Now, when these are taken into the system, if they are not put to work by the activities of the system—either physical or mental— they become destructive tissue, for they affect the plasm [plasma] of the blood supply or the emunctory and lymph which is another name for a portion of a blood supply in a system.
Then, in the meeting of the diet—be sure the activities, physically, and mentally, are in keeping with; and do not do these spasmodically, but be consistent—for the physical body, the mental body, the spiritual body, is as “Grow in grace, in knowledge, in understanding.”
That thou eatest, see it doing that thou would have it do. Now there is often considered as to why do those of either the vegetable, mineral, or combination compounds, have different effects under different conditions? It is the consciousness of the individual body! Give one a dose of clear water, with the impression that it will act as salts—how often will it act in that manner?
Just as the impressions to the whole of the organism, for each cell of the bloodstream, each corpuscle, is a whole universe in itself. Do not eat like a canary and expect to do manual labor. Do not eat like a rail splitter and expect to do the work of a mind reader or a university professor, but be consistent with those things that make for—even as the universe is builded. In the layers of one is dependent upon the activity of another. One that fills the mind, the very being, with an expectancy of God will see His movement, His manifestation, in the wind, the sun, the earth, the flowers, the inhabitant(s) of the earth; and so as is builded in the body, is it to gratify just an appetite, or is it taken to fulfill an office that will the better make, the better magnify, that the body, the mind, the soul, has chosen to stand for? and it will not matter so much what, where, or when—but knowing that it is consistent with that—that is desired to be accomplished through that body!
As has been given of old, when the children of Israel stood with the sons of the heathen and all ate from the king’s table, that which was taken that only exercised the imagination of the body in physical desires—as strong drink, strong meats, condiments that magnify desires within the body—this builded as Daniel well understood, not for God’s service—but he chose rather that the everyday, the common things would be given, that the bodies, the minds, might be a more perfect channel for the manifestations of God; for the forces of the Creator are in every force that is made manifest in the earth.
Few are able, even as the prophet of old, to see God in battle, in the shedding of blood, in the thunder, in the lightning, in the earthquake, in the various tumults in nature—but all may experience Him in the still small voice within! Do thou likewise, and the body is the temple of the living God, and is a reasonable service that we present same holy and acceptable unto Him.
Just as great a sin to over eat as to over drink; to over think as to over act! In that thou buildest, do even as He. Make thine body, thine mind, ready for every occasion that arises in the life. Think well on what was given, “Why could not we cast him out? Such is done only—only—through fasting and prayer.” When thou prayest, enter into thine closet—that is, within self—not shutting oneself away from the world, but closing self to God’s presence, and pray in secret and the reward will be in the open; for, as was given, “Men do not light a candle and put it under a bushel, but it is set—set—on a hill, that it may give life, light, unto all.”
So, in conducting thine own life—make the physical corrections necessary, yes—but make also thy mind and thine body, thine going in and thine coming out, thine activities day by day, consistent with—and the reward will be—an exemplary life, a goodly body, an open mind, a loving spirit!
Few may show forth that even felt in the heart with the liver bad, for twice does the blood pass through the liver to once in the heart. The liver is the clearinghouse both for that of the blood in and out of the heart and lungs. So in the conduct of the life, in the study, think twice before you speak once—for there’s only one tongue but two eyes. There is only one heart but seven lobes in the liver; and in thine hands—use that thou hast, and thine eye will be single in service, thine tongue will be loosed in the right direction.
THE WORKSHOP OF MARRIAGE
One of Edgar Cayce’s finest readings on marriage was given to a young woman about to be wed. It may be tempting to discount the advice here simply because it was directed at a couple who were years—if not decades—away from a truly deep and mature loving relationship. Yet the fresh innocence of their new love allowed a visionary like Cayce to step back and see the potential of marriage as an ideal. Most partners who came to him asking for advice were already wounded by marital strife.
In the reading, 480-20, Cayce emphasizes how marriage partners are complements; a weakness in one, for instance, is likely to be counterbalanced by a strength in the other. The woman is described by him as having strong leadership tendencies, the implication being that her husband is weak in that area. Seen from one perspective, this type of filling in the holes for the other partner can work out well; but it also can create challenges in the marriage that must be met creatively, and with considerable self-awareness, or otherwise such a strength-weakness pairing can undermine the relationship. So while Cayce warns the woman not to let her natural strength as a leader overshadow, or even overwhelm, her husband’s efforts to develop leadership qualities in himself, Cayce also warns her not to abandon her own skills and allow herself to become subservient to her husband. And while a delicate balance is required for both the partners and the relationship to flower, the psychology of coupling sometimes leads to just such a paradoxical, uneven pairing. For example, one partner may excel at something and so it’s easy for the other partner to feel that he or she could never be as good at it, so “Why bother?” Maybe it’s financial planning, or sociability, or playfulness. But when one partner ends up carrying responsibilities for both partners alone, the result can be resentment on the part of both partners.
