Kaitlin Lindquist November 13th, 2012 Wise Woman Ways: ILC Fall 2012 Reading Summary: Sacred Economics

A powerful, visionary book, Sacred Economics outlines a new economy of the future in what Eisenstein calls the Age of Reunion. This includes embracing a completely new concept of money, and exchange of goods and services will transition into a gifting culture. In the last 200 or so years, Eisenstein claims that we have been in the Age of Separation, the Ascent, which was a necessary period for humans to evolve up to the point we have today. By separating the body from nature, the first agriculturists were able to see resources as separate from themselves, manipulate them and extract them from their natural state. No longer were humans nomadic; and so we were able to build, create, and become stable in one place. An economy based on monetary exchange was created from the goods we made, and thus we were able to coordinate human activity on a massive scale through the power of money. Now, however, this method has become unsustainable. Money has turned our economy into a homogenized, anononymous system for meaningless possession of more and more items. The ideal that Sacred Economics articulates is that our monetary system is based off scarcity, when in truth we live in a world

of abundance and enough for all; now it is time for us to transition towards a more synthesized, integrated, connected and sacred way of life. This makes exploitation of natural resources and impoverished people impossible as we come to understand that we are all deeply connected, and the more for me, more for you mentality becomes truly cherished. Sacred Economics portrays a new vein for exchange through a culture of gifting, which will create sacred ties in local and global communities. Through gifting, we cultivate a deeper relationship with ourselves, each other, and our sacred nature as we no longer feel separate from ourselves and others through the anonymous transactions of monetary exchange. This transition into a new economy and culture will take place naturally and inevitably, but the more we can do to ease the transition, the more fluid and less drastic and dramatic it will be. This includes the beginning of embracing abundance, of learning the art of giving gifts, of becoming self sufficient and developing valuable skills, of asking yourself What is the most beautiful thing I could do for the world?. Transitioning means letting go of our hoarding tendencies, and recognizing our sacred relation to the Earth.