Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
Read Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition Online
Authors: Charles Eisenstein
Advance praise for
Sacred Economics:
“If you want a convincing account of just how deep the shift in our new axial age is and must be, look no further than this brilliant book by Charles Eisenstein, one of the deepest integrative thinkers active today.”
—Michel Bauwens, founder of the P2P Foundation
“With his breadth of knowledge, enthusiasm, commitment, diligence, and sensitivity, Eisenstein has become a beacon of hope for others. Your heart and mind will be opened by this treasure of a book that shines with wisdom of crucial importance to our troubled world today.”
—Kamran Mofid, PhD in economics; founder of the Globalisation
for the Common Good Initiative
Praise for
The Ascent of Humanity:
“This is an extraordinary book. Eisenstein has put his finger on the core problem facing humanity—namely: separation. All the crises that humanity now faces are grounded in the belief that we are separate—separate from each other, separate from the biosphere that sustains us, separate from the universe that has brought us forth. This is a tour-de-force filled with astounding insight, wit, wisdom, and heart.”
—Christopher Uhl, author of
Developing Ecological Consciousness:
Paths to a Sustainable Future
“Quite marvelous, a hugely important work … This book is truly needed in this time of deepening crisis.”
—John Zerzan, author of
Future Primitive
and
Elements of Refusal
“A radical awakening as to how we arrived at our current crisis and how we can more effectively redefine the path of our evolutionary journey.”
—Bruce Lipton, author of
The Biology of Belief
“Brilliant and original, with great depth of insight and understanding, Eisenstein’s
Ascent of Humanity
easily ranks with the works of such giants of our age as David Bohm, Julian Jaynes, Jean Gebser, and Alfred North Whitehead. It is a profoundly serious, indeed somber portrait of our times, even as it opens a door of honest hope amidst the dark destiny we have woven about us. Accept the challenge of this major accomplishment and discover the light shining within it.”
—Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of
The Crack in the Cosmic Egg,
Magical Child, Evolution’s End
, and
The Biology of Transcendence
“This is one of those rare books that moves the goal posts. Eisenstein pulls together a wide array of insights to show that what we thought was the solution is also the problem. It is eye-opening fodder for conversations with everyone I meet. As a technologist and a human being, I believe this could well be one of the most important books of the decade.”
—Garret Moddel, professor of electrical engineering at UC Boulder;
chairman & CTO, Phiar Corporation
Copyright © by Charles Eisenstein, 2011. Some rights reserved. [license_3.0] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For more information, please visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0
.
Published by Evolver Editions
Evolver Editions’ publications are distributed by
North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712
Cover art, “Still Life with Flowers, Fruits, and Poultry”
by Jan Van Os (courtesy of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
Art direction and cover design by
michaelrobinsonnyc.com
Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.
North Atlantic Books’ publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, call 800-733-3000 or visit our website at
www.northatlanticbooks.com
.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eisenstein, Charles, 1967–
Sacred economics: money, gift, and society in the age of transition
/ Charles Eisenstein.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58394-398-4
1. Money—History. 2. Money—Philosophy. I. Title.
HG231.E37 2011
332.4′9—dc22
2011010766
v3.1
To my parents
and all others who have given me so much
with no thought of return
I offer this book to you in the spirit of a gift, in keeping with its theme of bringing gift principles into the realm of money. In order to align principles with action, the publisher and I have chosen a Creative Commons copyright, which allows you to freely share this book for any non-commercial purpose. That means you can photocopy material from the book, put it on your blog, and so forth, as long as you don’t sell it or use it to carry advertising. We also ask that you provide attribution, in order that people who want to find more of my work can do so. You can find other legal details on the Creative Commons website.
One characteristic of gifts is that the return gift is not specified in advance. If you receive or disseminate this work free of charge, we welcome a voluntary return gift that expresses the gratitude or sense of value that you may feel. You may do so through the websites associated with the author and the book.
Ultimately, I see myself as a steward and channel for the ideas of Sacred Economics. Standing atop the shoulders of thinkers far more illustrious than myself, I absorb, digest, and transmit ideas from our cultural commons. Such is the gift I have received and from which I give in turn. That is why I cannot, in good conscience, consider myself the morally legitimate owner of these ideas. Thankfully, my publisher has had the courage to explore a new model of handling intellectual property. I look forward to the day when artists no longer need to maintain, through intellectual property laws, an artificial scarcity of their work, yet still receive abundant returns borne of the gratitude of those who receive it.