Kabbalah and Prosperity part 2.

Applying the aspects of the ten Sefirot of the Tree of Life positively to your financial beliefs and actions will give you enough information to begin to experience lasting prosperity. Some Sefirot will not be a problem for you; others may represent big challenges. However, even if you just apply some of the suggestions below, your financial situation should improve. The good news is that prosperity work also has a knock-on effect in the rest of our lives too — and on the lives of those around us. Prosperity work is never selfish — you cannot teach the world the spiritual laws of prosperity unless you understand them yourself.

Keter: Acknowledge The Higher Source.

Money, like everything else in this world, comes from God. God is the source of our supply and, if we are not abundant, it’s all too easy to blame God or to believe that It doesn’t want us to be rich rather than the inner resistance which is blocking our good.

A God that allows us choice in everything is constantly offering us the good option as well as the bad. Align ourselves with the Law and good will come; disobey the Law and we get uncomfortable. We think, subconsciously, that God didn’t invent money; and, therefore, it can’t have anything to do with God. But money is energy – which comes from God – and we humans decided to use this energy in order to make things fair rather than unfair.

For example: one man has a pig and another has chickens. They trade: a haunch of the pig for a year’s supply of eggs. One year the pig dies but the first man still needs the eggs, so he offers a token to promise that next year he will give two haunches of pig instead of the usual one, as long as he can still have the eggs.

That is all that money is; an agreement of trade between two people.

Our fear over money works in the same way that we fear God. We think we’ll get shouted at for letting the pig die in the first place and then, when we’ve continued having the eggs for an extra year, we resent giving the second haunch of pig.

If we fear God and don’t think we are worthy of Its love then we will also fear money for exactly the same reason. Fear attracts exactly what is feared so if we focus on lack we will create it but if we focus on prosperity we will create that instead.

When people leave conventional religion for the New Age, their finances often take a terrible tumble – because there is frequently a deep inner belief that they cannot do what they love and prosper. This comes from the conviction that ‘truly spiritual’ people are poor and that if you want to demonstrate that you are good, you have to struggle. It’s the hair-shirts and bread-and-water syndrome; beat yourself up physically and mentally; live in the humiliation of not being able to pay the bills and the soul becomes cleansed.

Kabbalah teaches that God loves us all. You can be a multi-millionaire or live on the streets and God will still love you equally as well. Who and whatever you are, you are a vital component in God’s Cosmic Plan. Without you, the plan would fail so you are infinitely precious to God.

God is constantly offering abundance with every breath you take. If you can’t see that – and you want to do so – you need to switch an angle in your psyche. And that’s where Hokhmah comes in.

 

Hokhmah: Step Out Of The Wave.

You can create revolution through revelation!

We live in a world of bad news, soap operas, grumbling, gossip and TV celebrities. None of that is real but the more attention we give to it, the more destructive it becomes.

Of course, we need to be notified if there is real danger around; but, every day on Earth, more than five billion people get through 24 hours without any major crises whatsoever.

Most ‘bad news,’ such as the death of someone we love, is incredibly private and needs to be addressed in peace and comfort. So why do we avidly watch other people’s distress? What are we creating by default when we do?

Negativity is catching. It’s common practice to be cross when a utilities bill comes in and has to be paid – but the truth is that you’ve been given all that power on credit because the company trusts you to be prosperous enough to pay. They have faith in you.

To prosper, change the energy. Thank the power company for supplying you. Bless the cheque you write to pay them. Stop reading the paper and watching the news wherever possible; avoid soap operas full of angst and watch movies with happy endings. Choose how you want to live your life instead of letting the outside world live it for you.

The choice is ours: we can live life consciously and make positive decisions based on free will which will draw good times towards us – or we can live life by default and be drawn into the culture of fear and negativity which is predominant around us.

 

Binah: Understand How You Got Where You Are.

The odds are that you got there by living life by default – and by believing what your religious tradition, your parents and teachers taught you.

Understanding comes when we realise that the Universe is totally neutral and if we bemoan our poverty, lack of relationship, boredom and irritation, Cosmic Law will just assume that, as we are focusing our attention on those things, we want more of them. And it will hand out more very happily.

The real problem about money is the projections that we put on it. Where there seems to be an issue about money, it is actually more likely to be a problem about self-worth, anger, grief, about childhood experiences of conditional love or about an authority issue.

