This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the Edmonds' home, 611 Pennsylvania Ave., Norfolk, Va., this 13th day of March, 1933, in accordance with request made by Norfolk Study Group #1, for their opening meeting at which approximately fifty people were present.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Hugh Lynn Cayce, the Misses Edmonds, other members of Group #1, the Prayer Group, visiting members of other groups, etc.

TEXT

1. GC: You will give at this time an interpretation of the Book of Revelation as recorded in the King James version of the bible, explaining the general plan and theme, the significance of the Book, and give such explanations of the symbols used as will make this book of personal value to those present seeking to awaken and develop the inner life. You will then answer the questions which will be asked regarding various parts of this Book.
2. EC: Yes, we have the text written in the Revelation, as recorded in the King James version of same.
3. In making this worth while in the experience of individuals who are seeking for the light, for the revelation that may be theirs as promised in the promises of same, it would be well that there be considered first the conditions which surrounded the writer, the apostle, the beloved, the last of those chosen; writing to a persecuted people, many despairing, many fallen away, yet, many seeking to hold to that which had been delivered to them through the efforts and activities of those upon whom the spirit had fallen by the very indwelling and the manifestations that had become the common knowledge of all.
4. Remember, then, that Peter - chosen as the rock, chosen to open the doors of that known today as the church - had said to this companion, "I will endeavor to keep thee in remembrance; even after my demise I will return to you." [II Peter 1:15]
5. The beloved, then, was banished to the isle, and was in meditation, in prayer, in communion with those saints who were in that position to see, to comprehend the greater needs of those that would carry on.
6. And, as given in the beginning, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and beheld, and heard, and saw, and was told to WRITE."
7. Why, then, ye ask now, was this written (this vision) in such a manner that is hard to be interpreted, save in the experience of every soul who seeks to know, to walk in, a closer communion with Him?
8. For the visions, the experiences, the names, the churches, the places, the dragons, the cities, all are but emblems of those forces that may war within the individual in its journey through the material, or from the entering into the material manifestation to the entering into the glory, or the awakening in the spirit, in the inter-between, in the borderland, in the shadow.
9. Hence we find, as the churches are named, they are as the forces that are known as the senses, that must be spiritualized by the will of the individual made one in the very activities in a material world.
10. And the elders and the Lamb are the emblems, are the shadows of those acceptances or rejections that are made in the experiences of the individual.
11. As we find, in the various manners and forms that are presented as the vision or visions proceed, every force that is manifest is of one source; but the soul, the will of the individual, either makes such into a coordinating or cooperating influence in bringing about more and more manifestations in the material world of those experiences that are seen from the spiritual conditions, or the opposite.
12. Why, then, is it presented, ye ask, in the form of symbols? Why is there used those varied activities? These are for those that were, or will be, or may become, through the seeking, those initiated into an understanding of the glories that may be theirs if they will but put into work, into activity, that they know in the present.
13. In seeking, then, do individuals find from the beginning that there is presented, in every line, in every form, that good and bad (as termed) that arises from their activity, in what they do about that knowledge they have respecting law, the love, the mercy, the understanding of the wherefore of the Lamb's advent into the world that they, through His ensample set, may present themselves before that throne even as He, becoming - as given - heirs, joint heirs with Him, as the sons of God, to that EVERLASTING glory that may be had in Him.
14. Then, seek to know what self is lacking, even as given in the first four chapters (as divided in the present).
15. What is lacking in self? Are ye cold? Are ye hot? Have ye been negligent of the knowledge that is thine? Are ye stiff-necked? Are ye adulterous in thought, in act, in the very glories that are thine?
16. Then, again - may ye not have had through the varied experiences those presentations before the throne, even as the elders twenty and four that are represented by the figures within thine own head, that which is shown in the physical forces of self? Has it not been given to thee, or has not the message come as the rider of the pale, the black, the white, or the red horses that are the figures of the messages that have come to thee in thine varied experiences? Or, art thou among the figures represented in the Babylon, or in the rivers of blood, or in the trees of life?
17. These we see, then, represent SELF; self's body-physical, self's body-mental, self's body-spiritual; with the attributes of the body-physical, attributes of the body-mental, attributes of the body-spiritual, and they are ONE in thee - even as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is one in Him.
