This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the Edmonds'' home on Pennsylvania Ave., Norfolk, Va., this 10th day of Oct., 1937, in accordance with the request by those present.
P R E S E N T
Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. Esther Wynne, Hannah Miller, Florence & Edith Edmonds, Frances Y. Morrow, Hugh Lynn Cayce, Helen Storey, Helen Ellington and Ruth LeNoir.
R E A D I N G
Time of Reading 4:15 to 5:00 P. M.
1. GC: You will have before you Group #1, members of which are present here, and its work on the lesson SPIRIT. You will continue the discourse on this lesson and answer the questions.
2. EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here - and their work on the lesson SPIRIT.
3. As has been indicated, this is the beginning, the end of self-development - IF it is applied in the experience of the individuals.
4. Then it behooves us that we give an interpretation, an explanation, of what is in reality meant when many of the accepted terms are indicated in the individual expression.
5. This to be sure is a question then within the realm of the metaphysical as well as in the material.
6. Then we should be able to answer ever for the cause, the purpose that we have within us, for every question that may arise respecting such.
7. The spirit of the times! What do we mean?
8. The spirit of the age! We here speak of the spirit of America, the spirit of '76, the spirit of the pioneer! What do we mean?
9. We hear again of the spirit of Fascism, the spirit of the Japanese. What do we mean?
10. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Church, the Spirit of Truth - what do we mean?
11. It has been given, has it not, that there is ONE Spirit?
12. Then what is the meaning of this confusion of words?
13. When we speak of the spirit of the departed, what do we mean? From whence arose such terms?
14. Again it has been given that we know nothing that we have not experienced in this material world. What is meant?
15. When the Master spoke to Peter and said - "...flesh and blood hath not revealed IT unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven" - was that an indication that the Spirit is divided? Is the same meant when He said a few minutes later
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"Get thee behind me, Satan - thou savourest not the things that be of God (the Spirit), but those that be of men (the earth)"?
16. What is the spirit of the earth? What has He given?
17. These then must be questions; not only questions but answers. For as they have been asked of us here, they must in truth be answered in such a manner that we - each of us - may make them practical, applicable, practical in our experiences day by day.
18. Then we must begin, my beloved, at the beginning of how, where, when such things came to be a terminology; or expressed in such manners that there appeared to be, or APPEARS to be, or MAY appear to be, a diffusion, a separation; that only those who HAVE the desire for the seeking and knowing the truth MAY correctly interpret.
19. For remember, as has been given by Him, flesh and blood may NOT reveal it unto us - it is the gift of the Father; that we may be lights unto the children of men, to those that sit in darkness, to those that are confused, to those that have made their opportunities stumbling stones rather than stepping- stones.
20. But these must then answer, ever, in all good conscience, to all that seek to know.
21. Then the basic or first causes, as Spirit came to materiality, must be sought out. And to be understandable to man, to be comprehended by all, they - the first causes, the answers - must conform to that which has been ever given, in ANY condition, in ANY experience of man in his seeking in this material world. They must answer for that which was, that which is, and that which will be.
22. Then we must know from whence we came; how, why; and whence we go - and why.
23. In God's own purpose, Spirit is His presence then. For the Spirit of God moved and that which is in matter came into being, for the opportunities of His associates, His companions, His sons, His daughters. These are ever spoken of as One.
24. Then there came that as sought for self-indulgence, self-glorification; and there was the beginning of warring among themselves for activity - STILL in Spirit.
25. Then those that had made selfish movements moved into that which was and is OPPORTUNITY, and there came life into same.
26. Then what was the Spirit that moved that made rebellion? The Spirit of God or the Spirit of Self?
27. This becomes self-evident even when we look about us in our own experience day by day. They that have the Spirit of
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God have the Spirit of Truth, have the Spirit of Christ, have the Spirit of Construction.
28. They that have the Spirit of Rebellion have the Spirit of Hate, the Spirit of Confusion; and seek self-glory rather than peace, harmony and understanding.
