because that's our blank slate for being able to move through all these mental pressures and experience them in ways that are aligned for us and follow the pings and the pressure when it's correct for us based on strategy and authority, rather than getting lost in all those pings and those pressures that will always be coming in from the conditioning forces of the outside world. So again, to tease this same kind of list out with a little bit more maybe practical, specific description of how the undefined head center and the defined head center can both show up in a healthy or not self state, let's take a look at this sort of table here. So we'll come back to the define head first. The defined head in a healthy state is creating and sustaining mental pressure in the world in order to grasp and understand things. So there is a sustained and con and consistent, again, mental pressure for the person with a defined head, and that can be healthy still.

I think a lot about, like, mindfulness meditation when I think about the distinction between the defined head and the undefined head. And I think about how as a defined head person, part of a mindfulness practice, a meditation practice for me is about really not identifying with, not attaching to, and even maybe clearing and creating a spaciousness in my head center, releasing all mental pressures and coming back to a sort of clean slate. And I'm not sure the extent to which my experience of that would resonate with or be relatable to someone with a defined head, because there is going to be a sustained and consistent mental pressure. While it's true for both the defined and undefined head that the mind is not there for our internal decision making or internal navigating, It's the passenger, whether your head's defined or undefined. For the define head people, there might not be as much of an experience of, like, clearing the slate, getting back to blink, because that's not how the defined head is designed.

The defined head is designed to have this consistent pressure that it's always sort of dealing with and, and, and conceptualizing around through its also defined Ajna. And so it can be healthy and correct for the defined head to be thinking, to always be sort of thinking and dealing with this pressure. It can be healthy and correct for the defined head to always sort of be in this process of trying to grasp and understand things in the unique way that their defined mind attempts to grasp and understand things. The defined head will naturally know in a healthy state that confusion, doubt, and clarity are all a part of its natural process and will trust the timing of it. And again, is able to inspire others as an outer authority with its mental pressure, with its ideas, its spur, its inspiration, and its questions.

The defined head when it's in an unhealthy state, what ends up happening is that conditioning from the other undefined centers will distort the mental pressure. And oftentimes that can look like directing the mental pressure inwards instead of outwards towards the self, rather than using your own unique mental pressure and mental conceptualizations to inspire and share and maybe educate the world and others. So another way of saying this is that the defined head person in an unhealthy state will rely on the defined mind rather than the inner authority and act on that mental pressure rather than staying with your type strategy and your inner authority. So this is where we really get into passenger consciousness, because again, even with a defined head, even with a consistent source of mental pressure that is your own and that you're meant to consistently access, that is still a passenger. That is still a narrator of your life.

It is not meant to be the function of your being that drives you and makes decisions. None of us, whether defined or undefined in the head, are designed to act or initiate from the head center. Having a defined head is having a defined way of asking questions and dealing with the pressure of the passenger, of the narrator of your life. It is not the director of your life, not the director of your movie. An undefined head in a healthy state is going to have a natural curiosity towards what is unknown.

There's a comfort for undefined head people when in a healthy state with having all sorts of different questions all the time and not settling on any single set of questions to answer or identifying with any stream of pressure, rather seeing all the different types of mental pressure and moments of mental pressure and remaining unattached in one's exploration of those things. So the undefined head in a healthy state will also be open to all sorts of different ideas and inspirations and is able to enjoy and be resourced by that pressure rather than identifying with it. Undefined head in an unhealthy state is gonna be overwhelmed by all those questions and those pressures in the form of doubt and confusion, and that's gonna lead to anxiety. Again, remembering that where we're undefined, we amplify, we absorb and amplify. And so it's especially important for the undefined head center people to realize that no matter how loud that mental pressure is, no matter how urgent it feels in your head, that's simply the nature of pressure.

That's the nature of pressure and specifically the nature of amplified pressure. And then once again, the presence of that mental pressure alone, no matter how loud is never an indication that you must think or act according to that mental pressure. We utilize our strategy and authority to help us navigate this hugely amplified field of mental pressure so that those mental pressures, those pings, those inspirations, those questions, those ideas can be a resource for our conceptualization and for our mental processing as the narrator or the passenger. Again, not the director, not the one demanding that we act. The undefined head center in a not self state is always trying to answer everyone's questions and resolve everyone's problems, including their own, trying to get rid of the mental pressure.

So similar to the root center, we talked about how the not self voice in the root center is always trying to get free from pressure and they never stop moving because they're feeling that amplification of adrenaline and pressure. And they think they have to keep moving and keep doing and keep acting, taking care of everything, taking care of everyone else's stressors and urgency in order to relieve them of the pressure. But the pressure relief is, is not coming and it's not going to be consistent when it does come passively. So same idea here for the head center, but instead of moving and acting and taking care of it, physically trying to use energy, amplified energy and pressure in your body to fix all the problems and handle all the things in the undefined head center, not self state, It's gonna be this mental sort of obsession, this mental preoccupation with trying to answer everyone's questions might be very still, but the mind is not still. The mind is succumbing to all of that pressure, thinking that it's my mind's responsibility to answer this question, to resolve this problem, whether it's mine or someone else.

