“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now, let us take for argument’s sake, a poor unintelligent flower in the middle of a garden. Now, there the poor thing is, and it cannot move back nor forth. It cannot run up the garden path and it is. Now, when the rain falls it gratefully accepts the droplets. It does not turn its head upward and say, “Yes, but does the rain exist, or does it not? And wherefore does it come, and how, indeed, do these elements reach into my beings and down into my roots? And unless I understand how this occurs, then I will not accept the rain.” And when a sunny day comes, the flower does not lift its idiotic head and say, “Now, this appears to be the sun. How is it that the sun keeps me alive and brings the green to my leaves and branches and makes me flower? I do not understand, and since I do not understand, therefore, I will not accept the sun and I shall stand here and deny that it exists for how do I know that I exist, much less the sun does. Perhaps it is a fancy tale told by other idiots as stupid as myself.” But if it is a fancy tale, it would behoove you to listen, for the moment that the flower says, “I deny, therefore, I deny the sunlight or the rain,” then the flower, indeed, would deny the grace of existence.

Now, in the winter time our poor idiotic flower seems, indeed, to be dead. The seed goes into the earth, however, and in the wintertime in any of your suburban gardens here beneath the snow are all these seeds. They are being nurtured, but do they in this darkness, therefore, look about them and say, “This is a time of death? There is nothing else for me and my existence is meaningless? How is it that I remember a time in which I blossomed? How is it I vaguely remember a summer in a time in which I was strong and spontaneous and free? What has happened to the summertime, and will it never come again for me?” That is what you are doing now. Our seed, however, who does not have this fine intellect that sits so nicely beneath your hair and within your skull, our seed without the intellect, rests joyfully within the earth knowing it is in the midst of creativity and that from within it, again, another flower will spring. And it does not deny the earth that gives it birth. It knows within itself, and it is this knowledge that you can find again. It is within you now.

(To Derek.) You will find your own ways, but trust your own inner voice. If you do not trust what Ruburt would call the establishment, then trust the inner voice that is yourself and follow it. You do not need trust me, but you must, indeed, trust yourself. I have always trusted myself so I do not see why you would not trust me.

There are a series of projections on the part of your husband toward you and on the part of you toward your husband. You are using the same words in some of your conversations but the words mean different things to both of you, and so you are not communicating properly. Now, you can learn to communicate if you open up your mind. You earlier mentioned, you see I do not lose anything, semantics, and the confusion of words, and this is what you are involved within your relationship with your husband. And so it is why you noticed when this happened in class. So that you must get beneath words.

Now, I will tell you something else that you will not necessarily want to hear, but you must also learn to relate to outside physical reality. You need physical work to do. This will improve your painting, your creative life, and your psychic life, but you are turning inward too much without knowing what you are doing, at this time. You need to compensate by direct and aggressive physical action, either in a job that will relate you with others or in some aspect along those lines that will allow you to untangle the inner self and release your creative abilities.

(To Janice.) Now, to you, the panic has always to do with deep anxiety. Now, a situation in your life can serve to trigger it as a relatively minor situation. The other evening served to trigger it, but working with the pendulum you can discover the basic reason, and I suggest that you do this.

I am shortly going to end our session, but I have a word for our dean(Theodore), over there behind the vine. I answered one of your questions in our ordinary sessions, so Ruburt should have it for you.

(To Derek:) And be careful of those associates that you make if they have a strong feeling also of meaninglessness. You can come and each of you in this room have come or will come to a dark corner. And the dark corner will seem to you that only desolation exists, and you will look into the faces of your fellow men and find only emptiness. And you will look into the faces of your brother and your father and your mother and find no meaning. You will see that they see meaning, but you will not experience their meaning, and so their faces may seem empty to you, and you will look outward into the world and find no meaning in it, only desolation and cruelty. And you will see at the end of a life only death and annihilation and wonder what the life was for.

Now, this has happened to each of you, or will happen, for it is indeed, as Ruburt said earlier, it is the night of the sword. And yet it is a time that you cannot ignore and it is a crossroad that you cannot avoid, for it is there for a reason. And all the answers that have been given, and all those answers you have told yourself, will be as nothing. And it will seem that all your friends are but ghosts that pass in the night with no meaning.

This is a crossroads that comes, not only to you, but to each individual upon the face of the planet and in every time it comes when an individual realizes that they are using all the resources that they have, and that they are not getting the results that they wanted. It happens when it seems to them the meaning has fled out of the universe. When they look back on their childhood and realize that, in that time, there was great magic and great rejoicing and great freedom and they ask, “Where has it gone?” It is a crisis that comes to each soul born in flesh.

It is the crossroad which you are at now. It is, indeed, and it is constructive and you will pass through it far richer and with greater understanding, but it will not be the only crossroad for as soon as you think you know yourself, you have already changed. And as soon as you think you know yourself, you have already changed. You are not a static being. You change constantly. And All That Is, or in your terms, God, is not a static being but always creative and always changing, so do not put yourself at a particular level of experience and stay there but allow yourself growth and freedom.

Now, consciousness is a quality of the soul. You can turn your consciousness in many directions. It is like a tool that belongs to you, but you are more than your consciousness is. It is a quality inherent in the nature of the spirit or soul, but it is far more.

([Gert:] “Then a consciousness of a person may leave before death, but the soul would be the last thing that leaves the body?”)

Indeed. However, you may turn your consciousness in many directions and this is what I hope you are learning to do. Consciousness is like a searchlight that belongs to you. Usually, you direct it only into three-dimensional existence, but I hope that you are learning to direct it in many other areas. It is a method of perception.

In certain terms. I agree with what you have said so far, but you have not said enough. The soul uses consciousness. Consciousness is a characteristic of the soul. Consciousness is a method by which the soul understands what it is.

Now, I remember clearly each ego that was my own. I have a long memory. But in the dream state each of you are acquainted with the other selves that you have known. You simply forget when you awaken in the morning. This sort of experience is direct cognition. I cannot tell you what it is. I can only hint to you that certain experiences can be expected. And when you receive them, then you know for yourself and you have your own proof, as our friend in the corner has her own proof.