It is important too to look at the religious training you may have received about money and wealth. Re-reading holy texts for yourself may help to alleviate that. Both the Old and New Testaments in the Bible teach many prosperity secrets.

We have already mentioned Jesus of Nazareth but Moses and the Israelites of the Exodus had treasure given to them by the people of Egypt when they left. This treasure built the Tabernacle which was later transformed into the inner sanctum of the Jewish Temple. They also had Manna from Heaven – everything they needed every day of their lives on the way to the Promised Land – and that is the secret of true prosperity.

The Buddha certainly renounced the riches of being a prince but they were just clutter to him — not true abundance. He was not poor; he chose the middle path – having tried both the ascetic life of self-denial and the life of riches and royalty. Mohammed was inundated by people giving him riches and houses.

It is always worth investigating the inner truths of all religions…they usually tell you only to take as much as you need — and that means enough to pay your bills and to live peacefully so that you are able to be happy and to grow. It does not mean that you have to be poor.

 

Hesed: Giving.

Many people in spiritual work are great givers and poor receivers. However, the great spiritual disciplines of the world suggest quite a different kind of giving from the one we generally understand.

There are three levels of Giving in Kabbalistic teaching (in the Bible, they are known as Tithing). They go in this order:

1/ Give to God.

2/ Give to yourself for celebration.

3/ Give to others.

Most people work on a different order; they give to other people first and foremost, themselves next and God (or their spiritual growth) last. Some people go even further and refuse to give to themselves at all. This results in Cosmic Law doing the same for them.

How do you give to God? The old way was to give to the Temple because that donation paid the priests whose job was to remind the Israelites of the wonders of the Oral Teaching. You gave as a thanks-offering to God for guidance in how to live your life. Nowadays, people who tithe give their money to sources of spiritual inspiration – whether it is a church, a group or an individual person. It is very important to ensure that this tithe is not charity – it is not given to support good works but as an acknowledgment of inspiration received.

Tithing is popular in the United States of America where many of the big corporations were founded by families which tithed regularly. These include the Kraft, Colgate, Heinz and Rockefeller families and they have all spoken publicly of their belief that putting God first financially had prospered their businesses. When people criticised his wealth, John D. Rockefeller would say: ‘God gave me my money.’[1]

You can also give to God by putting your spiritual growth first. So, to prosper, it helps to ensure that you give yourself time and backing to be who you really want to be – before you take care of others.

It is worth checking how often you pay the bills before you buy yourself a bunch of flowers or a bottle of wine. If you pay the bills first and neglect yourself, that good old Karmic Law kicks in again and Cosmic Law just thinks you want bills and debts to be more important than you are – and keeps on giving you more of them. It’s about balance; don’t neglect your obligations but value yourself too. It can take a few months of practising this to change the tide, but it will happen.

 

Gevurah: Clear Out The Clutter.

The word ‘possession’ is an interesting one. Do you possess your possessions or do they possess you? If your happiness depends on physical objects then it may lead to financial, emotional and even physical problems. The balance is about having beautiful things in your life which you can let go of any time you need to do so – rather than having your possessions owning you.

You can also have a cluttered mind to the extent of focusing on a particular belief which is addictive and exclusive (a form of psychological possession).

Jesus of Nazareth was an itinerant preacher, wise enough in the Laws of Prosperity to know that everywhere he went he would be taken care of, fed and offered a bed for the night. He could manifest whatever he wanted wherever he was (including the money to pay his taxes); he was a Master and those who followed him were in training to be the same. They couldn’t just stay in one place and they couldn’t carry their possessions with them.

Clutter-clearing is all the fashion nowadays and people do realise that holding on to old pictures, letters, ornaments etc. means that they are also holding on to the emotions around them. It may not be tactful to throw out the vase that Auntie June gave you but if every time you see it you think of how much you dislike it – or her – then it isn’t doing either of you any good.

It is important to be kind to yourself while you clear stuff out; some people do it in one fell swoop and others need to do it slowly and gently. Get a good friend to help; they’ll be more dispassionate than you about what needs to go and what doesn’t.

Tiferet

The Tiferet ‘secret’ is to look for beauty – where you find that, you will also find truth. The poet Keats summed it up in his Ode on a Grecian Urn:
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’

The best way to find beauty is to acknowledge everything good that we already have and are – doing that helps us to find our true self.

