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Chapter 2

Enduring Soul

…The entity—as an entity—influenced either directly or indirectly all those forms of philosophy or religious thought that taught God was One.

364-9

After the fall in Eden, it would take many thousands of years for a soul to regain conscious awareness of its supernatural identity, rise out of its entombment in matter, and reach the pinnacle of God awareness or Christhood on this plane. Interestingly, the Cayce readings provide additional insight into the lengthy process of spiritual evolution in commenting that “perfection is not possible in a material body until you have at least entered some thirty times … ” (2982-2) The first soul to accomplish this task, correctly identified as the second Adam, was Jesus of Nazareth. His soul had spent multiple incarnations in both spirit form and in the flesh working to perfect itself until it was ready to serve as the flawless transparency through which divinity might be reflected in the earth.

Knowledge is gained or lost every time a soul agrees to incarnate, and advancing on the path toward complete realization of and unconditional surrender to the will of the divine was as challenging for the Adam soul as it was for every other soul deeply entrenched in the material realm. Edgar Cayce discloses a host of previously unknown details about the history and evolution of this soul, which eventually became the Messiah. It starts with its incarnation as the entity Amilius present on earth in spirit form prior to its appearance as the flesh and blood Adam and then adds several subsequent lifetimes to the list. “First, in the beginning, of course; and then as Enoch, Melchizedek, in the perfection. Then in the earth of Joseph, Joshua, Jeshua, Jesus,” (5749-14) explain the readings.

Moreover, the Cayce material indicates that since the beginning of time the first begotten Son or soul has served as the primary entity responsible for carrying the light of God to humanity: “ … Christ in all ages, Jesus in one, Joshua in another, Melchizedek in another; these be that led Judaism! These be they that came as that Child of Promise, as to the Children of Promise … ” (991-1) The New Testament gospels, which relate the story of a young Jewish rabbi who wandered the Judean countryside teaching more than 2,100 years ago, are merely the concluding chapters in a prolonged epic spanning hundreds of thousands of years. The Amilius/Adam/Jesus soul had been at work for a very long time.

Melchizedek

According to Edgar Cayce after the first begotten soul departs its flesh-and-blood body and Adam passes away, it makes a second appearance in the earth plane by incarnating as the mysterious entity named Melchizedek. The Bible mentions this shadowy figure only a handful of times. We learn about Melchizedek from a few brief paragraphs in Genesis, a single line in Psalm 110, and several references in a couple of the Epistles. Similar to this same soul’s much later appearance as Jesus whom the gospels reveal was immaculately conceived, Melchizedek is said to have entered the earth without any link to a material impulse or cause. “ … Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God,” states the holy text. (Heb. 7:3) One epistle refers to Melchizedek as “made not after the law of carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life.” (Heb. 7: 16) In this case the first begotten soul, descending from the higher vibrational realms to interact with the human race, passes into the material plane unencumbered by a corporeal body. Amazingly, the readings also assert that Melchizedek was the entity who wrote the book of Job. “…Who recorded same? The Son of man! Melchizedek wrote Job!” (262-55) states Cayce.

The biblical narrative describes Melchizedek as the king of Salem and a being without days or years. Called holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, this strange, otherworldly teacher emerges as the first representation of the Christ or spirit of God visible to mortal sight. Centuries later we will see the same soul once again serve as a teacher committed to demonstrating the pattern for living to his fellow souls. After experiencing a corporeal birth through the body of Mary and living in the flesh for thirty-three years, the Adam/Melchizedek/Jesus soul will lift itself out of its encasement in matter and prove for all time that material law and a physical form cannot confine the infinity of Spirit. The divine in man is bound to rise again to become one with the universal Creative Forces.

Despite the scant amount of information on Melchizedek recorded in the scriptures, the Bible credits him with having established the order of the priesthood, which became a symbol of the sacred community of individuals willing to help close the circuit between God and man. During the relatively brief span of time this enigmatic figure is present to human awareness, he is also the one chosen to place the stamp of approval on Abram’s (Abraham’s) evolving consciousness. The holy messenger Melchizedek who had arrived on earth full-blown from the celestial spheres will bestow a divine blessing on the forerunner of the Jewish people, the man celebrated throughout history as the first human being capable of grasping the concept of God as one. “And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth.” (Gen. 14:19)

It is Abram’s willingness to listen to the inner voice of divine wisdom and worship a single God—a construct still foreign to the rest of the human race—which conveys upon him the power of heaven and earth. Further, in the not-too-distant future the invisible deity the man Abram venerates will establish an enduring covenant with his servant and in the process give him a new name. “Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham … ” (Gen. 17:5) relates the biblical account. The heavenly promise is that Abraham will become the father of many nations and his descendants as numberless as the stars.

