Paper 39 The Seraphic Hosts
Introduction
AS FAR as we are cognizant, the Infinite Spirit, as personalized on the local universe headquarters, intends to produce uniformly perfect seraphim, but for some unknown reason these seraphic offspring are very diverse. This diversity may be a result of the unknown interposition of evolving experiential Deity; if so, we cannot prove it. But we do observe that, when seraphim have been subjected to educational tests and training discipline, they unfailingly and distinctly classify into the following seven groups:
1. Supreme Seraphim.
2. Superior Seraphim.
3. Supervisor Seraphim.
4. Administrator Seraphim.
5. Planetary Helpers.
6. Transition Ministers.
7. Seraphim of the Future.
To say that any one seraphim is inferior to an angel of any other group would hardly be true. Nevertheless every angel is at first service-limited to the group of original and inherent classification. My seraphic associate in the preparation of this statement, Manotia, is a supreme seraphim and onetime functioned only as a supreme seraphim. By application and devoted service she has, one by one, achieved all seven of the seraphic services, having functioned in well-nigh every avenue of activity open to a seraphim, and now holds the commission of associate chief of seraphim on Urantia.
Human beings sometimes find it hard to understand that a created capacity for higher-level ministry does not necessarily imply ability to function on relatively lower service levels. Man begins life as a helpless infant; hence every mortal attainment must embrace all experiential prerequisites; seraphim have no such preadult life--no childhood. They are, however, experiential creatures, and by experience and through additional education they can augment their divine and inherent endowment of ability by the experiential acquirement of functional skill in one or more of the seraphic services.
After being commissioned, seraphim are assigned to the reserves of their inherent group. Those of planetary and administrator status often serve for long periods as originally classified, but the higher the inherent function level, the more persistently do the angelic ministers seek assignment to the lower orders of universe service. Especially do they desire assignment to the reserves of the planetary helpers, and if successful they enroll in the celestial schools attached
to the headquarters of the Planetary Prince of some evolutionary world. Here they begin the study of the languages, history, and local habits of the races of mankind. Seraphim must acquire knowledge and gain experience much as do human beings. They are not far removed from you in certain personality attributes. And they all crave to start at the bottom, on the lowest possible level of ministry; thus may they hope to achieve the highest possible level of experiential destiny.
1. SUPREME SERAPHIM
These seraphim are the highest of the seven revealed orders of local universe angels. They function in seven groups, each of which is closely associated with the angelic ministers of the Seraphic Corps of Completion.
1. Son-Spirit Ministers. The first group of the supreme seraphim are assigned to the service of the high Sons and Spirit-origin beings resident and functioning in the local universe. This group of angelic ministers also serve the Universe Son and the Universe Spirit and are closely affiliated with the intelligence corps of the Bright and Morning Star, the universe chief executive of the united wills of the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit.
Being of assignment to the high Sons and Spirits, these seraphim are naturally associated with the far-flung services of the Paradise Avonals, the divine offspring of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. The Paradise Avonals are always attended on all magisterial and bestowal missions by this high and experienced order of seraphim, who are at such times devoted to organizing and administering the special work connected with the termination of one planetary dispensation and the inauguration of a new age. But they are not concerned in the work of adjudication which might be incidental to such a change in dispensations.
Bestowal Attendants. Paradise Avonals, but not Creator Sons, when on a bestowal mission are always accompanied by a corps of 144 bestowal attendants. These 144 angels are the chiefs of all other Son-Spirit ministers who may be associated with a bestowal mission. There might possibly be legions of angels subject to the command of an incarnated Son of God on a planetary bestowal, but all these seraphim would be organized and directed by the 144 bestowal attendants. Higher orders of angels, supernaphim and seconaphim, might also form a part of the attending host, and though their missions are distinct from those of the seraphim, all these activities would be co-ordinated by the bestowal attendants.
These bestowal attendants are completion seraphim; they have all traversed the circles of Seraphington and have attained the Seraphic Corps of Completion. And they have been further especially trained to meet the difficulties and to cope with the emergencies associated with the bestowals of the Sons of God for the advancement of the children of time. Such seraphim have all achieved Paradise and the personal embrace of the Second Source and Center, the Eternal Son.
