A False Choice (Donald Michael Craig)

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Some time ago, the publisher of Llewellyn asked me why, if magick is so powerful, so many occultists and Pagans are poor. I explained that there were a few answers. One is that they may not be interested in financial wealth. Another is that they believe magick should only be used for spiritual goals or to help others.

Still another reason is a misunderstanding of finances leading to guilt. Specifically, some people look at finances as a zero sum situation. The idea behind the zero sum outlook is that the world’s finances are fixed and therefore limited; if you gain, someone else loses. If my slice of the pie gets bigger, your’s gets smaller. So if you do magick to become better off, someone else is going to suffer, and you’d feel guilty about making others suffer.

However the reality is not a zero sum situation. The reality is that if you increase your wealth, everyone’s wealth will increase. In order to get a bigger slice of the pie, the entire pie gets bigger, giving everyone a larger slice. This, of course, assumes fairness in the financial world, something that often doesn’t exist if governments don’t make and enforce rules, much the way that football would be total mayhem without governance and rules.

Another problem is poverty thinking. Some magicians and Pagans—who, in my opinion, should know better—dwell on their on poverty so much they mentally create continued poverty for themselves.

http://www.llewellyn.com/blog/2013/05/a-false-choice/