Arguably the capstone of Melchizedek’s fleeting appearance in the material plane is the unusual act he performs immediately prior to bestowing his blessing on Abram. As stated in a single cryptic verse recorded in the Book of Genesis this enigmatic being, the first “priest,” is said to have placed a unique oblation on the altar before his God—not the blood of a slain animal but an offering of bread and wine. The sacred chronicle reports that “ … Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.” (Gen. 14:18) Thus does the Amilius/Adam/Melchizedek soul foreshadow its own future incarnation as the Master Jesus who will use these same two ancient symbols during the Last Supper to represent the soul fed by ingesting Christ-truth.

Enoch

The Cayce readings describe Noah’s great-grandfather, Enoch, as another one of the significant incarnations of the Amilius/Adam/Jesus soul. Although he was a man, Enoch is said to have fulfilled the office of God’s messenger to the angels. There is lingering controversy over the origin and authorship of the actual Book of Enoch, but the volume includes several clear parallels to passages found in the New Testament. Moreover, the historian Tertullian claims Enoch’s great-grandson, Noah, may have preserved his ancestor’s book in the ark or miraculously reproduced it through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Book of Enoch forms a literary bridge between the kind of prehistory found in the Bible and information from the Edgar Cayce readings, which discuss the presence on earth of Amilius in a non-corporeal form. In addition, Enoch’s writings relate a story very similar to the Genesis account of the fallen angels who interact with human beings and produce Nephilim or giants as offspring.

What is evident from the material attributed to Enoch are the clues left behind about a coming Messiah as well as certain portions of the text which closely resemble the philosophy and sayings of the Master. Among other highlights, the Book of Enoch weaves together threads of several of the same ideas and uses language similar to that recorded in the four gospels and the Book of Revelation. Interestingly the Genesis narrative describes Enoch as not only faithful to his God but also as someone who never actually dies. “And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” (Gen. 5:23-24) While much of what is known or believed about the character of Enoch remains cloaked in mystery, this extraordinary soul nonetheless left a lasting imprint on the skein of time and spiritual evolution of humanity. His teachings and legacy lay one more brick in the foundation for the history-bending lifetime of Jesus the Christ, which will follow many generations later.

Joseph

… The greater meaning of the word Israel—those called of God for a service before the fellow man.

587-6

Evidence of a spiritual “bloodline” tying the Adam soul to Jesus grows stronger with its incarnation as one of the twelve sons in the family of Jacob, later called Israel. In this instance the first begotten of God lived in the earth plane in the person of Joseph, the biblical character renowned for wearing a coat of many colors. (In an intriguing sidebar to the history of the Adam soul’s sacred lineage, the Bible notes that after Joseph’s mother Rachel dies, she is buried near Bethlehem—the place where the same soul one day will reenter the earth as the infant Jesus.)

The Joseph story actually begins to gel decades prior to his mother Rachel giving birth to her first child. The roots of this particular lifetime for the Adam soul were germinated in the history of his father Jacob whose biblical exploits reveal a man slowly but steadily growing in spiritual awareness. Early on Jacob is known for having played a trick on his twin brother Esau in order to steal the birthright of his more earthbound sibling, which in turn forces Jacob to become a spiritual wanderer. That is until the night he dreams about a ladder reaching up to heaven, full of angels ascending and descending on its rungs. During the course of this extraordinary visionary experience in which he sees the “Lord God O Abraham,” Jacob receives divine assurance that his God is with him. “And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.” (Gen. 28:13) Jacob’s heightened awareness has broken new ground and this enlightened state of being is the place he and his spiritual descendants will inhabit from that day forward.

