“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Both before and after “the time of Christ,” as historically given, there were men who claimed to be the messiah. The messiah was a myth waiting for factual clothes. Many men tried on the fit. In a manner of speaking, now, it would make little difference which man was finally given the kingly robes—for the greater reality of the dream was so encompassing that it would come to be, whether one or 10 or 20 men’s lives were historically joined together to form the Christ.

Christ of course was a common name. Crucifixions were normal punishments. Conflicts between the priests and righteous members of the congregation were frequent. Many men dreamed of being the messiah, yet the dream went even beyond the confines of Jewish identity, and was far more international than any would-be messiah realized. Some of the stories have absolutely no basis in fact, as you think of fact. Others are distorted versions of factual events.

[...] As I stated before, that part of the world was filled with would-be messiahs, self-proclaimed prophets, and so forth, and in those terms it was only a matter of time before man’s great spiritual and psychic desires illuminated and filled up that psychological landscape, filling the prepared psychological patterns with a new urgency and intent. There were many throw-away messiahs (with gentle amusement) — men whose circumstances, characteristics, and abilities were almost (musically) the ones needed — who almost [...]

[...] Therefore he handed over to the authorities a man known to be a self-styled messiah — to save, not destroy, the life of the historical Christ.

[...] (As one correspondent wrote us: “Seth is also a Hebrew name meaning ‘appointed’ — i.e., the appointed one.”) However, some very early priestly genealogies omit Cain and Abel, and consider Seth as the oldest son of Adam; in the second century A.D., for instance, the Sethites, who were members of a little-known Gnostic sect, thought of Seth, the son of Adam, as the Messiah. Seth also shows up in writings of the ancient occult religious philosophy, the cabala, which was originated by certain Jewish rabbis who sought to interpret the scriptures through numerical values; the soul of Seth is seen as infusing Moses; he was to reappear as the Messiah….

For those who may wonder: I’ll close here by noting that historically the time period within which my impressions took place would embrace the reputed visits of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem during Pilate’s tenure, including Christ’s crucifixion around A.D. 30 — but that my experience per se had nothing to do with the Messiah.