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The Edgar Cayce Life Readings describe the human soul as living among many influences. These include planetary sojourns, previous lives, heredity, the physical body, family conditions, the surrounding environment, and relationships with other people. All these forces may affect our thoughts, emotions, abilities, desires, and opportunities. However, the readings repeatedly teach that an influence is not the same as a command. A tendency is not a fixed destiny. At the centre of the soul is the will—the God-given power to choose what we will do with the influences that reach us.
Reading 553-1 gives a clear spiritual definition of will: “The soul has a will, the factor that makes for the freedom of activity in the various realms where consciousness may be experienced.”
This tells us that will is more than a function of the physical brain. It belongs to the soul. It operates not only during an earthly life but also through the different realms in which the soul experiences consciousness. The soul may gather many influences through its planetary sojourns, but it is more than the total of those influences. Through the will, the soul can decide how these forces will be expressed.
Reading 274-1 says: “As to what an entity does concerning its environs or hereditary influence from the MATERIAL viewpoint, this is governed by the action of the will.” The reading then adds: “Hence the WILL is an ATTRIBUTE of the soul, and the whole development of an entity.”
This is one of the clearest statements in the Life Readings. A person may inherit certain physical features, emotional tendencies, mental abilities, or bodily weaknesses. The individual may also grow up in a difficult family or social environment. These conditions may strongly influence the personality, but they do not completely decide what the soul must become. The development of the soul depends upon what the individual chooses to do within those conditions.
Planetary Sojourns Create Urges, Not Fixed Destiny
In the Life Readings, planetary sojourns produce urges, inclinations, abilities, and patterns of thought or emotion. The planets do not appear to control the soul like a puppet. They represent realms of consciousness through which the soul has passed. The soul brings something from those experiences into its present life, but the individual still decides how those qualities will be used.
Reading 1595-1 explains that planetary sojourns become part of the soul’s experience, but then states: “None of these urges surpass the will, which is a portion of the soul’s body, or an attribute of the soul.”
The reading continues by saying that the choices made by an individual help bring about the circumstances that arise from day to day. Planetary influences may therefore create possibilities, but the will determines which possibilities will be encouraged and expressed.
Reading 790-1 makes the point even more clearly: “The destiny is only that certain urges arise, and what the entity does about them makes for the changes.”
A planetary pattern may indicate that a person will experience certain desires, emotions, talents, or challenges. It does not mean that the person must express them in only one way. For example, a strong Mars influence might appear as anger, impatience, aggression, courage, endurance, or the desire to protect others. Venus might be expressed as possessiveness and the desire for pleasure, or as beauty, kindness, harmony, and unselfish love. Mercury might become clever argument and nervous mental activity, or it might become communication, teaching, study, and the search for truth.
The planetary influence supplies the urge, but the person chooses its direction.
Reading 1646-2 gives a detailed explanation: “As to whether or not such urges become material manifestations depends upon the manner in which the will entertains such within the experience of the entity.” The reading then defines the purpose of will: “Will is that factor in the experience of each entity in material manifestation which gives the ability to choose that as may be for the development or the retardment.”
This means that the same influence may help one person grow and cause another person to go backward. The difference is not necessarily in the influence itself. The difference is in how the individual receives, directs, and applies it.
Reading 1467-3 gives the principle in very simple words: “Each soul is given the will, the choice.”
It then says that planetary influences may lead either to development or retardment, depending upon what the person does with them. The readings therefore do not support the excuse, “The planets made me do it.” The planets may help explain why a certain urge is present, but they do not remove personal responsibility for its use.
The Power We Give to an Influence
Reading 1183-1 says that the influences of earthly experiences and planetary sojourns are signs and omens. It then declares: “No influence is greater than the will of self, that given as the birthright to each soul.”
The reading adds an especially important principle: “In so far as the entity allows itself to be influenced by same, they have the influence upon the entity.”
This does not mean that all influences are imaginary. It means that the attention, belief, and authority we give to an influence can increase its power in our lives. If a person believes that a planet, prediction, family history, or past-life pattern completely controls them, that belief may itself weaken their use of will. Reading 1183-1 warns that when people accept signs or inclinations as ruling powers, they may become ruled by them.
