Life Before Cash – Barter & Exchange

By Kandace Keithley, Bird Clan Messenger

It’s hard to believe that only a couple of hundred years ago, there was no cash on this beautiful place we call Turtle Island. The Native people traded goods and services with one another and the forms of currency were valuable resources that the people understood had been given to them as gifts from the Creator to help them on their journeys.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac notes, “The Aztecs used cacao beans as currency; a rabbit cost 10 beans.”

Sharing and trading resources was based on a shared understanding of the sanctity of all life on planet Earth. The Aztecs understood cacao beans to be a physical manifestation of God’s wisdom. And indeed, the Indigenous people who have cultivated cacao for hundreds of generations have used cacao in religious ceremonies and as medicine for thousands of years.

Early settlers traded goods and bartered their skills too. It was only with the arrival of the elites’ agents with their “company stores” that cash money became the primary currency and the only way most people were able to gather it was to exchange their labor as slaves for the agents of corporatism.

Now, we’ve reached a point where the elite parasites and their minions are finding new ways to send all the cash money to themselves while leaving less and less for those of us down here on the ground.

This means it’s time for us to choose: Do we completely succumb to their digital economy? Or do we create local economies based on trading our home made goods for someone else’s services? Maybe a little of each?

It’s time to bring balance back to our world and establish economic security for the people – from the bottom up.

It is my honour to be your messenger.

S’gi

It is my honour to receive and share these teachings from my guides and the Ancestors. These are messages received and written to the best of my understanding. If I have made mistakes, I would be grateful for your input. If these messages don’t resonate with you, that’s okay. I wish you well. And if these messages do resonate with you  – welcome to the family.

— kandace keithley, namadaki aandeg miimiiwe gekek kwe  ~ Tsa-La-Gi

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