As it was with Abraham, the God of Jacob reveals that one day the seeds of his spiritual understanding will cover the whole earth, blessing every nation. “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 28:14) The divine impartation continues by assuring Jacob that wherever he goes, his God will accompany his footsteps. “And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” (Gen. 28:15) When Jacob awakens from his sleep and realizes the significance of what has just occurred, he declares, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” (Gen. 28: 16)

Years later during a similar nighttime episode when he once more finds himself alone, Jacob will meet a mysterious stranger who suddenly sets upon him, wrestling with him until the dawn. His unearthly opponent ends up wounding Jacob’s thigh, but the injured man continues to hold on, refusing to let his adversary go until the stranger, a force he neither recognizes nor understands, blesses him. Once he has overcome his rival and won the struggle, Jacob, like the ever-loyal Abraham, also receives a new name. “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” (Gen. 32:28) It must have been Jacob’s sincerity and dogged persistence in seeking to be blessed that created the vibrations, which eventually would attract the Adam soul to the earth again as a member of his immediate family. This time the first begotten soul will enter the planet as the cherished son of the patriarch Israel who had wrestled with his lower nature and come away victorious—a man so devoted to his God he establishes a nation of God-seekers in the earth.

Into Egypt

See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. Gen. 41:41

Over the course of many years Jacob has a dozen sons, but Joseph, the second-to-last born of his beloved wife Rachel, is his favorite—treasured more than all of his other offspring. The Joseph narrative takes a tragic turn one day, however, when Jacob’s ten older sons, jealous of their younger sibling whom they mockingly refer to as the dreamer, plot to get rid of him and end up throwing Joseph into a desert pit without any water. The eldest son, Rueben, who had convinced his brothers not to kill the boy, has every intention of coming back to retrieve him. But before he is able to save his little brother, a passing group of merchants removes Joseph from the pit and sells him into slavery for twenty pieces of silver to a band of Ishmeelites bound for Egypt. Forced to return home without their sibling, the ten sons lie to Jacob by showing him animal blood they had smeared on Josephs’ cloak and claiming a wild creature had killed the child. The distraught father believes their tale and is heartsick grieving the loss of the precious son he will never see again. (Gen. 37)

But God appears to have great plans for the young captive. Despite the dire straits he finds himself in, the Bible indicates the Lord was with Joseph and caused him to prosper. It turns out to be true when through a series of remarkable twists and turns the lowly slave rises to unforeseen heights in a country wholly foreign to him. An officer named Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh’s guard, makes Joseph a servant in his home and soon after, recognizing the young man’s unusual aptitude and innate wisdom, promotes him to oversee the entire household. As the spiritual drama progresses, Potiphar’s wife begins to cast her eye on the handsome young overseer and soon makes a move to try to get him into her bed. But Joseph will not betray his master Potiphar in such a manner and spurns her overtures. Angry at his rejection, the woman subsequently accuses Joseph of making unwanted advances and, although he is innocent of the charges, causes him to be thrown into another pit. Yet God resides in that dungeon too and has prepared a way out for his servant. The divine plan is to use Joseph’s skill as the “dreamer” his brothers had ridiculed to raise him up to greatness a second time.

Pharaoh’s Court

As it so happened during this period, Pharaoh had experienced a series of disturbing dreams, which neither the priests nor the magicians of the court were able to interpret. After exhausting every possible avenue to try to solve the nighttime mystery, Pharaoh appears to be out of options until his chief butler tells him about Joseph who had successfully explained a dream for him and another prisoner, a baker, when the three of them were incarcerated together. Pharaoh proceeds to call Joseph before him to get his help. “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, [It is] not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” (Gen. 41:15-16) Joseph successfully deciphers the meaning of Pharaoh’s nightmares by recognizing them as omens signifying seven years of bountiful harvests followed by seven years of drought. But he takes no credit for himself. Impressed by his prisoner’s demeanor and interpretation of the prophetic imagery, Pharaoh asks, “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” (Gen. 41:38) He ends up making Joseph second-in-command to himself and placing the Hebrew in charge of Egypt’s preparations for the foretold periods of plenty and lack.

