under the influence of Mercury, Jupiter, and of Mars, with the Pleiades and the Orion in the benevolent influence of the life.
5454-3
In taking the position in the present plane, we find the urges, and the manifest and latent, are from those of Jupiter, with Venus, Mercury, Mars, and of the Pleiades.
2698-1
In entering the earth’s plane in the present life, we find the entity comes under the influences of Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, with the adverse influences of Venus and Saturn; the assistance in the influence of Uranus and of the Pleiades.
2675-4
In taking the position in the present earth’s plane, we find under the influence of Jupiter and Venus, with Mercury and Uranus in the distance. In the adverse influence then of Vulcan and of the Pleiades.
569-6
In coming to the present earth plane, we find the entity taking its position from that of Venus, with those of the Pleiades, Jupiter and of Mercury, and with the benevolent influence of Saturn’s forces in the degree that is seldom seen in the earth’s plane. One with the adverse influence in Mars and in Vulcan’s forces.
780-6
As these reading indicate, Cayce saw the astrological influence of the Pleiades as being mainly benevolent. This brings to mind Tennyson’s famous lines about this lovely stellar jewelbox in his poem Locksley Hall:
Many a night from yonder ivied casement,
Ere I went to rest,
Did I look on great Orion, sloping slowly
to the west.
Many a night I saw the Pleiads,
rising thro’ the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies
tangled in a silver braid.
Also, note in the last two readings Edgar Cayce’s reference to “Vulcan.” This is the name astronomers centuries ago gave to a planet believed to lie in the same orbit as the Earth but on the opposite side of the Sun from us—and, therefore, which could never be seen from here. From many lines of evidence (including spacecraft that have actually been there!) we know that Vulcan doesn’t exist. But here’s what Cayce surprisingly had to say about this mythical planet:
(Q) Is there a planet anciently known as Lilith or Vulcan?
(A) Pluto and Vulcan are one and the same. No Lilith. Lilith is a personality.
826-8
What an amazing connection—given that Pluto itself wasn’t discovered until 1930!
One other interesting fact concerning the Pleiades needs to be mentioned here. Many ancient cultures (especially Asian ones) claim that their ancestors came from this star cluster! This includes the Japanese, who have even named a car after it—the Subaru. The author has personally met a number of people in this country over the years who make the same claim. In fact, more than once following a lecture where I’ve set up my telescope and given those attending a view of the Pleiades, someone has burst into tears and said to me “That’s my home!”
The second basic type of star grouping is that of the “globular clusters.” These are enormous beehivelike swarms containing anywhere from 100,000 up to a million suns! Edgar Cayce didn’t actually mention any of them by name as he did the Pleiades—probably because even the brightest of them are only barely visible without optical aid, due to their great distances from us. But I truly hope he may have had the opportunity of seeing one of these starballs through a large telescope. The incredible spectacle greeting the eye of hundreds of thousands of remote suns staring back at you is quite beyond any words to describe! And we can only imagine what the night sky must look like to anyone living on a planet within such a cluster. (This is, in fact, the basis for Isaac Asimov’s Nightfall—one of the greatest science fiction short stories ever written. Based upon the immortal lines in one of Emerson’s essays—“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years …”—it’s a story about a planet that has multiple suns in its sky, causing it to become dark only once in several centuries. When it does, its inhabitants find themselves living inside of an immense globular cluster with countless numbers of blazing stars shining in their heavens like a starry blizzard!
In the author’s opinion, the ultimate reference to stars and clusters of stars (and all things celestial!) is the late Carl Sagan’s classic work Cosmos (Random House, 1980) and the visually stunning thirteen-part PBS television series based upon it. Both the book itself and a 2005 version of the video presentation, updated by Sagan’s wife and noted writer Ann Druyan, are available from the PBS Web site at pbs.org. It’s estimated that at least one-fifth of the human race—well over a billion people—have watched Cosmos! Sagan truly was an eloquent spokesman for planet Earth and for the universe itself. As such, he is sorely missed. But he is at home among the stars he so loved.
2The word galaxy does appear in one reading: “(Q) The ‘Primitive Man in Light’ looked out from the earth and saw us within the sphere of the Universe with its constellations which combined to form his consciousness. He knew then, that a ‘Way of Escape’ from the rounds of Reincarnation opened beyond this Universe—beyond the Galaxy—beyond the opening in the forehead of Cepheus. Will you explain this ‘Way of Escape’?”
“(A) We do not find it so. For we have this: These are the basis of—Let’s get what is the first principle here. These are concepts, these are not the activities of individuals who look out upon that; not as the earth as the center of its activities, but as the own solar system, here. It is true that the activities so far as in this sphere or Galaxy of activities of the planetary forces within this present solar system, the earth first became as the indwelling of the consciousness of the race or the man in this particular sphere …” (1602-3) Here it appears that the word galaxy refers to our own Milky Way Galaxy.
3Galaxies used to be known as “island universes”–a term that Edgar Cayce may well have been familiar with, as it was widely used in his day.
2
Life Elsewhere in the Universe
ARE WE ALONE?
One of the most hauntingly profound questions in all of science (as well as religion and philosophy) is whether or not we are alone in this vast universe. And as the noted physicist Lee DuBridge put it, “Either alternative is mind-boggling.” For if we are not alone—if we have sisters and brothers living on other worlds—it means there are other sentient beings “out there” with whom we may someday (or may already have, according to some) come into contact. But if we are alone—if we are the only living intelligent entities in all the cosmos—it brings with it both a realization of how unique and privileged we are and a deep responsibility to preserve that life as unbelievably precious. The writer Thomas Carlyle cynically summed up the issue of life on other worlds as follows: “A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space.”!
But