Читать книгу Edgar Cayce on Soul Mates - Kevin J. Todeschi - Страница 9

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet

Just as is suggested by the old adage “when the student is ready, the teacher presents him- or herself,” individuals are drawn together in the right timing, for a purposeful reason, sometimes almost in spite of themselves. In one contemporary example, a thirty-six-year-old Japanese male named Toby had sworn off marriage after having been through a very difficult first marriage and divorce. Instead of pursuing any permanent relationship, he found contentment in his work as a translator. Intelligent, dedicated to his company, and committed to the work he was doing, Toby’s long work hours and changing schedule did not leave time for many social engagements, let alone dating.

At the same time, Asako, a female songwriter and novelist, had almost given up any hope of finding a mate. Although she was very successful, at thirty-five Asako had never married nor had she found any likely prospects. To many in Japanese society, she was fast becoming an old maid. As “chance” would have it, mutual friends toward year-end arranged a meeting of the two at a party.

It was one of the few parties that Toby had attended that year. The meeting between the two went well enough. He found Asako attractive, charming, and intelligent. However, when friends informed him of the level of her success, Toby put any ideas of a relationship out of his head. He considered himself poor by comparison. He had also sworn off relationships and had promised himself that he would not remarry, so the whole idea was an “impossible match,” not to mention the fact that he felt “she was beyond my reach.” For her own part, Asako felt that he was a pleasant enough person but did not see much beyond Toby “being a friend of mine.” Apparently, each of their souls had something quite different in mind.

On January 1 of the New Year, both Toby and Asako were awakened in their own homes by a dream that seemed important. Each thought the dream was meaningful because in Japan the first dream of a New Year is considered to be very significant. Since Toby’s dream seemed to concern Asako, he called her to tell her what he had seen. To his amazement, he found that she had just awakened from an almost identical experience. At the very least, the two were convinced that they shared some type of “strong spiritual connection.” According to Toby:

In the dream, I took her to my parents’ home in Japan. In real life, the house is a small, typical Japanese-style house, but in the dream it appeared to be a mansion. At first I showed her the bathroom, then the laundry room, and finally several guest rooms. To my surprise, she had a nearly identical dream. In her dream, some unknown man took her to a Japanese-style mansion. At first she was shown the bathroom, and then the washing machine, and finally she was taken to a large guest room.

Because of the dream and in spite of their initial thoughts to the contrary, the two decided to continue seeing each other. Within a few months they were married, and within two years of their meeting, they had a baby daughter. According to Toby, although their marriage occurred relatively soon following their meeting, after each had overcome their reluctance to come together, it felt “as if we had known each other a very long time.” And, according to Asako, it was the strangest and most unexpected feeling as if “he might be the other half of my soul.”

In an example from the Edgar Cayce material, a young man named Hans was ready to commit to a marriage relationship almost immediately, whereas Katherine, the young woman he was pursuing, appeared to be much more hesitant.

Hans worked for a very large Danish international trading company. Born in Denmark in 1914, he had transferred to the United States in 1936 and had become branch manager of the Seattle office in 1943. As Danish consul, he met Katherine in May 1943 and, in his own words, “a spark caught fire.”

Katherine was born in Massachusetts in 1917. After graduating from interior decorating school in New York, she and her aunt (who raised her) were visiting friends in Seattle. During their visit, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the two were “stuck” in Seattle. Gas was immediately rationed and there was no way to acquire the necessary fuel to drive back east. Katherine and her aunt began making new lives for themselves in Seattle.

Katherine became president of a young adult group at the Congregational Church and invited Hans to come speak. As Danish consul, he was willing to come to any group and discuss “Denmark under the Nazi heel.” All arrangements were handled by phone. She met him at the door to the church, where the meeting was to be held. As soon as Hans reached out and touched her hand, he noticed, “something happened within me and I knew that I would have to see her again.” He pursued her from that moment on. At the time, he was twenty-nine; she was twenty-six.

Katherine, however, was not interested in a relationship with Hans beyond friendship. She was seeing Richard, another young man who shared many of her interests, but she didn’t feel drawn to the idea of a permanent relationship with him either. She liked having friends, but marriage seemed another matter. Katherine’s Aunt Betty had obtained a life reading for her niece previously in which the two women were told that because of past experiences, Katherine was innately torn between a desire to be loved and her desire to remain free.