Being grateful for what we have is a very powerful way of applying Cosmic Law – even if the idea of it does make you wince because your Grandma was always saying, ‘Count your blessings, dear!’

Firstly, it shows the Universe that you are focusing your mind on the kind of things you truly want as opposed to concentrating on the things that you don’t  want. Secondly, it helps you re-member yourself. Thirdly, it helps you to work out what in your life you don’t want to focus on any more.

If you want fast results, write out 100 things you are grateful for every night for a week. They can be the same things or different ones or a mixture of the two. To make it easier, you can start with the five senses. Try saying ‘Thank You’ for:

• Ten things you enjoy looking at
• Ten things you enjoy listening to
• Ten things you enjoy touching or feeling
• Ten things you like to eat
• Ten lovely scents.

The gratitudes can be for things as small and simple as you like – even a cup of tea or the sight of sunshine on leaves.

 

 

Nezach: Action For Manifestation.

Kick-starting Prosperity takes action; you can theorise as much as you want but unless you start doing the work, nothing much will happen. Affirmations are useful – they are positive statements in the present tense which inform and instruct the Universe what you want in your life. Instead of saying ‘I haven’t enough’ try affirming ‘My income is constantly increasing and I prosper wherever I turn.’ It may not be true when you start but it can become true if you give it enough attention.

A wonderful Nezachian way to start changing negative prosperity to positive abundance is to create a Prosperity Wheel or Treasure Map; you may have heard of these through Catherine Ponder, Shakti Gawain or other spiritual teachers. (fig 7:2)

Take a large piece of coloured card (apparently green or gold works best for finances, pink for love and blue or white for intellectual/educational desires) and put a smiling picture of you in the centre, at Tiferet. Then surround yourself with wonderful colour pictures of whatever you want to bring into your life – or what you want to maintain or develop – and add the spokes of the wheel to draw the experiences to you. Put the wheel up on the wall and look at it morning and night.

It is a simple way of applying Law. To apply Kabbalistic principles, you can put pictures of what you want at the appropriate levels around you

• Keter/Hokhmah: Images of sources of inspiration and delight.
• Binah: Images of your own particular favourite tradition.
• Hesed/Nezach: Images of love, romance and health.
• Gevurah/Hod: Images of the perfect job and money.
• Tiferet: An image of You looking happy.
• Yesod/Malkhut: Images of home and luxury.

Two words of warning: the Universe can be very literal in its interpretation of Law, so take care what you ask for – you may get it. One woman put up a picture of herself holding her brother’s baby son, asking for better family relationships – and she was pregnant within six months. And, obviously, don’t ask for things that are not your business or which would cause hurt to others.

You also need to add the ‘Universal Disclaimer.’ This is really important because it moves the intention to the realm of Grace rather than just personal desire:

These things or better now manifest for me in easy and pleasant ways for the highest good of all concerned.

This makes sure that you draw to you abundance which is yours by Divine right and takes nothing away from others that belongs to them. It also ensures that you don’t get a big payout as a result of injuring yourself. There is a true story of a man who, when on holiday and enjoying himself wonderfully, said ‘For two pins, I’d stay here another month.’ After the next day’s skiing accident, which resulted in two pins in his ankle, he did stay there another month to recover. Idle words create just as much as intentional ones.

Hod: Monitoring Your Progress

It is very easy to let your finances slip through your fingers through lack of attention. Make sure that you check your bank statements; read the meter instead of going on estimates; find out if you can have a free financial review from your bank.

Make sure that you aren’t paying out standing orders or direct debits which are out of date; check that all your due payments come in and that you don’t pay too much tax. Make sure you keep in good communication with people over financial matters; tell the bank or whoever ahead of time if you are likely to go overdrawn. If you do that, you get offered a lot more help on Earth which will filter through to the Higher Worlds.

Keep a journal of your prosperity work; have a ‘Gratitudes Book’ where you can write your thanks for every day and make an ‘elimination list’ of things you want the Universe to remove from your life. You may make some interesting discoveries.

Work out exactly what you would spend £1000 on, £100,000, or £1,000, 000. If you don’t know why you want that money it’s even harder for Cosmic Law to see why it should arrange for you to win the lottery.

 

Yesod: Clean Up Your Image.

