The Most Unusual Wedding Gift
From the Edgar Cayce Readings
By Alison Ray
In addition to just the text of Edgar Cayce’s readings, within the online database are amazing stories of the impact of the readings and correspondence between Edgar Cayce and many individuals who had readings plus follow-ups years later by Gladys Davis. They are accessible under Background and Reports. The Report for Reading 499-2 is a beautiful example of the accuracy of Edgar Cayce’s predictions for Ms. Fredrica Fields (1912-1992). It is also the story behind the unique stained-glass windows in the meditation room and foyer of our Visitor Center in Virginia Beach.
On January 25, 1934, a 22 year-old socialite had a life reading from Edgar Cayce. The reading, her second, had been arranged by her parents. The first reading, earlier that same day, had been for a health issue. At the time, she was in the middle of wedding plans and much too busy to pay much attention to the information.
Years later, she found her reading again among her mother's papers and opened it. She was quite impressed with the description of her mature personality, especially the section where the reading had mentioned that she would have a life-long fascination with stained-glass design.
She wrote to A.R.E. about the rediscovered reading:
"When Mother died in '46, we found amongst her papers the readings that were done for me in '34. I was married six months after this and in all the turmoil and activity of my life I forgot the contents of these readings. Imagine my surprise to find the following in my life reading: 'And there will come those periods when the activities in relation to art, that has to do with a great deal more of that as from stained glass or those that make for activities in the prism reactions to influences as related to things and to people, will be of a greater interest…' By '46 I was deep in the study of stained glass, with a real inner feeling that this was to be my life."
By this time, she had become quite famous for her artistic works, being listed in the "Who’s Who of American Women" in 1977-8. A pioneer and innovator, her unusual technique for working with glass was included in books such as The Complete Book of Creative Glass Art and Decorating Glass. The winner of many awards including the National Collection of Fine Arts at the Smithsonian Institute, a window that she designed and created was installed in the Washington Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
Charles Thomas responded to her letter, writing, "For several years, we have been searching for the appropriate design and an artist, to do several small windows in stained glass for the Meditation Room on the third floor [of the new Visitor Center in Virginia Beach]... Might you be interested…?"
In the latter part of August, 1977 she and her husband, Brigadier General Kenneth E. Fields, visited the A.R.E. to plan for the stained glass windows to be donated to A.R.E. for the Meditation floor. She presented colored slides of her work and exhibited two miniature panels which contained her colored studies in three-dimensional glass. She had taken only an elementary course in leaded glass in 1940. When she developed arthritis and found it difficult to lift the heavy glass to the light, her husband developed a lighted table for her work. Seeing the smaller glass pieces, stacked on the lighted glass-top table, inspired her new method. The resulting three-dimensional creations, often made with discarded glass, became her lifelong vocation.
Meditation Room
A.R.E. Campus Virginia Beach, Va.
It took her a full year to complete the first panels in her Greenwich home studio. The colors of deep indigo blue and violet are meaningful in meditation. The abstract center portion of one panel represents man reaching upward and the center portion of the other panel represents the power from above coming down to man. Four side panels are individual thoughts or prayer points. She gave permission for her actual name to be used, since she felt her ability was a gift of God which Edgar Cayce foresaw. The reading had indeed predicted her gift.
A.R.E. Members will find this story and more in the searchable database of all 14,306 readings and supplemental information totaling more than 24 million words at EdgarCayce.org/members. To learn more about the benefits of membership, visit EdgarCayce.org/join.
