Pagan ideas about money

At the virtual Cherry Hill Spiritual Potluck on Sunday, we discussed sharing wealth, whether we had experienced poverty and whether pagan clergy, leaders etc should be paid. I also recently read an interesting article in Patheos - Pagans and Money by Yvonne Aburrow. In this article she says: "The giving of money in exchange for something does not create relationship, it ends it." The way she talks about exchange in this article resonates with me and I'm curious what others think.

The breakout group I was in at the potluck happened to have two other clergy of Paganism. We were all clear that learning about paganism and moving toward initiation, should not be based on money. Paganism is different from faiths with churches or synagogues. We rarely have buildings we need to maintain. However, the point was made that many pagan clergy have spent time and money gaining their certifications or degrees, and thus should be compensated. Most felt it was ok to charge for tarot readings and weddings. We also found that all of us were willing to use a sliding scale or allow people to pay what they could for specific services.

I have always had a sliding scale for my clairvoyant readings which comes from my feminist background. I do charge for weddings, because they are typically very involved and require a few meetings and a rehearsal. I am not sure I would charge for a memorial or funeral at this point. Most of my services listed on this site are free. I am fortunate to be in the position not to need my work as a minister to pay my bills and I feel fine passing my privilege onto the community. I have been impoverished and homeless in my life, so I understand living frugally and not having much at all. Being poor, for whatever reason, should never been the reason for an impoverished spiritual life. Thankfully, as Pagans, we can always turn to Nature for our spiritual inspiration and can always connect with our deities, if we use them, on our own. Our minds are our magical place and we can use our minds, no matter how much money is in the bank or whether we even have a bank account.

Many do charge for rituals, talks, and workshop on pagan topics. When a ritual is held in a place that charges, then asking for money for the ritual makes sense to me. If the ritual is in a public place or online, should money be charged? Perhaps folks could "pass the hat?" I do think Pagans as a community need to discuss the well-being of clergy or pagan leaders. If someone receives the training to be clergy and feels called to service, shouldn't the community help them survive and thrive? Since early modern witchcraft and paganism tended to use the coven structure, we haven't fully discussed what the perspective on clergy that serve the entire community might be. Given that so many are solitary now and do not have a coven relationship, it's seems pagan clergy are needed. I know that this has been discussed in the past, but am more curious about current perspectives. I know rituals take time and effort to plan. Does that require payment? or should it be reciprocity as Yvonne Aburrow describes in her article? How should we think about such things as Pagans? Because I do not need payment for my services to survive, how does that affect those who do need payment for services to survive? What is our responsibility as a community to our pagan leaders/clergy?

Not on the topic of money, but on the topic of clergy, this came through recently: 15 Roles of Pagan Priesthood: How Much is Too Many by John Beckett.

Interestingly, since I am now a member of the Board of Directors for Cherry Hill, I am responsible for the financial maintenance of the institution. Here it is not as hard for me because Cherry Hill is seeking accreditation and is the only educational institution where one could be a scholar of pagan studies and pagan topics. For anyone who has tried to do this in traditional colleges, you likely know how hard it is to have pagan studies or topics available or approved. A college surely needs financial support and soon Cherry Hill will be able to provide accredited MA degrees and there is no where to gain an MA without paying for it in some manner.

The Cherry Hill Virtual Potluck is held every Sunday at 1:00. We have a new theme each time that relates to something in the calendar. I've been posting the invites on the Sonoma County Facebook page and you can email me if you are interested to join us.

Ancient Greek coins