Cayce as marriage counselor picks up on another key issue for healthy husband-and-wife dynamics: Loving relationships are especially vulnerable to perceived negligence. The person we love most deeply is usually the one who can hurt us most deeply, particularly if we feel unappreciated or invalidated by that person. Often unintended, such negligence can become a major “stumbling block,” as Cayce puts it, to the marriage. Open, honest communication is the key.
Cayce also emphasizes the importance of taking an interest in the activities of your partner “as though they were a part and parcel and portion of yourself.” But, once again, a delicate balance is needed because each partner needs a sense of autonomy. Few marriages could thrive if the partners did everything together; there needs to be room for individuality. The key here is valuing your partner’s interests, and that kind of support goes a long way toward building a healthy marriage.
Halfway through the reading, Edgar Cayce hones in on two factors that can determine whether a marriage will be healthy—“an effectual, helpful experience in life,” as he describes it. First, there needs to be an element of the sacred in the relationship. Sacred is such a powerful word, with connotations of calling up spiritual forces; but, in effect, that is just exactly what we do. Second, we need to avoid self-indulgence; put another way, we need to avoid willfulness, a need to get what we want without regard for what the other person wants. Such willfulness, such self-indulgence, can sabotage any sacredness in the marriage.
There is considerable detail in the reading about the home as well. In fact, we might say that Edgar Cayce places as much stock in the creation of a loving home as he does in the creation of a loving relationship. This emphasis may sound a bit old-fashioned to us today, in our era of broken homes and magazine covers touting the latest remedy for fixing a relationship. But to Cayce, the home was a big deal, and perhaps it’s worth closer scrutiny on our part as we ponder how to heal the troubled society we live in. Not only is the home a haven for the couple, it’s also where others can experience the loving vibrations generated by the couple. It serves
as a haven for family, friends, even strangers. It’s a “garden of beauty” that blesses many.
A final bit of advice comes just before the question-and-answer exchange at the end of the reading, and it neatly summarizes Cayce’s philosophy of how to create a healthy marriage: Be joyous. There will be problems in a marriage, naturally, but never forget the power of living joyfully. And when problems come, turn inward, and for this reason alone both partners need an active inner life. By having a clear, strong connection to the spirit inside ourselves, we are able to have a clear, strong connection with our partner.
THE READING
THIS PSYCHIC READING, 480-20,
WAS GIVEN BY EDGAR CAYCE ON JULY 22, 1935.
The conductor was Gertrude Cayce.
GC: Entity, [480]. Considering her past and present development, together with opportunities in this present life, you will advise her regarding her adjustment to the new life before her. You will answer the questions that may be asked regarding her coming marriage and information given in her life reading through these sources.
EC: Yes, we have the entity known as or called in the present [480], and the information that has been given through these channels respecting the physical, the mental and the attributes necessary for change in the spiritual or soul development.
In the approach, then, to those changes that are eminent in the mind of this entity in the present, well that all these conditions be taken into consideration; remembering ever as this:
Only counsel may be given, only those conditions that are as ideal without being idealistic, those conditions that are as necessary influences without there being other than the choice of the entity in making for the application of same in the experience.
For as the ways are chosen before thee, you each may find in the new associations and relations the ability to make the best conditions, the surroundings, the experiences that will bring into the experience of each that which will be the most helpful in the soul and development mentally of each; provided the adjustments are made in those directions, with the thought of that necessary in the experience of each to make for such.
As indicated, these will find that they are a complement one to another in a great many ways.
The natural tendency of the entity, [480], is to be the leader, the impelling influence. Do not let this, then, overshadow the abilities or the activities of the mate in any way or manner. This does not mean to become, from the mental or the material side, as subservient to his ideas; but let each give and take, knowing that this is to be a fifty-fifty proposition, with you each supplying that which is best within yourselves.
When the necessities are such as to require waiting and patience even, in those things that may at the time appear to be as negligence on the part of the one or the other, do not rail at such times or allow those things to become stumbling blocks; but always reason well together.
In those things that pertain to the social life, be considerate one of the other. Know that there is the necessity of you each being as interested in the activities of the other as though they were a part and parcel and portion of yourselves. Not in a demanding attitude, but you each living your own life, each having your own interests, each having your own responsibilities; and each supplying those necessary influences or forces in each association as to make for a harmonious cooperative activity in such social activities as may be had in every phase of the experience.