The history of Joseph’s estrangement from his own people concludes when the same ten brothers whose vengeful decision years earlier had caused him to be sold into slavery arrive in Egypt to purchase the only food available during those lean years. Joseph immediately recognizes his siblings but only after a series of tricks and complications does he finally reveal his true identity to them. His father eventually also learns that the boy taken from him so long ago, his beloved son Joseph, is still alive and rejoices. The saga comes to an auspicious end when the patriarch Israel along with all of his wives, children, and other members of his extended family travel to Egypt to take up residence there. The people of the one God will continue to reside in the land of the Pharaohs until the days recorded in the Book of Exodus when Moses will lead the Hebrews out of that country to their freedom in the Promised Land.

Soul of a Deliverer

In an interesting sidebar pairing the events surrounding Joseph in the court of ancient Egypt with the future incarnation of this same soul as Jesus, the Old Testament text states that Joseph was “ … thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh King of Egypt” (Gen. 41:46) and made a ruler over all the land. The age of thirty was the point at which both Joseph and Jesus step forward to begin their life’s missions. Unbeknownst to Joseph at that moment standing in front of Pharaoh as the newly appointed overseer of the entire kingdom, he is destined to become a savior to his people. Joseph ends up serving as the mediator and vehicle by which the Israelites—the followers of the one God—will gain access to the bread they need to stay alive during the grinding famine, just as Jesus the Christ will become the bread of life, feeding spiritually starving souls held captive in the arid landscape of a material world.

Other bits and pieces woven into the rich tapestry of the history of Joseph, whose ultimate destiny is to one day rise to the heights of a Christ, provide additional clues about this soul’s seminal role in fulfilling the promise of deliverance. The coat of many colors Joseph wears as a boy suggests the sign of the rainbow that Noah saw after the biblical flood receded, sealing the eternal covenant between God and man. And the statement made by Joseph in revealing his true identity to his kinsmen as the brother they had cast off before he was sold into slavery might well have been spoken by Jesus who will also be sold into captivity for a bagful of silver. “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life,” states Joseph. (Gen. 45:5) The first begotten soul is assuring his siblings that it was the spirit of God working through those awful events which had raised up their deliverer.

Joseph’s tale represents the archetypal story of the beloved son lost to his father and held in bondage but whose deep rapport with the divine raises him up to unimaginable heights. And in the process becomes the catalyst for transformation and freedom. “So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt,” (Gen. 45:8) the overlord Joseph declares. So, too, will the crown of Christhood allow Jesus to rule over the furthest reaches of the material realm. Many other words spoken by Joseph in Egypt centuries before the advent of the Messiah take on a fresh and more profound meaning when contemplated in light of this particular soul’s intimate connection with the Master. “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.” (Gen. 50:20-21)

Joshua

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Josh. 24:15

The Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for generations when the Adam soul makes its next appearance by donning the mantle of another notable figure in Jewish history. But this time the gains made in helping humanity attain new levels of awareness and understanding are tempered by the spiritual ground lost through the brutal subjugation of others. The first begotten of God incarnates as the illustrious warrior named Joshua—he of Exodus fame who served as Moses’ closest aide and man-of-arms. Identified by Edgar Cayce as “ … the prophet, the mystic, the leader, the incarnation of the Prince of Peace,” (362-1) Joshua hails from the tribe of Ephraim, who was one of Joseph’s sons, and is famous for leading the Israelites into the Promised Land.

Not surprisingly, this exceptional individual is the only one of the Israelites allowed to accompany Moses to the top of Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights after God has summoned the Jewish leader there. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.” (Exod. 24:12-13) Edgar Cayce remarks that prior to the two ascending the mountain, the Hebrews had “ … seen the Lord Jehovah descend into the mount … {and} seen the mount so electrified by the presence of the God of the people … that no living thing could remain {there} … save those two [Moses and Joshua] who had been cleansed by their pouring out of themselves to God, in the cleansing of their bodies, in the cleansing of their minds … ” (440-16) It is Joshua who stands nearby on that holy ground supporting the liberator Moses as he receives divine instruction to build an Ark of the Covenant and hears the word of God expressed as the principles of the Ten Commandments, which will be carved onto stone tablets and carried down the mountainside to the people below. The readings recognize Joshua as the medium through which Moses obtains the law, calling him “ … the interpreter through whom the message was given to Israel.” (3645-1)

The Bible provides several additional clues about the depth of the man Joshua’s devotion to his God and his soul’s unique mission in that particular lifetime. “And the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant, Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle,” states the Book of Exodus, (Exod. 33:11) explaining how Joshua chose to tarry for a while in that consecrated space communing with the divine presence. Sometime later God will choose Joshua as the next leader of his people and direct Moses to enhance the authority of his aide by honoring him before the priest and entire congregation—a sign of the very special role this soul is going to play in the divine plan. Near the end of his life Moses will call Joshua before the community a second time to reaffirm his successor’s sacred charge. “Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.” (Deut. 31: 7) Upon completion of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt after wandering through the desert for forty years, it is Joshua who will open the way for the Hebrews to secure their inheritance of the Promised Land, a land for which they did not labor.

