I've been thinking about money lately. The average American thinks about money more than sex. (No, I have no footnote substantiating that claim, but someone on the internet said it, so it must be true.) My pondering the wonders and problems of money may be related to my coming retirement. I need to think differently about all things cash a year from now. Since I turned 50 a while back, I’ve been a passionate saver. Soon I’ll need to shift my mentality from saving to spending what I’ve saved. I’m told that’s a tough transition for some. You must get your brain into a different frame of mind.

I've also noticed something about money in society these days. One rarely sees cash anymore. We are all running around with plastic cards, inserting them into machines or tapping our phones into a mini-computer. Growing up in the late '70s, I heard predictions of a cashless society, which I dutifully dismissed. But I was wrong; we are shifting from paper and coins to a more abstract form of financial engagement with the world.

We’ve been using some currency equivalent for 40,000 years of human history. We bartered for goods, which worked as long as we were trading a handheld tool for a clay pot, but as civilization evolved, trading 20 heads of cattle for a piece of land became more complicated. Humans needed some representation of a mutually agreed-upon value.

The first known coin might have been the shekel, developed in ancient Mesopotamia as far back as 5,000 years ago. But standardized coins existed around 700 BCE in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), with paper money emerging in China around 1,000 years ago. In short order, people realized you could borrow or loan this currency to others based on an understanding of trust. This might be why the word credit evolved because its root word is credo, meaning “I believe.” Ah, you might see where I’m going with this essay.

Credit evolved as trade among people expanded across the savannahs of Africa to shipping across oceans to the modern computer transfer of vast sums of coin. The typical US American carries a statement of their creditworthiness in a wallet or purse. Frank McNamara conceived the first credit card, the Diner’s Club Card, in 1950, with AMEX and VISA coming in 1958. Credit impacted humanity's approach to trade, travel, and taxes, not to mention political and economic power.

But we are not here to explore an economic history lesson; instead, I'm interested in the meaning behind money. The word origin behind credit is credo. Like it or not, we are all people of faith. By this, I mean we put our trust in the divine, as defined by that magic maker of all things possible…yes, money. In the US, our money is marked with the slogan, “In God we Trust.” Am I the only one who finds that curious?

I’ll go further. Money is our god. It is what we worship.

The mythologist Joseph Campbell remarked in that famous television series with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, “You can tell what a society worships by its tallest buildings. The cathedrals loomed in medieval Europe, but today the skyscrapers are all bank buildings.” Campbell pointed to a concrete example of our financially-obsessed society. Indeed, our focus on the economy has a psychological/spiritual quality. We use the exact words to describe the economy as we do people's mental and emotional well-being: depression, inflation, assets, deficits, and balance.

Money is currency, as in the current or flow of a river. Money is ultimately about the flow of energy. Money makes things happen. It functions very much like energy. Today, I returned from the grocery store, exchanging money for beans, capicola, arugula, and rice. I plan to turn that into a risotto to fuel my cycling ride tomorrow. Indeed, money is about the transfer of energy, in this case, the resources my body needs to peddle a bike. We use the money to acquire a flow of stuff tied to security, comfort, knowledge, travel, etc.

For many US Americans, money, as represented in the 192 One Dollar Bills by Andy Warhol (above), embodies capitalism, high finance, big spending, and rags to riches of opportunity. In his essay "A Brief History of Why the US Consumer Thinks the Way They Do," Morgan Housel describes the economic engine that has changed our idea of life. He points to the radical reorientation of our attitudes by asking us to imagine a Rip Van Winkel-like person falling asleep in 1945 and waking up in 2020. The amount of economic growth that took place in that period is unprecedented. That growth has changed our expectations and attitudes toward money and life. One example is that the median square footage in an American home has gone from 1500 in 1973 to 2500 square feet in 2020. Today new homes now have more bathrooms than people, and nearly half of the new homes built today have four or more bedrooms, up from 18% in 1983. We now expect more, we expect bigger and we expect it to continue. That has had a significant impact on our attitude toward all of life. (You can read the essay in his book The Psychology of Money)

“Money is a descendent of those things early peoples deemed treasure, mana, fetish, what was perceived to have magical or talismanic properties or was suitable as offering to the gods or God” (M. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion). Ancient money often had a god, goddess, or animal on one side of the coin. This practice evolved to the figure of the political ruler having his image on the coin, such as Caesar during the Roman Empire, a person as emperor thought to have divine qualities.

