Money is your inner Guide

For most of us, money is something very materialistic: bank accounts, payslips or banknotes in your hand. But your relationship to money goes much deeper than that! In the narrative work, Money is one of the most powerful and at the same time one of the most charged archetypes.

In this blog I explain what the archetype Money means. It is the first blog of three. Read Values Count and Re-auther your Money Story too. If you want to get to know the archetype Money better and learn how it is active in your own life, I invite you to join the Fantastic Friday Session in which this archetype is central.

Money is a Guide, not a Calculation Tool

If we look at Money as an archetype, it becomes much more than just a means or a – at first sight – neutral calculation instrument. It turns out to be your Guide with your compass in your hands.

The Money archetype makes visible what you value both materially and immaterially. This makes it a rich and powerful tool if you want to grow or have important choices to make. It helps you to give meaning to your choices, for example about what you do or do not pay attention to, or what you do or do not want to invest in (think of time, energy, relationships, or health).

Your inner Story

Whether you are aware of it or not, the Money archetype is an all-important storyline in your life, because it reflects what you truly value. Think of what you give your attention and energy to, what you long for, what you are afraid of, and what you believe in. The way you deal with money tells the inner story that you live around this archetype. For example, if you have trouble negotiating salary, chances are that the Money archetype is active from its shadow side. The story you tell yourself about ‘Money and earning it’ then prevents you from standing up for what you are worth.

So it helps if you are more aware of how this archetype is active in you. In other words: What story you consciously or unconsciously tell yourself about Money.

A world in imbalance

In our Western patriarchal society, the amount of money determines the degree of success, influence and security. And with that, unfortunately, often the degree of self-confidence. Someone who earns little is considered less successful than someone who earns a lot.

Because for decades we were almost exclusively focused on material growth, we ourselves and therefore also the world around us, have become unbalanced. To put it in narrative terms: we have followed the purely material storyline for a long time:

That which makes money is of value. That which does not make money is worthless.

Fortunately, I already see a clear change in that. The crises we are in – think of the environmental crisis, financial crisis, refugee crisis – have made many people more and more aware that we cannot continue on the same footing.

But in the process of how things should and can be done differently, a dichotomy and polarization is increasingly emerging.  This is because we have lost our connection with the Money archetype and the associated inner values. We have dealt with it too one-sidedly for too long.

Visible Compass

In general, your archetypes are visible in your behavior. And then very specifically when you have to make choices. In the case of the Money archetype, this involves choices between:

• Security and freedom
• Independence and dependence
• Holding on and letting go

The Money archetype shows exactly the tension between them. Money is therefore not a calculation instrument, but a compass. It is what gives you energy, what gives you security. It is love and power and freedom and security at the same time. It is your inner Value Compass versus the outer appreciation. And with that, your archetype Money is visible in all kinds of different situations in your life.

It then helps you to give meaning to the choices you make in

• what you do or don’t pay attention to.
• what you do or don’t want to invest in (in time, energy, relationships, health, growth)

Usually these kinds of choices happen in split-seconds and you are not at all aware of what considerations you are making inside.

By connecting more consciously with your inner Money, you will realize what is ‘in the plus’ in your life  and what  remains undervalued. How much time do you spend on your work? What does that yield, both material and immaterial? How much time do you spend with your relationships, family, friends? What does that yield, both material and immaterial. Just to name two questions on which your archetype Money has a major influence. And I suspect: without you realizing it.

The archetype Money is therefore your inner Value Compass. It reflects in your behavior, what you apparently appreciate in the world around you. The question then is how well you let yourself be guided by your archetype Money. Do you really live according to your inner values? When I look at the world around me like this… Is the answer to this question ‘no’ for many of us?

Learn to look again

Money is never just money. It is an archetype that invites you to look again at what you find valuable in your work, relationships and life. By working with this, you discover, among other things, your own value system and the freedom you are looking for. And it is precisely in that consciousness that balance arises.

To be continued…

Frédérique te Dorsthorst – de Muij

december 2025