This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the Edmonds' home on Pennsylvania Ave., Norfolk, Va., this 10th day of March, 1935, requested by those present.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Esther Wynne, Florence Edmonds, Edith Edmonds, Frances Y. Morrow, Hugh Lynn Cayce, 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 here, and their work on the lesson Destiny. You will give such further material as may be obtained at this time. You will answer the questions that may be asked.
2. EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here, as a group, as individuals; and their work on the lesson Destiny.
3. In considering that portion of same that has been given concerning Destiny as related to the Mind, there may be added - as has been given - that if there is the concept gained here, ye may through these lessons set many aright as respecting same. [See 262-80, Par. 7-A.]
4. Consider these phases or portions of same in the present:
5. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," and "Thou canst not by taking thought turn one hair white or black, nor add one cubit to thy stature."
6. These in their various manners present the correct interpretation, then, of the Destiny of the Mind. Mind is, as has been given, both physical and spiritual; is amenable to laws that govern same in its phase of manifestation. Mind is the motivative influence in expression as to the growth in which the inward self would make for its expressions in materiality or in matter. What meaneth, then, those that spoke as given, "As a man thinketh so is he"? So does the growth become. For in the material things, as we shall find as respecting the Destiny of the Body, as a man eateth so is he also - the physical man. As a man thinketh so is he also; destined that that which is the growth of those influences in the experience of the individual for its accomplishing, its fulfilling that purpose for which it came into being.
7. Then the question, naturally, is asked: Is the Destiny of a Mind set at the time of its birth into materiality? as to what it will think, as to what its environs will be, as to the length of its period of expression in the earth? Is it destined to lose a tooth on a certain day, a hair on a certain day, an arm, or this or that experience. These are in those signs that have been indicated, that as ye ARE, as ye were, so will ye be by or through that which has been accomplished in the experience of the body, of the mind, of the soul; that it, the soul (the only living portion of same), might be one. It is destined that it will pass through that experience necessary to give it, the soul, the greater opportunity for its becoming one with that purpose for which it came into being. For God hath not willed that any soul should perish but with each temptation hath prepared a way, a means of escape. This, then, would indicate that as the soul, or as the man, or as the mind works at in its thinking it becomes.
8. Then does this belie that the Master gave, "Ye cannot by taking thought add one whit or one cubit to thy stature, nor turn one white hair black"? This then rather indicates, rather assures those that accept what He has given, that it - the thought - is a growth by that which is (and will be seen the more in that which may be expressed or given as concerning) the Destiny of the Body.
9. But for that which may illustrate to each of you in your own experience as to the Destiny, or what thought or what Mind may do as determining the SOUL'S Destiny:
10. There is the Mind of the soul. There is the Mind of the physical being. There is ever that battle between the flesh and the spirit, which has been from those periods when man projected himself into flesh through the power given him and partook of flesh in such a manner as that flesh, as all matter, dieth in the matter or physical plane. Yet the spirit or the soul-man dieth not, for it is the gift of God.
11. Then as the Mind dwells upon that in materiality or in the flesh or of the earth-earthy, to satisfy, to make for growth within the flesh, this - as the Master has given - does not find itself in that of growth but rather as He gave, "Seek first the kingdom of God within you; THEN all of these things may be added UNTO you." Not as thou seest fit, not for thine own indulgences, but that ye may indeed and in truth be one in Him with the Father, and thus fulfill in each experience that which is the fulfillment of that destined for thee. Hast thou then aught to do with thy days in the earth? How readest thou? "Honor thy Father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the earth which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee." Honor, then, to whom honor is due destines that greater opportunities for an individual soul in an individual experience will be the result of such activity. How doth honor come? First by the THINKING, the meditating upon; so that in the acts, in the words, these bring honor, bring that which is honor to such in a material manifestation. How, then, dost thou read as respecting that the fulfilling of the law as concerning that thou wouldest do in thine experience day by day will bring into the mental, the material, the spiritual, the soul experience of each that which may, which will, which DOES fulfil that for which THAT entity, that individuality, is destined? By whom? Is it within self? Is it within the gift of the Father? Both! For if ye labor one with another, ye cannot serve two masters; for ye will love one and hate the other. If ye live for thyself thou fulfillest the Destiny for self-love, self-glorification. If thou thinkest and livest the life of love in Him that IS Life, IS Love, thou fulfillest that Destiny for which He has given thee. Thou must be purged so as by fire, for eventually ye must pass under the rod.
12. Ready for questions.
13. We are through for the present.

BACKGROUND

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

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