"Charging For Teaching" is not inherently a "Red Flag"

Something being free doesn't mean you can't charge to teach people those same skills elsewhere. And sometimes, the guidance you get from a teacher- free or paid- can be invaluable. Especially when it comes to complex topics. In other cases, a teacher is absolutely necessary.

In other words: Being able to learn something "for free" does not mean the information and tools that you can get for free in order to learn that skill or knowledge set is always or automatically quality information.

In other words: Being able to learn something "for free" does not mean that you have the prerequisite (or additional) skills or knowledge that may be required to even parse it correctly on your own without guidance.

In other words: Being able to learn something "for free" does not mean that people with the appropriate amount of age, experience, and skills to do so, should no longer be "allowed" to teach that skill or knowledge set to others- especially for money, if they deem it necessary or pertinent to their continued ability to teach.

In other words: Being able to learn something "for free" does not mean that those who do teach that skill or knowledge set for money are automatically scamming the people they are teaching- nor are only interested in their money and have no good intentions for teaching.

In some Traditions you actively cannot even learn about their various practices and beliefs without an appropriate teacher from within the tradition. And oftentimes those teachers will charge for their time and energy depending on the Tradition and their own insider teachings surrounding the exchange of money for such purposes. This must be acknowledged- and respected, even.

Positioning all teachers, then, as "scammers" and "grifters", or the very act of "charging for teaching" as an automatic and inherent Red Flag- especially if you're doing so with some kind of a financial cap to the amount which they're "allowed to charge", which somehow determines its moral appropriateness in your eyes ... It's religiously ignorant at best- and actively malicious to a variety of Traditions at worst (especially POC ones, since many ADRs are among those that charge significant sums for both their teaching and their initiations).

Yes, some teachers who charge are scammers and grifters. Yes, some teachers who charge do charge exorbitant and unreasonable fees for basic information- which, yes, in a lot of cases is inherently exploitative. This is something which does need to be actively watched out for and you should be vetting every teacher you work under ... But there are still a million other things that are far more important (and are actual, legitimate Red Flags) to look for when vetting Teachers, than whether or not they're "charging for their teaching" in the first place.

These actual Red Flags are things like:

• What general information exists about them (A teacher with no information or history is sketchy. You should at least know how old they are and how long they've been doing what they do);
  
  
• What Tradition they're a member of (Is it eclectic or solitary, or is it one of the major traditions- especially one that requires initiation. You need to know what position is being taught from, because not all magic is the same and not all systems are compatible);
  
  
  • If they're Initiated (If their tradition requires initiation, are they initiated? If so, can we verify their lineage; who are their Uplines? Anyone who is not initiated has no room to be teaching an initiation-requiring tradition's practices. And anyone who refuses to provide lineage information and initiation Uplines for verification is sketchy, as this information's entire purpose is literally to be available for verifying the practitioner);
    
    
  • Who they trained under (Even solitarily or eclectically, if they had any prior teachers of their own, that lineage should be recorded; they should want to tell you who they learned from themselves. They should also be upfront if they are self taught as well);
    
    
  • Whether or not they're currently affiliated with known nationalists, TERFs, extremist groups, or other unsavory groups / individuals (Like, Hello ??? This is incredibly important to look at. But we have to keep cancel culture in mind, too; a teacher that was a TERF 10 years ago but has since disavowed the movement, made ammends with the Trans Community, and is active in Trans-positive activism, is nowhere near the same as a teacher who is still actively affiliated with TERF movements and speaks out against Trans rights);
    
    
• What their credentials are (Do they have any prior experience with teaching? Is so, where have they taught before- and what topics have they taught? Are those topics relevant now?);

  Only running a blog does not count as real "teaching experience". We're talking teaching at the library, or at a local store, or on the Festival circuit, holding webinars, or things like that; real classes. Not pseudo-educational blog posts that may or may not consist of true original content with any legitimate credibility, may or may not reach a real audience, and can be edited or removed at any time to currate both image and space.

• Where they get their sources (Are they properly sourced? Are they out of date? Are they appropriated? Did they just make it up? Are they clear about when things are UPG vs fact, or even when their teachings don't align with their base tradition?);
  
  
• Whether or not their scheduling is reliable and consistent (Does class start on time, or within a reasonable margin of error? Do they send out materials when they say they will? Or do they generally just slack off and leave you hanging?);
  
  
• What external criticism of them exists, and how they handle any criticism of them or their teachings (What do others say about their experiences with them, and the validity or quality of their teachings? Do they and their followers gang up on and attack any naysayers- either publicly and privately?);
  
  
• And far more.

The fact of the matter is that the difference between a true Red Flag, a Yellow flag, and a Green Flag isn't your own personally subjective and easily biased perspective, opinion, lack of belief, or lack of understanding of a subject and its history and use (etc) ... It's in the actual inherent and legitimate danger possibly presented to the individual by the action that's being flagged.

Regardless, you should be careful who you choose to teach you, and vet all of your teachers thoroughly- whether they're paid or not. Don't just pick a teacher because they're cheap, or because you follow their social media, or you like their aesthetic, or some other trite reason; as Scott Cunningham said:

That applies here, too: Any teacher isn't better than no teacher. Because whether people want to acknowledge it or not, Teachers are responsible for our spiritual development and growth as long as we're learning with them, and they can have significant impacts on our Spiritual, Mental, and Emotional health (and psyche). That's a heavy responsibility that can turn very ugly with the wrong teacher.

Your spiritual health and development is important, and it deserves a quality teacher who is actually qualified to teach you, and isn't just trying to start a grift or something. There are just some things that are far more important to vet than whether or not they're getting paid to teach you.