Almost every person feels a longing for companionship. At times we may understand this desire as a directive toward union with God, and at other times, as a desire for union with another person.
Two ideas come together in the material from the Edgar Cayce readings concerning the choice of a companion-particularly a life partner. First is the principle that we are here in the earth for the purpose of growth and development in consciousness. What is more, associations with some individuals are more conducive to growth than associations with others; therefore, it is prudent to choose carefully our companions. This principle is probably easy for us to accept if we merely reflect on the types of influence various friends and acquaintances have had on us in the past. The impact is most powerful in a marriage relationship, and a good union should be founded upon a shared purpose in life and the capacity to help each other to grow.
The second principle relates to reincarnation: We as spiritual beings (or souls) experience our growth in consciousness through a series of lifetimes in physical human form. In other words, we have been in the earth many times before, and more specifically have had close personal relationships with particular souls. Attraction to another person and thoughts of marriage could very likely be related to memory patterns (even subconscious memories!) of having been with that soul in the distant past. In the readings, Cayce suggested that, often, we are attracted to a particular person for marriage in this lifetime because of such a relationship at least once before.
But if reincarnation is a fact, we might expect that we have been married to many souls in the course of other incarnations. Which one of these partnerships is the best one to build upon now, in this life? Does each person have exactly one other special soul that it is meant to be with whenever possible?
Many sources of psychic information and other metaphysical teachings have proposed concepts such as "soul mate" and "twin soul." The Cayce readings, although simultaneously raising some provocative questions, do shed some light on this topic.
In the beginning, as was outlined, there was presented that that became as the Sons of God, in that male and female were as one... Reading 364-7
A fundamental issue is the very nature of the soul. Is it male or female? Both or neither? The readings propose that the soul itself does not have gender.
However, in order to learn and grow, a soul enters into the physical domain (which is characterized by such polarities as light/dark, positive/negative, thinking/feeling, etc.) and chooses to incarnate in a male or female expression. Likely, in the long-range growth of the soul over many incarnations, male and female experiences are needed. In selecting one gender over the other in a particular lifetime, a condition is usually created in which a balance or complement is needed, such as can be found in a marriage companion. This is not to say that important spiritual growth is impossible during a life without marriage; rather, the marriage relationship is one great avenue for development.
Perhaps this pattern of growth has not always been the usual way. Some readings suggest that in ancient prehistory, such as the times of Atlantis more than 12,000 years ago, a soul could incarnate in such a way that male and female qualities were manifested simultaneously. It is not clear what form the physical body took in these cases. One person was told in a reading about an Atlantean incarnation: "for then both male and female might be-desired so-in one." (288-27)
What, then, is a soul mate? Is it the soul that one has married in the most incarnations? Frequency of marriage may be one factor because, according to Cayce, status as soul mates is built by shared physical experiences over a long period. However, a more precise understanding is this: A soul mate is a complement to oneself. One reading poetically describes it as "the tongue to the groove, the tenon to the mortise..." (1556-2) It is more than merely a physical attraction; it is a capacity to help each other at the physical, mental, and spiritual levels.
Another interpretation of the term "soul mates" was offered by Hugh Lynn Cayce, who was present for a number of the readings his father gave on this subject. He wrote:
Status as soul mates is also a matter of ideals. One important passage stated: "Such as have in an experience found an ideal may be said to be soul mates, and no marriages [are] made in heaven nor by the Father save as each do His biddings." (275-38)
These criteria suggest that one could have more than a solitary soul mate, although such a fact is not explicitly spelled out in any Cayce reading. However, we should, no doubt, be cautious about leaving a current marriage partner merely because of an attraction to someone else. In all likelihood, the very same problems and "opportunities" we are currently facing would be the same regardless of which partner we have in our lives-in relationships we most often come to terms with those things we need to work on in ourselves, even though we might sometimes think of our partner as being the source of our frustration. Those who come across the idea of soul mates after having already married can still rest assured that their partner is, in fact, a "soul mate."
For those who are single and who would like to find their soul mate, what do the Cayce readings have to offer?
First, they suggest choosing someone who will help you to a "more helpful, more sustaining, more the well-rounded life..." (364-7) In modern language, we might say that we are looking for someone who has the "right vibrations" for us. In fact, this is a phrase used in the readings in describing the kind of experience that might be felt between soul mates: "with the union of two that vibrate or respond to those vibrations in self..." (364-7) Together, the two would assist one another in finding a balanced life.
But even if we find someone who fits these criteria-someone who is perhaps a soul mate-this does not guarantee a good marriage. The two will still have to work together in order for the great potential of the relationship to flower. This is what the readings seemed to suggest in the following question-and-answer exchange. We might assume that the question, in effect, asked whether or not these two people were soul mates.
The final statement is not clearly explained. We might understand "fore-ordained" to include a choice made by the two souls before being born this time, or it may relate to very strong bonds built over many lifetimes of being married (i.e., "the mating of each").
