Prosperity occupies a contested and multi-dimensional position within the depth-psychology corpus, appearing not as a simple empirical condition but as a charged symbol whose valence depends entirely upon the moral and cosmological framework through which it is approached. In the archaic Greek tradition, as Sullivan and Adkins document, prosperity — rendered variously as olbos or ploutia — is inextricably bound to justice: Hesiod and Solon insist that Zeus distributes prosperity to the just and withholds it from the transgressor, making material flourishing a cosmic verdict on character. Seaford extends this analysis, showing that in Homer, Zeus himself is conceived as the universal distributor of prosperity, a projection of the polis’s redistributive logic onto the cosmos. The I Ching traditions — represented by Wilhelm, Wang Bi, and Alfred Huang — treat prosperity as a seasonal and harmonic phenomenon arising when the proper alignment of forces obtains; it is never merely accumulated but always flows from righteous order. Greer’s depth-psychological tarot workbook relocates prosperity to the inner world, deploying it as a mandala-element whose psychological meaning must be consciously constructed. The tension across the corpus is clear: prosperity is either a gift bestowed by cosmic justice, an emergent property of harmonic order, or a psychological state requiring active imaginative cultivation — and never a neutral given.
Justice brings prosperity to person, family, and city. Nature acts favourably to the just. Even if someone thinks it is possible to get away with injustice, in the end justice always triumphs.
This passage argues that prosperity is the cosmic reward for justice in the Greek ethical worldview, constituting a structural link between moral conduct and material flourishing.
, Psychological and Ethical Ideas What Early Greeks Say, 1995thesis
He asks for ‘prosperity at the hands of the blessed gods’ (3), which will allow him to be a boon to his friends and a source of fear to his enemies.
Solon’s prayer establishes prosperity as a divinely granted condition whose purpose is social and relational, not merely personal enrichment.
, Psychological and Ethical Ideas What Early Greeks Say, 1995thesis
Pick another card that represents the universe providing abundantly for all your needs… Position 6. One (or more) card(s) that represent what prosperity means to you. This is your Prosperity Mandala.
Greer transforms prosperity into an active psychological construct, using the tarot mandala as a therapeutic device for internalizing and reimagining abundance.
, Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for the Inward Journey, 1984thesis
The former kings brought about prosperity, for they nurtured things in accord with the seasons.
Wang Bi’s commentary identifies prosperity as the consequence of sagely governance aligned with natural seasonal rhythms, not individual accumulation.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994thesis
Among the Scandinavians the king ensures prosperity on land and sea; his reign is characterized by an abundance of fruits and the fecundity of women.
Benveniste demonstrates that across Indo-European cultures, prosperity is ontologically bound to sacred kingship — the ruler’s ritual efficacy constitutes the condition of communal flourishing.
, Indo European Language and Society, 1973thesis
Zeus distributes prosperity to humankind. In this last case the varying prosperity of humankind is imagined in terms of a single distributor projected onto the cosmos.
Seaford reveals that Homeric prosperity is cosmologically figured as divine distribution, linking the political economy of redistribution to the theological imagination.
, Money and the Early Greek Mind: Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy, 2004supporting
Iros has eris ‘strife’ with a good man and makes neekos ‘quarreling’ against him. Like the blamers, he is margos ‘gluttonous’ and has phthonos ‘greed’ for the olbos ‘prosperity’ that the good man gets from the gods.
Nagy’s analysis shows that in archaic Greek poetics, envy of another’s prosperity is the signature vice of the unjust man, positioning prosperity as a marker of heroic worth that the unworthy illicitly covet.
, The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry, 1979supporting
The end in both cases is clear and desirable: prosperity and stability. Only the means are required: what is to be taught is a skill, a techne.
Adkins argues that in the Athenian civic framework, prosperity is the unquestioned telos of political and household management, treated as a technical rather than moral achievement.
, Merit and Responsibility: A Study in Greek Values, 1960supporting
A man must show himself to be an agathos polites, willing to spend himself and his possessions to promote the city’s prosperity; and to gain favour for his proposal he must naturally show that it is conducive to the city’s prosperity.
Adkins documents how Athenian public discourse made a citizen’s relationship to communal prosperity the central criterion of civic virtue and political legitimacy.
, Merit and Responsibility: A Study in Greek Values, 1960supporting
Prosper, CHIN: grow and flourish, as young plants in the sun; increase, progress, permeate, impregnate; attached to. The ideogram: sun and reach, the daylight world.
The I Ching’s etymological analysis grounds prosperity in organic solar imagery — flourishing as natural growth that permeates and attaches, not as possessive accumulation.
, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 1994supporting
All living things bloom and prosper. This hexagram belongs to the first month (February–March), at which time the forces of nature prepare the new spring.
Wilhelm’s hexagram T’ai frames prosperity as the natural efflorescence of harmonically aligned cosmic forces, anchored in seasonal time rather than human will.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
All living things bloom and prosper. This hexagram belongs to the first month (February–March), at which time the forces of nature prepare the new spring.
A parallel rendering of T’ai that confirms the association of prosperity with cosmic harmony and seasonal renewal in the Wilhelm tradition.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
An unjust and evil man, avoiding the anger of neither man nor gods, acts with insolence, satiated with wealth, but the just are worn away, wasted with grievous poverty.
Theognis challenges the Hesiodic theodicy of prosperity, raising the problem of the unjust who flourish — a crisis that threatens the entire cosmic-justice compact.
, Psychological and Ethical Ideas What Early Greeks Say, 1995supporting
Can you make yourself gasp a little with the daring of your ideas? Is your mouth watering at the anticipation of such delight? Are you feeling yourself swelling with pride at what you might achieve?
Greer’s Five-Year Fantasy exercise implicitly situates prosperity within the imaginative projection of ideal futures, linking material ambition to psychological vitality.
, Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for the Inward Journey, 1984aside