“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The envelope object was a bill I had received this afternoon for art supplies, and which Jane had never seen. Jane does know the proprietor of the Art Shop, Marjorie Buck, who made out the bill. The object is printed in dark blue ink on yellow paper, with the writing in carbon blue. The large number at the bottom is in red; the back of the bill is blank. I placed the object, folded once, as indicated, between the usual two pieces of Bristol, then sealed it in double envelopes.

(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.)

(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.)

(Bill and Peggy Gallagher, who have been on vacation in Nassau. Supposedly they are on their way home to Elmira now. See the last two sessions.)

Something twirls and goes past. 3 7 8. This could be time, in connection with an airplane. A dismissal of some kind. Someone dismisses them abruptly, perhaps, or dismisses the Jesuit (Bill Gallagher) or he has this impression. Or the plane lands at this time and the people are dismissed then.

(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.

(The object is printed on bright yellow paper in dark blue ink, with the large serial number at the bottom in red. The back is blank. The bill was folded once for insertion into the double envelopes. The bill is not dated by Marjorie; when I obtained it I had no notion of using it as the object. I did want something that Jane had never seen however.

(“A hole or grave or something deep.” Marjorie Buck is the proprietor of The Art Shop, where I obtained the bill used as object. Jane knows her fairly well. Marjorie’s husband died—we do not know when—and Marjorie bought The Art Shop earlier this year. Jane has used the hole/grave nomenclature several times in the past to refer to deaths; it is a regular association of hers.

(We believe this data is an example of the distortions Seth refers to. In my second question an attempt is made to get more specific data. Possibly the above data refers to Marjorie as proprietor of The Art Shop, and her two helpers, my first cousin Ruth Gridley, and the framemaker Roy Fox. All of these people are friends of ours, bespeaking emotional involvement. But in answer to the second question, Seth cites Jane’s difficulty, and the thought of my mother, her cousin Vivian, and Vivian’s husband Bill. Vivian and Bill, from Virginia, visited my parents last weekend, and Jane and I saw much of them.

(“The color blue, as a background, I believe.” No connections. As stated I had no idea of using the bill as object when I obtained it from Marjorie. My thought is that Marjorie wore a print dress with a blue background today, but of course I cannot be sure.

(“A rather airy design, with cubes predominating, and thin lines. These reminding Ruburt of a child’s Jungle Gym.” See the copy of the bill used as object on page 115. This also is good data. It could be said the bill is of airy design; Jane also said that to her way of thinking it contains cubes and rectangles. The thin line data is accurate, since on the original the lines are very thin and straight.

(“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.

(Bill’s letter outlined the steps necessary to finish the job, which consists of five pages of a comic type story, in pictures and text, for a men’s magazine. My job is to do the backgrounds and to add gray, black and white halftones with the pencils. Bill refers to any problems in his letter, how to get in touch with him, etc., and implies that I answer it. I have already done so.

(“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.

(As indicated on page 115, the bill was folded once before insertion into the double envelopes. This would make it an article that opens up but with writing on the inside only; hence some distortion would be present with this interpretation also.

(“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.]

(“Blacks that speak loudly.” Again see page 115. The heavy type for The Art Shop on the bill is prominent; when Jane opened the double envelopes and saw this she said it was black printing. Actually it is in dark blue ink against yellow paper, appearing almost black.

(“Vivid verticals”. The bill used as object contains verticals and horizontals.

(“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.

(Bear in mind that the connection between the artwork and tonight’s envelope object, the bill from The Art Shop, would be the pencils and paper stumps I bought at The Art Shop in order to do the art.

(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.

(We regard this as good data, in that the art work is strongly linked to the bill used as object. But of course off the mark as far as naming the bill itself goes.

(2nd Question: Who are the two women you mentioned? Initials? “We are having difficulty with Ruburt here, for he thinks of Vivian and your mother.” See the interpretation of the “two women and a man” data at the bottom of page 120. I tried to clarify that data here. My thought was that the two women and a man Seth referred to were Marjorie Buck, Ruth Gridley, and Roy Fox, all connected directly to The Art Shop, which furnished the bill used as envelope object. Jane evidently had in mind my mother, and Vivian and Bill Crowder, relatives from Virginia whom we saw this weekend. Seth apparently wanted to lead Jane away from the relative connection; but still volunteered no more specific information.

(See the Jungle Gym data, interpreted on page 121. Here I sought to get more information. As stated, and seen on page 115, the bill used as object contains vertical lines as well as horizontal, and these are quite thin on the actual object. The outdoors reference above stems from Jane’s original mention of a Jungle Gym on page 121, and this would lead to the green data.

(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:

(“An initiation or something for the first time.” The job sent to me by Bill is an initiation, since it is the first of its kind I have received from him—with the promise of more to come, incidentally. This also makes doing the art something for the “first time,” since I’ve never done this particular kind before. Many years ago, perhaps more than 15, I did other kinds of comic work; that was “serious” comic work.

(All are apparently linked with the envelope object in some fashion. The Art Shop bill used as object is rectangular in shape, but Jane mentioned a rectangular package earlier so we are not sure of what interpretation to assign here.

(“The letter M in caps here.” Possibly good data, and a strong link with the bill used as object. The bill was made out by Marjorie Buck, proprietor of The Art Shop. We are often unsure as to what, or how much, meaning to give initials like this. There are other M’s, both upper and lower case, on the bill. See page 115. Actually Marjorie’s name doesn’t appear on the bill at all.