Gender Fluidity

I have had three nights in a row now where my gender has been completely fluid and changing in my dreams. I identify as male in “real” life although have never felt particularly attached to my gender (certainly a privilege). I feel like some of the work I have been doing off and on the cushion might be wearing down some unconscious concepts I have regarding gender and that is showing up in my dreams. Sadly, I did not become lucid in any of these dreams, which perhaps shows my level of ignorance! But I will start using transformed gender as a dream sign.

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You did gain insight from those dreams. I don’t see it as a level of ignorance. Not becoming lucid is not unusual, so perhaps you’re just laying the groundwork for lucid dreams about your gender after some needed preparatory work. There’s always tonight!

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I see gender as being a lot more ambiguous, fluid and nonbinary than most people seem to believe. I’m biologically male and was raised as a boy, but I am sometimes a woman in dreams. Those are among my favorite dreams.

Something I’ve been thinking about is the difference between “sex” and “gender” in dreams (as well as when physically awake). My sex could be male or female (or somewhere in between, but so far that has not happened in my dreams as far as I recall). My gender identity could be different than my “physical” form (more of a thought-form in dreams).

An interesting exercise is to transform your sex in a dream. I’ve thus far only been able to do this once (partially successful) as far as I recall.

It is also interesting to speculate about how choosing different sex/gender presentation in virtual reality might affect one’s gender identity in dreams or when physically awake.

Girl or Boy” - Dani Shay

~ArthurG

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Thanks for your reflection here, Arthur! Everything you said resonated completely with me. While there are biological characteristics associated with our birth sex, our gender is certainly conceptual and I think largely formed by our culture and society. It has been wonderful to see more people comfortable coming out as non-binary and more people accepting them as well. One of the ultimate goals in both Indian Yoga and Tibetan Yoga is uniting the two energies associated with each gender, as each is present in us. I suppose the dreamtime gives us a perfect opportunity to practice this!

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Hi both, I can relate to this also. Being a different gender, or age, or having some other non-usual physical characteristic is something I always take as a dream sign. I wrote a list of these in my journal and sometimes refresh my memory by reading them. Another is smoking, of all things. I quit 42 years ago, so if I’m smoking, I’m dreaming. :gift_heart:

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