“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Our friend’s dream, in her own way, closely approximates our African God’s dream over here, for you are considering the same questions. In your case you used religious terms in which to couch it and ease the inner self. Legitimate—is the question of the validity of the soul legitimate? Is it legitimate whether spoken about in conventional terms through religion, or is it legitimate in the terms spoken about in this room, or is it legitimate in any terms at all?

Now conventional religion requires tribute and so the men came to you at the door. Now you saw them hooded and with red hoods, this meant several things to you on a subconscious basis. First of all, robbers come hooded and they do not come to front doors but to side doors and to doors not usually used. They came, therefore, as hooded strangers and they were requiring tribute and you did not know whether or not the cause was legitimate or if you should contribute to it. The conventional religions were symbolized as St. Paul to you.

Now in the back of your mind, and you may yell at me later, conventional religion is symbolized by the Catholic religion because of its fantastic organization. And in your mind the Pope represents that organization and he paid tribute. He gave to these hooded robbers that came in at the side door. He did not give much, but he gave, and he gave because any religion must pay tribute to the inner knowledge of the self and the true inner knowledge does not come in through the front door. It comes in through the side door when you are least looking for it.

Now the red hoods had a peculiar significance, subconsciously speaking, to you because the red subconsciously meant violence and the idea in the back of your mind that religions through the ages have often resulted in violence and also Cardinals, you see, wear red hats at times.