I want to know people's view on Transgenderism from a magical perspective.
ive been sitting on this thought for a while and it would mean a great deal to me to know other magical practitioner's perspective on the matter from a magic pov. the world tends to be too fixed on the physical identity of a person and rarely considers the soul and the mind in regards to gender.
Oooo! Interesting topic indeed! It is one I have pondered, but never thought to actually bring up.
Personally I want to start with where I come from on this, as frames of reference can be important when talking about this sort of thing. After all it is all about perspectives and experiences.
As a short summary, I grew up in the 80's, straight with bi leanings, with a focus on introspection and spirituality (though not magic, per-se) since the late 90's. I have a few semesters of Psychology (abnormal psych and developmental psych), Sociology, and Philosophy under my belt- but no degrees. And I've been a part of the Otherkin and Furry communities since '98, both of which have a surprising focus on identity and expression.
So basically I'm a mostly-cis male weirdo who thinks about random things -way- too much but has no actual qualifications.
As I've focused on Spirituality for so long, I view personal growth and spiritual evolution as something that occurs over multiple physical incarnations. Beginning as soul/spirit, we begin a physical life with the goal of learning through experiences. We work by choosing a family and circumstances, around other people doing the same. Sometimes setting the stage in cooperation with other souls to set up opportunities for choices. Somewhere between the ideas of balancing Karma and New-age evolution of soul. But life isn't a script- those are rigid, choiceless. It would be life without agency. It is more like a series of arranged hook-line-and sinker plot points where we encounter a choice, make a choice, and learn from experiencing whatever consequences come about.
Part of those choices, thanks to the formless nature of soul and energy, is incarnating physically as male or female. As throughout history both genders have had differing roles to play-and so different opportunities for experiences. Gender role, history, and the actual importance of it and how it has evolved past-to-present is a whole essay on its own. For now I'm just going to keep it to the idea that a single soul can incarnate as either gender whenever they choose or deem necessary. Just as one may choose to live as something other than human, somewhere other than earth. Though for some reason that is an apparent rarity of occurrence.
The bit that becomes relevant is that as a soul matures and starts getting multiple incarnations under the proverbial belt, the male/female ratio for the individual is not necessarily 1:1. Some people focus on feminine or masculine roles almost exclusively. Some may be incarnating foe a only a second or third time and their only experiences thus-far have been one gender or the other.
So when the individual finds themselves 'switching it up, their attitudes and underlying predisposition might not match up. It's Like a professional runner entering his first biathlon. The person might excell for the running bit but unless they have trained in competitive swimming too, they're going to struggle once they reach the beach. It is just logical to me that a predominantly masculine-experienced soul is going to carry that more masculine frame of reference into a feminine life. And vice versa.
Now, consider that the debate and discovery of this entire gender argument is actually happening on three entirely different perspectives. Which, personally (as an aside), I think is why an argument even exists to begin with. No one knows how to define on what level they are speaking. There is one's physical gender, as represented by the shape of the body and the genetics behind it. Then there is a person's mental-emotional mannerisms and attitude which is a combination of social training and internal attitudes. And then there is one's sexual attraction, or what one finds appealing and stimulating on an intimate level- which is a huge mishmash of nature and nurture, first experiences, and physical/mental-emotional influences.
Soul affects all of these levels in some way. Mainly through how one's past learning and attitudes carry over to their mental-emotional state, and then physically by proxy. A mostly male-experienced soul incarnating under a feminine role might life more aggressively. Might feel a greater pull towards masculine stereotypes like 'boy games', athletics, fighting/aggression, promoting muscular strength and physically oriented life goals and attitudes. It could also be a source of body dysmorphia as some part of the subconscious finds that lady bits shouldn't be there, but other bits should. Because they used to be there. Just in a different life.
Same for sexual attraction, one who has lived mostly as a female might carry over the ideals and desires of a mate based on that perspective into a currently masculine life- creating confusion as they find themselves attracted to expressions of masculinity despite being currently physically masculine as well.
I guess, what this giant wall of text boils down to for me is this;
We carry with us at least some measure of the attitudes and predispositions of our past lives. Sometimes those are in opposition or in confusion with how we are physically expressed now. Leaving us to figure out how we are going to manage these conflicting influences and how we can individually manage or express them. Some revel in it, some rage against it, some struggle through it. ...Some get utterly defeated by it. But as we go life-to-life we all learn something from it.
