“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now. We are speaking of probabilities, my friend. Your own wishes, expectations and attitudes gave rise to this assignment from your acquaintance, Ward. You did this quite unconsciously, and you made the contact in a dream, to your friend Crowley, sometime ago—approximately three months I believe.

(To my surprise last Friday, October 21, I received a call from an old friend, Bill Ward, with whom I used to do comic books about 1940-2. He asked me to help him, probably on a regular basis, with some work, and I said yes. The work, involving inking, arrived Sunday. Wendell Crowley is a boyhood friend of Ward’s, and also an old friend of mine; he was my editor in New York City for some years after World War II. I was working with him in the early 1950’s. Also, see Session 290.

(On October 15, 10 days ago, I dreamed Jane and I moved closer to New York City so I could sell my paintings—or so I wrote, rather than comics for instance. In the dream I saw a big city skyline in the distance, beyond the small town we moved to. Bill Ward—not in the dream—lives in Ridgewood, NJ, a commuter town for New York City.)

(I was greatly surprised Friday to have Bill Ward tell me that Wendell Crowley’s 10-year-old daughter died of a heart attack while playing softball. Wendell himself underwent open-heart surgery last year, and now feels well.)

Take into consideration now probabilities. But I do not believe you are finished with Ward and his friends. There are even some possibilities for relationships with a second generation. You brought about this opportunity, and you will now deal with it, in your own way, in physical terms.

(Bill Ward’s letter accompanying the artwork mentioned his recent attendance at a dinner gathering of many of the group of friends we worked with in the early 1940’s. Oddly enough, the last letter I received from Wendell Crowley, in May 1966, also described a similar event.)

(See the copy of the envelope object on page 115 and the notes on the next page. As stated the object was a bill for art supplies from The Art Shop. Jane had never seen the object; I obtained it today, October 24, from Marjorie Buck, the proprietor, when I bought pencils and paper stumps with which to do the job my old friend, Bill Ward, mailed to me over the weekend. The job arrived yesterday. See the notes on page 116 for an explanation here, since these facts enter into the envelope data, we believe.

(“A written note, with an appeal for an answer, or implied request.” I believe this is a reference to the letter Bill Ward sent me with the art work I received Sunday, October 23. Again, see the notes on page 116. Also keep in mind that the bill used as object represents pencils and paper stumps I bought in order to finish the job Bill sent to me.

(“The colors gray and/or white.” Another reference to the work Bill Ward sent to me. The art is to be done in shades of black to white, without other colors, and will be so printed.

(Note that in here Seth gives three blocks of data relating to one facet of the events connected to the bill used as object. This involved Bill Ward and his product. Before that, Marjorie Buck was involved, with the object itself and its origin.

(“An article that opens up.” I believe there are two choices of interpretation here. I favor the first one: that the data refers to the large flat package in which Bill Ward mailed me the artwork to be finished. “Writing on the inside and outside.” The package of course contained writing both inside and outside. “Or at least the inside and outside are covered.” This may refer to the package in a somewhat distorted manner. Or it may refer quite accurately to the envelope object itself, which would be the second possibility for this block of data.

(“Some distant connection with a child.” No connections. Extra notation by Jane: Bill Ward, while asking Rob to do the job over phone, told him of death of Wendell’s child, a school boy. [Jane wrote boy but a girl died.]

(“Some connection with, is it—ablutions or washings, and with some kind of festival-type thing.” This is good data, we believe, and refers again to the artwork Bill Ward mailed me over the weekend. Again, see the notes about this on page 116. Jane of course saw this artwork when I opened it up today, and when I began work on the backgrounds today.

(The connections with washings and the art comes about because on the first two pages of the comic story sent to me by Bill Ward, the heroine is shown taking a shower, using a towel, etc. This is a prominent part of the first two pages, not just a panel on each. The heroine’s act of showering is important to the story because of the steps taken by the enemy to destroy her while she is so occupied.

(The festival-type thing is also good, and refers I think to the letter from Bill Ward that accompanied the art. In the letter Bill dwells upon a dinner attended by himself, Wendell Crowley, and several other old friends of mine; the dinner being held just a few days ago; at this dinner Wendell mentioned my availability to Bill Ward for free-lance artwork, and this in turn led Bill to ask me to help him out.

(Distortion probably operates here. Note that the bill used as the object has blue lines upon it. Bill Ward’s artwork arrived in a large rectangular package, but contained no tissue paper and bore no ribbons or string; it was instead sealed with tape. Nor did it contain any blue. Jane thinks she may have received accurate-enough data from Seth about a package, and constructed perhaps the ribbons herself because that is symbolic of packages. She used blue ribbons perhaps through a distortion of the blue pertaining to the envelope object.

(1st Question: What color is the object itself? “I am not sure. I will say on the order of a gray or silver metallic color, mainly.” See the gray and white data on page 122. It appears that the above is another reference to the art work Bill Ward sent me, since it contains grays done in pencil as well as black ink; the grays can easily look metallic when a certain density is reached, for the graphite in the pencils acquires a dull sheen, similar to an aluminum look.

(4th Question: What is that written note? “Perhaps having to do with November, and blue.” See the note data in the middle of page 119; it was stated that referred to Bill Ward’s letter. The above could also refer to the letter. The artwork discussed in the letter is due in November 1966, and the letter itself is handwritten by Bill in two shades of blue ink. I believe this data also ties in with the next: