The love of money is the root of all evil. 

It’s enough to live the simple life. 

It is better to give than to receive. 

You need money to make money. 

Money isn’t that important. 

Most of us grew up with these sayings, especially if we grew up in a Christian household. Christianity has some interesting ideas about money that includes the idea that rich people are less likely to be good people. And in the ancient world, perhaps that was more likely to be true. It was more difficult to become wealthy then, and wealth was far more likely to be acquired or destroyed by violence than it is now. Religion was tied up in well-being. The gods of the conquerors were assumed to be in the right because they were stronger, which certainly left the conquered people the poorer. That being said, there is nothing in Paganism that suggests that money itself is evil.

Money is a mutually agreed upon medium of exchange. Many things have been used as money.

• ·     Red ochre
• ·     Barley
• ·     Shells
• ·     Salt
• ·     Copper
• ·     Wheat
• ·     Clay tablets
• ·     Silver
• ·     Gold

There is a persistent idea that  if some people have money, that then that leaves less for everyone else. And if there is a limited supply of the things listed above, then one could technically make an argument for that being true.  A king can impoverish his subjects by taking all the gold/silver/wheat for himself, leaving no medium of exchange and thus no way to fulfill needs beyond barter – which is a clunky way to get needs fulfilled. But in our modern world of money, this is not at all accurate. Not only do we now possess the mathematics to use money we don’t own to create wealth, we have access to global markets. We are not limited to trading with our neighbors, fellow towns folk, or even countrymen as were our ancestors. 

I see far too many of my fellow Pagans complaining about the rich. This is not only not useful, it is counter productive. If Pagans are to be able to influence the wider culture, we need to be rich ourselves. What would a Pagan hospital look like? A Pagan school? What could individual Pagans do with money and influence? 

What if we could buy up land that we wanted to remain undeveloped?

What if we could fund ships that would collect plastic in the ocean?

What if we could fund theatres, and libraries, and museums?

What if we could buy solar panels for our neighbors? 
What if we could ….

All the things many of us learned about money are outdated and do not serve us either in our personal lives, or our spiritual lives. Having money means understanding how it works. But learning the mechanics of money is no more difficult than learning anything else that we don’t know. It just has to be something we want. And for that, we have to let go of the idea that it is bad.