If it's ok, I'd like to preface this post by saying that I don't have an opinion on the subject yet and am exploring because of the interesting clues here and there.

Now, there seems to be a distinct difference between exercising a craft (ie. interpreting a chart or shoeing a horse or whatever) and teaching another to exercise that same craft.

Long before Linda mentioned this ancient idea, it existed..

Perhaps the apprenticeship system was a reflection of this? Perhaps guilds were formed so that the dues from apprentices would become the stipends of those who taught them?

I'm not sure. I do know that it must be an important thing to understand well if it was important enough for Linda to mention in her book.

Perhaps there is another way to discuss this that involves finding other examples of where this sort of non-cash payment taboo was or is practiced? Instead of going back and forth about what Linda said? (Not that what she had to say wasn't important, but all of these discussions seem to head south when "Linda's Laws" are brought into it. Everyone has their own slightly different interpretation of what Linda meant, it seems.)

Been pondering this for a long time. It'd be nice to hear what others have come up with.

Written in hope of a productive exchange,

daf

Personally, I cant see anything wrong with accepting money.

There may be some higher law I'm not aware of,
but, it seems to me that $ is just another form of energy.
Demonizing the dollar seems like the wrong way to go.

People accept money for all sorts of things that are not especially good for them,
and that is okay?, but accepting money for a service that delivers souls, --
this is supposed to be a bad thing?

I can see how it might be a prudent rule,
for the sake of weeding out the charlatans,
but I dont see how it can be a metaphysical law.

Linda's books taught astrology,
for which she was handsomely recompensed.

Why is that okay?

While more personal, direct forms are said to be wrong?

I just dont see it.

Also, it seems unfortuneate for a teacher to have to leave off teaching,
in order to earn a living wage by engaging in a less significant use of his/her time.

Anybody can make a stool, or milk a cow.

Not everybody can teach a spiritual discipline.

Teachers should teach, no?

I am ignorant about esoteric schools and why they might have that tradition but here is my instinctive reaction to this question. And I apologize if its not as well written or thought out as it should be; or if I've missed the gyst of it completely.

My initial reaction to the question rephrased -Should the teacher on the nature of reality charge his/her pupils for lessons?- reminded me of the 1960s hippie phrase:

"Fighting for peace is like f-----g for viriginity."

I wonder if a teacher on the nature of reality knows better than anyone that the human system of commodities (property and money, etc) is madness at its core?

Actually I feel fine paying for lessons on tried and proven methods to develop certain skills.

Yet in the highest sense and in a most perfect world I would hope for a teacher on the nature of reality to be motivated for the sake of the greater good (including his/her own welfare).

So perhaps a no commodity exchange is a way to both realize and remind the teacher and pupil of such an ideal? Reciprocation would be when the student takes on part of the responsibility towards the greater good, two rather than only one, and so on...

Imagines,

Those were my intuitive notions as well. I was going to respond earlier when you'd written more..but didn't quite have the words to express what I felt you'd touched on quite directly and logically. (That doesn't usually happen to me..the not having words thing.)

I've got to say, that the thoughts you almost shared, but decided not to at this time..were deeply moving to me. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, is any of it reconstructible that you might PM me with?

daf

Nice Guys!!!

It seems most folks quote Linda as saying never charge. That is not how I interpreted her words.
To quote her;
From STAR SIGNS
INTRODUCTION xxxiii

To quote Linda again:

So exactly what is half here? Before or after one has taken care of their own needs, taxes, car payment and other living expenses? Half the earned income of a minimum wage part time worker and a billionaire are not at all the same thing. A percentage would make more sense! A poor man's tithe is still a legitimate tithe...even though far far less than a billionaire's tithe. But a tithe is still a tithe. The poor man gives away 1/2 and remains poor. The billionaire barely notices by comparison. All his reasonable needs are met, unlike the poor man's. All above reasonable needs is pure indulgence!
The often quoted saying of hers is however:
INTRODUCTION xxxiii

Esoteric TEACHER....not service provider...
and STUDENT.....not client/customer.
Of which an Astrologer doing a reading, ie; performing a service, is not, nor is the client/customer receiving said services from the Astrologer a student.
Whereupon she goes on to state more odd things I consider to be contradictions; which has caused much confusion of the advice she gave.
INTRODUCTION xxxiii

Note: Some Spiritualist Churches and New Age Centers DO support their Astrologers and Readers in monetary ways.

to continue:
she said:

