The Essential Edgar Cayce

by Thurston, Mark

  Another significant aspect of Edgar Cayce’s theory of reincarnation is that for each lifetime the soul comes into the material world, it has a mission that includes work to help transform itself for the better as well as work that transforms the world for the better. Finding and using the soul’s talents is the key. Cayce suggests that with self-study, we can intuit the soul purpose and even articulate a personal mission statement.

  CHAPTER SIX

  SOUL DEVELOPMENT AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH

  IN DESCRIBING THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL, EDGAR CAYCE IS sometimes criticized for lacking sophistication, for leaving out esoteric principles and relying too often on spiritual basics. But are we ready to deal with the details if we aren’t ready to deal with the fundamentals? There are no doubt more complex ways of defining the mission of the soul and its steps along the way to spiritual evolution. In fact, Cayce sometimes does just that. But in certain readings—the ones that really are the more essential Edgar Cayce—he does us a favor by stripping away the metaphysical and focusing on what it takes to be successful spiritually.

  In this chapter, we explore the heart of the development of the soul as Cayce saw it. We start with a remarkable reading, 518-2, that eloquently addresses the question of what truly makes life worthwhile. What is the nature of greatness in life? Cayce articulates the basic goal of living as the nurturing of a way of being in life, a way that is open to God, and other people, and that finds the greatest meaning and joy by being a blessing to others.

  Next, we take an overview of the sequence of spiritual growth that Edgar Cayce developed for individual and group study, the “A Search for God” series, which many people feel is the heart and soul of his teachings. Although more fully permeated with language from the southern Protestant tradition than elsewhere, the wisdom is universal nonetheless. It’s a demanding, powerful program for awakening a higher level of consciousness in ourselves.

  WHAT IS GREATNESS?

  The modern world pushes us into believing that greatness lies in notoriety. If something is well known, well advertised, or a part of everyday conversation, then it must be special. Nothing could be further from Edgar Cayce’s definition of greatness, of a life well lived. To him, service done with humility characterizes worthwhile living.

  This theme weaves throughout this mental-spiritual reading, 518-2, which was done for a twenty-five-year-old woman who was searching for a deeper sense of purpose in life. Just eighteen months earlier, Cayce had given her a life reading that was full of past-life scenarios and advice that largely confused her. “I think my life reading is wonderful, but I don’t understand it,” she had written to him later. This second reading was to clarify the first. It’s a fine statement of the universal principles governing the growth of the soul, with a special emphasis on joyful service undertaken with patient humility. To some scholars, the fourth paragraph (see page 193) is his most incisive illumination of the universal purpose of life: It’s a journey toward becoming conscious, and cleansed, so that we can become companions with our Creator.

  Ms. 518 must have been inspired by these sentiments, but she probably also wondered how such lofty ideas fit the more mundane problems she faced. In her first reading, she said she was perplexed about her choice of career. Rather than focus on career in the second reading, Cayce focuses on a way of living that leads to the development of the soul no matter what career path she takes. This emphasis on a way of life may remind us of Tao, or “the way.” Cayce’s version of the way sees joyful service displacing self-centered desires.

  What can block service and the growth it brings? Sin, in the language of traditional theology. Hardly a concept that many of us would want to address seriously because of all the baggage that comes with it, Cayce addresses it head-on. Selfishness, grudges, and wrath were patterns in the woman’s soul that kept her spiritual identity—her individuality, or the I AM, as it’s called here—separated from God. And he warns against another kind of obstacle, willfulness, which focuses on private fulfillment. We all must guard against such selfishness, as much today as in Cayce’s time. We’re off the mark when we “intentionally turn our back” on spiritual opportunities, particularly in social relationships. With that clear warning, reading 518-2 returns to more hopeful themes, especially that great joy comes to anyone who makes an effort to lift the consciousness of anyone else.

  Edgar Cayce even offers a two-part statement about what makes for greatness in life: that it is knowledge based, “That ye might know the Lord and His goodness”; and that it has a service component, that we “become as a messenger in thy service and thy activity before thy fellow man.” Note that service, however patient or humble, doesn’t stand alone. Its context comes from knowledge and understanding. Have you ever unintentionally caused more harm than good in an ill-conceived effort to serve? Without knowledge and understanding, you aren’t going to achieve the helpful results you hoped for.

  THE READING

  THIS PSYCHIC READING, 518-2,

  WAS GIVEN BY EDGAR CAYCE ON AUGUST 13, 1935.

  The conductor was Gertrude Cayce.

  GC: Mental and spiritual reading, giving the original purpose of entrance into this solar realm of experience, trace the mental and spiritual development from the beginning through the various stages of experience, and give such guidance as the entity needs in awakening her psychic soul faculties and in using same for the highest spiritual development in this life. You will answer the questions she has submitted, as I ask them.

