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Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

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  • Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

    How much money do you think you've spent on buying books, tools, clothes etc for your practises? When I look back at everything I've bought - particularly in the beginning when I thought I needed EVERYTHING to be a 'proper Pagan' - I get really frustrated with myself!

    I hope this is in the right section!

  • #2
    Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

    I couldn't even begin to estimate that amount. Never much on tools or cloths though lots on books, articles, statuary items, etc type things. Some simply as aspects of my practice such as collecting stamps that depict Artemis / Diana / Hekate or ancient coins that depict the same goddesses. Some of those rather expensive, some rather inexpensive though requires lots of digging to identify them or actually discover them.

    Never have suffered the idea of being a proper pagan / occultist so there was no item that had to be had. Never a Wiccan or inspired by Wicca so never bought into the must have tools and such.
    I'm Only Responsible For What I Say Not For What Or How You Understand!

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    • #3
      Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

      There is no such thing as "proper pagan", because every individual's experience varies. There is such thing as improper pagan - if the person doesn't take his faith seriously.

      - - - Updated - - -

      Because the difference in everyone's experience, the amount of money varies too. But faith of a person is not measured by the money spent.
      "Fair means that everybody gets what they need. And the only way to get that is to make it happen yourself."



      Since I adore cats, I might write something strange or unusual in my comment.Cats are awesome!!! ^_^

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      • #4
        Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

        I bought a few books and crystals when I first started my path, but since then, not much. I feel I have more to learn from my own feelings and from historic documents and texts that are public domain than I do from anything newly published and I mostly use what I can find or grow myself in my practice. I occasionally buy essential oils, but I also use those for other things, so they're more of an all purpose household/beauty product than something I need for my practice.

        I think a lot of my frugality comes from the fact that I live a very frugal lifestyle. I tend to make things myself and fix things and am very strongly against consumer culture. I don't make an exception for my path.

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        • #5
          Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

          Originally posted by Gleb View Post
          There is no such thing as "proper pagan", because every individual's experience varies. There is such thing as improper pagan - if the person doesn't take his faith seriously.

          - - - Updated - - -

          Because the difference in everyone's experience, the amount of money varies too. But faith of a person is not measured by the money spent.
          Please realise I put the 'proper Pagan' in quotation marks because I was very young when I started my path and I was told there was such a thing. I don't believe that now, of course.

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          • #6
            Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

            Of course, just saying.
            "Fair means that everybody gets what they need. And the only way to get that is to make it happen yourself."



            Since I adore cats, I might write something strange or unusual in my comment.Cats are awesome!!! ^_^

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            • #7
              Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

              When I first became an Official Wiccan, my oldest sister & I were taking classes at a local occult shop. They expected you to buy all your supplies from them. So yeah, tons of oils, jar candles at $3 - $7 a pop, athames, bolleens, the cord, the whip, the bell, the chalice... the list was endless and pricey.

              Since I was 19 or so? Maybe $50 or so on candles. That's about 20 years worth of candles. And it's not fair to say I've spent it all on my 'religion' since I've used many of those candles for lighting during black-outs or for intimate moments, or because I felt like taking a candlelit bath. All my herbs & incenses are kitchen spices. My athames & bolleens are kitchen knives. Cauldrons? Pots & pans. Pentacle of my altar? It's a pizza stone. Doesn't even have a pentacle drawn on it. I wear normal clothes & use my fingers when I need a wand.

              Books are my weakness, though. I've spent a lot of money on books. Probably a few thousand dollars over time, all used, at garage sales & swap meets, off amazon & half & e-bay. My library is ridiculous. And ok, Tarot cards, too. Probably about $300 - $400 on Tarot cards. I used to collect them, but then I realized I only actually used about 5 of them with any regularity, so I sold or gave my collection away. I've given a lot of books away, too - donated to libraries, re-sold them. There are still books in every room & on almost every surface of my home, but, hey... I've got a lot of surfaces.
              The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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              • #8
                Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

                Books .... yeah quite a bit, though I tend to buy histories, sociological studies, myths etc than "how too" books. Tools and clothing? Nah Not my style. But books .... lets say I have around 3000 books in storage in the US that I want to ship back here (new Zealand).

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                • #9
                  Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

                  No idea, but probably quite a bit since I use a lot of "disposables" like candles and herbs in my practice, not to mention I've been practicing for over thirteen years now. On the other hand, I also use a lot of things I find, like holey stones and keys, and many of my permanent fixtures have been gifts which I still have and use - my athame, for example, cost about $5 at a flea market and I've been using it for over ten years.

                  Coincidentally, my wallet hurts just a tiny bit today, having just sent away for $50 worth of resins and herbs.

