“Christ is not a man.”
- Edgar Cayce
With
his outer mind quietly set aside and his deeper mind at-one with
the Universal Consciousness, Edgar Cayce asked us, “What
will you do with this man Jesus of Nazareth Jeshua of Jerusalem,
Joshua in Shiloh, Joseph in the court of Pharaoh, Melchi-zedek
as he blessed Abraham, Enoch as he warned the people, Adam as
he listened to Eve?” In a reading for a person who had both
Jewish and Christian training and was wrestling to decide which
religion he preferred, the Source of Cayce’s readings asked:
“Have you not found that the essence, the truth, the real
truth is ONE? Mercy and justice; peace and harmony. For without
Moses and his leader Joshua (that was bodily Jesus) there is no
Christ. Christ is not a man. Jesus was the man; Christ the messenger;
Christ in all ages, Jesus in one, Joshua in another, Melchizedek
in another; these be those that led Judaism! These be they that
came as the child of promise, as to the children of promise; and
the promise is in you, that you lead as He has given you: ‘Feed
my sheep.’”
Obviously, when in contact with the Universal Consciousness,
Cayce’s perspective on Jesus Christ is much different from
the church’s and even his own outer self’s. Cayce
and his family were Bible-reading Christians. Yet, when he set
aside his outer self and lifted his deeper mind into the Oneness
with what the readings called the “Universal Consciousness,”
a new perspective on Jesus Christ came through him to us, a perspective
that is greater than one incarnation and beyond three-dimensional
limitations.
From this perspective Christ is the Word, the Logos, the universal
light of God manifested through an incarnate person. Cayce’s
readings explain that the light of Christ first incarnated in
Poseidia in Atlantis around 106,000 B.C. doing so to help
souls who had lost their conscious connection with God and had
become trapped in matter. The attuned Cayce sees us as spirits
and minds; physical bodies came long after our original creation
in the image and likeness of the Universal Creator. The Christ
spirit realized that it was going to take a series of incarnations
in order to fully overcome the influences that had taken possession
of our minds and hearts, and it came out of the heavens into matter
to help us along the way.
The Christ spirit did not incarnate only in the Western world.
Cayce explains that wherever the concept of one God and one brotherhood,
sisterhood was proclaimed, the Christ spirit was there. As the
disciple John wrote in the opening lines of his gospel: “In
the beginning was the Word [the Christ], and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. All things were created through this
One; and nothing that has been made was made without this One.
In this One was life, and the life was the light of humanity.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
it. The Word [the Christ] became flesh and dwelt among us, full
of grace and truth.” A portion of the trinity of God came
among humanity to help us. Cayce says this first happened in the
legendary times of Atlantis; then again in Eden, between the Tigris
and Euphrates; and again in Egypt, and again and again, continuing
even today. In one of Cayce’s most often-published readings,
he stated: “For the time never was when there was not a
Christ....”
Many devoted Christians wrestle with the edict that a person
must “name the name” in order to achieve full resurrection,
redemption, and eternal life. Even the Cayce readings quote this
phrase, but with a significant twist to it: “He that would
name the name must have become perfect in himself!” How
many of us Christians can say we have achieved this requirement?
Another reading says: “Magnify that name, that name, that
becomes on every tongue that of the crucified one in the manner
that self is crucified to the fleshly desires, preferring the
spirit of the Holy One before self, and considering your neighbor
as yourself.” Using this reading’s definition of the
name, couldn’t a person who has heard little of Jesus be
“naming the name” if he or she has crucified fleshly
desires, preferring God’s will over his own, and loving
his fellow man as himself? Is the name a word or is it spirit?
Is salvation the name “Jesus” or loving God and others
as Jesus instructed? Is Christ only Christian or universal? Is
God and the manifestation of God among us limited to select souls?
Does not God love and seek the companionship of all His/Her children?
“As an entity, a soul, a mind, enters [the spiritual dimensions]
put about self the cloak, the garment, yea the mantle of Christ;
not as a man, not as an individual but the CHRIST that universal
consciousness of love that we see manifested in those who have
forgotten self but, as Jesus, give themselves that others may
know the truth.” Here we see Cayce equating Christ with
“the universal consciousness of love.” This consciousness
may be achieved by anyone of any religion or even no religion.
Consider
the apparitions in Medjugorje, Bosnia, in 1981. A woman holding
a baby was seen surrounded by exquisite rays of light. The young
people (mostly teenagers) that saw her said that she looked liked
the sun, had twelve stars over her head, a luminescent white veil,
and a pearl-gray dress. She introduced herself as “the mother
of all people.” She encouraged one of the Christian children
to follow the example of a good Moslem woman in her community.
She said that her message was for all people, and “If it
is necessary, I will appear in each home.” The luminescent
lady warned her listeners that it is time for complete reconciliation
among people. This message was given in Bosnia, where Christians,
Moslems, Croats, and Serbs had much underlying hatred and prejudice
toward one another.
We Christians need to allow Jesus Christ to be bigger than Christianity.
As Jesus said (or the Christ spirit with whom Jesus made himself
one), “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall
become one flock, one shepherd,” John 10:16. Jesus said
that he taught and did what he was guided to do from God, the
Father, within him. And before leaving us to become completely
one with God, Jesus informed us that the “Comforter,”
the “Spirit of Truth,” would come to us and guide
us.
Of course, not only Christians have to let go of religious elitism.
Jews, Moslems, and others have contingents that believe their
faith is the only true faith, and all must swear allegiance to
their doctrines. As difficult as it may be, Christians, Jews,
Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, and other religious groups are going
to have to allow God to be the God of all people, and open their
own hearts to all people. As the psalmist observed, God is everywhere
and creator of everyone: “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou
art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea; even there thy hand leads me, and
thy right hand holds me,” Psalm 139:7-10. Cayce often quoted
the passage: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,”
Deut. 6:4 & Mark 12:29.
Having
presented this universal Christ, it’s important to acknowledge
that in daily personal spirituality, one uses the practices, concepts,
and ceremonies of one’s own religion and culture. In homes
in Cairo, Tel Aviv, New Delhi, New York families flourish best
when using their own religious customs. These evoke the spirit
and love of God in particular ways that are ingrained into the
nature of one’s being. These become sacred. Universalism
is not a call to deny one’s unique ways. It is a call to
cleanse our hearts and minds of prejudice against others in the
name of God. This evil spirit overtakes even the most well-intended,
causing moral people to commit immoral acts, justified in the
name of religious or ethnic purity. And this spirit does not just
occur in war. It occurs in daily life, in little ways. All religious
people have felt this from others. Jews, Moslems, and even Christians
have felt the sting of prejudice against them. Many secularists
in society today have an anti-any-religion attitude, and they
base their prejudice on the negative actions of religious people
throughout the ages. A new spirituality needs to be born. One
that is universal. One that allows God to be God of all people.
One that has faith that God can and will save all the souls that
can be saved, no matter what their religious or nonreligious perspective.
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