Remembered: Codes and Ancient Tools for Modern Alignment
Part One of a Four-Part Series on Ancient Technologies for Self-Understanding, Soul, and the Systems Beyond the Visible
There’s a point in every overachiever’s life—trust me, I know because I’ve been one—when the question shifts from "How can I do more, achieve more, prove more?" to a quieter, more radical one: "More of what, exactly? And at what cost?"
Eventually, the chase for optimisation gives way to a deeper inquiry: “How do I live with greater resonance and rhythm, on my terms, by my wiring, not by someone else’s standard of success?”
This series took shape during a spacious pause, specifically after I left Meta and chose to sit with myself more deeply. It wasn’t just about seeking reinvention, though there was a version of that unfolding. It was a recalibration, an intentional return to rhythm. The next phase of my life was calling for a new level of alignment.
It wasn’t about returning to an old identity. It was about returning to the truth I’d always known: that my design wasn’t a mystery. It had always been there, waiting for me to listen more closely.
This was a season for deeper remembrance and conscious recalibration. A chance to reflect on my energetic blueprint with the maturity of lived experience, while crafting new paths that honoured who I was becoming.
Back in 2001, I traveled with a deck of tarot cards and use to pull cards each morning to set my daily intention. These were quiet rituals that allowed me to listen to inner whispers. I was raised inside a kaleidoscope of spiritual traditions. I was baptised in all religions back in 1982 not something normal way back then….each one a refusal to confine the sacred.
What I’ve realised over these years is that spirituality and connection to a greater energy or the universe was in me from a very early age.
On top of being baptised under multiple religions, my Indonesian mother and her family carried a mysticism that lived in gestures, stories, and rituals. I grew up with this—encountering the many faces of spirituality from an early age. My father, too, shaped this path: deeply involved with the Parliament of the World's Religions, a global movement cultivating harmony across faiths and guiding institutions, his work left an indelible imprint on how I viewed the world. The Parliament’s origins stretch back to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where East and West were invited into dialogue for the first time at that scale. My proximity to this ethos gave me early access to a radically pluralistic view of life, work, and the sacred—one for which I’m deeply grateful.
Astrology, Human Design, and other ancient tools weren’t trends I picked up post-tech, they were through-lines I continued to consult even during my time at Meta. They’ve been woven into my life as quiet anchors, orienting me when the noise of systems or structures threatened to drown out my inner rhythm.
Astrology, in particular, has seen a global resurgence, not just in individual practice but at the cultural and economic level. A July 2025 Bloomberg article noted that astrology in India has become a $7 billion industry, with venture capital now investing in astrological platforms to serve a younger generation seeking celestial guidance. Ancient tools are no longer fringe, they are entering the mainstream as people hunger for deeper frameworks in an increasingly chaotic world.
This 4-part journey is not about trend-jumping into Human Design or Astrology or typology systems. It’s about what happens when you dare to live according to the wisdom you’ve always carried, when frameworks become mirrors, and mirrors become medicine.
Here’s what the journey holds:
Part One: Human Design & Gene Keys: How I found language for the way I’ve always lived (even when the world didn’t understand)
Part Two: Modern Assessment: The integration of modern tools and how pattern recognition builds compassion, leadership intelligence, and relational fluency. Touching on CliftonStrengths, StandOut, Wealth Dynamics, and Enneagram
Part Three: Astrology & The Emotional Blueprint: Why your chart is a mythic map, not a personality report and how it holds the emotional intelligence that modern tools overlook.
Part Four: Embodiment & Living The Design: Where the frameworks end and life begins: How insight becomes rhythm, work becomes ritual, and identity becomes embodied alignment.
These are not essays about personality. They are essays about possibility. And the sacred permission to stop outsourcing your pace, power, or path.
Part One — Wired to Be Different: How Human Design Gave Me Language for the Life I Was Already Living
(Human Design and the language of living your design)
The answer to "Who am I?" is not found in external validation, but in understanding the energetic architecture you were born with.