                  Oh, and by the way, Hello, strangers!
                  Children love and want to be loved and they very much prefer the joy of accomplishment to the triumph of hateful failure. Do not mistake a child for his symptom.
                  -Erik Erikson

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                  • #10
                    Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

                    Hmmm can't give you an exact figure or even an estimate I've been pagan or paganish for nigh on 20 years if we count my years as a LaVeyan Satanist when I was a teen so it's too many years for me to do an even moderately accurate sum (not to mention where I live we don't use dollars and I'm in no mood to look up exchange rates).
                    But what I today spend money on is mostly crystals, tarot cards, candles. Not so much herbs since I can grow or find and pick nearly everything I need in nature. I don't use as much on books as I might, I live in a country with a ridiculous good library service and I can get my hands on most things so I only buy the books I really, really like. I suppose I should at least partially include my sewing and embroidery gear in this tally, since I use a lot of it for magic and some for ritual. Goes for woodcarving things too I guess.
                    As for magical paraphernalia I like to use things that lie about, the knife I use for spellwork (I dislike using the word athame since I'm not Wiccan or even close to it) is an ordinary pocket folding knife. Haven't failed me yet.

                    I know all of this adds up, but it's over a twenty year and I'm a scrounger so I've found a lot of it in odd places and/or at cut rate prices.
                    Warning: The above post may contain traces of sarcasm.

                    An apostrophe is the difference between a business that knows its shit, and a business that knows it's shit.

                    "Why is every object we don't understand always called a thing?" (McCoy. Star Trek: The Moive Picture)

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                    • #11
                      Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

                      Originally posted by DanieMarie View Post
                      I bought a few books and crystals when I first started my path, but since then, not much. I feel I have more to learn from my own feelings and from historic documents and texts that are public domain than I do from anything newly published and I mostly use what I can find or grow myself in my practice. I occasionally buy essential oils, but I also use those for other things, so they're more of an all purpose household/beauty product than something I need for my practice.

                      I think a lot of my frugality comes from the fact that I live a very frugal lifestyle. I tend to make things myself and fix things and am very strongly against consumer culture. I don't make an exception for my path.
                      Seconding this. I actually have some "tools" that I've acquired as freebies over the years that I'm seriously considering passing along to someone else in the future because I simply don't use them.

                      Books though... books I will spend money on if it is reasonable and it's written by a reliable source(s) on something fairly specific that I'm hunting down.

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                      • #12
                        Like others, books, love the books. Some I buy twice, once as an ecopy to get a feel for it, then I buy the real one haha.

                        The other big cost for me has been crystals. Im a collector.... I has so mannnyyy...

                        Also spent 400 in one go buying the entire Mind Body Spirit magazine collection... but I have I all now, so there.

                        But I don't know how much I spent. It kinda just adds up over the course of life.
                        ThorSon's milkshake brings all the PF girls to the yard - Volcaniclastic

                        RIP

                        I have never been across the way
                        Seen the desert and the birds
                        You cut your hair short
                        Like a shush to an insult
                        The world had been yelling
                        Since the day you were born
                        Revolting with anger
                        While it smiled like it was cute
                        That everything was shit.

                        - J. Wylder

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                        • #13
                          Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

                          Very little, in the scheme of thing, but my practice is currently primarily meditative in nature, and when ritual is eventually required my understanding is that I'll be making the tools myself.

                          Probably a couple hundred on books (and another $100 or so on kindle books I won't read most of - stupid kindle :| ). Other than that and the ongoing expense of incense, charcoal and candles (although I don't use the latter much anymore, I find it easier to meditate with a steady, dim light than with flickering candles), which is maybe $10 or $20 every month or two, I get by pretty cheap.

                          Only other thing that comes to mind is my alter - the alter itself came for free, and most of the objects on it are either natural pieces I've gathered myself or gifts (I have a layout to represent the elements - a few rough cut gemstones for earth - only one of which I paid for, a shell for water I collected myself, feathers for air I also collected myself, and a half burnt, cheap candle), a nice set of candle holders and a bowl for burning incense on charcoal were gifts, as was a standing incense holder and a Nepalese Vajra. Other than one of the gemstones, the only thing I paid for was a mala, which was $12 if I remember correctly.

                          So yeah, by far the greatest expense is books. But I consider it money well spent.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

                            Originally posted by Fire Nymph View Post
                            How much money do you think you've spent on buying books, tools, clothes etc for your practises? When I look back at everything I've bought - particularly in the beginning when I thought I needed EVERYTHING to be a 'proper Pagan' - I get really frustrated with myself!

                            I hope this is in the right section!
                            Hundreds.

                            Mostly on scholarly books. Not because reading all those books makes me a better person/pagan/whatever, but because I enjoy them and find that studying the culture that forms the background of my practices helps me connect better. Or it did until I had a crisis of faith.

                            5/10 might recommend.
                            Blog: http://thestarsafire.tumblr.com

                            Kuchi wa wazawai no moto (the mouth is the origin of disasters)

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                            • #15
                              Re: Roughly, how much money do you think you've spent on...?

                              Not to add to the echo chamber, but books. Anything else and I go with "the universe loves a resourceful woman."

                              "No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical." -- Niels Bohr

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