The Book of Revelation

According to Edgar Cayce

The following is an excerpt from the Association for Research and Enlightenment book "Commentary on the Revelation."

The final book of the Bible is called the Book of Revelation.   Written by a man named John  (possibly John the Apostle)  toward the end of his life, he records a vision he experiences while in meditation.   This vision contains a tremendous amount of symbolism;  the same kind of symbolism one would see in a dream, a vision of the spirit world.  In fact, it contains the same symbolism found in the prophet Daniel's dream.  All such Biblical visions, such as Peter's dream of a sheet filled with unclean animals being let down to earth, are not to be taken literally.  There are always hidden meanings behind the symbols. The symbols involved in such visions and dreams represent spiritual archetypes having a much deeper meaning than a literal interpretation.  Such is the case with the Book of Revelation.

Edgar Cayce unlocked the symbolism of the Book of Revelation while under hypnosis.  He gave a large amount of readings specifically for the purpose of discovering the Book's hidden meaning.  What Cayce revealed can be contained in a book itself.  What follows is a very general discussion of the Cayce interpretation.

Chapters 1-3:    Letters to the Churches

John explains that he was in the Spirit when Christ appears to him standing in the midst of seven candlesticks.  Christ then tells John to write down what he sees and hears concerning seven churches.

Interpretation:

While in meditation, John's conscious mind is contacted by his superconscious mind, the Christ Consciousness, which is the divine core of every person.  The seven churches represent the seven spiritual centers of the body or "seals", where the physical, mental and spiritual forces all come together.  The Christ Consciousness tells John that anyone who can regain control of these spiritual centers within their bodies can access the Mind of Christ, the universal superconscious, and never need to reincarnate again  (verse 3:12).  Here is a table of the symbols:

Chapter 4-11:    Christ opens the seals of the book in heaven

John now appears at the throne of God and sees four beasts and twenty-four elders around it.  On the throne sits God who has a book with seven seals.  John weeps when he learns that no one can open the seals to the book.  One of the elders tells John that Christ is able to open the seals.  Christ then opens the seals, resulting in many earth changes.  The seventh seal unleashes seven angels who sound seven trumpets which are sounded one by one.

Interpretation:

John has a mental awakening when he attains the spiritual level of the Christ Consciousness, within the throne of his own body.  The four beasts are his four lower spiritual center's desires and the twenty-four elders are the twenty-four cranial nerves that lead to his five senses.  The superconscious, the Christ Mind, is now in full control of John's body.  The body is symbolized by a book with seven seals which no one has the ability to open on his own  (verse 5:3).  Only through the development of the Mind of Christ within a person's being by experience can these spiritual centers be opened.  As each spiritual center is opened, different parts of the body are purified and upheavals of the body occur mentally, physically, and spiritually.  The Christ Consciousness opens the seventh center, the pituitary, as a result of perfect control of the mind for one half hour (verse 8:1).  Here are more symbols interpreted:

Chapter 12-14:  A woman, a dragon, two beasts, and a lamb

John sees a woman with twelve stars about to bear a child.   Next to the woman is a dragon that is ready to devour the child she is giving birth to.   After the child is born, the child is taken to the throne of God.   Afterward, a war in heaven occurs and the devil and his angels are cast out of heaven to earth.   John also sees a beast rise out of the sea which the world worships.   John then sees a lamb on the earth and angels proclaiming the fall of Babylon.

Interpretation:

John is shown a picture of the soul of humanity in its development since the days of eternity.   The woman symbolizes the human soul crowned with the twelve basic patterns of humanity  (the zodiac).   The child she bears is the conscious mind.   As the conscious mind is born, a rival force of the Self Will occurs, which brings about recurring periods of rebellion in Man.   Through Divine intervention, the conscious mind is protected while the unconscious mind from which it sprung, is withdrawn below the conscious level.   This is the same story as symbolized as the fall of Adam in the Book of Genesis.   Rebellion from the physical brings conflict into the soul but the soul can remain above it by remaining concealed from the forces of Self Will.  