In her most recent lifetime, Katherine, in terms of her personal talents, apparently had been skilled with weaving, design, and needlework. In Rome, she had been involved with directing activities for various groups of people. From that, she had developed a great love for the outdoors, games, and sports. In Persia, she had also exercised an influence upon many people and representatives of various nations. At the same time, she had also worked with weaving, brocades, and silk. In ancient Egypt, she had worked in the temples, assisting individuals in discovering their purpose in life. Most of her past lives, however, seemed to involve something to do with decorating and design. It was information that fascinated Katherine because she had specialized in textile design and decorating in the present and had won a scholarship to decorating school—information with which Cayce was not familiar at the time of the reading.

Aunt Betty became a good personal friend of Edgar Cayce. In 1943 she wrote to tell him of the two men who seemed interested in her niece and of Katherine’s reluctance to commit to a relationship. Betty told him, “The two boys are thoughtful, spiritually minded, lovers of nature, etc., very much alike in SO many ways—both will be ideal husbands to whomever they may marry.” In referring to Hans, she added:

I thought he was NOT serious—but that is not the case. He is very much in love with Katherine—in fact, he proposed to her and she refused him. In hurting him, her own EMOTIONS have been aroused (for the first time) and Hans has decided that he spoke too quickly and he is willing to wait—with the hope that he can change her mind. He is being transferred to San Francisco . . . and he’s hoping that Katherine will follow him by the New Year.

Katherine has written Richard about Hans—of their outings together—riding, swimming, etc., and suddenly, in his letters, you begin to feel that he is getting worried. But he does not express his own feelings for Katherine and she feels that he has only a deep feeling of friendship for her.

In terms of Katherine’s feelings for Hans, she saw their relationship as just a natural friendship. Although she enjoyed being with him—hiking, horseback riding, or simply having a conversation—she was not interested in marriage. Hans would have to be content with a friendship that shared a love of the outdoors, a similar philosophical outlook on life, and a joint interest in spirituality. In January 1944, Aunt Betty’s letter to the Cayces provided an update:

Hans has been transferred . . . He is such a fine boy, and so in love with Katherine. There must be some reason why she doesn’t respond—for as far as I can see, he would bring great happiness to her. Perhaps she is unaware of what “Love” really is. Poor Richard . . . he is so despondent—we wish that he would consent to a reading, but in his present mental state, no one or nothing seems to reach him. It’s really very sad . . . Of course, Katherine is disturbed and has tried to write him the sort of letters which would encourage him to rise above this mental depression. But it seems hopeless at the moment at least. Case 1770-8 Report File

Because of their interest in the Cayce work, Katherine and Betty loaned Hans the Cayce biography, There Is a River. After reading it, Hans became convinced that he had met Katherine before, “in the long ago.” As a result, he requested a life reading. Because of Edgar Cayce’s busy schedule, the reading could not be scheduled until April 1944. Aunt Betty looked forward to the reading as much as Hans did because she believed that “a reading might release Katherine in analyzing her own true feelings.”

When April finally arrived, the reading confirmed that Hans had many talents. His life was destined to include much travel, international relations, trade, and diplomatic initiatives. He was told that he was very intelligent and was capable of being entrusted with great responsibility, important relationships, and was innately a skilled leader:

For the entity has lived so as to be entrusted with and capable of directing the affairs of great organizations, corporations, states or nations. Then if the entity chooses spiritual and mental ideals . . . little should prevent the entity from making this material experience a light and a help to others as well as bringing harmony, peace and development spiritually and mentally in this particular sojourn. 4053-1

In his lifetime immediately previous to the present, Hans had been involved in the shipping trade between Denmark and the United States. In Persia, he had been a director of trade for goods traveling between Egypt and the Gobi. In ancient Egypt, he had been chosen by the government to be a representative of the country. In addition to other lifetimes when they had obviously known one another, it was in Persia that Katherine had become his wife. She had been his friend, his companion, and his trusted advisor to whom he often looked for guidance and counsel.

Hans was told that he would always hold his companion in awe and reverence. Cayce stated that it would be a good idea for Katherine and Hans to marry in the present and continue the relationship they had once shared in Persia. Apparently much had not been completed in their previous experiences with one another. According to Hans, he believed it was because of the advice given in the reading that finally, “Katherine surrendered and we were married in October 1944.”

After their marriage Hans became commercial attaché and helped his country with the procurement of large quantities of urgently needed commodities, such as fuel and fertilizer. In 1947, when Denmark obtained a $40-million loan from the International Bank for reconstruction and development, Hans was chosen as the contact between Denmark and the International Bank and was authorized to withdraw and disburse funds from the loan. After the war and the reconstruction initiative of the Marshall Plan, Denmark received about $280 million in economic assistance between 1948 and 1953. Hans negotiated the programming of these funds and supervised all financial aspects of their procurement. At the end of 1953, he changed jobs and became U.S. representative for the Danish meatpacking industry.

