Modern Contemplation of the Runes: Fehu

(1 comment)

Wealth be by all very much welcomed;
Each man shall deal it out freely
If he will from the chief get approval.




This series looks at various aspects of modern pagan practice via the Elder Futhark. We will of course begin with the first rune, Fehu. We can of course learn something from the rune-poem (above) that gives us a (very brief) place to start.

The most obvious modern interpretation of this is that Fehu is about money, cash, dinero, moolah, and so forth, that is our modern form of easily moved resources. And there is certainly a lot to consider regarding money, both from a personal standpoint and a community standpoint.

Personal Wealth

The first thing one notices about personal wealth is that in ancient pagan society personal wealth properly acquired was generally considered good. Wealthy people, after all, were capable of bringing a lot of resources to bear on a problem, were able to focus on the better things in life in a way the lower classes never really could (as best as we can tell), and could serve their communities in ways that those with nothing would be unable to do. The rich had extra responsibilities to their community: they needed to fund major projects, be generous, and fight for their society with better equipment and training than most people had, but again this was seen as an overall good for the individual and the society.

Stereotypically, though, modern-day pagans are, on average, broke (unfortunately, no research seems to have been done to determine how true this is - surveys of wealth by religion don't find enough pagans to get a good sample). This severely cripples the ability of pagan organizations to function, so it's worth looking into why this might be the case. And there are plenty of explanations, which match personal observation:

They Aren't Really Poor, They're Just Cheap: Some pagans aren't donating to organizations not because they can't afford it, but because they would rather spend their money on something else, or save it. And there is an easy way to determine exactly how true this is in your organization - compare what you take in when you request donations versus what you take in when you sell something as a fundraiser.

Pagans Are Marginal: Pagan religion often is attractive to people on the edges of mainstream society, including those struggling with mental illness, abuse (particularly abuse associated with other religions), challenging identities, and disabilities. This explanation suggests that it's not pagan belief that is leaving people broke, it's that broken people find pagan belief more attractive and broken people are often financially broken as well.

Too Many Professionals: Paganism, still in its relative infancy as a religion, tends to attract a disproportionately high number of people who want their religion to be their life's focus (guilty as charged!). One way to cement that is to make your source of income your religion, whether as a merchant or author or artist or musician or priest or crafter. The problem is that if too many do that, there isn't enough money from those who are *not* trying to be professionals to pay for the professionals. Think of it this way: To keep a professional pagan's head above water costs about $13,000, which means that you need something like 130 pagans chipping in $100 on average annually to make it work. But if you only have, say, 30 pagans per professional, you're now talking about a $430 average, and if it's the "traditional" coven size of 13 then everyone needs to come up with $1000 a year. Yikes! While some are innovating an income, that's problematic, and it's no wonder that many if not most pagan leaders have non-pagan sources of income.

Hippies: A lot of the generation of pagans that are now becoming the elders are in the "aging hippie" demographic, and one of the major ideas to come out of the hippie movement was that money is at best unimportant and at worst downright evil. When acquiring significant personal wealth is not a goal, then the fact that few would be sitting on large bank accounts would be entirely expected. (There are similar ideas of virtuous poverty in several forms of Christianity as well, but these are less influential.)

These explanations, taken together, suggest a clear solution to this problem of pagan personal poverty, a path for a virtuous pagan to follow, to the best of their ability:

  1. Deal with whatever challenges are preventing you from being on solid footing financially. This may involve therapy, rehab, divorce (either literal or metaphorical) from people who are hurting you, and so forth. Yes, you have to start here - trying to skip this will tend to make you miserable and unemployed, instead of just unemployed.
  2. Discard any ideas about virtues of poverty. Poverty sucks, and aspiring to break free of it is good, not bad. Among other things, it creates a constant stress that prevents you from putting in time and resources into becoming a more effective pagan.
  3. Do not try to tap your pagan community for cash unless you truly need charity, and definitely do not try to make it your primary source of income. There is absolutely nothing shameful about a day job that enables you to feed yourself and others. If what you are doing is wildly popular enough, it might become your primary source of income, but making that leap before you are really ready is a greater risk than keeping a day job.
  4. Speaking of a job, get one. Do it to the best of your ability. Secure promotion and raises when you can. Be willing to jump ship from your current employer if a better opportunity presents itself elsewhere. Or alternately, start a business that sells mostly to non-pagans, and do your best to build that into a strong successful organization.
  5. Lastly, when you have extra money on hand, put some of it towards your favorite pagan organizations, whether it's a check to a big international group or buying the drinks for a local informal meetup. If you think you're going to have significant amounts to work with at your death, consider a bequest as well. This is often more valuable than contributions of labor, so if you want to support an organization, and you don't know what to do, instead of asking "What would you like me to do?", try asking "How can I give you some money to work with?"

All of these steps are complicated and difficult, but that is the basic outline of the path towards being that relatively rare breed of pagan - the financial benefactor. And this has an effect on the overall pagan community.

Pagan Comunity Wealth

After looking at wealth at a personal level, it's time to look at the overall pagan economy. And this can be summed up in the following diagram:

  • Money moves along the bottom: It enters the pagan economy as wages and sales to non-pagans, and leaves in purchases from non-pagans.
  • Goods and services move along the top of the diagram: They enter the pagan economy when you buy them, and leave again when you sell them.
  • When pagans buy from pagans, then both the money and the stuff stay within the pagan community, and that forms the basis of the pagan economy.
  • The left side are the "exports", where pagans sell something to non-pagans.
  • The right side are the "imports", where pagans buy something from non-pagans.

The borders are of course more than a little bit fuzzy: There are the New Agers who spend a few years as a pagan before drifting off to something else, for example, who sit on the border between the pagan and non-pagan economy, but this still provides a useful illustration.

This diagram also shows what, collectively, we should be doing if we want to grow the pagan economy:

  1. Sell stuff to outside the pagan community. If you work at a non-pagan-focused job, that counts. Or if you're running a business selling to the general public, that counts.
  2. When possible, buy what you need from other pagans.

That's really it. The more you do those 2 things, the more the pile of money accumulating in the pagan economy will grow.

Why This Matters To Pagan Religion

As the pagan economy grows, it is capable of supporting more easily the "professional pagans". These are the people who are pushing the envelope of intellectual and artistic excellence, organizing the festivals, making the tools, and providing the priestly council in our community. Those people, no longer distracted by the need to support themselves from the non-pagan economy, can thus do a better job of the work they are currently doing. It also means that we can collectively afford better tools, dedicated public spaces, books, and other materials we find useful in our work.

There is another force at work as well. Successful individuals and organizations, over time, can accumulate great wealth. That wealth can then be turned into an endowment, which thanks to capitalism and the stock market regularly pulls in even more money from the wider economy. This creates income without additional sales or labor, which thus forms the easiest way to add to the resources available for the work of pagan religion.

So, to truly embrace the power of Fehu in modern times, aim to become a benefactor, someone who can be counted on to provide tangible financial assistance for the people of your pagan community. If you can't be a benefactor, give honor to those who can, especially those who are sacrificing their personal dreams of becoming professional pagans in order to provide the material support needed to help our faith grow.



Patrons get access to weekly music, plus virtual concerts at higher sponsorship levels.Becoming a Patron

Comments

Monay Waters 7 years, 6 months ago

Thexalon,
I appreciate your scholarship and thoughtful analysis of how these ancient concepts are applicable to modern life and tribal development...Keep up your good work.

Link | Reply
Currently unrated

New Comment

required

required (not published)

optional

required