The same reading concludes: “Destiny then is indeed in the hands of the INDIVIDUAL.”
This statement should not be understood as saying that we can control everything that happens. We cannot always control illness, economic conditions, natural disasters, the actions of other people, or every consequence of our former choices. However, we still have some power over the spirit, motive, and attitude with which we meet these experiences. We may not always choose the situation, but we can gradually learn to choose our response.
Free Will Does Not Remove Consequences
Free will does not mean that the soul can avoid everything it has already created. Thoughts, motives, and actions produce consequences. Reading 243-10 calls will: “That developing factor with which an entity chooses or builds that freedom.” However, the reading also warns: “That builded must be met, whether in thought or in deed.”
The soul is free to choose, but it is not free from the results of its choices. If a person repeatedly gives way to anger, selfishness, dishonesty, or fear, these responses may become strong habits. The person still possesses will, but using it constructively may become more difficult. In this way, the misuse of free will can produce a form of bondage.
On the other hand, every patient, loving, truthful, and courageous choice strengthens the soul’s ability to choose well again. Freedom grows through use. The soul becomes more free as it learns to master its automatic reactions and live according to its spiritual ideal.
Reading 1719-1 describes will as: “That factor which may be trained.”
Will is therefore both a divine gift and an ability that must be developed. A person may have free will but still be controlled in daily life by fear, anger, appetite, pride, addiction, the desire for approval, or old emotional habits. Each time the person chooses the spiritual ideal instead of the old reaction, the will becomes stronger.
This is why the readings often emphasize daily application. Freedom is not developed only through knowing spiritual truths. It is developed by practising truth, patience, forgiveness, kindness, courage, and service in real situations.
Heredity and Environment Influence but Do Not Decide
Family, education, culture, childhood experiences, and economic conditions help form the personality. The readings do not deny the importance of these influences. However, they do not treat them as the final explanation of a person’s character.
Reading 2494-1 says: “Will is the factor that develops an entity.” The reading explains that a person becomes what is built through application: “NOT of circumstance, not even of that called hereditary environment.”
This does not mean that heredity and environment have no effect. It means that their final spiritual value depends upon what the individual does with them. A difficult childhood may produce anger and bitterness, or it may eventually awaken understanding and compassion for other wounded people. Suffering does not automatically make a person better. Its spiritual meaning depends upon how it is faced, understood, assimilated, and used.
Reading 2896-1 says of changes in environment: “As to what these DO to the ENTITY, is the ENTITY’S self!”
The main question is not only, “What happened to me?” It is also, “What am I choosing to become through what happened to me?” This does not blame people for the wrong done to them. The person who causes harm remains responsible for that harm. The reading instead protects the spiritual dignity of the injured person by teaching that the wrongdoing of another person does not have to possess the final word over the soul.
Reading 909-1 also acknowledges the effects of heredity, environment, and former experiences, but concludes: “It is the choice that makes for that towards its destiny.”
Environment may shape the situation, but choice helps determine what the situation will produce within the soul.
Can Other Souls Control Our Will?
Other people can have great influence over us. They may encourage, inspire, teach, tempt, pressure, deceive, threaten, or manipulate. They may affect our emotions and change our external circumstances. In some situations, another person may severely limit the choices available to us. The Cayce readings should never be used to deny abuse, oppression, emotional conditioning, or the real suffering caused by others.
However, another soul cannot permanently take possession of our deepest spiritual choice. Reading 2142-1 discusses the influence of friendships and associations, but says that what the individual does with those relationships: “Is and will be a matter of will.”
Relationships provide conditions in which the will is tested and developed. A difficult person may awaken anger, fear, jealousy, patience, courage, or forgiveness. A loving person may help someone discover confidence, hope, and purpose. A group may encourage service and cooperation, or it may encourage fear, prejudice, and conformity. Yet each individual must finally decide what place those influences will have within the self.
Other people may control circumstances, but they cannot completely determine what the soul will become through those circumstances. They cannot choose our spiritual ideal for us. They cannot force us inwardly to love or hate, forgive or seek revenge, serve or exploit. Those decisions belong to the soul, even when making them is extremely difficult.
Karma Does Not Cancel Free Will
Karma in the Life Readings is not simply punishment imposed from outside. It is the return of causes, habits, attitudes, relationships, and responsibilities that the soul has helped create. The past provides the present conditions, but present choice determines what will now be built from them.
