Edgar Cayce Readings, 696-1

(Life Reading Suggestion)

TEXT

EC: Yes, we have the entity and those relations with the universe and universal forces, that are latent and manifested in the personalities of the present entity, [696].
In entering the present experience, from the astrological aspects - or rather as we find through the sojourn of the entity in the environs about the earth - there are latent manifestations that may become a portion of the present experience through the application of the will of the entity. No influence is as expressive in the experience of an entity as the gift of the will to each soul for its own manner of expression of same in the material world.
As to the astrological aspects, then, from the sojourn in the Mercurian influences - with the aspects of Neptune, we find one seeking rather into the motivative influences of those conditions or experiences that move individuals, groups or masses as to their activity. Those things that are rather from the inspirational or the intuitive nature become the activative forces for the entity itself. Hence this seeking as to those experiences becomes as an innate expression of the entity's activity in this particular experience, bringing - then - the tendencies of a high mentality, with the abilities of discernment and of a natural analytical or of a seeking nature or mind. Hence detail activities as related to things are in the experience of the entity. While people are only a secondary interest, the expressions of nature are the more powerful in the expression for the entity. For the entity may see as great a beauty in the bloom of the rose, the hum of the bee, the beauty of a sunset, the flow of water in its natural elements, as in the activity of individuals - or greater; yet these things - to the entity - must find their expressions in the relative relations of individuals as to such expressions in nature. These arise from this combination-influence from sojourns of the entity in those environs.
We find both good and bad Jupiterian influences, making for the greater abilities, the greater opportunities for the associations of individuals or things or conditions or experiences in a large scope, a large activity. The largeness, the bigness of conditions, environs, experiences, associations, relations, arise from the EXPRESSIONS of the entity's sojourn in the environ. On the other hand, the contradictory influences bring the lack of confidence on the part of the entity in that which has moved large groups of people for an activity. And the more often the entity finds self (and questioning self in same) choosing the minority, in its associations or relations, whether this relates to those things that are of the material, the commercial, the mental or even the spiritual relationships of such associations in the experience of the entity.
Material conditions through the Jupiterian influences have also brought adverse periods particularly in the experience or associations of the entity. These combined - with the earthly sojourns to the material things - make for periods when the entity has not lost in ITSELF, but has questioned as to that which has prompted the activity of the larger masses or groups. Hence the seeking activity through those expressions in the sojourns makes for these analytical tendencies in the mental activities of the entity itself. Hence those things that are in the applications of attributes of abilities for the entity itself will find the greater expression in ANY of the forms of ARTISTIC development in self, whether in verse, song, writing, painting, or in those things that necessitate being prompted by the intuitive influences from within the inner self. Hence the high spiritual developments we find in the entity's own self.
Then, as to the appearances in the earth and those that make for influences in the entity's experience in the present:
Before this we find the entity was in the land of its present nativity, during the periods when there were the grants of land in that country, territory, state that became Georgia; and in those associations with the first of the trustees or governors of that particular portion of the land.
The entity came into associations then with the house of Oglethorpe, that made for the journeyings to the now called English or Britain land and the relationships with the people and the environs of the New World.
Then the entity was rather in the capacity of an associate in companionship with those people, in the name Sena Gewin; and gained through the experience, for in the changes that came about (and as the inclinations are shown through the sojourns of the entity in the environs about the earth and those activities) the entity aided individuals in CLASSIFYING their series of thoughts, developments, studies. For the entity even wrote much of that which was delivered, in the attempts of that Governor - both in the pleadings for those of this new land before the courts of the land granting same, and to the people in their own manner of association and conditions. Yet with the failures that came to the leader, the discouragements arose with the entity - making for periods of doubt and fears, that find material expression in the present in rather the doubting of individuals than those influences or forces that may MOVE individuals to their activity. Hence the entity is not a materialist, yet looking to material things for the expressions when it comes to individual or group or mass activity. Hence the more often does the entity turn to the influence from within as the source of supply of strength in a material world.
Before that we find the entity was during those periods in that same English land when there were the gatherings of those people with the adjoining lands for the entry into the activities to wrest the Holy Land from the infidel, or unbelievers, or those that overran the land.
