If any of these descriptions ring true for you, perhaps you may be wondering if the "transspirit" monicker could apply to you in some way. Click on "Could I be a transspirit?" to check. The link will take you to a simple 20 item quiz. Your responses to the questions will posit you along a continuum from cis to trans convention orientation.
Cisconventionality:
Conformity to norms has its benefits. The more one goes along with what others are doing the easier it is to gain their support when needed. It's not so easy to support those who are off doing their own thing.
Conformity to norms has its risks. The more an established norm anchors meaning for a group the less tolerance their tends to be for innovation from it. While everyone agrees to pursue the same goal, your needs may still be left unresolved.
Transconventionality
Transconventionality:
Deviance from norms has its benefits. The more one departs from what others are doing the easier it is to find innovative solutions to stubborn needs. The more of these needs resolved the fewer personal problems one suffers.
Deviance from norms has its risks. The more one steps outside of established norms the more likely one may feel estranged from others. When truly needing others the support can be hard to find.
A conventionality continuum:
It helps to think of cisconventionality and transconventionality as dominate modalities along a continuum. Some of us may be moderately transconventional, while some of us may be moderately or even intensely cisconventional. [not so stable over time] [different for different areas]
Apparently, there are two opposing yet complementary ways to respond to our shared needs. One is to follow the given norms for the situation. The other is to transcend or transgress the norm to try an innovative approach.
The former is aptly called cisconventionality, as in "on the same side" of conventionality. The latter is transconventionality, as in "on the other side" of conventionality. Which side best fits you?
Cisconventionality
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Cisconventional or Transconventional
cisspirit:
Someone normatively inclined to follow human conventions as important means for social existence, being drawn to a sense of broad social connection that results from pragmatically fitting into familiar sociocultural categories. Tends to get things done.
transspirit:
Someone naturally compelled to transvalue, who intuitively transcend or transgress human conventions that tend to limit full human potential, being drawn to a sense of deeper connection not readily afforded by potentially polarizing sociocultural norms. Tends to see what needs to be done.
Sacred misfits and sacred conformist
convention orientation continuum:
"Transspirit" and "cisspirit" appear as dominating modalities along a continuum. We each experience ourselves either predominately transspiritual or predominately cisspiritual, or somewhere in between. If a fluid convention orienation, then perhaps shifting along this continuum, as present needs may dictate.
What's our potential?
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Transspirituality 101
Could I be a
transspirit?
Could I be a
transspirit?
A Cis-Trans Continuum
Cis-identity and trans-identity fall along a continuum, with these two salient modalities.
Not the same as transgender. Many transgender people are cis-identity, while many cisgender people are trans-identity. These appear to be among the strongest allies to the transgender population.
Cis-binary transgender people (who transition from their birth ascribed gender to the normatively opposite gender) appear to often be cis-identity
A Cis-Trans Matrix
Cis-identity and trans-identity fall along a continuum, with these two salient modalities.
Some ups and downs of being a transspirit
UP
Enhanced intuition
DOWN
misfit, scapegoat