We live in a world where everyday life is ruled by Yesod and the Law works for personal appearance just as much as for what is in your heart. It notes what you wear and where you pass your time. The choice is up to you; but you will get better prosperity results from eating just one course in at a four-star restaurant than you will in going to McDonalds a dozen times. If you want abundance; you have to align yourself with it so the Universe agrees that it is where you belong.

‘It is a mark of insincerity of purpose to spend one’s time in looking for the sacred Emperor in the low-class tea-rooms’. The Wallet of Kai Lung, Ernest Bramah.

So go where your purpose is. If you feel broke and it is a special occasion that you want to mark, choose brunch at a good hotel rather than dinner at a place that doesn’t inspire you.

Wear clothes that are smart (whatever the fashion). It is true that one good quality suit and two good shirts is worth a dozen cheap fashionable outfits. If you are into the New Age, then consider carefully the image that you put out. Be aware that to others you may just look impoverished or weird rather than wise and spiritual if you wear floaty bright dresses or cheesecloth shirts. The everyday world’s Yesod exists and it does make snap judgments whether we like it or not. The great task of the Kabbalist is to be ‘in the world but not of it’ and that means fitting in where it’s necessary – like if you want to get that job. You are not compromising yourself; you are accepting what is and agreeing to work with it; you can attempt to change things, if you want to, once you are inside.

It is not about trying to make yourself something that you are not or about showing off or being vain; but about showing your true value to the world in a way that it can be observed by others.

Another thing which may be blocking your prosperity at the level of Yesod is your attitude to those who already are prosperous. Do you envy rich people? What do you think other people would think of you if you were rich? Do you think that some people have no right to their wealth or that they misuse it? Do you snarl when you see someone in a BMW or feel jealous when you see someone who in your view has very little talent, paraded all over a magazine, showing off their wealth? Do you refer to the ‘fat cats’ when you read about rich businessmen and women?

If so, then you are likely to push your own prosperity away because you are demonstrating a subconscious belief that you, too, would be envied or disliked for being rich. What goes around comes around and your feelings towards others will reflect back to you. That is a good excuse for not becoming wealthy.

It may be that you would use riches in a better way than other people but remember, you do not know the full story. Quit the judgment as soon as you can and allow others to be happy in their wealth. Then you too have a greater chance of being admired rather than despised when you are wealthy too. A good way of transforming this energy is to observe the rich and famous and say to yourself quietly: ‘Good for you. And it’s good for me too.’

 

Malkhut: Receiving

Most of us think this should be the easy part. ‘Just watch me spend my lottery winnings!’ you might say. But you might be surprised how much subconscious resistance has been trained into us when it comes to receiving

Take a look at your everyday attitudes. If someone gives you a compliment, for example, what is your reaction? If they say they like your outfit, do you say: ‘Oh this old thing!’ If they say you look good, do you say you feel lousy? If they say they admire you, do you make a face and a self-deprecating remark? Cosmic Law hears you — and will acknowledge that you don’t want to receive compliments; and, therefore, by logic, you won’t want to receive anything else.

Take a good look at how you receive what you are given physically, too. Will you let someone buy you a cup of coffee at the office without insisting on giving them the money every time? Even more, will you let them get you a coffee — or are you always getting the coffee for everyone else? When someone gives you a present that you really like, do you ever say ‘you shouldn’t have’?

Why shouldn’t they have? They wanted to make you happy.

Not to receive anything, whether it’s a compliment or a gift, is to deny the person who gives it to you the opportunity of giving. That is really quite unkind. Why should you be the only one who always has the blessing of being the giver? To be a giver, someone has to receive. Maybe it is your turn.

Also, to deny the truth of what other people are saying is to deny them. You are effectively telling them that their opinion is valueless if they think you are good looking and you tell them that you are not. They have the right to have you respect their opinion.

If you genuinely belief that they are telling a lie – then call their bluff. You can still receive the compliment; the rest is their problem for trying to deceive you.

The whole secret to Kabbalistic prosperity is to realise that the issue is between God and you; nobody else. God is the active, giving principle when it comes to energy; it is up to us humans to select and receive the amounts and the types of energy that we want. Using our knowledge of the Tree of Life, we can do just that.

[1] Source: Open Your Mind To Receive, Dr Catherine Ponder, De Vorss