This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the Edmonds' home on Pennsylvania Ave., Norfolk, Va., this 12th day of May, 1935, in accordance with request made by those present.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Esther Wynne, Florence & Edith Edmonds, Frances Y. Morrow, Hugh Lynn Cayce, Helen Storey 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. (I hold in my hand a compilation of the material on the Destiny of the Mind.) You will comment on this material, suggesting proper arrangement and presentation and give such further discourse on this subject as will be helpful at this time. Answer questions.
2. EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here, as a group, as individuals - and their work upon the lesson Destiny.
3. As to the data gathered here, as we find, these are very good. It has been indicated from the first portion of that which has been given that there would be set forth rather the preamble, as to how this lesson is to be considered in its various phases; Mind, Body, Soul; the mental, the physical, the spiritual man. Also what pertains to that portion or relation of the mind as to the body, and how it bears relationships to that dealing with the physical forces, the physical aspects and the physical relationships in the individual's activity; and a creative force making the correlations of the various portions of the data respecting same.
4. Then there is the Mind as the spiritual aspect or consciousness, in the material, in the soul or mental body; and the Mind that is the portion of the awareness within, that is made for its constructive forces in the individual aspects of the soul. Here again we come to those mooted questions as to the portion that becomes the personality and individuality of the mind in its relationships to what becomes a constructive influence in the activity of the individual or the entity in its entirety.
5. So we have or meet those various aspects in the experience of each individual; for where there has been the constructive or destructive aspects in the experience of each individual, they must be met in that same sphere or plane of activity in which they have been in action in the experience of the entity - and met according to that which is to be meted. For what saith the law? As ye mete, so shall it be meted to thee in thine OWN experience, in thine own activity. So, as individuals in their material or mental experience in the material world find that they are in the activity of being mistreated, as from their angle, from their own angle have they mistreated. If harshness has come to thine own experience, so has there been in thine own activity that which makes for same; and so is the experience in each phase.
6. Some may ask, some may say, how or when does one become aware of that mercy, grace? As the individual in the Christ is under the law of grace and mercy and not of sacrifice. Then indeed does each soul, each individual, in same become aware of the saving grace - or the purpose for which the Holy One gave within self that sacrifice such that all through Him may become aware, in the SPIRITUAL plane, through the grace of the Christ, of the manner in which the individual has met in the material. For He hath forgiven thee already. Only in thine brother - as ye are to be judged before Him by the deeds done in the body-PHYSICAL. For once for all has He entered in that ye are forgiven by Him already.
7. Then, in the preparation, prepare same in the present manner as has been indicated and outlined for the various phases. And then as there is the undertaking in the Destiny of the Mind, the Destiny of the Soul - as these are given and their tenets and truths correlated, they need only those changes that make them as ONE. For the Lord thy God is One. One Lord, one Christ, one faith, one hope, one baptism - in the Christ; putting on Christ.
8. Ready for questions.
9. (Q) How should we define the following in this lesson: First, what is gospel?
   (A) News, tidings, understandings; that which bespeaks the sounding of warning, knowledge, awakening - if there will be the considering in the mind of the hearer. Gospel. Glad tidings.
10. (Q) Second, what is truth?
    (A) That which makes aware of the divine within each and every activity; that is of the mental, the material, the spiritual self - and is a growth in each and every soul.
11. (Q) What is judgment?
    (A) With what judgment shall ye be judged? Law is love; Love is law. Judgment is weighing love, law, according to the intent, the purpose of the activity in its relationships to thyself and to the force that impelled same. A weighing of evidence in an activity; as Law is that through which, by which, in which all are judged.
12. (Q) [993]: May I have a message from my Elder Brother, the Christ?
    (A) Abide thou in the way that has been chosen by thee. Meet oft in thine inner self, in judgment upon thyself in Him. For ye keep the way open for many.
13. (Q) Is there a message for the group as a whole?
    (A) Let that thou doest in thine application of that being presented thee, for the edification of thy brethren, be done in humbleness of heart, in singleness of purpose, in service THROUGH thy Lord's meeting oft with thee. And as ye do it in this manner will He abide closer, closer - Lord, to thee. Let thy prayer and thy meditation be,
    "IN THEE, O LORD, DO I TRUST. IN THEE WILL I PUT MY FAITH, MY HOPE, My ALL."
    Continuing, then, upon thy lesson as related to the Destiny of the Body - it has been indicated in thine outline as to how there are the manifestations of those things in the earth that become the expressions of the movement of the spirit bringing into being that which is matter in its various expressions. Also it has been indicated how that matter in its group form, or in its various forms, appears, disappears, dissipates into that from which it came. Yet in man, as we find, the soul, the individuality of the soul, becomes more and more apparent through the manner of life - or manner of its expressions in its activity, in its awareness within whatever sphere of activity in which it may find itself. Hence, as we find, of man - upon whom much has been bestowed - much is required. In all the universe, the celestial, the terrestrial forces, in summer, in fall, in winter, in spring, in EVERY manifestation we find the beauty of the Lord, of the Christ - the GLORY of those. Only in man may we see - through his relationships to his brother - selfishness, uncomeliness, the desire for self-aggrandizement or for self's own gratification without thought or concept of what may be the result of its activity. Hence man in his destiny makes for, in the body, that which he as an individual, as a personality, must meet in personality or in the flesh - or in the manifestations of same, with the awareness of that as may be builded in and through those various activities through which the body in its varied environments, its varied activities, may find itself. And what makes for the change? WILL!
    What, then, is WILL? That which makes for the dividing line between the finite and the infinite, the divine and the wholly human, the carnal and the spiritual. For the WILL may be made one WITH HIM, or for self alone. With the Will, then, does man destine in the activities of a material experience how he shall make for the relationships with Truth. What is Truth? That which makes aware to the inmost self or the soul the Divine and its purposes with that soul. So does the body - whether it is sown in this or that environ, this or that plane of activity - become one with His purposes, through the making of the will one with the spiritual import or activity; or it makes for the separations - that are to be met only in the material experience.
    Hence the necessity; hence the judgment; hence the mercy, the justice shown by the All-Wise Creative Force - that is so beautifully illustrated in the spring, the summer, the fall, the winter - the returning again and again of the body of man for it purification.
    Has not man demonstrated how that the elements in the earth are purged of the dross by the fires of the furnace for their purification? Have not the weaklings in the flock or the unhealthy plants been made sturdy in their relationships of beauty in nature, by purging, pruning, and making for those advancements again and again? And yet some deny that the All-Wise, the All-Merciful Father would be so gracious to the sons of men who have erred in this a little thing! What hath the Maker of the heavens and the earth said? They that are guilty of the least are guilty of them all!
    So, in the Destiny of thy Body, make the WILL (How? Through the Mind of the Body!) at-one with Him; knowing in thine self that what has been set, what is IS - as God. Yet in Christ may ye meet EVERY trial, every temptation. For how hath He spoken? That though offenses must come (and woe be to those by whom they come!), He hath not allowed those to be tempted beyond that (in the body), above that which they are ABLE to bear. How GREAT, then, is the trust that He hath put in thee, that THOU should bear the glad tidings of a RISEN Lord, an ALIVE God in thine own experience! YE that have chosen Him, as He hath chosen you, to be lights unto the sons of men. Quit ye yourselves, then, as He hath trusted in thee; trust YE in Him!
14. We are through for the present.

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of Reading 262-81 - "Norfolk Study Group #1."

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