Inspiration for Thanksgiving from
the Edgar Cayce Readings

On November 20th, 1938, Edgar Cayce was asked to give a reading for Study Group #1 on with an explanation of the true spirit of Thanksgiving. It was a challenging time, like today, and the world was filled with fear and uncertainty. Following is the text of Reading 3976-21. May it fill you with inspiration and a greater appreciation of Thanksgiving. Best wishes for a very Happy Thanksgiving from Edgar Cayce's A.R.E.

Gertrude Cayce:
You will give at this time information which may stimulate in the hearts and minds of those gathered here a greater appreciation of the true spirit of Thanksgiving, and which may be to all those to whom it is sent an inspiration and an explanation for Thanksgiving even in the face of personal problems and spreading world-wide fears and hatreds that seem to dominate so many minds today.

Edgar Cayce:
Yes, we have the subject here; and many there be that appear with the desire to give their own interpretation upon such a subject. But rather would we choose--from the more universal need of those here, as well as mankind everywhere that thought, that purpose, that attribute of man's choice to show, to give thanksgiving for not only the blessings as may be the experience of many but the fuller meaning of the appreciation of Life itself and the opportunity which is offered to all through same to become more and more aware of their relationship to the Creative Force or God.

It is well that ye be reminded, then, of how--in those periods when there were the preparations in the lives and experiences of a peculiar people, under unusual circumstances, in extraordinary environments--they were reminded, not in their days of plenty but in the days when each day they were given only sufficient for that day, that periods were to be, should be, set aside when thanksgiving was to be a part of their activity--their remembrances for all the joys, the sorrows, the disappointments, the hopes that were and might be theirs if--if--they would but hold to those promises; relying--as it was necessary in those days, those hours, for a complete dependence--upon the bounty of a merciful Father, who had a purpose in the bringing out, in the edifying, in the directing.

And today, as ye look back upon those experiences, ye--too--find thyselves chosen.

Have ye chosen Him? For as was given then, "If ye will be my people, I will be thy God!" This is a universal experience, then. To each soul gathered here, to each soul throughout the land, to each soul as may be in all lands: "If ye will be My people, I will be thy God!"

Then in this land--as ye understand--when in the experiences of a handful of those seeking a place where they might worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, the bounties of the land were in such measures as to preserve their lives--then there was the proclamation that thanksgiving must be in the mind and heart of each soul. So in this land was set the precedent that has come to mean so much that year after year thy rulers of the several States, thy director in the general, have kept, do keep that precedent.

Then, to all: As ye do in the spirit of true thanksgiving come to realize, as ye find in thy daily experience with thy fellow man--he that is unappreciative of opportunity, of care, of thought, of longsuffering, to thine own mind becomes very little. What, then, will ye - as servants--yea, as children of a living God, of a living promise to thee--do about such a period, such a day?

For the day itself is as nothing. Remember how He as the Teacher of teachers gave that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath!

Then remember, Thanksgiving is thy opportunity to show thy appreciation to thy friend, thy home, thy mother, thy children--yea, most of all to thy God! As it may be truly said--of all the days for man's opportunity, of man's making, of man's concern, truly Thanksgiving should be nearer and dearer to the hearts of those who are appreciative of Life and its opportunities, under any experience! For remember, it was instituted not under plenty but under needs.

What is the need then of man in this day of disturbed mind, of anxieties?

That ye may reconsecrate, rededicate - each of you - thy heart, thy body, thy purpose, to the living God! This is the message then that should be to all.

Let this day of Thanksgiving be not only that wherein to enjoy that which may satiate the body, that which may make for the gratifying of appetites of the body, but that day when each of you may give thanks to God for being alive--with the opportunities to raise thy voice in prayer, in praise, in thanksgiving for the love He hath shown, that He showers upon thee day by day!

And as ye do this--in the spirit of love, in the spirit of truth, of patience, of longsuffering--ye will receive that awareness of His closeness to thee. And this will bring you to the greater knowledge, the greater understanding of what He would have thee do.Let thy life, thy experience then, be not without purpose.

What do ye then purpose to do with His promises to thee?

In this land ye may give praise for freedom of speech, for the opportunities to raise thy voice in whatever way and manner ye choose. For know, as He taught, the principles of life are that as ye do unto the least of thy brethren ye do unto thy Maker. Then, as ye give thanks, as ye give praise to thy friends for kindnesses, for gentlenesses, for those things that make thy experience more bearable in a cruel world--under circumstances oft where a troubled heart is made lighter--how much greater in this day, then, that is set aside by thy laws, by the judgments of thy governors and of thy president--how much more ye would give thanks to God!

For it is in Him indeed that ye live, that ye move and have thy being. Let thy heart then be glad. And as has been indicated, let each raise his voice in thanksgiving for all that has, that may come to pass in the experience of each soul that prays, "Thy will, O God, be done in me--now. Not as I will, but as Thou would have me go." 

Pray that peace may be in the minds and hearts of those who direct the destiny of the many, throughout the world. For they are not in power of themselves, but that ye--too--may learn a lesson to do, and to seek to do, the will of thy Father; and not to do that which is IN direct contradiction to that of praise to thy Lord, thy God.

Keep then that Day in praise, in thanksgiving, in such ways, such a manner that ye show to thy conscience that what ye worship as thy God is aware of thy appreciation of life!

We are through.

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