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My Pagan savings challenge post generated a lot of discussion on the Witches & Pagans Facebook page.  I thought it would be appropriate to share some of the questions and comments, in the form of a Q&A.

My posts in 2014 are finally going to start focusing on one of the most important money topics, debt.  However, before we talk about what we owe, I'd like readers to join me in expanding what we save.  I'm laying down the gauntlet:  can you raise as much energy as I?

Fans of the internet may be familiar with this post's graphic, which I believe originates here.  This is a simple, elegant way to save money, and one that should work well for Pagans.  If you're the sort that includes magic as part of, or in conjunction with, your worship, then as I said, it's simply raising energy so you can work your spell.  If your Pagan path has no truck with that sort of thing, pick an appropriate deity, force, or cause, and make this an offering.  I will continue to refer to it as raising energy, because you can just as easily use this energy for an offering as for magical work.

Spare change is one of my favorite forms of money, because it's just so obviously pulsing with energy, the elemental energy of earth.  Coins are often shiny, they have a weight that conveys value, and there is power in the jingling of money.  It's solid enough to decorate a bathroom, but it's also liquid enough to imagine swimming in it.

And pocket change seems linked to its own pocket universe, too.  Who hasn't searched the couch cushions for some?  A good cushion-hunt can mean clean laundry or a week's worth of ramen dinners for a college student.  On the other hand, coins can definitely burn a hole in your pocket; research shows that we don't like to spend big bills, and coins are the other end of the spectrum.

There's been a lot of talk about money in the Pagan blogosphere in the past week, so much so that I wonder if it would be a service simply to round up those links once in awhile.  I'm barely making my self-imposed "money Monday" deadline this week as it is -- missed it, in some time zones -- so I won't be giving that idea another moment's thought quite yet.

One of the posts that really caught my eye comes from my fellow blogger here, Carl Neal, who cajoled readers to contribute to your favorite Pagan efforts.  One of Neal's personal favorites is the Wild Hunt blog, which is presently running its annual fund drive.  With four weeks left in the campaign, 108% of the needed funds to pay for servers, columnists, and administration have been raised.  In an early thank-you note, Jason Pitzl-Waters remarks, "Fundraising is a spell."  I agree, but I'm not sure it's the kind of spell most people might think it is.

One of the things that troubles me about money magic is that all the spells are focused on getting some more of it in my pocket.  That may be reflective of how most people approach money (something which must be acquired to achieve security or happiness), but it falls far short of what this medium of exchange is capable of in spellcraft.

This weekend I had the pleasure of leading a group of people through a magical ritual designed to help them forgive those who have wronged them, and I used money as the method for gathering and releasing that energy.  It worked as I expected it would, but there were also some educational surprises along the way.  Some results were immediately felt, while others may take some time to manifest.

The equinox is upon us, bringing light and dark again into balance, so it is again time for us to turn our minds to our toothbrushes.

That's right, toothbrushes.

Debt counselors like it when their clients use cash for all of their transactions.  That's because they understand that physical currency connects us to the power of money.  If you've noticed that most money-drawing and prosperity spells use a couple of bucks as a material component, rather than a checkbook entry or ATM receipt, you're seeing the same idea in action.  We don't fully realize the power of money if we keep it in the realm of bank balances and automatic bill payments.

This is no accident:  money is the earth element, so by definition it's a material component.  The fact that we've made various representations of money, from bills of credit to checks to a jumble of electron, obfuscates this fundamental truth.  Money is physical, and forging a relationship with it is going to be much more difficult if you can't feel it in your hand, hear its clink, or smell its peculiar, musky odor.