This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at Phillips Hotel, Room 115, Dayton, Ohio, in a series of five readings beginning February 9th, 1924, 1 on 2/12/24, 2 on 2/13/24, and 1 on 2/16/24. Request made by Edgar Cayce himself.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Linden Shroyer, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Born March 18, 1877, in Christian Co., Ky., near Hopkinsville. [1:30 P. M. Central Standard Time (?)]

TEXT

1. EC: There is much we have given relative to this before. We have the conditions as have been, as are, and will be. In this, without reference to that as has been given, for in giving the conditions in the various phases of the past experience there will be much that will show the various phases of the developing in the different stages, the conditions as given then will be those as with reference to the effect that the planets and their satellites and spheres have upon the present life and plane, without reference to the will.
2. Then, with the will, and also the developing with will and the planetary or astrological effect in the various planes as have gone before; in the present, as in this plane, we find the condition as brought to the earth plane was from that of the attitudes as held by those to and through whom the present entity was and is made manifest upon the earth plane by the relativity of force and the attraction of likes; the attitude of those earthly parents towards conditions that brought the relations to the stage of the developing of the entity that came, and through that stage the entity chose the mode of manifesting in the earth plane. Hence the condition of the parents upon the earth plane, or duty that is due each of its earthly offsprings, for all are under that bond of duty to be made the channel of the manifesting of this force through the entity's actions towards his offsprings.
3. As to the condition from the astrological standpoint, we find this entity almost entirely influenced by, and came from that in the last plane of Uranus, with Neptune, Venus and Jupiter. Afflictions in Mars and of the Sagittarius, Capricornus, Gemini Sun and Moon in the various stages, for with the ultra forces, as of Uranus and Neptune, come much of the influence of the various planes, given in strength with Jupiter and Mercury.
4. As to the influences this gives then without reference to the will:
5. One that will always be either very good or very bad, very wicked or very much given to good works. Ultra in all forces. Very poor, very rich. One scaling to the heights in intellectual ability and capacity, or groveling in the dregs of self-condemnation, influenced at such times by those forces either coming as afflictions from the various phases of developing, from which the entity has received its experience, or controlled by will as exercised in the present sphere.
6. One ever within the scope or sphere of firearms, yet just without.
7. One saved spiritually, mentally and financially often through a great amount of waters, for it was from the beginning, and will be so unto the end of time, as time is reckoned from the earth plane, for this entity we find was first manifest in the earth plane through the waters as was on the earth, and above the earth. Hence through these elements and forces is the spiritual, mental and financial, these three phases of spiritual life, mental life and financial life manifest in the earth plane.
8. One who finds much in the scope or sphere of intrigue in secret love affairs. One given often to the conditions that have to do with the affairs of the heart, and of those relations that have to do with sex.
9. One that finds the greater strength in spiritual forces and developing.
10. One given to make manifest in the present plane much of the forces of psychic and occult forces, reaching the greater height of developing in such plane in those forces when that of Jupiter, with Uranus and Neptune, come within the scope of the Sun's influence upon the earth plane and forces.
11. One that will bring, through such manifestations, joy, peace and quiet to the masses and multitudes through individual efforts.
12. One who, after the present year passes that place of that of Pisces and Sun's rays on the twentieth of present month, will go forward to developing much of the psychic and occult forces to the great numbers that have become interested in developing of such phenomena.
13. One who will on the nineteenth of March, this year, reach the place or plane where the present years and the present developing reaches the turn for the developing, or the wield of those influences in Sagittarius, Capricornus and Gemini that may bring destructive forces without will's manifestation upon that day.
14. In the developing as regards will force in the present plane, with conditions, there have been many conditions that have been hindered by the effect of the will, and others that have been assisted. Keep the will in that of the spiritual development, if the physical would manifest to the better advantage in the present plane, keeping this ever before, that all work in present plane will be judged to that individual and the classes, masses, as to the individual's manifestation of spiritual forces in and through the individual action in and before men. Ever keeping the mind clear to the developing of the Uranian forces that often manifest in the present plane, which will in the present plane reach in the present and coming two years the influence of the Neptune and Mercury forces, carry the body, unless will is exercised against such conditions, to many places beyond this present bounds, or across many waters. Keep the developing then to that force as is given in that of Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter, whose greater influence as is upon the earth plane, and beware of the influences in Venus forces, for with Mars' affliction would bring sudden destruction to the physical in the early fall of present year.
15. As to the vocation, this in the present plane may be directed in any channel through will. The better condition, as given, in that of astrological forces, would be toward those of psychic and occult, or teaching or developing along the lines of such plane to give the manifestation of such forces to the populace.
16. In the plane as of others:
17. In the one just before this, we find in the present place of the physical plane sojourn, but in that of the soldier in the British forces as were in the force that developed in the surrounding plains. The name, John Bainbridge, and in that life we find the birth in Cornwall, England, and the training in the Canadian forces as taken by that country, and the drifting into the present plain as known as American, or United America, and the life was lost then in the waters as in the crossing of the river at the time the battle was fought near the present sojourn. In this, as that given just previous to the present appearance upon this plane, in which the body's sojourn was near unto that at present, we find the body's or the entity's and body's condition is then entered upon that of the Saturn forces, [See 5755-1 on 6/27/38] and the life was manifested then in the plane was as that of the adventurer, when the forces of the king, under whose rule this entity was a subject, entered in that force, or in the colonization of the country, was the first appearance upon this present sphere's plane or scope, and was connected with that in the group that were landing in the East coast of the new country, now known as Virginia, and near where is now the resort known as Virginia Beach. When this raid was made, this John Bainbridge was carried in this raid to the Southern coasts of the country; escaped, and with the forces then going in the inland way, and making the surrounding of the places in which the present sphere's plane has seen much of the same country, and developing, and finally making the way to the fort then on the Great Lakes, now in place known as Chicago, and from that fort entered the fray in which the crossing was later attempted in the Ohio River, and there met death as known in the earth plane. [See 294-8, Par. R1.] The body was known as under two names, and was never wed during that sojourn upon the plane, though was in many escapades that have to do with those of the nature of the relations with the opposite sex. In the developing upon the present plane, we have much of the personality as shown in present spheres, as from that of the ability to take cognizance of detail, especially in following instructions as given from other minds or sources of information.
18. In that previous to this, we find in the Courts of the French, when Louis the 15th was King, and in the Royal Guard was this entity's sphere, which was of short duration, so far as years go upon the earth plane. This entity, then, was the attendant upon the Royal Court, [See 4121-2, 12/04/23], and the Guard for the household of that Ruler, and lost the elements of life, as known, in the defense of those under whose care they were placed, as both lost the elements of physical life, in the defense. [5/31/24 See Ck. Life rdg. 294-9 on French sojourn.] In the forces or personal conditions as seen in present sphere from this sojourn, we find that of the intense defense of those principles that to the entity's inmost soul or force is the right. In the name, we find that of Ralph Dahl [Dale?]. [See 1001-7 on 9/07/30 indicating that Louis the 15th & [294] had same grandfather? 1001-7, Par. 11-A; or was Louis 15th grandfather of John Bainbridge?]
