In May of 1943, Edgar Cayce gave a psychic reading for a Pennsylvania housewife seeking to better understand her role in the universe. From his trance state, Cayce reviewed some of her past lives, including experiences as a teacher, record keeper, plan designer, and interpreter of crystals and natures fires. The reading suggesting that she had latent abilities and skills as a historian or datastician (sic) that should be developed. It was her past life as the High Priestess Shekla in the Yucatan that first caught my eye.

Before that the entity was in the Yucatan land, when there were those activities in which there were those groups that had caused dissension among the worshipers in the temple there of Ichakabal. In those activities we find whole groups of individuals being separated, and seeking for activities in other groups.

The entity maintained that the activities there, in Ichakabal, were to be kept.

– Edgar Cayce reading 3004-1

As an author and long-time researcher of the Cayce readings, my study of the common threads and cultural links between ancient cultures such as the Egyptians, the cliff dwellers of the Southwest United States, the builders of Stonehenge, and the Maya had expanded into a study of spiritual links as well.

Reading about the discovery of Ichkabal, a new archaeological site located along the Yucatán Peninsula, piqued my interest (MexicoNewsNetwork.com). The synchronicity and timing of finding this article made me smile, thinking about how the Cayce readings remind us that we are all connected, not only with each other but with all consciousness. Taking the time to practice meditation or contemplative prayer and then to apply it in daily life results in frequent experiences along this line. Not only had I written and presented about some of Cayce’s readings on the Maya, I had led a tour to those areas, and was in the process of preparing to lead another tour to Maya sites.

In searching for more information, almost all of the articles I came upon were written in Spanish, delaying my discovery of Ichkabal, a name almost identical to the one given in the Cayce reading. Using Google translate, I learned that the name was given in March of 1995, by the first archaeologists to visit the site. The name, meaning “between low,” was to describe the features of the location. This major discovery was believed to be a very important Maya site with a pyramid temple larger and taller than the Kulkulcan pyramid at Chitzen Itza.

What makes Edgar Cayce’s gift especially remarkable is that the name for the Maya city was not assigned until 1995, more than 50 years after he mentioned it in a reading. In other words, Edgar Cayce somehow knew, back in 1943, what this site would be named when finally uncovered. Not only was Cayce able to tap into the universal consciousness of experiences and events in the past, but also to see into the future.

Perhaps equally remarkable, in the North American indigenous Zuni culture, the word “shekla” translates to pine. When excavations on the site began 64 years after the given reading, the archeologists revealed that pine needles, cones, or boughs were an important component of the prehistoric Maya ritual paraphernalia for this site. Shekla, the name Cayce gave for the Ichakabal priestess, would indeed be appropriate for a high priestess in the specific Maya culture described.

There is more evidence of Edgar Cayce’s ability not only to accurately describe ancient past cultures, cities, and events, but also future events. The tens of thousands of pages of documented Edgar Cayce readings are still alive. They are living, breathing resources of knowledge pertaining to humanity’s purpose, spiritual journey, ancient history, physical health, our evolving consciousness, and new discoveries. This shows us that yet-to-be-validated information in the readings may still find corroboration in future years.

Adapted from the Jul-Sep issue of Venture Inward magazine available to A.R.E. Members at EdgarCayce.org/members.