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For the past several years I have studied and worked with archetypes, both personally and now professionally.
For those not familiar with archetypes, author Caroline Myss offers this… “Archetypes are your energy guides to your highest potential…working with your archetypal patterns is the best way I know to become conscious of yourself, the effects of your actions, and the need for choosing wisely every day.” (Sacred Contracts)
Over the years, I have found working with my archetypes to be most helpful in areas of personal and emotional growth and development. I have also learned that they lend significant guidance to better understanding your relationship with money and wealth.
As a society, given where we have been and where we are now relative to global economics, finances, and interpersonal relationships, there are two archetypes (sometimes considered to be one) that come to mind–enter Midas and Miser.
Most I believe are familiar with the story of King Midas–everything he touched turned to gold, including his beloved daughter. On the one hand, the Midas archetype is connected with entrepreneurial and creative abilities. The gift of taking an idea and seeing it through to physical manifestation and great success. Steve Jobs is one example. On the other hand, there is the shadow side of Midas. As a King, Midas’ position is symbolically connected to the power to create wealth for an entire kingdom however, his focus was only of personal amassment and glorification. Greed was his motivation, and ultimately his downfall. From this we can surmise that lessons of generosity and benevolence are characteristics of this archetype. What you do for oneself, you do for others and the effects are felt by the whole.
The Miser acquires his/her wealth by hoarding money (and/or emotions, time, creativity, talents, etc), refusing to share. This time greed plays itself out from a place of lack, scarcity. The Miser also tends to exist “outside” himself/herself, seeking to manage his/her fears by controlling others or circumstances. The lesson here again is in transforming greed to generosity. To give without the fear of losing it all.
Greed has eradicated past human civilizations…and we, as a global society, are once again at grave risk of repeating past patterns. We’ve been given the signs, recalling the events of 2001-2002 and 2008-2010. We live in a “dog eat dog” world and a world afraid of sharing wealth. It is time to begin shifting the belief that greed will bring about abundance and compassion. The time is now, starting with each individual, to ask yourself at what length are you willing to go to create piles of money—and the consequences your actions will have on the greater whole, your family, your community, and society. Will your actions come from a place of fear, greed, and competition or from a place of faith and benevolence?
Imagine a world open to sharing wealth, creativity, prosperity, and well-being…