Editing Third gender (section)

==Spirituality==
In Hinduism, [[Shiva]] is still worshipped as an [[Ardhnarishwara]], i.e. half-male and half-female form.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2008 revision) |url=http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/monier/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw0092-ardhakarNa.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225160304/http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/monier/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw0092-ardhakarNa.jpg |archive-date=25 February 2009}}</ref> Shiva's symbol, which is today known as Shivalinga, actually comprises a combination of a '[[Yoni]]' (vagina) and a '[[Lingam]]' (phallus).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VYaRePV92YwC&dq=Shiva+symbol+hermaphrodite&pg=PA271 Paths to The Divine: Ancient and Indian] By George McLean, Vensus A. George, Quote: Siva: The Hermaphrodite

The Lord [[Shiva]] is the underlying neutral and changeless reality, the undifferentiated absolute Consciousness, who is the foundation of every change and becoming. The hermaphrodite reality is one that is independent of all distinctions of male and female, the phenomenal and the non-phenomenal, and yet forms the basis of all such distinctions. The Puranas speak of Lord Shiva as the Hermaphrodite reality, though distinctionless within Himself, letting the distinctions of the manifold world spring up from Him. The Puranic thinkers interpreted and represented this hermaphrodite aspect of the Lord Siva in various ways. One such symbol expression is the figure of His Sakti. Another such symbol is the Phallus *(the male reproductive part) and the Yoni (the female reproductive part). A third, a more anthropomorphic metaphor, is that of the union between Siva and His many consorts, such as Parvati, Uma, and others. All these symbolisms express the truth that the variety of this universe stems from the lord Siva through his Sakti. To explain this point very picturesquely, the Puranas apply the mythological story of creation by way of the sexual union between Prajaapati and his daughter to Siva who, by His eternal union with His Sakti creates the world. The Puraanas also use another more sacrificial symbolism to expound the hermaphrodite characteristic of Shiva, according to which the male principle is represented as Fire, the devourer of the offering, and the female principle is the Soma, the devoured offering. In this symbolism, the hermaphrodite is the embodiment of the cosmic sacrifice, through which the universe emerges from the Lord Siva.</ref>

At the turn of the [[common era]], male cults devoted to a goddess that flourished throughout the broad region extending from the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] to South Asia. While [[galli]] were missionizing the Roman Empire, [[Gala (priests)|kalū]], kurgarrū, and assinnu continued to carry out ancient rites in the temples of Mesopotamia, and the third-gender predecessors of the hijra were clearly evident. It should also be mentioned of the eunuch priests of Artemis at Ephesus; the western Semitic qedeshim, the male "temple prostitutes" known from the Hebrew Bible and Ugaritic texts of the late second millennium; and the keleb, priests of Astarte at Kition and elsewhere. Beyond India, modern ethnographic literature documents gender-variant shaman-priests throughout Southeast Asia, [[Borneo]], and [[Sulawesi]]. All these roles share the traits of devotion to a goddess, gender transgression and receptive anal sex, ecstatic ritual techniques (for healing, in the case of kalū and Mesopotamian priests, and fertility in the case of hijra), and actual (or symbolic) castration. Most, at some point in their history, were based in temples and, therefore, part of the religious-economic administration of their respective city-states.<ref>[http://www.willsworld.org/priests.html Priests of the Goddess: Gender Transgression in Ancient Religion] by Will Roscoe</ref>

The Islamic conception of the "perfect human being" (''al-Insān al-Kāmil'') is, as evident from the writings of [[ibn Arabi]], genderless, and both women and men could equally attain this stage of spiritual development,<ref>The Shari'a: History, Ethics and Law.&nbsp;(2018).&nbsp;Vereinigtes Königreich:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 95</ref> which is further reflected in genderless form of the term ''kamāl''.<ref>Shaikh, Sa’diyya. "Ibn ʿArabī and Mystical Disruptions of Gender: Theoretical Explorations in Islamic Feminism." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 47.2 (2022): 475-497.</ref>