19. In the condition that was previous to this, we find in the force as manifest when the Trojan rule was in that fair country, to whom the nations of the world have looked for the beauty in culture, art and refinement of the physical, mental and material force, and in that we find again the soldier and the defender of the gate, as was the place where the physical or material destruction came to the body. In the experience of that plane, we find these cover many and various stages. Those of the student, chemist, the sculptor and the artisan, as well as of the soldier and defender in the last days. In that we find the name Xenon, and there is, and has been, and will be many more in the present sphere that were in contact with that plane's forces, that the contact will be, has been brought in the present sphere. In this, we find those present forces exhibited through that of the art, and the love of the beautiful in any and every form, especially those that partake of human form Divine.
20. In that before this we have that plane in which is now known as the Arabian plane. In this we find this entity's developing under that of Uhjltd, and there are many of the conditions, personality, knowledge, understanding, thought, reference as is and will be in the passing of the plane of today. For we find there are many upon this earth's plane, and in different locations, who were associated with this entity at that time. [GD's note: See A.R.E. Library index heading: INCARNATIONS:PERSIA:UHJLTD PERIOD.] [The area [Persia] now known as IRAN.] In the entity's force of that day, we find this entity one of power, prestige, royalty, and the leader in many raids or wars as made upon the surrounding peoples, tribes or nations. This we find the most outstanding of that period, in the connection as was shown in the war as made on the Persian ruler, Croesus, and this Uhjltd led the expedition into that country. The force under this leadership was successful in the bringing submission to the rule of the nation which Uhjltd led. And the developing in that plane was with the suffering of bodily ills from injuries received in the escape from the force as connived from the weaknesses of the physical to make the Uhjltd a slave in bondage. His escape and sojourn upon the plain, with those surrounding him, was the developing stage, and the first of that developing known in present earth plane as psychic force. For, with the developing as received in the plane just before this [in prehistory Egypt as the priest Ra-Ta], as we shall see, [this Uhjltd sojourn] was the continuation of the one found at that time. [See 294-8, Par. R2 in re Croesus.]
21. The passing of the portion of the entity again into Nazova [?] [nirvana?] was through the wounds and infections as received upon the plane, in the vicinity of the well about which the three palm trees [stood, which] has remained in the inner being of the soul's developing force. [See 294-8, Par. R3.] And not until that entity [[538]?] is again reunited with this entity [294] will the developing upon this or other planes be efficient, or as good as should be. [See 294-8, Par. R3, R5, in re associations of [294], [538], [288].]
22. In the elements as brought to the present plane, we find that of the deep love as manifests to others in any or all positions or stage of conditions in life. The inert [innate] and the hidden love for animal and live creatures of the Creator's make, as was developed in this sojourn upon the plain. With the meeting or contact of this entity's mate, for upon the 19th day of March, in present year, that entity will again be in physical touch with the entity's present development, again will come the power of monies, both in the way of earth's fame and glory, and with this will again the opportunity to develop as has been set in this plane of development, and again give the place in the world development towards the mark of the higher calling, as is set in Him. Upon that meeting will the developing depend, or begin, to be made manifest, or be cut short, as the will of the entity expresses and manifests itself. In this sphere or plane, we find there are many that come under the influence of the personal or personality of the entity's forces, and for many, many years after this return to the other spheres was this influence felt in the earth's plane, as in this influence felt in the earth's plane, as in this present plane, this with this union of forces may and will give that incentive to others to develop in that plane that leads to the understanding of the forces that give of the strength of the universal force. [See GD's note in 294-8, Par. R5, also see 254-8, Par. 1.]
23. In the plane before this, we find that as known in the dynasty of the Rameses or Pharaohs in Egypt, and in the Court and rule of the Second Pharoah [341] or Rameses, [10,500 B.C.] and was at that time the high priest of the cult as gave the religious element and force in the age, and reached the heights in that dynasty, yet was cut short in the allowing of physical forces and desires to enter in, and the taking of the daughter [538] of the order of the one who offered the sacrifices for the priest's force, and going or leaving the shores of this country brought the destructive elements to the body. That same entity that was taken is at present in this earth's plane, the companion and mate as should be in the present sphere [538], and in this Court we find there was the study of the religious cults, isms, schisms as would be termed in this day and plane. The High Priest [294] who gave the elements of the religious force, and in this dynasty or reign of this Pharoah [341] did the religious cult reach its height, as given through this priest, though he became the outcast, but for the good as had been accomplished by this individual was in the resting place of the King, and the forces as manifest in the present is the delving into the whys and wherefores of all who express a different mode of manifesting the hope that lies within the human breast of the life after the passing from the earth's plane. This, we see, manifests in the present. As to those forces that have brought this condition that the entity is in, the elements as brought the destructive force to self in the two, again we find that the karma of each must be met, [294] and [538] and in this plane overcome if each would enter in.
24. In that before this, we find in the beginning, when the first of the elements were given, and the forces set in motion that brought about the sphere as we find called earth plane, and when the morning stars sang to-gether, and the whispering winds brought the news of the coming of man's indwelling, of the spirit of the Creator, became the living soul. This entity came into being with this multitude. As to the experiences as have been given in this plane, the earth, and the often sojourn upon this plane, we find all summed in this:
25. Take this thou hast in hand and make and mould it into the present plane's development, that thyself and others may know that God is God, and demands of His creatures that of the knowledge of self, that they may better serve their fellows, and in so doing present themselves as the ever giving force, bringing to others to the knowledge of Him.
26. There are many other influences as have been shed abroad in the earth's plane from the entity's sojourn there. These are given that all may know and understand that the record of each soul is kept in and unto that Great Day.
27. Be not deceived. Be not overcome, but overcome evil with good.

BACKGROUND

1. 3/19/19 See 254-2 in re EC's birth data, etc.
2. See previous readings on his life and work, 294-1 through 294-7; [254] series; [3744] series, etc.
3. 11/07/23 See 5717-5 indicating that [294] had a former incarnation in early America; France at time of Richelieu; Greece under Achimedes as a chemist under Aristotle, being associated in the Trojan War with others for destructive purposes; Arabia near Shushtar; Egypt as priest under Rameses II; in the Beginning when "morning stars sang together", etc.
4. 10/20/23 His Mental-Spiritual Rdg. [294-7] indicating he had experienced seven previous incarnations on the earth.

REPORTS

1. GD's note: Subsequent readings indicated that there was a line of rulers called Croesus. See also 538-9 indicating a "quick return" into the Uhjltd period from the Egypt Ra-Ta period. This suggests, with subsequent references to the Uhjltd period, or the "city in the hills and plains", that the Uhjltd period, or the Croesus II period, was somewhere between seven and nine thousand B.C.