He once stated, “My business called for me to travel abroad extensively; throughout, Katherine trusted me without any doubt—and I responded in kind. And [each] coming home was like another honeymoon.”

In the 1950s Hans wrote: “I regard my vocation as an agency through which I can better fulfill my purpose in life. It is not just a place where I get the wherewithal to buy my house and feed my family, but a place in which I can express my purpose . . .” In 1964, he was knighted by Denmark for outstanding service to the Danish meatpacking industry.

Over the years Katherine and Hans provided updates to the Edgar Cayce Foundation regarding their life together. In 1998, after more than fifty years of marriage, Katherine wrote: “We are so in tune with one another. I think we’ve had many lifetimes together during which we rubbed off the rough corners, for this lifetime together has been a smooth sail.” Of course, the couple had their share of difficulties; she added, “One doesn’t have four children and not have challenges.” Those challenges included a son’s attempted suicide and his disclosure of homosexuality and their daughter’s falling in love and wanting to marry a man of a different race, both situations occurring at a time when society frowned upon such relationships. For their own part, however, Hans and Katherine met all challenges “with support for each other, support for the child, applying our spiritual beliefs, and working with such things as forgiveness and acceptance. We sustained each other through challenges with prayer and trust.”

Looking back on their marriage, Hans stated: “Our life together has been harmonious and wonderful. We have always supported each other throughout and have never had a fight.” To be sure, differences of opinion have occurred, “but these are expressed reasonably and courteously.” In regard to the children, “We always presented a united front. The children quickly learned that they could not pit one of us against the other. Their efforts to divide us were met with, ‘What did Mom/Dad say?—that’s the answer.’”

Their life together has been a joint effort of children, home, travel, and a commitment to a spiritual path in which each is in tune with the other. From Hans, Katherine has learned “to be less rigid—not seeing everything so cut and dried, black and white. I’ve become freer—more able to play and get out from under my puritanical ethic of responsibility.” She feels as though he’s also helped her obtain more balance in her life. From Katherine, Hans has learned “patience, the importance of color and design, a deep sense of caring. We showed each other trust and loyalty. Katherine learned Danish—which she has used widely in our visits to Denmark, and I backed her artistic abilities and encouraged her.”

Repeatedly in their travels together, people who have just met them have commented about their relationship: “It’s wonderful to see a couple so in love after so many years”; “You’re both a delight—an inspiration for us”; “What a great example you two are”; and “It just feels good to be together with you two.”

To sum it up, Hans says, “Our life together through fifty-four years—as of this moment—is a continuous story of love and understanding and faith.” As to the formula for creating a successful relationship? “Give sixty percent and expect forty percent.” Katherine adds, “Accept and overlook the small, picky habits, and appreciate the depth and warmth of love that outweighs everything else.”

A less successful account of soul mates is told in the story of Anna and Dave Mitchell. In 1935, a twenty-eight-year-old writer named Dave asked for a reading regarding the possibility of marrying his sweetheart of six years. In the reading Cayce confirmed that the couple had been together three times previously and in the present could accomplish a great deal, “if their efforts are put in the right direction” (849-12). Cayce stated that the two had much to work out together, but it could be accomplished “in patience, in tolerance, in love.” Apparently, at a soul level, they shared a dependency and a responsibility toward one another. At various times in the past, there had been occasions when the two had both assisted and been detrimental to the other’s growth. In the present, Anna and Dave were advised to marry and to always keep foremost in their minds the fact that marriage was a “fifty-fifty” proposition and that they needed to maintain a unity of purpose. Toward the end of the reading, Cayce added, “Beware then, in each, of self and self’s interest irrespective of the other.”

Less than two weeks after their marriage, Dave sent a letter thanking Edgar Cayce for his help:

We are, of course, deliriously happy, and among other things we both want to thank you for that reading—it isn’t going to be all a bed of roses, but with the knowledge and help that comes from your gift we hope that we can “take it” and keep going . . .

Over the years, Dave and his wife received a number of readings about their relationship, Dave’s career as a writer, their past lives, and even readings for their baby daughter who was born within two years of their marriage. In one reading, the couple was told that the greatest influences affecting them from the past came from their joint experiences in England and ancient Egypt. In Egypt, the state had apparently chosen Anna to be Dave’s wife—a situation that he rebelled against. It wasn’t so much that he disliked Anna as it was he found repugnant the fact that the nation had such control over the affairs of its people. Obviously, Anna had felt abandoned by her husband’s refusal of her.

