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hillbillyoracle · 4 years

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Nonbinary Cosmology and Why It’s Important

Again full credit to Delffin of the Queerophant for the framework I’m writing about today. My intention is not explain their framework but to build on it for my own purposes. Check out their work!

Building on Four Divine Genders model some more, I wanted to talk about the implications of it on a much bigger level than what I normally write about - cosmology. Because for me this is where the model really really shines and makes such a deep intuitive sense to me that it feels difficult for me to write on it further without addressing how it fits into my understanding of the universe as a whole.

Why do queer cosmologies matter? Because how we understand the universe, directly impacts how we live in relation with the people around us. If we do not have an understanding of nonbinaryness in the universe, we have no model for how to live in right relation with nonbinary people in our day to day lives. I’m not saying it can’t happen without a queer cosmology but I’m saying it sure does help.

Nonbinaryness and Cyclical Nature of the Universe

I personally believe in a cyclical universe. That it will expand to a point and then collapse back in on itself or fracture and begin again. And I’m not a scientist, I know there are folks who are way more knowledgeable than me who argue differently, but that’s where I’m at in my current understanding of the universe.

How this applies to nonbinaryness is that I see the Divine Chaosyne and the Divine Androgyne as embodying the concepts of right before and right after the Big Bang. The sacred mystery between them is the Big Bang. The Divine Androgyne for me is the ultimate union and echos everything becoming one again while the Divine Chaosyne embodies becoming something totally new and expansion of the highest order.

So from that we could extend this and say the Divine Masculine and Feminine embody the present. With the Divine Chaosyne and Androgyne embodying the Past and the Future on a cosmic scale. They’re between, on the borders of creation, but without them it does not exist.

Sacred Place of Nonbinary Folks In Tarot

That’s why, in Tarot, I personally like the Fool for Chaosyne and the World for Androgyne. I think other cards have definite Chaosyne and Androgyne vibes but I have always seen those two cards and being the connecting points of the Major Arcana. And for me it echoes this sense of them in the role of the universe which adds a level of depth to it I really like.

I think this also opens up the possibility to retool the court cards to reflect the Four Divine Genders. My personal association would be Page being the Divine Chaosyne since it’s a card of expansive possibilities and beginnings and the Knight for the Divine Androgyne since it’s a card of flux and doing between. It’s admittedly not a perfect solution but perhaps the idea could be implemented more fully in future tarot decks with each court card reflecting how each divine gender might embody the traits of the suit it’s in.

I talked last week about how each suit itself might be able to reflect each gender which is a whole other way to situated the Four Genders in tarot.

Sacred Place of Nonbinary Folks In Ritual

Another place I’d like to incorporate this in is ritual. Neo Pagan rites I’ve attended at public or semi public gatherings focus on masculinity and femininity even when they’re “progressive” and have trans people fill those roles in ritual. Most of the time cis people fill this role and the emphasis is on fertility. Very occasionally the emphasis will be ecstasy. Either way nonbinary people are either forced to participate in their assigned genders or leave the ritual all together.

With the Four Gender model, not only would it give a place for nonbinary people to participate, but require communities that adopt it to be more diverse in order to make sure they could have a complete ritual experience. It would demand the community work with nonbinary people so that they could have reflections of the Divine Chaosyne and Androgyne in ritual and give them non-optional places at the table when it came to matters of accountability.

As for what that ritual actually looks like, the possibilities are endless at this point. I personally would like to see more rituals where similar themes that are already in use are seen though this new lens. Take a fertility or an ecstasy ritual and have the Divine Chaosyne open and prepare the space, the Divine Masculine and Feminine perform a fertility or ecstasy rite, and the Divine Androgyne emerge to close the ritual, perhaps even having them merge together symbolically or physically with the Chaosyne to represent the cyclical nature of the universe.

This brings an aspect of a continual reminder of the nature of the universe and it’s continued survival. It frames us not as humans participating for one season but as creation participating in this particular universe.

Conclusion

This is all just preliminary. I’m still working through the idea and seeing how to translate it to my practice. I don’t think it’s for everyone. I think folks who don’t want any gender in their practice are very valid. What I appreciate about this model is that I do want gender in my practice and this gives me a relational framework to see myself in those energies rather than existing in spite of them.

I am also white. I know there are already indigenous cosmologies that include genders beyond masculine and feminine. I don’t claim that any of what I’m talking about here is a new concept entirely but rather I’m trying to find a more expansive framework that doesn’t appropriate from any closed traditions.

#trans tarot #trans witchcraft #trans witch #nonbinary tarot #nonbinary witch #queer witch #queer tarot #cosmology #trans spirituality #witch #witchblr #tarotblr #trans pride #nonbinary pride

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