The Twelve Profiles

Profile 1/4: The influencing investigator You are disciplined, thorough and careful, sociable and socially competent. You are afraid of rejection, but you also have an open heart. When you feel uncertain you withdraw quickly. Within relationships you do well to keep an eye on the balance of giving and taking.

You approach things in a very disciplined and careful way. The first line of your profile brings you sociability. The fourth line carries social competence, but is very careful and afraid of rejection. That can lead to a contradiction in you: on the one hand your sociability draws you to something or someone, while at the same time your fear of rejection urges caution, so that you would rather keep your distance.

You speak sensitively and honestly from your heart, and you radiate competence and strength. At its core your open heart wants to embrace everything life brings, and it can melt people. The condition for that, though, is that you feel safe in the situation. Beneath your surface lies fragility, and when uncertainty or threat comes up you fold your arms and put up barriers. That is how you protect yourself, because under too much pressure you risk collapsing. You usually research things very thoroughly, you can be highly innovative, and in some areas even a pioneer. It is particularly important for you to see that all your relationships are mutual. Giving and taking should always be in a sound balance for you, and that is worth checking again and again, so that you stay in your strength.

The second line represents the hermit, the shadow moving behind drawn curtains, the one who tinkers away in their cave and is observed very closely from outside. There is friction in this line, because a great talent lies here. That talent is so natural that this line often does not notice it. Others do see it, though, by projection. This line tends to be watched through the window from outside. The hermit simply wants peace and quiet, does not want to study as the first line does, and above all does not want to have to keep answering how „this or that" was done — because the second line basically has no idea. It is the people around them who give the second line its confidence and who make it possible, through another perspective, to recognize its talents and gifts as such — to step out of shyness.

Line 2 can sometimes feel invisible, because it is built to see others rather than itself. It is hard to trust yourself, and you doubt yourself too. It helps, first, to listen to what others see in you and call out of you, and second, to have people you can lean on, who see you and can help you reach that place of clarity and take small steps from there. Line 2 learns about itself through the people around it.

Profile 2/4: The withdrawn opportunist You can adapt flexibly to the situation at hand. You have a gentle manner but do not like being interrupted. You are latently irritable, and under pressure you tend towards sudden outbursts of anger. You switch back and forth between seclusion and an open, cheerful manner. You have a big heart and radiate warmth. You have little self-confidence, though, and therefore often look for feedback from others. You forget irrelevant information very quickly. You are very good at passing on advice and knowledge. You have a great effect in communities of interest of every kind.

You act practically and adapt to the situation at hand. You like a gentle manner, like having your own space, and do not like being interrupted when you are busy with something. There is usually a virtual „do not disturb" sign on your door. One moment you are shy and withdrawn, the next you are forthright and direct, communicating with the world in a cheerful, brisk way. And then you retreat spontaneously into your cave again. Those switches can seem quite puzzling to the people around you.

You are a lone worker. You have probably built yourself a network of various selected people and use those contacts as your projects require. Others usually see more in you than you do yourself. Often you do not know who you are. So you look for feedback from others in order to find support, meaning and identity. You like watching other people, not because you are interested in them but in order to learn more about yourself from their reactions — because you draw your identity mostly from others. You have a tendency to give too much, because you are humble and helpful by nature. You radiate a natural warmth and have a big heart. There is an unconscious vulnerability in you and a fear of rejection. You feel more comfortable with individuals than in a group. You tend to wait until somebody comes to you. You need an occasion or an invitation in order to get involved. But when that happens, you can have a great influence on any social network. You also have the ability to build the most varied networks among people.

You have an approachable nature but are latently irritable. At first you resent one-sided treatment in silence — until you burst. Especially when you are put under pressure you can have explosive outbursts of annoyance or anger. That happens above all when you are kept from doing what you are enthusiastically busy with. You discard and forget information quickly when you consider it irrelevant. Others think you are listening attentively, and then notice the next day that you no longer remember details of the conversation at all. You are very good at passing on advice and knowledge and can become a wonderful father, mother, teacher or trainer. You are creative and can pursue your goals with drive and determination once they have gripped you. Your heart and your naturalness are like a fresh breeze in today's world. You do run the risk, though, of giving too much without attending to your own needs.

