This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the Edmonds' home on Pennsylvania Ave., Norfolk, Va., this 1st day of October, 1933, requested by those present.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Minnie & C. A. Barrett, Esther Wynne, Florence & Edith Edmonds, Frances Y. Morrow, Hugh Lynn Cayce, Mildred Mary Davis, Helen Storey, Helen Ellington, and Ruth LeNoir.

TEXT

1. GC: You will have before you the Norfolk Study Group #1, members of which are present in this room, and their studies on Day and Night. You will give at this time such guidance as will aid them in understanding this subject that it may be adequately presented for those who may study it. You will answer the questions which will be asked relating to it.
2. EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here, as a group, as individuals.
3. As to the study of that being considered by the group at this time, it is the time or period - as given - when there should be a self-analysis of that each holds not only as an individual ideal and as a group ideal, but as to what is the belief upon the varied subjects that may be now presented from time to time. And when this decision is reached, how does each react to that each professes to believe?
4. For, as presented, what one believes alone is not sufficient; but what one does about that one believes either makes for advancement or growth, or retardment. For, in acting in the material plane may one do in all good conscience that one may develop in the line of thought set in motion by activities.
5. The first questions or subjects presented begin with the Beginning, as recorded in the accepted text or word of faith in the accepted Christian world. Then, the subject is Night and Day, or Day and Night.
6. In or from the material standpoint, night and day in the material world are only relative. For, were one to view the earth from an outer sphere there would be only varied shades; or RELATIVELY there would be night and day, from the position of the earth in its journey about the source of light. And, as given, these conditions that exist in the material plane are but shadows of the truths in the mental and spiritual plane.
7. Hence we find, as given, that first there was for matter, that gathered in a directed plane of activity called the earth, the separation of light and darkness.
8. Hence these, then, are figures of that from the spiritual plane termed in the mental world as the good and evil; or in the spiritual as facing the light and the dark, or facing the source of light - which, to the mind of those that seek to know His biddings, is the voice, the word, the life, the light, that comes in the hearts, minds, souls, of each to awaken them, as individuals, to their relationships with the source of light.
9. Again, in the figurative sense, we find that light and darkness, day and night, are represented by that termed as periods of growth and the periods of rest or recuperation, through the activities of other influences in those forces or sources of activity condensed in form to be called matter, no matter what plane this may be acting from or upon.
10. This would be the line of thought then, with each individual in the group answering to self that presented for consideration in this study. Ready for questions.
11. (Q) [585]: Was it the Master's touch, the Master's voice, which I felt and heard one afternoon two winters ago?
    (A) As has been given.
12. (Q) [288]: Is Night the shadow of the original sin, or significant of man's seeking after knowledge which separated him from the light? and is that why children instinctively fear the dark?
    (A) It is both! Now this is leaving self to study some! For, it IS both; but figure it out!
13. (Q) [993]: Please explain why during the study of Day and Night, Eve has stood out so plainly and also Mark 14, Daniel 12?
    (A) Each here in their respective sphere of activity, Eve in hers. Daniel in recording the vision, or with the viewing of the wrestling between the forces of darkness and the forces of light. And that referred to in Mark as the source of light, the source of night. Each in his respective sphere presenting to a seeking mind a phase of the study. Hence each may be used as their shadow, or as their contribution to the study of the thought or lesson being presented.
14. (Q) [560]: Was Jesus, the Christ, ever Job in the physical body? May this information be given?
    (A) No. Not ever in the physical body the Jesus. For, as the sons of God came together to reason, as recorded by Job, WHO recorded same? The Son of man! Melchizedek wrote Job!
15. (Q) Was the experience I had in meditation in connection with the study of Night and Day? The words, "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. Thus saith the Lord." Please explain.
    (A) Compare this with that written in Isaiah, as to how the Lord, the God, is the Beginning and the end of that brought into material manifestation, or into that known by man as the plane or dimension from which man reasons in the finite. Then there will be to the body the correct conception of that meant. "I am Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end." That God, the Father, the Spirit, the Ohm, is the influencing force of every activity is not wholly sufficient unto man's salvation, in that he is a free-will being. As intimated that Alpha beginning, Omega ending. For, the confirmation, the segregation, the separation, the building, the adding to it, is necessary - in relation to those activities that lie between - for man's building to the beginning and the end.
16. (Q) [303]: Please explain to me the affirmation given in this lesson, that I may be able to apply it in my activities better.
    (A) As in the material life there is the day, in which the activities of the body are put in motion to supply the material things of the earth, and - as shown - such materials add to the abilities of the body to carry on in its daily activities, through the sustenance gained by the attitudes of self in the daily activity; so it is seen in the same association and connection that the night becomes the period of meditation, rest, associations of those ideas through the activities of the day; which are the gift not of self, not of self's abilities, but from the source from which mercies, truth, love, knowledge, understanding, arise. So is given, "May Thy mercies guide" in the understanding, that the concepts of that presented in Day and Night, Night and Day, may be builded in self in such a manner as to make for the glorifying IN the activities of self Day AND Night to the glory of Him that IS the Maker, the Giver, the Father of light.
17. (Q) [413]: Please give me the significance of the dream I had the night of Sept. 26th at which time I saw the Master.
    (A) As there has been in self that seeking more and more for the material confirmation of the thought, the intent and the purpose of self's activities, so in that given, that seen, is a confirmation of that purpose, that thought, that activity.
    Hence, rather than bring fears on the part of self, or anxiety as respecting those visioned in same, rather know that self is being led by Him who IS the Guide, the Giver, the Promise to all mankind.
18. (Q) COMPILERS: Please give some suggestions for outlines.
    (A) In the beginning, as presented, first the approach will be in the introduction from the MATERIAL basis of presentation. Then, in the latter portion of introduction, both the mental and spiritual presentation.
    Then, that which may be given under each heading as the contribution from those that study this as given.
19. (Q) Please explain the part of the affirmation, "Day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night sheweth knowledge."
    (A) THIS is to be applied in each INDIVIDUAL experience. For, day unto day uttereth speech, whether from the material, the mental or the spiritual aspect; as does night show forth in the varied applications the same as given of life; for it IS Alpha and Omega. For, this must be determined, as to the basis of the hope that is within each:
    Did, is, was, God, the Father, worshipped by each, honored by those that love His name; dishonored by those who seek their own rather than His biddings? Is He, was He, the Creator of all things? Or came it, the earth, the heavens, the day, the night, into being by chance?
20. We are through for the present.

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of Reading 262-55 - "Norfolk Study Group #1."

Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation