Edgar Cayce’s Tales of Ancient Egypt
by John Van Auken

Students of esoterica know that the history of humanity stretches far beyond the 6,000 years of common knowledge. Beyond the dynastic period of ancient Egypt, beyond Babylon and Sumeria – most likely to the sunken continents of Atlantis and Lemuria. And it’s likely that the seeds of who we are that were sown so long ago originated from beyond this planet.

Edgar Cayce’s Tales of Ancient Egypt, as interpreted and related by Cayce scholar John Van Auken, takes us to the period of ancient Egypt’s birth and paints an in-depth portrait of the spiritual and political side of its origins.

The Men Behind the Book
John Van Auken has been studying Cayce’s voluminous readings for the past 40 years, specializing in the ancient mysteries and lost civilizations. Auken is also a director at Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.). Auken has also written From Karma to Grace (a book on spiritual living based on Cayce’s readings) and Edgar Cayce and the Kabbalah. Cayce’s readings, which were transcribed while Cayce was in a trance state accessing the Akashic Records, are often filled with archaic and confusing language. Cayce’s readings are usually not easily understood. Having a Cayce scholar like Auken who is not only well-versed in Cayce’s readings but also the ancient civilizations about which Cayce speaks makes Auken an invaluable resource in making sense of Cayce’s readings – which may very well be some of the most important, if not entirely prophetic, body of work of the last 100 years.

Edgar Cayce grew up a simple, rural man who lived in the late 19th and early 20th Century. He became well known as the “sleeping prophet” for his ability to fall into a trance state and access information from a higher dimensional state. During his trances, he gave medical information to those who were sick, giving them the information necessary to heal. He gave information to oil prospectors that helped them determine where to drill. Because his readings were so accurate and because he had such success, particularly in healing the sick, Cayce became one of the world’s most renowned psychics. During Cayce’s readings, his wife was the intermediary between the clients and Cayce. She asked the questions on the client’s behalf. Starting in 1923, Cayce hired a secretary who began transcribing his readings. Today, 14,000 of Cayce’s readings are stored and available at the A.R.E. in Virginia Beach (as well as online and on disc).

Among Cayce’s most interesting readings are those involving spirituality, Atlantis and ancient mysteries.

Tales of Ancient Egypt
The book begins with the story of how ancient Egypt was first populated by Nubians, then peacefully “invaded” by 900 survivors of the Atlantean destruction who descended from a mountainous region of Turkey and met with a population that was well taken care of by the river Nile and preferred to make a peaceful co-existence with the newcomers. The high priest of the Atlanteans was Ra-Ta, a previous incarnation of Cayce’s.

The destruction of Atlantis signaled the end of humanity’s First Creation and the beginning of the Second Creation. The planet was nearly wiped clean of humans and the mission in those days was to repopulate the planet. Many in these ancient times still retained the Law of One philosophy of our ancestors – the idea that we are a single consciousness having individual experiences as we evolve our way back to Source. But as is also foretold by the Hindu Yuga cycle, humanity was falling into a period of extreme duality. Good and evil. Our Law of One-ness would be replaced by division, separateness, other-ness, us-versus-them. (We are now coming out of this period as the veil over the truth of who we are is being lifted.)

Auken goes on to tell Cayce’s tales of the more important figures in Egypt’s pre-Dynastic era, often intertwining Egyptian gods into the story.

Hermes-Thoth
Auken mentions that the character of Hermes-Thoth is a difficult one to pinpoint in history – and he is right on. Thoth is an extremely confusing character – appearing in Egypt as Thoth, in Greece as Hermes and in Rome as Mercury. Auken notes that Thoth has been identified at times as Enoch. And apparently one Cayce reading identifies Thoth as a prior incarnation of Jesus. All very confusing indeed. But one consistency I’ve found is that Cayce identifies Thoth as the builder of the Great Pyramid. Drunvalo Melchizedek also claims this is so.

The Mysteries
The first half of Tales details the lives of a number of pre-Dynastic characters – like Ra-Ta and others who surrounded him (and who reincarnated with Edgar Cayce to be his close friends, family and wife). The second half of the book delves into Cayce’s readings that deal with some of the mysteries of ancient Egypt. These subjects deal with ancient flight and caches of prehistoric records buried near the Sphinx on the Giza Plateau as well as prophecies that were built into the physical character of the Great Pyramid. Equally as fascinating is Cayce’s tales of where Jesus spent his so-called missing years – studying in India and training for higher states of consciousness within the Great Pyramid.

The Three Chambers
Auken does a noble job of making sense of a period of human history that is shrouded in mystery. But perhaps one day will come when we will know beyond a shadow of a doubt what our true history and heritage is.

A most curious piece of information in the Cayce collection of psychic discourses is his claim that there are three hidden chambers on this planet containing stone tablets upon which Atlanteans wrote a prehistoric story of a time when human spirits began to enter material bodies. He said that the stone tablets document millions of years of semi-physical activity in the mythological lands of Mu, Lemuria, Atlantis, Og, Oz, Zu and others. The stones tell of a time when the life forces of the godlings of the Creator were attempting to manifest themselves in this three-dimensional world from multidimensional realms beyond our normal perception. These ancient beings retained their immortality and projected into matter from out of what we would consider to be pure energy or spirit. They were soul-minds and could push their consciousness into matter or withdraw into higher dimensions at will …

According to Cayce, the three record chambers containing these ancient stone recorders are located in three separate locations on the planet. One is under the waters near the Bahamian island of Bimini near the Gulf Stream in a sunken Atlantean temple. Another is underground near the Sphinx in Giza, Egypt. The third is beneath an over-hanging temple in the Mayan lands …

Cayce stated, “as time draws nigh when changes are to come about, there may be the opening of those three places where the records are one, to those that are the initiates in the knowledge of the One God …”

We are aspects of that One God.