The Lord Will Do Wonders

Other details sprinkled throughout the Book of Joshua portray a man associated with a host of phenomena deemed miraculous. “Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you,” (Josh. 3:5) the Jewish warrior tells his people in words prefiguring his soul’s later incarnation as the Master Jesus who also lived from the standpoint of a divine presence that never would forsake or fail him. The Old Testament even describes a moment when Joshua purportedly spoke an order which halted the orbit of the sun and the moon. “Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon,” (Josh. 10:12) he commands. The Old Testament account reports that with these words the sun stopped moving and the moon stayed in its place in the midst of the heavens until the Hebrews had avenged themselves upon their enemies. “And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man,” (Josh. 10:14) attests the biblical author in an extraordinary moment of understatement.

It was this same unyielding certitude about the presence and power of his God that caused Joshua to send forth the Ark of the Covenant to conquer Jericho. Carried among the armed troops and surrounded by an assembly of priests blowing on rams’ horns, the Ark circles the city seven times—until the people shout and its walls fall down, allowing the Israelites to take that stronghold. (Josh. 6:1-20) Repeatedly the biblical account describes Joshua’s army winning the day, vanquishing even the most formidable foes as the Hebrews capture city and field in an all-consuming quest to take their “rightful” place in the land pledged to the people of God.

And under Joshua’s extraordinary leadership—shaped and guided by his intimate relationship with the divine—the ragtag group of former slaves is ultimately triumphant. But there is a catch. The unmitigated violence by which the victory is won becomes a karmic debt demanding recompense someday—a squaring of the cosmic accounts in order to help the soul awaken to its error of violating the Law of One. It is only with the advent of the Master who institutes a new covenant in the earth—the Law of Endless Mercy—that karma will lose its grip on humanity. Still, generations later in a final act of willingness to live out the consequences of what he had sown, the Adam/Joshua/Jesus soul will accept personal responsibility for indulging in such cruelty by choosing to experience a savage crucifixion.

Additional links in the metaphysical chain tying the Joshua soul to Jesus appear in the Cayce information. One reading indicates that a study of the life of the ever-patient Joshua will help us interpret the meaning of the life of Jesus. It mentions the pair were much alike in their earthly activities, not in terms of the combative soldier’s warlike behavior but “ … in spirit and in purpose, in ideals, these were one.” (3409-1) In an intriguing parallel, the general area Jesus traverses over the course of his public ministry includes many of the old Canaanite cities Joshua had conquered during his career. The Master will heal and minister to people residing in some of the same places he had vanquished as a man-of-arms whose bloody assaults destroyed untold lives.

Ordained to fulfill the divine plan, Joshua completes his soul mission as the Israelites enter the Promised Land. Similarly, Jesus of Nazareth’s purpose was to lead the children of God to occupy a new place in consciousness—the original, celestial state of being promised to souls since the dawn of creation. But unlike the warrior Joshua whose ruthless battles expropriated actual physical soil, Jesus’ work involved the conquest of an internal terrain. And conquer he did, providing the pattern for human beings to follow if and when they choose to break free of their enslavement to selfishness and enter into the “land of milk and honey.” One can almost imagine Jesus speaking the selfsame words Joshua used to instruct the tribes of Israel centuries before the birth of the Messiah: “But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.” (Josh. 22:5)

Jeshua

Jesus answered and said unto them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:19

Generally less well known but equally significant is the lifetime the Master-soul spent as the Old Testament figure Jeshua, listed among the Jewish exiles who returned to Jerusalem following their captivity in Babylon. Identified by the name Jeshua, meaning “Yahweh is deliverance” in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, this same individual is referred to as Joshua in the writings of Haggai and Zechariah. The high priest Jeshua is known to be a descendant of another religious figure noteworthy in his own right. His grandfather Seraiah was the last high priest of the Old Temple in Jerusalem before the Babylonians destroyed it when they sacked the city.

Around 538 BC, after Cyrus of Persia had issued his edict permitting the Jews to return to their homeland and proclaimed he would use funds from the royal treasury to help rebuild a temple there, Jeshua and a provincial governor named Zerubbabel took responsibility for organizing the Israelites’ return to Zion. Shortly after their homecoming the two men began the process of reviving some of the religious practices sacred to the Jews by presiding over the building of an altar, very likely constructed on the same spot where Solomon’s original temple had once stood. “Then stood up Jeshua … and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel … and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.” (Ezra 3:2) Naturally the high priest Jeshua would inaugurate the resettlement of the Jewish remnant in the Promised Land by erecting an altar since it was impossible to offer sacrifices without one. Given that the primary mission of the Adam soul was to lead other souls back to an awareness of the divine, it is no surprise that Jeshua served as the chief architect in reestablishing the act of worship for the people of the one God.

Approximately two years after the Israelites were restored to their homeland Jeshua and Zerubbabel appoint the Levites to begin rebuilding the actual temple. In an interesting twist to the story some Samaritans, considered “foreigners” even during that early period long before the appearance of the Christ in the earth, approach the leaders to inquire if they might assist with the construction. Apparently because the Jewish elders did not trust the group’s sincerity and possibly regarded their offer to join the project as a veiled attempt to undermine its progress, they decline the help, intimating that the Jews must rebuild the structure themselves. The Israelites’ instincts turn out to be correct for according to the book of Ezra, the Samaritans “weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building” by hiring counselors to “frustrate their purpose.” (Ezra 4: 4-5) Soon, due to continued, strong opposition by the Samaritans as well as pushback from other groups, temple construction grinds to a halt. The biblical account reports that the work stagnated for a very long time, but finally, spurred on by the prophets who had urged the community to finish, rebuilding gets underway again. It continues until the second temple is completed more than two decades after the Israelites’ repatriation.

Edgar Cayce amplifies what we know about the Old Testament figure Jeshua adding several new details to the story. The process of repatriation he led must have posed significant challenges because in referencing the Adam soul in that lifetime, the readings mention that “ … this is the same soul-entity who reasoned with those who returned from captivity … ” (5023-2) Another individual who had requested help from Cayce was told he had been an associate in the household of Jeshua in a previous life and in that capacity had interacted with those not of “the entity’s own group or faith,” which apparently had created within him a desire to learn how to associate with many different types of people. (2905-3)

Overall, the Cayce information ascribes momentous meaning and purpose to the appearance of the entity Jeshua in the earth, claiming that besides reinstituting the act of worship of the one God, he was the scribe who “ … translated the rest of the books written up to that time … ” (5023-2) Jeshua is literally credited with having rewritten or translated the spiritual record of humanity compiled over generations and recorded in the books of the Bible. In a reading for someone described as having worked as one of Jeshua’s closest aides, Cayce again noted the high priest’s remarkable legacy as a scribe in “ … interpreting of the law to the language of the peoples of that period.” (2498-1) In other words the same soul, which many generations later will incarnate as the great Teacher of teachers elucidating the Father’s message to his children, is sowing the seeds for that future lifetime living as Jeshua, recognized for making the word of God more accessible to all.

Perhaps the most the most striking example of the congruity between the ancient high priest and the Master Jesus is this soul’s clear-cut mission to rebuild the temple. In Jeshua’s case the enterprise involved the construction of an actual physical building with four solid walls and a roof. When Jesus comes to earth, he assumes responsibility for revealing the temple within—an edifice not made with hands but fabricated out of finer stuff which was the spirit of God in man. During the course of his ministry, the Master will refer to his flesh-and-blood body as the temple, leading one of his accusers during the sham trial prior to his Crucifixion to charge, “We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.” (Mark 14:58) In this instance destruction of the temple did not entail marauding Babylonians plundering the city of Jerusalem, but the death of the man Jesus who will raise up his body—rebuild the temple—after spending three days in a tomb.

