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Recently, I was, um, invited to participate in the ALS ice bucket challenge, the quirky and incredibly successful spontaneous viral outpouring of support to find a cure to a disease which has been well-known since 1939, but which still strikes down far too many people.  As of this writing, the ALS Foundation is reporting that the challenge has raised $106 million this summer, a pretty big bump from the $3 million in annual donations the organization is more used to seeing.

What strikes me about this phenomenon is that this is the kind of magical work that money is intended for.  Most of what I see discussed (and sold) in terms of money spells focus on, as one of my employers would put it, "Get that money, sucka."  There's a flaw in that thinking, one that reminds me of a couple of friends of mine who tried to start an internet marketing business just before the Great Recession.  The term internet marketing is (or maybe was) used to refer to a set of techniques used to find potential clients online (the "warm" market) and provide them with enough information that they would want to purchase your service.  The problem my friends ran into is that their coach was flummoxed when he found out what they wanted to market:  science lessons for curious children.  Everyone else in the internet marketing field, you see, was building web sites that marketed internet marketing businesses.

The Pagan savings challenge isn't just a way to get into the habit of saving, it's also a way to get in the habit of thinking about money magically.  Charged with energy, representing earth, moving from person to person, what can you do with this stuff?  Here's a hint:  there's more to money magic than "send me more money."

Do you make offerings to the money spirits?  Do you keep a money shrine?  If the answer is yes to either of those questions, how is that work similar to, or different than, tending other shrines and working with other spirits?

For all that I write about money, I've never summarized how I work with it, in a religious sense.  In part that's because I only set up a formal money shrine recently, and having that around has caused me to step up my game.  Here's a snapshot of my money practice as of today.  I'm actually hoping that I will come back and read this in a few years and be amazed by it.  Who knows, maybe this will chronicle practices that I will forget, and then reconstruct based upon my own ancient writings!

But even if the internet archaeologists don't find it interesting, I hope some readers will.

This morning, when I went to set aside this week's allotment for the Pagan savings challenge, I was faced with another sort of challenge:  I couldn't find the envelope with the money in it.  I was being practical, I thought, by not leaving it out in plain sight; even if robbers don't break into my home, out of sight is out of mind, so I will be less likely to spend it.

Note to self:  there's a very fine line between out of sight and out of sight.  It does me no good to not know where the money is in the first place!

My Pagan savings challenge post generated a lot of discussion on the Witches & Pagans Facebook page.  I thought it would be appropriate to share some of the questions and comments, in the form of a Q&A.

My posts in 2014 are finally going to start focusing on one of the most important money topics, debt.  However, before we talk about what we owe, I'd like readers to join me in expanding what we save.  I'm laying down the gauntlet:  can you raise as much energy as I?

Fans of the internet may be familiar with this post's graphic, which I believe originates here.  This is a simple, elegant way to save money, and one that should work well for Pagans.  If you're the sort that includes magic as part of, or in conjunction with, your worship, then as I said, it's simply raising energy so you can work your spell.  If your Pagan path has no truck with that sort of thing, pick an appropriate deity, force, or cause, and make this an offering.  I will continue to refer to it as raising energy, because you can just as easily use this energy for an offering as for magical work.

Spare change is one of my favorite forms of money, because it's just so obviously pulsing with energy, the elemental energy of earth.  Coins are often shiny, they have a weight that conveys value, and there is power in the jingling of money.  It's solid enough to decorate a bathroom, but it's also liquid enough to imagine swimming in it.

And pocket change seems linked to its own pocket universe, too.  Who hasn't searched the couch cushions for some?  A good cushion-hunt can mean clean laundry or a week's worth of ramen dinners for a college student.  On the other hand, coins can definitely burn a hole in your pocket; research shows that we don't like to spend big bills, and coins are the other end of the spectrum.