of the King James Bible, using “thees” and “thous” and the like. They were also in a linguistic structure that forced a reader to slow down and follow carefully the wording and order of topics being conveyed. In some cases in this book I have edited a Cayce reading for clarity and focus on the point being considered. However, when we do recite a reading, slow down and read it carefully. Despite the difficulty in reading these, there are times when it is worth reading Cayce’s original storytelling of people, places, and events.
Here is a brief overview of the conventions used in this book. These stories are composed of various parts of multiple readings. These particular reading numbers are found in the Appendix which contains the key readings for each chapter. Occasionally, there are reading numbers found in the text, which appear after exact quotes from the specific reading cited. In addition, I have blended ancient Egyptian myths and legends with Cayce’s stories to make for a more interesting book. In order to avoid confusion, these various sources are separated by three em-dashes: — — —. The text is a balanced interplay between the Egyptian legends and the Cayce readings.
The headquarters of the organization that grew up around Cayce and his work is located on five acres in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It is the Association for Research and Enlightenment, better known as the A.R.E. Along with this organization developed the Edgar Cayce Foundation (ECF), Atlantic University (AU), and the Cayce-Reilly School of Massotherapy (massage and hydrotherapies). There is also a camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Conferences, seminars, retreats, and workshops are conducted at the A.R.E. and throughout an international network of local teams. The A.R.E. has a large web site at EdgarCayce.org. The Association also conducts tours each year to various sacred sites around the world. The address of the headquarters is A.R.E., 215 67th Street, Virginia Beach, VA 23451 USA, and its phone number is 757-428-3588. There is also a toll-free number 800-333-4499.
According to Cayce’s own readings, the work of Edgar Cayce and those souls associated with him began in ancient Egypt. This book is about those times and the spiritual-mental dynamics that were set in motion so long ago and continue to influence souls today.
1
A RAY OF SUNLIGHT ON EARTH
In ancient times a mega-flood, an eruption of a super-volcano, a succession of powerful earthquakes, and a shower of fiery meteorites brought an end to the mythological lands of Lemuria (Mu) in the Pacific Ocean and Atlantis in the Atlantic. According to Cayce’s visions, remnants of these prehistoric peoples migrated to safe lands and played a role in the rise of new civilizations, including the extraordinary people of ancient Egypt.
Egyptian legends tell of receding floodwaters and the descent of the “Heron from Heaven”—it was called the Bennu bird, the phoenix of Egyptian lore (see illustration 2). According to this legend, the Bennu bird was the soul of the sun god Ra (likely pronounced ray, occasionally spelled Re). The soul of Ra in the form of the Heron from Heaven landed on the primordial Ben-ben mound that rose from the inundation of the chaos occurring in the latter period of the First Creation. Upon landing, the Bennu cried out: “I am the Bennu bird, the Heart-Soul of Ra, the Guide of the Gods to the Duat.” The Duat is the underworld in Egyptian teachings, the land of the night—corresponding to the subconscious realms of our minds, lying just beneath daily consciousness behind a veil that separates our earthly awareness from our soulful, heavenly consciousness. The Bennu’s cry marked the beginning of the Second Creation.
The drying Ben-ben mound upon which the Bennu settled was in the ancient land of On, a place known today as Heliopolis, “City of the Sun,” near modern-day Cairo. In this manner the light of heaven came to Earth; thus Egypt was born from the ashes of the First Creation.
This tale may be compared to the biblical first creation of Adam and the lands he and his families knew. Then, when the first creation spread darkness, filling in the hearts and minds with all manner of evil, the Great Flood cleansed away the first creation, as described in Genesis 6. After this cleansing the biblical story tells of a new beginning with Noah and his families—thus began the second creation.
Edgar Cayce’s visions contain many detailed stories of ancient, prehistoric times filled with dates, events, and named people. His Egyptian narrative begins with a strange tale about a discarnate soul looking for just the right opportunity to begin anew during the Second Creation. This soul’s mind scanned the recovering planet from beyond the veil of material consciousness, and it saw that migrants from the former lands and peoples of Og were now living on and around Mt. Ararat, where Noah’s Ark is thought to have landed. Mt. Ararat is in modern-day Turkey. Og was one of the principle regions of Atlantis, according to Cayce, and the area known today as that of the American plateaus or the north portion of the US state of New Mexico and the surrounding highlands today. These migrants from Atlantis retained the spiritual ideals of the earlier children of the Law of One, as Cayce called them, indicating that they retained the belief that an unseen oneness connects all life. The Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples have a legend of the children of God wrestling with the Lords of the Underworld to win the deadly game between the dark and the light. This remnant group, now in Ararat, were seeking to make a new life and a better world by subduing the vices and confusions of their Atlantean experience while holding on to their virtues and higher wisdom.
The celestial soul observing them through the veil intuitively knew that this Ararat clan would eventually come down out of the great mountain and surrounding lands, enter the region we know as Egypt, and begin the wondrous era of creativity, productivity, and enlightenment we see in surviving Egyptian temples, pyramids, papyruses, and statuary. This was the opportunity that the extraterrestrial soul was seeking. However, knowing that a prophet has little honor in his own tribe, the soul searched beyond the Ararat clan for a way to come to these people from another group.
Cayce’s vision described a people in the Far East known as the tribe of Zu, in what would be known today as the high plateaus of the Mongolian lands. These people were also refugees of the destruction of the First Creation, but they were from sunken Lemuria in the Pacific. Strangely, these people, and those in India, had ideals and sacred rituals that would eventually become a part of Egypt’s early culture. Among the Zu clan was a daughter of their leader whose body, heart, and mind were perfect for the incarnation of this powerful, celestial soul. Her name was Arda. She was a pure, selfless portal into this world; thus, with love and idealism, the celestial spirit overshadowed the young girl and persuaded her deeper self and the very cells of her body to yield to his coming. Having a more fourth dimensional mind and heart, Arda responded, and the spark of the Spirit of Life quickened her three-dimensional womb. Though a virgin, having known no human man, she conceived a new and ideal physical body through which the celestial soul could incarnate into this terrestrial world to fulfill its grand mission.
Arda was exhilarated by the new life within her, yet she was uncertain how her people would receive the news. Hopeful, she explained to them what had happened. Unfortunately, her kinsmen could not share in her belief in a celestial conception. They drove her from the tribe in shame. Her father—confused by his ready-to-believe-anything love for her and yet his rigid hold to the laws of his tribe and the realities of this physical world—stood motionless as she was driven off.
Cayce details how she journeyed westward—not by some thought-out plan but by an inner, intuitive push west. Eventually, she camped near the tribe living on and around Mt. Ararat (biblical Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, see
