This Psychic Reading given by Edgar Cayce at the office of the Association, Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Va., this 31st day of August, 1943, in accordance with request made by the self - [3188], new Associate Member of the Ass'n for Research and Enlightenment, Inc., recommended by the mother, Mrs. [2946].

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. (Notes read to and transcribed by Jeanette Fitch.) Born December 14, 1919, in Nanking, China.

TEXT

1. GC: You will give the relations of this entity and the universe, and the universal forces; giving the conditions which are as personalities, latent and exhibited in the present life; also the former appearances in the earth plane, giving time, place and the name, and that in each life which built or retarded the development for the entity; giving the abilities of the present entity, that to which it may attain, and how. You will answer the questions, as I ask them:
2. EC: (In going back over the years from the present - " - '42 - changes in attitude and relations - '37 preparations, anxieties" - etc. - on back to birth date.)
3. Yes - we are given the records here of that entity now known as or called [3188].
4. This entity would have a very good seal!
5. In giving an interpretation of the records as we find them here, for this entity, there are many phases of the entity's experiences in the earth; but these we choose with the desire and purpose that this information may be a helpful experience for the entity, enabling the entity to better fulfill those purposes for which it entered.
6. Here - a very good experience - this entity worked with the sources of this information - he should again.
7. In the interpreting the records, these we find giving quite a varied urge in the experience of the entity.
8. And the material experiences emotionally become the greater urges at times. Yet the innate and deeper urge, from the experiences of the entity in the earth with that set as its ideal, become the more impelling in its quieter moments. Forsake them not.
9. Astrologically we find these influences contributing much, but as will be seen the application in varied experiences has been such that at times there are confusions between spiritual urges and the material emotional urges. Hence we find these:
10. In Jupiter there is the greater impelling force. This the benevolent influence, the universal consciousness for one sojourning in the earth. This makes for those experiences as would direct towards harmony in relationships with others; and gives the entity a good speaking, a good singing voice. These abilities, to be sure, need to be cultivated but cultivated in that direction as a message of divine or spiritual import, ever.
11. Then, while the emotional urging in song may be a passing experience, the nature of the songs should be of the natures that tell their story. These should be the greater impelling influences, such as: IN THE GARDEN, SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER, ROCK OF AGES, MY REDEEMER LIVETH. These are the natures of the music that should be the impelling force in the application of the entity's abilities.
12. We find in Mercury the high mental ability but overshadowed with Venus.
13. Thus the interest in art, as well as music; not only the classic but the ragtime also, or the popular music - and of these beware. For, either the art or the popular music MAY tempt the entity oft - as will be seen why.
14. In Uranus we find the extremes; the interest in the unusual, the interest in the mysteries of the ages, the mysteries of life, the mysteries of the experiences of individuals. These are well controlled, but as an individual - as in self - one without a temper doesn't amount to much, but one that does not control the temper, is much worse.
15. In the urges that are of the earth-earthy, these uncontrolled may become stumbling stones. Controlled they may be made stepping stones to that greater interpretation of the meanings of the relationships of individuals.
16. For, no soul enters any experience perchance. For it comes with a purpose. And the entity as well as every entity should know: The Divine, the First Cause, is mindful of the entity. This is evidenced by the very fact that the entity finds itself conscious of being itself and aware of good and evil, light and darkness, life and death. These are all one. One is as life and death. There is no death to the spiritual. Hence by His passing through same, proved, indicated, that He overcame death; that we through Him might have LIFE and life more abundant. These should be not merely tenets or truths for the entity, but living things, living experiences.
17. And as they come to be interpreted in the life, the entity's purpose in the earth in the present will be found to be a completing of that begun in Laodicea when it was cut short there. Then, it is necessary for the reliance upon Him, who is the truth and the light, who from the beginning was that expressed in, "And God said, let there be light: and there was light." Not of the sun but as the Son born of the Father-God. Thus the continuity of life itself. For it is the life, the understanding the interpretation of consciousness and awareness of all. For without Him, without light, was not anything made that was made, this applied, this fact conceived, this truth lived in the daily life will put away fear and doubt of every nature. For, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the silver and the gold are His, as the cattle on a thousand hills.