Seraphim equally crave assignment to the missions of the incarnated Sons and attachment as destiny guardians to the mortals of the realms; the latter is the surest seraphic passport to Paradise, while the bestowal attendants have achieved the highest local universe service of the completion seraphim of Paradise attainment.
2. Court Advisers. These are the seraphic advisers and helpers attached to all orders of adjudication, from the conciliators up to the highest tribunals of the realm. It is not the purpose of such tribunals to determine punitive sentences but rather to adjudicate honest differences of opinion and to decree the everlasting survival of ascending mortals. Herein lies the duty of the court advisers: to see that all charges against mortal creatures are stated in justice and adjudicated in mercy. In this work they are closely associated with the High Commissioners, Spirit-fused ascendant mortals serving in the local universe.
The seraphic court advisers serve extensively as defenders of mortals. Not that there ever exists any disposition to be unfair to the lowly creatures of the realms, but while justice demands the adjudication of every default in the climb towards divine perfection, mercy requires that every such misstep be fairly adjudged in accordance with the creature nature and the divine purpose. These angels are the exponents and exemplification of the element of mercy inherent in divine justice--of fairness based on the knowledge of the underlying facts of personal motives and racial tendencies.
This order of angels serves from the councils of the Planetary Princes to the highest tribunals of the local universe, while their associates of the Seraphic Corps of Completion function in the higher realms of Orvonton, even to the courts of the Ancients of Days on Uversa.
3. Universe Orientators. These are the true friends and postgraduate counselors of all those ascending creatures who are pausing for the last time on Salvington, in their universe of origin, as they stand on the brink of the spirit adventure stretching out before them in the vast superuniverse of Orvonton. And at such a time many an ascender has a feeling which mortals could understand only by comparison with the human emotion of nostalgia. Behind lie the realms of achievement, realms grown familiar by long service and morontia attainment; ahead lies the challenging mystery of a greater and vaster universe.
It is the task of the universe orientators to facilitate the passage of the ascending pilgrims from the attained to the unattained level of universe service, to help these pilgrims in making those kaleidoscopic adjustments in the comprehension of meanings and values inherent in the realization that a first-stage spirit being stands, not at the end and climax of the local universe morontia ascent, but rather at the very bottom of the long ladder of spiritual ascent to the Universal Father on Paradise.
Many of the Seraphington graduates, members of the Seraphic Corps of Completion who are associated with these seraphim, engage in extensive teaching in certain Salvington schools concerned with the preparation of the creatures of Nebadon for the relationships of the next universe age.
4. The Teaching Counselors. These angels are the invaluable assistants of the spiritual teaching corps of the local universe. Teaching counselors are secretaries to all orders of teachers, from the Melchizedeks and the Trinity Teacher Sons down to the morontia mortals who are assigned as helpers to those of their kind who are just behind them in the scale of ascendant life. You will first see these associate teaching seraphim on some one of the seven mansion worlds surrounding Jerusem.
These seraphim become associates of the division chiefs of the numerous educational and training institutions of the local universes, and they are at-
tached in large numbers to the faculties of the seven training worlds of the local systems and of the seventy educational spheres of the constellations. These ministrations extend on down to the individual worlds. Even the true and consecrated teachers of time are assisted, and often attended, by these counselors of the supreme seraphim.
The fourth creature bestowal of the Creator Son was in the likeness of a teaching counselor of the supreme seraphim of Nebadon.
5. Directors of Assignment. A body of 144 supreme seraphim is elected from time to time by the angels serving on the evolutionary and on the architectural spheres of creature habitation. This is the highest angelic council on any sphere, and it co-ordinates the self-directed phases of seraphic service and assignment. These angels preside over all seraphic assemblies pertaining to the line of duty or the call to worship.
6. The Recorders. These are the official recorders for the supreme seraphim. Many of these high angels were born with their gifts fully developed; others have qualified for their positions of trust and responsibility by diligent application to study and faithful performance of similar duties while attached to lower or less responsible orders.
7. Unattached Ministers. Large numbers of unattached seraphim of the supreme order are self-directed servers on the architectural spheres and on the inhabited planets. Such ministers voluntarily meet the differential of demand for the service of the supreme seraphim, thus constituting the general reserve of this order.