The entity then was changed in the sex, being a man; and in the name Cordelli did the entity act in the capacity of being among those that strengthened Bruce in his activity in that particular service to those influences that had prompted the activity of many. Yet, with the journeyings into that foreign land, into those activities in which the entity found the environs, as many another of those - when there were the failures for the conquest of those things as set out to do by the influences of the elements of itself, as it were, in its rebellion against the activities of individual influences - the entity, under the influence even of the barbarians, the infidel, the Mohammedan faith, learned many lessons. For the succor, the aid given by those people in that particular experience has brought to the entity in the present sojourn the abilities to listen to many and to give, as it were, the place of others as to THEIR thought, as to their intent and their purpose. Hence again from these influences do we find the entity thrown upon the influences within the self inspirationally or intuitively for its abilities to allow others to give their own expression, their own beliefs. Hence FREEDOM for all, in thought, in activity, whether it be in the mental, the spiritual, the social or the moral life, in the activities of whatever sphere that may be the promptings - provided the promptings are from within, and the entity or group find same constructive in the experience. These are the questions, as indicated - as to whether individuals or groups find constructive forces in their own inner development, whether from a commercial, a mental or a spiritual basis.
Before that we find the entity was in the Grecian land, during the periods when there were the wars with those in the eastern lands, when Xenophen and his followers were making the raids or invasions in those lands in the east - and discouraging news was brought to the entity, in the name Xercia, for her own household.
Then the entity was in the household of one of the leaders in the raids, yet those tenets that were brought back to the entity and the associates - those buildings in the experiences of the minds of those during the entity's sojourn there - made for the artistic temperament, whether in body, in bodily expression as in the art of the dance, or in the art of being capable even to hold more of those things that cheer even in the sadness of doubt. The expressions of the art in the paintings, though more of the entity's association here began in the art of sculpture. Hence again we find, in the expressions of these and their influence upon the entity in the present, the delving into the motivative forces and influences in the experiences of others, as - we might say - the mental side of the entity; yet - in the motivating forces in self - as rather the student of nature and its expressions in the material life and its relationships to individuals and their response to same.
Before that the entity, we find, was in that land now known as the Egyptian, during those periods when there had been turmoils and strifes in the land not only from the internal rebellions following the banishment of the Priest - in the activities of the moral and religious life - but with the return of the Priest. And with the turmoils and strife that arose from that gathering together of so many of those, even from the Indian, the Arabian, the Atlantean, the Abyssinian lands (the Abyssinian land in which the people had been raised in their attempts), the entity - with all of these, as a native in the Egyptian land - brought those things that pertain to body adornments, that deal with the activities of those that prepared for the purifications in the temples of Sacrifice. Hence the entity then was in the name Apt-hen, or - meaning, as would be the interpretation in the present - "Where there is life, there is hope."
So, the activities in that experience have brought, do bring, the adherence in the present to those things or vibrations that make for the alterations in the activities of the body - as was given through the tenets of the Priest to whom the entity came as a student - in raising the Creative Energies from within that may find their expressions in the attributes of the physical body, through the SENSING of same in the emotions that are created in a physical body. For the entity aided the Priest during those periods when the regeneration of the body came to him through the casting aside, as it were, of the years of toil and strife through which the body of Ra-Ta itself had passed; and the entity rejuvenated itself with that body in the experience; rising in the latter portion of the sojourn to those conditions wherein it was given entire CHARGE OF the activities in the TEMPLES of Sacrifice, or the temples of initiation - where there were those things carried on in the tombs that were prepared for such during those periods of activity.
The entity then gained, and in the present those things of every nature or character of the orient have their periods of influence; as also do odors, colorings, vibrations that are created by these influences in the experiences of the MENTAL mind.
Hence, as to the abilities in the present and that to which the entity may attain, and how, in giving the expressions of that the entity may receive through its inner self, owing to its regeneration, owing to its activity in that particular sojourn in Egypt, may be said to be that to which the entity may turn within itself to find that it may give to its fellow man for thought, study, development, in the APPLICATION of same in their own experience.
Then, whether in song, in writing, in verse, in painting, those things that partake of the HIGHER VIBRATIONS in expressions are the FIELDS of activity for the entity in the present.