2. GD's note: See Source File Key #294 for 3/26 painting by Miss [2486] and summer of '33 by Miss [275] of the well scene in 294-8.
3. GD's note: See [294]'s present wife's Life Reading 538-9, on 3/07/25 and subsequent 538-31 and 538-32 explaining the close relationship of [294], [538] and [288] in that Uhjltd sojourn.
4. See 5717-5 on 11/07/23 saying: Present remains of what was once this body [294] may still be seen - a thing of fact - in the cave still existing seven and one quarter (7 1/4) miles southwest of Shushtar, Arabia.
5. GD's note: It was actually in March of 1924 that [294], [538] and [288] began to seriously and permanently work together as a unit, in the home of [294] and [538]. See 538-31 and 538-32 in 7/32 indicating their similar close connection in the Persian-Arabian incarnation.
6. 5/31/24 He obtained Ck. Life rdg. 294-9 on his French incarnation.
7. 2/28/25 He obtained Life rdg. 294-19, using the suggestion for a Life rdg. rather than the former suggestion for a Horoscope rdg. [See subsequent notations under 294-19 Reports.]
8. 1/13/29 See 900-422, Par. 21-A in re how [137] from the spirit plane talked with EC in EC's early years assuring him that he [137] would help him when he [137] was born again into the earth plane.
9. 5/04/31, 5/07/31 See 5502-2 & 5502-3 in re EC's work and ways to protect him.
10. 8/04/31 See Life Rdg. 543-11 indicating Miss [543] had been a companion of John Bainbridge when she was an Indian princess; he had deserted her and used her possessions, which brought a distrust by her at the time of the white race. [GD's note: In later years EC said he felt that his poverty in this lifetime, his trouble in obtaining and holding onto money, resulted from his improper use of money in his early American life as John Bainbridge.]
11. See 1/10/33 ltr. under 299-1, Par. R6, in re a two-year old boy who remembered EC from his American incarnation at the Ohio River.
12. 7/21/36 Ernest A. Grant, Astrologer, wrote: "I have gone to work on your chart, and am certainly not at all satisfied that you were born at the time your father indicated [2:30 P.M. Central Time, Hopkinsville, Ky.]...his memory could be a little hazy...would you set forth again for me a check upon the notes I made, the dates of half a dozen major events in your life...I rather believe that you were born either about 1:10 P.M. or somewhere between 5:00 and 6:00 P.M."
13. 7/25/36 EC wrote Ernest A. Grant, Teacher of Scientific Astrology, Washington, D.C.: "According to the information I can gather [from my father, etc.] I was born at one-thirty (1:30) P.M. in Christian County, near Hopkinsville, Ky., on March 18, 1877. The major events for me personally: The first vision was in 1886; was drowned and pronounced dead in March 1888. Married June 17, 1903. First son born March 16, 1907. First reading was given in February 1900. My mother died October 25, 1926. The Assoc. for Research and Enlightenment first met in June 1931." [GD's note: His father died April 11, 1937.]
14. 11/27/72 GD's note: No astrologer ever was satisfied with any of the hours specified for his birth, so I would think that the original 2:30 P.M. one was the correct one, since it was not wavered by anyone's questioning of the time. I notice that in Thomas Sugrue's article in the March, 1947 ASTROLOGICAL REVIEW, he uses 3:20 P.M. for Edgar Cayce's chart. So, apparently, there was quite a bit of fluctuation by Edgar Cayce himself in reporting his birth time, due to being influenced by different astrologer's who tried to set it at a different point. See Thomas Sugrue's article Par. R23 below, March, 1947.
15. See Source File Key #294 for subsequent Life Readings re 294-8.
16. Lead article for Bulletin, Vol. I - No. 9 dated May, 1933:
    The Truth, and that which may stimulate activity in the hearts of those who seek to know it. [254-64, Par. 30-A]
    B U L L E T I N
    ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH AND ENLIGHTENMENT, INCORPORATED,
    Virginia Beach, Virginia. [HLC, Editor]
    "Let virtue and understanding be in me, for my defense is in Thee, O Lord, my Redeemer; for Thou hearest the prayer of the upright in heart." From Lesson - "Virtue and Understanding". [262-17, Par. 16-A]
    AN ASTROLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF EDGAR CAYCE'S BIRTH MAP
    By Laurie Pratt
    EDGAR CAYCE: Born March 18, 1877, about 2:45 P.M., near Hopkinsville, Ky.
    No astrological chart that has ever come to the writer's attention bears clearer indications of high psychic powers than are found in the chart of Mr. Cayce. The occult planet Uranus rises upon the Ascendant, while Neptune, ruler of spiritual insight, culminates on the Midheaven. The Ascendent and Midheaven are the two most sensitive points in a chart. To find them occupied by the two planets which rule the higher faculties of man is an extraordinary and deeply significant testimony of powers outside the realm of ordinary human experience.
    The sign Pisces, symbolized as two fish to indicate the fathomless ocean of spirit, is ruled by Neptune. This one sign, in Mr. Cayce's chart, contains no less than four of the ten heavenly bodies. These four are the Sun (character), Mercury (mind), Venus (love and sympathy) and Saturn (profundity and trial or test). Neptune, who is the "host" or the dispositor of the four planets who occupy his sign or "home", is thus of extreme power in the chart. This planet dominates the map from his position on the Midheaven, is in conjunction with the Moon (emotions; general public), and is in "mutual reception" with Venus, since he is placed in her sign Taurus while she is in his Piscean "home." Further, Neptune receives no adverse planetary aspects, and benefits thru a close trine with Jupiter (religion; humanitarianism). The inspiration, psychic power and spiritual discernment that can flow thru such a Neptune is practically without limit or hinderance. An astrologer must look long before he will see another Neptune with the strength of this one!
    Mars (energy; zeal), Mercury, Venus and the Moon are remarkably supported by many favorable aspects, and are free from any adverse planetary squares or oppositions, though the conjunction of Saturn with Venus and Mercury tends to bring about conditions of delay or disappointment. On the whole, however, the chart is unusually free from affliction, and rich in harmonious astrological aspects.
    The Zodiac or apparent path of the Sun in the heavens is divided into 360 degrees. Each of these degrees has a distinct and separate influence of its own. Ten of these degrees will be sensitized for every person at birth thru the presence therein of the eight planets, and two luminaries. An astrologer and seer, Charubel, has given a symbol for each degree of the Zodiac, and these symbols are full of truth and enlightenment for the earnest student who reads them aright. It is well worth our while to examine the symbols for some of the sensitized degrees in Mr. Cayce's birth map.
    Pisces 12 degrees. Place of Mercury in his chart. Symbol - "A very large disk consisting of circles of light with dark grey interspaces. These circles resemble wheels within wheels, which are spiral, and all revolving".