29. Thus as has been indicated, the Spirit pushed into matter - and became what we see in our three-dimensional world as the kingdoms of the earth; the mineral, the vegetable, the animal - a three-dimensional world.
30. And that which beareth witness is the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Light. For He said, "Let there be light; and there was light."
31. Then indeed there is no power that emanates that is not from God.
32. Then what is this Spirit of Rebellion, what is this Spirit of Hate? What is this Spirit of Self-Indulgence? What is this Spirit that makes men afraid?
33. SELFISHNESS! Allowed, yes, of the Father. For, as given, He has not willed that the souls should perish but that we each should know the truth - and the truth would make us free. Of what? Selfishness!
34. Then we should each know that the sin which lies at our door is ever the sin of selfishness, self-glory, self-honor.
35. Hence as the Master has said, unless we become even as He, we may not in ANY wise enter in.
36. Enter to what? To the consciousness that our Father would that we be even as that Spirit of Truth manifested by the Son of Righteousness, that - even as those souls took on flesh in this three-dimensional world; becoming a part, a parcel of what? Those kingdoms of which the earth is a part; or that by their very presence is in existence.
37. Hence we find He had come, is come, ever has come into the experience that He might through love - not force, not hate, not by command but by edification and justification - bring that soul that is dominated by the Spirit to understanding.
38. Thus we find His intervention in man's attempt throughout the eons of time and space. For these (time and space) become portions of this three-dimensional plane. And what is the other? Time, Space, Patience!
39. For God has shown and does show us day by day, even as His Son gave, that in patience we become aware of our souls, of our identity, of our being each a corpuscle, as it were, in the great body, in the heart of, our God. And He has not willed otherwise.
40. Then what is the Spirit of God? PATIENCE, TIME AND SPACE in the material understanding.
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41. This then is our first premise; that God IS - in the material experience of man - TIME, SPACE, PATIENCE!
42. For have not even our own wise ones conceived that those elements between that which is and that which will be are of the same? What? God, the Spirit!
43. We in our seeking then have seen the movements in the earth, by the very activities of those influences, by what? "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Either to do good or to do evil, according to our individual application of the Spirit of Truth or of Creative Force in our material experience.
44. Who then is the aggressor? He that seeks to glorify self, to make the selfish motives guide the progress.
45. And as has so oft been given in times past, God has winked at and God has allowed such things to pass; yet ever is calling - calling - to the sons of God; that we make straight the paths! For He will not ALWAYS hold to those things that rend the heart of God.
46. For when we are raised in power we know, as we have seen, that our spirit beareth witness with HIS SPIRIT that we are His children.
47. What then is the Spirit of Patriotism, the Spirit of Christ - yes, the Spirit of Knowledge, but that - as they are individualized by the activity of those that seek to know and make the paths straight - they take on that power, that might, yes that glory, that is the magnifying of that Spirit of Truth that is God in any individual group, nation or experience of man?
48. These then become those basic beginnings.
49. Now we, in our individual selves, seek - for what? Self- glory, self-understanding; or that we may be in His place as an emissary, a missionary, a CHANNEL through which OTHERS, too, may know that the consciousness of Christ is but that we have effaced self and are again one with Him - to be a purpose in the scheme of redemption for those souls whose spirits are a portion of the God as ourselves?
50. Let us indeed know then that God is not mocked, and that what we sow we must meet in our own selves. For He calls always unto all men to Come - COME - and take of the water of life.
51. What is this water of life? What is this that the Spirit and the Bride, or the Spirit and the Lamb, say to come and take of freely?
52. PATIENCE, TIME, SPACE! That we may know ourselves to be His; that our spirits, our souls, bear witness in the things that we do in which we bear witness of Him.
53. For that which has a beginning must have an ending.
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Hence rebellion and hate and selfishness must be wiped away, and WITH IT will go sorrow and tears and sadness. For ONLY good shall rule. For it is the Spirit of God that will move over the face of the earth, and Lo, His Son - even Jesus, the Christ - has borne in himself all these things, and has committed unto us the keeping of His sheep, His lambs, till He come to make an accounting with each of us.
54. WHERE - WHERE - WHERE will we be?