“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

When man identified with nature, as given in Psyche, he did not imagine that the gods disapproved of him when storms lashed across the landscape. He did not at that time, as is supposed, do sacrifice then to win the gods’ approval. Instead, identifying with nature, man identified also with all of its manifestations.

He felt himself to be a portion of the storm, however, and felt the storm as a vast magnification of his own emotional reality—even as he felt the body of the earth itself to be, beside itself, the magnification of his own emotional reality and that of others.

In your terms, with time, historically, he began to lose this identification, so that an emotional separation began to occur between man and the elements, between man and the other manifestations of nature. He still sensed nature’s grandeur—(louder:) but that grandeur was no longer his own, and he felt less and less a part of it. Nature became an exterior power, more of an adversary, even though man has a love for the earth, the fields, and the grain that they yielded.

Self-disapproval in that context became a virtue, for indeed survival depended, it seemed, upon constant self and tribal evaluation. None of this has anything to do with natural guilt, as described in Personal Reality. Now man does feel a certain amount of natural guilt when he loses his identification with nature, for that identification leads to intuitive connections with nature’s greater source.

Again, the animal approves of himself, whether he is sick or well, slow or swift. The sick animal wants to get well. It does not disapprove of itself, however, or even think of itself as “a sick animal.” In those terms it might think of itself as an animal who was sick—a big difference—and even then no self-disapproval would be indicated.

I will give you some (stereotypes): Ruburt is stubborn. He never forgets a slight. Ruburt is fiercely loyal. Joseph deals in details. His mind is logical rather than intuitive. Ruburt is spontaneous. Joseph is not. All of these are labels, and quite relative. Ruburt is loyal to you. He was not loyal, in those terms, to Walter Zeh, or he would still be with him. Ruburt is spontaneous—but if he were all that spontaneous he would be walking better. You, Joseph, are spontaneous. You do not have to think before you cross the floor—where there Ruburt is aware of the slightest detail—the arrangement of his body or the furniture, the lay of the floor.

Do not label yourselves, for then you often try to live up to those labels, and they can be highly limiting. I do my own part in these sessions, and if I may say so (highly amused:) very well indeed—and yet there is certainly something in Ruburt’s mind and abilities that allows him to speak, regardless, over the years, an immense amount of material, some of it highly detailed and orderly. So how can Ruburt say that he cannot deal with the details, and thus disapprove of himself?

When you look for “what is wrong,” you are feeding self-disapproval. When you are looking for the reasons behind a condition, that is different. The two attitudes, while they may seem similar, are really quite opposite in their intent and effect. Ruburt recognized self-disapproval today (after her nap). He saw that the feeling itself was the culprit. He disapproved of himself because of his condition, or so he thought, and he has felt that way often. The self-disapproval causes the condition, however, and not the other way around. This got through to him.

Ruburt’s entire body has stretched noticeably in the last week and a half, the legs in particular. He has implemented that stretching so that he is indeed taller walking. The lower back is becoming more elastic, and that allows for a greater loosening of the knees. Those back muscles are strong and vigorous, but they were tightened in order to hold this lowered pose (with gestures).

You spoke of the pendulum (at last break). Again, labels are somewhat implicated, for you each thought you worked well with the pendulum, but that Ruburt did not. It can be used most effectively and in the past at times Ruburt used it well, particularly with your help—largely because he believed it necessary. Make sure you do not look for what is wrong, however, but for reasons behind behavior.