What is a myth? Perhaps it's a story that isn't true on the outside, but is true on the inside.
The tension between what our heart's intuition tells us and what we can actually experience on the outside is a source of great creativity and development, both personal and for the human race.
Cayce's story of the history and destiny of humanity is a lesson here.
Not only does his story include our spiritual creation and its purpose, but also the external history of life on planet earth, including predictions about major changes ahead.
Is this story a myth? For many of those who contemplate it, his story is stimulating and spiritually fulfilling, which is what a good myth should be.
But Cayce presents his story as being literally true.
Did things really happen the way he tells it? One of the fascinating aspects of his story concerns the existence of "Halls of Records," where this history is recorded.
He said that one such Hall of Records was in Yucatan, Mexico.
Furthermore, he said that at this site, there was also evidence of another key element in Cayce's story - the (in)famous "Firestone Crystal" of Atlantis, which was their source of power, but which had been misused and helped bring down that civilization.
I vividly remember discovering the Edgar Cayce material and having my imagination sparked as never before by the story of the Firestone and its connection with Mayan imagery.
Soon I was making pilgrimages to Yucatan to search for the Hall of Records.
Whereas the external search was expensive and proved beyond my skill range, an inner search was also in progress and was more rewarding.
I developed a symbolic meaning for the Firestone crystal; namely, that there is a dormant power of consciousness that can be awakened in spiritual community.
Through group dream work (such as Atlantic University's Sundance: The Community Dream Journal) and interpersonal intuition of the heart, I was able to verify the tremendous creative power and wisdom that may be unleashed through cooperation when individuality is given equal footing with the unitive effort.
As I became more involved with researching the inner meaning of the Firestone, my fascination with Yucatan and prehistory faded.
But today I am inspired to turn about, to look again with interest toward the outer side of the story.
What motivates this revival comes through the publication of a significant book, The Lost Hall of Records: Edgar Cayce's Forgotten Record in the Ancient Yucatan (Eagle Wing Books).
The authors, John Van Auken, a past executive director at A.
R.
E.
, and Lora Little, Ed.
D.
, a psychologist, have spent years correlating information in the Edgar Cayce material with archaeological findings.
In their meticulously researched book they have integrated a panoramic view of Cayce's spiritual story with scientific findings that take the story out of the realm of pure myth and into the realm of history.
Archaeological research, including advances in the interpretation of Mayan hieroglyphs and what they reveal about the Mayans' astonishing astronomical observations, has made it possible as never before to suggest that Cayce's story just might be true on the outside.
Moreover, Van Auken and Little's research has made a significant breakthrough that makes their book as newsworthy as it is inspiring.
A key point in Cayce's remote viewing of the Mayan archaeological findings concerned some artifacts, emblems of the Firestone, that were stored in the University of Pennsylvania museum.
Previous investigations had failed to locate these artifacts in the museum's collection.
The authors make a strong case, however, that the artifacts in question were those found in the ruins known as Piedras Negras, a Mayan site in Guatemala.
Though not in the state of Yucatan, Mexico, but part of the Mayan civilization in the general area of the Yucatan peninsula, nevertheless Piedras Negras could easily be described by Cayce's psychic perception as "Yucatan.
" Making this slight shift in focal point has unleashed a provocative set of new findings.
Although there isn't space here to detail all the nitty gritty that the authors combine to paint a credible hypothesis about the external validation of Cayce's story, suffice it to say that they've excited me again to the possibility that there just might be a Hall of Records in that tropical jungle, as well as a model of the Firestone crystal.
I am reminded of Cayce's statement that the records would Ibe found and could be read only when the consciousness of the seeker matched the contents of those records.
The lesson for me is that while an inner search is important, not to be forgotten is that it is equally important to look to the outer reality.
Maybe it is time for me to make a return trip to the Mayan ruins to see what I shall see.