This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the home of David E. Kahn, 20 Woods Lane, Scarsdale, N.Y., this 2nd day of December, 1936, in accordance with request made by the self - [1158], through Associate Membership of her husband, in the Ass'n for Research & Enlightenment, Inc., Virginia Beach, Va.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Mrs. [1158].

TEXT

1. EC: Yes, we have the records here of this entity now known as or called [1158] also that information which has been given respecting those activities of the entity during those experiences as the sister of Jesus.
2. As we find, it would be well here to give for the entity, as well as general information for those that seek to know more of how experiences in any individual sojourn may affect an entity or body in this particular experience in the earth.
3. Know that each sojourn or indwelling may be compared to that as ye have in your mental experience as a lesson, as a schooling for the purposes for which each soul-entity enters an earth experience; and why an entity under such environments came into that experience.
4. Each study of each lesson then adds some phase of development for the soul. And each merits then the opportunity; for it has been given as to the graciousness of the divine oneness in not willing that any soul should perish or lose sight of its identity or lose its hold upon those purposes for each soul's entrance into an experience.
5. Thus in the study of the activities of the entity previous to the periods of activity as ye would term the Christian era in Palestine, in Rome, in Sicily, in Athens; we find these are as human nature, the natural thing - or nature's expression.
6. For that which has been given man for his interpretation of the Creator is ever before him in the things about him that respond to the emotions; not mental or bodily emotions as having to do with some activity, but those deeper emotions or urges arising from those very influences that have and do become a part of the entity's experience as a growth, or an outgrowth of what each entity has done, does do, respecting its knowledge.
7. For what brought dissension? Knowledge misapplied!
8. Hence the wisdom of God; that surpasseth the understanding of man save in the meditations upon, or meetings within, his own divine self.
9. This is the lesson, this is the study that all that has been given is to point out. As the study of any individual experience is brought to the consciousness of an entity it becomes more applicable in the material experience of the entity at that time. Just as if there is a discussion of music or of sculpture or of the artist's brush in his depiction of any of the phases of human emotions, there may be discussed through the mental mind those studies, those meditations. But the applying of the principles of that being discussed becomes a portion of the entity and influences same in its relationships to its fellow man.
10. For as has been so aptly given oft, it is not what we know that counts but what we do about that we know, in our dealings with our fellow man. For as ye do it unto the least ye do it unto thy Maker.
11. For when honor or preference or thought is given a friend, an acquaintance, a neighbor, for SELF-glorification, it becomes not spiritual but temporal. But if such preference, such love, such honor is given that there is glorified the emotions of the knowledge "As I do it, I am doing it to my Maker and not for self," then the honor comes upon the individual soul and the growth, the new buds of hope, of life, are a part of such an entity.
12. So in the experiences of this entity in giving that which is so near, so dear to the heart of God, in that the entity was given the privilege, the opportunity - not alone of itself but for those purposeful opportunities - to use, to give, to spread the gospel of good tidings, as the entity did in its associations with those in authority politically and economically, so does the experience in the present - in the knowledge of its activities - become a part of the entity's being.
13. Much has been given as to the doubts and fears that arose in the mental experience of the entity during the experience or sojourn in that as a national association with those that were considered heathens, yet who by their practical application brought hope and the possibility, the opportunity for those that were afraid bodily yet imbued with the spirit of truth by that reflection of the Son, of the Holy One, the Holy Child who came as FEARLESS. Yet as is the experience of human nature in the present, to be doubted, to be fearful for the livelihood of the day, for the suffering that may be brought to loved ones, for the separations that might be brought about by those that considered it not - these have and do become then in a much modified form to be sure, yet just as piercing, just as questioning. For as the individual entity or soul becomes the more sensitive to the attunement of itself with divinity, the more the hurt there be.
