“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 67th envelope object was a penciled note written on one side of a piece of white paper by our neighbor, Leonard Yaudes. See page 319. The folded note shown below the object is my own, made at the time I discovered Leonard’s note stuck in our door on Sunday morning. Thus Leonard wrote his note in answer to a phone call by my mother at 10:05 Sunday morning, August 14. We do not have a phone.

(The greeting card represented on pages 320-21 figures in the envelope data, and so is shown also. It was not used in the envelope. The card was mailed to Jane and me by my mother from Tunkhannock, PA, on August 11,1966. It is on file along with the envelope, bearing date, ZIP code, etc.

Ruburt thinks of your mother’s sewing room. To me a reference to some shape, dark and narrow, with the feeling of motion involved, as a falling through or a falling out. Downward motion, with some speed.

(Jane had one predominant image during the data, and this was of the greeting card. This is the reason for its inclusion with the actual object, since much of the following data actually deals with the greeting card. This is a case where the actual object, Leonard’s note to us, served as a springboard. The connection between the object and the greeting card is a legitimate and close one, and presumably would not have developed had Jane not correctly divined the nature of the object itself to begin with. The connection between the two being the fact that the object concerned a phone call to us from my mother; and that my mother was also the sender of the card to us.

(Jane of course had seen the card upon arrival, on August 12 or 13,1966. It had become mislaid after arrival and we hadn’t seen it since. We saw the envelope object on August 14. As soon as Jane began giving the envelope data I realized she referred to Mother’s card as well as the object. At break we launched a search for the card. It was fruitless; we had given up on finding it until I looked through a stack of old magazines as a last resort.

(Of course the emotional involvement and reaction between us and my parents is strong, and would tend to override more specific details of the envelope object itself, once Jane had picked up the idea of my mother. Jane had the idea of Mother’s greeting card in mind from the start of the envelope data, she said. She tried not to let this color the data. She mentally dropped it, deciding to let Seth speak in his own way. But the card plays a large part in the data nevertheless.

(“A grave. Something grave.” Jane had a strong ill or grave feeling, meaning burial, here, and it is applicable. My mother made the phone call that resulted in the object; my father is in poor health, and she talked of this when Jane returned the phone call at about noon on Sunday, August 14. In addition, the greeting card was mailed to us by Mother from Tunkhannock, PA, where she visited my brother and his wife. My sister-in-law’s father is also very ill, having nearly died recently.

(“Connection with a disturbance.” My mother’s call, represented by the object, reflected her own disturbance, and this in turn affected Jane and me when we made the return call later in the morning, August 14,1966.

(“Distant connection with a cat. Perhaps black.” A black cat is connected to my mother in perhaps more than a casual way. My mother’s next-door neighbor acquired a black kitten a few months ago; the animal has made quite an impression on my parents, who enjoy watching its antics in their own yard as well as the neighbors’.

(Thus much of the data can be connected to my mother in a direct way, bespeaking strong emotional connections. These connections seem to spring out of the original perception of the envelope object, more or less leaving the object behind.

(“A very distant connection with a foreign land and a person. A woman. A Butts, I believe.” This is another example growing out of my mother’s connection with the object. The key is a mention of a Butts. Jane said that when giving the data she knew she meant the A as an initial A, standing for Alice Butts. I of course did not know this. Alice Butts is a retired cousin of my mother’s whom my mother admires very much. Alice served in Korea as a missionary for many years. In addition, Leonard Yaudes, author of the envelope object, knows Alice Butts.

(“Monumental. A monumental occasion.” See the copy my mother wrote inside the greeting card, shown on page 321, in which she refers to finally arriving in Tunkhannock to visit my brother and his family. My parents live in Sayre, 50-some miles north of Tunkhannock. My father does not drive much anymore, and traveling is difficult for them. We think that in my mother’s eyes the visit to Tunkhannock can legitimately be called a monumental occasion. Her copy begins: “At last we made it to Tunk…”

(“A folded card. Writing on the inside. Printed matter and handwriting.” All of this refers to the greeting card shown on pages 320-21, and sent to Jane and me by Mother on August 14,1966. The envelope object itself is not folded.

(“Several events happening together, or a series of objects strung together on the object.” Probably a reference to the contents of my mother’s writing on the greeting card, since this deals with several events. The objects strung together being words. This could apply to the envelope object, but this data is sandwiched in with others applying to the greeting card.

(The exact sequence, 1418, does not appear either on the envelope object or the greeting card. When we located the greeting card we also found its envelope. Tunkhannock’s zip code is 18657. On the back of the envelope my mother wrote my brother-in-law’s return address, which she should have. However she absent-mindedly wrote her own ZIP code, for Sayre, PA, after the address—18840. This is closer to 1418.

(“73.” My mother is 73 years old. Are there other connections?

(“Something favorite, or favored, here. Some one favored.” Jane said she was subjectively sure this was another reference to my mother, who caused Leonard to author the object. Me being my mother’s favorite son.

(2nd Question: “Can you elaborate upon the closet data?” “Ruburt thinks of your mother’s sewing room. To me a reference to some shape, dark and narrow, with the feeling of motion involved, as a falling through or a falling out. Downward motion, with some speed.” The sewing room of my mother is a legitimate connection. We aren’t so sure of Seth’s interpretation, unless it pertains to the motion of the sewing machine. Could the dark and narrow, etc., be another grave or illness reference?

(3rd Question: “What’s that about a black cat?” “A distant connection. (Pause.) A loss of an advantage, or period of poor luck.” See the explanation re. the black cat on page 328. Seth’s additional data here conjures up the thought that the neighbor’s black cat also serves as the classic symbol of bad or poor luck; the connection here being the failing health of my father, and the failing health in a more drastic way of Mr. Meeker, the father-in-law of my brother Loren. It was while at Loren’s that my mother sent us the greeting card. When she called us on August 14, she, of course, discussed the health both of my father and Mr. Meeker.

(7th Question: “Can you tell me anything about what the handwriting says on the object?” “Not an invitation precisely at all, but reference to an occasion or visit.” I thought it okay to ask this question since Seth had already mentioned handwriting in connection with the data. Seth’s answer here is a good reference to the note Mother wrote inside the greeting card. It can actually apply just as well to the envelope object itself. The phone call on August 14 from my mother concerned a visit by us to Sayre, and one by her to us in Elmira. During this call arrangements were made for her to visit us here next weekend, on Saturday, August 20.