Keep in self that which was given in the holy mount of initiation; that what is constructive and of spiritual import must find expression in aiding others to find themselves and their relationships to the Creative Forces - or God.
Ready for questions.
(Q) Were Marvin J. and I connected in a past life and for what purpose were we brought together in this life?
(A) In those periods in the Grecian sojourn were the activities brought together in the earth. In the present, those things that come as a STRENGTH from one to another through the faith, the confidence one may have WITH another. Too oft are confidences and hope and trust UPON another, but it should be WITH another.
(Q) From what source shall I get financial aid so that I can continue my present work without strain?
(A) As we find, in the present application of self there should - through the very channels in which the entity engages self - be found those that will aid in assisting farther development in these directions. That is, there are groups, there are channels that are prepared for such aid for such individuals' activity. Seek through those channels.
(Q) To what channels do you refer, or to what groups?
(A) Those organized for the purpose of assisting individuals with their talents in those directions to carry on, without strain.
(Q) Would you name one of these?
(A) Seek something for self!
(Q) Shall I be connected in any way with Father Divine in the near future?
(A) This depends upon the choices that are made in the directions of the activities of the entity. As we find, this would be the greater choice for the associations - would be well.
(Q) Shall I have a physical reading?
(A) Inasmuch as it has been indicated it was necessary for the entity in its greater development in the past, so in the present may the regeneration that may come from the motivative forces from the body itself make for the creation of a better channel for the experiences or activities of the vibrations that may be raised within self. It would be well.
(Q) What line of work is the most important just now?
(A) Its preparations for the expansions in other fields of endeavor. That it may branch out more, that it may be farther-reaching in its influence upon others.
(Q) Should the entity stay in Washington or go to New York, for the better self-expression?
(A) Stay in Washington until Spring, and then to New York - or to Boston.
(Q) Are there any other suggestions for the better spiritual development of the entity?
(A) Keep the faith thou hast in those influences and forces that guide from within. Keep the emblems of truth before thee in the vibrations of color and stones about thee; those of the pearl and of the blue should ever be close to the body.
We are through.
Copy to Self
Copy to Ass'n file

REPORTS

10/22/34 She obtained a Physical Rdg. - 696-2.
1/02/35 [696]'s letter to EC:
"My one ambition is to get settled with some reliable magazine. This upsets me more than anything personal ever could. My writing means more to me than life. It's tough to put out material which the public wants and have people from every part of the country looking for my articles and then wondering where they are. I am hoping to clear up this Runes correspondence soon. I have to go South on business for about ten days Saturday and hope to be here when you return in January. I am going to New York eventually and if I have to live on bread and water get a start with some reliable magazine and eventually get a syndicated column. I'm feeling down now but not out. This grip knocked the pep out of me temporarily. Excuse this typing.
"I had a letter from Dr. Runes [formerly with 'Successful Living', now 'Inspiration'] some time ago saying he had met you [at the David E. Kahn home] and what a remarkable man he thought you. He asked me what I thought of you. And I told him in the letter which has never been answered. Somehow I feel that he has not received my material or letters and that someone is working against me. I can't conceive of his being too busy to answer one who is giving so much material and time to helping launch the magazine. But I guess time will clear the matter up. Perhaps my friend who is in New York will get to see him and bring some word. But if he proves to be another Temerson of Psychology - out after all he can get - I shall keep on trying to get in with some reliable magazine. I feel that God will find the opening for me to help with my writing."
1/27/35 See personal message to Miss [696] in Group rdg. 705-2, Par. 15-A.
1/28/35 She was present for a Mental-Spiritual - See 696-3.
4/24/35 [696]'s letter to GD:
Washington, D.C.