    Readers of this Bulletin who have secured a copy of the leaflet, "How Edgar Cayce Gives a Psychic Reading" will find the symbol given above of particular interest, since it coincides so closely with the description given in the leaflet of the process thru which Mr. Cayce obtains a Reading. "There was a center or spot from which I would radiate upward. It began as a spiral...there were rings all around...the spaces between the rings were the various planes of development which individuals had attained".
    Readers of the same leaflet will remember the statement that Mr. Cayce, in a former incarnation, was one of the Persian Magi. The symbol for Leo 21, the degree holding Mr. Cayce's very prominently placed Uranus, is as follows: "One of the ancient Magi in the act of performing his matutinal devotions".
    The symbol for the degree, Taurus 3, holding Neptune, is "a double cross", signifying profound spiritual attainment. Taurus 23, where Pluto is found in this chart, is symbolized as "a smelting furnace". Great soul force, purged of desire, is indicated. Jupiter is in a degree of "veneration for the sacred and sublime". The symbol for the degree holding Venus is "A hand with a sword in it. A halo of golden light envelopes it. That sword is not for indiscriminate slaughter. It is to defend the right." A symbol, from Hindu sources, for the degree, Pisces 28, where Mr. Cayce's Sun is found, is "A serpent standing erect within a circle of fire". This is a degree of healing, or of taking life at a crisis and turning it back from the gates of death.
    Lack of space forbids further consideration of a chart in all ways noble, outstanding and full of spiritual light from the stellar angels.
17. Summer 1933 Interpretation of Edgar Cayce's seal by Miss [275]:
    MR. CAYCE The pyramid represents the Egyptian life. The well the Persian life; the trees the trinity of Christ, the Savior, Leader, Brother. The swans represent the other lives that were of no importance to complete the seal of life. The sailboat means the age of psychic knowledge which we are entering. The cross brings the religious element in, which is very important. Radiating, because through his power will, has and is, bringing peace, joy, and harmony to many. Of course healing through the physical readings.
    (First Correction of Mr. Cayce's seal as on the Cayce booklet) The sailboat should be larger, much larger, as that is very important; the swans are all right except they could be made a little more perfectly. The birds are all right, but really take away from the effect. The palm trees and well could be a little larger too, and the sun of course equal to them. The word "Cayce" really should not be on it, because it is not really bringing anything to him that will inspire him. And since that is the object of all of the seals, it would be better to leave it out. In its place put a cross; it will only be a small one, but very important.
    (Colors) The outside ring gold, the sun and rays gold, the pyramid gold, the cross and rays gold; the sailboat black and the sail white, the water blue, but only make the small lines, not solid. The swans white with black lines, and the water blue; the cloud white and gold. The palm trees green, with gold trunks; the well black with gold lines, the grass green. The line of the dessert make gold. Leave the rest gray, the color of the paper.
18. 7/31/33 EC letter to Miss [275]: [See 275-11, Par. R20.]
    "Some weeks ago your mother [255] sent the interpretation that you received respecting my emblem, that was given for me some years ago to use in connection or association with our work. To me, it is a very marvellous thing. I hope that we are not asking too much when we ask that you send us just as much of the information and data you receive, as you feel we are worthy of having. To have someone check or verify, or to correct, that we may receive through these channels from time to time (and especially such a wonderful soul as yourself), is to us one of the most beautiful experiences that has been ours. And you do not realize how much we appreciate the little that you have allowed to be sent on to us.
    "We are looking forward to the time when we may have the opportunity to work together in some of our research work, where we may have our meditations, prayers and communion in such a manner as to be of the greatest help to everyone.
    "I certainly do hope you will keep up the good work. Too, when you are able to get it, I hope you can get the more definite attitude that I should take; as to what I should leave off, to be a better channel, a more perfect ensample for the manifesting of the truth. You know, constructive criticism is the very thing that we can have, and I am looking forward to as much of it as you can give. For, if I know my heart at all, I do want to be the very best channel possible for a service to my fellow man, in manifesting the love that God has shown us through His Son - and the manner in which He may speak to each and every one of us, if we will make our lives such that His forces may guide, guard and direct.
    "With love from all to you and yours, I am Ever the same, Edgar Cayce." EC:GD
19. 8/07/33 See Miss [275]'s reply under 275-11, Par. 21.
20. 8/18/33 See EC's reply to her under 275-11, Par. 23.
21. Laurie Pratt, Aug. 22, 1933:
    Key Cycle Reading for Edgar Cayce
    There are some major bad aspects in force during the next few months and some of these will be in force for a full year ahead. It is just not one of your good periods, and by that I mean that extra effort and care will be necessary to attain even fair results. There are some major good aspects in force as well, to brighten matters up.
    Sept. 1933 is not a promising month, and in fact, Sept. of every year is likely to be a dark spot for you as it is the opposition sign (Virgo) to your sun sign (Pisces). The few days around Sept. 12, however, are likely to be important and, on the whole, good. Activity and especially mental activity prominent. New plans but expense. Avoid dealings with women around that date (a couple of days before and after). The days around Sept. 27 are charged with hasty, sudden and accidental vibrations, perhaps danger to one of your children. Keep them and yourself away from the water around that date.
    Aries is on your Key Cycle Ascendant at present and you will be full of new plans, activity and initiative. Oct. 1-7 (1st to 7th) will be a good week to start something new.
    It looks to me as though some opportunity, perhaps involving some kind of association or partnership, has recently come your way or will around the first of September, or perhaps you yourself have been seeking it without getting it. Anyhow, the aspects surrounding it are not good for financial gain nor for good judgement, and will tend to affect health, legal matters, employees, partners, travel and occupational and financial matters in general adversely. This aspect extends from around the end of Aug. 1933 thru the middle of Nov.
    Psychic matters are receiving some major good rays, trines of Neptune to the Moon and Mars, and you would be able to give some very good readings for women and the general public, and to increase your activity in that direction and your reputation too. But Neptune at the same time is applying to three major bad aspects, oppositions to Mercury, Saturn and Venus, and the next two years will see a very important and critical period in the career you have chosen. These mixed good and bad aspects are in effect at the same time for two more years. as the Moon is your personal significator or ruler, and as this planet is one that is receiving a good major aspect from Neptune, which rules psychic matters, I take it that you will emerge fairly well from the troublous times ahead.
    The difficulties involved concern writings, letters, contracts, younger people, and also older ones such as officials or those in authority, delays, nebulous, uncertain chaotic conditions and happenings. Some hampering responsibilities. Avoid all connections with hospitals, prisons or other places of confinement during the next two years, also any matter involving secrecy or peculiar conditions. Take nothing on trust as you are going to be told some whoping lies and be surrounded or involved in deceitful and mysterious affairs. Avoid social affairs. You will have some emotional disappointment or loss before these bad aspects run their course. No extensive travelling, and certainly not to foreign countries, can be recommended for the next two years. Legal difficulties are involved in the situation I have been trying to outline. I cannot describe the exact situation and can only say, be watchful of everyone and everything, so that you know exactly what you are committing yourself to in every situation.