2. SUPERIOR SERAPHIM
Superior seraphim receive their name, not because they are in any sense qualitatively superior to other orders of angels, but because they are in charge of the higher activities of a local universe. Very many of the first two groups of this seraphic corps are attainment seraphim, angels who have served in all phases of training and have returned to a glorified assignment as directors of their kind in the spheres of their earlier activities. Being a young universe, Nebadon does not have many of this order.
The superior seraphim function in the following seven groups:
1. The Intelligence Corps. These seraphim belong to the personal staff of Gabriel, the Bright and Morning Star. They range the local universe gathering the information of the realms for his guidance in the councils of Nebadon. They are the intelligence corps of the mighty hosts over which Gabriel presides as vicegerent of the Master Son. These seraphim are not directly affiliated with either the systems or the constellations, and their information pours in direct to Salvington upon a continuous, direct, and independent circuit.
The intelligence corps of the various local universes can and do intercommunicate but only within a given superuniverse. There is a differential of energy which effectively segregates the business and transactions of the various supergovernments. One superuniverse can ordinarily communicate with another superuniverse only through the provisions and facilities of the Paradise clearinghouse.
2. The Voice of Mercy. Mercy is the keynote of seraphic service and angelic ministry. It is therefore fitting that there should be a corps of angels who, in a special manner, portray mercy. These seraphim are the real mercy ministers of the local universes. They are the inspired leaders who foster the higher impulses and holier emotions of men and angels. The directors of these legions are now always completion seraphim who are also graduate guardians of mortal destiny; that is, each angelic pair has guided at least one soul of animal origin during the life in the flesh and has subsequently traversed the circles of Seraphington and has been mustered into the Seraphic Corps of Completion.
3. Spirit Co-ordinators. The third group of superior seraphim are based on Salvington but function in the local universe anywhere they can be of fruitful service. While their tasks are essentially spiritual and therefore beyond the real understanding of human minds, you will perhaps grasp something of their ministry to mortals if it is explained that these angels are intrusted with the task of preparing the ascendant sojourners on Salvington for their last transition in the local universe--from the highest morontia level to the status of newborn spirit beings. As the mind planners on the mansion worlds help the surviving creature to adjust to, and make effective use of, the potentials of morontia mind, so do these seraphim instruct the morontia graduates on Salvington regarding the newly attained capacities of the mind of the spirit. And they serve the ascendant mortals in many other ways.
4. Assistant Teachers. The assistant teachers are the helpers and associates of their fellow seraphim, the teaching counselors. They are also individually connected with the extensive educational enterprises of the local universe, especially with the sevenfold scheme of training operative on the mansion worlds of the local systems. A marvelous corps of this order of seraphim functions on Urantia for the purpose of fostering and furthering the cause of truth and righteousness.
5. The Transporters. All groups of ministering spirits have their transport corps, angelic orders dedicated to the ministry of transporting those personalities who are unable, of themselves, to journey from one sphere to another. The fifth group of the superior seraphim are headquartered on Salvington and serve as space traversers to and from the headquarters of the local universe. Like other subdivisions of the superior seraphim, some were created as such while others have risen from the lower or less endowed groups.
The "energy range" of seraphim is wholly adequate for local universe and even for superuniverse requirements, but they could never withstand the energy demands entailed by such a long journey as that from Uversa to Havona. Such an exhaustive journey requires the special powers of a primary seconaphim of transport endowments. Transporters take on energy for flight while in transit and recuperate personal power at the end of the journey.
Even on Salvington ascending mortals do not possess personal transit forms. Ascenders must depend upon seraphic transport in advancing from world to world until after the last rest of sleep on the inner circle of Havona and the eternal awakening on Paradise. Subsequently you will not be dependent on angels for transport from universe to universe.
The process of being enseraphimed is not unlike the experience of death or sleep except that there is an automatic time element in the transit slumber. You
are consciously unconscious during seraphic rest. But the Thought Adjuster is wholly and fully conscious, in fact, exceptionally efficient since you are unable to oppose, resist, or otherwise hinder creative and transforming work.
