Why Paris is ideal for my Caves Environment.
Living in Paris as someone with a Caves environment and a Line 1 body in Human Design has helped me understand why I feel so at home in places others might find restrictive or overwhelming.
The city’s layout, with its arrondissements, périphérique (ring road highway), narrow streets, small apartments, and dense architecture, offers a level of containment that feels stabilizing rather than stifling. While some people might see these features as limiting or even oppressive, for me they create the kind of structure and predictability that my body intuitively responds to, and I DIG it.
That’s because Caves people are wired for security, protection, and the kind of regularity that comes from familiar patterns and clearly defined spaces. Paris provides all of that for my system.
When I first came to Paris on a college trip with my French professor in 2008 I felt something come alive in me. There was an energetic vibration in my legs and knees and I just felt happy!
Caves people are wired for security, protection, and the kind of regularity that comes from familiar patterns and clearly defined spaces.
I’m from the countryside in the States, and I was agitated all the time back home. The small restaurants and dim lighting on offer in Paris were exciting and comforting to me. So were all the limestone buildings and monuments. And I loved sitting with my back to the glass exterior of a quaint café terrasse doing nothing but sipping wine and people watching through my dark sunglasses.
What is Caves Environment? In a few words…
The Caves environment is the first of the six in the Human Design system, part of the bottom trigram of the hexagram. These lower three environments are personal and connected more to hardscapes than to open (and transpersonal), panoramic landscapes. This means I connect with myself and function best in urban settings where I can physically and energetically sense the security my surroundings provide with clear lines of entry and exit.
I’m Blending Caves, so this means that my Environment Variable Arrow is facing Right, so I’m more passive about who I let in to my space. Someone who is Exclusive Caves (left arrow) is more strategic about who comes into their surroundings.
My Tiny Parisian Apartment is Perfect for my Design
As someone with a Line 1 body, I need to feel safe before I can relax and vibrate at my correct frequency. Ra Uru Hu even referred to the Line 1 as “the caveman” and would emphasize the caveman’s “one thing at a time” approach. Caves, being the first color in the hexagram, best allows for this level of control.
And while my Left mind may sometimes enjoy the stimulation of movement or openness, my physical body craves containment and consistency. My Paris apartment with its thick walls, clearly defined rooms, and single entrance is not just a home, it’s a container that regulates my nervous system.
There’s something incredibly grounding about closing the metal window shutters from the inside and knowing that no one can enter unless I choose to let them in. In those moments the outside world fades, and I can return fully to myself.
This sense of security is reinforced by the architectural and cultural features that define Parisian living for me. Like many buildings here, mine has a reinforced front door with a solid metal core and multiple locks. There’s a coded entry at street level, a buzzer system, and second double door to pass through before reaching the elevator.
Each added barrier creates another layer of energetic insulation, another boundary that helps protect the frequency I live in. It’s not about fear or avoidance; it’s about control over access and the ability to retreat on my own terms. I don’t function well when I feel exposed or overly accessible because my vibration is off kilter. I need to sense that my space is mine unless I choose to open it.
The Importance of Environment in Human Design
Understanding the role of environment in Human Design has been one of the most important turning points in my 2.5 year deconditioning process… and yes that half counts! So much difference in even one month! 🤪
Environment isn’t just about aesthetics or lifestyle, it’s frequency. Your correct environment is where your body, the vehicle, naturally aligns with its own intelligence. This is not surface stuff, meaning we have no conscious access to it. This is why is the Red (or unconscious) part of our chart.
Environment is not a bonus feature, it’s a structural component. This isn’t a concept to skip over in Human Design. It’s where your body finds coherence. And it’s not something the mind chooses (aka the personality, or the black in your HD chart); it’s something the body recognizes and responds to.
Environment is not a bonus feature, it’s a structural component.
Isn’t this, of course, what all of us humans do on this 3D plane… we react to stimulus. Why, then, would you want to be somewhere where the stimulus isn’t correct for you, where the likelihood of the decision you make be misaligned and therefore lead to more resistance?
When you’re in the right environment, your brain (cognition) functions correctly and you see what you’re meant to see (perspective). Taken together, things begin to click into place without force.
Projectors and Environments
For Projectors like me, this is critical! The energy flow comes from others, and it must be the correct other or else we’re stuck burning ourselves out using energy that’s not mechanically correct for us.
We’re designed to wait for invitations, and those invitations don’t find us when we’re energetically scattered or in environments that distort. Our correct environment helps tune our system so that we’re more likely to draw the right people and invitations toward us.
Paris is Urban, Caves is Urban = Perfect Fit for me
Even the parts of city life that many people find challenging—like the noise, the traffic, or even the pollution—have an oddly grounding effect on me. As someone with a Caves environment, I’m not looking for wide-open vistas or fresh mountain air. I do well with density, with grit. The hardness of city life isn’t an obstacle, it’s a texture that reinforces sense of enclosure.
The sound of street cleaners in the early morning, the low hum of cars, or the distant voices echoing through the courtyard all create a kind of contrast that enhances my sense of security. When I’m inside, I can still sense the world happening outside—but I’m not part of it unless I choose to be.
That contrast, between the activity outside and the calm I’ve created inside, deepens my sense of safety. It’s like hearing rain while you’re in bed—it reinforces the fact that you’re protected.
The hardness of city life isn’t an obstacle, it’s a texture that reinforces sense of enclosure.
Living in Paris, then, has become a daily expression of my design. I’ve come to trust the instincts that guide me toward particular corners of cafés, smaller side streets, or seating with my back to the wall. Paris, with all its layers of structure, rhythm, and tradition, offers me not just a home but the environment that allows me to function at my best—physically, energetically, and emotionally.
This city is my jam! Even if I do spend most of my time alone at home 😂 Hey, Caves is still Caves… We need our solitude! But when I am out and about, the energy is exhilarating. Check out this video of me beaming on about this city for a first-hand look 🙂