Dear Gladys,
Well - if you could have seen me when Hugh Lynn and Mr. Sugrue came! Only a girl or a woman could appreciate my feelings! I had gotten the hour mixed, thinking they would come in about two hours later than they actually did! And - I had on the oldest clothes I think I have - they looked like picked from the rag bin of Noah's ark. I had on an old holey - not holy - green sweater full of what moths live on - holes! And - no brassiere! Can you picture me? My nails needed manicuring and were destined to be within thirty minutes. I had been changing typewriter ribbon, and puttering around the house all morning, getting all the dirt on me I could. And - in this condition - I met the honorable Mr. Cayce and Mr. Sugrue! There was nothing to do but make the best of it - but I was so conscious of my horrible appearance that I acted every way but myself. To add to this, I had been screeching at Mr. Thompson all morning and forgot to lower my voice when talking to the boys. It usually takes me thirty minutes to realize I'm not yelling at Mr. Thompson - poor fellow. I longed for you and one of your smiles which would put an inhabitant from Mars at ease. There's nobody like you, Gladys. You're so wholesome, sincere and - well, just about everything nice. I can't imagine a nicer world than one filled with Gladysssssssss. Get me?
I'm sending Atlantis, edited as best I can. The last part was not easy. Perhaps Hugh Lynn may be able to add some changes in addition to mine. If we were together we could have much better luck in going over it. However, I think it is in good shape now. And if he sees a few changes he can make them.
I'm still running an ad occasionally - trying to get a real roomer. The type I want. And this place is almost breaking my pocketbook. Never again for me - give me the road, the white winding highway, or a room where I can pay by the month, grab my brain children and run when the mood seizes me. Tell dear Mr. Cayce that I'm learning patience! And how!
Well, must run along now and get busy. Want to mail this. Sorry I didn't get to see you all more while you were here. Better luck for me next time, I'm hoping. Have put in an ad for manuscript work - typing and revision and editing of articles. Hope it brings in some dough so I can send you that last five dollars and begin to catch up on my dues. I hate to be behind but it's because Mr. Thompson is behind on the rent. How dependent each one is on the other's promptness!
Lots of love and good wishes. Remember me to all the family and the Prayer group.
With love, [696]
That L [in signature] looks as if it were jumping a fence & giving a farewell impudent kick!
5/17/35 Ltr. to [696] from GD:
Beloved [696]:- I have just this minute finished reading your copy of Atlantis, for I intend to stencil it tomorrow for mimeographing. It is splendid! My, you are just what we need in this work! All these years we've suffered with sending out things grammatically incorrect. It seems too good to be true that at last we can feel sure that every word and every comma is as it should be. That is, if you still can bear with us to continue.
Would you be able within the next week to edit the enclosed UHJLTD? Or are you too busy? It is an attempted history, in story form, of Mr. Cayce's Arabian appearance (according to his Life Reading) from which he gained much of the ability exhibited at present to lay aside his conscious mind. Is it necessary for you to go to all the trouble of copying it? Couldn't you just correct it by making notations between the lines? I think I could follow it alright, if you just send it back that way; for as you read it YOU can easily catch the errors.
I'd like to have this and two more papers (besides Atlantis) finished for the Congress; that is, mimeographed, for sale, in order to give people a better understanding of their periods of incarnation as given in the Life Readings. I'm saving your most important incarnation period (Egypt - the Temple Beautiful, etc.) to the last, and I don't think you'll find many mistakes in it; for it is copied almost word for word as the reading gave it. But I won't burden you too much by telling you what ELSE I want you to do, for you might get discouraged at the very beginning. But I want you to know that we do appreciate your help; it is more needed than anything I know right now - for our publication department. The readings always say "Begin with that in hand." So, if you're willing, I'm sending you - piece by piece - what we've got; and as we perfect that, perhaps we will be given more - in fact, I'm SURE we will.
I think of you and we all speak of you often. I hope everything is working out right about the apartment, and that you will gradually be free to go and come as you need to.
With love and appreciation, looking to hear from you again soon - if you aren't too busy, I am
As ever, Gladys.
