The Wealth Motivation

What the Wealth mandate asks, and what it costs

This mandate measures a life in what it can hold: resources, security, the tangible result. Handled well that is competence rather than greed, and it produces the people everyone else quietly relies on to be solvent. It asks for a real relationship with money — earning it, keeping it, and knowing what it is actually for — and it is unforgiving of the vagueness most people get away with there. Two failures sit at either end. One never defines enough, so the number becomes the entire scoreboard and no amount of it registers as arrival. The other over-protects: caution hardening until good risk gets declined for years at a time and the security that was built stops being spent on anything. The question that separates a good version of this mandate from a poor one is the same in both cases and is almost never asked out loud, which is what makes it worth asking.

Motivation is one of the four readings Bond Level 2 unlocks, alongside Karma Credits, Vessel Stats and the Inner Persona palace, with Difficulty readable at the same rung.

The Wealth mandate in an animal

An animal's chart is cast the same way and lands on the same Body palace, one rung later — Bond Level 3 for a pet, because its first two rungs spend themselves on species, breed and birth year. Path of food, treats and treasured things.

What it asks is the part that does not carry across. A person's mandate asks something of the person who has it; an animal cannot act on its own at all, so its version asks the keeper instead — and that reading has its own page.

The other five mandates

A chart returns one of six and never a blend of two, so the five below are the alternatives this one was read instead of.

• Inner Persona— path of self-centric and independent
• Genesis— path of ancestor fortunes and spirits
• Career— path of purpose and prestige
• Outer Persona— path of movement and connection
• Romance— path of love and partnership

Frequently asked

What does it mean to have the Wealth Motivation?

Life centers on money and material success path. These people are extremely pragmatic and financially driven - they treat wealth as the highest priority and measure of achievement. Usually blessed with a keen business sense and skill in managing finances, they often excel in careers related to commerce, finance, or investments. Building riches and economic stability is their 'main quest' in life.

What does the Wealth Motivation ask of you?

This mandate measures a life in what it can hold: resources, security, the tangible result. Handled well that is competence rather than greed, and it produces the people everyone else quietly relies on to be solvent. It asks for a real relationship with money — earning it, keeping it, and knowing what it is actually for — and it is unforgiving of the vagueness most people get away with there. Two failures sit at either end. One never defines enough, so the number becomes the entire scoreboard and no amount of it registers as arrival. The other over-protects: caution hardening until good risk gets declined for years at a time and the security that was built stops being spent on anything. The question that separates a good version of this mandate from a poor one is the same in both cases and is almost never asked out loud, which is what makes it worth asking.

How many Motivations are there?

Six: Inner Persona, Genesis, Career, Outer Persona, Wealth, Romance. They are the six palaces a chart's Body palace can land in — the other six are never reachable — so a reading always returns one of these and never a blend of two. Wealth is path of money and materials.

How do I find out which Motivation is mine?

Seat yourself on the Bonding Map and it is read for you. It is worked out from the cast chart rather than from anything you can look up directly, because casting a chart means converting a birth into a lunar date and a true hour against the timezone it happened in — the board does that conversion, which is the part it is easy to get wrong by hand.

Does a pet have a Motivation too?

Yes, cast the same way and landing on the same Body palace — but it reaches it a rung later, at Bond Level 3, and it means something different once the life it describes belongs to an animal. Path of food, treats and treasured things. The animal reading of this mandate has its own page, including what it asks of the person looking after the animal, which is the part that has no equivalent here: a person's mandate asks something of the person who has it, and an animal cannot act on its own at all.