Many Lifetimes

In all those periods that the basic principle was the Oneness of the Father, He has walked with men.

364-8

In addition to the sequence of appearances stretching from Amilius to Jeshua, the Edgar Cayce information also ascribes an incarnation of the Adam/Jesus soul to Zend [San/Zan], the father of the first Zoroaster, spiritual leader, and author of the Zend Avesta, the sacred writings of the Persians. (Report 262-36) The readings subsequently highlight an equally notable incarnation of this soul as the multi-talented biblical character named Asaph, whose name in Hebrew means “God has gathered or sustained.” Appointed chief musician to the courts of King David and Solomon and charged with playing before the Ark of the Covenant, Asaph is credited with composing twelve of the psalms recorded in the Old Testament (Psalms 50; 73-83).

The mysterious character the Greeks refer to as Hermes Trismegistus (meaning “thrice great”) and known to native Egyptians as Thoth, or Thoth-Hermes, is pinpointed by the Cayce readings as potentially one additional lifetime of the Master’s. While the Cayce material never directly states that Hermes was an incarnation of the Adam soul, it places that soul in the earth at the same time as Hermes and includes other interesting references that make a good case for Jesus having previously lived as this extraordinary figure from the past. The ancient Egyptians, who regarded Thoth-Hermes as a being self-begotten and self-produced, deified him as the god of wisdom. Recognized as the “scribe of the gods,” Thoth is associated not only with developing a system of writing but is also equated with the disciplines of science and magic. Befitting the spiritual vision and purpose of the Master-soul, Thoth-Hermes was also revered as the arbitrator or mediating power between good and evil.

Cayce ups the ante even further by attributing an astonishing achievement to the figure Thoth-Hermes. The readings claim that in approximately 10,500 BC, in concert with a priest by the name of Ra or Ra-Ta, this entity was responsible for the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza. They refer to Hermes as the “guide, or the actual (as would be termed in the present) constructing or construction architect” of the pyramid. (294-151) Elsewhere the Cayce material provides a brief discourse on the underlying purpose for creating this dazzling monument. “Then, with Hermes and Ra … there began the building of that now called Gizeh, with which those prophecies that had been in the Temple of Records and the Temple Beautiful were builded, in the building of this that was to be the hall of the initiates of that sometimes referred to as the White Brotherhood.” (5748-5) The reverberations from both of these statements by Cayce are amplified when considered from the angle of the readings’ interpretation of the story of Jesus. The information reveals that as a young man Jesus travelled to Egypt and was tested in the Great Pyramid as part of his initiation before becoming a master. One reason Edgar Cayce may not have specifically linked Hermes to the Adam soul could be a preference for using the biblical name Enoch. There is an intriguing theory associated with several religious traditions that Hermes and Enoch may, in fact, have been one and the same person.

It is conceivable the Adam soul may have had many more incarnations as well, which the readings never bother to mention. Not specifically featured in the Cayce information but open to speculation is the possibility that this same soul had entered the earth as Akhenaton—the maverick pharaoh of ancient Egypt who turned that country’s polytheistic tradition on its head by demanding worship of a single God named Aton. Despite a comprehensive campaign following Akhenaton’s death to wipe out all references to the heretical pharaoh and his capital city of Amarna, the world seemed destined to learn about this extraordinary soul and its unique perspective on the divine. The way was opened with the discovery of what is possibly the most famous Egyptian pharaoh in all of history. Akhenaton not only was the husband of the beautiful Queen Nefertiti, but the father of the legendary boy-king, Tutankhamun, known far and wide as King Tut.

Life on earth is both a soul adventure and a school. The lessons the Adam soul learned lifetime after lifetime during untold sojourns within this dimension provided the means for its continuing evolution until it was able to break completely free of the limitations of mortality. Through the ages the first begotten of God would climb higher and higher out of the darkness toward the light until it reached the climactic summit by achieving the level of a Christ, thus completing the mission it had undertaken at the dawn of creation. For the first time in history a soul dwelling in a human body consciously would realize its own divinity and be capable of fully manifesting that state of being in the earth. People everywhere eventually would come to recognize the fruits of the Adam soul’s labor and find their own salvation as they acquainted themselves with the record of this soul, which had succeeded in overcoming the limitations of the form-based world, by studying the life of a man called Jesus.