Plain and simple. Money = power. Money, in many ways, equals the unnable force of the divine, manifested on the earthly plane.

I have come to realize this by the simple act of possessing large amounts of money. In the grand scheme of things, the money I have had the luxury of possessing isn’t even all that large; but compared to how I felt when I was scrambling for resources to sustain myself, now that I have the resource game figured out, I can (according to Maszlow’s heirarchy, and evidence by my own experience) move on to contemplating the higher rwalms. Like the power of Money.

I got my big paycheck today. The one with the big bonus, which will fund my Mac’s purchase and clear my credit card back out. Used to be, whenever I had a paycheck, I would immediately go online and distribute the numbers among my creditors.

Now I cash my check. Every time. I spend the weekend with the bi-weekly influx of cash in my possession, and man, it is iluminative.

I have six grand in my pocket right now. With this power, I could compel anyone I see to perform tasks for me. I have power, in my pocket. And if I choose, I can walk up to a total stranger and offer him the duty of performing a task in exchange for some of my money, and if the task was not contrary to their abilities or ethics, chances are good that if I offered enough I could compel them to do it.

I can add a small room onto my house. I have the power to do that, sitting in my pocket. I have the power to buy lunch for a thousand homeless people. I can buy christmas presents for a thousand friends. I can print and mail thousands of paperback books, and hire someone to go to powells, make the purchase, and lick the stamps for me.

All I have to do is will something, and find someone willing to carry out my plans. This is truly power.

And the myriad professions we have devised for manipulating this power is truly astounding–the financial planner, the accountant, the insurance salesman, the cashier, and on and on. Cashiers have a fairly mundane relation to money; they collect and exchange it. But when I consider the tax lawyers, and others who occupy arcane positions in the byzantine heirarchy of monetary priests, I am astounded by the similarity between finance and god.

There are those prophets that predict what the whimsy of the divine will produce on the morrow, and there are humble clerics who will hear your sins and offer you credit as redemption. They will also condemn you for not paying on time, and demand the hail-maries of increased interest.

Money has not necessarily become our god, but we have definitely established a priesthood around it. Now that I understand this fact, and I have become acquianted with how to treat money in my own mind, I find myself in ever-increasing possession of it. If I can make an extra three grand in commissions this year, I will break $100k for the first time in my life. I thank the energy of money that is flowing through me, and I luxuriate in its bounty.