    About Dec. 1933, you will make some changes, perhaps take a trip. There will be some haste and much activity in your affairs at this time. A trip is really not to be recommended during Dec. as disappointment and delays seem indicated, but if you must make one, avoid the first week Dec. by all means and try to go the last of the month. Saturn is in bad aspect to your Moon all the rest of 1933 and is not good for general business dealings with women or the general public, or for money, travel, friends, new or old. Feb.-March '34 and Oct.-Nov. '34 not good for money, sudden loss, not good for dealings with associations or public officials.
    One of your children may have some good fortune or stroke of luck 1933 this year. You yourself are under somewhat accidental conditions this year and should exercise care not to expose yourself to danger or accident; avoid electric fixtures and appliances as much as possible. Especially in Oct. will bring some surprises, some sudden, unexpected conditions or events.
    June and July 1934 may bring you some good luck or money, and at this time you will probably begin to think of or have someone approach you with, an idea quite new and good regarding some radical change or improvement or expansion in the work you are doing. However, the matter will be hindered or hang fire for a year or so. April 1935 is the month you should try to start this new operation up again and you may do it then, though there will be delays and hindrances. You will certainly open up some new phase of your work during 1935. By 1936, the worst of the Neptunian aspects will have spent themselves, and your new work will be coming on amazingly well, though this year is not good for money (1936).
    1937 and 1938 will bring surprising and good publicity and public-interest in your work, great activity. Saturn will pass over your Sun during Feb. thru April 1937 and will bring some sorrow, responsibility and lower the physical resistance. This aspect returns from about Nov. 1937 thru Jan. 1938. May, June, Sept. 1937 and Jan.-Feb. 1938, some money loss or curtailment. April 1938 a dangerous period, some accident or severe illness.
    Jupiter will oppose your Moon and Mars during Oct. thru Dec. 1934 and will not favor good judgement during that time, nor dealings with women or the public; there will be free outgo or extravagance, but these aspects are not seriously malefic. At the same time, Jupiter will be throwing some good aspects and will bring in some money. During Oct. 1935, Jupiter will trine your Sun and bring some new opportunity to you. 1936 is not good in a financial way, but during Dec. of that year, Jupiter will return to his own place and bring some gain, as well as increase and expand your psychic abilities very markedly. Jan. 1937 will see very free outgo of money. The rest of 1937 is fairly good for money and for good judgement. March 1938 and Sept. thru Nov. 1938 will see some very sudden loss of money and some very unexpected events in your life. Jan. to May 1939 is extremely good for money and increase of all kinds. April thru July 1940 will bring very marked deepening and expansion of your psychic powers, new responsibilities and new powers.
22. 11/23/36 Letter from Myra Kingsley, Astrologer:
    MYRA KINGSLEY - Horoscopes
    225 East 54th Street...OFFICE WIckersham 2-7867 136 East 67th Street...HOME REgent 4-7866 11.23.36
    My dear Mr. Cayce:
    Just a few notes from your horoscope:
    I have the chart drawn up for about 3:30 P.M. by West Kentucky time, as I am quite sure, due to your unusual ability, that you have a late degree of Leo rising, and the sun in the eighth house...technical terms, but every Astrologer will understand them, in case you wish to consult one someday!
    It is a marvelously protected chart...you are a "child of destiny." You were meant to do exactly what you are doing and your message will be remembered by many, many people. There is some divine influence working back of, and thro' you, guiding you, shielding you and harmonizing the adverse influences which may come up from time to time. Both the men and the women of this world will need your help, but possibly the women more than the men, as the Moon in your chart, representing the feminine principle, is magnificently aspected...better aspected than the sun, which represents the masculine principle.
    These facts are so well-known to you that there is little I can add about your personality and intellect, but to look ahead into this coming year...
    It is a year of testing, and a time when you will have to choose between two courses of action. You will choose the right one but it will be with some element of personal sacrifice. This new path will set a great responsibility on your shoulders, yet you may find it one of the most creative experiences you have ever had. In other words, while it is in a sense difficult, you will learn a great deal about yourself and about "it" through what happens.
    Your health will be your most vulnerable factor and care must be taken to prevent you from a rather serious nervous condition in April, 1937 and again during the last three months of the year...October, November, December, 1937. During these times the planet Saturn will be in exact conjunction with your sun and this is a "low ebb" vibration. You may even be near to death before the year is over...but will not die.
    This coming month of December 1936 starts...or creates... something important which will follow through with greater rapidity in January and February. It will have a financial significance to you and a sum of money will come into your hands. This is the most important year you have faced in many years and it will lay the whole sub-structure of a new cycle in your life. Your work will take enormous bounds, but the physical self will be weak. An undercurrent of bad health may follow you for the next five years, and at some period later on, it will be largely an intestinal disorder although this may not be apparent at first. In all other respects, however, you are going into a very wonderful phase of your career.
    I shall be only too happy to follow this brief outline with you and help at any time, if I may.
    In closing, I wish to say that my reading from you was one of the really profound experiences of my own life and has given me a new, and better, thing to work for. [GD: See this paragraph noted under Work Rdg. 254-8, R1.]
    With best personal wishes,
    Faithfully yours,
    Myra Kingsley
    November 23rd, 1936
23. 3/47 Lecture by Thomas Sugrue printed in the Astrological Review:
    EDGAR CAYCE
    MYSTIC AND CLAIRVOYANT
    His Life and Purpose
    By Thomas Sugrue
    MR. SUGRUE was introduced by Mr. Lemont who said: "Our speaker this evening is a man well known in the field of letters by his excellent book reviews appearing frequently in current periodicals and, more particularly, as the author of the book: 'THERE IS A RIVER,' which gives the life history of EDGAR CAYCE, a man whose life and service has had such a profound and uplifting influence on the lives of many, many people. I have much pleasure in welcoming and presenting MR. THOMAS SUGRUE."
    My mind has been considering how I want to talk to you tonight about Edgar Cayce. Some of you who have read the book know a little about him; some may not be acquainted with him at all. I would like to take him exactly as a human being, because he came to be a human being, who was examined as an audience examines an actor and therefore came to be looked upon as a symbol of all the rest of us. So maybe he is like a watch, whose back has been opened. During the 68 years, or 44 of his 68 years, the back of his mind was open, and all the works were showing, and he had a chance to demonstrate to himself, as well as to the world, at least part of what goes on in the subconscious mind. If you can understand that a good deal of the same thing goes on in your mind, you can understand what reaches and what levels lie below the levels of your consciousness.