When enseraphimed, you go to sleep for a specified time, and you will awake at the designated moment. The length of a journey when in transit sleep is immaterial. You are not directly aware of the passing of time. It is as if you went to sleep on a transport vehicle in one city and, after resting in peaceful slumber all night, awakened in another and distant metropolis. You journeyed while you slumbered. And so you take flight through space, enseraphimed, while you rest--sleep. The transit sleep is induced by the liaison between the Adjusters and the seraphic transporters.
The angels cannot transport combustion bodies--flesh and blood--such as you now have, but they can transport all others, from the lowest morontia to the higher spirit forms. They do not function in the event of natural death. When you finish your earthly career, your body remains on this planet. Your Thought Adjuster proceeds to the bosom of the Father, and these angels are not directly concerned in your subsequent personality reassembly on the identification mansion world. There your new body is a morontia form, one that can enseraphim. You "sow a mortal body" in the grave; you "reap a morontia form" on the mansion worlds.
6. The Recorders. These personalities are especially concerned with the reception, filing, and redispatch of the records of Salvington and its associated worlds. They also serve as special recorders for resident groups of superuniverse and higher personalities and as clerks of the courts of Salvington and secretaries to the rulers thereof.
Broadcasters--receivers and dispatchers--are a specialized subdivision of the seraphic recorders, being concerned with the dispatch of records and with the dissemination of essential information. Their work is of a high order, being so multicircuited that 144,000 messages can simultaneously traverse the same lines of energy. They adapt the higher ideographic techniques of the superaphic chief recorders and with these common symbols maintain reciprocal contact with both the intelligence co-ordinators of the tertiary supernaphim and the glorified intelligence co-ordinators of the Seraphic Corps of Completion.
Seraphic recorders of the superior order thus effect a close liaison with the intelligence corps of their own order and with all subordinate recorders, while the broadcasts enable them to maintain constant communication with the higher recorders of the superuniverse and, through this channel, with the recorders of Havona and the custodians of knowledge on Paradise. Many of the superior order of recorders are seraphim ascended from similar duties in lower sections of the universe.
7. The Reserves. Large reserves of all types of the superior seraphim are held on Salvington, instantly available for dispatch to the farthermost worlds of Nebadon as they are requisitioned by the directors of assignment or upon the request of the universe administrators. The reserves of superior seraphim also furnish messenger aids upon requisition by the chief of the Brilliant Evening Stars, who is intrusted with the custody and dispatch of all personal communications. A local universe is fully provided with adequate means of inter-
communication, but there is always a residue of messages which requires dispatch by personal messengers.
The basic reserves for the entire local universe are held on the seraphic worlds of Salvington. This corps includes all types of all groups of angels.
3. SUPERVISOR SERAPHIM
This versatile order of universe angels is assigned to the exclusive service of the constellations. These able ministers make their headquarters on the constellation capitals but function throughout all Nebadon in the interests of their assigned realms.
1. Supervising Assistants. The first order of the supervising seraphim are assigned to the collective work of the Constellation Fathers, and they are the ever-efficient helpers of the Most Highs. These seraphim are primarily concerned with the unification and stabilization of a whole constellation.
2. Law Forecasters. The intellectual foundation of justice is law, and in a local universe law originates in the legislative assemblies of the constellations. These deliberative bodies codify and formally promulgate the basic laws of Nebadon, laws designed to afford the greatest possible co-ordination of a whole constellation consistent with the fixed policy of noninfringement of the moral free will of personal creatures. It is the duty of the second order of supervisor seraphim to place before the constellation lawmakers a forecast of how any proposed enactment would affect the lives of freewill creatures. This service they are well qualified to perform by virtue of long experience in the local systems and on the inhabited worlds. These seraphim seek no special favors for one group or another, but they do appear before the celestial lawmakers to speak for those who cannot be present to speak for themselves. Even mortal man may contribute to the evolution of universe law, for these very seraphim do faithfully and fully portray, not necessarily man's transient and conscious desires, but rather the true longings of the inner man, the evolving morontia soul of the material mortal on the worlds of space.
3. Social Architects. From the individual planets up through the morontia training worlds, these seraphim labor to enhance all sincere social contacts and to further the social evolution of universe creatures. These are the angels who seek to divest the associations of intelligent beings of all artificiality while endeavoring to facilitate the interassociation of will creatures on a basis of real self-understanding and genuine mutual appreciation.
