There is a River:
Walking on Water with Edgar Cayce
Greetings, everyone! The new Guild season has begun, and we’d like to invite you inside the dreamtime with us. There are many stories to tell, but it all begins on a bridge in Smithville, Missouri.
There is a River
Brad dreamed he was pushing a large empty wheelbarrow along the streets of the town where he grew up:
I was following my father who was dressed like a janitor in work clothes, which was unusual because, as a pastor, he most often wore a suit. He was leading me to the bridge. As we walked down Bridge Street and came closer to the river, I noticed that the water had gone over the bridge. I wondered if there was no longer a bridge there or whether I was in another place. Then, my father confidently proceeded to walk on the water as if there was solid ground beneath his feet. It startled me. He next signaled me to follow him: “Come on son, let’s walk on water.” I heard a voice in the sky speak: “There is a river.” The whole thing shocked me and I felt nervous about walking across the river. Then I heard the voice say again, “There is a river.”
I woke up and recalled that those words were the title of Edgar Cayce’s biography, written by Thomas Sugrue. It is based on the scripture of Psalm 46:4. “There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.”
The next morning, we both knew that the Guild had moved nearer the Wigram Stream where silver trout pursue the impossible dream of catching extreme love. This is the sacred emotion of Sacred Ecstatics that sets the soul on fire and radiates joy.
It is natural to pause at the river’s edge, feeling a bit jittery when you find what you have been looking for. Trickster trembles when it senses real change on the ground and unpredictable mystery in the air. We prayed for the Guild not to fear the rising river, but to cheer its cleansing waters that renew and sanctify.
Together, this year we are going to walk on water.
Psalm 46:4
This was not the first time that Brad dreamed of Edgar Cayce. Last year, a vision introduced us to the “missing month” of Cayce’s life when, in the midst of personal and professional crisis, he and a companion went to Bisbee, Arizona to hunt for azurite stone and to pray for spiritual guidance.
This time, curious to know more about Cayce’s relationship to Psalm 46:4, we obtained a copy of Sugrue’s book. What we found startled us and made us weep. One night, when Cayce was facing a spiritual crossroads, he went to a bridge overlooking a river and met a man dressed in work clothes. There he received Holy Scripture from on high. Afterward when Cayce opened his Bible he immediately found Psalm 46:4, “There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God…”
Sugrue also reports the visionary experience Cayce had when he was 13 years old in which he received his special means of helping others. Inspired by what we have learned of Cayce’s life and the vision that brought us to the river, we recently gave a musical lecture to our Guild that tells these stories in full. We also report another dream Brad received about Cayce’s son, Hugh Lynn, and discuss why calling Cayce a “psychic” misses the greater spiritual context of his life. (Note – watch on YouTube to see the video’s chapter markers).
Enjoy! And as we wrote to the Guild shortly after the season began:
There is a river! This river is divine mystery, and above all else, we are here to feel it. Aim to catch even a drop of sacred emotion. If it grows, it will make you want to wiggle and move. This blend of emotion and vibration is also the creative life force, the holy fuel or electricity that makes everything come to life – your art, your expression, your prayers, your daily work, your gifts, your interactions with others, and even the way you say, “Hello.” There is a river, and we are here to feel ever-nearer to its numinous current! Wading in this water truly sets the soul on fire.
– The Keeneys, October 20, 2021