15 Money and Politics | The Almighty vs. the almighty dollar: Which do we trust?

Money is often the tool used to turn us into puppets of the dark forces.

While it may sometimes seem we are being pulled in all directions, there are really just two sides tugging on us at all times: the light side and the dark side. According to the Pathwork Guide, the dark forces use three main strategies with us: separation, confusion and materialism.

When we are under the spell of separation, the whole world is divided into “me vs. them.” We think we can win at life by taking what’s ours without concern for anyone else. In truth, we are all interconnected, so it’s not possible to take advantage of someone else without causing hurt to ourselves.

The second approach derives from our use of confusion, distortion and half-truths. By skillfully using “truth” where it doesn’t belong, we subtly twist it into a lie and then present it like it’s a flower. This creates untold confusion while leaving us, we think, smelling like a rose.

We’re seeing this form of evil mushrooming of late. Or perhaps we’re just getting wise to it and therefore seeing it in action so widely.

Last but not least, we can easily get ourselves wrapped up over money. The Pathwork lecture titled Three Principles of the Forces of Evil says that over the last few centuries, materialism has come on strong, severing our lifeline to the Spirit World and creating a global environment that lacks concern for nature.

We have isolated ourselves into our own limited reality, and too often we believe we can do everything just fine all on our own.

This shift has had some upside. Our technological progress has grown considerably. We also search a little more sincerely to discover how we are affecting our own fate.

Not coincidentally, the study of the human psyche has emerged. With a better understanding of psychology, we are now better equipped to explore our inner landscapes.

Where does all this leave us? For many, we feel stranded in a world of our own making that is disconnected from the greater truth and reality. We oftentimes feel isolated and unsure of who and what to believe, while at the same time locked in a vicious race for the almighty buck.

How money matters. And doesn’t.

This doesn’t make money evil, in and of itself. It’s a reality in this reality, even if it isn’t so beyond here. Money is a necessary ingredient for a typical life. While more money does add more amenities to our life, it is not the end-all-and-be-all of life.

If it is, we’re lost. Money can’t buy the one thing that fulfillment of a valid spiritual task will give us: a satisfying, deep-seated feeling of success.

If we think of money as a means to an end, we’re in good shape. It’s the same way with our health. Improving our health is valuable for improving our quality of life and allowing us to do more things, probably for longer, but focusing on it too much will likely make us a fanatic.

A more important consideration is motivation. Isn’t it true that we are more likely to turn to God when we are in crisis? Freedom from worries then can cause us to drift away from a spiritual path.

When we’re doing fine, who needs God, right?

This doesn’t mean that if we have material goods we need to give them away. But more often than not, if our life is blessed with bounty, we’re being tested to see if we will stay connected with the Spirit World of God. Or if instead we will get hooked by the temptation to think the world of matter is all that matters.

Our work is always to find the middle way regarding money. The way forward will be different for one who leans toward greed than it will be for one who spends carelessly.

Don’t forget, there are always two forces in play here on Earth. This means that everything and anything that is originally positive and constructive can get twisted into its evil twin. No surprise then, money is often the tool used to turn us into puppets of the dark forces.

What’s the perfect playground for money-centered games? Politics.

How democracy gets distorted, from all sides

The United States was officially formed as a republic, but can be viewed now as a capitalist democracy. The Pathwork Guide points out that, unlike other forms of government—such as a monarchy, socialism or communism—our current democratic system gives us more freedom of expression and the ability to create wealth through our own efforts.

At the same time, through its intended design, it lets us care for those who still need help along the way: those who aren’t—for whatever reason—yet up to the task of fully caring for themselves.

Now this doesn’t mean those who find themselves in the latter camp get all the same goodies as those in the former. But it also doesn’t mean that those who are investing more of themselves into their livelihood get to exploit those who are not.

Democracy is not intended to be a way to justify anyone’s power drive to be a ruler. If that’s what we want, we can go back to a monarchy, but bear in mind just how well that has gone historically.

Democracy brings with it the possibility of fusing together two sides of a duality. This is what makes democracy the most mature form of government to date.

What’s the catch? This also means that democracy is going to ask for more maturity from all its citizens.

The greatest risk of distortion in a democratic government is the abuse of power by a stronger few. That’s what’s happening when willful leaders create disadvantages for those who are their followers.

To be fair, when the followers refuse to take full responsibility for themselves, they naturally create disadvantages for themselves. They can effectively become parasites that live off society at the expense of others.

But when our leaders turn around and treat these people unfairly, exploiting them by amassing great wealth while the lower class of people are seriously struggling, the leaders have themselves become parasites. They are using the people for their own gain, while accusing them of being the leeches.

Rather than helping the people who need help, such misguided—and wealthy—leaders create valid reasons for the less productive or financially secure to be resentful and uncooperative. This leads to resistance, laziness, cheating and a general sentiment that life is unfair. And when people are victimized by greedy leaders, life truly is unfair.

In short, a democratic system can be abused from both sides.

Those who clamor for socialism blame the power structure for keeping them down and often want to become more parasitic.

On the other hand, those who are strong and diligent, who risk and invest, justify their greed and drive for power by blaming the parasitic nature of those who, they say, are lazy.

Freedom through self-responsibility

All in all, capitalistic democracy gives a country the greatest freedom, but it comes with a greater potential for people to abuse it. This means that the more developed a nation becomes—and therefore the more free—the more chance it has of becoming unstable.

But really, isn’t that the same thing going on inside each one of us?

We all want to be given enough freedom to run our own lives, but the danger is we will be tripped up by our own faults.

Self-responsibility, then, becomes the flag we all must carry.

Compassion must be the rod that holds it up.

Whether we are running a government or running our own lives, for us to succeed we are going to need to learn to weave together these two apparent opposites.

For that to happen, we will need to open a channel to God’s Spirit World, from which flows abundant guidance and support to help us learn to unite self-responsibility with compassion.

It’s not easy to learn to stand on our own two feet and avoid becoming a burden on our fellow-citizens. For some, this is our task and this is plenty.

But it’s worth it to see for ourselves that we can’t ride on the coattails of others. We would effectively be crippling ourselves into no longer feeling free. We might need to open our eyes to how we are doing this to ourselves.

For others of us who feel called to lead, our task may be to tap into that connection with the divine. This requires opening our hearts to our brothers and sisters and moving beyond the notion that we don’t need help. Current events, in fact, indicate that higher help is much needed.

This is no small thing. It takes courage for a leader to acknowledge that they regularly seek divine guidance. It’s also a lot to ask such leaders to admit that it’s not easy to put self-interest aside.

Good leaders must lead by example. For the most part, they are taking on a task that many followers, frankly, wouldn’t want. Sure, there are perks that come with the position, but likewise, much more is asked from such individuals.

In the end, the only way to pull ourselves out of the quagmire of finger pointing, truth blurring and insult firing is to pull together self-responsibility and compassion.

The work for all of us is to face our inner walls and destructive resistance. We bring down our walls by eliminating the untruth that pins them in place.

It’s these inner walls that block our channel to the divine; they do not serve the greater good. We can see an out-picturing of what their dismantling looks like where people have pushed hard for a better way to live.

Huge walls have come down as societies have slowly evolved.

Duality is a leaky container that can never hold a society together. Unity, on the other hand, lets us hold far more truth and wisdom than we currently know is possible. It calls us to be our better selves, but it can’t work with only half the picture—just the good half of life.

Unity requires that we bring our whole selves into balance. Then we can all come together to find new and broader perspectives. There can be rich rewards—both here and on the other side—if we are willing to work this way.