Because of their interest in the Cayce work, Katherine and Betty loaned Hans the Cayce biography, There Is a River. After reading it, Hans became convinced that he had met Katherine before, “in the long ago.” As a result, he requested a life reading. Because of Edgar Cayce’s busy schedule, the reading could not be scheduled until April 1944. Aunt Betty looked forward to the reading as much as Hans did because she believed that “a reading might release Katherine in analyzing her own true feelings.”
When April finally arrived, the reading confirmed that Hans had many talents. His life was destined to include much travel, international relations, trade, and diplomatic initiatives. He was told that he was very intelligent and was capable of being entrusted with great responsibility, important relationships, and was innately a skilled leader:
For the entity has lived so as to be entrusted with and capable of directing the affairs of great organizations, corporations, states or nations. Then if the entity chooses spiritual and mental ideals . . . little should prevent the entity from making this material experience a light and a help to others as well as bringing harmony, peace and development spiritually and mentally in this particular sojourn. 4053-1
In his lifetime immediately previous to the present, Hans had been involved in the shipping trade between Denmark and the United States. In Persia, he had been a director of trade for goods traveling between Egypt and the Gobi. In ancient Egypt, he had been chosen by the government to be a representative of the country. In addition to other lifetimes when they had obviously known one another, it was in Persia that Katherine had become his wife. She had been his friend, his companion, and his trusted advisor to whom he often looked for guidance and counsel.
Hans was told that he would always hold his companion in awe and reverence. Cayce stated that it would be a good idea for Katherine and Hans to marry in the present and continue the relationship they had once shared in Persia. Apparently much had not been completed in their previous experiences with one another. According to Hans, he believed it was because of the advice given in the reading that finally, “Katherine surrendered and we were married in October 1944.”
After their marriage Hans became commercial attaché and helped his country with the procurement of large quantities of urgently needed commodities, such as fuel and fertilizer. In 1947, when Denmark obtained a $40-million loan from the International Bank for reconstruction and development, Hans was chosen as the contact between Denmark and the International Bank and was authorized to withdraw and disburse funds from the loan. After the war and the reconstruction initiative of the Marshall Plan, Denmark received about $280 million in economic assistance between 1948 and 1953. Hans negotiated the programming of these funds and supervised all financial aspects of their procurement. At the end of 1953, he changed jobs and became U.S. representative for the Danish meatpacking industry.
He once stated, “My business called for me to travel abroad extensively; throughout, Katherine trusted me without any doubt—and I responded in kind. And [each] coming home was like another honeymoon.”
In the 1950s Hans wrote: “I regard my vocation as an agency through which I can better fulfill my purpose in life. It is not just a place where I get the wherewithal to buy my house and feed my family, but a place in which I can express my purpose . . .” In 1964, he was knighted by Denmark for outstanding service to the Danish meatpacking industry.
Over the years Katherine and Hans provided updates to the Edgar Cayce Foundation regarding their life together. In 1998, after more than fifty years of marriage, Katherine wrote: “We are so in tune with one another. I think we’ve had many lifetimes together during which we rubbed off the rough corners, for this lifetime together has been a smooth sail.” Of course, the couple had their share of difficulties; she added, “One doesn’t have four children and not have challenges.” Those challenges included a son’s attempted suicide and his disclosure of homosexuality and their daughter’s falling in love and wanting to marry a man of a different race, both situations occurring at a time when society frowned upon such relationships. For their own part, however, Hans and Katherine met all challenges “with support for each other, support for the child, applying our spiritual beliefs, and working with such things as forgiveness and acceptance. We sustained each other through challenges with prayer and trust.”
Looking back on their marriage, Hans stated: “Our life together has been harmonious and wonderful. We have always supported each other throughout and have never had a fight.” To be sure, differences of opinion have occurred, “but these are expressed reasonably and courteously.” In regard to the children, “We always presented a united front. The children quickly learned that they could not pit one of us against the other. Their efforts to divide us were met with, ‘What did Mom/Dad say?—that’s the answer.’”
Their life together has been a joint effort of children, home, travel, and a commitment to a spiritual path in which each is in tune with the other. From Hans, Katherine has learned “to be less rigid—not seeing everything so cut and dried, black and white. I’ve become freer—more able to play and get out from under my puritanical ethic of responsibility.” She feels as though he’s also helped her obtain more balance in her life. From Katherine, Hans has learned “patience, the importance of color and design, a deep sense of caring. We showed each other trust and loyalty. Katherine learned Danish—which she has used widely in our visits to Denmark, and I backed her artistic abilities and encouraged her.”
Repeatedly in their travels together, people who have just met them have commented about their relationship: “It’s wonderful to see a couple so in love after so many years”; “You’re both a delight—an inspiration for us”; “What a great example you two are”; and “It just feels good to be together with you two.”
To sum it up, Hans says, “Our life together through fifty-four years—as of this moment—is a continuous story of love and understanding and faith.” As to the formula for creating a successful relationship? “Give sixty percent and expect forty percent.” Katherine adds, “Accept and overlook the small, picky habits, and appreciate the depth and warmth of love that outweighs everything else.”
A less successful account of soul mates is told in the story of Anna and Dave Mitchell. In 1935, a twenty-eight-year-old writer named Dave asked for a reading regarding the possibility of marrying his sweetheart of six years. In the reading Cayce confirmed that the couple had been together three times previously and in the present could accomplish a great deal, “if their efforts are put in the right direction” (849-12). Cayce stated that the two had much to work out together, but it could be accomplished “in patience, in tolerance, in love.” Apparently, at a soul level, they shared a dependency and a responsibility toward one another. At various times in the past, there had been occasions when the two had both assisted and been detrimental to the other’s growth. In the present, Anna and Dave were advised to marry and to always keep foremost in their minds the fact that marriage was a “fifty-fifty” proposition and that they needed to maintain a unity of purpose. Toward the end of the reading, Cayce added, “Beware then, in each, of self and self’s interest irrespective of the other.”
Less than two weeks after their marriage, Dave sent a letter thanking Edgar Cayce for his help:
We are, of course, deliriously happy, and among other things we both want to thank you for that reading—it isn’t going to be all a bed of roses, but with the knowledge and help that comes from your gift we hope that we can “take it” and keep going . . .
Over the years, Dave and his wife received a number of readings about their relationship, Dave’s career as a writer, their past lives, and even readings for their baby daughter who was born within two years of their marriage. In one reading, the couple was told that the greatest influences affecting them from the past came from their joint experiences in England and ancient Egypt. In Egypt, the state had apparently chosen Anna to be Dave’s wife—a situation that he rebelled against. It wasn’t so much that he disliked Anna as it was he found repugnant the fact that the nation had such control over the affairs of its people. Obviously, Anna had felt abandoned by her husband’s refusal of her.