Witchvox Article

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Posted: January 14th. 2001
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The object of money is only a marker of energy and not energy in and of itself. It marks energy out of time. You give me a reading and I give you $20. You can't eat that money, or use it to wash your dishes. So the exchange is put on hold. You may use it to buy yourself dinner or soap. Now the exchange is complete. Or, you may put the money in your bank and never use it to. So what has happened to the flow? (just think of poor Ebenezer Scrooge) Now, since money marks energy out of time it allows for such things as credit, investment, and speculation. Now we are dealing with concept of energy markers "disembodied" from their source and used to create further possibilities of energy which are also not real and may or may not come to reality. This is the basis of the mysticism of what I call "the Capitalist Religion." Money is the name of the disembodied energy. The trappings of it (stuff) are signifiers of whether we are "blessed with it." Many of us in the Western Culture are horribly in debt to it via VISA etc. so that we may appear to be loved by it. We have made it real in the sense that it has become a deity.

Where it came from:
The "trouble with money" is that it was created by cultures that are removed from the direct exchange of energy. It comes out of cultures where people need to bargain in order to take care of one another. We don't grow food for our community, we don't house each other, and we don't readily give unless we are under contract to receive. We don't value work by its spiritual benefit, only by how many units of energy markers we receive.

There are cultures (even still) where the concept of giving is based on the fact that everything comes from the Great Spirit and is for the benefit of the whole tribe. We work together and play together and all comes from Spirit and all returns to Spirit. The feeling of independent ownership of our talents, of what we produce, does not really exist in this system. I was first confronted with this concept in the 1980's while developing curriculum for the Science Museum of Minnesota. We had gotten a significant amount of money granted to us to focus on the Native American population. I was also working on my Master of Arts in Teaching at this time so I combined these things into a thesis, Learning Styles and Achievement in Reservation Schools. One of the hardest concepts for many of the Native American students was the idea of cheating. The idea of intellectual property was not one that was culturally compatible. They had been taught that all knowledge and talents come from the Great Spirit. All that comes from the Great Spirit is meant to be shared for the benefit of the whole tribe. So, if Jenny got the answer to the math problem, why shouldn't she share it with everyone? Her answer, her talent, comes from Spirit and we all should benefit. It especially holds true in the sciences. What good is knowledge and invention if it is not shared openly for the benefit of all?

This is a recent hot issue for Internet users. The idea of intellectual property, copyrighting, crediting others, the whole Napster debate, are all the strange outcroppings of the clash of two cultural views about life itself. It is funny to me. I never made much money off of my music before I started giving it away on mp3.com. I would never say that an artist, inventor etc. should not be compensated for the work they do. I think everyone should be compensated for just being alive. And THAT is the very essence of "the problem with money".

I don't mean to romanticize this more aboriginal concept of living, but these ideas run through the teachings of Paganism, through the teachings of Jesus for that matter. Money takes us out of the Here and Now of energy exchange and it may even stop the flow completely. We don't have to worship money as a deity the way many in our culture do. We can use this system, but I think we need to be very diligent and aware of the danger it poses and the philosophy it is based on.

The biggest danger of Capitalism is two-fold but one in the same. A. It takes us out of the here and now. Speculation and debt bind us to the future and the past in such a way that we are UN-anchored from the here and now. And, as most Pagans understand, it is only in the here and now, the present moment, that abundance is able to be fully manifest. By maintaining our connection with the void, staying present, then the past and future exist in the present as well. We can learn to manifest what we need directly. We don't have to ask for money. B. This system places value only on those whose work is "marketable". Other kinds of work (parenting, playing, and thinking...) are not valued as they do not add to the system of Capital which is based on money. So children, the elderly, mothers...these members of our community who have in Native cultures held the places of honor and safety in the center of the circle, are the disenfranchised, the destitute. The elders ARE the past, the children ARE the future, Mother brings them together in the present, the here and now.

As people who live in a culture that does not value life because it is life, we can still participate in the system of commerce set up by those who value commerce. As pagans who study the ebb and flow of energy on all levels, the concept of want and need becomes less and less real. The understanding that all energy is one energy and that what we give does indeed return (three fold or not) can help us walk a balance between these two systems. The idea of money being a marker of energy becomes as illusion as how we mark Time. We can learn to manifest for our communities and ourselves directly, that which is needed and honor the Giver of all in this way.

Kari Tauring

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