Understanding the differences between Sacral and Splenic Authority in Human Design can be tricky at first, especially because they’re both types of what I call “body-based wisdom”.

In this post, we’re breaking down the key differences between these two Authorities, how they each show up in real life, and what to keep in mind when your client has access to both a defined Sacral and defined Splenic Center. Let’s dive in!

What Is Authority in Human Design?

Your Human Design Authority is how you’re meant to make decisions. And spoiler alert: it’s never from your mind, emotions, or logic, but from your body’s built-in inner wisdom.

Today, we’re focusing on two types of Authority:

• Sacral Authority – available only to Generators and Manifesting Generators
• Splenic Authority – available only to Projectors and Manifestors

*Some Generator and Mani-Gen clients may have both the Sacral and Spleen defined in their chart, but we’ll get to that in a minute!

Sacral Authority = Your Gut Response

The Sacral Center relates to our life-force energy, vitality, and what lights us up. When a client has Sacral Authority, their personal truth lives in their gut response, which can only “speak” in yes/no answers.

The Sacral can also only give a “yes” or a “no” in response to something that’s happening around them (i.e., something or someone in the external environment) in the moment. It doesn’t respond to open-ended questions like, “What should I do with my life?” It needs something clear and concrete to respond to.

How the Sacral Speaks:

• A verbal sound that comes from within: e.g., “uh huh” (yes) or “uhn uh” (no) for English speakers
• A physical movement: leaning in, lighting up, contracting vs. expanding
• A feeling: you feel alive and energized vs. bored, drained, or heavy

The key here is response. The Sacral won’t speak unless it has something in the external environment to react to. That’s why yes/no questions are so valuable when coaching a client with Sacral Authority.

Coaching Tips for Sacral Clients:

• Practice using yes/no prompts during sessions (e.g., “Do you want to explore this option?”)
• Pay attention to their body language when they’re talking through a decision.
• Encourage experimentation with low-stakes choices like meals, outfits, weekend plans, etc.
• Help them notice the difference between a “should” (from the mind) vs. a “yes” (from the gut).

Splenic Authority = Your Subtle Intuition

The Splenic Center is tied to our instincts, survival, and wellbeing. Its guidance comes in quick, fleeting hits of inner knowing, before the mind has time to interfere.

Unlike the Sacral, the Spleen’s guidance can be more open-ended. It might come through as a subtle inner voice, a physical sensation, or a “this doesn’t feel right.”

How the Spleen Speaks:

• A sense of “just knowing” or “this feels right/wrong”
• A whisper of intuition, quiet inner voice
• Physical cues like goosebumps, warmth, tension
• A flash of insight that’s here one second and gone the next

The biggest challenge? Splenic nudges are often so subtle they get missed, especially by clients who’ve been overriding their body’s signals for years and have learned to rely on their mind to make decisions.

Coaching Tips for Splenic Clients:

• Ask about their first impressions, before they “thought about it too much”.
• Help them recall times they knew something instinctively, and what that felt like.
• Normalize the quietness of Splenic wisdom, and that it may not repeat itself.
• Explore body-based sensations: tingles, goosebumps, feelings of safety or unease, etc.

What If Your Client Has Both the Sacral and Spleen Defined?

This isn’t uncommon for Generators and Mani-Gens. In this case, your client has Sacral Authority but also a defined Spleen Center.

This means your client should follow the Sacral response as their decision-making Authority, but they may also feel their Splenic intuition chiming in. Essentially, the Spleen can add context or extra confirmation, but the Sacral always gets the final say when it comes to decisions, both big and small.

Here’s how that might look:

• Sacral: “No.”
• Spleen: “No… because something’s off about that person.”

Or…

• Sacral: “Yes!”
• Spleen: “Yes, I want to go on a date with this person because they feel safe and kind.”

Keep in mind that the Spleen’s intuitive wisdom isn’t going to contradict the Sacral response. So if it feels like that, it’s more likely that the mind is trying to step in, not the body/Spleen.

So… which one is it?

If your client struggles to differentiate between Sacral and Splenic Authority, here are a few things that might be going on:

• “I didn’t feel anything.” → They might not have had anything to respond to (Sacral), or they may have missed the fleeting guidance (Spleen).
• “It felt right at first, but now I’m second-guessing it.” → The Spleen or Sacral gave guidance, but now the mind is trying to take over.

Supporting Your Clients With Their Authority

Learning to trust the body after years (or decades!) of relying on the mind to make decisions is a process that takes time. As a coach, your role is to create space for your clients to experiment and reflect, practice with small decisions first, and get familiar with how their Authority feels and sounds.

For example, you could:

• Use somatic coaching to help your client notice bodily sensations.
• Celebrate the small wins: “You listened to your Authority, and look what happened!”
• Reflect back what you’re observing: “When you said that, you lit up.”
• Normalize that this is a practice, not a one-and-done skill.

Whether your client has Sacral or Splenic Authority, learning to trust their body’s wisdom will transform how they show up in their life, business, and relationships.

And for you as a coach, understanding the difference between Sacral vs. Splenic Authority in Human Design doesn’t just help your clients make better decisions. It helps them reconnect with their deepest and most aligned truth. And that’s a powerful thing!

Ready for more?

In my free on-demand masterclass, I’ll show you how to start using Human Design with your coaching clients to create faster breakthroughs and lasting results.

👉 Watch the on-demand class here