“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now. To you ... (Long pause, eyes closed.) Your paintings are your own, and I am no artist. If I read your inner intent correctly however, your prophet will dominate the background, and seem almost to come out of it. At the same time the background itself will be alive, so it is difficult to tell whether the living background propels him outward, or whether he himself, from his own power, seems to rise out apart from the background. Or whether he has been thrust outward from the background of which he is part, a living focus rising out of the background, a part of consciousness rising out of a larger, undifferentiated consciousness implied in the background.

And with implied words, for the words that are sensed but not spoken, will rush out with color rather than with sound, and behind the implied words those emotions upon which the painting must be based. (Pause.

(Seth here refers to a large painting I have planned and made a pen-and-ink drawing for in small scale. Tonight I explained to Jane the problem involved in determining the correct relationship between background area, and the prophet, who is in a standing position. In this particular painting the background will play an important role, since it is designed to indicate a play of light and shadow. The prophet looks upward to the left, lips parted in speech.)

Sorrow or fear obviously show different faces—not only (long pause), the anatomy and the structure [that] forms the living face, but the emotions within that give the muscles and the structures meaning, and that play upon them. You want the force that feels the form and so the figure must indeed dominate the painting, as the force within must fill and move within the figure itself.

(Just before the session I had said that I feared I would have to revise my preliminary planning, and allow more background area in the painting than at first planned.)

The power must fill the image, and the image then fill the painting so that the very force of the figure seems hardly contained within it. It is the emotions beneath (smile) that give meaning to the image, and yet these emotions are held and contained and given direction and force by and through the image. (Leaning forward, emphatic delivery, eyes open.)

(At this moment I then consciously knew what my prophet was saying in the painting; the words came clearly to mind: “My God, my God, what am I?” I was tempted to speak them aloud next chance I had, but did not. I hadn’t tried to conjure up these words; the emotional climate set up in the session by Seth had made their release from the subconscious effortless.

Now there are several ways of taking care of such matters. You can build form or a structure with lines, or a face, and leave it and wait for the emotion to fill it up, and then quickly with a touch here and there bring out that which has appeared, the movement that was within the form, that you barely sensed. Or you can perceive the movement, the emotion and the power first, and then paint the form that grows about it to form it.

The painting itself, and any painting, rises out of the empty board through the force of your own emotions, and the board becomes the focal point that collects, draws together and directs the energy from your inner self, into form.

Your prophet’s lips move. To whom is his implied speech spoken—to a god he understands, to a god he does not understand, to the elements or to a part of himself that he knows exists and cannot reach. (Smile.) You should sense or know the answers, now, or as the painting progresses.

By the time the painting is done you should almost be able to hear his words, even though they are in a language you do not know. But what power moves him, and is it the same power that moves you, and that moves those who will look at the painting? (Smile.) For unity’s sake it should be. Is he only aware of those who will later look at the painting? Is he only aware of the unseen power or person his lips address? Is he speaking words not only for himself but for every other individual?

(9:45. Jane was rather slow coming out of trance. She said “Seth really put me out. Like a thunderbolt. He always does put me out strong when I talk about anything to do with you and paintings.”

(Jane had no visions while speaking, but sensed some things. She felt the background in the projected painting as being alive, she said, with the figure being the important thing and materializing out of the background, while yet a part of it .

Now. Become your prophet as you paint him.

Look out through his eyes, and cry out through his lips. I had my reasons (smile) for introducing these questions pertaining to the painting this evening—to make available to you certain information that you had, the kinds of questions to ask yourself in other paintings in the future.

And perhaps in painting your picture the answer to the question asked by your prophet will also come to both of you. Does the question provide its own answer, or is there another who will provide the answer, or does the prophet question in vain? Does anyone hear his question but himself?

Do his words go back into the background from which he himself emerged, and does the answer emerge also? Or is there any clear answer to his question? (Smile; pause, eyes closed.) Or is the question itself the important thing, whether or not there is any answer to it in the terms in which it is asked? All of these issues are a part of your painting, implied in every line of its conception, but I want you to see consciously the implications of the figure, and the overall implications of the figure in context with the background.

“What am I,” question three, “who can conceive of a painting in which the first question is asked?” The three questions automatically show the added dimensions of the questioner, and the various stages through which the original question can develop. (Long pause.)

You ask yourself the same questions as you paint the painting, and the directed unity and focus will provide exhilaration and strength to it. And the need, so strongly implied, will also provide the answer and the means.