“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.

(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.)

(The idea had come to me intuitively while I was at work at Artistic. I made the pen-and-ink drawing then. I hadn’t tried to consciously decide what the prophet might be saying as he looked upward. The only conscious decision I had made was that I would let such designs remain in the subconscious if they did not spontaneously present themselves.)

Now as men wonder about what was Mona Lisa thinking, so let them be so intrigued and so involved that they want to hear your prophet’s unspoken words. Put yourself in his place, and with all of his capacities, and with his wisdom, and what would you be saying, and what emotion would move the muscles of your face?

(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.

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.

Now. Become your prophet as you paint him.

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?

(At break of course I had told Jane about the answer I had received concerning what the prophet was saying. See page 246.)

You identify with the prophet, not only as yourself but as the representative of your kind. Therefore the question is yours with all the intense yearning to know within it. But it is also every man’s question, and herein lies its strength.

Let the prophet therefore be yourself, and yet let him also stand for every other man. In speaking honestly for yourself, you therefore speak also for others, and intuitively they know this.