Students of Edgar Cayce are oftentimes familiar with past lives, karma and life lessons of souls.

Where do we go when not in the body – between incarnations?

Cayce described interplanetary sojourns. We as entities or souls go to the dimensions of the planets, such as to Mercury, Mars or Jupiter, as well as to important stars such as Arcturus or Polaris. These orbs are like schools, or vibratory themes/centers that emphasize lessons and encourage specific tendencies and talents. For instance, the Venus dimension inspires in people a desire for harmony, music and song, beauty and fairness; Uranus emphasizes contrast and distinctions and could be prone to extremism; Pluto (which Cayce described as early as 1923 – seven years before it was discovered!) emphasizes the development of consciousness, etc.

Edgar Cayce paid more attention to the planets and not so much to the signs such as Aries, Taurus, etc.; the astrological Signs had more to do with activities and proclivities. What a cosmic ride! There is a purpose in all of this.

Souls are involved in space and time travel (yes, you and I), and choose to spend time in these planetary or stellar locations to learn lessons and to attune to specific vibrations and qualities, and then bring these perspectives back to the next earthly incarnation. Yes, including this incarnation here and now.

There are other interesting references to souls visiting spheres or orbs by other researchers and visionaries. In "Earths in the Universe," the Swedish scientist, theologian and Christian mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg (29 Jan 1688 – 1772), stated that he conversed with spirits from Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Venus, the Moon, as well as spirits from planets beyond our solar system. Michael Newton, the psychologist who wrote best sellers on soul journeys, describes how souls can be transported to great libraries of learning or to vast places of mingling and connecting; sometimes a great spherical place is described. In Destiny of Souls, he describes “the place of future life selection is seen as a sphere containing highly concentrated force fields of glowing energy screens.” In his first book, the Journey of Souls, Newton transcribed the experience a soul (his client) had approaching the Ring of Destiny, the place where souls chose their future lives: “I am floating towards the Ring. … it's circular … a monster bubble … there is a … concentrated energy force … the light is so intense....” [1] Is this huge bubble a sun or star? Could it be a dimensional place roughly equivalent to where a material fiery orb is radiating? Edgar Cayce might say yes. I definitely would. In a non-physical form, souls can go anywhere in the cosmos, so why not within a star or a planet? Brilliant!

Beyond this, an individual journey takes many forms, including inter-dimensional. The modern Christian mystic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1 May 1881 - 1955), intuited the interplanetary sojourns described by Cayce, his contemporary and fellow Christian. "Through [God] all bodies come together, exert influence upon one another, and sustain one another in the unity of the all-embracing sphere, the confines of whose surface outrun our imagination.” [2]

I rhetorically ask what is to stop a non-material soul from experiencing the sun, and other stars, from the inside? I know Stephen Hawking has already contemplated that. Hawking? Yes. Jonathan Leake wrote in The Sunday Times, a British publication, about a television project that involves physicist Stephen Hawking.

“... in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world's leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some of the universe's greatest mysteries. …
Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the centre of stars or even floating in interplanetary space.” [3]

How about that? Within these warm glowing spheres may be huge gatherings of light beings. Can you imagine?! Indeed, is not the Sun, our Sol, a light source itself; a spiritual powerhouse; a relay station of God? I believe so. One can understand the reasons why many cultures through many millennia have worshiped the Sun.

Oh Apollo, Helios, Ra, Aton, Sol Invictus …
shine your Divine Light upon us!

Let's take a trip to Saturn.

I now share a portion of an actual Life Between Lives session I conducted on a Polish woman who came from a very dysfunctional family. Little did I know that she was meeting some of her own karma in that violent family. She as a he did some terrible things in past lives, and somewhat to my surprise, she brought that negativity into Spirit.

We read of fallen angels but seldom of fallen souls. Perhaps souls who are caught up in the “deadly sins” have succumbed or fallen. Her description of the review and transformation in Spirit after this ugly life matches Edgar Cayce's information about being "cast unto Saturn" and being reprogrammed! Evidently Saturn is where one goes for deprogramming and rebooting the system. Our souls learn lessons in the special vibrations represented by certain planets and stars.

