Reincarnation and gender?

[Eddi]

In reincarnation, does it go boy girl boy girl boy girl boy girl boy girl etc.

I mean, if you were male in one life would you necessarily become female in your next and if you were female in another life would you necessarily become male in your next?

I think it would make sense

But what do you think?

And what do the religions who feature reincarnation have to say on this matter?

 

[SalixIncendium]

The Atman is without gender. Upon rebirth into samsara, gender is determined by one's karmic account balance vis a vis attachments to a particular gender that are attached to the causal body.

 

[Aupmanyav]

I mean, if you were male in one life would you necessarily become female in your next and if you were female in another life would you necessarily become male in your next?

There are others as well, not just male and female.

"Shikhandi is an androgynous character in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He is born as female called Shikandini to Drupada, the king of Panchala, and later transforms into a male. He is the brother of Draupadi, the female protagonist of the epic and common wife of the Pandavas. ..". Sure, he was a mighty warrior.
Shikhandi - Wikipedia

"Iravan is a minor character from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. The son of Pandava prince Arjuna (one of the main heroes of the Mahabharata) and the Naga princess Ulupi. Iravan is the central deity of the tradition of Kuttandavar which is also the name commonly given to him in that tradition - and plays a major role in the tradition of Draupadi. Both these cults are of Tamil origin, from a region of the country where he is worshipped as a village deity and is known as Aravan. He is also a patron god of well-known transgender communities called Alis (also Aravani in Tamil, and Hijra throughout South Asia).
Iravan - Wikipedia

 

[sun rise]

I don't remember Meher Baba's words ever referring to such ordering as the OP asks. He does have discourses on the need for the soul to take male and female forms.

I can speculate that some times a soul needs to work on something in a particular form and thus takes either male or female birth for a number of lives.

@Aupmanyav mentioned the transgender folk and I could further speculate that a soul who has taken birth for a number of lives as one sex and then takes birth in the other sex might be transgender because of the prior lives. But this and the prior paragraph are only my personal speculations.

 

[JustGeorge]

I doubt it switches back and forth, back and forth... after all, it doesn't flip as neatly as that.

I agree with what's already been stated.

 

[stvdv]

In reincarnation, does it go boy girl boy girl boy girl boy girl boy girl etc.

There are others as well, not just male and female.

And I have met a hermaphrodite...lots of possibilities, indeed not just boy and girl

 

[Aupmanyav]

@Aupmanyav mentioned the transgender folk and I could further speculate that a soul who has taken birth for a number of lives as one sex and then takes birth in the other sex might be transgender because of the prior lives. But this and the prior paragraph are only my personal speculations.

Yeah, it happened that way. It was a mistake in pronunciation of a mantra by a 'rishi'. Shikhandi was in his previous life Amba. She had a grudge against Bhishma because she and her sisters were abducted by Bhishma and forced to marry Vichitravirya. Amba loved someone else and refused to marry, and committed suicide. She wished to be born as a male to take revenge from Bhishma. But because of the mispronunciation, she was born as a woman. She, then, requested the rishi to make amends. The rishi changed her gender to be a male. Bhishma and Krishna knew this. Bhishma would not fight a woman. So, Krishna asked Arjuna to hide behind Shikhandi and hit Bhishma with arrows, because till Bhishma was alive, it was impossible to defeat Kauravas. Arjuna reluctantly did this and Bhishma was pierced with a hundred arrows. But Bhishma had a boon that he could choose the time of his death. It was autumn season, not considered to be auspicious for death (Dakshinayana), so he waited till the sun was ascendant again (i.e., Winter equinox, Uttarayana) and died at that time. We have nice complicated myths.

Krishna, Kaurvas and Pandavas around Bhishma's death bed. On his death bed, Bhishma felt thirsty. So, Arjuna shot an arrow in the earth and a jet of water erupted bringing water to Bhishma's mouth. Such sprouts are known as 'Bana Ganga' (Arrow Ganges).