Which pronoun would you use to refer to “a spirit in the material world”?

I’m thinking one would have to take the gender neutral route.

Is the trend toward gender neutral pronouns these days by people defining themselves as non-binary or agender a recognition by some, at least, that they may be more than their physical bodies, that at their core they are sexless consciousness centres? Or immortal spirits in the material world that take on myriad forms as we manifest in the great playgrounds of the Universal Spirit, as I see us?

As Sarah Belle Dougherty wrote: “Modern theosophical literature views human beings as innately sexless consciousness-centers which express themselves through material forms suited to their ever-growing awareness.”

Gender neutral pronouns are not new, according to a BBC article on their history. They were commonplace in literature until the 18th century, when “people started using male pronouns when describing someone of a non-specific gender in writing.”

I am encouraged by the resurgence of gender neutral pronouns these days, for whatever reason, and I suspect it is a spiritual recognition, be it conscious or unconscious, that our bodies are simply the vessels that house and carry that immortal sexless part of us, the divine spark, if you will.

Some people may be turned off by “spirituality” because of the terrible track records of religious organizations. But there is still a recognition by many that there is something in us that never seems to change. How many people in their so-called golden years say they don’t feel any different inside than they did when they were kids?

George Harrison — a great spiritual master, in my view — put it this way in his song Loves Comes to Everyone:

There in your heart
Something that’s never changing
Always a part of
Something that’s never aging

It’s God, for lack of a better word. Early man used that convenient name to define the Source From Whence All Life Forms Originate. But the personal interpretations of god in various religions have turned a lot of people away from the study of spirituality, and from the word itself.

Jesus himself — a great spiritual master, too — reminded people that “Know ye not that thou art God?”

Indeed, whatever animates the universe is inside you. As the book says, “God fills the heavens and the earth.” Nothing can be outside of God.

That has been my standard since my early years, when I first felt that I was in between genders. But George and theosophical writers, whom I felt I knew from previous lives, helped me to clarify things. They awakened me to things I already knew but couldn’t put into thoughts and words clearly. Even today I struggle with the words, just as so many others do when trying to define the part of us that never seems to age.

I am, indeed, a spirit in the material world. That is my true identity. And I take refuge in that knowledge sometimes when I feel hurt. Of course, transcendentalists strive to be unaffected by emotions and the impermanence of things, like the fool on the hill The Beatles sang about.

But that’s a subject for another post.

Love to you all . . .

— Jillian