For years, I've moved through the world sensing there was a different way to operate. One that honoured both strategy and soul, systems thinking and spiritual knowing. For those of you that have followed me for a while, you know I’ve always been drawn to the spaces between disciplines, the unconventional paths that haven't been made yet. Sometimes this has felt like being years ahead of where the world is ready to go.
Then Human Design and Gene Keys entered my life, and suddenly I had language for what I'd always known in my gut.
The Tool That Speaks Your Inner Knowing
Human Design isn't astrology, though it borrows from it. It isn't psychology, though it illuminates patterns within us. It's something more practical and more mystical. A synthesis system that reveals how you're designed to move through the world, make decisions, and exchange energy with others.
Human Design takes these diverse systems and synthesises them to create a unique framework for self-understanding and personal growth. It aims to help individuals identify their strengths, weaknesses, and optimal ways of interacting with the world based on their individual design.
A year and a half ago, I decided to master the art of reading Human Design charts. Not for certification's sake especially because I believe true mastery comes from lived experience, not credentials, but because I was moving through another period of deep introspection, another stage of my lifecycle where I needed to revisit tools that could help me put words to things that had been unconsciously living inside me.
What emerged wasn't just knowledge about a system, but re-visit about my own energetic blueprint. A framework that reaffirmed everything I'd known instinctively, deep in my gut resurfaced.
The Non-Linear Navigator: Understanding Manifesting Generator Energy
I am a Manifesting Generator. A hybrid of two energy types, part Manifestor, part Generator. This means I'm designed to follow what lights me up, but in whatever order feels right, not the prescribed linear path.
Manifesting Generators make up about 33% of the population, yet we're consistently misunderstood. We're labeled flaky when we jump from project to project, undisciplined when we can't stick to rigid schedules, "too much" when we operate at full capacity.
Throughout everything, here’s what I've been reminded: I'm not designed to be linear. I'm designed to show others that success doesn't require following the prescribed path. I'm here to demonstrate that when you trust yourself and follow what genuinely excites you, you can achieve what you desire and in whatever way works for you.
As a Manifesting Generator, my strategy is to respond, to wait for my sacral centre (that deep gut knowing) to light up before committing to anything. But I can also inform, sharing what I'm excited about and allowing others to join me if they choose. Based on my history, this is usually how I do things….
This explains why my most successful projects, The Change School, the various communities I've launched, and most recently Parenting in Beta have emerged not from strategic planning sessions, but from gut feel. That visceral knowing that something needs to exist in the world, followed by the energy to make it happen. Sometimes I continue them and sometimes they live a short life!
My signature theme is satisfaction, that deep contentment that comes from spending energy on what genuinely excites me. My not-self theme is frustration, that grinding feeling when I'm pushing against my design instead of flowing with it, usually because I'm trying to force linearity where none exists.
The Emotional Authority: Learning to Ride the Wave
Here's where Human Design got even more specific about my decision-making process. As an Emotional Generator, I have what's called Emotional Authority, meaning my decisions need to move through my emotional wave before I can access clarity.
This was revolutionary for me to understand back in 2011. I'm not designed to make decisions in the moment, no matter how exciting something feels initially. Over the years though I still felt at times I needed to make decisions based on other signals. I tend to create things based on my gut feeling instead of asking what my audience needs or what my community needs… I usually do the opposite and just throw what I’m thinking out there to see what the response is.
As the famous saying goes from Henry Ford, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” This quote serves as a reminder that truly innovative products often come from understanding fundamental needs and desires, rather than simply reacting to customer suggestions. As most often people don’t know what they really want unless you share something with them. And that is how I’ve built things from the early days back in 2010….
When I really think about how I’ve created the most successful things in the past I realised it was from that initial gut feeling….I need to feel into opportunities over time, allowing my emotional wave to show me the full spectrum of how I feel about something before committing. I would say yes previously to things that I felt FOMO about but then after a while I realised they weren’t really aligned or would drain my energy. And I was coming from a place of FOMO vs real true gut feeling and moving through my emotional wave - giving it time and me time to sit with it.