Let each budget the time. Let each give so much to the recreation for the body, for the mind, for the social activities, for the necessary activities for the supplying of the needs in their varied relationships. And be cooperative one with another in such things.
Let also there be time for the recuperative forces necessary in the experience, those that may be added as elements in the entertainment, the necessary forces for the adding to the effects of the abilities in all phases of human experience as correlated to the coordinating of the lives one with another.
The marital relationships, as we have indicated, will become an effectual, helpful experience in the life of the entity; as also in the life of the mate, if the coordinations of their activities in such relationships are made as to be sacred in their notions, their ideas, their activities being not for self-indulgences but as a union of that necessary for the creative forces and influences in the experiences of the life of each, as to bring the crowning influence to the experience of each.
In the establishing of the home, make it as that which may be the pattern of a heavenly home. Not as that set aside for only a place to sleep or to rest, but where not only self but all who enter there may feel, may experience, by the very vibrations that are set up by each in the sacredness of the home, a helpfulness, a hopefulness in the air about the home. As not only a place of rest, not only a place of recreation for the mind, not only a place as a haven for the bodies and minds of both but for all that may be as visitors or as guests. And remember those injunctions that have been in thine experience in many of thine sojourns, and be thou mindful of the entertaining of the guests; for some have entertained angels unawares. Make thine home, thine abode, where an angel would desire to visit, where an angel would seek to be a guest. For it will bring the greater blessings, the greater glories, the greater contentment, the greater satisfaction; the glorious harmony of adjusting thyself and thy relationships one with another in making same ever harmonious. Do not begin with, “We will do it tomorrow—we will begin next week—we will make for such next year.” Let that thou sowest in thy relationships day by day be the seeds of truth, of hope, that as they grow to fruition in thy relationships, as the days and the months and the years that are to come go by, they will grow into that garden of beauty that makes indeed for the home.
In every association, whether one with another in thy relationships or with thy own friends, or with the strangers that enter, let thy activities be such that there may come more and more of that which is directed by the spirit of hopefulness, helpfulness, in thy attitudes one to another.
And as these grow to the harvest in life, the Lord may give the increase.
If ye have builded such that hate, envy, malice, jealousy are the fruits of same, these can only bring dissension and strife and hardships. But if the seeds of truth and life are sown, then the fruition—as the life goes on together—will be in harmony. And He, the Father, being thy guide in all will bless thee, even as He has promised from the beginning. For in the fruit of thy bodies may many be blessed, if ye will but seek that through the union of thy purposes, of thy desires, with their import in things spiritual, such may come to pass.
Not that the life is to be made long-faced, that no joy is to enter in! Rather be ye joyous in thy living, in thine association, in thy activities, ever. For joy and happiness beget joy and happiness; unless the import be of a selfish nature.
But when doubts and fears and troubles arise (as they must, as they will in the experience of all), come ye rather together before the throne of grace and mercy, as may be found in the meditation before the Lord. Take thine troubles to Him, not to thy fellow man! For He is merciful when man may be unkind, jealous, hard-hearted, set, determined. But let thy yeas be yea in the Lord; let thy nays be nay in the Lord.
And in adjusting thyself in these ways and manners ye may bring to thine experience the greater glory of the Father in the earth.
Ready for questions.
Q In what former incarnation did I know [633]?
A These will be given in their proper order.
Q What is our greatest purpose together in this life?
A Harmony!
Q How may I express and live up to the highest ideals in marriage?
A As has been indicated.
Q As my life reading [480-1] gave that I might attain to the best in this experience through music or the play, how may I coordinate same with marriage and express the highest in both?
A For in the home is the music of what? As indicated, it is an emblem of the heavenly home. And as these are made
into the harmonious experiences that may come in the associations, they may bring indeed the music of the spheres in the activities as one with another, and those that must be contacted in the highest of man’s achievement in the earth—the home!
We are through for the present.
A SUMMARY of Edgar Cayce’s Approach to Healthy Living
While some of the most remarkable Cayce readings about the physical body involves cures for serious illnesses, his greatest contribution may well have been in helping people to stay healthy. Maintaining health requires the careful, consistent application of certain fundamental principles, among them the need for balance, and an awareness of the creative power of our attitudes and emotions in shaping the condition of our physical bodies. But healthy living also means having positive, supportive, loving relationships with other people. And the key to such relationships is to first have a strong relationship with the spiritual forces within ourselves.
The Essential Edgar Cayce Page 13