Social architects do everything within their province and power to bring together suitable individuals that they may constitute efficient and agreeable working groups on earth; and sometimes such groups have found themselves reassociated on the mansion worlds for continued fruitful service. But not always do these seraphim attain their ends; not always are they able to bring together those who would form the most ideal group to achieve a given purpose or to accomplish a certain task; under these conditions they must utilize the best of the material available.
These angels continue their ministry on the mansion and higher morontia worlds. They are concerned with any undertaking having to do with progress on the morontia worlds and which concerns three or more persons. Two beings
are regarded as operating on the mating, complemental, or partnership basis, but when three or more are grouped for service, they constitute a social problem and therefore fall within the jurisdiction of the social architects. These efficient seraphim are organized in seventy divisions on Edentia, and these divisions minister on the seventy morontia progress worlds encircling the headquarters sphere.
4. Ethical Sensitizers. It is the mission of these seraphim to foster and to promote the growth of creature appreciation of the morality of interpersonal relationships, for such is the seed and secret of the continued and purposeful growth of society and government, human or superhuman. These enhancers of ethical appreciation function anywhere and everywhere they may be of service, as volunteer counselors to the planetary rulers and as exchange teachers on the system training worlds. You will not, however, come under their full guidance until you reach the brotherhood schools on Edentia, where they will quicken your appreciation of those very truths of fraternity which you will even then be so earnestly exploring by the actual experience of living with the univitatia in the social laboratories of Edentia, the seventy satellites of the Norlatiadek capital.
5. The Transporters. The fifth group of supervisor seraphim operate as personality transporters, carrying beings to and from the headquarters of the constellations. Such transport seraphim, while in flight from one sphere to another, are fully conscious of their velocity, direction, and astronomic whereabouts. They are not traversing space as would an inanimate projectile. They may pass near one another during space flight without the least danger of collision. They are fully able to vary speed of progression and to alter direction of flight, even to change destinations if their directors should so instruct them at any space junction of the universe intelligence circuits.
These transit personalities are so organized that they can simultaneously utilize all three of the universally distributed lines of energy, each having a clear space velocity of 186,280 miles per second. These transporters are thus able to superimpose velocity of energy upon velocity of power until they attain an average speed on their long journeys varying anywhere from 555,000 to almost 559,000 of your miles per second of your time. The velocity is affected by the mass and proximity of neighboring matter and by the strength and direction of the near-by main circuits of universe power. There are numerous types of beings, similar to the seraphim, who are able to traverse space, and who also are able to transport other beings who have been properly prepared.
6. The Recorders. The sixth order of supervising seraphim act as the special recorders of constellation affairs. A large and efficient corps functions on Edentia, the headquarters of the constellation of Norlatiadek, to which your system and planet belong.
7. The Reserves. General reserves of the supervisor seraphim are held on the headquarters of the constellations. Such angelic reservists are in no sense inactive; many serve as messenger aids to the constellation rulers; others are attached to the Salvington reserves of unassigned Vorondadeks; still others may be attached to Vorondadek Sons on special assignment, such as the Vorondadek observer, and sometimes Most High regent, of Urantia.
4. ADMINISTRATOR SERAPHIM
The fourth order of seraphim are assigned to the administrative duties of the local systems. They are indigenous to the system capitals but are stationed in large numbers on the mansion and morontia spheres and on the inhabited worlds. Fourth-order seraphim are by nature endowed with unusual administrative ability. They are the able assistants of the directors of the lower divisions of the universe government of a Creator Son and are mainly occupied with the affairs of the local systems and their component worlds. They are organized for service as follows:
1. Administrative Assistants. These able seraphim are the immediate assistants of a System Sovereign, a primary Lanonandek Son. They are invaluable aids in the execution of the intricate details of the executive work of the system headquarters. They also serve as the personal agents of the system rulers, journeying back and forth in large numbers to the various transition worlds and to the inhabited planets, executing many commissions for the welfare of the system and in the physical and biologic interests of its inhabited worlds.
