Money is neither my god nor my devil. It is a form of energy that tends to make us more of who we already are, whether it's greedy or loving.

—Dan Millman

Our understanding of money is an illusion. Our assumptions about the soul of money are fraudulent. They are as fruitless as firing bullets into the trees of an imaginary enemy of our own design.

The Awakened Millionaire knows that money is neutral, but a powerful tool in the right hands. It is a spiritual tool in the Awakened Millionaire's hands.

But sadly, the war on money is our birthright. The schizophrenic love/hate paradigm lies so ingrained within us, one would think it almost genetic.

But it's not. It's learned. We're educated to have a dysfunctional relationship with money. We're saturated with violent attitudes towards money. They are reinforced for us every day by everyone around us who shares the same attitudes.

We do not hear unadulterated appreciation and respect expressed about money by someone who doesn't have plenty of it.

This toxic relationship surrounding us has tragically become a new thread of the human condition.

It must stop. It must stop now. And it must stop with us. For this toxic relationship with money isn't static. Younger generations will inherit a purely dysfunctional relationship. Just as physical abuse may be carried down from one generation to the next, simply by way of example from a parent, attitudes about money are carried down as well. All it takes is one child to say “No, I will not be this way,” for the insidious inheritance to come to an end.

This must stop for all of us. We can. There are people out there who have proven it's possible.

There are those who break this vicious cycle.

There are those who see the collateral damage and remove themselves from the battlefield.

There are those who find a way to transform their relationship with money.

These are the Awakened Millionaires.

They were born into the same world as everyone else, and into the same relationships with money. But they have pulled back the veil and seen the horrid reality of their inheritance: Money is neutral!

It's difficult to imagine how we can let go of all our fantasies about what money is, and accept that it is neutral. One way is to imagine how humanity managed to function before currency was invented, and wrap our minds around why currency may have been invented.

Until 1500 BC, all money was cattle, lambs, goats, or pigs. “Live” money was the means of trade. Right after that, the Phoenicians invented metal money. To make it more valuable, the metal became silver, copper, and, of course, gold. Later still, in 1656, Johan Palmstruch invented paper money. It didn't immediately take off, as coin was still revered and requested. Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in suggesting paper money be used in business. During his time, currency was accepted and became the norm in the United States.

Before currency, there were two types of economies: the barter economy and the gift economy.

In the barter economy, you had shoes. I had furs. I needed shoes, and you needed furs. We exchanged. The value of this transaction was clear-cut. There is no price tag on those shoes, nor those furs. Value is purely based on the need of the individual. It was an equal trade as long as both items are desired.

In another case, you may need my furs, but I do not need shoes. I still accept your shoes in trade because I know that I will be able to quickly trade those shoes for something else. It was a simple exchange, for very basic reasons. Nothing evil. Nothing treacherous.

The gift economy is much more complicated.

In the interest of keeping everyone in a community taken care of, services and products are given regardless of when or how they are rewarded. This is a culture that relies on customs and social norms of giving.

Even in the gift economy, we find questionable motives in giving. For instance, you might give a gift with the sole expectation that you will receive one in return. This has nothing to do with supporting the community at large, and has everything to do with forcing another community member to give you something in return.

There may also be a sense of obligation to present gifts and services to a particular lineage or kinship group, as we would to a royal family. This is a way of keeping reciprocity alive between your kinship group and the other…to keep a relationship of giving open for the future.

There are also forms of ownership in a gift economy. In the case of land, a property might be retained by a particular family, or lineage. It is simply established that they hold the use rights to that land. Only certain members of the community are granted usage of the land, while the land remains tied to the original owners.

Similarly, there are examples in a gift economy that are very similar to what we call intellectual property. These are like a copyright on a book. The book may be sold to individuals, but the content still belongs to its author.

It's easy to see why a gift economy can be complicated to navigate, perhaps even as complicated as current-day capitalism. There can be powerful groups, and those with less power. There can be those with more property, and those with less. And, significantly, debts are very real as well.

But let's look at the beliefs behind this.

If we were in a barter economy, and we tried to blame our problems on objects of trade, like shoes or furs, it would be absurd.

Would we make the statement, “Furs are the root of all evil”?

If we were in a gift economy, would we say, “Gift giving is the great destroyer”?

Of course not. So what, or who, should we be blaming for our life problems?

Maybe it has nothing to do with money at all.

One of the first recorded histories of currency was Anatolian obsidian, a raw material for stone-age tools, distributed as early as 12,000 BC.

The use of currency is that old.

Paper currency, as we know it, began in China in the eleventh century in the Song Dynasty in China. Merchants and wholesalers wanted to avoid lugging around bags of copper coins for large commercial transactions, so they began using paper notes to represent the hefty coinage.

Interesting that this simple solution to a problem became the source of one of our greatest enemies and our greatest love affairs.

Money is not the root of all evil. Money is the solution to natural phenomena…exchange of goods, and the “I owe you.” You have something I want, I have something you want—let's work together. I'll give you this service right now, but I will need something in return.

So how did this transform into the contentious, complicated relationship we have with money today? It has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with people.

When people with questionable intent saw how money could become a form of control, we begin to see the rise of our complicated relationship.

1. I have the money, you don't.
2. I pay you, so I own you.
3. You owe me.
4. I want what you have.

There is an important and enlightening takeaway we all must see.

Spiritual and moral corruption started long before the rise of money as we know it. Members of our species have craved power, control, and luxury thousands of years before paper money came into being.

These are human traits, human flaws, human imbalances. Money was just a tool that clever people with questionable causes figured out how to leverage to advance their own agendas. Between the earliest record of currency, around 12,000 BC, and when that famous quote “for the love money is the root of all evil” was written in 62 AD, a lot of poor behavior must have gone down.

And here we see a secret hidden inside the awakened millionaire's tool.

Money is neutral.

Once it no longer rules us, once we no longer rule it, a new stage is set for a monumental shift to occur. Opportunity is born, and many things that were once impossible become possible.

This can be done. We must do this once and for all.

And to do this, we must reintroduce ourselves to money.

We must look deep into the soul of money and realize that it has no soul. It is not capable of having soul. It is simply an object. We give it whatever soul it has. Our soul.

Money is neutral.

Money is an empty vessel waiting to be filled. Filled with what?

Our intentions. Our mission. Our passion. Our soul.

The Awakened Millionaire understands that money is a tool to make a positive impact. And we need more positive impact in this world.

That means we need a new awakening inside us as a people, when we realize that what is seen as our menacing master is destined to become the go-to tool good people use for passionate missions.

This is what we must champion. Now, through the end of our lives. We must acknowledge that what we have in front of us is, in many ways, the most powerful force for good we have at our disposal.