The story goes back to when my client was a serial killer in Romania 400 years ago. After I guided my client back into the Spirit World after his death, s/he felt great remorse. He especially felt bad about a particular soul who came to him in that disturbed life – as a potential sacrifice – to touch his conscience. He lured her into his trap, and killed her, then had pangs of guilt. Yes, he regretted that one. But he had many victims. I set up a healing scenario in Spirit so that he was confronted by people he killed. I heard a new voice, more quiet than before:

“… they are small souls. Poor and downtrodden. I made them small, or they were small in my mind.
I'm so so sorry.
… I don't quite believe this ... they look to me with understanding... they have a wisdom. Compassion. But I also feel pain, and ... understanding. We are crying... there are no words. … then the word 'silence'. (whispering)
… John, my spirit guide is here. (smiles)
He is very patient. (My client is quiet, taking it all in, then ...)
I am in some space. I don't know where. I'm stuck there. … in energy. No shape. It's not so good energy. It is heavy. I cannot understand it.
… something to be understood, accepted here. I cannot let it ... go. Or it will not let me go. I cannot get inside this vibration. It's strong, contradicting, stopping some impulses. - On one side and ... I want to do it, go, but something is stopping me. It's like I have no legs. Of course in Spirit, I have none, but I cannot go, walk, leave. I cannot move.
I'm afraid of that Light. (I get images of a fallen soul, a damaged soul, afraid of the Light.)
I don't see it, I sense it. If I stay in this space, it is just what I need. … but it is so narrow, and thin. I cannot get inside.”
(This reminds me of a re-programming place and specifically of Saturn, one-dimensional, as described by Edgar Cayce – souls were cast back to reform, or re-molded there.)

SP: (Stephen Poplin): How long were you in that space?
“I was… 100 years there.”
SP: Good, much was released and relearned there. And after 100 years,... what happened?
“I'm flying... quickly. - smiles -
I think I'm lighter. The vibration – like a hand came, 'Come,' it said. I go … and I'm more high, in a place of songs. Wow. Everything is here. Sad too. Gray. Golden light.... a bit of gray. Oh, there is a heavy gray.... what is this? My guide comes.”
John, her spirit guide, explains: She needs to understand. And she can. She knows this place.
“Yes... Gray... it is this fear. I would rather concentrate on the golden good light. Ha. I'm passing through the gray, however. I must, ... but it is part of the gold. Gray is a challenge – to search for strengths. Gray is painful. Doubt and uncertainty. The heaviness of our own deeds. I am feeling it now. It is a pain for all generations. It's hurting now.
Oh God, it is hurting... it is painful.”
(After Saturn, was she sent to Neptune? I think of the word Weltschmerz = the pain of the world. Could she be in a Neptunian/Pisces redemption place? The empath feeling the pain of others, of her/his victims?)
“I'm trembling. (breathing hard)

Here is … the gift of healing. Empathy. It is good. But painful. It is almost too intense.
(She is suffering. I suggest she employ a volume switch of pain/empathy. The effect will still occur.)
'Okay - down to minimum.' … Now I feel my hand again. I had so much pain that I couldn't feel it. From my heart to my left arm. … Empathy is something good for my present incarnation.”
(I ask questions – there is yet another change of voice; she goes in to a very deep trance: )
“My mother now was in both past lives. Unimportant, however. And my Father too; Oh my, - he was the woman who was lured to her fate. (Could this explain her alcoholic father? She was meeting Self again, that evil past life.) He started drinking after I was born. - quiet - I don't want to speak. This is all so exhausting. I have a feeling of going home to sleep. Tired. And relieved.”
Okay. We call it a day. There was a lot to take in, to integrate. I give suggestions, review, renew, …take a winter sleep to a new spring. “Recharge, re-new... there will be a sunrise.”
She later said, “I feel strange. Not like my old self. It is quieter, there is an inner peace.”

Excellent, I think, but what a difficult, and disturbing, story. I ponder … as we go along our ways in our modern, complex world, who else is laying in wait? We read about similar predators in the news, but here was an example of a savage personality who did foul deeds, and came to regret them in his older years. This soul, tainted by that perverted personality, was sent to a re-programming place, Saturn, and then felt the sufferings of his victims, opening up remorse and empathy, a sign of Neptune. Furthermore, this soul got another chance, in another body at another time to “try again, and do things right.”

And so we learn … slowly. Spirit is patient, of course. As long as we learn.

“There is no coming to consciousness without pain.
People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
~ Carl G. Jung

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[1] Journey of Souls, Chapter 12. “Life Selection” by Michael Newton
[2] From the Selected Writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin by Ursula King, p. 50; French philosopher and paleontologist, he gained international recognition in archeology.
[3] The Sunday Times, April 25, 2010: http://www.standeyo.com/NEWS/10_Weird/100425.Hawking.aliens.html
Note: This article uses excerpts from Stephen Poplin's books on reincarnation. Inner Journeys, Cosmic Sojourns: Life transforming stories, adventures and messages from a spiritual hypnotherapist's casebook