Two Spirit Shamanism

This documentary about the Two Spirits in the Navajo tradition is very interesting. (It'll cost you £2.49 to rent) It is interwoven with a tragic modern story about Fred/Frederica. The Two Spirits have both male and female within them, and they traditionally functioned as healers and teachers and guides.

They were seen as gifted. In our society, people often seem to feel they have to be one or the other, and maybe the surgical transition that many people go through can be due to this limited perspective. Jan Morris, one of the first trans women, said as much in an interview 40 years later: the point is to be both, not one or the other. I'm sure there is a place for a 'Two Spirit Shamanism' in what we do. 

I think, though, that the term Two Spirit can be misleading, because the experience from the 'inside' is of One Spirit! As the documentary makes clear, these people embody both male and female to a fullness such that it is AS IF they have two spirits within them.

There are a couple more videos worth watching here and here.