Published in Odyssey Magazine: October/November 2008

Money, said James Hillman, is devilishly divine! Natalia Baker examines our unconscious relationship to money and suggests that when it becomes conscious we can happily marry money with spirituality and tap into abundance and prosperity.

The relationship of spirituality and money is a fascinating one. If we can understand it fully, it can transform the way we perceive, create and use money. I became aware of the challenge years ago reading a volume of Conversations with God . Neale Donald Walsch asks God why he, Neale, always has money problems. He explains he has been to many courses on abundance and he is repeatedly told it is due to his lack of self-worth. God seems to chortle in his response. He says “Self-worth is not your problem. You are blessed with an abundance of it” and goes on to express the real problem is that at a deep level he believes spirituality cannot go together with money, and he has ”a massive misjudgement about what is good and what is evil. You carry a thought around that money is bad and God is good”.   Spirituality and money are not compatible, they do not mix.

Why should this be? Money is powerfully conditioned by the mindset of our cultural tradition. I am going to explore this further with examples from Christianity because, although spiritually I am universalist and honour and have studied all traditions, Christianity is the one I am most familiar with.

These conditioning influence us at an unconscious level. They are the voice of the collective consciousness. They are very deep, old, imperceptible attitudes which fix money, or any other aspect of society for that matter, in a definite framework, especially its connection to our souls and spirituality. Archetypally, they provide a framework for our whole culture.

Let's look at some specific examples. I do not want to look at the accuracy, rights or wrongs or deeper interpretations of the events but rather the message the event sends to our unconscious mind which is without discernment. Firstly, let's take the saying “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew XIX:24). The unconscious interprets this factually and one dimensionally, that is that you cannot be spiritual and rich. Secondly, Jesus cast the money lenders from the temple, beating them with “a scourge of cords” (John II:14). Again, spirituality can have nothing to do with money. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus refers to the buyers and sellers as “robbers”.

Thirdly, two very different and distinct worlds are created when Jesus says “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's” (Mark XII).  It is relevant that Mary and Joseph were going to Bethlehem to register for tax and Jesus is born there. This extraordinary enlightened being is born juxtaposed to a very worldly money-orientated activity. Again the world of money and spirituality are clearly divided, money, in this case tax collection, is secular and earthly, even connected with the occupation of colonizers, and the magic and mystery, portents and visitations around the birth of Jesus are inspired and heavenly.

There are many more examples but a major one was when the 12 disciples started to spread the teachings of Christianity around the known world, they were expressly instructed not to carry money. Poverty was mandatory. Clearly they were to be examples of the principle that the Divine would supply all their needs, but not all people would discern this. The message still comes across loud and clear that money and spirituality are not welcome bedfellows.

It seems that whatever our cultural influences, it is important to start with the schism between our souls and money. When we can heal this we will no longer be at the mercy of the message that the more we concentrate on money the more involved in the world we are and the more we neglect and undervalue it the more chance there is that we will find spiritual riches.

The issue of money is a reality. It is a necessity and until we transform the way we look at it, it will give us problems of lack, deprivation, worry, frugality and more. I believe that until we can heal this schism so that money can pour into our lives if we desire it, we have not yet stepped into new energy consciousness. Although he was peaking of abundance generally, I recall Lazaris many years ago saying that without it (I am now emphasising money but he was speaking generally of abundance) we cannot do what we came to do which is to grow and have fun.

It was fascinating for me to discover that the first coins were actually symbols of the Self. They were considered talismans, charms which had active power and were capable of working wonders. A talisman could initiate a person into different degrees on the spiritual path. And look at money! It is hard, concrete, real and yet there is nothing that can transform itself so quickly into something else.

More than this there is a deep connection between money and us. It is an extension of us. It literally personifies us and the way we use energy. For instance, in certain things I am most extravagant, I love spending money,  particularly when it is for others and the way I use my energy in everyday life in engagement with people and work reflects this. The person who does not trust the goodness of life is very careful, even tight and controlled with expenditure. A wise man once said “if you say your money is running out, you are saying that God (Self) is running out of energy”. Money carries something of our purpose, our essence, our worth and value and whether it is in the form of paper, metal a plastic card or a transaction through internet banking. It is the result of our love, energy, skills, abilities, value, financial management, the blessing of an inheritance and so on.

On a recent course I designed on abundance and prosperity, I gave participants a process which was to give their money a voice! I confess to being rather nervous at this way out and imaginative exercise but I was trying to think of a method which, not only gave them a connection to money, but enabling them to deeply investigate how they truly regarded it through its feedback to them. I rationalised that if we do this with parts of our body why can't we do it with money? They brought coins to the class and spent some time handling them, reflecting on them and becoming familiar with them. Then they were asked to become the money and feedback from the point of view of the money how it was to be handled and valued or not valued, literally, how it felt to be owned by them. It was a profound experience because unequivocal attitudes to money were revealed, sometimes also different messages were revealed in different situations. For instance, a person may resist paying a utility bill but enjoy spending on books and clothes.

The process truly revealed the connection to the soul, psyche and Self. It seems because we all work through money to fulfil our purposes our relationship with it  needs to be of the highest order, patently spiritualising it, becoming part of the concept of “God in all things”.  When it reflects our worth and when it is handled with understanding and as an extension of us, the Self uses money to express abundance, love and to further our purpose. Think of the words we use around money: circulate, grow, transform, give, receive, invest, return, build, save, donate, withdraw. The life and soul of money becomes our own life and soul.

This connection is evident when we start our life, before the influences of family and society impinge on us. For instance, a mother was describing to me how she observed her 4 year old son buying and selling dinky cars and, in the process, accumulating a sum of money. She asked him what he felt about money. He looked her straight in the eye and replied “Confident!”

Another example was a man, relating how when he was a little boy he used to climb into his bedroom cupboard with a torch and lock the door from the inside. His mother said the cupboard was “filled with junk” but amongst the books, clothes, papers and toys he found a matchbox filled with silver coins. As he played with them he imagined great riches and abundant wealth and later described these times as truly valuable experiences, despite the occasional interruption from his mother pounding on the door wanting to know what he was doing!

Let's look at how we can transform our everyday handling of money so we do not imbue it with feelings of fear, of not having enough, resistances of whatever form which can surface when we pay for something. A method which has worked for me is to become very conscious of the exchange and to become aware and grateful for what I am receiving. This has transformed even the most perfunctory  payments into a small event of value and consciousness. When we consciously recognise money is providing a service we start to accept it with gratitude and appreciation. You could even take this further and bathe the transition in golden or emerald green light. This was suggested by Lazaris to bring abundance into one's life.

Citrine is a semi-precious stone of abundance which never needs cleaning. Keep a citrine in your purse to remind you of transforming the way you perceive money.

In this journey of ascension in consciousness each of us is undergoing in unique ways and on different paths, the process of the spiritualization of matter. I have often said that I thought descension was a more appropriate term because as we hold higher frequencies we raise the vibration of everything in our environment. We literally spiritualise matter. Another way of expressing this is that we increasingly see the Source in everything. It is time too for money to be given this regard and to be transformed. If we can really see it as an extension, an expression of our Self then surely this would be a huge step to distribute it more equitably and at last, at last, alleviate the intractable poverty and starvation of the planet.

Let us, at last, bring together our spirituality and our money.