Methods & sources
How Pattern Atlas works
A reading is only worth trusting if you can see how it was made. This page names our sources, how the scoring works, what we do with your words — and where the limits are.
The idea
Two layers, one reading
Every reading maps two layers of one person. The first is the baseline: how your energy, decisions, and sensitivities are naturally wired. The second is the learned layer: the habits life trained on top of that wiring — ways of saying yes, working, and keeping the peace that were picked up to stay safe or approved of.
Most advice fails because it treats those layers as one thing. The reading lives in the gap between them: where the life you're running fits your wiring, and where it pinches.
Layer one
Where the chart comes from
The baseline layer is Human Design–inspired. We calculate your chart with our own astronomical ephemeris from your birth date, time, and place — the same calculation every time, no guessing.
We are transparent about what that is: Human Design is a modern synthesis, not science. We treat the chart as a structured mirror for self-reflection — a precise vocabulary for noticing how you work, each piece testable against your own weeks.
Layer two
Where the psychology comes from
The learned layer draws on real psychological research, used reflectively. The conditioning archetypes are informed by attachment theory — the study of how early bonds shape adult patterns of closeness and distance. The stress material is informed by stress-response research: the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses.
The 'life that fits' frame is informed by self-determination theory and research on self-concordant goals — goals aligned with a person's authentic interests and values, which that research links to wellbeing and follow-through. The energy material is informed by research on burnout — the exhaustion that builds when effort runs against the grain for too long.
All of it is used reflectively: the reading describes patterns in plain language so you can check them against your own weeks. The one line we hold is that none of it is administered as a clinical instrument — no diagnostic questionnaires, no scoring against norms.