18. Then, why worry - when ye may pray? For He hath promised "Though ye are afar off, if ye call I will hear - and will answer speedily."
19. And again He has said, as He showed the way, as He fulfilled in giving His life, "In the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die." Yet the tempter said, "Not surely die," for it may be put off; and it was - six hundred years - and yet death came, the pangs of the loss of self. Yet in that day when the voice was raised on the Cross, He said, "Father, why - why the way of the Cross?" This is indeed the pattern that is interpreted in "I perceive that the heart of man is to do evil - the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak."
20. Pray ye, then, that ye be ready in the hour of trial or temptation; that ye may say, even as He, "Not my will but Thine, O God, be done in and through me; that I may have that estate with thee that was before the worlds were - and be conscious of same."
21. This ye may be aware of only as the whole trust of body, of mind, of soul, is put in Him.
22. For, as ye perceive, ye are in a three-dimensional consciousness of the earth; yet in Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus ye may be in the four, five, seven, eight. These are a part, then, of the eternal turmoil, as one perceives in the three-dimensional consciousness. They manifest in the three-dimensional Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are one even as thy body, thy mind, thy soul are one. In purpose they should be one, but oft the body betrayeth thee, oft the mind confuseth thee. The spirit then is ever willing, the flesh is weak.
23. Thus "When ye call I will hear and answer speedily" becomes not as a tenet or as a saying, but as a LIVING THING in thy consciousness. Thus ye find as ye interpret Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and bring it into reality, ye pass in time, in space - through PATIENCE - into the awareness of the other consciousnesses, the other phases of experience of self and of those about thee.
24. Then as thy body, thy mind, and thy soul are but the three-dimensional phases of thy concept of the Godhead, use each as such. Thy body, indeed, then is the Temple of the living God. THERE Creation is manifested. Each morning is but another opportunity. The night cometh when no man worketh. What meaneth this? No thought, no purpose, but that the physical resteth. So did He rest on the seventh day. "Take thy rest", saith the Master, "Sleep on and take thy rest - for he cometh. Arise, let's be going for the prince of this world cometh, but he hath no part in me."
25. So live, day by day, that ye can truly say, then, to self, that ye entertain not in word, in thought or deed the prince of the world; but rather that ye walk oft, daily, with Him, who hath overcome and saith to thee, "Fear not! Indeed offences come, but woe unto them by whom they come." Let that not be said, then, of thee in thy own consciousness. For, trusting in Him, He has said, "Fear not - it is I. I have overcome the world."
26. So may ye as ye abide in Him; not weekly, hourly, but eternally.
27. How may ye abide? Thy desire, thy purpose, thy hopes are in Him, and ye fear not. As He said, "Take no thought of tomorrow," for it is today, "Give us our daily bread." Not give us our bread for next year but today, and "Forgive as I forgive."
28. Then, hold not malice, hold not any of those things in thy mind or purpose that maketh man afraid. For the fruits of the spirit ye know: Patience, love, justice, long suffering. Against such there is no law. For it is the heart of God that abideth ever, and they know no fear. For it is the love of Him that casteth out fear. And it is that which first came into being - LIGHT - that may abide ever.
29. Of these take thought. For they take hold upon those things ye preached, as Thaddeus, in those periods in Laodicea, when ye - as one of the sons of Lucius [and [1523]?] - came into associations with those activities of the church in that day and period; when ye made for the establishings of truth and understanding, even in those periods of turmoils - and yet remained strong throughout.
30. Ye knew of and talked at times with many of those that had been with the Master. Thus ye find that deep longing within to fulfill, to see finished again those abilities that were a part of the apostleship to those upon whom the Holy Spirit had descended.
31. What is the Godhead? Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is the outpouring of the spirit on thee as ye pour it out upon thy fellow men. For, as ye do it unto the least of thy brethren, ye do it unto thy Maker. For, until ye have seen in the purpose of each soul - though in error he may be, that ye would worship in thy Maker, ye have not begun to think straight. For, God is one Lord, one law, that abideth aright in the hearts of those that seek to do and to know His biddings. Then, empty self - as ye did of old - of self. For ye must come before the Throne emptyhanded if ye would have thy hands, thy heart, thy mind filled with the goodness of the Lord.
32. Before that the activities of the entity were in those journeyings into the Holy Land, when there were those questionings as to who would be close to the leader that led the wayward children into the promised land.
33. As Joshua led then so did the entity as a friend, and associate - yea as one of the brethren, the children of Ephraim, in the name Obead - come as a helper, as an aid; or as would be called today an orderly to Joshua - in preparing his place of abode, his care for those activities of what was oft a lonely, lonely man - as man.
