“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

All societies are different. The tenants at 458 at one time formed a kind of family, and to some extent that relationship continues, as far as the two of you are concerned, with Ann and Leonard. You remember past tenants together as people recall distant or dead family members. And in particular you chose the conditions of the flood and took part in a joint history.

To some extent you all have characteristics that are similar, while of course there are differences. In one way or another, however, you have not accepted the traditional social roles. Neither Ann or Leonard married. You married, but not at the usual age—later. You did not have children. Leonard and Ann also have a certain stubborn independence. When they look at your relationship with Ruburt they still assure themselves that it is after all not the traditional marriage.

You also questioned. You set up a system of balances so that you would think before using your power. This was overdone, however. On the other hand it was reassuring now because in that other life you were afraid of your own impetuosity, together, and had to know you could control it while using your abilities. You have each controlled it. There is no need then to further show yourselves that you can indeed be understanding and compassionate leaders. In that joint venture it made little difference which of you accepted the role that would in one way or another prevent the both of you from misusing power, for the one role would be passive while the other was active.

On those occasions when he improved, and you did not become negative, then he instantly became frightened and negative himself. On other occasions, when he improved, you began with a variety of assorted symptoms of your own, as if to say “One of us must do it,” and he would think “Well, I had better keep things as they are. Better that one of us at least should be happy.”

To some extent, I do not want to overstate. You initiated the procedures years ago, and decided you would not be the one. Now Ruburt could have refused that role also. Nothing said that either of you had to accept it.

Very briefly: as a Roman, you pretended to be a follower while you were a man of rank in the military. You had no belief in the conventional gods, yet you were supposed to be conquering lands in their name. You traveled even to Africa. You had a disdain for leaders as liars, and of the masses as followers, and so you were always in one kind of dispute or another, with your fellows, and even with the authorities. You were of a querulous nature, yet highly curious, and again physically involved.

In this life Ruburt chose poverty as a background, a mother who was not physically fit, a broken family. You chose parents who in their way were culturally deprived, ignorant of fine music or literature, and temperamentally poles apart. Then you chose a prime ability, not overly valued by society. When the two of you took up together for the reasons given, you decided upon a further handicap, though you had not specifically chosen one.

Only monks could afford it, and there were thousands of different groups scattered throughout Europe. There were equally as many long-forgotten communities, in which hermits of every sect imaginable squatted in caves in given areas. People of solitary nature born in medieval times had to make their own structures, and if they were not hermits or monks, they were outlaws of one kind or another, frequenting the woods, which were often full of semi-permanent but isolated communities—men and women who preyed upon travelers, for example.

You both had existences in which you combined the traits of each in medieval Europe. Sacred manuscripts were often stolen from one monastery and taken to another, where they were exchanged for the goods of this world, and for sanctuary. Some of those experiences led you both to desire a certain privacy while remaining in the midst of a community, and here again Ruburt’s condition came into service, giving you a built-in reason for not going out into the world.

(11:30.) Ruburt became the spontaneous one to both of you, therefore the one who must use controls. You became the disciplined one to both of you, which meant of course that you also impeded your spontaneity. The mind cannot be fully used when it is used at the body’s expense. You have gone along with Ruburt’s improvements. You are beginning to actively encourage it. Your suggestion to Ruburt involving touch is highly important, and represents growing understanding on your part.