When asked about paying taxes, Jesus responded, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, render unto God what is God’s.” He responded to a question intended to trap him into defying the authorities. Elsewhere Jesus has a lot to say about money:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”—Matthew 6:19–21

10 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth,[d] who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No enslaved person can serve two masters, for an enslaved person will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." - Luke 16:10-13

And then there is that scene in John’s gospel in which Jesus expresses righteous indignation at the economic injustice of the moneychangers.

But money is and always has been a symbol of the magical; even today, money seems to make things happen. It's not the money itself but the mutually agreed-upon value that money has that makes things happen, whether that be an evening meal, a college education, or the construction of a new home.

Money has power. In our soul’s treasury are “deposits of mythical fantasies and imaginal possibilities,” writes James Hillman.

Perhaps even more than sex, money invites all manner of psychological and spiritual projections. Money is indeed complex and complicated.

Money is not only complex, but it is “complex.” Namely, an emotionally charged group of ideas or images. “Complexes interfere with the intentions of the will and disturb the conscious performance; they produce disturbances of memory and blockages in the flow of associations; they appear and disappear according to their own laws; they can temporarily obsess consciousness or influence speech and action in an unconscious way. In a word, complexes behave like independent beings. [Carl Jung in “Psychological Factors in Human Behaviour," CW 8., par. 253.]

Or, in a more layperson definition of a “complex,” think of a time you just lost it emotionally, be it tears, anger, or grinding frustration, and then a while later, maybe a day or two, you think to yourself, "why did I react so extremely?" Well, that's an experience of a complex.

The Money Complex shows up all the time in religious settings. It’s as if that ancient practice of deities on coins worms its way into congregational life. Among the sentences or phrases I’ve heard through the years include:

· "This church needs a Casino night; surely that will help us financially."

· “I’m sorry, I don’t think we should give money to support the youth mission service trip to West Virginia; that state already gets enough funding from the federal government.”

· “The pastor should not get a raise because she/he is supposed to live a sacrificial life.”

· “My spouse and I are leaving because all this church does is ask for money.”

Money can also be a way in which we reward or punish people. In one case, a minister defending why he stole funds from the church stated: “I can’t believe I did this. My only explanation is that I felt underpaid.” In another setting, the long-time treasurer of a synagogue got prosecuted for embezzling funds. When asked why she started stealing money after nearly 30 years in that role, she confessed, “I guess I thought all my work wasn’t appreciated, so I gave myself a raise.”

Money is complex and a complex. When I listen to people talk about money, I often assume they are talking about their soul or attitude toward being in the world. Years ago, in a money workshop, I learned how the experience of money as a child often informs our attitudes toward it as adults. This helped me understand myself and others when we sat around the table for the annual budget planning session. But, now I've come to believe, it's about more than just the money. Because money is intimately connected with holy and divine qualities, our expressions around money reveal something of our inner treasury.

I am fond of this quote by Lynne Sweet, the author of The Soul of Money.

“Money is like water. It can be a conduit for commitment, a currency of love. Money moving in the direction of our highest commitments nourishes our world and ourselves. What you appreciate appreciates. When you make a difference with what you have, it expands. Collaboration creates prosperity. True abundance flows from enough, never from more. Money carries our intention. If we use it with integrity, then it carries integrity forward. Know the flow—take responsibility for the way your money moves in the world. Let your soul inform your money, and your money express your soul."

What do you think about money? How did your family of origin, parents, or grandparents think and talk about money? How does money reflect your soul?

How does your attitude toward money get reflected in giving? While I recognize that economic conditions impact generosity, after nearly 40 years in ministry, I can say with 100% confidence that generosity is not tied to one's financial status. It’s almost always connected with the soul. When I ask people what the number one topic Jesus discusses in the New Testament is, almost everyone will say, “faith.” Nope. He talks about money more than any other topic. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Like all the Essays, these are first published on my Substack Newsletter account. You can subscribe for free below.

P.S. We are on a lighter schedule for publishing this summer here in the northern hemisphere. So you’ll see an essay or audio interview every other week.

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