The Spiritual Abundance Trap - and how to avoid it!

It's funny how the pendulum seems to need to swing hard in one direction, then equally hard in the other before it can finally find balance in the middle. 

In the spiritual & holistic community, there has always been a stigma about money. Earning money from using spiritual "gifts" was once frowned upon, and it took some time to break through the restrictive, dogmatic view, that no doubt came to us from organised religion that promoted poverty as the way to holiness.

As I've written on many occasions, being broke or poor isn't, in and of itself spiritual, and there should always be a fair exchange for your time or energy. 

I think this misconception also somewhat stems from the idea that psychic ability, mediumship ability or healing ability are somehow "gifts" rather than natural abilities that we all have the ability to develop if we so choose. Granted, some people are naturally better at these things, but some people are also naturally able to do very fast mental arithmetic, run fast or play the piano with little instruction.

The fact that you may be more naturally talented at something than the next person, does not make that ability a "gift" that only a seemingly chosen few have access to.

Many of the souls incarnated in this lifetime are also struggling with what is called a poverty complex, making it hard for many to earn money or perhaps retain their earnings. A lot of people in the holistic & spiritual field genuinely struggle with asking for money for their services, and this is something that I feel as a community we have been aware of and many of us have been working to rectify in ourselves for some time. 

The Millionaire Complex

In the past few years however, I've noticed a new phenomenon arising which seems to be the complete opposite of the poverty consciousness. This is what makes me think of the image of the pendulum swinging hard in the opposite direction, as we try to find balance when it comes to abundance. 

This new phenomenon seems to be what you might call a 'millionaire complex' or 'spiritual abundance trap.'

And an ego trap it certainly is. 

The thinking behind this goes along the lines that if you are truly spiritual, you should also be abundant in every way, however it also takes things a step further, by insisting that you should therefore be a millionaire or at least very rich and want for nothing or you're somehow "not spiritual enough" because you're not overtly financially abundant. 

The proponents of this kind of thinking can be quite harsh or unkind to people who haven't yet reached the levels of financial abundance they consider high enough, and seem to believe themselves more spiritual than the next person, simply because they have more money and feel they are therefore "more spiritually abundant."

Well, at the risk of making myself very unpopular (yet again) I've got news for you:

Riches do not make you holy and neither does poverty. 

Just because you have more money or find it easier to manifest money that the next person, does not mean that you are more spiritually advanced than them. 

I can't believe I'm actually having to say this - this sort of thinking is so warped. How did we even get here?! 

*facepalm*

This sort of mentality is basically the poverty consciousness of believing that being poor and having no possessions makes you holy, flipped on its head. And guess what - neither of these two opposing views is correct, but they are equally toxic.

So once and for all - remember that your spirituality has very little to do with your bank balance!

True Abundance

I just want to clarify what I mean by true abundance here, because what with the popularity of the Law of Attraction in recent years, I think the whole subject of spirituality & abundance has become very muddled and confused. 

There is something to be said for there being a link between financial abundance and spirituality, but you need to understand how that works and add a big old caveat here. It's not as simple as more spiritual = more money, nor the reverse that less money = more spiritual. That is a gross oversimplification, and shows a misunderstanding of the subject matter.

As we advance on our spiritual path, and increase our spiritual knowledge, knowing & wisdom, it can become easier to manifest wealth & abundance. You have to remember however that we are all each on an individual path, and no two paths are alike. Each one of us has our own individual karma from our past lives, ancestral karma from our families, and collective karma from the community or area we live in, and that all plays a part in our financial abundance and how easily we manifest riches or wealth. 

We are not in a race, and our path towards enlightenment is not linear nor will it be the same as the next person's path. Therefore, you cannot accurately say that as a general rule, the more money you have, the more spiritual you are, or are not - it just doesn't work that way. 

Now, having said that, a fully enlightened human being would find it very easy to manifest abundance or any riches they desired however, when you reach that stage of your journey you will already have realised that you just don't need it. Only the ego wants riches, not the spirit. You can't take it with you, after all ;)

Jesus was incredibly abundant, and although he chose not to have financial wealth & riches for himself, he was able to demonstrate his manifesting ability quite clearly by feeding 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fishes. 

We have to remember that just because he chose not to accumulate money and wealth, it does not mean he was not abundant, nor indicate that he could not have done so if he chose to.

So should I be Rich or Poor to reach Enlightenment?

To clarify, I don't advocate any particular level of wealth or riches to aim for, or not. That must always be your personal choice. There are pros and cons to every type of lifestyle, and we live in a world where we have free will, and also many opportunities to experience many different things. 

Our lives are all different and unique, and depending on our karmic load, our soul's path and our personal choices, financial wealth may or may not be a priority for us.

I think the bottom line here is that the ego is the only part of us that needs outside or material "proof" of how "enlightened" it is - either by showing off abundant riches, or choosing poverty as some sort of sign of piety and spiritual superiority.

The truth is that the ego itself cannot become enlightened. It is a part of us that we will actually leave behind when we leave the earth plane, and only serves to help us experience what our soul wants or needs, while we are incarnate. 

A truly enlightened being knows that they do not need riches or wealth, but that knowing only comes when we are already enlightened, and by that point, money probably wont matter much to us anyway. 

I personally believe it's more important to perhaps consider what we do with our money & abundance, and whether we show true kindness and compassion to ourselves and others, rather than miserly counting how much we have and using that as some sort of scale or measure of "how spiritual" we are.

Focussing on financial wealth as a measure of our spirituality is just a distraction, and I feel it's just another trap set by the ego to distract us from our path to enlightenment. 

This is because it knows full well that when we reach enlightenment, its role will become obsolete. 

There's nothing wrong with having money, but there's nothing particularly "spiritual" about it either. 

~

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