These same seraphic administrators are also attached to the governments of the world rulers, the Planetary Princes. The majority of planets in a given universe are under the jurisdiction of a secondary Lanonandek Son, but on certain worlds, such as Urantia, there has been a miscarriage of the divine plan. In the event of the defection of a Planetary Prince, these seraphim become attached to the Melchizedek receivers and their successors in planetary authority. The present acting ruler of Urantia is assisted by a corps of one thousand of this versatile order of seraphim.
2. Justice Guides. These are the angels who present the summary of evidence concerning the eternal welfare of men and angels when such matters come up for adjudication in the tribunals of a system or a planet. They prepare the statements for all preliminary hearings involving mortal survival, statements which are subsequently carried with the records of such cases to the higher tribunals of the universe and the superuniverse. The defense of all cases of doubtful survival is prepared by these seraphim, who have a perfect understanding of all the details of every feature of every count in the indictments drawn by the administrators of universe justice.
It is not the mission of these angels to defeat or to delay justice but rather to insure that unerring justice is dealt out with generous mercy in fairness to all creatures. These seraphim often function on the local worlds, commonly appearing before the referee trios of the conciliating commissions--the courts for minor misunderstandings. Many who at one time served as justice guides in the lower realms later appear as Voices of Mercy in the higher spheres and on Salvington.
In the Lucifer rebellion in Satania very few of the justice guides were lost, but more than one quarter of the other administrator seraphim and of the lower orders of seraphic ministers were misled and deluded by the sophistries of unbridled personal liberty.
3. Interpreters of Cosmic Citizenship. When ascending mortals have completed the mansion world training, the first student apprenticeship in the uni-
verse career, they are permitted to enjoy the transient satisfactions of relative maturity--citizenship on the system capital. While the attainment of each ascendant goal is a factual achievement, in the larger sense such goals are simply milestones on the long ascending path to Paradise. But however relative such successes may be, no evolutionary creature is ever denied the full though transient satisfaction of goal attainment. Ever and anon there is a pause in the Paradise ascent, a short breathing spell, during which universe horizons stand still, creature status is stationary, and the personality tastes the sweetness of goal fulfillment.
The first of such periods in the career of a mortal ascender occurs on the capital of a local system. During this pause you will, as a citizen of Jerusem, attempt to express in creature life those things which you have acquired during the eight preceding life experiences--embracing Urantia and the seven mansion worlds.
The seraphic interpreters of cosmic citizenship guide the new citizens of the system capitals and quicken their appreciation of the responsibilities of universe government. These seraphim are also closely associated with the Material Sons in the system administration, while they portray the responsibility and morality of cosmic citizenship to the material mortals on the inhabited worlds.
4. Quickeners of Morality. On the mansion worlds you begin to learn self-government for the benefit of all concerned. Your mind learns co-operation, learns how to plan with other and wiser beings. On the system headquarters the seraphic teachers will further quicken your appreciation of cosmic morality--of the interactions of liberty and loyalty.
What is loyalty? It is the fruit of an intelligent appreciation of universe brotherhood; one could not take so much and give nothing. As you ascend the personality scale, first you learn to be loyal, then to love, then to be filial, and then may you be free; but not until you are a finaliter, not until you have attained perfection of loyalty, can you self-realize finality of liberty.
These seraphim teach the fruitfulness of patience: That stagnation is certain death, but that overrapid growth is equally suicidal; that as a drop of water from a higher level falls to a lower and, flowing onward, passes ever downward through a succession of short falls, so ever upward is progress in the morontia and spirit worlds--and just as slowly and by just such gradual stages.
To the inhabited worlds the quickeners of morality portray mortal life as an unbroken chain of many links. Your short sojourn on Urantia, on this sphere of mortal infancy, is only a single link, the very first in the long chain that is to stretch across universes and through the eternal ages. It is not so much what you learn in this first life; it is the experience of living this life that is important. Even the work of this world, paramount though it is, is not nearly so important as the way in which you do this work. There is no material reward for righteous living, but there is profound satisfaction--consciousness of achievement--and this transcends any conceivable material reward.