A concept similar to that of soul mates is "twin souls." When Cayce used this term in the readings, he did not mean to imply that two souls were identical. Instead, it is two souls sharing a common purpose or ideal. They would not necessarily have had previous marriage incarnations. In other words, the soul-mate condition is largely built in the material plane of experience (although, as previously mentioned, it has mental and spiritual components beyond just sexual attraction). However, the twin-soul condition evolves more from a commonality in the nonmaterial realm-at the idea or ideal level.
One example of twin souls, according to the Cayce readings, is Jesus and His mother, Mary. One reading states: "In the beginning Mary was the twin-soul of the Master in the entrance into the earth!" (5749-8)
Finally, we might ask ourselves, "Where does this subject of soul mates and twin souls lead us? Is our destiny to find and be reunited with some other special soul?" Such is not the point of view in the Cayce material. They refer to Jesus' teaching that, in the heavenly kingdom, we are neither married nor given in marriage. As helpful as marriage relationships may be in the earth, beyond this material domain, it is our destiny to find wholeness within our own souls. If one must think in terms of being destined to ultimate union with some other soul, then think of that other soul as the Christ Soul. One reading made the point this way: "But know, the soul is rather the soul-mate of the universal consciousness than of an individual entity." (2988-2)
The principle of soul mates and twin souls are, therefore, potentially both helpful and misleading. These concepts can help us understand some of the key factors in making a wise choice of a marriage partner and can remind us that some relationships are tremendous storehouses of love and helpfulness which can be reawakened. However, these concepts can be misleading if we forget that our ultimate companion is the Christ, or if we are tempted to leave the responsibilities of relationships to which we have already committed ourselves in this lifetime.
More than eleven years before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947, CayceÕs readings described a sect of Judaism about which scholars knew little. This group was the Essenes. Cayce gave a great deal of information about their work and their life in the community. For example, he claimed that in the Essene society men and women worked and lived together. At the time of the reading, scholars believed that the Essenes were a monastic society composed exclusively of men. However, in 1951, more than six years after CayceÕs death, archaeologists made further excavations at Qumran near the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. They discovered evidence that both men and women lived together in the Essene society.
This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the office of the Association, Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Va., this 21st day of June, 1942, in accordance with request made by the self - Mrs. [ 1010 ], Associate Member of the Ass'n for Research & Enlightenment, Inc. Mrs. [ 1010 ] offered her Reading as a part of the 1942 Congress program, a copy to be included in the Congress Booklet.
Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. [ 1010 ], Gladys & Charles Dillman, Julia Chandler, Beulah H. Emmet, Beatrice & Richmond Seay, Rosa & Joshua Manning, Hannah & Noah Miller, Frances Y. Morrow, Ruth LeNoir, Marion Wolfe, Helen & Marsden Godfrey, Esther Wynne, Evelyn Cruser, Mae Verhoeven, Evelyn R. Gimbert, Ruth Denny, Beverly & Riley Simmons, Sally & Hugh Lynn Cayce, Malcolm H. Allen, Mignon Helms, Reba Bennett, Mildred Tansey, Eula Allen, Mildred White, Patricia White, and others
Time: 11:35 to 12:05 A. M. Eastern War Time. TEXT GC: You will have before you the life existence in the earth plane of [ 1010 ], nee [ 1010 ], born April 6, 1871, in Black River Falls, Wisconsin; and the earthly existence of this entity as Sophie or Josie, a handmaid to Mary, Jesus and Joseph, throughout the childhood of the Master. Considering the reference in her Life Reading that a history of this incarnation "would lay the foundation for giving a great deal of historical data," you will give a biographical life of the entity in that day and plane of earthly existence, from entrance - and how - into the earth's plane, and the entity's departure; giving the development or retarding points in such an existence. You will answer the questions that may be asked:
EC: Yes, we have the records here of that entity now known as or called [ 1010 ], in the present; as Josie in the Palestine experience and activities; together with the information which has been indicated through these channels.
In giving the biographical life of the entity Josie, much of those activities might be indicated that brought about those later relationships with Mary, the mother of Jesus. As has been outlined from here, there were those special groups of individuals who had made some preparations for the expected activities that were to come about during that particular period; especially those of the Essenes who had chosen the twelve maidens to indicate their fitness. This choice was to be made by those selections indicated by the spirit, and Josie was the daughter of Shem and Mephibosheth that was among these.
This entity, Josie, was close to Mary when the selection was indicated by the shadow or the angel on the stair, at that period of consecration in the temple. This was not the temple in Jerusalem, but the temple where those who were consecrated worshiped, or a school - as it might be termed - for those who might be channels.
This was a part of that group of Essenes who, headed by Judy, made those interpretations of those activities from the Egyptian experience, - as the Temple Beautiful, and the service in the Temple of Sacrifice. Hence it was in this consecrated place where this selection took place.
Then, when there was the fulfilling of those periods when Mary was espoused to Joseph and was to give birth to the Savior, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the Way, the Truth, the Light, - soon after this birth there was the issuing of the orders first by Judy that there should be someone selected to be with the parents during their period of sojourn in Egypt. This was owing to the conditions which arose from the visit of the Wise Men and their not returning to Herod to report, when the decrees were issued that there should be the destruction of the children of that age from six months to two years, especially in that region from Bethany to Nazareth.
