EsoteriaA library of sacred & hidden knowledge
The Spellbook · Prosperity

The Spellbook · Witchcraft & Wicca

The Money Bowl: A Modern Witchcraft Charm for Abundance

How to make a money bowl, a modern witchcraft charm of coins, grain, cinnamon and bay in a bowl fed each week, with its roots in older treasure-bowl lore.

  • TraditionContemporary witchcraft and popular magic, late 20th–21st century, drawing on older 'treasure bowl' and money-jar customs
  • ForProsperity, Luck
  • DifficultySimple
  • Time45 minutes, then a minute each week
  • WhenUsually made at the new or waxing Moon, often on a Thursday (Jupiter) or Sunday (Sun)

A money bowl, sometimes called an abundance or prosperity bowl, is a small household shrine to plenty: a bowl filled with coins, grain, herbs and stones associated with wealth, often crowned by a candle, and "fed" with a coin from time to time. It is a modern working, spread especially by witchcraft books, blogs and social media in the early twenty-first century, but it gathers together older ideas: the overflowing vessel, the grain store and the coins kept back for luck. Its aim is less to conjure money than to keep the household's attention fixed on gratitude, care and steady saving.

How to do it§

  1. Choose the time. Begin at the new Moon or while it is waxing, on a Thursday if you follow planetary days; the planetary hours table gives the hour of Jupiter.
  2. Cleanse the bowl. Wash and dry it, then pass it through incense smoke or sprinkle it with a little salt water, saying that it is now set apart for the household's welfare.
  3. Write the intention. On paper, write a clear and honest aim in the present tense, such as "Our household has enough and to spare, and shares it." Fold it and lay it in the bottom of the bowl.
  4. Lay the grain. Pour in a layer of rice or other grain, an ancient sign of stored plenty.
  5. Add herbs and stones. Write a single word of your aim on each of three bay leaves and tuck them into the grain. Add a cinnamon stick or a pinch of cinnamon, and the stone if you are using one.
  6. Add the coins. Place the coins on top one by one, naming something you are grateful for with each.
  7. Light the candle (optional). Set the candle in its holder beside or securely in the centre of the bowl, light it, and sit with the bowl for a few minutes, imagining your work going well and your bills paid. Extinguish the candle before you leave the room.
  8. Feed it. Keep the bowl in a place of honour, perhaps by the front door or on a household altar. Each week, or whenever money comes in, add a coin and give thanks. Many practitioners light the candle again on Thursdays.
  9. Renew it. After a year, or when the aim is met, take the coins and give some to charity or spend them on something for the home. Compost the grain and herbs, burn the paper safely, and begin again if you wish.

Origins and history§

The money bowl in its present form is a recent creation of popular witchcraft. It takes its framework from the "correspondences" of modern magic, in which colours, herbs, stones and planets are matched with purposes: green and gold for money, cinnamon and bay for success, citrine for abundance. Those correspondence tables were systematised in nineteenth- and twentieth-century occultism and popularised by authors such as Scott Cunningham in the 1980s; many of them have no deep historical pedigree, a point historians of modern paganism such as Ronald Hutton have stressed.

The underlying images are older. Chinese popular culture tells of the jubaopen, a "treasure-gathering bowl" that multiplied whatever was placed in it; legend gave such a bowl to the fourteenth-century merchant Shen Wansan, and treasure bowls overflowing with gold ingots are a favourite New Year motif. African American hoodoo has long used jars and dishes in which a petition is laid with herbs, coins or a lodestone and fed regularly. European folk custom kept a coin in the flour bin or meal chest so that the household would never lack bread, and fishermen and shopkeepers kept their first coin of the season for luck. The money bowl brings these strands together in a form suited to contemporary practitioners.

Variations§

Some practitioners use a jar rather than a bowl, or a dish beneath a houseplant. Others make the bowl a family project, inviting children to add a coin and say what they are thankful for. Many substitute dried beans or lentils for rice, or add a sprig of basil or mint.

Safety and good sense§

Never leave a candle burning unattended or among dry herbs and paper; use a holder that will contain wax and sits on a heat-proof surface. Keep small coins and stones away from small children and pets. Some crystals sold as citrine are heat-treated amethyst; this does not matter for the charm, but buy from honest sellers. A money bowl is an aid to gratitude and good habits, not a financial plan; money worries are best met with a budget and, where needed, free debt advice.

Sources and further reading§