In the Money Workshop we talk about moving from a normal / industrial approach to work, money and life to a Natural / Ecological one. The former emphasises a linear, individualistic, material and money centred preoccupation. The latter emphasises a trust in the vast web of relationships in life, of which we, and our unique life and journey, are an intrinsic part.
Recently I’ve been enjoyed talks by Sandra Ingerman about using the imagination via Shamanic work to help us live courageously on the life path. I see many parallels between what she says from Shamanic traditions – and the Money Work and reclamation process. Particularly about how we navigate creatively and boldly the dance between what on the workshop we call the Money path (everything concerned with thinking about, getting, spending, saving, losing, gaining money) and the Life path (what we would most dearly love to do if it weren’t for money). Highlights for me include:
a) The importance of giving yourself time and space to listen for the ‘call of the life path’. Amidst our normal hustle and bustle it is hard to hear that deeper call of what life asks of us / offers us right now.
b) How moving fully toward our life path inevitably reveals core beliefs that are getting in the way. She describes Shamanic soul retrieval to re-integrate or re-claim parts of ourselves that we’ve disconnected from. This sounds similar to the reclamation process we introduce in the Moneywork. (Remember that the root of the word ‘religion’ is the Latin re-ligare, meaning to re-bind, or re-connect.)
c) How our culture socialises us to hide or ignore our individual soul gifts and soul path, stressing instead the need to fit in, in order to be safe, secure, and get on in life. She suggests that traditional Shamanic cultures look at the young child and ask, ‘what are the unique gifts or potentials of this child and how can we support them to come into life for the benefit of the community?’ Our education and socialisation encourages us to believe the Money path is real. Other systems better support the idea of living the Life path fully.
d) That we need patience – in our own detective and re-integration work, and also in not looking for results according to ego’s timing when we do embark on the life path. She suggests we can learn from nature for a sense of things happening in their own time, according to their own wisdom. This emphasises one of the qualities of the life or ecological path in the Money work – if we trust in our life path, our needs are met with and without money, but not necessarily according to ego’s impatient timing