    No one knows who is the dreamer, and which is the dream, and we know that none of us will be left his dream in this particular existence. One of our most common mistakes is the supposition that life on earth represents reality. The only soul for whom it represents reality is the soul which completely realizes itself, and the rest are those who are not conscious of the reality of true being. A three-dimensional being, such as you and I, is a little closer to complete reality than a one- or two-dimensional being, but there is a state of consciousness, a field of progressive realization, still greater to be encountered, and people who like to interpret man in terms of mechanics are fond of pointing out that man's great forward strides have been due to the fact that he trained his hands and taught those hands to make and use tools. I think the word "tool" is a very excellent key word to the meaning of this three-dimensional phase of reality.
    Whether it is man studying environment or man studying himself or man observing other men, he employs tools for the job. Mathematics is such a tool, and on mathematics are based other tools, such as physics, astronomy and the study which you made your specialty - astrology. I think that particular tool is a very good way to discover the meaning of the three-dimensional man - who has also discovered tools in the sense of abstractions - and who has indeed come to that point where he is able to fashion tools which reach ahead for him and open up the successive layers of reality which still are above him and help him to reach up into them, at least figuratively.
    Man uses tools to study the mind, he uses anatomy and medicine and biology to study the body, psychology and psychiatry and all forms of knowledge and education and philosophy to understand the mind, and theology and metaphysics and religion to understand the soul, and what I would like to do for you with Edgar Cayce is to use some of our tools on him. Look upon him as a human being. Because of his unique make-up he was set upon a stage and considered closely by a great many human beings. Our purpose tonight is to examine a man who was an oddity. He was not the only one of his kind - in every generation there have been a few like him. Most of them went undiscovered, many of them were condemned, and not a few of them were burned, hanged, broken on the rack and some buried alive.
    For the unique thing about these people and about Edgar Cayce was a quality which suggested instantly either God or the devil and, since God is a little far fetched or improbable, the conclusion was in favor of the devil, and there is something to the effect that the conclusion was often right, for there are such things as black magicians, and there is such a ritual known as the black mass.
    For the staid, orthodox, plain-thinking and plain-seeing people of nineteenth century America, these unique people were inhabitants of legend and history, or of the far away Orient, or of the strange and haunted Carpathian mountains - or at least of wicked Paris, Pixie-haunted Ireland, or the great lurking castles of England. Such things might happen in those places, but not here in the United States where that particular invention in history had been stopped at Salem by that great defender of God Almighty - Cotton Mather.
    So it was against the principle and all tradition, all custom and popular prejudice that a clairvoyant, named Edgar Cayce, was born on the 18th of March, 1877, on a farm in Christian County, Kentucky, and it was against all that prejudice and belief that he practiced from the age of 21 to the time of his death on January 3, 1945, the natural gift of clairvoyance with which he was born.
    All through his life he was pursued and burdened by questions - "How do you do it?" "Why do you do it?" "What is the source of it?" "How does it work?" "Is it of God or of the devil?" The latter question was the one which bothered Edgar Cayce most, and for the greater part of his life kept him from doing his best work until he was almost 50 years of age. It bothered him because he was born in an orthodox Christian family in the orthodox way. He was taught the Bible and fell in love with the Bible, although, as a little boy, he had little belief and, although the one book to fall in love with was the Bible - it was a book comparable to a book which tells you how to assemble a mechanical set, or instructions how to build a machine. It meant precisely what it said. Nothing more. No symbols. He began to read that Book at about twelve years of age and read it through once a year for the rest of life. He had a little trick to read three verses a day, and five on Sunday, each day of the year, and he would go through it in a normal year.
    His education beyond that went as far as the ninth grade and, since at that time he had no scientific training, he went to live in the town of Hopkinsville, and worked in the book store at about 18 or 19 years old. He knew then that he was always labelled as "somewhat queer" although he tried to hide it. When he was 21 he lost his voice after a cold and nobody could do anything to get it back and the doctors finally gave it up. For a whole year he spoke in a whisper and finally got a job with a photographer so that he could earn a living without using his voice.
    At that time one of those travelling hypnotists performed at the local Opera House and friends dragged Edgar Cayce to the platform and asked the hypnotist to put him to sleep and help to restore his voice. Edgar did his best to co-operate. He did talk, but did not take post-suggestion and still could only speak in a whisper. His friends and relatives kept the hypnotist in town three or four days to continue the experiments in the hope that Edgar would be able to speak when he woke up, which he was not able to do. Finally that particular hypnotist left town. Others tried it. One of the New York hypnotists also tried it. Still nothing doing. Then a local hypnotist who had been following the case made the observation that at a certain point, this man, Edgar Cayce, resisted the impression that the hypnotist was making.
    One Sunday evening, in the Cayce household in 1901, at a certain point the hypnotist spoke to the man who was in the trance and said: "Do you know what is wrong with you?" Mr. Cayce then proceeded to give his first reading. He said that what was wrong was a psychological condition, that the said condition could be remedied, subject to the body. Then Mr. Cayce asked the hypnotist (a Mr. Lane) to suggest to the body that the blood would flood the chest. Lane made the suggestion and as soon as Mr. Cayce's shirt was opened, he could see the blood go up to the chest, and after a certain number of minutes, the sleeping man said: "Make the suggestion that the blood go back to normal. Make the suggestion that I can wake up and can speak." This was done and Mr. Cayce woke up, spat up some blood and began to talk in a normal voice.
    Lane urged Mr. Cayce to continue this work as a healing service. He offered himself as a subject first, as he was suffering from stomach trouble. Mr. Cayce did not want to do it. He had no education, knew nothing about medicine and had a certain unwillingness to concentrate and give a second reading for Lane. However, he gave the reading, told him to take certain medicines which he bought at the drug store, and Lane began to get well.
    That, briefly, is the beginning of the readings.
    There he was, at the age of 24, without much education and having taught Sunday school since the age of 13, with a gift which seemed to help other people. Mr. Lane took readings and people were helped by them. Then, being resigned to this power, Edgar Cayce forgot about it; if someone was sent to him, being very ill, and he found his services were needed, he gave a reading. That went on in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in Selma, Alabama, also in his own home town of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and each time he seemed to be able to help. The doctors made a long series of tests. Each time they were unable to find him a fake. This struggle went on with his best friends, and even members of his family doubted the power he had, not because it did not perform good works, but because it seemed an unnatural thing, and although God was again the simple answer, the devil at that time seemed a great deal closer to everybody than he is now. There was a man confronted with people and the conviction that he did good, but could not find anyone else who did such a thing.
    To help his wife, his son, his mother and all the members of his family, he finally became resigned to the notion that if he remained good and gave this thing always for others and not for himself, that probably it was a good thing, but perhaps when he died and was called up for judgement, he had perhaps done a wicked thing.
    One day in 1923, after giving readings off and on for 22 years and helping people, a Mr. Arthur Lammers called on him and said he was a business man and asked him to go to Dayton with him. He began to talk to Mr. Cayce about the sub-conscious mind and asked Mr. Cayce if he had ever asked where the power came from. The answer was that this was given years ago but he did not know what it meant - that the sub-conscious mind of Mr. Cayce, while in the unconscious state, become active and from that sub-conscious mind could take whatever information he desired.