14. Then for the moment, as the entity saw during those periods when there was a relating to same of that walk to Emmaus, when there was the conviction brought that this indeed was the son of a living God, so in the experiences in the present so oft those periods of conviction come in that those lives, those souls touched by the entity in its associations, in its activities, are indeed even as they in those experiences were CONVICTED not of themselves but by that as of a closer walk with LIFE itself!
15. So these become so much a part of the entity, yet owing to its relationships, its positions in those periods of activity when by the very companionship necessitated the journeying to other lands where less of the experiences had come into the hearts and minds of individuals, so the entity in its present experience finds, when having been touched by the holy light of the way and the Word and the Christ-Consciousness, and it comes in contact with the various groups (though these may be presented by just around the corner, or just another meeting), and sees the groping and feels that longing in the hearts of those acquaintances or those that are merely seen as other groups seeking much of that as was the experience during that life or that sojourn as Ruth - these become, and will more and more, as indicated, upon the finger-tips of the experience of the entity, as would be termed in the modern parlance.
16. Yet hold thou fast, O Child of Grace and Promise, to those tenets - not as tenets but as living truths, that it IS through the grace and the gift of thy Brother, thy Father-God, thy consciousness within self is being awakened and aroused, that life in its expressions and manifestations becomes as sweet savour, the incense of the Lord in the lives of individuals!
17. And hold thou fast to those truths as ye gained in the greater knowledge from that conviction of the walk to Emmaus.
18. And as ye saw in those intents and purposes when thy elder brother James became as the head of what is termed the church; not as that YE understand in thy present surroundings as an elder, a teacher, a minister. For how has it just been given? He, thy brother James, was exalted to the position of the leader because the HONOR was to Jesus, the Christ, to Him to whom all honor and all glory are due; to whom all patience, all suffering, all humbleness became so much a portion of His demonstration in Life - and for which He only asked that we as His be a part of, that He may be strengthened in the earth. For to those of the earth hath He given the message, "Lo, I am with thee always - ALWAYS!" To YOU, to ALL who have named and do name His Name is given that charge, "Feed my sheep, care for my lambs." And even as in thy activities when in the face of those in authority and with the changing scenes in Rome with the death of that one who had given and made it possible for the closer associations of His representatives with those in political and religious authority in thine own land, then with those changes came the checking up on those that had become imbued with the spirit of these new teachings. Yet thy light was not hid under a bushel, but the quietness, the gentleness, the patience that was shown by thine activities even in the courts of Bacchus and those revelries that were brought to bear that there might be a satisfying and a gratifying of the material appetites of men and women during those periods that to thee were debaucheries. As ye looked on these and saw not the vileness but the flow of those influences of wine and strong drink that excited the passions of men, rather did ye see the blood of thy Brother SPILLED in a wanton manner that the earth might know that He lived not in vain! For those that honor, those that love Him even as He loved the world, would give, do give their own heart's blood that the world may know that He LIVES and is at the right hand of the Father; that ye - yea, thy brethren, thy friends, thy enemies - may have an advocate before that Throne of mercy, pleading the cause of the wayward, hearing the cry of those that are persecuted, and saying "Be patient - be patient, my child; for in patience know ye thine own soul and become aware that I am able to sustain thee, even though ye walk through the valleys and in the shadows of death." For death hath no sting, it hath no power over those that know the Resurrection, even as thou hast seen and as thou hast known, as thou hast heard, how the Resurrection brought to the consciousness of man that power that God hath given to man, that may reconstruct, resuscitate, even every atom of a physically sick body, that may resurrect even every atom of a sin-sick soul, may resurrect the soul that it lives on and on in the glory of a resurrected, a regenerated Christ in the souls and hearts of men!
19. As ye saw these even in Rome through those periods of lasciviousness, as ye saw in Athens in the unwarranted flow of blood for those of thine own peoples because they held to that, whether it is right that "I should listen to the voice of God or harken to the voices of men."