Again, trying to get free of pressure, but this time mentally. The undefined head center in a not self state will act in attempts to relieve this mental pressure rather than according to type strategy. So as a generator with an undefined head, you might initiate because of a discomfort with amplified pressure and a misconception that you have to deal with it. And that once you do figure it out from a mental place, you'll be free. Same with projector or reflector might initiate.

A not self manifestor with an undefined head might get stuck in a sort of responding loop, thinking that they need to be available for everyone's questions all the time, even though manifestors are not here to respond. But the mental pressure, the amplification of mental pressure might create the fallacy that they need to respond. They need to take care of all these questions because they physically feel the pressure of it in their own head. And there can be a lack of ability to focus with the undefined head center again, because we're getting swept up in the pressures and the questions and the ideas and the inspirations rather than watching them and trusting that our bodies will move according to if I'm a generator sacral response and for everyone, according to my inner authority, my body will move on the correct inspirations and ideas and questions that I'm meant to really physically engage with at any time. And when we trust that, we can stay detached from these, this really loud amplified mental pressure.

But when we don't, when we get caught up in it, we lose ability to focus and we just get lost in the mental pressure. Kind of like the root center, when I said running around like a chicken with its head cut off, except maybe this is the head cut off. This is the head cut off because it's this head dissociating from the body and the wisdom of the body and the, the needs and the movement of the body in the present moment. And the head's just sitting there really distracted because of that amplification and pressure. The not self voice of the undefined or open head center sounds like being occupied with question, concerns, and worries that don't matter.

So some of the ways that some of the flavors or articulations of how this might show up for you and your undefined or open head center might be, I need to figure this out now. So again, this theme of urgency with both pressure centers, I need to think about this right now, and that's why we get distracted, right? Maybe the body is deep in rest or doing something, and then a mental pressure hits and we obsess over it. We think we have to deal with it immediately. I have to deal mentally with this question or problem.

I need to focus on all these ideas and inspirations. I know for me, one of the ways that I've watched my sort of habits shift, or maybe better articulated, I can say I've released a sort of obsession or preoccupation since beginning to decondition my head center is I used to think when I had an idea that I had to find paper or I had to get on my computer and write down all the ideas coming through immediately, or I'd forget them. And they feel so important when I'm getting them. And so often I would just never return to those ideas, but when they would come in, I would still be so preoccupied with, like, dropping everything and focusing on writing down that idea, whether it's a quote or a creative inspiration or something I wanna write later, what something I wanna tell someone, a task I think I need to remember to do. I would stop what I was doing and write everything down and never revisit it with the human design awareness and the awareness of the not self of my open, completely open head center.

I started to watch myself do that with a little bit more of a discerning eye, And over time, I've essentially dropped that. And nowadays, I just trust that, like, oh, yeah. There's all sorts of great ideas in here because I have this fully open channel to all of the ideas that exist, but I don't really need to go write them down because I also know that my body will move me. If I need to remember that idea, my body will remember it and it will bring me to it organically. At some point, I don't need to write it down to try to force myself to remember something.

Remembering is essentially irrelevant, right? The body will move when it's time. No choice. The undefined open head center, not self voice can sound like I need to find something inspiring or something to think about. I know for me often still, this looks like thinking I have to have like a podcast on or an audio book on at all times.

Even just the last few days, I've been taking my walks in silence and noticing how compulsive it is for me to think I need to grab something, to listen to, to have something, to fill this undefined open head. The undefined or open head center not self can sound like I've got to make sense of this. Like there's a question I have to figure it out immediately and or where can I find the answers? What's the next system I need to learn? Who's the next teacher I need always looking for some source of consistent pressure when for the undefined or open head center, we are not designed to have a consistent source of pressure.

So to kind of sum it up, the question to ask yourself to get in touch with whether you might be in the not self of the head center is, am I trying to answer everyone's questions? Am I thinking about things that don't matter to me? And I would maybe even add to that, like, that don't matter to me right now. About 30% of people have the head center defined. There's only three gates in the head center.

Right? So just zodiacally, there's less of a chance of definition in the three channels that connect the head to the Ajna. So it's more common for people to be undefined here. Just something to kind of think about that as a population, the majority of us are running around distracted all the time, thinking about things that don't matter. It's a collective issue.

The biological correspondence for the head center is the pineal gland. And as I mentioned already, the head can be defined in connection to the Ajna alone. So what's always happening in head center definition is that there's a consistency of mental pressure, which leads to a fixed way of coming to mental awareness. And of these three head center gates, we have one in Virgo, one in Capricorn, and one in Pisces. Circuitry wise, two of the head center gates, the 64 and the 63, are collective, and one, the 61, is individual.

Thanks for listening to the Living Your Design podcast. Stay tuned for the rest of the curriculum. New batches of episodes are released every Tuesday. For immediate complete access to the full course and to explore other perks like learning and community, extracurricular astrology and human design workshops, and meeting with me face to face, go to patreon.com/kelseyrosetort. You can also listen to me on my other podcasts, the Maia Games and conversations with the zodiac, and And find me on Instagram at kelseyrosetort.