    Mr. Lammers talked about Hindu philosophy, Yoga, and Christian Science and since he seemed to be a reasonable man, Mr. Cayce decided to go to Dayton with him. In a hotel in Dayton, Mr. Lammers asked him to give him a horoscope reading while still asleep. Mr. Cayce said he did not know anything about it. Lammers tried to explain that at least at one time Astrology had a better reputation. However, while asleep he was asked to give the horoscope reading for Arthur Lammers. The reading startled Lammers by saying that in order to make it understandable he would also make known his other experiences or lives on this earth plane which were practically involved in his horoscope. He gave the influence of the planets, - not as set up for the chart, but the chief influences - and told what the man had been in a few of his previous lives. When Mr. Cayce wakened he was told he had given a horoscope and had also spoken of reincarnation.
    Mr. Cayce was faced with the decision that day, not only of continuing to believe in his ability to help people by diagnosing their physical ailments, but of facing the realization which, for him, was a step into a higher and unknown sphere of thinking - that astrology and reincarnation are facts of the great Reality of Life. So he had two things to consider: (a) that astrology is a fact, and (b) reincarnation is a fact. He had here to accept that he had been living only a portion of Reality, of spiritual life, even though he had studied the Bible assiduously since the age of twelve. He was really at the point then when he felt he should lay it all aside, but after talking to Mr. Lammers he began to get hold of the idea that this, at least, offered him an explanation of why he had this power and why he used it. So he began to get readings of himself, to find out how he had this ability to help people, where it came from. He had to accept and know that he had been living with only a portion of his real self or he had to reject entirely his own power, which now for a quarter of a century had been proving itself to him and others as practical and efficacious. Now he had to face a theory that had been handed down from time immemorial, that WHAT HE WAS was not strange, and what he was may have been unique in the fact that, although the average man does have the sub-conscious mind, he is not able to get in touch with other sub-conscious minds.
    Then he was unique. His wife and son and other members of his family had finally got used to physical readings - and now something else! His eldest boy said he did not believe in reincarnation. Why? Because he did not know anybody who had ever written about it. Then his son asked: "Why cannot we remember?" So they looked through the Bible and found enlightenment.
    Meanwhile, the family moved to Virginia Beach and a group of people from New York became interested in Mr. Cayce and gradually people began coming and getting physical readings, and they had been promising to do things. Everyone was always going to do things but that had been all. But now people came and got physical readings, were helped, and got life readings, which opened up a new field and they kept coming back to Mr. Cayce. The life readings were responsible for holding people. That was how there came to be formed on organization around his work. A hospital was built at Virginia Beach which lasted until the depression.
    It was the insistence in the Life Readings that Astrology and Reincarnation are integral portions of man's own reality which brought Mr. Cayce's life to a fullness and meaning. But within the family there was a question. The easy going father had been transformed in their eyes comparable to a mysterious gentleman from the East with a turban on his head. It was a little rough to take, because they had never read metaphysics, but at this point Hugh Lynn Cayce was old enough to go away to college and he still argued with his father about reincarnation. In one of the readings he asked the question where to go to college, and he gave the University of Virginia and several other schools. The answer said: "All the schools are excellent but if you would like to have reincarnation proved to you, go to Washington and Lee University, and there you will meet boys you have known in other lives who will prove to you reincarnation. So Hugh Lynn Cayce enrolled at Washington and Lee.
    At that time I had been out of High School two years and was working in a bank in Connecticut. One day we had a bank picnic and the president asked me to write something for the newspapers, so I wrote up a report of the picnic in which I put a few ironical remarks about the people, and the next day a young lady who worked in the bank next door said to me: "Why do you keep on working in the bank? You are wasting your time. Go away to school and learn to be a writer." I realized how bored I was counting out pennies. I thought of two of the clients - two sisters who had not washed for twenty years. One was always $5,000 ahead of the other. They also had stocks and bonds and common shares in all companies. They always went to meetings of the Board of Directors.
    I turned away from the window that day and the decision was already made. I picked up Good Housekeeping magazine in which several pages are devoted to advertisements for schools and colleges and I filled out a coupon and sent it to them, stating the subjects in which I was interested. In reply I received catalogs from several colleges, including one from Washington and Lee University. I decided that was the college for me, although I had never heard of it before. When I arrived at the college I was shown a room in the dormitory and went into that room, and when I wakened up next morning I saw a funny face staring at me. He told me his name was Hugh Lynn Cayce. After that we became friends and sat up at night talking about reincarnation, etc. To show his helpfulness he asked me to meet his father and in June, 1927, I met Edgar Cayce.
    He had just come in from the garden and looked like a very average man. I was given a life reading the next morning. That should have been a very large moment in my career but it was not, because it only told me what had already been decided when at the bank. There were hundreds of these readings in the file and that night the same discussions went on about reincarnation and astrology. What we both had to face was that, in this graduated sphere of reality, no truth is ever completely revealed and all truth is like the moon which at times shows itself full face, and at others is hidden in shadow, and sometimes for a brief period is entirely eclipsed. We had to face this with astrology more than with reincarnation which had been pretty well blocked off at the beginning of Christianity, whereas astrology had continued for a long time, until the age of science. I talked to Mr. Cayce at all times, and he said that it does offer an explanation. It is like anything else. You've got to live with it in order to realize it. As an example he compared it to living with a bunch of colored people who do not wear clothes. After a year or two, you realize you are the funny looking one with all your clothing. "The more I see of these things, the more I become accustomed to them, and the more I give Life Readings, I realize that maybe it is all right. It may be real. Well, I felt pretty much as you do, at the time it first began. We were all living up to a point where western civilization had reached the apex of its materialism."
    We had to wait until a few years ago before discovering many things. Scientists are not so much against us now, and I am sure that in another ten or fifteen years science will be completely switched over. But when I met Mr. Cayce and first talked with him, the western world was at its peak of materialism and the eclipse of such things as Astrology and Reincarnation was pretty complete among the keepers of our prejudices - among the priests of our modern religion - the archbishops of the laboratory and the textbook. So I had to examine Mr. Cayce as a symbol of our times.
    As soon as you get proof of survival, you get the problem of pre-existence. You have the other dimension you need in psychoanalysis. At that time, when I was discussing this with the Cayce family, things were not so good. Now, looking back on it, I see how Mr. Cayce's life coincided with materialism. He gave his first Reading about the time of Queen Victoria's death. Then Astrology and Reincarnation were revealed to him after the first World War, and coincides with the period between great World Wars, as predicted in in Pyramid. The full revelation by way of biography occurred at the turning point of the second World War - the first deluxe autographed copies by Mr. Cayce were being delivered when the first Uranium pile took fire under the stadium at the University of Chicago, in December, 1942.