6/05/35 Wednesday Letter: A.D.F.D. 20 West 115th Street, New York City
Dear Gladys, Strange as it may sound to you - this letter is also to Mr. Cayce and all there - God is no longer in some mystical, imaginary realm, but actually walking and teaching here in Metropolitan New York in the form of Father Divine. There is no other to come. He has said that he is the very same Jesus who walked in Galilee 1900 years ago. I have indubitable proofs of this. The mysteries are not revealed to those without faith. Faith is the open sesame to Father Divine. I have given up the life in the outside world and nothing matters but living the evangelical life as taught by God here in the Bodily Form. I feel that Mr. Cayce will recognize Him and that all the prophecies are being fulfilled. It is not something the human mind can grasp but is a revelation given to those who come with open mind, faith and a prayer in their hearts to find God. These are actually the last days. Such revelations as I never dreamed of in the world are coming to me each day. People all over the world are coming here each day. Healings are occurring daily, hourly. I no longer wear glasses. My eyes which were practically useless without glasses all my life are as good as new. I have had visions, dreams, proofs that make me know God is here. He materializes food and money daily. He sits in His office and slips out of the Body as we sit quietly around and work and when He returns sometimes the very building shakes. He said in a public meeting the other night that if He were a mere mortal representing just a race He would take a knife and cut his veins and let every drop of blood go from His body. He said He is the very same Jesus, and that He came as a Jew, as a Mohammedan, as Hindu, etc. Through 42 generations He came and now is with us to teach us God's way. This is all I am permitted by the Spirit within me to tell you. But may it suffice to give you and Mr. Cayce and the others the privilege of God's mercy and a chance to come and find the God who has meant everything to you all life long. The God who put the power in Mr. Cayce.
Everything works automatically here as soon as the Principle is recognized. One must lay aside the mortal consciousness and let the Spirit guide. If one comes looking for a man he will find a man. But if he comes seeking God, He will find Him.
I am well, happy, healthy, radiant, busy. I have been given a new name and am no longer keeping in touch with anything I once did. My body is being spiritualized to such an extent that nothing matters but living in the New Jerusalem and learning at the side of the very same Jesus, now raised to the Fathership degree.
I have had indubitable proofs. People from every walk of life are coming daily and acknowledging God to be here in Bodily Form. Blessings on you all. Come to New York and be prepared to stay long enough to receive the blessing Father will pour on all who sincerely believe in Him.
With every good wish, [696]
(I shall not give you my new name for I wish to break contact with the world except on occasions when God's work requires me to contact the world. If you come I will see you and endeavor to speak to you if the Spirit directs. But come with an open mind and the mind that was in Christ Jesus.)
7/35 Thomas Sugrue's ltr. to EC had this P.S. for HLC:
Note for Hugh Lynn... Can I borrow or have (if they are available) that stuff I read in the girl's apartment in Washington on the beginning, etc., with the various incarnations of Jesus, the Atlantis story, and all that would help me to put together in my mind a connected story of the world as it has come through the readings, for the book: would make a swell chapter I think...
10/09/35 GD's letter to Miss [696]:
Mr. Cayce, Hugh Lynn and I arrived last night, and are staying with Mr. and Mrs. David E. Kahn, 44 West 77th St., Apt. 14-W, Phone Trafalgar 7-3456.
I intended to write you a long time ago, and especially before leaving the Beach. Your last letter was such a surprise to all of us. It was so long ago that you may not even be here now, but I hope so. I wish you would come in right this minute!
Well, we will be here about ten days or two weeks, so please see us as soon as possible and then we can make PLANS. Your last letter was full of them, so now I'm wondering if you can tell them to us.
We've heard of Father Divine's wonderful work from many sources, but I'm sure you've been closer to it than anyone we've met yet.
Hoping to hear your voice over the phone Presto, and to see you come tumbling after, I am - with much love,
As ever, Gladys
10/35 GD's note: Above ltr. [Par. R9] was ret'd marked ADDRESS UNKNOWN.
Article, The Ledger-Star, Tuesday, May 12, 1964 But One Race Their View
Father Divine's Disciples See No Need for Integration Fight
By R. W. Apple Jr.
JERSEY CITY - The disciples of Father Divine see no need to fight for integration in the year they call 1964 A.D.F.D. (anno Domini Father Divine).
Five of them - two whites and three Negroes - discussed the civil rights movement and their reactions to it, during an interview in the spartan office of the Divine Fairmount Hotel on Hudson Boulevard.
"For us," said John DeVoute, who manages Father Divine's weekly newspaper, The New Day, "there is only one family, one race. We don't even call people N's (Negroes) or C's (Caucasians); we consider that a sin."
"Father has freed us from within," Miss Blessed Mary Love added. "We move unhampered in the world, because God in the fathership degree (Father Divine) has harmonized us with one another. The spirit will protect us."
