What role does money play in your life?

If you are like most people, money probably plays a very central role in your life. We can never seem to get enough of it – and isn’t it funny how quickly it comes and goes?

I recently spoke to my friend Davide De Angelis who is doing some amazing work with his latest product – an incredible range of Tarot products based on the life and work of David Bowie.

I invited Davide to write a few words for my readers outlining his journey and how he got here. This is what Davide had to say – hold tight for an amazing ride:-

There was a time when most of my waking hours were being shaped by a lack of money. At one point things became very grim indeed.

One day as my wife Esther and I sat scowling at each other, me clutching a court summons for unpaid tax and Esther brandishing a final demand from the electricity company, a vocal purging of dramatic proportions ensued: unspoken truths, secrets, buried anger and deep resentments flooded to the surface like an erupting volcano.

We had tried everything – borrowed money from family and friends, sold some old family jewellery and even researched some free tax tools. 

This is Shamanic Territory

The very real prospect of losing the roof over our heads, and the months of threats, final demands and petty humiliations around money had stripped us down to the bare metal.

Finally there was nothing covering up the energies and stories that were really shaping our lives.

In many ways this is shamanic territory because we get to look behind the curtain of falsehoods obscuring what we don’t want anyone – not even ourselves – to see. And in that super-present moment there is only a desire to pull down the curtain of falsehoods, to get honest, to throw anything that isn’t honest into the purifying flame of truth.

We literally escape the gravitational pull of what we have taken to be our self.

We Avoid it like the Plague

The business of getting honest about money (or anything else for that matter) is difficult and dirty work – that’s why we avoid it like the plague. But it’s the work that sets us free and opens new vistas.

The trick – if there is one – is to know that from inside our own fixed ideas about life we can’t even imagine what those new horizons might be. Those ideas need to collapse and it’s the ‘temporary’ discomfort and inconvenience that actually scares us.

It still makes me cry thinking of that day.

Two human beings with nothing left to cover their raw nerves, their vulnerability. It makes me cry because in the midst of a pit of despair, I discovered the unexpected presence of love.

I think we were more beautiful in that moment than I could have imagined possible, and out of the blue as the tears streamed down our faces I saw it.

I saw that once we let go of the lies holding a story about who we are together, we can get down to the real business of cherishing each other, loving each other.

Money is a Powerful Mirror

Money is a powerful mirror that reflects the tons of beliefs we mysteriously seem to be filled with.

Most of us are so full of conditioned reactions and old beliefs that there is no room for anything new to be entertained. The energy of Money reflects back the stories and countless meanings we have given to the circumstances we find ourselves in.

I repeat – it reflects back the stories and countless meanings we have given to the circumstances we find ourselves in. It’s worth giving this statement some consideration.

Money will Systematically Reveal all of our Deepest Fears

If we allow it to do its work, and pay attention instead of running away, the energy of money will systematically reveal all of our deepest fears about life: mainly that life is not safe and that there is something fundamentally wrong with us.

Importantly, it does its work regardless of how much or how little money you have.

A compulsion to accumulate money – far more than is needed – reveals the fear lurking beneath the surface in the same way that struggling for money does.

Most of us carry the belief that having more money will solve our problems and are surprised – shocked even – when we discover that the same old nagging worries about life are still present, even when we have more money!

Money – or perhaps more accurately our ‘idea’ of money gives us all an opportunity to examine what’s actually true for us.

In other words, money always presents an opportunity to know who we are in a remarkably intimate way; that is if we are open to this.

When we are able to see the F.E.A.R (false evidence appearing real) that has so shaped our lives, we are presented with the possibility of living with greater and greater freedom.

The Key is to Live a Life Where You Are Really Present

I remember hearing a saying, ‘We see the world through our beliefs not our eyes’.

This statement is something remarkable because it contains the key to living a life where you are really present to what’s actually going on.

I believe that ultimately this is compassion: you see that all the ideas and judgements that you have about yourself and others are simply not true – can never actually be true – and you become present to the flow of ‘finding out’ and discovering.

You are open to life in all its myriad shapes and forms. You no longer believe the stories your mind conjures up.

Part of the Healing Process

Strangely enough, in the way that flu symptoms are the healing mechanisms of the body and not directly created by the virus, the threats, final demands, petty humiliations and the court summons turned out to be part of the healing process.

They exist to show us what kind of life we’re creating by not knowing who we are and what’s true beyond our false beliefs.

I had said this very thing many, many times on workshops and in coaching sessions and yet on that day it was the first time I totally understood the principle.

The energy of money we see playing out in the world, its connection to forcing things and its connection to control and survival, is a symptom of us not knowing who we are on a massive scale.

We are taught to suppress symptoms and in so doing interfere with the healing process. A symptom is a sign that something is trying to heal: can you imagine what happens when we hold this distinction up to all the things that we think of as problems?

Not Knowing Who We Are is The Virus of Our Time

Not knowing who we are is the virus of our time and all the problems or symptoms we encounter such as spiralling debt, addictions, abusive relationships and poor health, are signs that we need to stop and ask the question:-

Who am I?

We assume the answer at the risk of our aliveness. We need to ask the question ‘Who am I’ as our eyes open in the morning, with a desire to really know, and let the answers we discover give birth to us.

I believe that we all want to be generous and loving, no matter how we may otherwise behave. Bringing this question to life is the activating principle. It’s certainly not a new question. In fact every experience is asking it. It is so present that we completely miss it.

This is Living Meditation

If you’ve never genuinely asked yourself this question, then I invite you to begin the process now. This is living meditation, the answer will arrive, no need to go searching.

What is your relationship with money inviting you to question?

What old beliefs (that were most likely not even yours in the first place) is your relationship with money inviting you to question and see past?

The Way Forward For You From Today

I guarantee that money is not what you think it is and it will help you see that you are not who you think you are. Look at your relationship with money and let it become your ally instead of the enemy.

The by-product of this enquiry is an ever-growing feeling of abundance.

I wish you all abundance and prosperity on your journey.

Your friend – Davide De Angelis