Human Design, James Van Der Beek and Colorectal Cancer

Birth time not accurate - gates spoken about are unaffected. Software - Genetic Matrix

I’m writing this on the evening of breaking news that, tragically, a true ’90s icon has passed. I was a little too young to watch Dawson’s Creek the first time around, but after a difficult period in my own life, the show became a kind of medicine for me. I was firmly Team Dawson (although I must admit, Joshua Jackson has aged like a fine wine!).

I’ve tried to write this as concisely and respectfully as I can. Many of you know that raising awareness around health, death, and the deeper spiritual dimensions of our experience is something I care deeply about. I don’t believe we understand anywhere near as much as we think we do about consciousness or how it works, but Human Design has given me a language to begin sharing some of the patterns I observe.

Diagnosed with colorectal cancer in August 2023 and passing away today, 11 February 2026, aged 48, I found myself drawn to look at his natal Chiron. Just 18 months from a Chiron return, one of the most significant initiatory cycles of adult life, the timing, as always, caught my attention. Where, in both the bodygraph and astrologically speaking, was natal Chiron positioned?

Natal Chiron sits in Gate 3 at 28° Aries. Transit Chiron is currently in Gate 42 (less than half a gate from Gate 3), at 23° Aries, only five degrees from an exact conjunction and well within what would be considered conjunction range.

Why is this important to note?

I’ll say it clearly: the bodygraph does not predict illness. It does not make us susceptible to illness, nor does it show anything other than the story of a soul expressed through human form.

And yet, time and again, we see specific areas of the bodygraph highlighted by physical health stories at precisely the periods we might expect those activations to occur. I can’t fully explain why, but the pattern is there.

Gate 3 sits exactly where the colon would be located if you had never seen a Human Design chart before, connecting the sacral (digestive system) to the root (anus, legs, feet). It is the gate of turning chaos into innovation and innocence, a deeply structural energy that asks us to transform even experiences such as illness into new ways of seeing and understanding life.

At the time of diagnosis, the transiting North Node sat directly conjunct his natal Chiron at 28° Aries, the first time that point had been activated in approximately 18.5 years. He was diagnosed as the North Node crossed that degree, and he passed as transit Chiron moved into conjunction range with his natal Chiron, marking the beginning of his Chiron return, in a location of the chart that corresponds strikingly with the colon.

This is not a discussion of cause, prediction, or health anxiety. What I want to share is simply the importance of taking patterns seriously, not for prevention, but for understanding.

Our health is more than food and exercise alone, however often we are told otherwise. Life is an extraordinary journey. May we remember to live it fully.