Why Magical Folks Must Rethink Their Relationship With Wealth
There’s a subtle but deep-rooted belief threading its way through many corners of the pagan, witchcraft, and metaphysical communities—a belief that being spiritual means being broke. That to want money is somehow impure. That charging for magical services, classes, or handmade goods is unethical or greedy.
This is what many call the pagan poverty mentality, and it’s high time we burned it at the crossroads.
Poverty Is Not a Virtue
There is nothing inherently spiritual about being broke. There is nothing noble in struggling to make rent while offering free services to those who would otherwise pay a therapist, a doctor, or a reader triple your rate. Spirit does not require your suffering.
What poverty does is keep your magic small. It drains your energy, makes you more reactive than proactive, and causes resentment to bubble up under the surface. But please be aware that we’re not talking about placing blame on the poor – we’re talking about willful poverty – subconsciously creating lack out of a sense of virtue.
Living Well Is a Form of Resistance
For many magical practitioners—especially women, queer folks, and people of color—choosing to thrive is a radical act. It’s a rejection of a world that says we are not meant to succeed. It’s an affirmation that our work has value. That we have value.
When you price your spell bottles or tarot readings at a rate that reflects your time, skill, and effort, you’re not just setting a price. You’re casting a boundary. You’re saying, “I am not invisible. I am not disposable. My craft is worthy of respect.”
Why Is This So Prevalent in Pagan Spaces?
Because so many of us come from lack.
Paganism attracts the seekers, the misfits, and the folks who didn’t feel at home in traditional religion or rigid structures. Many of us were outsiders—emotionally, socially, or economically. The witch’s path offered freedom, belonging, and a sense of personal power. But if you were already struggling to get by, the idea that “money isn’t spiritual” just added another layer of guilt to something you already couldn’t seem to grasp.
And so the cycle begins:
You want to take that herbalism course, but you “can’t afford it.”
You need new supplies for your apothecary, but you feel guilty spending $30 at the occult shop.
You underprice your readings or handmade goods, hoping to seem “accessible,” but it leaves you broke.
You want to go on that spiritual retreat, but you’ll “just wait until next year,” again and again.
You make just enough to get by, with nothing left to feed yourself—let alone your magic.
This is how the poverty spell binds us: not with shackles, but with constant, low-grade denial of your own worth.
A Community That Can’t Afford Itself
There’s an unspoken rule in many pagan circles:
Don’t charge too much. Don’t make your practice a business. Don’t ask people to pay for spiritual things.
But here’s the irony: the very people who say this also can’t afford to support others, either. Everyone is struggling, and no one is allowed to thrive.
So we end up with circles of brilliant witches, rootworkers, seers, and healers who can barely pay their rent—let alone fund their growth. We exchange everything, burn out, and live half-lives under the illusion of “authenticity.”
But genuine authenticity doesn’t mean suffering. It means aligning with your power. And that includes your power to receive.
The Energy of Money Is Not Evil
Money is not inherently evil, oppressive, or unspiritual. It’s a tool—a modern symbol of exchange and intention. And like any tool, it becomes what you make of it.
If you think of money as dirty, corrupt, or beneath you, you create resistance to it. That resistance shows up in how you price your offerings, receive gifts, and treat yourself when abundance does show up.
If you believe that money and magic can’t coexist, your spiritual path will always feel like it’s being dragged through mud—beautiful, but exhausting. But when you embrace money as another form of energy, you gain the ability to sustain your path, nourish your craft, and give from a place of fullness instead of martyrdom.
Money Is Energy, Too
If you believe in energy exchange, then you must accept that money is one of the clearest forms of that exchange in our current world.
You give value, you receive value. You help someone shift their life with your magic or your craft, and they show gratitude through the currency that keeps your lights on.
Money doesn’t corrupt. Greed does. And the two are not the same.
When you deny yourself the right to thrive, when you reject payment, or feel guilty for wanting more—you’re not being humble. You’re reinforcing a spell of limitation.
The Cost of Staying Small
Living in magical poverty costs you more than money. It costs you:
Opportunities
Wellness
Confidence
It makes your world smaller.
That online class that could deepen your path? Skipped.
That gathering where you could network with other witches? Out of reach.
That monthly fee for a website that could take your tarot practice to the next level? Put off until things “get better,” again.
When you’re always scrambling, your magic becomes a reaction instead of a ritual. You lose the ability to plan, to plant, to stretch. You end up in survival mode—something your ancestors fought hard to rise above.
And here’s the kicker: you can’t serve the world from survival mode. You can’t channel clear messages, hold space for others, or perform effective magic when you’re constantly worried about how you’re going to buy groceries or fix your car.
Prosperity Is a Spell Worth Casting
If you believe in your power to draw love, healing, and protection—why not believe in your power to draw money?
Money is not the enemy. The enemy is the story that says you’re not allowed to want it.
You are allowed to want a home that feels safe.
You are allowed to want shelves full of herbs and tools.
You are allowed to want to earn a good living with your gifts.
You are allowed to want comfort, ease, and joy.
Wanting those things doesn’t make you less spiritual—it makes you sovereign.
What Can You Do?
Confront your beliefs.
Journal about where your discomfort with money comes from. Who taught you that spirituality and prosperity were enemies?Practice receiving.
When someone pays you, gives you something, or compliments your work—accept it fully. Don’t diminish or deflect.Price with integrity.
Your work has value. Charge what it’s worth, not what you think others will tolerate.Invest in your growth.
Choose one thing to say yes to this month—a course, a book, a tool. Stop waiting for “someday.”Bless your money.
Anoint your wallet. Keep coins on your altar. Say thank you every time money comes to you—even if it’s just a quarter on the sidewalk.
But What About Community?
Helping others and lifting the collective is still possible. You can offer sliding scales, donate a portion of your earnings, volunteer your gifts for community work.
But those should be choices, not expectations.
And they should come from overflow, not depletion. You can’t pour from an empty cauldron.
Magic is about empowerment. It’s about change, transformation, and reclaiming your birthright. Burn the old spell. Write a new one—one where your magic, your time, your creativity, and your livelihood are all honored.
Because you weren’t born to suffer.
Poverty is not a virtue.
Suffering does not make you more magical.
And refusing money doesn’t make you more spiritual.
You weren’t put on this earth to barely get by. You were put here to create, to guide, to weave, to heal—
and to thrive while doing it.