  EC: Yes, we have the entity and those experiences in the mental and soul forces of same, as may be applicable in the experience in the present; that may make that necessary for the entity’s development and to bring the influences that are necessary for the understanding.

  In tracing the experiences of the entity, and in giving purposes, aims, desires, let these be set as the law; or as the ideal manner of approach to any of such conditions:

  First, the entering of every soul is that it, the soul, may become more and more aware or conscious of the Divine within, that the soul-body may be purged; that it may be a fit companion for the glory of the Creative Forces in its activity.

  The activity for this entity, then, is the same; that it may have the opportunity. For it has been given that the Lord hath not willed that any soul should perish. But with every temptation He hath prepared a way; so that if he or she as the erring one will turn to Him for that aid, it may find same.

  Then again, in the appearances, do not look or seek for the phenomenon of the experience without the purpose, the aim. Use same as a criterion, as what to do and what not to do. Not that it, the simple experience, has made or set anything permanent! For there is the constant change evidenced before us; until the soul has been washed clean through that the soul in its body, in its temple, has experienced by the manner in which it has acted, has spoken, has thought, has desired in its relationships to its fellow man!

  Not in selfishness, not in grudge, not in wrath; not in any of those things that make for the separation of the I AM from the Creative Forces, or Energy, or God. But the simpleness, the gentleness, the humbleness, the faithfulness, the long-suffering, patience! These be the attributes and those things which the soul takes cognizance of in its walks and activities before men. Not to be seen of men, but that the love may be manifested as the Father has shown through the Son and in the earth day by day. Thus He keeps the bounty, thus He keeps the conditions such that the individual soul may—if it will but meet or look within—find indeed His Presence abiding ever.

  The soul, the individual that purposely, intentionally, turns the back upon these things, choosing the satisfying of the own self’s desire, then has turned the back upon the living God.

  Not that there is not to be joy, pleasure, and those things that maketh not afraid in the experience of every soul. But the joy in service, the joy in labor for the fellow man, the joy in giving of self that those through thy feeble efforts may have put before them, may become aware in their consciousnes
s, that thou hast been with, that thou hast taken into thine own bosom the law of the Lord; and that ye walk daily with Him.

  What, ye say then, was the purpose for which ye entered in at this particular experience? That ye might know the Lord and His goodness the more in thine inner self, that ye through this knowledge might become as a messenger in thy service and thy activity before thy fellow man; as one pointing the way, as one bringing—through the feeble efforts and endeavors, through the faltering steps at times, yet trying, attempting to do—what the conscience in the Lord hath prompted and does prompt thee to do.

  As to thy music, in this thy hands may bring the consciousness of the harmonies that are created by the vibrations in the activities of each soul; that each other soul may, too, take hope; may, too, be just kind, just gentle, just patient, just humble.

  Not that the way of the Lord is as the sounding of the trumpet, nor as the tinkling of cymbals that His might be proclaimed; but in the still small voice, in the hours of darkness that which lightens the heart to gladness, that which brings relief to the sufferer, that which makes for patience with the wayward, that which enables those that are hungry—in body, in mind—to be fed upon the bread of life; that they may drink deep of the water of life, through thy efforts.

  These are the purposes, these are the experiences that bring in the heart and in the soul the answering of that cry, “Why—why—have I come into this experience?”

  Be ye patient; be ye quiet and see the glory of the Lord in that thou may do in thine efforts day by day.

  Do that thou knowest to do, today! Then leave the results, leave the rewards, leave the effects into the hands of thy God. For He knoweth thy heart, and He hath called—if ye will harken.

  “A SEARCH FOR GOD” AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUL

  A series of 130 readings given by Edgar Cayce between 1931 and 1942 is the closest thing he offered to a curriculum for spiritual growth. Presented to a small group of his closest supporters who wanted to know more about developing their own intuition and spiritual consciousness, the readings became the basis for small group and individual study and research worldwide.

  The curriculum is not as obviously sequential as, say, a math or foreign language curriculum might be. While there are distinct lessons, each with four or five readings to elaborate on the meaning of the spiritual quality addressed, oftentimes Cayce looked at a topic from an unusual angle, as in his notion that patience is far more involved than just waiting compliantly and instead involves one of the three fundamental dimensions of a soul’s experience in the material world.

  It is hard to do justice to “A Search for God” so briefly as follows, but you certainly get a taste, a snapshot of the essence of the first twelve of twenty-four lessons in the series and commentaries that go with them.

  1. COOPERATION

  Cooperation may seem like a curious place to embark on the path to spiritual growth, but it makes sense if we consider that not much can get done without it. There is no group unless the members of the group cooperate. At a personal level, there is no health—physical, mental, or spiritual—unless the various aspects of ourselves learn to cooperate.

