“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

In the matter of publishing, or selling paintings, others are involved—others who very rarely in their lives experience that important encounter between, say, the self as actualized and the idealized sensed self, between the painting or the poem as an ideal and the actualization of that ideal. You cannot give such people a general impression of what you want. If you are concerned with such matters as covers that do not live up to your ideals of what covers should be, then you must begin your definitions. Ruburt has primarily been concerned with the ideal that is behind all of his books, and with the practical matter of getting those out into the world. (Pause.) He was willing to put up with a good deal to do so, to overlook lacks of taste in presentation, say.

On the other hand, of course, the very individuality implied in art itself tells you that even the ideal must follow its own eccentric patterns, and that man must find his own way out of his l-a-c-k-s (spelled). Ruburt, however, would rarely deal with such issues at all, though he was aware of them, so you felt you bore the brunt. You cannot expect Prentice to understand the nature of your own idealism, or Ruburt’s, in such a way that Prentice as an entity can apply that idealism to its packaging. Not unless you define, you specify. You get together, the two of you, on each issue, as it happens, and make your decision together, and stick by it. You have not done this before because each of you would become irritated at the other’s mode of behavior.

Ruburt felt that your idealism could threaten the practical distribution of the books, so that his idealistic purpose—to get those words out—could be held back. You felt that the lack of taste, and often of artistic integrity, was so blatant that it blighted the words themselves, marred the message. Both of you were concerned with the ideal. You felt Ruburt was being too “practical,” and would put up with almost anything, and he felt that you were being too impractical at times.

Because neither of you really (underlined) defined and carried through on your definitions some black or white thinking resulted. It would seem to you that all of the books were marred, in that manner, now, or it would seem to Ruburt that nothing was wrong at all, in that manner. You would find it hard to express pleasure with a given cover, or you would forget, as with Seven Two, for its attributes would seem lost in your larger displeasure. Or Ruburt, feeling displeasure with Prentice on any occasion, would find it difficult to admit to you.

Do not think in terms of a generalized ideal situation, but in terms of better covers, better communication with Prentice in both friendly terms as per Ruburt’s calls to Tam, and in the definitive terms of clearly stating specific requests. Otherwise neither of you will be satisfied. Other companies may have more money to spend. Prentice is not a great trade publisher. Yet you will still be dealing with the same kinds of people, and Ruburt has done well as far as publishers are concerned, in handling innovative books published by the firm. Some other companies might well have exerted even more pressure to keep Ruburt writing along certain proven lines. They were also innovative, in their terms, in the publishing of material before the current interest in unofficial events.

Dream one is in answer to Ruburt’s wondering whether or not it was a good idea to make out a will now, rather than to wait until a later date.

Ruburt’s father always planned to make a new will before his death, and kept putting it off. In the dream Ruburt finds a strange mechanism made by his father that is supposed to dispense some money. A kindly old man appears, who says that Ruburt’s father made this contraption two hours before his death, to ensure Ruburt some inheritance.

Ruburt suspects this man of helping himself in somewhat the same manner, in the meantime. In any case, the mechanism deposits a few coins or so. There is a missing key, and the old man also possesses one to the mechanism, which he finally gives to Ruburt, who then operates it. The odd mechanism represents the mechanics of the law, which his father used poorly, and in fact he died before he had time to make the contraption mentioned in the dream.

The coins represent the small amount of money Ruburt did receive. The old man also stands for Ruburt’s father, as Ruburt thought of him bumming around, frittering away his time and energy, so he was stealing from the pot. There would be nothing left. Ruburt was not greedy, but curious. The missing key represented Yale locks (with emphatic amusement). The dream said “Do not wait too late to set up the legal mechanism,” and affirmed that Yale was at least a good idea. (Pause.) The old man also stood for old man time in the dream, and reinstated the fact that an executor is important, for the old man also stood for —in the dream, now—Ruburt’s father acting as his own executor—meaning that his nature led him to leave ends loose.

Dream two involves two couples, and they are both you and Ruburt.

(Pause.) You appeared as both young men. Ruburt appeared as himself, and as Pat Norelli. The amphitheatre stands both for the world, and for the dramatic action of your lives, in which your ideals and aspirations are actualized or played out to whatever extent. The couples show your own double faces. One couple is brave, daring, assured, headed for the center of the stage. The other couple, while headed in the same direction, are frightened of the high ledge that must be covered, and afraid that it can lead to a dead end.

Pat was chosen symbolically, yet stands for a definite situation, when you two visited Boston on tour. At that time, Ruburt saw Pat, who is a teacher, and was traveling through belief systems with the greatest of ease, converting to Judaism and then out of it, and so forth. I spoke on television, and you were both appalled at the gulf between what you saw as the idealized message of our work, and the ludicrous (pause) lack of integrity of the environment in which that ideal was expressed. I am referring to the other performer, et cetera—the circumstances which you know well.

While still devoted to the ideal, you were both quite appalled, simplistically speaking. The brave portions of your personalities went on helping each other, as per the dream, until Pat Norelli, as Ruburt, easily working through belief systems stands center stage, ready to speak to other frightened portions of yourselves still on a high ledge. They begin to realize that everything is all right; they can come down or join the other couple.

To do so, however, they must back down through previous limiting beliefs, and had you not wakened Ruburt, the four of you would have joined each other on the stage. Ruburt was correct in what he picked up from me today (half laughing)—concerning both your rugs and nationalized medicine, and some of its effects upon the poor if it were established.