This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the Edmonds' home on Pennsylvania Ave., Norfolk, Va., this 26th day of August, 1934, in accordance with request by those present.

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

TEXT

1. GC: You will have before you Group #1, members of which are present in this room; as a group and as individuals we seek at this time further counsel and guidance in carrying forward our work. Questions.
2. EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here, as individuals, as a group, and their work in the preparation for that which may be helpful to those of their fellows who seek through such channels for aid.
3. In the applications, as has so oft been given, does the individual find that which to it, as an individual, is the experience.
4. In this present dilemma in which they each find themselves it would be well that ye harken to that which has been given, that ye counsel one with another in the experiences and applications of that thou - as an individual - hast gained from the experience in Desire, and ye may analyze what is desire in thine own experience. Many have condemned that in their own consciousness that has been given, without insight into the purposes and desires of their own inner self. Where is the meeting place with thy Maker? In the holy of holies in thine own self! Raise the Christ Consciousness within self to thine own judgments, that there may be shown thee as He has given: "Take no thought, for - if thou art in accord - it will be given thee in the selfsame hour." Laud not thyself, but rather let the purposes, the desires of thy heart be, "Thy will be done in and through me, and Lord be Thou the guide in the time of temptation." For it must needs be that those come in thine experience, but not of self nor in the exercising of thine strength that thou wilt meet same - rather in thy weakness may He strengthen thee in thy desires, in thy purposes. EMPTY thyself of physical desires, that the spiritual aptitude of self may be glorified through thee in thy walks before thy fellow man.
5. Condemn not others; condemn not self. Let thy yeas be yea and thy nays nay, lest ye enter into temptation without His being near.
6. Ready for questions.
7. (Q) [560]: May this be explained, in reading of Aug. 12, 1934: "For the day of the Lord draweth nigh, and eternity is long with thy soul!" [See 262-69, Par. 3.]
   (A) The day of the Lord draweth nigh. Each soul has been called in this group for a service unto the Lord. Hence the day draweth nigh, for the night cometh when no man labors. Eternity is long with thy soul. As eternity to the finite mind indicates that without beginning, without end, so is the soul of man that has made his desire as one with the Lord. For as eternity so the soul, and it is LONG with thy soul. So, keep the paths straight. Walk in the light, even as He is in the light. Be joyous in thy service in that thou hast to meet day by day, for the day of the Lord draweth nigh when YE who have been called must give an account unto the keeper of thy Lord's vineyard. EACH soul IS writing His gospel day by day, and others read whether it is faithless or true. What is the gospel of thy Lord, according to you?
8. (Q) Each soul is a free-will agent in a material world, with the choice before it in its own experience. Are there not times when the will is overruled by higher forces? May this information be given?
   (A) Yes. It is overruled. Through the destiny, that ye must learn - but take the first steps first. Learn that thou hast to learn, then it may be given.
9. (Q) [295]: Will you give me a message that will help me to apply the lesson and contribute something toward the lesson?
   (A) As thou hast known, and DO know in thine experience as to how desire in the material may be spiritualized by making the desire as "Thy will, Thy purpose, Thy way be done in and through me; as the Father seeth fit, use me," so give expression of same in such a manner that it may be helpful to thy fellow man. "Not my will, not my desire, save that desire be in accord with Thy purpose of the God that manifests itself in and through me as TO my attitude, my purpose, my desire, towards my fellow man." So may the application of thy experience aid others in knowing this.
10. (Q) Is there a message for the group as a whole?
    (A) Let that desire, that thought, that purpose, be in each of you that was in the MAN Jesus that, though He were in the world yet not of the world, neither was He strange nor curious, neither did He fain [refrain?] from partaking of those things that were about Him in the social, in the home life of His fellow man. Yet His desire ever, "Not my will but Thine, O Lord, be done in me." As He has given ye, ye have all been called unto a service in Him; some to sacrifice here, others to toil and to disappointments there, yet He has promised and is able to keep that He has committed unto thy keeping against any obstacle, whether of the earth or of the unseen activities, against THOU fulfilling that whereunto thou hast been called, if - IF - thy DESIRE is in Him.
11. We are through.

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of Reading 262-70 - "Study Group #1".
2. A period of "drought" was being experienced by the group; contributions to and work on the lesson seemed at a standstill.

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