SHOULD WE PAY FOR SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE?

QUESTION
I am writing to you from New York, to thank you for the wonderful "Musings" sections on your website, which I've enjoyed reading little by little whenever I have the time; I especially appreciated your description of the Hermit past life regression! 

My question is whether you have any tips for performing one's own Vision Quest or Past Life regression -- is it possible, or safe, to embark on such a quest alone, without a guide? 

You've outlined the basic components for "getting on the Spiritual Internet" (in your Spiritual Healing Principles article), but most of your case histories are about individuals whom you've guided through the process (not "do it yourselfers", like me). 

I have a strong desire to develop more spiritually, to help others, and to write fiction. In the past 4 years, since my mother's death, my psychic abilities have developed quickly -- I've become a Tarot reader, am working with crystals, learning astrology, experiencing sporadic interactions with spirit entities, etc.…. 

I would like to open up more, go deeper, and develop my gifts and abilities. However, I have strong reservations about charging (or being charged) for spiritual guidance. 

I realize that the question of money is a very personal issue, and I respect other "Light Workers" positions when it comes to making a living, being compensated for their time, knowledge and energy, etc. But personally, I perform Tarot readings on a donation basis, because I feel that the question of $ interferes with the clarity of my vision, and it also seems discriminatory to refuse to help someone if they can't pay -- as if only people who are well-off can receive spiritual guidance. 

This brings me back to the question of being my own guide, since I don't currently have the means to pay someone to help me, and would probably have an issue doing so even if I could afford it.  Any advice, insights, or thoughts on this question would be highly appreciated! With all due sincere respect! 

 

WOLFGANG
The role of the light worker has not been defined by tradition in the Western world because it is a new phenomenon.  Traditionally in western Christianity we have the role of the pastor, the monk, the exorcist, the saint and the psychologist.  These people are in a loose sense the respectable healers.  Most of them do not cover the much wider spectrum of services provided by the modern light worker. The pastor, monk and exorcist all get supported by institutional religious organizations and do not have to worry about any income, but the institution will ask for contributions in general. The psychologist charges by the hour.  So nothing here is for free though it is considered spiritual. 

There is another group of light workers in Western tradition, but they are not considered respectable. They are treated in a way like prostitutes, a lot of people would takes their services, but rarely admit to it, because it is in a way considered shameful and definitely non Christian.  

Actually the Christian Church murdered and tortured a lot of them in the past.  All in the name of the love of Christ and the pope has not even apologized for it yet. This sleazy lot of light workers were the gypsy, wise woman, witch, astrologer and magician.  Most of these people were either paid for the freelance work or traded in chickens and eggs, so to say, by the poor.  Some of them had regular occupations that guaranteed survival, and some were full time pros. They probably helped out their friends and those in dire need for free, but their time and effort was generally rewarded with more than with mere sweet words.

In India yogis or sadhus are fed for the asking or even without asking, though they are expected to live very ascetic.  Great respect is given to them and I had my feet touched or kissed many times as a sign of veneration and respect.  Traditionally, if you wanted to learn from a guru you had to render years of service to him, to finally gain his secret knowledge.

If you go to some priest, who is mostly supported by the temple, you better give a good donation to get his blessings or have him perform a puja for you.  Otherwise you do the praying for yourself.  So also here there are no freebees. 

As per the shamans in tribal societies, they probably hunted and gathered for them selves when they could. They were surely supported by the tribal members for services rendered and time spent on ceremony instead of getting food.  You would give a blanket, food or gathered fire wood to show your appreciation. 

Without a shaman the tribe was without guidance from the spirit world or without a healer and that was considered dangerous.  Of course there were also spiritual sister- and brotherhoods that could fulfill some of these rolls, but in general traditional people somehow supported their light workers. 

Of course times have changed.  In the modern world one needs a car, insurance, living quarters, food from a store, etc.  In short, there is a monthly overhead of money to be raised or one becomes homeless.  Most people have to work 8 hours a day to make ends meet.  And giving a blanket or a leg of venison to your local healer will not do. This being said lets consider different scenarios: 

Let us assume I work 8 hours a day to bring home the proverbial vegetarian bacon.  You come to me and want my help lets say for 2 hours.  You want my time for free because it is spiritual and should be given freely to a stranger.  Is that is what you think? 

In no tradition spiritual gifts are given for free, so where does this idea come from, that a light worker should give freebees?  I will have to take 2 hours away from my son, my garden, my physical exercises, meditation and my other routines like cooking, cleaning or recreation.  

But you are not the only one.  Most people have serious problems und unnecessary suffering and they are poor and I could help them.  How much time should I take from my family away to serve strangers?  Do you expect me and my family to turn my household into a monastery, living on the bare minimum of life, so that we can help you? 

Also by the same logic, do you expect a car mechanic to get your car fixed for free just because you are poor and will suffer a lot without a car?  Maybe you could do my laundry or mow the lawn and clean the house, but a just exchange of energy seems to be the fair thing to do.  Otherwise you are a beggar asking for free handouts of time, energy and expertise from strangers without performing any austerities yourself.  

The system has always been one of a fair energy exchange and one of practical respect given for services rendered.  And because in most cases we cannot barter money is being used. 

You may say: “Wolfgang, God has given you a gift and you are charging me as much as a car mechanic.  Are you trying to make easy money off me?”  Fair question: 

First of all, I gave up a very well respected, paid and rewarding material career for my spiritual gifts.  I was voluntary celibate and meditated 2 to 4 hours a day for 12 years.  I slept on a hard stone floor with a $2 straw mat for 6 years and worked for free (Karma yoga) at a time when other people make a career and pay their house mortgage off. Now I have hardly any retirement funds for my old age and do work very humble jobs due to missing time.  I fasted from food and water, did sleep deprivations and performed all kinds of austerities that brought me to my present level of understanding. 

Even if I get paid it is probably not enough. 
   - Too many times my family got attacked by dark forces, because I interfered with their plans. 
   - Most of the time I have to feel my client’s misery before it is transformed and healed.  And believe me, this is very unpleasant. 
   - Sometimes I feel like a plumber being arm deep in people’s emotional poop.
   - On occasion I absorb people’s pain and have to carry and transmute it for days or weeks before it is gone. 
   - I carry my client’s issues around with me as if they were my children’s.  So I spend more time on the job, than what I am being paid for.
   - Also this work takes a lot of life force, limiting me to 2 sessions a day.   

Of course it is extremely rewarding to permanently change the life of my clients for the better.  There is a lot of love flowing through me and huge amounts of energy.  There is the support of the Universe in every healing or teaching. And of course I feel compassion for people, having experienced a wide variety of suffering myself.  That is why I try to give to the world as much as I can.  My spiritual musings are my attempt to gift the world.  Momentarily I am working on free videos so people can try to help themselves through guided meditations, but that will never come close to a personal session for many reasons.   

I can only make a cookie cutter guided meditation. Follow a certain pattern, point you in the right direction, but I cannot address specific issues as they come up.  Some issues can be dealt with in a blanket way, but there are so many possibilities with most issues that they cannot be all addressed.  

Lets say your biggest trauma comes from a past life where you where tortured by the inquisition.  So you find yourself in a past life getting poked and singed.  How do you deal with that?  Would you see or look for draconian demons implanting you with all kinds of cordings while you are wide open due to the traumatization?  Even if you see it, what would you do about it?  Would you have the presence of mind to ask your spirit guides or Jesus or other divinities for help and advice?  Would you even know what to ask for?  Do you know how to clear implants?  Would you keep a clear head or turn into a sobbing piece of misery?  Can you switch from intuition to rational thought while in an altered state?  Do you know what to do if your Kundalini goes off? 

After receiving my first past life regression I ventured out, experimented and walked many paths by myself.  It still is very difficult for me, even after many years of mental discipline, yogic training and vast metaphysical studies to look at my own stuff.  It is easier to see the splinter in someone else’s eyes than the beam in your own.  You will have to overcome avoidance behavior, personal bias, and inexperience.  Yes, you can do it alone, but it is like reinventing the wheel. It is much easier with a guide.  

My advice for you is: save enough money for a 1 ½ hour session.  I will work with you on a discount, but I have been burned on donations.  I will show you how to talk to your guides, sub-personalities, how your higher self feels like, how to deal with trauma and how to channel love.  Once you have experienced the basics (initiation) you can invoke protection, guidance, etc. and start exploring by yourself.  That is what I did.

 

QUESTION
When I wrote you my 1st e-mail, asking for tips, I wrestled with the decision of whether or not to mention the whole monetary issue; I was afraid of opening that can of worms! But in the end I felt it was necessary to "go there", in order to explain why I wanted to embark on a solitary spiritual journey in the 1st place. I really, really did NOT want to make it seem like I was asking for a freebie; if anything, one of my faults is an excessive sense of pride, especially when it comes to someone else dealing with my spiritual poop, as you put it.  

Yes, you can use my e-mail on your site to discuss the payment questions it has brought up, with one condition: writer to writer, I am asking that you cover this issue in a balanced way. Even though I've chosen not to work in the journalism industry, I have a BA in Print Journalism from USC, and this educational background has left a strong imprint on me both as an individual, and a writer. One of the 1st lessons we learned in journalism school, was the concept of balanced reporting; we were always expected to fairly present both sides of a story or issue, even if we personally didn't agree with one of them.  