18. Then, dost thou seek to enter into the glories of the Father? Whosoever will may come, may take of the water of life freely - even as flows from the throne of the Lamb. For, the very leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations, and - if ye will accept - the blood cleanses from all unrighteousness. How? From what? Saves self from what? To what are ye called? To know that only from the falling away of self may ye be saved. Unto the glorifying of self in Him may ye be saved.
19. Then, whosoever will, come!
20. READY FOR QUESTIONS:
21. (Q) Please interpret the fall of Babylon as referred to in the 14th, 17th, and 18th chapters of Revelation.
    (A) Babylon represented the individual; those periods through which every soul passes in its delving into the varied mysteries that are the experiences of the carnal-mental, the spiritual-mental forces of the body; and, as viewed from that presented, may come to the knowledge only through the CLEANSING that is shown must come to those that would be saved from the destructions that are given there.
22. (Q) What did the angel mean when he said: "I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her"?
    (A) That which is understood by those that follow in the way of the Lamb, that come to know how man separates himself through the desires to become as the procreator in the beasts; which made the necessity of the shedding of blood for redemption, for it brought sin IN the shedding - and only through same may there be the fulfilling; and as given, the heavens and the earth may pass, but His law, His love, His mercy, His grace, endureth for those who WILL seek to know His will.
23. (Q) Where are the dead until Christ comes? Do they go direct to Him when they die?
    (A) As visioned by the beloved, there are those of the saints making intercession always before the throne for those that are passing in and out of the inter-between; even as He, the Christ, is ever in the consciousness of those that are redeemed in Him.
    The passing in, the passing out, is as but the summer, the fall, the spring; the birth into the interim, the birth into the material.
24. (Q) In what form does the anti-Christ come, spoken of in Revelation?
    (A) In the spirit of that opposed to the spirit of truth. The fruits of the spirit of the Christ are love, joy, obedience, long-suffering, brotherly love, kindness. Against such there is no law. The spirit of hate, the anti-Christ, is contention strife, fault-finding, lovers of self, lovers of praise. Those are the anti-Christ, and take possession of groups, masses, and show themselves even in the lives of men.
25. (Q) Will we be punished by fire and brimstone?
    (A) That as builded by self; as those emblematical influences are shown through the experiences of the beloved in that builded, that created. For, each soul is a portion of creation - and builds that in a portion of its experience that it, through its physical-mental or spiritual-mental, has builded for itself. And each entity's heaven or hell must, through SOME experience, be that which it has builded for itself.
    Is thy hell one that is filled with fire or brimstone? But know, each and every soul is tried so as by fire; purified, purged; for He, though He were the Son, learned obedience through the things which He suffered. Ye also are known even as ye do, and have done.
26. (Q) Is this the period of the great tribulation spoken of in Revelation or just the beginning, and if so just how can we help ourselves and others to walk more closely with God?
    (A) The great tribulation and periods of tribulation, as given, are the experiences of every soul, every entity. They arise from influences created by man through activity in the sphere of any sojourn. Man may become, with the people of the universe, ruler of any of the various spheres through which the soul passes in its experiences. Hence, as the cycles pass, as the cycles are passing, when there IS come a time, a period of readjusting in the spheres, (as well as in the little earth, the little soul) - seek, then, as known, to present self spotless before that throne; even as ALL are commanded to be circumspect, in thought, in act, to that which is held by self as that necessary for the closer walk with Him. In that manner only may each atom (as man is an atom, or corpuscle, in the body of the Father) become a helpmeet with Him in bringing that to pass that all may be one with Him.
27. (Q) What is meant by the four beasts?
    (A) As given, the four destructive influences that make the greater desire for the carnal forces, that rise as the beasts within self to destroy. Even as man, in his desire to make for companionship, brought those elements within self's own experience. These must be met. Even as the dragon represents the one that separated self so far as to fight with, to destroy with, those that would make of themselves a kingdom of their own.
28. (Q) What is meant by " - a new heaven and a new earth"?
    (A) Former things have passed away, when there is beheld within self that the whole will of the Creator, the Father, the place of abode the forces within and without, make for the NEW heaven, the NEW earth.
29. We are through.

BACKGROUND

1. Subject of 281-16 - "Glad Helpers."
2. 3/24/30 See 2501-6, Par. 2-A, and 4/14/30.
3. 4/14/30 See 2501-7, Par. 5-A, advising [2501]'s physician to study Rev. to understand her condition.

REPORTS

1. 10/26/36 See 281-28, a continuation of the series of readings on the Book of Revelation.

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