    So Edgar Cayce's subconscious mind has shown how the sub-conscious mind is revealed to us, the real spirituality. But there is another and more personal symbology to be observed in the life of Edgar Cayce. He represented dramatically the struggle between what every man knows in his conscious mind and what he feels in his sub-conscious mind. Modern psychology tells us that is what we should do, but this man did it in a way which might be described as dramatic when he was made as though an actor in a play, which was the way Mr. Cayce did things. First of all he demonstrated for 25 years something which was as real to him as this; nothing makes any difference between your conscious and your subconscious - except your will. Out of the whole life you have wriggled up by your will and the barrier that lies across your subconscious is your will. Then you begin to realize that your will has been operating for millions and millions of years and that all that you have built up in your subconscious is also a result of your will. There is a barrier lying across the subconscious mind at birth, and behind that another barrier which the subconscious "is" separates it from the spirit, which is God Himself, and that is your will. This is where your other lives now repose - the good and the bad - and all together shine like a battery of searchlights - and what you are now. What Mr. Cayce demonstrated was that he could go ahead and reveal to the whole world what was going on in his subconscious and he was able to give you a blue-print of your chart.
    There it reposed - in his subconscious. The subconscious of Edgar Cayce was in touch with all other subconscious minds and he knew now that the leap from the subconscious to the conscious was achieved by Free Will.
    Looking at it again from the point of symbol, he found he had been pretty well developed through many lives, and had got to the point where he was about to get out of this solar system. He had reached great heights. The opponent is always oneself. He became like a champion prize-fighter who, being over-confident, looks over his shoulder at the crown and suddenly gets knocked down - down - down to the card-sharp power gained on the desert.
    The particular life in which he stumbled led to another life in which he stumbled again and went successively, and he even took it for granted that he was on the way up, and down and down again he went. I am talking of a period of time which exists from one thousand to twenty thousand years. Then he came to a position of balance. Then this particular existence was advised. The test came this time.
    The mentality he had in his self-conscious mind was not a very good one. The environment was not a good one either, economically or intellectually. The body he was given was not a strong one and his abilities and talents were almost nil. He was good with animals and tools - but for a man who had once reached a power - who had been a white magician, and then was allowed to use something he had already developed, he was in low estate.
    In one of his lives he was left for dead after battle on the Persian desert. He lived for three days. No water, and no help. He could not move and suffered agonizing pain. For the period of three days he labored with his mind and lifted himself above physical pain. That ability could now be given and woven into the personality pattern, and it was the instrument by which he could make the choice. He had to make the choice, good or evil, every day of his life. Without that, all his handicaps - no beginning, education or, talents - every day he had to choose either good or evil.
    He clung to the Bible for fifty years, and achieved revelation and acceptance. There were times, when he was tempted - there were times when he was overcome - times when he could not give Readings for as long as three weeks. The decision had entered the conscious mind of the possibilities being unfavorable, and using it for dishonest purposes. The last eighteen years of his life, as he became stronger and stronger, he was able to give out a real flood of good to everyone. When the point of balance came and he had proven himself worthy of going on and starting his way upward, it would be natural for him to die, and it so happened that when the time came, and the flood of letters for Readings became so great, his body went back on him.
    The last time I saw Edgar Cayce, he made plans to retire from work, and only gave Readings for particular ailments. It was never put into effect. He was already so ill that when he went back to Virginia Beach, he had a slight stroke, and then a second stroke. He died on the 3rd of January, 1945. That was the end of his career. Why did he have to die? He dies at the point where it was no longer possible for him to work in the unique way he had for 44 years. He gave upwards of 14,000 Readings which have just been taken out to be studied by the Association for Research & Enlightenment, which now becomes a branch of that new science which we call para-psychology, or the study of Extra Sensory Perception.
    You may have a copy of the Bulletin of the Association for Research and Enlightenment. That is what remains of Edgar Cayce for as long as we have time on the earth, after which someone will come along with such a power. This is a baby which is growing, but it is still young. It is again a matter of reincarnation. Old sciences reborn into one, to live once as astronomer, clairvoyant, palmist, seer - once he was called Nostradamus, once as Sibyl and once as Isaiah. He is now called Extra Sensory Perception. One of his present personalities is the thousands of Readings Edgar Cayce gave. Edgar Cayce has gone on, and will probably come back, and I would not be at all surprised if, in the next fifteen lives, he would have no psychic power whatever. The things for him to do now is to develop in his subconscious mind. Gradually he will move towards the ideal goal to break down the barrier between the conscious and the subconscious - then break down the barrier between the subconscious and the pure spirit of God.
    Edgar Cayce was a very good example of that. One can look on him as a man put on the stage to play the drama of the three motions of man - the conscious, the subconscious and the superconscious - what forms the personality, what it has to endure, and what it has to overcome. When the personality is done for, it is thrown off and reaches then for something else. It is a pretty big step to have to take.
    No man outlives his dream.
24. GD's note: EC's rdg. 254-2 on the Work, dated 3/19/19, stated that Edgar Cayce was born at 3:03 P.M.
25. 1/02/45 Scene at Edgar's bedside which GD witnessed, the night before he dies: [1/2-3/45 See also 294-212 Reports.]
    On the evening of January 2, 1945, Gertrude, standing by the hospital bed, was getting ready to tell Edgar goodnight and get some rest while Gladys took over until the nurse would arrive for the midnight shift. She reached over and kissed him. He said, "You know I love you, don't you?" She nodded, and he asked, "HOW do you know?"
    "Oh, I just know", she said, with her dear little smile.
    "I don't see how you can tell - but I do love you." Reflecting, he continued, "You know, when you love someone you sacrifice for 'em, and what have I ever sacrificed because I love you?"
    This bedside scene was so beautiful that it made Gladys cry, and does even now when she thinks of it, because she understood so well how Gertrude had stood by him and put his wishes always above her own when it came to the good of "the work". Gladys knew how much they each had suffered through the years, and how hard it was for them because of their different manners of expression. But the readings had indicated that love knows no barriers; that when there is the same spiritual ideal in marriage all material obstacles can become steppingstones.
    The next evening, about the same time, on January 3, 1945, Edgar Cayce died, at 7:15 P.M. There must have been a most beautiful sunset that evening, because the golden glow out of Edgar's southeast bedroom window made it appear that the sun was setting in that direction instead of on the west side of the house.
    Three months later, at sunrise on a BEAUTIFUL EASTER SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 1945, GERTRUDE ALSO DIED IN VIRGINIA BEACH AND WAS BURIED IN HOPKINSVILLE NEXT TO EDGAR.
26. See details re Gertrude's illness and passing in Mary Ellen Carter's book, MY YEARS WITH EDGAR CAYCE, The Story of Gladys Davis Turner, especially pp. 130-132 of the hardback, Harper & Row, copyright 1972 by Mary Ellen Carter and Gladys Davis Turner.

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