Profile 2/5: The withdrawn heretic You have a talent for leading other people. You are not sure, though, whether you really want to take that role on. A certain detachment marks you out; you are choosy and like to move around. You tend to avoid deeper subjects. You can think against the grain and develop innovative ideas. You also like being alone and do not enjoy being the center of attention. You usually present yourself to others in one particular way — a role. You are very good at solving other people's problems in a practical way, which is why they often see you as a helper or rescuer.

You have the ability to lead people with empathy and charisma, but you are unsure whether you should. Your leadership potential comes with the brakes on. There is a feeling of detachment in you: as though you were lost somewhere in space and were observing the dramas on earth from there. You tend towards superficial contact and avoid deep subjects. You are often very choosy and particular. At work you tend not to stay in one position too long but rather to move on. In your work you can think against the grain and develop innovative, unorthodox ideas. You are a natural talent, and yet you tend to underestimate your own cleverness and brilliance. You do not care to be held up by old rules but replace them with more fitting new ones as needed.

Your appearance and your reputation matter a great deal to you. You put down the role of the great actor only when you are alone. You value being alone by nature, because you do not enjoy the spotlight. You can solve other people's problems in a practical way, which is why others often see you as a rescuer, a confidant or a crisis manager. That makes you attractive to them. It carries the risk, though, that too much is expected of you. Then you react by withdrawing and would rather be alone. That is often wise, too, because otherwise you can get caught up in other people's problems and dramas.

You see life as a potential playground. You play a remarkable number of roles. You do have the feeling, though, that you are valued only for what you play for others and not for what you are. It would help your development to get involved more fully and to recognize your inner worth, instead of looking for it in the recognition of others.

The third line brings innovation, mutation and adaptation with it by nature. In relation to people, this line shows great versatility and at the same time a hint of unpredictability. This line can be reticent and undecided on the one hand, and bold and daring on the other. This stage in the hexagram is not afraid of entering new territory, even though the consequences are not always rosy. You could say that the third line brings the process of trying things out, the principle of trial and error. These are the ones who get up again: however often they make a mistake, they will try something new — they are simply used to picking themselves up after a defeat. What it is really about here is personal experience, finding out which things do not work.

Line 3 is here to begin things and improve them step by step, but can get stuck in perfectionism. You are not here to perfect something and then take action. You are here to do something and THEN perfect it while you are doing it. Third lines can also feel shame or fear about not being „perfect", and will either hide or gloss over what is really going on.

Profile 3/5: The experimenting heretic A mischievous humor marks you out; you have charisma, an urge to explore and plenty of curiosity. You cannot rest for long but keep needing new adventures. You are open to unusual or experimental ideas. You have many qualities of leadership and are particularly helpful in a crisis.

You have a mischievous sense of humor and a polished, charismatic manner. You live by trial and error. There is a strong urge to explore in you and a great deal of curiosity. You live in the fast lane and have a pronounced joy in living. You gather wisdom in experiences of failure, injury and survival. You cover the pain of those experiences with self-deprecating humor and can be very funny.

You are a competent, adaptable leader. Because of your many experiences you are particularly helpful in times of crisis. You drive change forward and are a rebel who enjoys challenging authority. In your own particular way you draw attention to whatever is not working. You are also a seducer who can gently draw others into relationships, projects or occupations. By nature you are non-committal, and yet you always go about things strategically. You like playing with unusual and experimental ideas. The twists and turns of life can also become too much for you, and then you are frustrated and long for an orderly life. But by nature you cannot rest for long, and so you keep looking for a new adventure.

Profile 3/6: The exemplary experimenter On the one hand you are a daredevil willing to take risks, on the other you have great wisdom. You recognize the larger connections. You also have a gift for fighting your way through difficult situations and finding solutions. You often have impulses simply to try certain things out, you have flashes of insight, you have a great deal of experience, and you are a very good adviser on general questions of life.

