City Witch: Pennies from Heaven
By Christopher Penczak
Money. Can’t live in the big city without it. Everything costs something. Nobody rides for free. If you want to live in the urban landscape and live comfortable, you need some coin of the realm to get you by. Unfortunately, most people spend all their waking time struggling in jobs that will pay more and more, yet spend their lives unfulfilled. Many people think they work to live, and will enjoy their evenings and weeknights, even if they have to suffer forty hours plus a week. And some do. I have quite a few friends who live by the motto work hard, play hard, even if they are working hard at something they don’t like.
When I was at BEA, the Book Expo America in Chicago last year, I met some amazing people and had a great time, but one meeting in particular stood out. I was speaking with a small publisher of eastern spirituality books. One of their newest titles was about finding peace and serenity in your day job. As I spoke to the salesman, just doing the obligatory convention floor chat, he was so enthused about its potential for sales. “Everybody hates their job, don’t they?” he said to me. He was winding up for a sales pitch, assuming I was some type of retailer. “I don’t,” I replied. He told me he did, even though it was the best job he had ever had. He really wanted to open his own business, but was afraid it wouldn’t make enough money, so he decided to work for another publisher. He wasn’t even into Eastern spirituality personally.
I was a little shocked at this spiritual publisher pushing people to settle for something that isn’t rewarding, but to find the bliss in it anyway. On one hand I can understand. It’s the old eastern secret to life. Chop wood. Carry water. What do you do once you reach enlightenment? You still chop wood and carry water, but now you see the spirit in every moment, and mundane task take on a deeper significance. You can find divine bliss in the most mundane of experiences, because everything is ultimately spiritual. Ok, we’ve all had our wood and water jobs on the career path. And we will always have our wood and water chores. Mine is more like do laundry, take out the trash. Although we might always be a part of daily work, a daily grind, we don’t have to be slaves to it. But still, isn’t there something more?
The answer is in our relationship not only with prosperity, but our relationship with our will. When we perform magick, for the sake if simplicity, we organize it with categories. We have healing magick. We try our hand at love magick. And most important to so many people who cross my doorstep, we seek our fortunes through money magick. In the end, all of these magical forms are fueled by our will. Not only do we explore our personal will, what we want here and now, in the moment and hopefully with some forethought, but what our magical self wants, what our higher will, or what some magicians call the true will, wants. The best magick supports our true will, our purpose or calling in the world, and very often our true will is interwoven with our life’s vocation, whatever it may be. Practitioners of the western magical paths, from ceremonial magick to witchcraft, don’t just seek to find the spiritual in the mundane, though it’s hopefully a by-product of our quest, we seek to fulfill our true will, making every action we take a sacred step in fulfilling our will in the world.
Before we delve into the world of true will, let’s look at our traditional solutions to money woes. In the mundane world, people often pick their job based on what pays the best, and not always factor in things like – where will I be happiest? – what is the community like? – am I really called to do this job? Money is a factor, but not always the most important factor. I’ve found people who picked really fun jobs that paid less than what their experience and training was worth, but it worked out for everybody in the end. They lived a more fulfilled, happy and prosperous life
In the magical world, most people wait to the crisis point and try working a quick cash spell. We’ve all done it, myself included. I’ve bathed myself in fast money oil. When you have an immediate need, like rent, or something you want to get before the sale ends, desperation can breed magical miracles. Suddenly you get a check, gift or series of payments that matches the amount you need, usually never more and never less.
The second phase of money magick for most practitioners is abundance. People want abundance. They do a lot of work for abundance – affirmations, prayers, spells – but they never specify what kind of abundance they want. I was reminded that lessons yet again by wonderful wise woman and author Dorothy Morrison. Abundance just means a lot of something. You can have an abundance of gold, or an abundance of misfortune. You need to specify. The universal powers will simply fulfill your spell in the easiest manner possible, and not fulfill what you think you wanted. If you want an abundance of cash, you have to work that intention clearly into your magick. Don’t assume the universe knows what you really meant. You intention must be crystal clear.
I think true money magick comes in the relationship to prosperity. To be prosperous refers to both economic success and in general, healthy growth. To be prosperous means you flourish, having everything you need to be successful. Like a healthy plant in a garden, you have all the soil, minerals, light and water you need to grow. Prosperity magick is not always about dollar signs, but about having everything you want and need. I may not be a rich person by any traditional worldly count, but I am a very prosperous person.
Becoming a truly prosperous person usually requires you some deep introspection. In witchcraft, we face our fears, or shadows, the energies that self sabotage. I have found a big aspect of shadow work is exploring any blocks you have towards prosperity. You would think we would all be perfectly open to creating prosperity, but due to our beliefs, upbringing and deep seated thoughtforms, we aren’t. Many people lack self worth and on some deep level don’t feel they deserve prosperity and success. Some followed parental models that instilled the belief you cannot like your job, but you have to do it. I’m always surprised to find people who feel guilty for getting paid for something they enjoy doing. Those in the arts – from music, graphics and performance – to the spiritual and healing arts, often struggle with the belief they shouldn’t be paid for their creativity. They want to share their gifts, and feel so much enjoyment from doing their arts, they feel guilty when financially compensated. I know I’ve struggled with that belief myself as an artist, musician and psychic reader. In the end, to be prosperous you have to realize your time, skills and effort are valuable, in their own way as a doctor, lawyer, executive or investor.
