Profiles and Profiling: A Practicum
An In-Depth Analyst's Guide to the 12 Human Design Profiles
Human Design Profiles — The Mechanics
The Profiles system is one of the most important and most frequently misread elements of a Human Design chart. A Profile is derived from the two lines of the hexagram occupied by the conscious Sun (Personality) and unconscious Sun (Design) at birth — creating 12 possible archetypal pairings, each with distinct karmic, relational, and behavioral mechanics.
The 12 Profiles span three fundamental geometries: Right Angle (personal destiny), Left Angle (transpersonal karma), and Juxtaposition (fixed fate). Each geometry conditions how the profile lines are lived. A Right Angle profile carries an internally focused, personal life trajectory — the life themes emerge from within. A Left Angle profile is shaped by encounters with others; the karma is interpersonal, playing out through the people who enter and exit the life. The single Juxtaposition profile (4/1) carries a fixed, singular life path with little variation available.
Within each Profile, the six lines each carry an archetype: the Investigator (1st), the Hermit (2nd), the Martyr (3rd), the Opportunist (4th), the Heretic (5th), and the Role Model (6th). What makes the Profiles system complex in practice — and why a practicum is warranted — is that the lines interact with the specific Gates that create them (Role Gates and Profile Gates), modifying how each line's archetype expresses.
Cathy Kinnaird's Practicum moves through all 12 Profiles with the precision of a working analyst — covering the challenges and strengths of each, the mechanics of the three geometries, and the step-by-step approach to presenting Profile material in an actual reading context. For students and working practitioners, this is the level of depth that makes Profiles genuinely usable.
What This Program Covers
Based on the mechanics of the 12 Profiles in Human Design — as taught by IHDS Certified Analyst and Teacher Cathy Kinnaird — this practicum examines:
- The three geometries — Right Angle, Juxtaposition, Left Angle — and how each conditions the Profile experience
- All 12 Profile archetypes: 1/3, 1/4, 2/4, 2/5, 3/5, 3/6, 4/6, 4/1, 5/1, 5/2, 6/2, 6/3
- Role Gates and Profile Gates — how specific Gates modify the expression of each profile line
- Challenges and strengths of each of the 12 Profiles in lived experience
- Step-by-step approach to reading Profiles in a chart session context
- Distinguishing what is personal destiny, transpersonal karma, and fixed fate across the geometries
Who Benefits from This Program
- IHDS students progressing through analyst training who want to deepen their Profile mechanics
- Working Human Design Analysts who want a more systematic approach to reading and communicating Profiles
- Anyone who has received a chart reading and wants to understand their Profile in full technical detail
- Teachers and educators within the Human Design community building course content
- Advanced students of the Ra Uru Hu body of work seeking practitioner-level instruction
Cathy Kinnaird — IHDS Certified Analyst & Teacher
Cathy Kinnaird is an IHDS Certified Human Design Analyst and Certified International Human Design Teacher, and Director of Human Design Northwest (HumanDesignNW.com) based in Vancouver. She is one of the senior instructors within the IHDS community. In 2009, Ra Uru Hu joined Lynda Bunnell and Cathy Kinnaird during the inaugural semester of the IHDS Professional Development Program — a role that reflects her standing as a foundational figure in the school's professional training curriculum.
Kinnaird has a dedicated course category at ihdschool.com, covering topics including Profiles, Centers, and practitioner development. The Profiles and Profiling Practicum is her in-depth program on one of Human Design's most important and most technically demanding areas of chart analysis.