You are a mixture of a risk-loving daredevil and a level-headed sage. The third line of this profile carries the motto „just try it!". That can sometimes lead to chaos. The sixth line is an expert at muddling through anywhere, any time. You have flashes of insight and can recognize the larger connections. There is something resolute about you; you are authentic and you have humor. There is something like restlessness in you. Even so, when impatience comes up you do not immediately withdraw from projects, occupations or relationships, because you have the ability to foresee the consequences.

For most people with this profile there are three important stages in life: 18, 30 and 50. On your way to wisdom you also live through difficult times. But from 50 onwards you are usually above the chaos, matured into a role model, and among the wisest and most experienced people there are. You have learned from your attempts and your mistakes, and can therefore give others advice for their development and progress out of your own insight and wisdom. You leave a great impression on many people, because you can give them valuable tips on general questions of life.

Although there is a harmony with the first line (foundations), this line is not interested in acquiring them for itself — it is about selling them to the network. This line knows about taking time for itself in order to recover from the wounds it has taken. For although it wants to include and welcome everybody, the tendency to wear a mask of friendliness is very strong: there is nothing worse than the resistance of rejection. Recognition matters to them. The network can be used to cover the wound of being overlooked. Nevertheless the fourth line radiates something very social, and so you often find it in the traditional leadership roles of this world. It likes leading effectively in a direction that feels right to it. The fourth line does, however, look for a return on what it puts in. The result is a leadership manner within and for the team that is sometimes inflexible, aimed at bringing about effective options which in turn are good for the team. Inflexible because the fourth line does it the way it does it, and no other way. If the way they want to do it is not accepted, the insight and the ability simply get applied elsewhere. It is a line that gets challenged and challenges in equal measure.

Fours have the biggest heart but fear being excluded, which can lead to jumping through twelve hoops to get somebody's attention, or staying with somebody because they might „change one day" or come to see you. Fours can also be afraid of taking the first step or of moving on into something else. They are the opportunist: the best opportunities come to you through the people in your life, which is why building a community around you matters so much and is something you need in order to live a full life. Many of the shadows of the four have to do with not feeling enough and therefore overcompensating, trying to prove that you are.

Profile 4/6: The influential role model You are a keen observer and recognize the larger connections. There is often a conflict in you, though, between your head and your heart. You have a strong social streak and great social competence. You are a team player and look after the people around you well.

You are a keen observer and are good at recognizing the larger connections. One of the themes of your life is the conflict between head and heart. There is the observer in you who can look at things from above, with distance and clarity. But at the faintest suspicion of possible disappointment, injury or failure, your heart withdraws in fear.

So there is a tendency in you to reject something or someone before you might be rejected yourself. If setbacks or rejection hurt you too much, your self-protection switches on and you build a hard shell around your otherwise very open heart. That can make you seem quite cool to others. What usually triggers it is having made a wrong decision impulsively, which then landed you in an unsatisfying situation. Because of your fear of being hurt, a friendly basis of trust should first be established in anything you take on. You have unusual social abilities. You can hold wonderful conversations and let your wisdom shine. You like teamwork and have a strong sense of community. You want the family or community around you to be doing well, and you wish them success as much as you wish it for yourself.

Fives are readily seen by others as a hero and a rescuer. That is why fives are sometimes a little paranoid in a certain way. They sit inside the five personality, see somebody coming and are already thinking „what does this one want?" — because when you are a five, everybody wants something from you. What matters here is not to accept the projection. The five line also universalizes: it makes things available to the whole world. The fifth line has the gift of stepping straight into an unfamiliar situation and offering a practical solution, something nobody had considered or seen as a solution before. But only when it lies within the integrity of this line; otherwise energy is lost and resistance builds — and the rescuer becomes the troublemaker. The gift of projecting everything outward and being taken for a hero is usually too loud for a fifth line to find the quiet needed for looking at itself. The saying „sometimes one step back is more than two steps forward" is worth knowing for this line. The fifth line will become aware of that weight of expectation and, at best, ask itself: „do others see qualities in me that I have overlooked?" or „do others see qualities in me that are unrealistic and that I cannot deliver?"

