“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(This excerpt from the session contains Seth’s first mention of the Speakers and their functions in the reincarnational process, and supplements the Speaker data in Chapter Seventeen.

(The session came about because Ron B. and his wife, Grace, members of ESP class, requested help with a problem involving their family. After winding up some very interesting material concerning that situation, Seth launched into the Speaker data at about 11:15. All of us present were surprised. The term “Speaker,” as Seth uses it, was as unknown to Jane and me then as it was to Ron and his family.)

(The Essenes were one of the four known Jewish sects active in the Holy Land at the time of Christ. They were a peaceful, contemplative group. They aren’t mentioned in the Bible. If Seth means that the Essenes were promulgating the Speakers’ codes of ethics in, say, the first century A.D., then this of course is a time many centuries later than Ron’s life in 1200 B.C.

(Ron’s wife, Grace: “Seth, did we fulfill our purposes in that time?”)

(Ten sessions after this one, Seth told Jane and me that we had been Speakers also, although he said nothing about dates or countries, or whether Jane, Ron, or I might be renewing acquaintances made in other, perhaps very ancient times. It seems to me that in this life at least, Ron and I encountered each other in quite a strange way: almost of an age, we grew up in the same small town near Elmira many years ago; we knew of each other’s family — and yet we didn’t meet until 1970….

(Possibly reflecting his early Speaker practices — which may be continuing on subjective levels — Ron is active in lay church work, and knows much about the Bible and related subjects. He elaborated upon some of Seth’s data; later, I checked portions through various reference works. Jane, since she knows practically nothing about the historical periods in question, was very pleased that Seth’s data was so evocative.

(Seth-Jane spelled the god’s name Bael. Most sources spell it Baal, possibly pronounced as Bael. The Akkadian form, Bel, was used in ancient Mesopotamia. Baal — lord — was the name or title of a number of local deities of ancient Semitic peoples. Baal worship appeared in Syria and Israel many centuries before the birth of Christ — as early as 1400 B.C., according to Syrian cuneiform texts. This date is very interesting, in light of the 1200 B.C. Seth mentions for Ron, and the conflict within his group over Baal. Baal was most often a god of fertility, its image of stone probably a phallic one. According to orthodox Israelite belief, Baal or nature worship was idolatrous, a denial of any moral values.

(While we were talking about the city of Messini, about which none of us knew anything, Seth returned briefly):