Luxury, Opulent, and Extravagant
The same or wildly different? You might be surprised
Words are strange creatures, and we often don’t realize the life in them. As I’ve accepted my true nature, as a divine expression in a human body, I have become much more aware of the words I use.
Of course, I’ve always been a wordie, and I have always leaned toward the optimistic, though I’ve been known to have my very down days, but I am making a conscious choice now to communicate the highest energies in all my expressions. Often that means making better word choices, but it can also mean taking a word back, re-infusing it with a power that’s been lost to misappropriation and cliche.
I believe in manifestation. In fact, I am a powerful manifestor, as I believe are you. I have said before, “We are always manifesting, truth be told, so if what we have isn't what we want, we have to take a look at the processes and programming that is giving us the unwanted results.”1
One of the ways we manifest is through our words, not only the words we speak aloud, but those that permeate our conscious and subconscious thoughts.
On that note, I want to explore three words from the world of manifesting.
Luxury
Most writings (at least not the ones I’ve read) on New Thought, Law of Attraction, and Manifesting do not imply in the slightest that you can simply lie on your couch, dreaming up your own lifestyle of the rich and famous and wake up to be a millionaire. Of course that’s delusional. Any sensible person knows that, but I do know that there are some shysters out there (in all fields) that will take advantage of nice2 people.
Manifesting and all things Law of Attraction can get a bad rap, a real poo-poo on the woo woo. And luxury might be one of the words that contributes energetically to that attitude. I’ll leave that for you to decide. Here’s what I found from the roots.
I thought the root of luxury was lux which means “light,” but I can’t substantiate that at all, so I’m going deeper.
Cooljugator,3 formerly Etymologeek, says that it’s actually luxus, which means to separate. (For now I am going to bypass the axiom that cracks are where the light gets in ☺.) Think subluxation (dislocation) of a joint. Etymologeek also suggests a combination of word roots for luxury that have “ungrateful” and “gluttonous” vibes.
Maybe the negative connotations make sense, although I don’t know where the relation to "indulgent sexuality,” “sensual pleasure,” but “debauchery.” It had come to mean living in excess and extravagance, perhaps a reflection of the day, when the pot of the Catholic Church was calling the kettle of the protestant nobles black.
Of course, today, we think of luxury in terms of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” multi-millionaires and billionaires. We don’t think of luxury in a negative light typically, unless we are being politically influenced to both hate and envy the rich. It does seem to be used against us for separation.4
Another source5 says that luxury originally meant lust, which also has modern sexual connotations, but its Middle English meanings, though now obsolete, were simply “pleasure, delight and desire.” It’s so interesting to me how words and their meanings diverge.
Opulent
I have read a couple of posts lately that poo poo the woo woo of manifestation and Law of Attraction (LOA), as if one of its core principles was laziness. Another article wanted to use the word co-creation instead of manifestation to separate her from the lazy ones.
The primary focus of manifesting is one of mindset, and implies a dual approach to co-creation (both passive and active) with a higher, even Divine power, but I have yet to find an LOA work that explicitly says that no action or work is required.
What it does encourage is right action, not one spurred by guilt, coercion, or a desire to control all outcomes. LOA and New Thought are all about the magnetism of our thought and feelings and aligning our actions from there. I believe the understanding of aligned actions comes from a practice of these principles and not just considering them in theory.
Reading the amazing words of Florence Scovell Shinn, a New Thought author, I came across a statement saying, “a feeling of opulence must precede its manifestation,” and I decided to explore the word opulent to contrast luxury.
The meaning is exactly what you might think: wealthy, rich, affluent. But the root might just surprise you. The Proto-Indo-European root *op- means “to work, to produce in abundance.” Oh, hey naysayers, there’s that work word!
Etymonline says that opulent is a dignified and strong word for wealth. The energy of the word implies work. Some words that share the *op- root are opus, operation, cooperation, office, optimum, and optimism, among others.
Extravagant
This might be my favorite word of the group today. It means “to wander far,” or “wander outside of.” Extra “outside of” + vagari “to wander, roam.” Of course, that means that in your extravagance, you’ll not only likely be leaving your comfort zone, but the comfort zone of other people. Do you live an extravagant life?
Comfort zones are funny things for humans. We do cling to them, so. But I for one, am ready to wander. I am no longer willing to let other people or systems tell me what the right way to live is. I appreciate boundaries but I also appreciate the value of sometimes expanding them, and other times completely ignoring and busting through them.
Extravagance has been used to characterize people that live very large lives, although the connotation isn’t generally all that positive. If I said, “my neighbor lives an extravagant life,” what is your first thought about my neighbor?
I don’t know about you, but I am feeling the wanderlust of an opulent and luxurious life, and I use all of those words in their most holistic, highest and greatest good sense. Because I wish the same for you!
♥ Runa
Did you enjoy this post? Please consider commenting, restacking, and sharing the publication.
This is a reader-supported newsletter, and I appreciate your monetary contributions. I also appreciate comments and shares. For those who want to join the WordTree Wisdom for free, I still want you to feel at home among the lower-hanging branches I offer to you. I invite you to consider the free trial in considering whether or not you want my wordie posts to land in the valuable real estate of your email inbox.
Runa Heilung is an unapologetic mystic. Embracing the One Power that shapes all, she embraces all the ways the One Power speaks, including Tarot, Oracles, and Astrology.
She publishes Old Soul Alchemy, WordTree, and the soon-to-launch Wishing Wheel.
To be explored in a future post. Nice originally meant foolish and ignorant.
New Thought takes the most sensible approach I have witnessed yet to the topic of abundance for all. They lived a philosophy of “do not covet, do not envy, but wish for all what you would wish for yourself.” Sound like the Golden Rule?