In practice, this means when someone presents me with an opportunity that sparks immediate excitement, I've learned to say, "Let me feel into this and get back to you." I need to experience how I feel about it on different days, in different moods, at different energy levels. Only then can I access my true response. Or I’d need to take a bit of time where I explore and work with them to see how it really sits with me before I fully commit to a longer term engagement.
This has completely transformed how I approach business decisions. Instead of the quick "yes" or "no" that the world often demands, I honour my need for emotional processing time. It's saved me from countless projects that felt exciting in the moment but would have led to frustration down the line.
The emotional wave isn't something to overcome, it's information. It's my internal navigation system showing me the full landscape of my feelings about a decision. When I try to bypass this process, I inevitably end up in situations that drain rather than energise me.
The Heretic Hermit: My 5/2 Profile
In Human Design, your profile reveals your archetypal journey. How you learn, how others perceive you, and how you're designed to share your gifts with the world.
Line 5: The Heretic (or as I prefer, The Messenger)
The 5th line is projected onto. People sense you can solve their problems before you even open your mouth. You're the person others turn to when conventional approaches have failed. You're designed to offer unusual solutions, to be the messenger who brings something different to the table.
This explains why throughout my career from Big Tech to the constellation of roles I hold now, people have consistently approached me with challenges that required thinking outside established frameworks. They've sensed I could bridge what seemed unbridgeable: technology and consciousness, innovation and ethics, individual transformation and systems change or reimagining what the future will be.
It's why I don't live conventionally. I am unconventionally building the future, creating paths that haven't been made yet. Sometimes it may seem like I'm years ahead—like when we were building The Change School, or now as I develop The Worth Club and my Worth-Centred leadership framework.
Line 2: The Hermit (or The Natural Genius)
The 2nd line carries innate knowledge. You know things without knowing how you know them. Anyone that carries the 2nd line has natural gifts that emerge not through traditional learning, but through solitude and retreat.
This explains my lifelong need for what I call "me-treats"—my personal retreats (though these have become less frequent since having children). While some might call me an ambivert, I am deeply introverted despite also being highly extroverted when needed. I need my space to think, to write, to recalibrate, to bring my ideas to life. When I feel the need to withdraw, I really will. It's like I've fallen off the face of the planet. I might not respond to messages for days. This isn't antisocial behaviour; it's essential for accessing my gifts.
Together, these lines create a fascinating paradox: I need solitude to cultivate my gifts, but I'm designed to share them with the collective. I'm meant to step away to step forward.
The Gene Keys: A Deeper Layer of Purpose
While Human Design gave me the mechanics of my energy, the Gene Keys, created by Richard Rudd and built on the same foundational system, revealed the deeper mythology of my purpose. Where Human Design shows you how you operate, Gene Keys shows you why you're here.
My Gene Keys profile added profound layers to my understanding:
Life's Work (Gate 18 - Integrity): My core purpose revolves around challenging corrupted systems and building life around integrity. I'm here to improve some corner of the world by standing for what's right, even when it's uncomfortable. This explains my persistent drive to question conventional approaches and create alternatives that honour both effectiveness and ethics.
Evolution (Gate 17 - Following): My evolutionary journey is about learning to trust what my mind sees and give my energy and gifts to fulfilling that vision. I'm designed to see the long-term results and goals, to grasp things that others cannot easily see, and to persist in bringing that vision to life. This is why I often feel like I'm building for a future others can't yet imagine.
Radiance (Gate 39 - Provocation): My gift to the world comes through being occupied with situations and people that constantly make me feel more alive. I'm designed to provoke growth in others, to create environments where people feel energised and awakened to their potential. This explains my natural magnetism as a leader, guide (coach) and my ability to inspire transformation.
Purpose (Gate 38 - The Fighter): My deepest fulfilment comes from serving a purpose beyond myself, from fighting for something meaningful. I'm designed to face challenges that others might avoid, to persist through adversity in service of what matters. This is why I've consistently found myself in roles that required courage to challenge the status quo.
These Gene Keys revelations didn't contradict my Human Design, they deepened it. They showed me that my 5/2 profile wasn't just about how I operate, but about why I'm here: to be the hermit who discovers new ways of being, and the messenger who brings those discoveries to the world.
