“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Ruburt’s dreams will be part of this evening’s discussion, as they apply directly to him and as they represent the beautiful, even exquisite imagery of the dreaming self in general. The art dream (of June 3), as I call it, has its opening scene in an art gallery, which represents a conventionalized view of art. Ruburt used painting as an art in the dream rather than writing (pause), because it symbolized your joint ideas of art—to some extent, now—and allowed him to have you in his mind as he viewed the dream events.

In the first scene in the gallery he is explaining with some eloquence the mental and physical benefits of art, and its action as providing “a natural high.” The word “high” is important, for art, his art—writing, poetry—was his version of, say, the high mass of his childhood, where he and not the priest was in connection with the universe. By a kind of shorthand, the art gallery suggests the church, then, and his dedication to art, that is, to his art quickly replaced his dedication to the church. It became his vocation in quite religious terms.

The second scene takes place in a large office building that represents the world and its usual pursuits. Ruburt is offered a rather lucrative and fairly prestigious position. When his prospective employer sets a time for a meeting, however, by telephone, Ruburt cannot hear him clearly and so must double-check. This simply means that the voice of the world did not come through clearly as far as it offered other vocational opportunities. Ruburt knew he could gain sufficient-enough prestige by using his abilities in other directions; by being, say, a director of a gallery, or by accepting any of a number of positions, such as teaching, that had been offered him in the past.

And in the past, he toyed with some of those ideas and positions. When he tried teaching he began to get ill, for he was afraid that he would settle for the respectable-enough prestige it afforded, give in and stop his writing and other pursuits. He was in his late thirties, and sometimes tempted to do so.

Timewise and symbolically, the third scene brings us to the point where Ruburt is determined to defend his art, his dedication, to such an extent that he hides from the world, and symbolically crawls on his belly, all the while seeking to escape the dilemma by finding an open door, or by hiding from pursuers in the shadows. These efforts fail. One portion of himself is a character, male, with bound hands, and Ruburt must help this person over barriers, of course because his hands are tied symbolically behind his back.

(9:20.) Ruburt, however, objects, and that Ruburt represents the portion of the personality who is still clinging to old beliefs, but losing its leadership. The group of beliefs are breaking up, and can no longer count upon such blind obedience. As Ruburt wakens, he realizes that nowhere in the dream did he have any reason to hide. No reason was given for the pursuit itself, for he was being pursued now and then at least, by several people.

He began to question as he awakened his motives for such frantic behavior. The dream gave him three scenes representing various areas of his life in terms of time—the institution of the gallery and his early ideas, the office representing the world, and his hiding place, which was a kind of storage barn. It stored old beliefs. From which he was seeking escape.