Astrologers doing readings are performing a "SERVICE".....as are any Readers or Councilors, or persons involved in a Provider of Service/Client arrangement. Such are NOT in an Esoteric Teacher/Student relationship! Why Linda chose to tie her own hands thusly, and to tell others this, eludes me. I see no Teacher/Student Relationship under those circumstances!
xxxiv INTRODUCTION

I found that to be a rather disturbing and self serving viewpoint. And oddly are contradictory in nature to her previous statement of the Teacher/Student relationship, where no money must pass hands between them. So...unless a person writes a book...whereby they do indeed become the "TEACHER"and the purchaser "$" of said book does indeed become the "STUDENT"....it is ok then because the publisher and seller take care of the money exchange between teacher and student? Whether one writes a book or teaches in person orally....it is still a TEACHER/STUDENT relationship and masking that behind the selling of books is a contradiction. Both the writer teacher and the in person teacher are teachers! The only difference is one was lucky enough to get published!
I must respectfully disagree with Linda.
1.Astrologers are Not teaching when they provide readings or charts.
They are performing a valuable "SERVICE", as with anyone performing any type of "service".
2.Astrologers who teach, be it in person or through books....are still performing a valuable service, and deserve that "green energy"as compensation for their time and effort to serve the student/customer.
Would you expect to not pay for tutoring in any subject matter?
So colleges and or tech schools and Seminary schools should be free?
Your Karate instructor, your therapist, your mechanic, your meditation coach, etcetera, should not be paid?
Yeah...it would be great if everything was free! But in our society that is not logical nor practical and is highly disrespectful to expect "some" to just give their "services rendered" away for free.
These issues have been on my mind ever since I heard of them.
It's not my intention to offend or insult Linda's words. I simply see in some of them a few grave contradictions, and ask why?
And all I have heard back concerning the issue, was again, the often quoted phrase:

To continue with Linda's own words on the matter of "her personal rules and truths", which many have taken to heart as Linda's way is the only way!
That is NOT what Linda said!
xxxviii INTRODUCTION

To continue, in Linda's own words:
xl INTRODUCTION

Concerning truth:
INTRODUCTION xli


I do not believe that Linda had intended for any of us to set her up high upon a pedestal and worship her blindly nor even agree with her or follow her way, her path.
One should however when it comes to helping those who cannot afford to pay, or pay much, or who are truly suffering, to endeavor to still serve them...Freely at no cost to them.....but freely giving, altruistically, of our time and energy.
Additionally; if the sole purpose of any such rendering of service is totally motivated by the lure of the almighty dollars$ then one is doing it for the wrong reasons.


Namaste`

Hey soloc/lexx,

Lots of good excerpts that I read very carefully under this similarly titled thread in the Linda's Life forum on the other LG site:Linda's Thoughts on Teaching For Money

They locked that thread, as you recall..shame, it could have been a productive discussion if we could have taken your advice to heart:



Which of course leads me to wonder why we would be quoting excerpts from her books and only her books, in order to determine whether or not there is something to this ancient "rule" that has been around many many thousands of years before Linda came on the scene.

Obviously its very hard for most of us here NOT to put Linda up on a bit of a pedestal. She was awesome, and in a way..she brought all of us together. But as you suggest, we shouldn't put her OR her words up on a pedestal, and so to keep this discussion from going in that direction, I suggested this in the very first post in this thread:



Like you suggest, Linda can't be the be-all, end all in every conversation about the esoteric material that she brought to our common attention.

I'm at least glad you got this up here. It must have been very frustrating for you to put as much time as you did into that post and then have the thread locked before people could really begin to discuss your very solid points.

You seem very passionate about the subject. I admire that; it can make for lively, productive discussion.

Thanks again,

daf

Thank you!
I am very passionate about Lexigramming having done them for over 40 years to date!


Lexigrams

I agree with what both Archaeus and Imagines stated here.

Even the clergy get paid a yearly salary by the church and they also get a tithe or donation for performing weddings.

If Linda Goodman gave 50% of her salary to worthy causes that is more than the Church requests as they only ask for 10% in donations and only expect that you give what you can afford to give to charity.

One could hardly expect a man or woman with a family to support to give away half of what they earn. So hopefully LG was talking about the wealthy and I wouldn't even expect them to give away half of their earnings.

Just my 2 cents for what it is worth. Which in the economy today is virtually nothing.

Hey Lexx, that was great coverage of Linda's Money Mistique. I've wondered about that too. And just listening to our own intuition.. our higher s-elf... can't go wrong!

<---- love the hamster dance! It's my ring tone lol.