The Art of Following Your Gut in a Noisy World
Understanding my design has taught me that I need to keep listening more to myself and trust the direction I know deep down. But here's the challenge: we get distracted by the day-to-day responsibilities, mothering, partnership obligations, and societal clutter that impacts our ability to hear our own inner guidance.
Human Design gave me clarity about who I am and reinforced the importance of owning it fully. It reminded me that my gut knows things my mind hasn't figured out yet, and that my multi-dimensional approach isn't a flaw to be fixed, it's a feature to be embraced.
This is why I'm all about AND. Strategy AND soul. Practical AND mystical. Individual transformation AND systems change. The false binaries that society insists upon don't have to limit us.
Integrating Human Design with Financial Wellbeing
Recently, I've been weaving Human Design into my work around financial wellbeing and money healing. I'm exploring how our energetic design intersects with our money DNA, our financial archetypes, and the ways we create and exchange value in the world.
With my coaching clients, I'm testing how understanding their Human Design can illuminate patterns in their relationship with money, their decision-making around financial opportunities, and their capacity to receive and generate wealth in alignment with their design. At the same time I’m integrating Human Design to career paths and reinventions.
This feels like the natural evolution of my work - bridging identity and innovation, consciousness and capital, personal transformation and systemic change.
Why This Matters Beyond Individual Understanding
While personal clarity is valuable, Human Design becomes truly powerful when we understand it as part of a larger conversation about human flourishing. Individual alignment is beautiful, but it's not the endpoint.
When we understand our own design and honour it, we become more available for authentic collaboration. We stop trying to force others into our preferred ways of operating. We create space for different types of energy to contribute their unique gifts.
This is how personal wellbeing becomes collective wellbeing: not through everyone optimising themselves in isolation, but through everyone understanding their place in the larger ecosystem of human energy. When we each operate according to our design, we create more space for others to do the same.
Imagine workplaces where Projectors aren't forced into Generator schedules, where Manifestors aren't criticised for their need for autonomy, where Reflectors are honoured for their wisdom rather than pushed to make quick decisions. This isn't just individual healing—it's cultural repair.
Your Navigation Practice: Questions to Explore
Whether or not you dive into Human Design specifically, here are some questions that can help you tune into your own energetic architecture:
Energy Patterns:
When do you feel most energised and alive? What patterns do you notice?
How do you make your best decisions—quickly or slowly, alone or with others, through thinking or feeling?
What does your energy need to sustain itself over time?
Natural Gifts:
What do people consistently ask for your help with, even without you offering?
What knowledge do you carry that you can't explain where you learned it?
When do you feel like you're in flow versus when do you feel like you're pushing against something?
Collaboration Style:
How do you prefer to engage with others—leading, responding, guiding, or reflecting?
What environment allows your best work to emerge?
How do you know when something is right for you to pursue?
Resistance Patterns:
What societal expectations consistently feel wrong for your system?
Where do you experience chronic frustration or anger in your life?
What would you do differently if you trusted your instincts completely?
The Invitation to Trust Your Design
If you've read this far, something here has resonated. Maybe you've felt the tension between who you are and who you think you should be. Maybe you've sensed there's a different way to move through the world but haven't had language for it.
Human Design might be one tool worth exploring—not as dogma, but as confirmation. Not as limitation, but as liberation from trying to be someone you're not.
Here’s what I've learned: when you understand how you're designed to operate, you stop swimming upstream. You find your current, and you let it carry you toward work that matters, relationships that nourish, and a way of being that feels like coming home to yourself.
The world doesn't need another version of someone else. It needs the fullest expression of who you actually are.
What's Next in This Journey
This exploration of Human Design is just the beginning. In the coming parts of this series, we'll dive deeper into how different self-understanding tools can work together to create a more complete picture of who you are and how you're designed to move through the world.
Ultimately, self-understanding isn't about becoming someone new. It's about becoming more fully who you've always been.
This is Part One of a four-part series exploring ancient technologies for self-understanding.