  At its most essential, cooperation is a matter of not letting an egotistical sense-of-self control the situation. Not easy, of course, but a good starting point toward self-understanding.

  In relationships with other people, drop any feelings of superiority, thinking you know better than other people, that your agenda is more important. As the series lesson on “Cooperation” put it: “In whatever state we find society, let us meet it upon its own level; as we look up, we lift it. That is cooperation.” But even more than meeting people halfway, cooperation is an opportunity to be “a channel of blessings” to others.

  Q Before we can have cooperation, do we not have to offer ourselves?

  A In cooperation IS the offering of self to be a channel of activity, of thought; for as line upon line, precept upon precept, comes so does it come through the giving of self; for he that would have life must GIVE life, they that would have love must show themselves lovely, they that would have friends must be friendly, they that would have cooperation MUST cooperate by the GIVING of self TO that as is to be accomplished—whether in the bringing of light to others, bringing of strength, health, understanding, these are one IN Him.

  262-3

  2. KNOW THYSELF

  The next step is honest self-appraisal. But the ancient injunction to know thyself is not just a single step on the path of soul growth but instead is ongoing. Without self-observation, we surely will fall prey to self-deception as we move on to the steps that follow.

  Knowing oneself requires being honest. You cannot be true to another person, or to God, unless you can be true to yourself. Without being true to the self, rare is the individual who is capable of integrity.

  Edgar Cayce proposes this challenging experiment: “Stand aside and watch self pass by.” This is not an invitation for out-of-body travel but instead refers to an internal process that is accomplished with one’s will and attention, a witnessing consciousness. Even more challenging, dare to observe objectively and nonjudgmentally your own inner world of thoughts and feelings, the part of yourself that others cannot see.

  Q How may I learn to know self as I am known?

  A Being able to, as it were, LITERALLY, stand aside and watch self pass by! Take the time to occasionally be sufficiently introspective of that, that may happen in self’s relation to others, to SEE the reactions of others as to that as was done by self; for true—as it has been said—no man lives to himself, no man dies to himself; for as the currents run to bring about the forces that are so necessary to man’s own in these material things, so are those forces in self active upon those whom we act upon. Being able, then, to see self as others see you; for, as has been given, “NOW we know in part, then shall we know even as we are known.” Then, in Him so let thy life be in Him, in thought, in deed, that “Ye that have known me have known the Father also” may be truly said of self. Stand aside and watch self pass by! 262-9

  3. WHAT IS MY IDEAL?

  Ideals are central to Edgar Cayce’s vision of personal growth, and it’s no surprise that he would place clarifying one’s ideals early in the “A Search for God” sequence.

  It’s important to distinguish between an idea and an ideal. Ideas arise from our experience of physical life and our personality. In contrast, ideals come to us—that is, they are not “man-made,” as Cayce puts it—from deep within our soul as our unconscious life begins to stir and slowly reveal itself to us. As we experience it, an ideal chooses us just as much as we choose it. If we pay attention to this awakening, nurture it, and look for it to emerge even more fully, then we have adopted a spiritual ideal.

  And what ideal does Cayce especially encourage us to pay attention to, nurture, and invite into our lives most fully? The ideal of wholeness, of oneness, of unity. As unique as the individual soul is, it can never become the whole; in other words, it can never become God. But it can strive to be as one with the divine—we can “attain to such an ideal,” Cayce tells us.

  Though there may be many ideas in the approach to the one, the differentiations are lost in the purpose of the ideal. An ideal, then, CANNOT, SHOULD not, WILL not, be that that is man-made, but must be of the spiritual nature—that has its foundation in Truth, in God, in the God-head, that there may be the continual reaching out of an individual, whether applied to the physical life, the mental life, or the spiritual life; knowing that FIRST principle, that the gift of God to man is an INDIVIDUAL soul that may be one WITH Him, and that may know itself to be one with Him and yet individual in itself, with the attributes OF the whole, yet NOT the whole. Such must be the concept, must be the ideal, whether of the imaginative, the mental, the physical, or the spiritual body of man. All may ATTAIN to such an ideal, yet never become the ideal—but ONE WITH the ideal, and such a one is set in Him. 262-11

  4. FAITH

  Questions of faith, b
elief, and doubt are vital to spiritual growth, and they have been debated by theologians for centuries. While belief and doubt are two sides of the same coin, faith exists outside their back-and-forth polarity.

  As long as we confine our spiritual seeking to what we believe already, we never break out of the box of materiality. The conscious personality has a vested interest in there being certain truths in life in order to hold on to its worldview. Oftentimes, one’s beliefs are so strong and persistent that they take on the appearance of truth.

  But belief always attracts its opposite: doubt. Doubt drives the analytical mind, and is the basis for the scientific method, and it views life in terms of physical reality alone. The rationality of the logical mind is shaped by doubt.