“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, was a cousin of Christ’s mother, Mary. John baptized Christ at the beginning of his ministry in A.D. 26 to 27, when he was about thirty. John was already active in his own ministry, and often called himself a “forerunner of one who would be nobler and stronger.” Shortly after he baptized Jesus, John was imprisoned by Herod Antipas in the fortress Machaerus, near the Dead Sea.

The Lord of Righteousness, so called, was such a person, but his over-zealous nature held him back.

His rigidity prevented the spontaneity necessary for any true great religious release. He fell, instead, into the trap of provincialism. Had he performed the role possible, he could have been of benefit to Paul. He was a probable personality of the Paul portion of the Christ entity.

In their dreams they were in contact. Consciously Paul remembered many of these dreams, until he felt pursued by Christ. It was because of a series of recurring dreams that Paul persecuted the Christians. He felt that Christ was a kind of devil who pursued him in his sleep.

On an unconscious level, however, he knew the meaning of the dreams, and his “conversion,” of course, was only a physical event following an inner experience.

Paul needed the strongest egotistical strength because of his particular duties. He was far less aware consciously of his role for this reason. The inner knowledge, of course, exploded in the physical conversion experience.

(“As a matter of curiosity: can you say how the Teacher of Righteousness met his end?” This is one of the questions correspondents have asked.)

The final place of refuge was near Damascus. For some time the Lord of Righteousness tried to hide himself within the city. His identity was discovered, however, and he and a band of men took to caves that were between Damascus and another nearby town, much smaller, that had been used at one time as a fortress. They were heading there.

One small note for those interested. The Zealots, the sect, were also divided into two main groups, one splitting finally from the other main one. Other documents will be found that will clear several important matters concerning the historical times. (Pause.) During one short period of his life, Paul joined a Zealot group. This is unknown. It has not been recorded.

In fact, for a period he led a double life as a member of the Zealots. He turned against them vehemently, however, as he was later to turn against the Romans to join the Christians. Before his conversion, he knew he had a purpose and mission, and flung himself with all the passion of his being into whatever answers he thought he had found.

(Of course, we hadn’t known just how Seth was going to present his material in the chapter on religion on the third Christ and related data. Both of us were surprised to hear him declare a connection between Paul and the Zealots. Many questions automatically came to our minds; but we had to stop somewhere, so we reluctantly decided not to ask them.

I learned about the Lord of Righteousness from a cousin of his named Sheraba —

(It can be seen from the above paragraphs that Seth shifts his physical location from Rome to Judaea without saying just how or when he did so. I wanted to know more about the mechanics of the transfer but decided not to interrupt further just now.)

At the time that Christ lived his existence was known to very few, comparatively speaking. To put it bluntly (and humorously) I knew that someone had the ball, but I was not certain of the person. In dream states, the situation finally became known to me and to many others.

(Seth first referred to his incarnation as a minor Pope in Jane’s ESP class session for May 15, 1971. Some eighteen people were present. The session was recorded, so the quotes that follow are verbatim. Seth was in a high, if somewhat ribald, mood:

(“Unless I summon the self that I was at that time, the memories for details are not that clear. But as I now recall them, without directly checking on our friend the Pope, who has, you must understand, gone his own way, I am coming as close as I can. We did not have as many guards at that time, but we had many stolen paintings and jewels of great merit. Now some of these jewels, as well as the money, went for expeditions that you do not realize were adopted at the time, having to do with commerce and ships sent to Africa; and this interest had to do with my later life when I was involved with the oregano [as a spice merchant in Denmark, in the 1600’s]. My sniffing goes back for centuries.

(“There were two brothers strongly united in control of Italy at the time. Perhaps I should say two males, one in the higher capacity and the other his chancellor, with whom I was involved as Pope; and I sent armies to the north also.

(At this writing we do not know which pope Seth referred to. When I came to type up this session I wondered if Seth-Jane’s mention of the third century might be an error. [If so, I hadn’t been quick enough to catch it; I could have asked about it at once.] Since Seth gave A.D. 300 in the class session for last May, I personally think it more likely that his papal incarnation followed this date, taking place in the fourth century. The fourth century encompasses the years A.D. 301 to 400, since our modern computation of time is based upon the assumed date of the birth of Christ. The Encyclopaedia Britannica lists eleven popes and two antipopes between A.D. 296 and 401. Some of the reigns were very brief, some of the dates of tenure uncertain or estimated.

(Now she smelled something very rancid. “Seth has some kind of soap with his wares — some awful mixture with lye and rosewater,” she said, unbelieving, her nose wrinkling. “This was in some kind of woven sack; a double one like you’d throw over a horse…. I can almost see it in front of me. I could draw the shape of it, though it’s not any big deal.