“I got a definition of master events but forgot some of it … to the effect that master events are spectacular events whose main thrusts are outside of time, but whose actions on or in time [are] extravagant—out of proportion to their actual historical connections. The physical part of [such an] event in history is actually minimal in contrast to its effects … and something about master events touching the worlds of imagination and reason in different ways.

She’s been most intrigued by Seth’s referrals to the concept of “master events” ever since he gave them in the final session for Chapter 8—preparations, she hoped, for his material this evening. She came to play her own conscious part in those preparations, too: Yesterday she’d received many insights from Seth on “master overlays,” and made notes. She typed some of her information after supper tonight, and I’m presenting this in Note 1, just to show how closely at times the body of the Seth material lies to her “ordinary” consciousness.)

MASTER EVENTS AND REALITY OVERLAYS

There are masters in living as there are the Old Masters of painting. Some of the Old Masters were adept at painting scenes of violence, warfare, sagas, with dark and dreary atmospheres, yet each so filled at the same time with life and vitality that the canvases themselves seemed alive. [...]

The greatest Old Masters felt the inner self’s great integrity, and its connection with All That Is, and each in his own way through painting tried to represent that energy and show it to others. [...] When you look at the great world picture before you in space and time, look at it as you would a multidimensional worldscape, painted by some artist who was all of the great masters in one; and behind the scenes of destruction and conflict, feel the great energy that in itself denies the destruction that is in that case so cleverly depicted.

[...] People are always searching for master languages, or for one in particular out of which all others emerged. In a way, Latin is a master language. [...]

In the same manner, when you ask: “Is there a master language?” it is apparent that you do not understand what language itself is. [...]

[...] Master languages can be compared to the historic gods. [...]

—master events, then, involve “work” or action whose main thrust exists outside of time, yet whose effects are felt within time.

[...] Master events emerge from that reality of idea, now, from which all ideas originate, uniting these through the use of natural correspondences. [...]

[...] The story of the Creation, as Biblically stated, is the symbolic representation of a master event—a legend that became its own event, of course, forming about it whole arts and cultures, religions and disciplines. [...]

Seth as a “master event.” [...]

Again as with master events, we’re dealing with a different framework of action entirely, where the Mona Lisa is “more real” than the physical properties that compose it, which is not to deny the validity of the canvas, say. [...]

We learned the methods
so long ago
that they’re unconscious,
and we’ve hypnotized ourselves
into believing
that we’re the audience,
so I wonder where we served
our apprenticeship.
Under what master magicians did we learn
to form reality
so smoothly that we forgot to tell ourselves
the secret?

Now in other ways it was also utilized by your old masters. [...]

[...] Each of the great masters’ paintings somehow suggest the existence of far greater realities, of which the paintings were a part. [...]

[...] Nothing exists in isolation, and this is the secret that the old masters knew so well.

Such a masterly
production
makes me think instead that
there are
clues
we’ve overlooked.

Of Master Magicians
whose conjurings
feature the amazing tricks
of space and time,
produced so skillfully
and fast
that we’re dazzled with
the effects,
and miss the magical
slights of hand
beneath
the flashy gestures
of the days and nights.

[...] And there’s the feeling of circular ripples from the small wheels, going all the way down to the right foot and toes; and with this, the feeling that these small wheels, circles, or clock-works have been too tight; constricted; and that these in the head are the “master ones” and as they release, motion is being restored to some degree all over. [...]

(Last night, April 10, 1964, just before I fell asleep, I had the following experience: My eyes were closed but I saw a sheet of paper filled with script that I recognized to be the handwriting of Dee Masters, my supervisor at the Arnot Art Gallery where I work in the afternoons.

Animals can be obedient to their masters, and be healthy and exuberant at the same time, but in the terms of nature, no matter what social customs might say, no person can be obedient to a master and be healthy and exuberant at the same time. [...]

Also a dim connection with the word master. Master list, I do not know. [...]

(“Also a dim connection with the word, master. Master list, I do not know.” [...]

(Joe Masters is the husband of Dee, who was director of the art gallery where Jane worked for several years. The Masters are discussed by Seth in the 63rd session among occasional others. [...]

[...] Jane and I attended a jazz mass presented by Joe Masters in the Presbyterian Church, in Horseheads, just north of Elmira, NY, where we live. [...]

[...] Though he conveniently forgot [Edgar] Cayce, for example, who was a trance master. [...]

The art of the Old Masters escaped such connotations, largely because it involved so much physical labor—the making of colors, canvases, and so forth. [...]

[...] You must remember also that the art of the great masters was largely unknown to the poor peasants of Europe, much less to the world at large. [...]

[...] Technology has been responsible for the fact that so many people have been able to see the great paintings of the world, either directly or through reproductions—and more people are familiar with the works of the great masters than ever were in their lifetimes.

The species uses those conditions, however, so that the paintings of the great masters can serve as models and impetuses, not simply for the extraordinary artwork involved, but to rearouse within man those emotions that brought the paintings into being.

[...] (In Italy.) The master wants to get the same feeling of bulk and three-dimensional weight and size from flat painting—molding color rather than rock. [...]

(“By master, you mean Rembrandt?”)

[...] And one of your discoveries was of the binding agent adopted by the master painter in his work.

(Saturday, June 13, Jane and I attended a cocktail party in honor of Dee Masters, who was leaving as director of the art gallery where Jane is employed part time. [...]

All in all, it is just as well that the relationship between Ruburt and Mrs. Masters be terminated. [...]

[...] It subverts art’s nature to some extent when it is asked to serve another master, however beneficial that master may seem to be—for art by its nature will always come up with surprises, and deals not so much with specifics or with directions as with overall patterns that must always be free to fall in fresh and unexplored directions. [...]

[...] They were swarming about, all seemingly linked to one master leash. [...]

[...] The terms of reality within your universe cannot hold or contain that vaster context in which such master events happen. [...]

Your stated universe emerged out of that kind of interval, emerging from a master event whose true nature remains uncaptured by your definitions—so there will be places in our book where I may say that an event known to you is true and untrue at the same time, or that it is both myth and fact. [...]