Reading 661-4 says: “The destiny of an entity’s experience in any particular sojourn depends upon what the entity HAS done and WILL do with the opportunities of every nature that are presented to same.”
The words “has done” point to the past. The words “will do” point to present and future choices. Both are part of destiny. The past influences the present, but it does not completely close the future.
Karma may bring the soul face to face with something that must be met. However, the individual can meet it in a new spirit. Hatred from the past can be met with more hatred, continuing the pattern, or it can be met with understanding, patience, and constructive action, beginning its transformation. A talent that was formerly used for selfish purposes can be redirected toward helping others. A weakness can become the place where humility, discipline, and compassion are developed.
Karma describes what has already been built. Will determines what is being built now.
Will Must Be Guided by an Ideal
Free will by itself is not necessarily good. The will may be used for love or selfishness, truth or deception, service or control. For this reason, the Life Readings constantly connect will with the choice of an ideal.
Reading 1192-1 says: “That as is as its own ideal BECOMES the guiding or directing spirit with the will of the entity in its relations to environs in a material experience.”
An ideal gives direction to the will. Without a spiritual ideal, the strongest desire or emotion of the moment may take control. With an ideal, a person can examine an urge and ask: Does this express love? Is it truthful? Will it help or harm another person? Does it produce patience, kindness, courage, cooperation, and service? Is it consistent with the spirit of Christ?
Reading 1646-2 says: “What ye will do about them depends upon what is thy ideal.”
The reading points toward Christ as: “The way, the truth and the life.”
It then explains that as less selfishness and more of this ideal are expressed in our relationships, the true individuality of the soul develops.
This means that real freedom is not simply doing whatever the personality desires. The personality itself may be influenced by appetite, fear, pride, social pressure, or planetary urges. Spiritual freedom is the growing ability to choose according to the soul’s highest ideal instead of being driven by these temporary forces.
Free Will and the Christ Ideal
In the Cayce readings, the will becomes truly free when it is willingly brought into harmony with the divine will. This does not destroy individuality. It releases individuality from fear, hatred, selfishness, confusion, and uncontrolled desire. The soul becomes free to express the purpose for which it was created.
This principle is expressed in the biblical teaching that truth makes us free. Reading 1719-1 connects the training of will with this idea: “For in Truth one finds freedom, for he that findeth the Truth is free indeed.”
The Christ ideal gives the soul a standard higher than planetary inclination, social pressure, personal desire, or fear. When faced with anger, the person can choose patience. When faced with selfishness, the person can choose service. When faced with hatred, the person can choose not to return hatred. When faced with fear, the person can choose faith and constructive action.
This does not happen perfectly or instantly. It is a gradual development. Every sincere effort strengthens the will and makes the Christ pattern easier to express.
A Simple Way to Understand the Teaching
Planetary sojourns give the soul urges, abilities, and tendencies. Past earthly lives contribute habits, relationships, and unfinished consequences. Heredity provides physical and psychological conditions. Environment supplies opportunities, pressures, and limitations. Other souls bring love, conflict, cooperation, temptation, and help. The ideal provides direction. The will decides how all these influences will be used. Repeated choices form character, and character helps shape destiny.
The Life Readings therefore do not teach that the will is completely untouched by outside forces. They teach something more practical: the soul lives among many influences, but no influence must become its absolute master.
Planetary forces may urge, but they do not command. Heredity may condition, but it does not completely define. Environment may limit, but it does not finally decide. Other people may pressure, encourage, or injure, but they cannot permanently choose the soul’s spiritual direction. Karma may bring consequences that must be met, but it does not remove the power to meet them in a new way.
The clearest summary may be found in Reading 1595-1: “None of these urges surpass the will.”
Free will is therefore not freedom from every influence, condition, or consequence. It is the God-given power to decide what we will do with them. It is the ability to turn an urge into service, a weakness into strength, suffering into understanding, knowledge into wisdom, and opportunity into spiritual growth.
The soul may not control everything that happens, but through its ideal and the daily application of will, it helps decide what those experiences will mean and what the soul will become through meeting them.
