This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the Edmonds' home on Pennsylvania Ave., Norfolk, Va., this 3rd day of March, 1935, in accordance with request by Norfolk Study Group #1.

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

TEXT

1. GC: You will have before you the Norfolk Study Group #1, members of which are present, and their work on the lesson DESTINY. You will give at this time further discourse on this subject which will aid in the preparation of this lesson. You will answer the questions which will be asked.
2. EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here, as a group, as individuals, and the lessons that are in preparation - DESTINY.
3. In gaining that which may be helpful in preparation of those tenets that may be applied in the study and the experiences of selves and of others, as respecting the lesson DESTINY, study first well that which has been given in reference to same in the varied approaches that have come from time to time.
4. As to that portion of same respecting Mind and Destiny, this - to be sure - will be as a portion or a lesson in itself, including Mind in relation to the varied attributes of the physical, the mental and the spiritual bodies.
5. Mind in itself, then, is both material AND spiritual.
6. That which finds itself expressed or manifested in material things is of the physical, for matter is an expression of spirit in motion to such a degree as to give the expressions in materiality.
7. That which is expressed or manifested in spirit, without taking body or form, is of the spirit; yet may be manifested in the experience of an individual.
8. As may be seen by the reference to those here, to those that are students, to "What Is My Ideal?" Here we find it expressly given that it, the ideal, must have its inception in, from and with that which is an unseen force, or in that we may worship as a God.
9. Mind, then, may function without a form or body. Hence we will give, at this particular portion of this, that as an outline of those conditions, experiences or manifestations that may be had by the mind irrespective of the body:
10. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. How? The MIND of God MOVED, and matter, form, came into being.
11. Mind, then, in God, the Father, is the builder. How much more, then, would or should Mind be the builder in the experience of those that have put on Christ or God, in Him, in His coming into the earth? For as He has given, "Let that mind be in you which was in the Christ, who thought it not robbery to make Himself equal with God," but living in materiality in the earth, in matter, as a body; but with the Mind, with the thought, with the manifestations of a Creative Force all together.
12. Then, Destiny as related to that Mind: Mind as related to Destiny must conform, must confine, must be amenable to, must be as one of the immutable laws that has been set by that MIND calling into being worlds, the universe, the earth, man, giving man a portion of Himself, and furnishing man - as it were - a channel, an access, to that Throne of grace, mercy, truth, that Mind of God itself; the soul, the ultimate, the only portion that may be in accord with or in the presence of Him. For, as has been given, flesh and blood does not inherit eternal life. Flesh and blood is merely an expression, and in all its attributes carries with same those portions, those movements, those urges; just as each atom is made up of urges according to the movement of and with what? That which in its final analysis is the Mind of that Creative Energy which has called into being the mind that is a portion of self. And what is its Destiny? Is it that as the man thinketh in his heart so is he? or as ye sow, so shall ye reap?
13. That ye think, that ye put your Mind to work upon, to live upon, to feed upon, to live with, to abide with, to associate with in the mind, THAT your soul-body becomes! That is the law. That is the Destiny. That IS as from the beginning, that each thought of the Creator bore within itself its OWN fruit as from the beginning.
14. How does matter, how does the seed of the oak or of the grass or of the flower or of the tree or of the animal or of the man, find within itself that which impels, propagates the specie? the activative force that moves on in its realm of activity in whatsoever sphere it may find itself, giving expressions of that first thought of the Creative Forces? That is its Destiny, which the easterners say was set in the first. But, as ye see, this is only half a truth. For if the Mind dwells upon the spiritual things, then it follows that it becomes what it has dwelt upon, what it has lived upon, what it has made itself a portion of. But if the Mind dwells upon self-indulgence, self-aggrandizement, self-exaltation, selfishness in any of its forms, in any of its variations, then it has set itself at variance to that First Cause; and we have that entered in as from the beginning, that of making the will through the Mind - at variance to Creative Forces before it has come into matter, into the movements in matter that we know as physical, material, as those things that are of the earth-earthy.
15. Yet we find the law, the same law, applying throughout the universe. For what was that which enabled man, or a mind, to first comprehend? "Know, O ye people, the Lord thy God is ONE!" ONE from the beginning to the ending, to those that use, to those that become constructive in their thinking, that are ever constructive in their Minds, in their indwellings, in their resting upon, in their thoughts, in their meditations, and ACT IN THE SAME MANNER, to build towards that which does make, that creates in the experience of each and every soul that knowledge. How easily, then, must it have been said, that it hath not yet entered the mind of man as to the unspeakable glories of him who has washed his raiment in the blood of the Lamb, who has made himself one in thought, in deed, in body, one with that thought, that purpose, that mind, of God.
16. So as ye comtemplate, as ye meditate, as ye look upon the Mind, know the Mind hath many windows. And as ye look out of thine inner self, know whereunto thou art looking, thou art seeking. What is thy ideal? What would you have your mind-body to become? For that upon which it feeds it becomes, that either by thought, by assimilation, by activity, by radial force, by atomic influence, by the very influence of its activity in WHATEVER SPHERE that activity may be within. And in the material mind it is the same.
17. Hence, as turning then to the physical Mind: This becomes necessary, as is set by some, for the application of the Mind, for the preparations for its activity in the material world. Yet these become so intermingled, so much a portion in the body and out of the body, that oft one becomes confused as to what is of spiritual import and what is of the material or the necessities of same. Yet ye are seeking in this to know what is the Destiny of the Mind. What has been set? Where is thy Destiny? It is in what one does about that one knows that one becomes in oneself. For it is oneself from one's portion or activity of that first movement of Mind from the spiritual aspect or from the material aspect.
18. Many questions, to be sure, will arise in the minds of many as respecting spiritual healing, materialization, and all phases of such activities. But if ye are well-grounded in those tenets, in that truth which has been presented here for thine own consideration, for thine own application in thine individual experience, then ye may set many a mind aright; and let, and have, and see their lives becoming more and more constructive in their daily experience, with their fellow man and in relationships with those they meet day by day.
19. For what is applicable to one is in the same relationship to self. For when those activities become such that the Mind of the individual, of the soul, finds itself expressing itself in the physical, in the mental, the body will take on what? Immortality! In the earth? Yes; reflecting same that it may bring what is as the tree of life in the garden, that its leaves are for the healings of the nations; that are the leaves that may fall from thy lips, from thy activities to thy fellow man, in whatever sphere or realm of activity. Why? Because of thine own self, because thou art grounded in the water of life itself, as ye grow upon those inflowings and outflowings of the spirit of Him that gave, "Let that mind be in you which is in me, that as I abide in the Father and ye abide in me, we may be one with Him," which is the Destiny of those that love His coming.
20. We are through for the present.

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of Reading 262-78 - "Norfolk Study Group #1."

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