Jane Roberts' DREAM OF THE SANDS

"Now, Ruburt has had the first of the seven dreams. (See the 497th session, for July 7, 1969.) It is the dream of the sands, and I mentioned the series of dreams earlier. I want to give you an explanation of that dream.

(“I don’t think Ruburt thought of the dream that way.” (Jane had the dream in question on August 22, 1969, a Friday night, and has it recorded in her dream notebook. She described it to me at breakfast Saturday morning, mentioning the impression it had made upon her, but without connecting it to Seth’s series of seven dreams.)

"Subconsciously Ruburt knew that the dream was important. He did not know it was the first of the seven. Now. I will have a few comments for our friends here, and I want to continue with the material that I have been giving you. In the meantime take your break. Your own first dream should come shortly.

"Now. Give us a moment here. First, the dream. Ruburt saw you and he standing in the middle of an infinite plain of sand. The sands were marked with names and messages. To the left and to the right there were mountains of sand. To the left he saw people approaching the sands upon which he stood. To the right people were leaving the plains of sand, yet the plain itself was empty, filled only with the messages that were written there. All was silence. You and he were about to step out upon the plain, and he held back because he did not want to disturb the messages.

"Now. You and he had both come from another direction. The messages represent (pause) philosophies and ideas (pause) that the Seth material and his work will change. The dream is personal and yet more than this, these messages and philosophies will be buried not only by the material but by psychic awareness on the part of many individuals like yourselves. Two things in the dream held him back: a gigantic nostalgia for the writings in the sand that had remained for so long, the jottings of children—and for a moment he did not want to be part of anything that would wipe them out. He wondered aloud in the dream whether or not you and he should really be there: what credentials you had that would give you the right to make new footprints. There was no empty space, no new road, only the way before you both, that would necessitate your treading upon these jottings and transposing your footsteps over those that were there.

"Now the plain was empty. The people coming in from the left represented later generations, in your terms, who had not yet arrived at the plain. The people to the right were those who had already passed beyond it. The plain was empty because it was the repository of ideas. The ideas had been put there by those who had already left. The old ideas had not been wiped out. The new ideas had not yet taken hold. Part of your responsibility will be to tread upon the old ideas, to clear the distortions; and Ruburt, realizing this, hesitated, but he recognized in the dream exactly what was involved. When he begins to walk across the sand, and you with him, new messages will appear there. They will be a signal for those people on the left. In your terms those people will be drastically different than those who have gone before. They will not walk upon the old ideas nor dwell within their reality. You are clearing the sands for them, and giving them new guideposts and in Ruburt’s dream he felt them waiting. Now. There is also a symbolism here with the parting of the waters, a silence and abeyance, a hush. He sees you standing in the middle.

"See now the empty plain, as a scooped-out and hollow place from which the water has fled. The sand mountains to the left and right. (Jane was gesturing quite emphatically in here, arms and hands echoing her words, eyes open and very dark, etc.) Now the crest. This represents the concept that these ideas will be so given that they become the springs which will bring new nourishment to an arid world psyche. There are others behind you that Ruburt never saw, for you are not alone, nor the only ones involved.

"The dream was a statement of the situation and of his position. The next one will begin as he is bold enough to walk out upon the plain with you. Now give us a moment. (Long pause at 10:28.) You are to a large extent outside of the context. You did not come from the direction that the others came, nor will you continue. You were at right angles you see between the two groups of people. The people represent those who still have past and future lives in your terms.

"Your development now will be different. Your challenge and responsibility is also different. For you must go across that plain of ideas, you see, transposing others, and you must go together. And while there are others, you will not be aware of them. You will not have them, in your time, for comfort, and so it will seem to you that you are alone, and that you are set apart from those both coming and going. So also Ruburt felt. (Jane learned forward, quite intent.) It was safer where he was, and he hesitated to take that first step. And the step is the publication of the book, and the ideas that it entails."

--Seth, The Early Sessions, V.9,  SESSION 499, AUGUST 27, 1969