If someone is also crafting something material, they are also entitled to compensation for the components of what they are making. It really is that simple.
One of Athena’s epithets is “Agoraia” (of the Marketplace) because she is a patroness of skilled craftsmen. Because of this, I feel that she would support fair compensation for a person’s labor.
Now, this is not to be taken to say that any person with a set of divinatory tools is deserving of the same amount of payment. There are people who have taken years to learn their craft and have in essence done an “apprenticeship” with others and there are those who just buy a deck of cards and claim that they are now “oracles”. I have had encounters with both types and the latter need to be exposed as the frauds they are.
And, in order to have full disclosure, I have made my living as a professional Tarot Card reader in New Orleans in the past — where by law I had to work on a “donation” basis. And even there, I have encountered people who wanted more than the fair compensation for their time and effort.
However, when someone came to me wanting me to “cleanse” them of miasma — or my reading indicated that they HAD spiritual issues — I told them how to do it themselves inexpensively instead of saying that “I could break the curse” for several hundreds of dollars. That is a matter of basic ethics. When I saw someone who needed different skills than mine I referred them. Again a matter of ethics.
I know that my tme and effort has value. I am not going to demean my personal worth by just being your personal daily horoscope column with no recompense — even if I do sometimes donate my time and effort as part of the payment that I make to the Gods for the gifts they have given me. This is MY compensation to THEM and should not be construed as something “free”