We have religious and societal associations that make us feel bad about wanting money, luxury and prosperity. Many spiritual seekers throughout the ages take vows of poverty to devote themselves selflessly to their spiritual work. I find it interesting that the teachers and institutions that often promote these beliefs, from the Catholic Church to popular gurus, all seem to live more than comfortably and have the resources for whatever they want. I was lucky that when I started in the Craft, my first teachers emphasized that our path is about balance. We don’t seek riches or poverty in and of themselves. We seek balance and the resources to do our work in the world. When we are comfortable and taken care of in our needs, we can do work to help others and the world. Without using the words, they were really teaching principles similar to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. They taught me money is simply an energy, to be stored, saved and expended as you desire. There is nothing immoral or wrong with it. It is neutral, like magical energy. The morals depend on how you use it.
Though we live in a society of traditional economics, supply and demand with a finite set of resources, magical views on prosperity give us an ever abundant view of life when we are aligned with our magical will. Your will does not directly conflict with the true will of any one else. All the resources you need will be at your command. You can have a win-win situation, where in this spiritual model, if you get the job/resources you want, you are not taking it away form someone else, but following your true will. If they did not get it, then their will is found elsewhere. I know it sounds like a certain amount of new age gobbledegook, but from personally being on the losing side of the equation more than once, I can attest that each loss brought me closer into understanding my true purpose, at least at that point in time. It’s a constant quest to be “on purpose” in everything, and we can experience it for a time, and then slide off for a bit, feeling lost, only to find a new purpose and direction for our will.
When I began my adventures into the working world, I was seeking fame and fortune. I wanted to be a rock star. I had just started on my path as a witch, and used my magick to find the members of my band, book gigs, create semi-successful recordings. As you can imagine, it was not my true will to be a huge world famous rock star. Exploring music and learning skills was a part of my true will. Though my magick supported it for a time because it was a learning period. It was a fun and effective way to gain a set of skills I would later need in the long term.
I learned how to speak in front of people, negotiate contracts, do promotion, book events, and tour. I needed all these skills in my writing career. But once the music was distracting me from the next step in the path, all my musical prosperity fell out from under me. I lost my band. I lost my job in the industry. I lost interest in music and found myself, through my spiritual guidance, gravitating towards writing and teaching. When my ego desires conflicted with the next step of my true will, my magick no longer worked. My prosperity dried up when I was not “on purpose” and once I got back onto the path of my true will, many new opportunities were made available. The trick is balancing your will, your efforts – magical and mundane – with listening to your guidance, to hear the voice of your true will. Magick is both doing and listening, ritual and meditation or divination, though sometimes it’s more effective to listen first, and get some guidance before setting forth on a given path.
Penny Spell
While visiting a new city where I was booked for a day of tarot readings and a book signing, the city itself inspired this bit of prosperity magick. I was told by the store owner that no one had signed up for my tarot readings, thought I was counting on a fairly prosperous day to help fuel the rest of my trip. As I was walking around, I kept finding pennies. Whenever I find change, I always pick it up and think about it as a sign, a blessing of prosperity from the gods. I accept little gifts and big gifts, as they come my way. This time it wasn’t just one or two, or even three, but by the end of my walk, I had collected eleven.
As I picked up the pennies, I thought of the reciprocal nature of prosperity, to give as well as to receive. Beside doing the more substantial charitable donations to local groups, I give away my pocket change to those who ask for it, from those on the street to groups like the Salvation Army who collect at the holidays. I wondered about why I was finding all these pennies and if it meant anything. Then I was struck to “give” the pennies back to the spirit of the city, as an offering, to ask for a blessing. I added one penny to the pile, making twelve in all. I took another walk, and in twelve strategic places, wherever my intuition led me, I put down a penny heads up. I wasn’t sure why, but when I was done, I felt like I had accomplished something.
The next day, I went to the metaphysical store to fulfill my tarot time, even with no clients
lined up, just in case there was a walk in. I was shocked to get enough walk ins to fill the twelve half hour readings slots of the day. I was flabbergasted. Though laying out the pennies was not a specific act of magick with a clear intention, it was an act of reciprocity, of giving back to the spirits of the place and asking for their blessing. I showed up to do the work I was contracted for, and even though it appeared I wasn’t going to get paid for my time, I was compensated quite well for the work I was willing to do. When we keep the principles of prosperity in our daily lives, we live prosperous lives. The next time you receive a boon in life, think of how you can pass it on, how you can share the blessings, ritualistically or through more down to earth literally sharing. Through this exchange you keep the wheel of life turning and move on track to fulfilling your own will in the world.