20. Then farther and farther away do ye grow from the voices of men and closer and closer do ye come to the voice of the Christ in the lives of those that are weary with the toils of the physical, that are sick with the doubts of the spiritual through the mental activities of the worldly-wise. And as ye give that gentle smile of assurance and of understanding, even as He looked upon thy mother and thy friends and gave, "Behold the woman," and to thy cousin and to thy friend gave, "To you she is given. Be to her a son in my stead." And as ye are to those about thee in thy daily life the mother, even as in thy associations the soft word that turneth away the wrath of those that are worldly-wise or that are in fear because of the doubts of their bodily needs, ye bring to thyself more and more those consciousnesses of thine experiences in that atmosphere of thine experience as Ruth.
21. For as it brought, even as the name implies, HOPE and new life, YE may bring - and ye DO bring in this thine experience just that in the experiences and into the lives of many. And as the little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, so do thy gentlenesses, thy kindnesses, thy longsufferings, thy patience, bring into this world that for which He gave His life, His hope - into thy hands and to thy friends' hands, and into those that have named His Name, the POWER to bring to the consciousnesses of others that awakening to the glories of a risen Lord.
22. But ye seek thy specifics.
23. Ready for questions.
24. [E.C. continuing:] Much again might be given in this vein of those varied experiences. As in Sicily ye came upon those activities that were from a peoples that were so bound by that of tradition that only those who were of the household of promise through the lineal descendents that had not been crossed by the blood of those that had been heathens might be saved; that even pointed to thee that THOU - as a blood sister of His - had mingled thy blood with the Romans.
25. And yet as in thine reasoning that God is God of the just, and hath no patience with mere rote, hath no patience with that which is only of such and such line - but EVERYWHERE calleth, "Whosoever will, let him take of the cup of my son and learn of me. For thou, too, art my son if ye will but drink and be renewed in body, in mind, in soul to the purposefulnesses of that Son's entering - that ALL men, EVERYWHERE, might know the love the Father hath for the children of men, and that the Father is not the respecter of persons but rather as He hath given to the women of the Saracens, the crumbs indeed of the Master's table are not cast out but are become even as He, the head of the corner, the keystone to the building of that life that is aware of its relationship to the Godhead, that is aware of how ye treat thy brother and the god in him - ye know and experience the God-love in thyself."
26. And as ye hold this or that as mere rote or as being endowed, ye set a barrier. For He made Himself of no estate, though He came into a world created by His very breath. The WORLD knew Him not, but YE have known Him - ye KNOW Him; for thou hast seen, thou hast tasted, thou hast heard, thou hast felt, thou hast proclaimed, do proclaim, the love of God through the Christ, even Jesus the man, thy Brother!
27. And as ye questioned and were questioned again in Athens, where there was given the proclaiming to all the forces and powers of nature that then ruled over this or that portion of man's experience - whether as the god of the storm or of the rain or of the sunshine or of the harvest or of the winter or of the elements about the earth, ye saw, ye heard, ye were questioned even HOW the Holy Spirit upon thy Mother's body was quickened to that influence to which there came conception, that is unknown and only a myth in the gods of the ancients or of the unseen forces. And why not these be worshipped then as well as this unseen force that acted as ye claim, then?
28. From the very foundations of thy faith then ye were questioned, but ye stood steadfast; for as ye had heard and a ye proclaimed - and as is in the experience of man even today - that which to man with ALL his knowledge is impossible, to God is but as the breath or the wind in its passing, yet in its passing may quicken to each atom. For as each cell in each atom of the body KNOWS its purpose, if it is imbued with the spirit of LIFE, yet knoweth naught if it is condemned by the desires of flesh only to its mere rote of activity - yet quickened by the Spirit bringeth, even as in thine experience, that of the unnatural to the natural. Hence as the body grew, as the body was held by the mother in its whole purpose of "Thy handmaid, O God; use me - Let my cup be filled with Thy purpose, Thy desire, because of Thy love for man, that I may be the channel, a channel, through which the world may know; though I be doubted, though I be spurned by those that are worldly-wise and say all manners of things."