"We can see now what Father has done for us," Miss Magnetic Love said. "We have sympathy for the others who are working for integration, but we know they will never achieve true success except through the Christlife of Father Divine."
Since he first appeared in Harlem during the darkest days of the depression, Father Divine, a short, stocky Negro who was born George Baker about 1877, has denounced segregation. But he has never joined the civil rights movement.
His second wife, the former Edna Roe Ritchings, is a white woman who was born in Canada. Their wedding anniversary was celebrated by hundreds of followers recently at their mansion ("The Mount of the House of The Lord") in Gladwynne, Pa., near Philadelphia.
Father Divine owed much of his early fame to his flights of unorthodox rhetoric - "It is personifiable and repersonifiably metaphysicalzationally reproducible," he once said - but in recent years he has made almost no speeches.
He recently brushed off reports that he was ill.
Father Divine's churches are no longer called "heavenly" and his women followers are no longer called "angels." In other respects, according to DeVoute, the Divine Peace Mission movement is unchanged from the 1930s. It is still amassing real estate. At the moment, Father Divine's followers own and operate the Divine Fairmount Hotel here, the Divine Riviera in Newark, the Divine Tracey and Divine Lorraine in Philadelphia, and others.
"Our blessings are so numerous," DeVoute said, "that we don't count them. We just share in the blessedness."
At the Divine Lorraine, which has 170 rooms, the switchboard operators answer all calls with the word "Peace." No-smoking signs are posted in every corridor.
Article The Ledger-Star, Friday, Sept. 10, 1965
Believed About 100 Years Old
Death Takes Father Divine After Years of Secluded Life
By Lee Linder
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Father Divine, a 5-foot-2 cherubic-looking Negro revered as god by thousands, died today.
His worldwide Kingdom of Peace included both Negroes and white persons among its members and was based on a credo of communal living, celibacy and unquestioning personal honesty.
"Peace, it's wonderful" was the theme preached and sung at the movement's scores of missions.
Divine kept his exact age a carefully-guarded secret, but his longtime attorney, Austin Norris, said Divine was around 100 years old. Norris, who announced the death, noted that Divine was married for the first time in 1882.
The attending physician, Dr. Joseph A. Wagner, said death was caused by arterio-sclerosis after a mild diabetic shock.
Divine's last public appearance was on the 17th anniversary of his marriage to his second wife - a 21-year-old white Canadian stenographer. She is his only survivor.
Norris said Divine had been disabled for at least a year, and that Mother Divine - his wife - had been keeping the organization going "Just as if he was living." Divine died "without a cent belonging to him. All the money was in the movement," Norris added.
Death came at the movement's palatial suburban retreat - "The Mount of the House of the Lord."
The movement's religious fervor is expressed at the banquet table - based on the biblical Last Supper. Divine staged massive banquets at the 73-acre suburban estate, in a 32-room castle-type mansion originally built at a cost of $1 million in 1892.
These banquets featured 50 different items and thousands came to sit at his table.
The story of Father Divine, according to outsiders, probably began with the birth of George Baker on a Georgia plantation in the 1860s.
Father Divine never talked about his background, and Norris once said: "George Baker is the name given him by his enemies."
Father Divine was heralded among Negroes particularly for his opposition to racial segregation. He married his second wife in 1946, three years after the death of his first wife.
The marriage to Edna Rose Ritchings - known as "Sweet Angel" in the movement took place secretly in Washington, performed by a Baptist minister. It wasn't immediately disclosed because, one associate confided, "the marriage was such a world-shaking event it might have made the followers vibrate strongly enough to destroy themselves."
The story of Father Divine, frequently beset by legal troubles and once interrupted by jail, is one of belief mixed with superstition and the supernatural, of faith wrapped up in filling an empty stomach.
"Father will provide" was the byword. And according to his followers he did - spiritually and materially.
The bulk of the members of his movement - no official count was kept - are Negroes. There are numerous whites in the organization, but no one would make an estimate, since race, creed or color is not recognized.
Followers frequently discard family names, although not by edict. They take such names as Miss Charity, Job Patience, Peaceful Samuel, Love, Love, Love; Victory Love, etc.