The keys of the kingdom of heaven are: sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity. All men have these keys. Men use them--advance in spirit status--by decisions, by more decisions, and by more decisions. The highest moral choice is the choice of the highest possible value, and always--in any sphere, in all of them--this is to choose to do the will of God. If man thus chooses, he
isgreat, though he be the humblest citizen of Jerusem or even the least of mortals on Urantia.
5. The Transporters. These are the transport seraphim who function in the local systems. In Satania, your system, they carry passengers back and forth from Jerusem and otherwise serve as interplanetary transporters. Seldom does a day pass in which a transport seraphim of Satania does not deposit some student visitor or some other traveler of spirit or semispirit nature on the shores of Urantia. These very space traversers will sometime carry you to and from the various worlds of the system headquarters group, and when you have finished the Jerusem assignment, they will carry you forward to Edentia. But under no circumstances will they carry you backward to the world of human origin. A mortal never returns to his native planet during the dispensation of his temporal existence, and if he should return during a subsequent dispensation, he would be escorted by a transport seraphim of the universe headquarters group.
6. The Recorders. These seraphim are the keepers of the threefold records of the local systems. The temple of records on a system capital is a unique structure, one third material, constructed of luminous metals and crystals; one third morontial, fabricated of the liaison of spiritual and material energy but beyond the range of mortal vision; and one third spiritual. The recorders of this order preside over and maintain this threefold system of records. Ascending mortals will at first consult the material archives, Material Sons and the higher transition beings consult those of the morontia halls, while seraphim and the higher spirit personalities of the realm peruse the records of the spirit section.
7. The Reserves. The reserve corps of administrator seraphim on Jerusem spend much of their waiting time in visiting, as spirit companions, with the newly arrived ascending mortals from the various worlds of the system--the accredited graduates of the mansion worlds. One of the delights of your sojourn on Jerusem will be to talk and visit, during recess periods, with these much-traveled and many-experienced seraphim of the waiting reserve corps.
It is just such friendly relationships as these that so endear a system capital to the ascending mortals. On Jerusem you will find the first intermingling of Material Sons, angels, and ascending pilgrims. Here fraternize beings who are wholly spiritual and semispiritual and individuals just emerging from material existence. Mortal forms are there so modified and human ranges of light reaction so extended that all are able to enjoy mutual recognition and sympathetic personality understanding.
5. PLANETARY HELPERS
These seraphim maintain headquarters on the system capitals and, though closely associated with the resident Adamic citizens, are primarily assigned to the service of the Planetary Adams, the biologic or physical uplifters of the material races on the evolutionary worlds. The ministering work of angels becomes of increasing interest as it nears the inhabited worlds, as it nears the actual problems faced by the men and women of time who are preparing themselves for the attempt to attain the goal of eternity.
On Urantia the majority of the planetary helpers were removed upon the collapse of the Adamic regime, and the seraphic supervision of your world devolved to a greater extent upon the administrators, the transition ministers, and the guardians of destiny. But these seraphic aids of your defaulting Material Sons still serve Urantia in the following groups:
1. The Voices of the Garden. When the planetary course of human evolution is attaining its highest biologic level, there always appear the Material Sons and Daughters, the Adams and Eves, to augment the further evolution of the races by an actual contribution of their superior life plasm. The planetary headquarters of such an Adam and Eve is usually denominated the Garden of Eden, and their personal seraphim are often known as the "voices of the Garden." These seraphim are of invaluable service to the Planetary Adams in all their projects for the physical and intellectual upstepping of the evolutionary races. After the Adamic default on Urantia, some of these seraphim were left on the planet and were assigned to Adam's successors in authority.
2. The Spirits of Brotherhood. It should be apparent that, when an Adam and Eve arrive on an evolutionary world, the task of achieving racial harmony and social co-operation among its diverse races is one of considerable proportions. Seldom do these races of different colors and varied natures take kindly to the plan of human brotherhood. These primitive men only come to realize the wisdom of peaceful interassociation as a result of ripened human experience and through the faithful ministry of the seraphic spirits of brotherhood. Without the work of these seraphim the efforts of the Material Sons to harmonize and advance the races of an evolving world would be greatly delayed. And had your Adam adhered to the original plan for the advancement of Urantia, by this time these spirits of brotherhood would have worked unbelievable transformations in the human race. In view of the Adamic default, it is indeed remarkable that these seraphic orders have been able to foster and bring to realization even as much of brotherhood as you now have on Urantia.