29. So thou in thine experience in the present, as ye may be questioned as to thy gentleness to this or that experience of individual activities, become aware of those experiences through which ye passed, even there - as not only the sister in the flesh of Jesus but as the helpmeet to a heathen; yea, a Roman! Yet the foolishness of the world and of the earth is the wisdom of God! Just as the foolishness of man may be turned into the wisdom of the ages, the wisdom of God. For the wisdom is indeed to be willing to be led by the Spirit of GOD rather than to be guided by thine own concept OF paralleling or classifying or reasoning.
30. For the worldly-wise oft destroy themselves, as ye saw among the leaders of thine own peoples, as ye saw among those in authority among thine own associates. And these ye see oft. But even as He, thy Brother; though He wept bodily over Jerusalem, though He sighed with the very blood of His body in Gethsemane, He smiled upon the Cross - as He smiles upon thee and gives, "I am with thee; be not afraid, it is I - even I who AM the Life, who AM the Way, who AM the Word!"
31. And in Him, (and "In me," as He gave) ye can put thy trust. "Were it not so, I would have told you. I prepare a place for those that are faithful, are patient, that they - too - may be with me as from the foundations of the earth. Ye have been, even as I, in and out - in the shadow, in the light; yet the purpose, the desire of the soul itself is to be at an at-onement with Him."
32. Ready for questions.
33. (Q) Was Jesus the natural son of Joseph?
    (A) As just given, as ye questioned in Athens as regarding these; a conception through the Holy Spirit. For the pouring out of the body of thy NATURAL mother, the natural daughter of Joseph the Carpenter - these brought to the consciousnesses of the entity the fact that there were, there are, there can be such to those who OPEN themselves into the Will of the Father-God, that THEIR wills are one with His.
    And in such even in the earth there comes the natural to be unnatural, and the unnatural natural. For Nature proclaims God, as the unnatural in nature magnifies God.
34. (Q) If not, how can the rest of humanity be expected to reach His perfection when they start with a less divine origin?
    (A) O that the children of men would gain that which is the purpose for procreation in the earth! and start within their own selves, in those periods of activities that bring about the channel for or the means of the entering in of the holy ones, that ideal! For He IS the way, and He asks that all follow in that way.
    And as two souls come in a union of purpose - not a gratifying of earth, not a gratifying of the earthly impulses and desires but that they, too, may be used as channels through which souls may enter - there may be brought into the earth those that may quicken. For all must be lifted up even as He. But through the natural, the unnatural means as He entered, all become then in that purpose, in that oneness as the natural way, the natural source.
35. (Q) Does this mean that the world will evolve into bringing souls into the world in the manner that Mary did?
    (A) Souls will evolve into the manner to be able to bring into the world souls, even as Mary did.
    And these may come as the souls of men and women become more and more aware that these channels, these temples of the body are INDEED the temple of the living God and may be used for those communications with God, the Father of the souls of men!
36. (Q) Is it true that Jesus is the only begotten son of God, and what does this mean?
    (A) In this to give the full concept is to give the history then of all those who have entered into flesh WITHOUT that act which man knows as copulation. For as those experiences Jesus, known as Jesus, the brother of this entity, came into the earth, the FIRST that were of the sons of God to enter flesh, THERE the first and only begotten of God. Again, as names would say, Enoch walked with God, became aware of God in his movements - STILL that entity, that SOUL called Jesus - as Melchizedek, without father, without mother, came - STILL the soul of Jesus; the portion of God that manifests.
    But each son, each daughter, through these very acts of the only begotten, of the son of Mary, of the first in the earth, of that without father and without mother, without days, without years - becomes then as the elder brother to all who are BORN in the earth, as the maker, as the creator, as the first, as the last; as the beginning, as the end of man's soul's experience through the earth and throughout the spheres of consciousness in and about the earth.
    Thus is He the only begotten, the firstborn, the first to know flesh, the first to purify it.
    And so man in his concepts, in his understandings, in his wisdom of God, purifies - here a little, there a little.
37. We are through for the present.

    Copy to Self
    Copy to Ass'n file

BACKGROUND

1. See 1158-4 on 11/19/36.

REPORTS

1. 1/25/37 See continuation of her life as Ruth, sister of the Master, under 1158-6.

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