34. The entity gained through that experience and came to know the written law and gradually its application in the daily experiences through which the entity with Joshua, was called on to give expression of - as to the waywardness, the unsightly things, of those stiff-necked and adulterous generations.
35. Through the period the entity gained, and in the present finds - even with its closer activities - those fears and doubts at times to the heart and mind.
36. Before that the entity was in the Egyptian land when there were those activities especially in the Temple Beautiful.
37. And the entity was active in making the harp, the cymbal, the trumpet, as a part of the service - to cause the movement of the body. The activities to indicate the emotions for sorrow, for gladness.
38. Thus this type of dance, yea even this type of music appeals to the entity in the present.
39. As indicated, use it wisely; let it not tempt thee as in the days of Egypt when it might be said indeed that the entity turned to the fleshpots thereof.
40. Before that the entity was in the land of the present sojourn when there was the breaking up following the first destruction of Mu and Atlantis.
41. The entity then was a leader, but a maker of images.
42. Today the entity may make a good sculptor and spoil a good preacher; he may make a good musician and spoil a good minister.
43. Put thy whole purpose in the Lord. Know His ways are not past finding out. When ye empty thyself in body and mind of the material desires, material anxieties, the spirit of truth, the spirit of Christ may enter in.
44. Let thy yeas be yea and thy nays be nay - in the Lord.
45. Keep thyself unspotted from the world. Study to show thyself approved; not condemning self, not condemning others. For with what judgment ye mete it is measured to thee again. Seek not to justify thyself but rather to glorify God in the earth. Be a channel of blessings to others daily. For it is the little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump; not in the sounding of brass nor the tinkling of cymbals, but rather the still small voice within that convicts, that convinces, that leads the way to truth and light.
46. Ready for questions.
47. (Q) In what capacity can I best help my fellow men?
    (A) As a minister to the needs of the church.
48. (Q) Where and when should I continue my schooling?
    (A) In the next two years - and this we would complete in an eastern institution; such as Princeton, Harvard or Yale.
49. (Q) How can I achieve a theology that will have meaning for me?
    (A) Live that day by day ye would preach to others. Ask no one to do that ye do not do yourself.
50. (Q) Why do I dislike the work of the traditional ministry, in spite of my training for it?
    (A) Because of the hardships endured and the falling away from the principles of the teachings in Laodicea.
51. (Q) What are the weak and strong points of my character?
    (A) Analyze those that have been indicated. The emotions are the weaker, for they undermine at times. Harken not to the things of the world, or of ease or pleasure. While ye love the home, ye are destined to be far from home oft.
    But know, wherever ye gather with the Lord's children, ye are at home. For, "Who is my father and mother, who is my brother, my sister? He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my mother, my brother, my sister." Do ye likewise.
52. (Q) How may I most quickly repay college debts?
    (A) In the abilities ye have for reporting or writing; or as ye have seen, ye could make a very good detective. Seek out those things; not those that are undermining, to be sure. For, express ever the creative, not destructive forces; but in the writing of stories or in the reporting of various experiences it may come quickly.
53. (Q) How much attention may I justifiably give to music, which I love so much?
    (A) This should be ever rather as the hobby, fulfilling. For, oft ye will find the music alone may span the distance between the sublime and the ridiculous. So it is in the search for God, that haply ye may find Him, for He is within thine own self.
54. (Q) Could I become a fine professional musician?
    (A) As for special service, yes - but this is only one way. Go the whole way.
55. (Q) Whom of those now relatives or associates were close to me in past incarnations?
    (A) Many. Closest to the mother in the Laodicea period as Thaddeus, or with Lucius in Laodicea and the church in Jerusalem, and the various experiences as befell the entity in Rome and other places.
    The love of the law - but what law? - should ever be a part of the consciousness.
    Keep the faith. Walk in His ways, for He hath loved thee.
56. We are through - for the present.

    Copy to Self
    Copy to Ass'n file
    [Notes by GD: Lucius in Laodicea - now Edgar Cayce. Joshua - an incarnation of Jesus.]

BACKGROUND

1. 8/27/43 He submitted questions.

REPORTS

1. GD's note: Later he secured a Life Reading for his wife, [5070].
2. 4/04/46 Letter in re working for his master's degree, see 1523-16 Reports.
3. 9/12/74 Wife [5070]'s letter: "Finally [after years of [3188], Ph.D., working as a teacher, psychotherapist and pastoral counselor, as well as writer], we [[3188] and [5070]] are getting our business with the Church in focus according to our reading. Anyway, it is the closest we know to do to answer to the Creative Forces."
   [She enclosed the announcement of a small non-profit research and academic center, listing The Rev. [3188], Ph.D., Director, and The Rev. [5070], M. Div., Dean of the Graduate Collegium.]

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