Two Spirit Concept

[Rikkicn]

Why do we cross dress? Where do we come from? Why are we here? What's our life's purpose?
These have become really important questions for me. They motivated me to do more reading and research. I've long assumed that we've always exsisted but it wasn't until recently that I discovered our history and our heritage.
You've heard the saying "God doesn't make mistakes". I think that's true. I beleive I'm a spiritual being and as such my purpose here is to live my life to the fullest. To be my most authentic self. When I lead that life I'm a gift to the world and humanity.
I came across a book called Trangender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg and it has confirmed and validated my thoughts and feelings in new ways.
I don't want to go into all the details so I just borrowed text from a web site that may give us a new understanding of who we are.
The following is focused on Native American traditions but Leslie points out that Two Spirit exsisted in most traditional cultures all over the world.


The term Two Spirit refers to another gender role believed to be common among most, if not all, first peoples of Turtle Island (North America), one that had a proper and accepted place within indigenous societies. This acceptance was rooted in the spiritual teachings that say all life is sacred and that the Creator must have a reason for making someone different. This gender role was not based in sexual activities or practices, but rather the sacredness that comes from being different. This definition is not meant to replace cultural and traditional teachings, which speak to this role. It is intended to find common ground and to help educate in a contemporary context.
found at: http://www.soulforce.org/article/150

Have you heard of this? What do you think about it? How does it feel to read this? Can it change what we feel about our selves?
Love to you all
Rikki

[Cathy Anderson]

I think the Native American idea of two-spiritedness is very interesting.
As I understand it, it sees transgenders and gays as having two spirits, whereas "ordinary" people have just one.

Chinese Taoism suggests that every person has two souls--Yin and Yang. Yin relates to earth/Mother/Lunar and Yang relates to sky/Father/Solar. Perhaps crossdressers have some unique issue concerning the interplay between Yin and Yang.

So in the Chinese view, each person is two-spirited, or at least two-souled, whereas in the Native American view this seems true only for "third gender" people. Perhaps there is a way to resolve this difference of views. Specifically, maybe at the most basic level, each person does have these two souls. But usually only one is well-developed enough to produce a social personality. Therefore most people interact with the world as either male or female.

Or, similarly, we could suggest that for the ordinary person, only one soul becomes consciously experienced, and the other remains unconscious.

But in a two-spirited person, perhaps both Yin and Yang are sufficiently well developed that both are consciously experienced and both become social personalities.

So basically what I'm suggesting is that "two-spiritedness" does not mean "two-souled." Everybody is two-souled, but only some are two-spirited.
Spirit here would mean more like a personality or a level of consciousness.

Western Alchemy

The long Western tradition of spiritual alchemy (which has some historical connection to Taoism) has similar views. Alchemy sees the goal as being an "alchemical marriage" between the male soul and the female soul.

The alchemical view is especially helpful because it not only suggests a model for understanding transgenderism, but also supplies an optimistic goal of integration and suggests means for attaining it.

An article I wrote about this can be found here:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/cathytg/alchemy.htm

Finally, a bit of wordplay and constructive "revisionism". Instead of saying:

transgender = two-spirited
"normal" = one-spirited

what if we said:

transgender = one-spirited
"normal" = half-spirited

That seems to be what the alchemical view is suggesting. It also places a different view on our relationship to society. It suggest that we, like the two-spirited shamans, are abnormal ony in that we are ahead of the evolutionary curve, so to speak. And our task is partly to help raise the consciousness of the one-spirited. That's a far mor adaptive perspective than seeing ourselves as sick, in need of help, second-class, etc.

Cheers,

Cathy

[Butterfly Bill]

Yes, I've heard of it. Several Plains Indian tribes allowed a young boy who didn't seem cut out to be the hunter and warrior to stay with the women, dress as one, and do women's chores. Many times this person was homosexual, sometimes not. They sometimes served as matchmakers for hetero couples.

And this was not a position of shame, many were believed to have shamanic powers. They were "two spirited", blessed with the spirits of both a man and a woman.

The word to Google to find out more about this would be "berdache", (bear-dosh) but this is an anthropologist's word that some Native Americans are offended by, since it comes from the Persian word for prostitute.

The is a berdache character in the movie "Little Big Man" that stars Dustin Hoffman.

[jill_4]

;) Hi Rikki,Cathy and Butterfly Bill,
What a absolutely fascinating series of letters,they say you learn something new every day,well I certainly have.Thank you all.Best Wishes Jill ;)

[kittypw GG]

I live in an area with a high concentration of Native Americans. I work closly with some and I have a few that I consider friends. I have always known that they accepted members of their tribe who stand out as feminine or gay but I never really thought about why. Thanks for the reference, I will have to have a discussion with my friends about it. Thanks for sharing. Kitty