If we are looking for insurance against want and oppression, we will find it only in our neighbors’ prosperity and goodwill and, beyond that, in the good health of our worldly places, our homelands.
Wendell Berry
Aaaand back again!
The Ace of Pentacles just keeps popping up, doesn’t it?
Well, my interpretations from the past several visits are still apropos, so you might want to go back and re-visit them. Especially the most recent one, where I also share the news of how my practice is changing.
(Additional, specific updates about this news can now be found on my website, especially here and here.)
Of course, if you are looking for this week’s astrological insights, I recommend my favorite resources, Elisabeth Grace, Lorna Bevan, and Annie Heese, for starters. And later this week, Friday/Saturday’s New Moon’s particular gifts will be updated here.
But meantime, being the webliomancer that I am (like bibliomancy, but with the Internet), as I was pondering what I might write for you today, this magically turned up from the BBC News:
The Surprising Psychology Behind Being Rich: Are Rich People Heartless?
Feels like it’s the perfect message that the Ace of Pentacles wants to share this week.
If you can spare five minutes for this fascinating video, it is very enlightening.
Ace of Pentacles Homework
And meantime, I would also offer this. It is inspired by a powerful meditation that my teacher, RJ Stewart, offered this weekend.
Instead of using the power of positive thinking, visualization, inner magic and manifesting, etc., for what you want, what if you spent some quality time on a regular basis meditating upon and listening for an answer to:
“What does our living planet Herself need and want?”
For is this not, after all, the only source of our ultimate prosperity and well-being?
Blessed be.
Fascinating study and I’ve seen this referred to in earlier programs, NOVA on PBS. I very much like his summation of it in the video. I’ve long held this profound belief that helping others helps the entire universe work better, more harmoniously. It doesn’t have to be anything big. Acts of kindness, of compassion, or gentle humor go a long way. And, if you have some spare change, donating it to anyone in need helps too. Or, even taking a few minutes to talk to people. I recall an article I read several years ago, written by a woman who wanted to write about the experience of being homeless. Not by just interviewing homeless people, but by living as one for several weeks full stop. It took some time to set up. There were countless concerns from her family, from agencies tasked with helping the homeless, and the homeless folks themselves who did not want to be exploited. The article she wrote made for riveting reading. What I remember most clearly was this: in a space of less than a week, she found that she became invisible to the average person. The psychological impact of that was truly frightening and intense. So much so, that her husband began to beg her during their daily phone call check-ins (he insisted on those as a safety measure), to stop and to come home because he became so scared by what was happening. The disconnect he was hearing in her voice and she was experiencing as she became not a field reporter, but truly erased in the eyes of society. Her telling of this has stayed with me all the decades since. We truly are each others’ keepers – the others being all our relations with whom we share this Earth, and the Earth Herself.
I watched the “psychology behind being rich” video with interest and concern…. While his suggestion that accumulating riches leads to perpetuate isolation may be of concern… I suggest the key aspects he considers as “why” are very misleading and found his conclusions regarding ” being rich” concerning… so was moved to share my thoughts.
First what seems to be missing from the discussion is that money, like all energy, is inherently neutral. It is humans who proscribe a value of negativity or positivity. Regardless of the amounts or use. As such I found his analogy of comparing wealth accumulation to drinking multiple bottles of wine very flawed. A bit like “leading the witness” to conclude having a lot of wealth will likely create a negative impact on ones social and/or emotional well being. That to me is like comparing apples to oranges.
Also in his discussion about hierarchy, it appears that there is an assumed value of negativity. And presumed consequences of isolation from others. Again, hierarchy is not necessarily good or bad. While patriarchy has certainly maligned the concept of hierarchy, we have only to look to nature to see multiple examples of positive hierarchy at work constructively. Such as bees, ants and or an elephant clan led by the Matriarch to new waters. In our own world, fire fighters on a big fire, is a great example of a positive, functioning hierarchy for the benefit of all.
As he stated towards the end of the video, there are plenty of billionaires who are not socially or emotionally compromised. As he points out it is “how” they used their wealth that was a key difference. They shared their wealth and enriched those around them.
In pursuit and accumulation of money or any resource asking the question “is more positivity/good or more negativity/harm being created” I suggest is a better focus to assess value. Not the amounts or if it is hierarchical or not.
Greatly appreciate this opportunity of reflection.
i find it interesting to reflect on the cultures which created social mechanisms that tended to ensure that wealth was dispersed back into the community, or those who resisted settled lifestyles and accumulation of wealth, with the hierarchies that are associated with it. i think they have much to offer us as we attempt to craft a vision of how to live with greater justice and sustainability in future. i also have found it fascinating that the drilled ostrich eggshell beads which are amongst humanity’s earliest artefacts seem to have been created in great numbers for the specific purpose of making necklaces to give away…the concept of gifting as a sign of affiliation, of sharing as a ‘status symbol’ greater than accumulation itself, is ancient—primal—in us, and we could, i believe, remember it. our hearts carry a memory of this way of being, and recognise it as true wealth.
Oh my goodness! What delicious conversations to discover here this morning.
Thank you, Sue, for your beautiful understanding. And Terry – I am deeply moved by your insights. This is truly food for thought and reflection, and I find I agree with many of your questions. Thank you so much for raising them – they are very important.
And Ann, as always, I look forward to your thoughts, and am grateful for your contribution today. Yes, it is true that in some cultures, wealth is measured, not by what we have, but by what we are able to give away.
I am so glad that this video stirred up some discussion, because there is a lot to it; just as the question of wealth accumulation has many layers, too.
Additional “luminous sparks” are always welcome!