The beast John sees rising out of the sea is the selfish desires that arise which are capable of ruling man.   These desires spring from the Self Will of the unspiritualized intellect of humanity whom the world worships as a "symbol of success".   The human intellect, lacking spiritual orientation, cuts itself off from all that is Divine.   The lamb John sees are the forces of the Christ Consciousness in the world going into action.   Babylon, the pattern for earthly riches and success in the gratification of the flesh, begins to be destroyed as humans are shown the consequences of their prostitution of their higher faculties.

Chapter 15-18:    Seven angels, seven vials of seven plagues, and a great prostitute riding a seven-headed beast.

John is shown seven angels each of whom holds a vial containing a plague which they pour upon the earth one at a time.   John then sees a woman sitting on a seven-headed beast with ten horns.   The woman wears on her forehead a name written  "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth."   John is told the seven heads symbolize the seven mountains on which the woman sits and the ten horns symbolize ten kings.   These make war against the lamb and the lamb conquers.

Interpretation:

John is seeing within the soul of Man, the collective unconscious, that the souls of individuals are purified and tested on seven levels of consciousness symbolized by the seven plagues being poured out by the seven angels.   When all seven levels have been purified, then and only then can a person control the physical, mental, and spiritual forces within his body.   Physical diseases arise from the misuse of the forces and self-gratification of the flesh wars against universal truth.   This brings about conflict in the world against groups and governments.   The end of the seven ordeals comes when man's social institutions and concepts collapse, leaving universal truth to be realized.   The Prostitute of Babylon symbolizes lust and the beast it rides on are manmade ideas stemming from self-gratification.   It is explained to John that these forces have taken control of the seven spiritual centers of Man's body, thereby becoming possessed and ruled.   However, as the highest forces of evolving humanity overcome the forces of self, even the ten basic urges symbolized by the ten horns, will in time fulfill the divine pattern.   As the divine nature in humanity becomes less realized, society is destroyed by its own hand through self-gratification.

Chapter 19-22:   Rejoicing in heaven, the devil thrown into a bottomless pit, a new heaven and new earth.

John now sees much rejoicing in heaven and the appearance of Christ.   An angel casts the devil into a bottomless pit for one thousand years.   John then sees a new heaven and a new earth come into being.

Interpretation:

What was the final salvation of the bodily, mental, and spiritual forces in John in Chapter 11, now are shown to take place in collective humanity.  When humanity recognizes the divinity within them as the controlling force in the world, and turns away from their own selfish pattern of living for self alone, the old pattern disappears and the Christ Pattern emerges.  John is told that the merging of the evolved self with the divine superconscious which has taken place in John must also take place in all humanity (verse 19:7).  The fulfilled pattern of evolved Man, the Christ, is now shown in a position of power.  Now the archetype of man's continual rebellions, the self-willed intellect symbolized as the devil, is confined for a time in the collective unconsciousness.   During this period of one thousand years only the evolved souls incarnate the earth  (verse 20:4).  At the end of this period, the remaining souls begin to incarnate, bringing with them their unsatisfied ambitions and desires. This, of course, brings about the former conditions of imbalance  (wars and plagues). These conditions, all manmade, are now themselves eliminated and all mental forms and patterns not formed by divine Will are purged  (verse 20:14). The new heaven and new earth John sees is humanity's perfected state of consciousness and regenerated body.  The human mind at this point is now divine in the perfection of control and is free from outside limitation.   The human conscious mind merges with the Christ Mind, the divine Consciousness.  Revelation 22:18-19 states that if anyone adds or takes away from this book, that person will experience the plagues in this book. The "book" is the body, which is the vehicle for human experience in the world.  Through it the lessons of the soul are learned.  There can be no shortcuts or meanderings without dire consequences to it.

 

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