Fives are afraid of criticism, so there can be a lot of pretending, hiding and watering yourself down in order to please others. Fives are here to stir the pot and help others wake up so that they can mend, learn and grow, and you do that by being YOUR SELF — entirely, 100% you. Fives also tend to take everything to heart and make it personal, which can lead to more people-pleasing, hiding and wearing masks. You find real release when you fully own what you are and share it with the world, instead of adapting to what others think you should do or who you should be. As a fifth line the important thing is not to accept other people's projections.

Profile 4/1: The influential authority This is a very rare profile. The theme of the gate fixed by the sun on the conscious personality side is your basic theme in every area of life. That makes you relatively inflexible. But you are a very good teacher, a loner and a rock in the surf.

This profile is very rare. It is the only profile that is about ONE theme, about one precisely fixed way of living. One way, one goal, one point of view. The theme of just one of the 64 gates fixes the theme of your whole life: the theme of the gate activated by the position of the sun, at the very top of the right-hand column of your chart, the conscious personality side. That gate carries the superscript 4.

In the field of that gate you are a magnificent teacher, a rock in the surf and a reliable authority. You are also a loner, though, because your inflexible, settled manner means that some people do not understand you or cannot follow why you act as you do. Even so it is very important for you to stay on your unique path and follow your heart, because that is the meaning of your life. Do not try to do it the way others do, even if you envy their flexibility — you would be untrue to your nature and would come off your track.

Profile 5/1: The wise authority You like getting to the bottom of things; you are thorough, reliable and good at solving problems. You have qualities of leadership and are particularly suited to being a leader, a teacher or an adviser. You have good ideas and inspirations and a great deal of know-how. You draw your self-worth from your work and have rather few opportunities for looking inward, which is why you often feel uncertain.

You like getting to the bottom of things. Hardly anybody is more thorough and reliable than you. You are clever and skilful at solving practical problems and can lead people with your broad view. You have good ideas and inspirations for mastering challenges or overcoming obstacles. You have a lot of know-how and you provide solutions. You are therefore a born leader and teacher, and you readily take on the role of adviser or rescuer as well. You draw your self-worth from your work, and that gives you a seemingly secure foundation in life.

Beneath the surface, though, there is a lot of frantic paddling and a hidden uncertainty you are usually not aware of. You would rather nobody noticed any of it. You have a fairly precise picture of the successful person you would like to present to the outside world, but you know very little about your true self. You are magnificent at looking outward at your surroundings, but not at self-knowledge and looking inward. So there may be a nagging sense of uncertainty in you, a fear that the foundations of your life are not really stable. You would be free of that if you gave yourself the freedom to be yourself and to show your uncertainty about certain things quite openly. It is about being authentic. You would then probably be surprised to find that, contrary to your expectation, your reputation would not suffer for it at all — rather the opposite.

Profile 5/2: The withdrawn heretic You probably live rather withdrawn and tend to avoid contact with others. You are very self-critical and often condemn yourself for supposed mistakes. On the other hand you have great objectivity, you can be brilliant, develop plans and carry projects out. You like variety, fun and relaxation, and you enjoy playing roles.

A great deal is expected of you, and yet you tend to love seclusion and avoid contact with others. You worry a lot about what others might think of you. And you look at your own mistakes very self-critically — guilt and forgiveness are important themes for you. Forgiving yourself in particular would bring you a great deal of relief. At work you can develop big plans and carry projects out. But once you are alone again you often doubt your motivation or the success of your projects. You can be brilliant and you have great objectivity, but you also know the need for relaxation and fun in life. You like playing roles — and would make a good actor who communicates wonderfully.

Understand the conflict you were born with: on the one hand there is a need in you for retreat and for being alone, on the other you wish to leave traces in the world and play a part on the stage of life. That is why varied experiences matter so much to you.

