This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the Edmonds' home on Pennsylvania Ave., Norfolk, Va., this 24th day of Oct., 1937, in accordance with request made by those present.

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

TEXT

1. GC: You will have before you Norfolk Study Group #1, members of which are present here, and their work on the lesson Spirit. You will continue the discourse on this lesson, and answer the questions asked.
2. EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here; as a group, as individuals, and their work on the lesson Spirit.
3. In continuing with that which has been given, it would be well - as has been outlined - that we each ask within ourselves that which would enable each of us to correlate these interpretations with our experiences.
4. For as has been given oft, unless we are able to make the lessons practical in our own experience, how will we ask others to interpret or apply them?
5. In answering then the questions that pertain to Spirit and its relationships to man in his PRESENT estate in the material plane:
6. All SPIRIT is ONE. How?
7. Just as all force, all power emanates from that influence, that essence, that consciousness, that awareness which the consciousness of man - or man as the image of the Creator - worships.
8. How then is man a part of Spirit? How does he live, move, have his being in that Creative Force?
9. How does man differ from other animate, inanimate beings or matter in the material plane?
10. As has been given, error or separation began before there appeared what we know as the Earth, the Heavens; or before Space was manifested.
11. This becomes hard to conceive in the finite mind; as does the finite mind fail to grasp the lack of or NO time. Yet out of Time, Space, Patience, is it possible for the consciousness of the finite to KNOW the infinite.
12. Hence, then, the interpretations of Spirit as it manifests to the sons of men must follow closely what we have chosen as Holy Writ.
13. Before this began (this not as history but as the basis of the interpretation), we have had how one Amilius with that projection of self brought into being the awareness of desires as related to relationships with the beings - or matter - about.
14. Hence there began what is NOW known as the correlating, or the cohesive activity, or the relativity of matter as it relates to what becomes positive and negative.
15. Remember, negative is only error.
16. Then, these make for this activity through those Influences in thine own earth, thine own sphere, of which you have begun to catch a glimpse here or there as to their activities. And our own earth, our own sphere, as we realize more and more, is only a speck, only a dot in the universe.
17. Then why, as has been said, is God mindful of an individual soul?
18. SPIRIT! For our spirit, that is a portion of His Spirit, ever bears witness with His Spirit as to whether we be the children of God or not.
19. Then through Mu, Oz, Atlantis - with the breaking up of these - why, WHY no records of these if there were the civilizations that are ordinarily accredited to them by the interpreting of the records made by entities or souls upon the skein of what? Time and Space?
20. But he only that has recognized Patience within self may indeed make the record as an experience in the consciousness of any.
21. Each individual spirit then is only a portion of His Spirit. Not that God is separated. But in His love, in what we call infinite love, boundless, the unbounding grace and mercy and patience and love and long-suffering, these have brought to the Father the thought of the lack of, the wonderment of, companionship.
22. But we, as we see in our OWN experiences about us, must earn - yes, must measure up - yes, must conceive of its existence before we may enjoy, before we may know and have the awareness, the consciousness of the existence of such experiences in our OWN understanding, our own comprehension.
23. Then, as the sons of God came together and saw in the earth the unspeakable conditions becoming more and more for self-indulgence, self-glorification, the ability to procreate through the very forces of their activity, we find that our Lord, our Brother, CHOSE to measure up, to earn, to ATTAIN that companionship for man with the Father through the overcoming of SELF in the physical plane.
24. By Choice we know His companionship, and by will we exercise exercise our Choice. And He is ever willing, ready to give us all the power, all the influence to bring love, light, into our own active consciousness.
25. And He does so as we apply ourselves; not unmindful though is He of our weaknesses throughout our experiences in the earth, in the sojourns. For He came as those activities when man was in the beginning of what we have recorded as that God brought light.
26. What is Light, then, in that sense? In that city, in that place, there is no need of the sun, nor of the moon, nor the stars; for He is the LIGHT; He IS Light, and in Him is no darkness at all!
27. "Let there be light," then, was that consciousness that Time began to be a factor in the experience of those creatures that had entangled themselves in matter; and became what we know as the Influences in a material plane. And the moving force and the life in each, and the activities in each are from the Spirit.
28. Hence as we see, the divisions were given then for the day, the night; and then man knew that consciousness that made him aware that the morning and the evening were the first day.
29. What is our experience? Have we visioned, have we understood, have we even attempted to comprehend what is the meaning of the evening and the morning being the first day of an infant entering the material plane? a soul taking on flesh, its attributes, its whole experiences in heaven, in earth, in all the Influences about the earth?
30. Let us each study same. We will catch a new vision of what Time and Space begin to mean. Then we know that with Patience you mothers have waited and known from this or that experience those awakenings, those awarenesses of the activity; and we see the creation of the world, as the awareness of these influences that have become enmeshed, entangled into matter; that are seeking they know not what.
31. For that desire to procreate in self, or to hold to selfish interests, has grown - grown - until it IS what did He give? - the prince of this world; the prince of this world!
32. Know that He who came as our director, as our brother, as our Savior, has said that the prince of this world has no part in Him nor with Him.
33. Then as we become more and more aware within ourselves of the answering of the experiences, we become aware of what He gave to those that were the first of GOD'S projection - not man's but God's projection - into the earth; Adam and Eve.
34. And then in their early day they were tempted by the prince of this world, and partook of same.
35. When we see that in ourselves, yes in our own sons, in our own daughters, in our own brothers, in our own husbands, in our own wives, we begin to see how, why that Patience becomes a part of that which is the awareness in man of God's presence in the earth.
36. And we see the ways and means through which such activities were presented to those children that were bestowed with the very power of God, yet not aware of right and wrong. For they were IN a world ruled by the prince of selfishness, darkness, hate, malice, jealousy, backbiting, uncomely things; not of the beauties, but that self might be taking advantage in this or that way or manner.
37. What moves the spirit of these activities? GOD, but - Will and Choice misdirected.
38. And these then show the mercy and the Patience that He gives forth to each soul in this speck, this dot in the universe. Yet He would have each soul, each one of us, to become even as He - even as He prayed: "Father, may they be with me where I am; that they may behold the glory I had with thee before the foundations of the world."
39. What do these words mean to us? That the Spirit has quickened us, so that we seek to manifest what? His mercy, His grace, His Patience among our fellow men.
40. And He has given His angels charge concerning us, that they bear us up, if we will but make ourselves as one with Him.
41. Then, as there were the disputations in themselves, their blaming in the sons or among the sons of God in this material world, there became the peopling of the earth with what? That they had themselves made, even as Amilius, even as in those lands and countries where even with their worldly knowledge as children of God their activities had gone to seed in that which is selfishness, self-destruction.
42. We may see this, we know this in our own experience from the very fields, yes in our very homes: When that which has grown to seed and blossomed in our experience, if selfishness began it then the seed must be hate, avarice, those things that are the fruits of same. For these are the lessons that we see in those things which came to those children of men. Yet He but the second comes and He is known as he that walks with God. He preached, yes practiced, what? Love, Patience, Obedience; and the world knew Him not. Why? For as He has given, when He again and again has come into the earth, to the sons of men, the world knows us not.
43. Then seek not worldly fame, worldly recognition, you that are sowing the seeds of truth in your lessons, in your meditations. Because this day or this generation seeks not that as you may understand. KNOW that you cannot do but sow. God giveth the increase. But CULTIVATE that you sow in your daily experiences.
44. We are through for the present.

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of Reading 262-115 - "Nofolk Study Group #1."

REPORTS

1. 12/19/37 Group #1 had reading 262-116 for Norfolk Study Groups with a personal Christmas message to each one present.

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