...he who understands nature walks close with God.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 1904-2
The Edgar Cayce readings span an astonishing 10,000 topics, but if I had to pick a favorite, I’d have to say it’s the readings on nature. Because when I read what the sleeping Cayce said about nature—and the nuggets I’ve uncovered about animals—it means more to me and my personal soul journey than just about any other topic. Atlantis is a close second.
As a child of the 60s, I spent almost all of my time outside. And as the youngest of seven kids, my playmates were more likely to be my cat and the family dog than a sibling—no one wants to play with their kid sister, right? I also spent a lot of time with trees, specifically in and up them! We had some old towering beauties right in our back yard, and I can’t think of a day that went by that I didn’t spend some time in one of them.
The Cayce readings frequently mentioned the health benefits of spending time in nature:
In 1938, reading 1401-2 stated:
…as much outdoors as possible would be well for the body.
In 1942, reading 2772-1 stated:
Also we find indicated that the purifying of mind, of body, by the associations with the great outdoors, is helpful.
In 1943, reading 2925-1, stated:
Whatever choice is made, let the activity have to do with being in the open, and having to do with the elements - air, water, earth.
But perhaps even more importantly, Cayce talked about the natural world being in sync with the Creative Forces.
… whether it is mineral, vegetable or animal, these are spiritualized in that ability of using, doing, being all that the Creator had given them to do.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 281-54
Because of this, Cayce advised us that we could learn how to live by taking lessons from nature. If we spend time observing how nature is using, doing, and being all that the Creator had them do, perhaps we could do so as well.
Know this in self; that ye may never be so worldly wise that ye may not learn something from the viewing of a sunset, listening to a strain of music, the laughter of children, the song of the bird, the babbling of the brook...
-- Edgar Cayce reading 2869-1
One of the most poetic readings I’ve ever found explains this concept beautifully:
The song of the bird, the beauty of the rose, the buzz of the bee, the activities of those things that give forth in themselves the expressions of the joy of just using--for the time being--a portion of God in their activity. Would that all men everywhere could gain but that consciousness in life and life's experience...
-- Edgar Cayce reading 410-2
In 1925, the readings answered a question—or rather confirmed the meaning of this statement given as:
(Q) We humans are then one with all, one with the mineral, vegetable, animal, human and spirit kingdom. We are the spirit of God… We are one with the flowers of the field, the waves of the sea, the breath of the forest, with all mankind … Is this all true?
(A) This [is] all true, yet the mental forces of few are able to comprehend same in its entirety... All is Life. God is God of the Living…
-- Edgar Cayce reading 900-89
There are several readings that reiterate the oneness of all creation.
In ALL NATURE the Spirit of Creation is EMANATING!
-- Edgar Cayce reading 345-2
To put it simply, less than a year before his death, Cayce stated it this way in another reading:
The source of all life, and life in every form...is of one source, God.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 4047-2
Here is another reading along a similar vein:
For Life as it manifests, whether in the grass, the rose, the tree, the dog, the cat, the bird, the animal, IS a manifestation of that ye worship as God.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 1367-1
In 1922 the readings stated:
Mind being and is the factor governing...the interlaying space...between the physical to the soul, and the soul to the spirit forces within the individual or animate forces. We have the manifestation of this within the lowest order of animal creation.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 3744-2
Here the readings tell us that even the lowest form of animal—such as a butterfly or a bee, for example—is governed by the Mind which acts as a sort of intermediary between the soul—or spirit—and the body. This is an outline for “body-mind-spirit”—the very tenet of our metaphysical and holistic life.
Along this line, in one of my favorite readings, 3374-1, given to a 35-year-old woman in 1943, Cayce is describing her life seal when he says:
For the experience of the entity that has meant the most was in that period when it heard the Master say, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." This is the type, then, the field lily with all its beauty, its whiteness, and yet its center of gold. On same put three bees - these representing the mind, the body and the soul…
These will ever remind the entity, then, not merely to walk in the straight and narrow way but to teach and live so that others also may know the way in which ye should go.
In giving the appearances of the entity in the earth, there is much beauty to be drawn from the life. One may never tell a rose to be beautiful nor a violet to give off its fragrance, nor yet a sunset or the storm or the wind to add their voice to the songs of nature. Yet music and nature, and beauty of all kinds, appeal much to this entity. Have you wondered why? Have you used or abused such? These you must answer within self…
Ever be a worker, as the bee, yes - but in that way in which it is ever a contribution to making thy portion of the earth a more beautiful place [to] live…
For the smile of a baby, the fragrance of the rose, is but a reflection of God's care for man. Would he but learn the lesson of these little things!
For it is the foolishness of man that is the wisdom of God, and the wisdom of man that is the foolishness of his Maker.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 3374-1
So what can we learn from this?
I think the readings perfectly express that we are all ONE, and our spirit is a portion of God. By spending time in nature, perhaps we too can learn to “go with the flow” and act in accord with the Creative Forces, giving forth of ourselves in joyful expression.
And to help us learn these lessons, we’ve been given this opportunity to share our world with animals and nature—to observe all of life, and in doing so, we can be reminded of what it’s like when we allow ourselves to be in accord with spirit, just as animals and nature are in accord with spirit.
One reading even instructed us exactly with:
Hence the beauties of outdoor, the harmonies of the actions in nature, are ever … as lessons for life's own experience.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 69-1
Lastly, I’d like to share what Cayce said about communing with a tree. Members may have seen this highlighted in one of our recent Venture Inward magazines (accessible at EdgarCayce.org/members).
In a letter in 1933, Edgar wrote in a letter:
...when I had grown to be six or seven years old… our home was in a little wood. Here I learned to talk with the trees, or it appeared that they talked with me. I even yet hold that anyone may hear voices, apparently coming from a tree, if willing to choose a tree (a living tree, not a dead one) and sit against it for fifteen to twenty minutes each day (the same time each day) for twenty days. This was my experience. I chose a very lovely tree, and around it I played with my playmates that came … It was there that I read the Bible through the first time, that I learned to pray, that I had many visions …
-- Edgar Cayce reading 464-12 (Report section)
Cayce’s 3 Steps for Communing with a Tree
- Choose a live tree, preferably one that does not have too much disturbance around it.
- At the same time each day, sit against the tree in silence for 15-20 minutes.
- Do this every day for 20 days.
