Are Trans Folk More Attuned to the Spirit World Than Other People?
In some cultures, we have been the shamans and seers. Is the modern world missing something about us?
I have read and seen a fair amount, as I researched transgenderism out of more than casual interest over the years, of the notion that transgender people are more, let's say spiritually capable, more supranormally gifted, than so-called normal people.
Normally that would be an assertion I'd shrug over … except that I myself have kept up an interest in mysticism and the paranormal over the years. I don't know that my own paranormal talents are anything like considerable, though I can, as the man said, “throw a mean Tarot.”
Beyond that I am aware, again from my prodigious researches, that many cultures going well back into human history have had seers and shamans who were intersexed or transgender, in one way or another. For ages the Chukchi tribe of Siberia valued the wisdom of the “soft men” who were chosen to be their shamans. Many Native American tribes kept the tradition of the berdache (ber-DASH), someone who was permitted to don the clothing of, and live as, one of the opposite sex, and who often achieved special social status through their artistic and spiritual gifts.
From ancient Greece come stories (and tragedies) of the blind seer Tiresias, who informed Oedipus that the latter himself was the cause of the curse upon Thebes. (Oedipus didn't listen until too late, if you recall the story at all; this is also a common problem in the seer profession.) One of the most intriguing of Tiresias’ characteristics was that he had women's breasts. “I, Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives / Old man with wrinkled female breasts …” Those lines are from “The Fire Sermon" by T. S. Eliot, who further on has the seer explaining that, though blind, he can see all human activity, like a god; that includes a forlorn sexual encounter between a typist and a clerk in Eliot's England, which Tiresias also foresaw -- and being an hermaphrodite, he empathizes with both parties in their sadness and pain. (Oddly enough it was my English professor dad who first turned me on to Eliot's Tiresias; he wouldn't have known about my transgender status (Dad, I mean), any more than I really knew, back in my late teens. And yet that mysterious figure has stuck with me ever since.)
On more than a few websites over the years, I’ve seen other assertions that we trans women have an edge when it comes to divination, the spirit world, healing and other magical operations. Sorry, my trans brothers, I'm having trouble locating sites that ascribe similar beliefs to trans men -- but I'd be surprised if some of you aren't clairvoyants, shamans and witches, with full convictions and much experience. Just my shoddy research habits, I guess. (And Google's sometimes goofy search algorithms.) I do find mention that the manang bali shamans of pre-Christian Indonesia were non-gender-normative, and that there were a few women who became male manang bali, but most were male to female.
Trans male or trans female, I think Eliot may have been onto something about us.
There's a much older story from Greece, part of the larger creation myth going back to the earliest peoples on the peninsula. When the gods first created humans, they fused the genders together facing each other, producing what Rabelais and Shakespeare called “the beast with two backs.” Due to some damning infraction, Zeus (I think) sunders all humans with lightning bolts, producing males and females (you must have seen this coming, kids) who ever after yearned each for his or her “better half.” (Yes, that's where that quaint old phrase came from, as well.)
This myth does have a parallel in human biology, in that, at our very earliest stage in the womb, we are all essentially female. And of course, we all carry the genetic material to create a complete female human being, right along with the blueprint for a male. It's all there, fused together in the new life just taking shape.
It's not until eight weeks from conception that a gene on an X chromosome creates a protein which triggers the development of male characteristics in the embryo-- or does nothing, and allows the child to grow as a female.
Now I realize I'm sticking to a strictly binary model for now, simply to play with an old creation myth. Many of you will be less than appreciative that I'm doing so, which I understand. Where I want to go with this is simply to submit that if you have an organism composed of both genders (or even a coalescing of however many genders one chooses to work with in one's model), you might reasonably expect such an organism to have unusual strengths and potentialities. (Along with a few weaknesses and defects.)
Much of the creation and evolution of the human genome remains conjecture only, as far as our knowledge of DNA and its history. All I really mean to suggest is that the science, and the ancient stories, seem to point to the idea of a melding of human forms, a completeness which we now lack.
I know, my logic in getting us here was a touch fuzzy. But then too, the whole subject is. Psychic abilities are tough things to evaluate with any kind of scientific rigor, so much of our data on such things is subjective and anecdotal; in other words, as far as hard science, it holds no more water than religion does.
I can say that in almost every culture there has been some belief in women's intuition, or that extra sense that at least warns some women of dangerous situations they might be getting into. Not all women have it, but quite a few do; they tend to read people and situations better than most people, men included. Their antennae are more finely attuned than most men's. Clearly that's a product of evolution-- of human females living under threat of death for millions of years, and having children to protect as well.
I believe there's something to the idea that those of us who have freed our female selves from the psychic bondage inflicted on that part of ourselves from earliest childhood, who've connected with the woman inside, have a greater sensitivity to things in our environment that most people (of whatever gender) never perceive.
I think some research types out there would agree that there's always another layer of data below the one you're working with. Whether you can ever get down to that data depends on how much equipment, funding and time you have; in other words, on the scope of your research. People who have genuine psychic gifts have the wherewithal to make use of that data, on their own time, with better resources than most of us have.
After all, millions of berdaches, soothsayers, shamans and healers can't all be wrong, can they?
So, does this mean I believe I and my trans sisters and brothers should become the shamans of the modern world?
Obviously, it's not that simple. One doesn't just hang a sign out front declaring oneself a shaman; there is training involved, just as there is for any religious worker. And depending on one's culture, as well as one's psychic strengths, finding the right teacher can take quite a while. And while you're seeking a mentor, especially if you're trans you have to get your own house in order first. Get right with your real self, whoever you are, get your transition underway, and you'll find your soul journey well underway as well.
One thing, though. Cassandra, Tiresias, Nostradamus, Jeanne Dixon: they were all psychics who were proved right … but not always in time to avert disaster. Don't embark on the soothsayer path unless you have a large tolerance for being ignored.