Edgar Cayce on Soul Mates. Kevin J. Todeschi
gave in to selfish motives rather than remembering the importance of their relationship. From that day forward, they needed to learn to be able to depend upon the other. When the young man asked, “Do they genuinely love each other?” Cayce replied:
In the present. Remember each, love is giving; it is a growth. It may be cultivated or it may be seared. That of selflessness on the part of each is necessary. Remember, the union of body, mind and spirit in such as marriage should ever be not for the desire of self but as one. Love grows; love endures; love forgiveth; love understands; love keeps those things rather as opportunities that to others would become hardships.
Then, do not sit still and expect the other to do all the giving, nor all the forgiving; but make it rather as the unison and the purpose of each to be that which is a complement one to the other, ever. 939-1
Even as a young boy, Edgar Cayce had a recurring dream which seemed to suggest the importance of this “unison of purpose” in his own eventual marriage. In the dream, Edgar was walking through a glade with a woman standing next to him, holding his arm. The woman was wearing a veil so that he could not see her face, but they seemed very much in love. While walking, they arrived at a little stream filled with clear, sparkling water. They stepped over the stream and began walking up a hill where a man stopped to meet them. Dressed only in a loincloth, he was the color of bronze; on the man’s feet and shoulders there were wings. He appeared to be Mercury, the messenger.
Mercury told the couple to join their hands, which they did. Across their united hands, the man placed a long piece of golden cloth and stated, “Together all can be accomplished, alone nothing may be accomplished.” Suddenly, Mercury disappeared and Edgar and the woman continued walking. Eventually, they came to a road that was very muddy and the two wondered how they would be able to cross it. In the midst of their confusion, Mercury appeared again and told them to join hands and to use the golden cloth. They joined hands, waved the cloth over the road, and immediately the mud dried and the road became passable so that they could continue on their journey. Next, Edgar Cayce and the woman came to an enormous cliff that towered over them. Using a knife, Edgar started cutting crevices in the cliff for their feet and the two began to climb. Edgar started up the cliff first, but he pulled the woman up after him. Hand-in-hand they ascended the rock. The dream ended.
The first time the dream occurred was years before Edgar met Gertrude, whom he married. At the time, Edgar Cayce’s mother apparently told her son that the dream meant he would achieve a great deal when eventually united with his wife. Although he was married in 1903, the dream continued to occur. Finally, in 1926, when Cayce had the dream again, a reading was obtained as to its meaning. The reading (294-62) stated that the dream was apt to occur whenever challenges or significant changes occurred in his life. The dream was simply to remind him that he could face any challenge in life or overcome any problem as long as he and Gertrude were united, for “together all can be accomplished.”
As soul mates, Edgar and Gertrude Cayce had been together on a number of occasions in the past. According to the readings, a primary purpose for their lives this time around was to focus their joint efforts into the psychic work that became Edgar Cayce’s life calling. In fact, it was suggested that the information obtained from his psychic readings was very similar in scope to information he had disseminated thousands of years previously during a lifetime in Egypt. While in Egypt, Edgar Cayce had been a high priest and Gertrude his wife and a priestess. At that time, Gertrude had acted as a spokes-person to the masses of people, even when her husband became too ill to perform his priestly duties. Apparently, the work they had begun together needed to continue.3
In this life, Edgar Cayce was also very dependent upon Gertrude. Before she took responsibility for conducting the readings, there had been occasions when he had been taken advantage of while in the psychic state. For example, individuals had done such things as stick a hat pin into his cheek to make certain he was really in a trance; others had requested health readings only to acquire betting tips for the horse races unbeknownst to Cayce while he was asleep. As long as his wife was present for a reading, Edgar Cayce felt confident that nothing could go wrong.
Both Cayce and his wife received frequent assistance in their own lives from the readings, as well. Gertrude was cured of tuberculosis and Edgar received relief from a digestion and elimination problem that affected him much of his life. Their lives together were dedicated to Cayce’s psychic work. It wasn’t easy because so much of the material seemed unusual. Although information on holistic health, reincarnation, dream interpretation, meditation, intuition, and the other subjects explored in the readings has gained acceptance and even validation today, at the time Cayce’s work was not always accepted.
On the night before he died, Gladys Davis, Cayce’s secretary, witnessed a final scene between the couple that so moved her, she made note of it in the Cayce archives (Case 294-8 Report File). Edgar Cayce was very weak and very ill. He was lying in his bed and his wife reached over to kiss him. What follows are Gladys’s observations as she recalled the dialogue between Gertrude and Edgar:
He said, “You know I love you, don’t you?” She nodded, and he asked, “HOW do you know?”
“Oh, I just know,” she said, with her dear little smile.
“I don’t see how you can tell—but I do love you.” Reflecting, he continued, “You know, when you love someone you sacrifice for ‘em, and what have I ever sacrificed because I love you?”
This bedside scene was so beautiful that it made Gladys cry . . . because she understood so well how Gertrude had stood by him and put his wishes always above her own when it came to the good of “the work.”
What is perhaps most interesting about Gertrude and Edgar Cayce’s commitment to one another is an experience that Cayce had in February 1941. Cayce’s primary source of information for his psychic readings was the Akashic records—a collection of data that might be equated with the universe’s supercomputer system. This collection of information, which Cayce also called “God’s Book of Remembrance,” keeps track of each individual’s soul history, past lives, present experiences, and unfolding futures. While giving a reading, he had a dream in which he was looking through the Akashic records and saw what would have happened to him and his wife had they not gotten married. According to what he saw, “she would have died in 1906 of T.B. [tuberculosis]. I would have died in 1914 from a stomach trouble” (Case 294-196 Report File).
Edgar Cayce believed that all of our relationships with one another have the opportunity to become a purposeful experience. In the language of the readings, “They are not chance, but a divine purpose being worked out” (1722-1). Ultimately, that purpose is for the soul growth of all concerned. In terms of meeting a significant person or relationship in our lives, there are no accidents or chance encounters. Individuals are drawn together in the present because they have been together in the past. Nothing we learn from one another is ever forgotten just as every error we make with one another needs to be resolved.
Each of us is given a lifetime of opportunities to become a better person for having had the experience of all of our relationships. Whether or not those opportunities are fulfilled remains a matter of free will, but the potential is ever present.
As counselor, mentor, philosopher, and spiritual advisor, Edgar Cayce provided thousands of individuals with unique answers to questions regarding the dynamics of human relationships. From that body of information, it becomes clear that individuals are seekers, each in search of personal wholeness. Everything we draw toward us is simply the inevitable outcome of previous choices, decisions, and lessons learned—all leading to this particular event and moment in time. The Cayce material on soul mate relationships provides an extraordinary account of the continuous process of relationships through time and space and our various experiences and lifetimes in the earth. However, what may be most astonishing about the information is what it suggests about the nature of the soul, our relationship to one another, and the undeniable certainty that we are connected to our Creator in ways that the human family has yet to fathom.
2For the most part, all names used within this volume have been changed to maintain confidentiality.
3A further discussion of Edgar