Meaning of the Image
The image represents the soul standing among many influences while still possessing the freedom to choose its spiritual direction. The person is surrounded by planets, family history, society, earthly conditions, other people, and the results of former choices. These forces may shape the soul’s opportunities and awaken certain urges, but they do not completely control what the soul must become.
The planets in the upper part of the image represent the soul’s planetary sojourns. In the Edgar Cayce readings, these experiences contribute abilities, emotions, desires, and patterns of thought. However, planetary influences are not presented as fixed destiny. Reading 1595-1 states: “None of these urges surpass the will, which is a portion of the soul’s body, or an attribute of the soul.”
The coloured streams flowing from the planets toward the person represent these different urges entering earthly consciousness. Some may produce courage, affection, intelligence, ambition, imagination, or spiritual sensitivity. Others may appear as anger, pride, fear, selfishness, or emotional extremes. The streams reach the person, but they do not bind him. He remains free to decide how each influence will be expressed.
The Earth represents material life—the place where planetary and spiritual qualities are tested through practical experience. It is easy to speak about love, patience, faith, and forgiveness in theory. Earthly life gives the soul real situations in which these qualities must be chosen and practised. The soul develops not merely because an influence exists, but because of what it does with that influence.
The large tree and family home represent heredity, childhood, family relationships, and the conditions into which a person is born. The faces rising behind the house suggest ancestors and earlier generations. We may inherit physical characteristics, family beliefs, emotional patterns, social opportunities, or unresolved problems. Yet these do not completely determine our character. Reading 274-1 explains: “As to what an entity does concerning its environs or hereditary influence from the MATERIAL viewpoint, this is governed by the action of the will.”
The city and the crowd represent society, culture, education, work, economic conditions, and the influence of other people. Other souls may encourage, teach, pressure, tempt, criticize, love, or harm us. They can change our circumstances and awaken strong emotions, but they cannot permanently make our deepest spiritual choices for us. We must decide whether we will answer hatred with hatred, fear with surrender, or difficulty with courage, understanding, and constructive action.
The dark pathway represents fear, selfishness, unconscious habit, and the misuse of freedom. It does not mean that the people on the left are condemned. It shows what happens when individuals allow external pressures, old habits, or material desires to choose their direction for them. A person may still possess free will but fail to use it consciously.
The bright pathway represents choices made according to a spiritual ideal. It does not suggest that the right path will always be easy or free from suffering. Rather, it shows that every experience can be directed toward truth, love, patience, courage, forgiveness, and service. Reading 790-1 says: “The destiny is only that certain urges arise, and what the entity does about them makes for the changes.”
The central figure stands where the paths divide. This represents the present moment—the point at which the soul must decide what it will do with all the influences acting upon it. He cannot change his ancestry, erase every former choice, or prevent other people from exercising their own will. Yet he can choose which influence he will follow and what kind of person he will become.
Only the person’s right hand is visible. It is freely extended toward the path of light. This open hand represents conscious choice, willingness, trust, and spiritual application. No force is pulling or pushing the person. He is not controlled by strings, planets, ancestors, or other souls. He must choose the light for himself.
The white-gold light above the path represents the Christ Light. It has no human face because it represents the universal spiritual ideal of Christ rather than a physical portrait of Jesus. The Christ Light gives direction to the will, helping the soul judge the influences within and around it. The question becomes not simply, “What do I desire?” but, “Which choice expresses love, truth, patience, forgiveness, and service?”
The city of light suggests the soul’s growing awareness of unity with God. The winding road shows that spiritual development happens gradually. The soul may make mistakes, meet consequences, learn, and choose again. Free will does not remove the results of former choices. Reading 243-10 teaches: “That builded must be met, whether in thought or in deed.”
However, the way those consequences are met can create a new direction. Fear can become courage, suffering can awaken compassion, failure can produce humility, and knowledge can become wisdom when it is applied in service to others.
The image therefore presents a simple spiritual pattern: Planetary and earthly influences create urges and circumstances. The ideal gives direction. The will chooses the response. Repeated choices form character, and character helps shape destiny.
Its central message is that free will does not mean living without influences. It means that no influence—planetary, hereditary, environmental, karmic, or human—must become the soul’s absolute master. The soul becomes truly free as it consciously chooses to bring every influence into harmony with the Christ Light.
