Duality of Self
Yinyang in the Flesh
Yinyang: Duality in the Flesh
For Native Americans the creator is both male and female. The spirit has no gender or sex. The place of the Divine Consciousness is both within and without, there and here, silent and noisy, one and many. It is ever present and yet far from reach. The flesh is the temporary covering of the eternal.
The mortal body needs no validation for its representation. To limit the expression of the divine soul’s vehicle as it moves along this plane is reprehensible. To tell the body that it is not in compliance with the human realm is an abomination to the divine energy that houses the body.
In many Native American Nations, the belief in the soul’s right to present in whatever fashion it pleases is Divine in nature. Twin Spirit is one such gender identifier. The Sacred is never to be extinguished by The People.
The place that hosts the Creating Spirits and from which all individual lives are from – regardless of which plane of reality, all lives come from the same interconnected space. It will be much later in the timeline that any nod of approval will be given. What has happened from the time of the great spiritual organization era? The earliest date for this (rough guess here) is sometime around 100,000,000 +/- BCE. We have faith that at the moment of sentience, human beings, in whatever state of evolution, reached out to the unknown for a name and a definition. Shared experiences came under debate to find an explanation that would fall into categories commensurate with what had already been developed. My summation.
Throughout known and suspected history, humans have defied the male/female roles dictated by society. Even those who state a belief are incongruent with how they live within gender. I would ask this, “If a person’s sex has to be represented and expressed within the social construct of sex, where gender equates sex, and that it is construed as the natural state, why is there a natural deviance to this? If the answer is the deviance came from original sin, namely Adam and Eve, then I would argue that this is absurd. As Adam would have no other man to have sex with and the same case is argued for Eve. The original sin had to do with knowledge not sex or sex identity. Or so I surmise.
If we are pursuing our own identity and spirit, why would we care about another’s identity? What does someone else’s identity have to do with our path, judgement, or enlightenment? “Geeze Sarah, I hate to tell you this, but you are going to Hell because Micah over there in the Middle East is gay. If you would have helped him identify as a male, well, you would have gone to Heaven. Oh, and your Aunt Sarah refused to accept his identity as Uncle Mike, so, your children are going to Hell also.” Absurd? Really? Take a look around you. Didn’t a woman with nine children just die because of a Pride flag? You could probably write a book just from this one paragraph.
I must reiterate, you and your identity are the only concerns you should have regarding your perceived afterlife. As for the life you are living now, what right do you have to judge another’s choice of identity? None.
What will be judged is the cold-heartedness of the conscious mind at its death and not by a god/goddess, but by the soul who bore witness to it. This collective mindset is good for certain things. When it comes to the individual’s right to determine their epistemology concerning the unseen nature of themselves, the collective mindset must end. There is no harmony is determining a physical mindset about spiritual matters and forcing others to abide by it. Like minded souls will flock together. They can agree on many things and yet be separate. They can set time aside to gather and celebrate the common belief all the while respecting the individuals need and right to experience the spiritual unscathed by interference.
The twin spirit person has the same value in Native American cultures as any other member. For those Nations who restrict female movement i.e., battlefields, the twin spirit (male sex) person can go to the battlefield and perform the duties of a woman of female sex person. Some Nations have very strict sex/reproductive laws or customs. Some cultures only produce one child and will not produce another until the one child is grown enough to be on its own. Twin spirit people provide sex to those husbands who do not want to dishonor their mate. Some Native Nations have 5+ recognized genders. This is not a new culture created by and for the modern times. This is a part of who they are; always.
Religion is one of the perpetrators behind the outrage of twin spirited people; LGBTQI+. There is a blessing for twin spirit people. They represent the wholeness of the Creator. If your spirituality forbids twin spirits, you are in the right to not be a twin spirit. You, however, are not correct in judging another person’s belief or gender identification. The duality of self is not only between sex and gender, but it also encompasses the soul and the body. There are people who have a female body but have a masculine soul as well as a male body and female soul. Who are we to argue with the Divine? What business is it of ours to step into another’s life and dictate policy? Regulating thing for safety’s sake perhaps, but to regulate who we are, who we love, how we express ourselves is not respectful of the Divine.
The Duality of Self
The duality in this instance is the presence of sentience and the soul working together. Using the mirror to represent the internal self, a good exercise to learn how to separate the body from the soul, is to look in the mirror and try to convince yourself of a lie. For the spirit side of you, ask yourself those questions where the answer cannot be found. An example of this could be, “How did the universe form?”. Did your mirror image smile? Really, go do this. I’ll wait.
Well, did it? Or did a bunch of words just roll off your tongue? Perhaps you laughed and though – inside or out loud – this is flipping crazy. Whatever happened is a sign that you do believe that you have a soul and that your soul is highly intelligent and possibly all-knowing and is separate from your consciousness mind. Wait, what? You’re the one who looked after all. I am smiling here.
Here is another exercise. Can you explain intuition? Not the definition found in a multitude of dictionaries, peer reviewed papers, articles, or any other means of knowledge. What does your gut tell you? I’ll wait for you to process the question.
The duality of self in our context is the movement in the Tao (yin and yang) by our physical and spiritual selves. How can you walk in the Tao if you don’t understand you? What makes you, you? This is the wisdom of one mortal life and one soul contained within the same space. They exist together. The balance within us is the ability to express certain emotions whether it is concrete or intuition. Guilt, regret, apology, laughter, praise, acceptance is just a few of these Tao alignments to maintain the balance within.
What if you sat in the now and began practicing meditation for the purpose of meeting your soul? What if you could tap into that energy and knowledge? You can. Try learning how to be a psychic with one difference. Instead of calling spirit guides, and other beings to help you, call your own spirit - your soul. The more you practice, the more you will become a person who walks in this world with two sets of eyes. This duality of self is the path. Your soul already knows how to navigate it. Of course, this is all based on my own understanding of things. I could be wrong. But then again, what if I am not wrong. What if my inkling is just the beginning?