"Transforming the Money Shadow," by Deborah Price
With the meltdown of the financial markets and millions of people in financial turmoil, it is increasingly clear that our collective money shadow has led us down a path that will take years to unfold and understand. It seems that in spite of great personal, social and technological advancements, we remain highly underdeveloped when it comes to money, which is proving to be hazardous to our collective financial health.
As we are learning daily, money is as mysterious as it is elusive. No matter what our attempts have been to control it, no civilization or country in the history of the world has ever truly succeeded. Money has an energy and life of its own. It has a duality about it that is not unlike our own nature as human beings. It is creative and destructive, loving and cruel. It has the capacity to bring forth the best and the worst in human nature.
If history has anything to teach us at all, it may very well be that the key to our evolution as a species lies in our ability to evolve our consciousness around money. For our money issues have long been the “shadow” that has haunted and eluded human beings throughout time. Perhaps this is our collective karma that finally, with so much at stake, we will be willing to give voice to and heal. This is the call our ancestors are beckoning us to hear as it is this “shadow” that has ultimately destroyed the greatest civilizations in history.
Just as there have been times of great economic prosperity, in which civilizations grew to new heights, there have also been periods when money and its use completely disappeared for hundreds of years only to be reinvented again at another point in history. Both the Greeks and the Romans watched their civilizations rise with the wealth of newly discovered money and its creative force, only to fall beneath the weight of its destructive tendencies. This ruin, however, was not created by money itself, but by humankind’s propensity toward greed and over-consumption. The Roman Empire created the first global marketplace in the history of the world and with it, the first consumer-oriented society. And consume they did, until their reckless spending and over-consumption caused them to deplete their resources. At which point, the Roman’s began to finance large armies to conquer the riches of others. Between their ever-rising military costs, insatiable power, and extravagant lifestyles (does this sound vaguely familiar?), the Romans finally hit bottom at end of the 4th century with the fall of the Roman Empire. Unable to take responsibility or face their shadow, the period of the Dark Ages began and with it, so too, the fate of money. A convenient scapegoat, money, and its use all but disappeared for nearly one thousand years.
Given our current financial condition, perhaps it is time to explore both our personal and collective relationship with money more deeply. Money can be a very powerful teacher of what we have yet to learn about who we are as human beings. It is a powerful mirror for us all to reflect on. During this time of great financial upheaval in the world, I believe we are being asked to look into this mirror and discover who we are and who we want to be in relationship to money. Conceivably, money may well be God’s grandest experiment with the children of His creation. For we have given money such power that it permeates every cell of our existence. It has ceased to be a mere medium of exchange. It has become the source on which most of humanity rests its survival. Has money become our source, that which we rest our faith and trust in for our survival? Or, has money simply replaced God on the food chain? Together, we must explore this more deeply in hopes of finding an answer that will expand our consciousness and transform our lives.
If we are to understand and change our relationship with money, we must understand our deeply complex history, individually and collectively. We all possess unconscious beliefs, patterns and behaviors around money that are largely unknown to us. We are also highly dissociated with money and tend to hold it as separate from the rest of our consciousness work, which is not serving us. It is time to embark upon a deeper learning and integrate money into our spiritual work. We can no longer afford to be dissociated with money. We created it, we made it powerful, and its movement in the world is a direct reflection of our consciousness. As we become increasingly more conscious of this aspect of ourselves, we can begin to co-create a more meaningful and sustainable experience with money and the world around us. The other reward we will receive for doing our personal money work, I believe, is access to the pure potentiality that money represents that will allow us to become more evolved and fulfilled in all areas of our lives. This potential is greater than we ever imagined possible. But first, we must understand where we have been in order to know where we are going. We cannot “follow the yellow brick road” if we do not know where it starts or possess a roadmap.
It’s interesting to note that the early alchemists did not attempt to turn lead into gold for financial gain, they were seeking spiritual gain. Quite literally, the process of turning the darker, heavier metal of lead to gold was to raise one’s consciousness, not one’s wealth. The alchemists were seeking enlightenment. On the path of seeking spiritual truth, gold was merely a physical manifestation of their enlightenment. Understanding our historical and personal mythology is essential to resolving the deep confusion we experience around money, in which money symbolizes our value and worth, with little concern for our inner life. Until we understand and transform our relationship with money and become the alchemists in our own lives, money will always be problematic. Seeking to possess it without understanding its true purpose and meaning in our lives will only leave us feeling more conflicted and unfulfilled. The journey is not about money. The journey is about truth and self-discovery, an archeological dig to the center of the truth of who we really are.
Money is a subject and means of exchange that has preoccupied the minds and actions of human beings for centuries. Yet, in spite of its rich history, money remains a subject that is neither taught nor widely understood. If the purpose of history, as we are taught to believe in school, is to understand where we came from and to apply the lessons to our present and future, then it seems rather remarkable that money as a historical subject has been swept under the proverbial rug. Perhaps it is because it is far too frightening to look at. Or, perhaps, our attempts to understand it, let alone explain it, have failed. Nonetheless, it is increasingly critical that we begin to understand both our personal and collective history with money if we have any hope of evolving our consciousness around it. We are powerless to change that which we have lack conscious awareness of. Our collective body of experience around money is a very powerful story to reflect on at this time in history. As Carl Jung helped us to understand, the collective unconscious is but a stream of information and history, the sum total of all human experience since the beginning of time. It is everything that existed before us, and all that will be left of us when we are gone. If we were to close the book on the history of the world today, I’m afraid the final chapter would not read favorably. I believe that it would indicate that human beings let the opportunity to evolve into enlightened beings slip by them. That somehow we mistook what we had for who we were; that we valued things above people and our planet. And that would be tragic for us all. Fortunately, the final chapter has not been written yet. Now, more than ever before we are all being called to delve deeper into our spiritual journey. We must take action to create a world to that values human beings and our planet above profit. We need to trust that there is enough for everyone. Spirit will provide. We must resist the temptation to go into fear and constriction as there is nothing that can be gained by this. That is a trap that only stands to fulfill itself. Now is the time to release and let go of all that no longer serves us so that we can create the space to receive that which does. We must do our work and work our practice. Pray, meditate, love, be in community, do whatever it takes to heal, to gain clarity and to be vigilant for humanity to evolve and thrive. This is a truly magical time to be alive. Something magnificent is happening and we are all a part of it and are co-creating it together. Let’s make it wonderful. Let this chapter in history read differently. There is still time and I pray for us all, that this time, we finally get it right.
About the Deborah Price & Money Coaching Institute
Money Coaching is a step-by-step process for understanding and changing one’s relationship with money in order to live a more purposeful and prosperous life. Through education and awareness, The Money Coaching Institute is committed to empowering others around money, both personally and practically.
A former financial advisor for over twenty years with firms such as Merrill Lynch, Mass Mutual, AIG and London Pacific Advisors, Money Coaching Institute founder Deborah Price left the financial industry to pioneer the field of Money Coaching.
She is the author of three books: Money Therapy: Using the Eight Money Types to Create Wealth and Prosperity; Money Magic: Unleashing Your Potential for Wealth and Prosperity; and Start Investing Online Today. She has appeared on numerous radio and television shows throughout the United States and is considered a leading expert in her field. Visit her website at www.moneycoachinginstitute.com
