Last night I was in the midst of a heated debate over
whether or not it was proper to charge customers for spiritual services. Some
believe since we’re given this “gift from the Gods,” it should never be used to
charge money for.
Some believe we would be seen as charlatans stealing
people’s money from the side of the road, swindling the customer out of
hundreds of dollars, convincing them they have a "curse" that has to
be lifted, and only can be lifted by them! This is a justifiable concern as
there are many would-be rip offs out there operating as practitioners. However,
let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater because not everyone who
charges for their services are trying to rip people off.
One young pagan claimed her “spirits” told her she
couldn’t charge for services and her mother agreed with this sentiment.
As magicians we want to go out and save the world. We
feel we do our part by helping people put their lives together until… that
certain someone comes along and bulldozes everything over, despite our best
intentions. There are also those clients who go from practitioner to
practitioner with a sob story begging for free services even though several
reputable practitioners have either worked on their no-win situation or told
the person no.
When you don’t place a value on your OWN work, others
won’t either. Every once in a while you’ll come across the regular John Doe who
doesn’t know anything about magic who is in a rough spot in his life but is
still stubborn enough that he refuses to do what you tell him he needs to.
When you do free spells for a guy like this, he will
have a mindset that devalues your work and will continue to badger you to help
him out. How can you help out someone who doesn’t believe? Why should you in
the first place? If he believes, he should part with some green. It is the
greatest equalizer we have in society today. Money talks, bullshit walks. Get
it?
You try your very best to help John Doe. You make
potions for baths, perfumes, oils, incense, powders, sprays in an effort to
help him increase his luck, money & success. Nada. He doesn’t believe.
You’re out the cost of the ingredients as well as the time putting all this
together. What’s your free time worth to you? Mine is expensive!
The other, darker side of the coin is when you invite a
client into your home to do work on him at your altar. He’s waiting in front of
your altar and you get a phone call. While you’re off answering the call, Mr.
Doe is busy drinking liquor out of the bottles on your Spirit’s shrines,
pocketing cash from your shrines and altars and helping himself to whatever
else he can.
You want to put up with all of that headache for no
money?
There is an interesting proviso that happens when a
person reneges on their agreement to pay and/or steals from the Spirits. All
the work I’ve done unravels and the person will be much worse off than they
were.
In case you’re wondering, yes, I had a client treat me
like this after I did all I could to help him out while he was down and out on
his luck. No charge to him but he ripped me off good. Now, his life has turned
to shit and he’s facing serious jail time over potent criminal charges.
I feel if we devalue our services to the world by
giving them away, then people will begin to act like this guy did and attempt
to screw over every practitioner they come across. Not sure about you but I am
tired of being taken advantage of. It’s a no win situation and my Spirits do
not appreciate the hassle either. Frankly, if you wish to work for free, I can
send you all the clients who are only interested in free work that you can
handle.
Me? I’ll still continue to charge, collect and feed my
Spirits properly. Thanks for reading.
~ Priestess
Lilith
1 comment:
Good article. I think the assumption that services should be free is just a matter of obsolete thinking. At one time the shaman, priest/ess, healer, or whomever was part of a tightly knit tribe who all looked out for one another. The hunters hunted, the mothers tended babies, the young assisted the elders with daily tasks, the warriors protected the tribe, and the magick men and women guided, counseled, and provided spiritual services. As it was an RBE (Resource based economy) and the tribe members all engaged productively for the good of the whole tribe, money and/or compensation was not an individually-based consideration. You did your job and pulled your weight, there was food and drink, shelter and a place at the bonfire for you. You failed or lazed off, the tribe showed you to the woods and bid you best of luck on your own.
These days our societies are not structured this way. Everything is abstracted through the monetary system and compensation for work is an individually-based consideration. So yes, if we still had these tightly-knit RBE tribes it would be legit to consider services for "free" because they really wouldn't be free, it would be more a socialized RBE where you got every OTHER service from the rest of the tribe in return. Nowadays we do it through the money system, so it makes perfect sense to charge for services. You've got overhead and you're putting in significant time and effort to produce a positive result for your client. There are some people who think counselling should be free as well. All these people are really doing is saying they don't value the service.
It did take me awhile to come to this thinking myself though. I started off as one of those with a default position that this is sacred and you don't commodify or monetize the sacred. Also if anyone wants to use me to "order a hit" on someone supernaturally, they'd better be prepared to pony up the five figure sums that worldly assassins get for such deeds. That's MY KARMA you're leasing, buddy!! (I'm joking here, but making a point.)
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