BUMPITUP

Hello Knowflakes



True Story:

Many years ago, when i was a young soothsayer:
I read Linda's book. Star Signs.It is still my favorite book to date. It is there that I learned that it was not the right thing to do to take money for spiritual counsel.

Oh my. So at that very moment, that very page, I stopped asking for money for spiritual services rendered.

I got a job as a waitress. For one day. Then I was fired for giving diners my opinion of the food. Jeez they asked!


Then I got a job as a matchmaker, ( waaayyyy before online dating, hmmm waaaay before on line anything) What a perfect place to use my antenna. Oh I was so happy! I was making matches all over America. Many Marriages as well. Buttt.. I got fired anyway. The owner of the company said, " first time successes do not bring repeat business. Please send some duds the first time." I said no. No more job. Then I got a job on Wall Street, can't count to ten, they found out quickly, and I got fired again.
On and on it went, year after year. I really didn't know how to do anything well, except sooth, and garden and make the house look pretty.
I kept soothing for free, the lines around my house got longer and longer for those seeking free advice.

Then one day, during one of the free soothing sessions, the lights began to flicker and then darkness... My it was getting awfully cold too. " Wow" I thought. " The spirits must be here en masse". I tried to listen to their voices, but no one was coming through. Geez, this never happened to me before. I though I was going spiritually deaf. I apologised to the seeker, and moped and grumbeled bad things about our Power and Light Co. all the way into my kitchen. I looked out of the window and I saw my neighbors' lights were on. HUH?

Then the worst sound of all, " Mommy, I'm cold, ( snif and whimper ). There she was, my darling little girl, wrapped in her ' happy blanky ' . Her nose was red and shiny from the chill. " Wudda you gonna doo, Maaaaameeeee"? Then the next bigger, but still little, love of my soul, came bouncing down the stairs " Maaaa, do you know how freezing it is in my room, and there are no lights either".

Uh oh I could feel it coming, oh no not that... but yes; two whiney crying daughters, feeding off of eachothers' emotions, even louder screams of "I'm scared, I'm cold".... We three lit a fire in the fireplace and slept next to it, and each other, cuddled through the night. I didn't sleep much.

Next morning, with cold cereal in their bellies and many inches of snow on the ground, they were off to school.

I made the dreaded phone call... " I really thought I paid the bill,". I said, with my fingers crossed behind my back. The kind woman on the other end of the phone said the power would be turned on as soon as they recieved payment. Payment? Uh Oh, no money anywhere. Child support check, non-existant, for years at that point. Call Mom and Dad and tell them I screwed up, rather freeze to death and leave my body to the girls for food.

Soooo I made another phone call, this time to my friend Jon. I said, "jon didn't you go to school with Linda's son?" "Yes," he replied." Were they very poor?"" Not at all," he said."As a matter of fact, they are well to do" " Wealthy husband? " I asked. Jon said, " as far as I know his mother makes a very good living from her books".

Hmmmm, Linda would not lie to us. I knew that for sure. So what did she mean by not accepting money for spiritual services? Books are certainly spiritual services; evidenced by the Bible, Kouran, Torah etc. They are also for sale.

So, I borrowed money from Jon ( wealthy lawyer ), paid my bills
and went back into the soothing business, for pay. This time there was one change in my approach. A well decorated coffee can, was placed on my table. On the can was written " Please pay what you can afford as the Universe will not pay my bills, no matter how hard I pray. So far. My suggested donation is $35" ( yes it was a very long time ago ).

The lines around my house got shorter.

Soon, I had enough money in the coffee can at the end of the week to cover my bills. Yipee.

Then not too long after, I had enough money in the can to start saving a bit.

As the years passsed, the can had to be emptied every day. Yay. I invested a good deal of my can money. I even was able to go back to school.

Guess what happened? So many years later... I am able to give away 50% of my earnings, and I do. The lights never have been turned off again, and my life is quite comfortable. Most importantly I still work as a soothsayer.

This is what I believe Linda meant. " Give excellent counsel to all, and freely give away your services to those who cannot afford it and are in need". I know she is pleased. For how can one be poor, cold, and financially charitable at the same time?

What are your thoughts?

Hi Adodili,

I agree with you completely, and am impressed with your generosity of giving 50% of your profits away. Indeed Linda would be pleased.

Exactly my thoughts, adodili First, keep your body and soul together, then heal other people's soul. I think Linda meant one must not be greedy, that's all (the difference between a charitable organisation and a not-for-profit organisation)

And for giving away 50% of your earnings.