Bypassing to Budgeting: My Real Relationship With Lakshmi

It started years ago — just a whisper at first.

Was it sweet nothings? Sure. I’d take ‘em.

I was newly separated from my ex-husband and doing everything I could to ignore the hard stuff: namely, a dwindling bank account and a noticeable lack of income. Enter Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of abundance, who made her first appearance in the form of a gorgeous altar card I found on Etsy (see above).

At first, it was her promise of prosperity that caught my attention. My money stories were deeply warped in scarcity, avoidance, and magical thinking…sans any magical momentum. I was so deep in the idea of spiritual vending-machine-style manifestations! Oh baby, I was BY.PASS.ING!

Support was showing up all around me. Friends offering help, gentle nudges from the universe…but I wasn’t having it. I floated in the upper chakras, brushing aside real-world solutions for anything that didn’t feel like pure “ease and grace.” I’d chant, “It’s not supposed to be hard!” while simultaneously ignoring that it was getting very, very hard.

The truth? It was just too painful to face what was really going on.

At one point, my mom sent me a book on building good money habits. The guy on the cover gave off serious Fox News energy (he wasn’t that, but still…that stuff mattered a lot to me then), and the content triggered me so deeply I did the unthinkable and I threw a hardcover book straight in the trash. Didn’t even recycle it. 😩

Friends tried to help me make a budget. But I couldn’t. It felt too tight. Too suffocating. Too...parental. Like punishment. I wanted miracles, not freakin’ spreadsheets.

My dear friend and fellow lover of Lakshmi recently sent me these beautiful Tarot cards from Etsy.

Eventually, the money dried up enough that I couldn’t ignore reality any longer.

While my ego was roiling, fear finally had me on my knees pouring forth tears and clutching the kitchen floor. It was there, snot and all, that I finally began letting my old, stubborn ways die.

I opened my bank account. Looked at the actual numbers. Wrote down all my debts. Made a real budget. Figured out what kind of job I needed and how fast. And I made a promise to myself: I will not be in this position ever again!

It was terrifying but also incredibly empowering. I stepped out of victimhood and into ownership. As my Aunt Jane says, “You might not like where you stand with money, but it’s always good to know where you stand with money.” A-ho!

That’s when things really began to shift. My relationship with Lakshmi deepened. I wasn’t just trying to get something from her anymore. I was showing the heck up for myself, for my kids…and she noticed and started to become alive in me.

I said yes to a job I thought was beneath me. Sold things I didn’t need. Weeded a neighbor’s yard. Sold beloved books for a few bucks each. Learned to design websites. Started a side hustle. Slowly, the money began to flow and with it my gratitude started flowing too.

I realized Lakshmi isn’t just about big easy windfalls…she delights in beauty, love, joy, and the daily acts that support abundance. That means budgeting. Paying off debt. Saving. Tending to investments. Keeping your wallet neat and clean. Being a good steward of money. Turns out, that's how you keep her around.

As I practiced these habits and began to see the results, the real magic started. Unexpected checks. Divine timing. Genuine relief and not just desperation masked as faith and using Source at the end of the month to call in rent because I didn’t have enough in my account to make it!

Forgiveness, which I came to understand as a deeply Lakshmi aligned quality, became a massive part of my spiritual practice. I started saying the ho’oponopono prayer 108 times a day, often while looking at photos of myself, my loved ones, people I judged, politicians I couldn’t stand… even to my bank account. And it shifted me.

As I started releasing the weight of old resentment and scarcity, I found myself tithing, donating, giving freely. My heart softened. My world expanded. Lakshmi revealed herself not just as wealth but as well-being.

She came to me as contentment. As generosity. As the kind of care that touches every part of your being.

There’s a beautiful book, Awakening Shakti, that has an entire chapter devoted to her, filled with powerful meditations and mantras. In it, Sally Kempton says:

Over the years…I’ve heard tales of wishes fulfilled, money coming unexpectedly, strange coincidences that feel as if the universe was giving boons. To calls these gifts of Lakshmi may be unscientific, but there is a reason why her devotees swear that to a lover of Lakshmi, good fortune is like a flower in the palm of your hand.

And that’s exactly how it slowly became more of a real relationship for me… I stopped bypassing, started budgeting (and being a good steward of money), worked hard, and then met Lakshmi not just in ritual, but in reality.