The sixth profile line represents the role model, the judge, the peacemaker and the absolute ideal. To judge truly, and to match the ideal role model, a path is needed that brings various experiences with it. That is why the sixth line experiences itself in three different phases of life.

1. Phase: the first 30 years are about experiencing as such, down in the valley. How that happens can vary with the partner line. It may be a little reminiscent of the third line, and yet it does not have the third line's quality — which is why the first 30 years are best enjoyed with care and attention. 2. Phase: after that, everything is about reflecting on what has been lived through, for 20 years. The mountain is climbed in order to tend the wounds taken. This is where recognition for the deep wisdom and experience of the sixth line begins. Sixth-line people often become very objective here and are no longer really in the here and now. 3. Phase: in the last phase, which begins at around 50, the balance between wisdom and experience is reached. Usually this phase also begins with the Chiron return. Rested and whole again, the sixth line is now able to come back down from the roof of life as an optimistic role model, and to take up life once more.

Sixth lines need to have everything and to hold everything together, always and for everybody. Trust matters a great deal to them and is not something they give readily; they probably still question whether they really trust somebody. They are likely to question other people's intentions and do not always — or ever — let anybody all the way in. When sixth profile lines build walls around themselves, that can be very isolating.

Profile 6/2: The withdrawn role model You radiate great authority and are a good manager. You have a lot of wisdom and strength, and you have high ideals and high standards. There is a tendency in you to want to do everything yourself. You are curious and like acquiring new knowledge. You probably have a fairly broad general education. You are an optimist and radiate clarity, cleverness and precision. But you also like fun and jokes and can cheer others up with them.

You are an authority, a born role model. Your wisdom, your perceptions and your visions are a gift and carry great strength. You have high ideals, high standards and big goals. That leads to a tendency to take responsibility for everything, always. You would also rather do everything yourself. Delegating can be difficult for you, because only a few people can get things done as well as you can.

You are a manager, a conductor, a planner of the future. But taking on too many tasks at once can overwhelm you and drag you down. Phases of being alone are therefore particularly important for you, because that is when you can recharge your batteries. There is an unconscious aspect in you that keeps you from making full use of your abilities. You rate your time and your energy as very valuable and usually ask for a correspondingly high return. That can lead you to turn down offers that would have brought you to your real calling and to living your true potential. So it matters that you also use your talents when your head says no but you feel in your heart that you should do it anyway.

You like taking life by the scruff of the neck and want to make a difference. You are an unshakeable optimist and radiate clarity, precision and something rounded. You have an eye for looking behind the dramas of life and recognizing what it is really about. Perhaps you were told as a child that you were cleverer than others your age. You are always in search of new knowledge and new fields of interest, and by now you probably have a very broad general education. You also have a leaning towards fun and jokes. In that way you can bring a lot of light into the world and cheer up the people around you.

Profile 6/3: The experimenting role model You are intelligent, wise and experienced. You also have high expectations of others. There is an urge in you for rapid development, and you aim at higher positions. You do not like routine but need variety, adventure and a thrill. You have a strong interest in innovation and a provocative humor.

You have great wisdom and are a role model to others in your knowledge, your experience and the way you tackle things. You know how the world works and what life is about. Trial and error is your most frequent approach. It could be difficult for you to find partners for long-term relationships or friendships. That is because you have high standards and want to surround yourself as far as possible with high-minded, intelligent and demanding people. You have rather little patience for people who cannot help themselves.

You carry the wish to keep pushing the limits of life further out, to experience bigger and better things. You are looking for the fast lane for your own development. You want influence and to be able to act from a higher position. There is therefore a tendency for you to end up in a company of your own, in management or in some other leading position. In doing so you need variety in your tasks, because routine bores you quickly.

As a contrast there is also a wish in you for a thrill, for exciting new adventures. And so you embody an unusual mixture of great authority and wisdom on the one hand and the abandon of an adrenaline junkie on the other. Your interest is in innovative and new things. And with your sometimes provocative humor you try to set a little lightness against all the dramas of life.