“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I came to the defense of Ned and the poor fish and of Ned, the poor fish. Our Ned chose a fish, subconsciously, for many reasons. First of all, the fish was a part of himself that he materialized within the dream state. It represented, to him, something quite different than the Christian fish you wear around your neck (to Joel).

The dream served several purposes. It allowed him to release aggression in a much less violent manner than he would have in the past. It also, however, allowed him to see the picture of his own aggression as it existed on a subconscious level of his mind. The aggression that he feared was not so great and big and powerful and black and hairy and threatening as he thought. Instead, it was a part of himself and very small, fish size, you see, and easy to squash and kick. It was not this giant that you feared, and it was easy to rid yourself of this. Now, in this case, the fish was not a probable fish in another reality. It was a portion, however, of his own energy.

Now, it would have been far more beneficial had he been able to use that energy, keep it as a part of himself and transform it into a more constructive nature. However, the dream taught him that the violence within himself was not big and threatening and did not need to be feared. He could use it as a symbol to see how small it was in comparison to the whole inner self and how easy, therefore, it was to rid himself of it. He cried however because, you see, he realized that this was part of his priceless energy that he had expended, uselessly, and in the tears lay the lesson.

([Joel:]“I was thinking back to a few weeks ago when we were talking about a hypothetical case of two fellows having some kind of an argument with one another, and the other formulated a mental image of himself slugging his opponent. You said, at that time, it was a kind of self-defeating attitude, and it would have been much more beneficial for him to utilize his energy in striking some kind of an inanimate object or running up and down the road.”)

Now when I talk to him I am always drawn back to the lilies of the field. Your poor little innocent flower, when it rains and thunders and storms come, does our little flower look up and say, “Here comes that evil lightening and thunder?” It does not think that the thunder and the lightening and the wind and the rain are out to get it. It realizes that the strength and vitality of life is as much in lightening and thunder and the storm as in the sunshine. And it has the sense to realize that it needs the rain, even though the rain that comes down may rip off a couple of its leaves. You have much more protection than you realize.

I told him to give up cigarettes a long time ago, but it is his mark of independence that he is not letting any spirit tell him what to do.