In their most recent experience together in England, Dave had been a Catholic priest and Anna a nun. At the time, the two had been attracted to one another. Apparently, the priest had mentally dominated the nun and persuaded her to break their vows of celibacy against her better judgment. Anna had yet to forgive Dave for what had happened. Interestingly enough, in their present lifetime both Anna and Dave had been raised strict Catholics. However, the difference between the two was that Anna was very committed to her faith whereas Dave was almost hostile toward his. In spite of the antagonistic past-life influences between the two, Anna was told in her reading that if she worked on her personal relationship with Dave, she had the opportunity to “bring the greater satisfaction, the greater understanding, the greater blessings for self and for others” (1102-1). At the same time, Dave was told to put his energies into the importance of home and family.

In spite of their six-year love affair, shortly after their marriage differences between the two seemed to undermine the relationship. Anna grew more and more distressed about Dave’s “revolt” from Catholicism. Dave stated he was convinced that “Anna will not be satisfied until I fully re-embrace the Catholic faith”—an event which he did not perceive as very likely. Perhaps because of breaking her vow of celibacy in England and because of being rejected in Egypt, Anna did not have the same desire for sexual frequency as did her husband. As a result, Dave called his wife frigid and Anna thought her husband’s view of women both archaic and primitive. In the present, Dave also tried to dominate his wife mentally, just as he had done in the past. However, somewhere along the way, Anna had acquired a greater degree of independence and self-reliance. Rather than working together and resolving their differences, Dave became all the more focused on his intellectual pursuits and writing career and Anna became more distant. Each began to resent the other.

Within two years of their marriage, Dave was stricken with a crippling disease which, according to the doctors, resembled a combination of “arthritis, spinal meningitis, and infantile paralysis.” Within a very short period of time, Dave was crippled to such an extent that he had some mobility only of his arms and was incapable of doing much of anything to help himself. As if to enable them both to rectify the broken vows of celibacy, sexual activity between the two was out of the question. Both individuals became miserable. Anna refused to divorce him because of her faith, and Dave told friends that marriage was so repugnant to him that if the time ever came when he was single and another woman tried to get him to marry her, “probably I would kill her.” To Dave, the idea of being married to anybody was unthinkable. He added, “I feel wonderfully convinced that monastic life is the only approach to genuine happiness.” Rather than working together or trying to resolve any of their differences, each remained steadfast in the opinion that it was the other who needed to change.

Because of his illness, Dave confined himself to such places as the Hospital for Joint Disease and Johns Hopkins. Although Anna felt obligated to visit him during his confinement, he did not look forward to seeing her, nor did he have any desire to return home. In spite of their separation, he continued to write to support his family, but was limited by his doctor to sit at his typewriter only an hour a day. In order to make the best use of his time, Dave composed and edited 1,000 words of copy in his mind before writing it out in the allotted hour. The pain of his illness was excruciating. Confined to a wheelchair, he underwent many experimental treatments, not to mention a reliance on such medications as aspirin, codeine, cortisone, nepenthe, various narcotics, and in his words “brandy.”

Eventually, events in their lives necessitated Dave returning to live with his wife just as a stroke and paralysis struck Anna’s father. As a result, Anna had two invalids—her husband and her father—to care for. Dave found the situation intolerable. In 1941, he obtained another reading and asked about how he was supposed to work with his wife. He was told, in part:

For, they are necessary one to the other in filling those purposes for which their activities are in this present experience.

As to application, this must be according to the choice of each. They should be cooperative, one with another. The way ye know. The application ye must make. 849-60

A few months earlier, Cayce had also told Anna, “Each needs the other” (1102-5).

Over the next ten years, Dave experienced repeated improvements and just as many relapses. In spite of his crippling disease, friends made it possible for him to make a number of trips, both for his treatment as well as for his writing career. Somehow, he was even able to travel to the Middle East in 1949 and write an eyewitness account of the new state of Israel. In all, during the time of his illness, he was able to write seven books, countless book reviews, and various magazine articles. He seemed happiest when he was away from home and kept busy with something he was writing. Anna, on the other hand, seemed happiest with their daughter.

Finally, in the midst of one of Dave’s relapses and another one of the couple’s reconciliations, doctors suggested a series of experimental operations to help Dave with his pain. From the very beginning, Anna was against the idea. However, Dave insisted that he wanted the treatment. After one of the operations, complications caused Dave’s kidneys to fail and he died in January 1953. Dave Mitchell was only forty-five years old. In spite of the advice from the Cayce readings and a number of situations which seemed to almost encourage their need to work together, it doesn’t appear as though Dave and Anna entirely overcame, healed, or worked through their soul mate experiences from the past. Inevitably, at some point in the future, they will have to come together again and work through the very same lessons.