to be in the same family. Thus, amid the predominant flow of the undercurrents of the collective there remains a degree of individual freedom.
Although soul groups are fairly well established and have significant pull on the individuals in them, they do not have greater influence than an individual soul’s free will. That is the great individualizing power given by the Creative Forces that conceived souls. Each soul has the inner power to determine its own way. It simply has to understand that its choices have reactions, consequences, and outcomes—its karma.
Generally, however, soul groups cycle in and out of the earth together and, therefore, at approximately the same time. (I am speaking in eras and ages, not days or years.) This is particularly evident in Edgar Cayce’s past-life “readings,” as they are called. Many of these past-life readings were for souls who fell into one of two major soul groups and naturally followed their group’s cycles of incarnating. Edgar Cayce and those who worked closely with him also traveled with one of these two groups. Gina Cerminara, author of one of the best books on Edgar Cayce’s past-life perspective, entitled Many Mansions, researched Cayce’s past-life readings and developed these lists.
The Cycle of Incarnations of Two Soul Groups
Group 1:
Early Atlantis
Early Ancient Egypt
Persia (during the time of Croesus, king of Lydia)
Palestine (during the time of Jesus)
The Crusades Colonial America
Group 2:
Late Atlantis
Late Ancient Egypt
Early Greece
Rome (during the time of Jesus)
France (during the time of Louis XIV, XV, XVI)
The American Civil War
Of course, these are only the most significant incarnations for these souls; they likely had more incarnations than the lists indicate. There were also other incarnation sequences given, but the majority of the readings were for souls who typically cycled with one of these two major groups. We should also take a look at some significant exceptions to this pattern. Some souls did not always incarnate with their group, choosing instead to skip a cycle or enter with another group, though they usually rejoined their primary group eventually. Others, though cycling into the earth plane with their group, did not actually incarnate; they did not enter into a body; they rather stayed in the spirit and helped from a higher vantage point those who were incarnated. One example of this comes from an Edgar Cayce reading for a woman who wanted to know why she hadn’t been given an incarnation during the Palestine era in which her present son and husband had incarnated. She was told that she was indeed involved in those activities but not in a physical body (incarnate). She was, as some of us would term it today, a “guardian angel” for her present son while he lived and worked in that period. And if she hadn’t done this, he would have fallen off the good path several times!
A group of souls may find themselves together again and yet not one of them desired it to be so. In these cases, it is often the forces of the Universal Law of Karma that compels them to come together. For better or for worse they now have to meet the effects of past actions with each other. The intention is that the confrontation will lead to a resolution of their karma or at least to a recognition of how past actions with each other have caused the present predicament, and hopefully then they will use their free wills to dissolve the karmic influence.
Both in individual and group relationships, the karmic effects of past actions with others can create some very difficult, even terrible situations. The meeting can result in murder, rape, torture, and other atrocities. Even in lesser cases karmic reactions can result in backbiting, backstabbing, bickering, contention, fighting, and turmoil. Imagine what might happen if the universal forces of cause and effect brought together the souls of the gladiators of the Roman Colosseum and the souls they had fed to the lions, or the Conquistadors and the Aztecs, or the Nazis and the Jews.
The same cause-and-effect forces play a part in individual lives too. Imagine if the law of karma brought together the murderer and victim killed in a family quarrel. What about a soul who betrayed another’s trust or love? What would be the reaction toward one another in this present life? Imagine the dynamics of working with someone who once tortured you or your loved ones. Imagine if you had tortured him or her and her loved ones. Imagine if you were publicly humiliated and burned at the stake. What would be your emotions upon meeting those people today? When lives are heavily burdened by the negative effects of their past actions, their present experience is often horrid, even tragic, and occasionally their lives may appear to be wasted senselessly. However, from the soul’s perspective a single incarnation is a learning experience and an opportunity to resolve past actions that are holding the soul back from its growth and ultimate destiny. One physical life is not the ultimate living experience for an immortal soul. It is an opportunity to resolve the burdens that past actions have upon us. It is an opportunity to clear away the many ideas that continue to confuse and mislead us. It’s an opportunity to break habit patterns that possess us and limit our ability to grow. Even though the eighty to a hundred years that comprise the average lifetime seems so very singular and final to the outer portion of our being, it is only a temporary sojourn, a brief experience along an infinite path of soul-life.
Of course, all the good that has been experienced among the various souls and soul groups has just as strong an effect on present situations as does the bad. And when we focus on this “good karma,” we often find better ways to resolve the negative.
This book looks at one distinct soul group that we call today the Essenes. It deals with how they began to bond together long before the incarnation of their group and how they are continuing to affect thoughts and actions today.
Chapter 2
Mysterious Essenes—
Rediscovered
It was a surprise to everyone present when the so-called “Sleeping Prophet,” Edgar Cayce, began giving a trance-state discourse about a soul group called the Essenes (pronounced, es-scenes), stating that they played a major role in the spiritual journey of humankind. Except for a few scholars and ancient-history buffs, no one on the planet had heard of the Essenes—that is until 1947 when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in caves in Qumran. And that discovery occurred two years after Cayce’s death in 1945, so he was teaching about a group that had not yet been discovered—revealing more about the so-called “Akashic record” and how all is recorded on this etheric film, this “collective mind,” and can be read if one’s own mind can tune into it, as Cayce’s did.
The physical Dead Sea Scrolls were found north of legendary Masada, along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. And though the Bible mentions Pharisees and Sadducees, it does not mention Essenes by name. Yet, we now know that the Essenes were deeply involved in Jewish and early Christian activities.
Historical records of the Essenes have given us some insight into this mysterious soul group, who were sometimes called Nazarenes, having originally come from Nazareth. The primary historical sources containing information about the Essenes are from these classical writers and their documents:
•Flavius Josephus: The Wars of the Jews (ca. 75CE), The Antiquities of the Jews (ca. 94CE), and The Life of Flavius Josephus (ca. 97CE).
•Philo Judaeus (ca. 20–54CE): Quod Omnis Probus Liber, Hypothetica in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, and De Vita Contemplativa.
•Pliny the Elder (died ca. 79CE): Natural History.
•Epiphanius of Salamis: Panarion (ca. 378CE).
According to these records, the Essenes were a large group of serious spiritual seekers, and though their scrolls were found in Qumran, their