Thus this entity, Josie, was selected or chosen by those of the Brotherhood, - sometimes called White Brotherhood in the present, - as the handmaid or companion of Mary, Jesus and Joseph, in their flight into Egypt.
This began on an evening, and the journey - through portions of Palestine, from Nazareth to the borders of Egypt - was made only during the night.
Do not understand that there was only Joseph, Mary, Josie and the Child. For there were other groups that preceded and followed; that there might be the physical protection to that as had been considered by these groups of peoples as the fulfilling of the Promised One.
In the journeys to Egypt, little of great significance might be indicated, but the care and attention to the Child and the Mother was greatly in the hands of this entity, Josie, through that journey. The period of sojourn in Egypt was in and about, or close to, what was then Alexandria. Josie and Mary were not idle during that period of sojourn, but those records - that had been a part of those activities preserved in portions of the libraries there - were a part of the work that had been designated for this entity. And the interest in same was reported to the Brotherhood in the Judean country.
The sojourn there was a period of some four years, - four years, six months, three days. When there were those beginnings of the journey back to the Promised Land, there were naturally - from some of the records that had been read by the entity Josie, as well as the parents - the desires to know whether there were those unusual powers indicated in this Child now, - that was in every manner a normal, developed body, ready for those activities of children of that particular period.
But do not interpret same in the light of childhood in thine own land in the present, - more in the light of the oriental. For, remember, Egypt as well as parts of Galilee were the customs and activities of those to whom the care of this physical entity was entrusted through that early sojourn in the earth.
The return was made to Capernum, - not Nazareth, - not only for political reasons owing to the death of Herod but the division that had been made with the kingdom after the death of Herod; and that there might be the ministry or teaching that was to be a part of the Brotherhood, - supervised in that period by Judy, as among the leaders of the Essenes in that particular period.
Hence much of the early education, the early activities, were those prompted or directed by that leader in that particular experience, but were administered by - or in the closer associations by - Josie. Though from the idea of the Brotherhood the activities of the entity were no longer necessitated, the entity Josie preferred to remain - and did remain until those periods when there was the sending or the administering of the teachings to the young Master, first in Persia and later in India, and then in Egypt again - where there were the completions.
But the entity, Josie, following the return, was active in all the educational activities as well as in the care of the body and the attending to those things pertaining to the household duties with every developing child. And Josie was among those who went with Mary and Joseph when they went to the city, or to Jerusalem, at the time of the age of twelve. It was thought by Joseph and Mary that it was in the care of Josie that He had stayed, when He was missed, in those periods when there was the returning to find Him in the temple.
Josie was with Mary throughout those activities. And is it any wonder that when there were those preparations of the body for burial that Josie was the one who brought the spices, the ointments that were to consecrate the preparations of this body for whom it had cared through those early periods of its experience in the earth?
Through that period Josie never married, and was known among the Holy Women throughout the period; coming and persuading the Mother, Mary, when there was the arrest, to come to Jerusalem.
The entity passed on through those periods of riots following the beheading of James, the brother of John.
Ready for questions.
(EC) The teacher of the Master knew only of Lucius through those activities in Laodicea, - for he came at the time of Pentecost, see?
(Q) What was the nature of the records studied by Josie in Egypt?
(EC) Those same records from which the men of the East said and gave, "By those records we have seen his star." These pertained, then, to what you would call today astrological forecasts, as well as those records which had been compiled and gathered by all of those of that period pertaining to the coming of the Messiah.
These had been part of the records from those in Carmel, in the early experiences, as of those given by Elijah - who was the forerunner, who was the cousin, who was the Baptist. All of these had been a part of the records - pertaining not only to the nature of work of the parents but as to their places of sojourn, and the very characteristics that would indicate these individuals; the nature and the character that would be a part of the experiences to those coming in contact with the young Child; as to how the garments worn by the Child would heal children. For the body being perfect radiated that which was health, life itself. Just as today, individuals may radiate, by their spiritual selves, health, life, that vibration which is destruction to dis-ease in any form in bodies. These were the characters and natures of things studied by Josie.
For, is it not quoted oft, "All of these things she kept and pondered them in her heart"? With what? With the records that Josie as well as herself had seen. These records were destroyed, of course, in a much later period.
(EC) Only those that covered that period from six years to about sixteen, which were in keeping with the tenets of the Brotherhood; as well as that training in the law, - which was the Jewish or Mosaic law in that period. This was read, this was interpreted in accordance with those activities defined and outlined for the parents and the companions of the developing body. Remember and keep in mind, He was normal, He developed normally. Those about Him saw those characteristics that may be anyone's who wholly puts the trust in God! And to every parent might it not be said, daily, dedicate thy life that thy offspring may be called of God into service - to the glory of God and to the honor of thy name!
PART 2
Akashic Record - Book of Life - Meditation - ESP - Dreams - Healing
PART 4
Ideals - Body, Mind, Spirit - Cayce's Death - Links & References