As I read about your background, I was struck by what a rich, rewarding journey you've been on -- all the interesting places you've seen, and wonderful people you must have met along the way! In a sense, the journey can be seen as its own destination, its own reward. And my questions to you, which I'd love to see explored on your site, are: 

   - When you left the "regular" job, trading it for an unconventional path of spiritual exploration, did you ever suspect that you were, in a sense, giving up financial security? 

   - If someone had told you then, in the beginning, that the spiritual journey was not likely to be a financially rewarding course -- though it was obviously extremely rich in other ways -- would this condition have altered your path?

   - Does fate or karma ever compensate you in other, unexpected, ways? 

In preparing to write this message, I worried about how to respond to this "monetary compensation" issue, and so I did a small Tarot spread, asking the question: 

How should I respond to the discussion I've started with Wolfgang, regarding donations versus payment for spiritual aid?
I used the Tarot of Prague deck, and drew the following 3 cards: 

8 Swords, Tower, Hermit

What immediately jumped out at me in this spread, is that the Hermit is turning away from the trauma and chaos of the preceding 2 cards. This is reinforced elementally, since the Hermit's Earth element in ill-dignified, compared to the preceding Air & Fire. If we think of the Hermit archetype as encompassing, for example, Jesus Christ or Buddha consciousness, the idea of them turning AWAY from those in need is simply incomprehensible! 

Thank you for explaining to me why it is necessary to have a helper, or guide, for the type of spiritual purification & growth that I desire. Again, my sense of pride would shudder at the thought that I "owe" someone, that I am indebted. If your offer to guide me still stands, please know that I would not forget this debt, and would compensate you as soon as I could.  

 

WOLFGANG
As a card reader you deal with other peoples spiritual poop too. Our roles could be reversed, so nothing personal here.  During my time at the new age store I have never seen any readers making good money.  They were more like priests and priestesses having to live very austerely to make their services available.  Most readers were exactly that in their past lives.  But they had to struggle.  Was that due to old poverty vows that were still having an effect or was it that institutional religion had replaced their services with kooky cutter solutions? Is the modern light worker the equivalent of the mom and pop store that gets ruined by the Walmart religion? 

Personally my desire to help people got me into a lot of trouble, when I tried to help people that were not ready to hear.  I had to learn the hard way to discern who was ready and on what level.  So I was never out for money to begin with.  I actually found it most rewarding when I became an instrument for spirit.  Wisdom would flow from my mouth and I could transmit all the energy and love that was needed, as long as I came from the heart and not the mind or ego. 

I also observed that every time I helped in an unconditional way I got rewarded with gifts which came in the form of spiritual revelations, magical moments or material things that gave me great satisfaction.  Of course there is always bliss right at the time of coming from the heart.  This rarefied love I experience at those moments is the morphine that makes it bearable for me to feel the pain of my fellow human when they descend into the dark pits of human trauma to recognize and release it.  Those field trips into the underworld would not be possible without the protection of love. 

Through deep suffering the shaman/healer/light worker is forced to find ways of healing to get relief, liberation, mukti.  The seeker learns to heal himself, therefore can help others and receives further healing, while healing others.  That is also one of the spiritual rewards.  That is the whole idea with Mahayana Buddhism compared to Nihayana.  Those Tibetan monks are bliss boys compared to the Sri Lanka monks, I have seen them both, haha. ( I am generalizing) 

It is good that you feel pride and not wanting to owe anything.  If you feel guilty for not respecting the gifts you received, your payment would be much greater, not just mere dollars. You would pay by loving yourself less and cutting yourself off the love of others, because you would feel unworthy of love.  Feeling guilty is a sin because it separates one from the love of God.  I am not talking from dogma here but from direct experience, having seen so many lifetimes of my clients, having seen the horrifying effect of guilt, how it turns us into victims.  

Did I represent the other side sufficiently now?   

P.S.

I have to admit that I never paid for the spiritual guidance I received in cash.  I always felt entitled to free lessons because I gave it out for free whenever Spirit guided me.  Nowadays I bless people that I cannot pay in cash.  I ask volunteer angels, that work under unconditional love, to help them follow their heart and make their path a joyful adventure for the highest good, in divine harmony, with the most benevolent outcomes. 

Please understand:  Blessings for the highest good, in divine harmony with the most benevolent outcomes may be more worth than money, they cost you less dollars, you pay with sincere emotions and a focussed mind, and the regulatory oversight is manged by your conscience...........

Love and light 

Wolfgang

P.S.
QUESTION Received a "Vision Quest" style Skype session, where she talked to her late mother, among other initiations.  QUESTION gave advice on her area of expertise in exchange.  Wolfgang accepts love donations.