3. The Souls of Peace. The early millenniums of the upward strivings of evolutionary men are marked by many a struggle. Peace is not the natural state of the material realms. The worlds first realize "peace on earth and good will among men" through the ministry of the seraphic souls of peace. Although these angels were largely thwarted in their early efforts on Urantia, Vevona, chief of the souls of peace in Adam's day, was left on Urantia and is now attached to the staff of the resident governor general. And it was this same Vevona who, when Michael was born, heralded to the worlds, as the leader of the angelic host, "Glory to God in Havona and on earth peace and good will among men."
In the more advanced epochs of planetary evolution these seraphim are instrumental in supplanting the atonement idea by the concept of divine attunement as a philosophy of mortal survival.
4. The Spirits of Trust. Suspicion is the inherent reaction of primitive men; the survival struggles of the early ages do not naturally breed trust. Trust is a new human acquisition brought about by the ministry of these planetary seraphim of the Adamic regime. It is their mission to inculcate trust into the minds of evolving men. The Gods are very trustful; the Universal Father is willing freely to trust himself--the Adjuster--to man's association.
This entire group of seraphim was transferred to the new regime after the Adamic miscarriage, and they have ever since continued their labors on Urantia. And they have not been wholly unsuccessful since a civilization is now evolving which embodies much of their ideals of confidence and trust.
In the more advanced planetary ages these seraphim enhance man's appreciation of the truth that uncertainty is the secret of contented continuity. They help the mortal philosophers to realize that, when ignorance is essential to success, it would be a colossal blunder for the creature to know the future. They heighten man's taste for the sweetness of uncertainty, for the romance and charm of the indefinite and unknown future.
5. The Transporters. The planetary transporters serve the individual worlds. The majority of enseraphimed beings brought to this planet are in transit; they merely stop over; they are in custody of their own special seraphic transporters; but there are a large number of such seraphim stationed on Urantia. These are the transport personalities operating from the local planets, as from Urantia to Jerusem.
Your conventional idea of angels has been derived in the following way: During moments just prior to physical death a reflective phenomenon sometimes occurs in the human mind, and this dimming consciousness seems to visualize something of the form of the attending angel, and this is immediately translated into terms of the habitual concept of angels held in that individual's mind.
The erroneous idea that angels possess wings is not wholly due to olden notions that they must have wings to fly through the air. Human beings have sometimes been permitted to observe seraphim that were being prepared for transport service, and the traditions of these experiences have largely determined the Urantian concept of angels. In observing a transport seraphim being made ready to receive a passenger for interplanetary transit, there may be seen what are apparently double sets of wings extending from the head to the foot of the angel. In reality these wings are energy insulators--friction shields.
When celestial beings are to be enseraphimed for transfer from one world to another, they are brought to the headquarters of the sphere and, after due registry, are inducted into the transit sleep. Meantime, the transport seraphim moves into a horizontal position immediately above the universe energy pole of the planet. While the energy shields are wide open, the sleeping personality is skillfully deposited, by the officiating seraphic assistants, directly on top of the transport angel. Then both the upper and lower pairs of shields are carefully closed and adjusted.
And now, under the influence of the transformers and the transmitters, a strange metamorphosis begins as the seraphim is made ready to swing into the energy currents of the universe circuits. To outward appearance the seraphim grows pointed at both extremities and becomes so enshrouded in a queer light of amber hue that very soon it is impossible to distinguish the enseraphimed personality. When all is in readiness for departure, the chief of transport makes the proper inspection of the carriage of life, carries out the routine tests to ascertain whether or not the angel is properly encircuited, and then announces that the traveler is properly enseraphimed, that the energies are adjusted, that the angel is insulated, and that everything is in readiness for the departing flash.
The mechanical controllers, two of them, next take their positions. By this time the transport seraphim has become an almost transparent, vibrating, torpedo-shaped outline of glistening luminosity. Now the transport dispatcher of the realm summons the auxiliary batteries of the living energy transmitters, usually one thousand in number; as he announces the destination of the transport, he reaches out and touches the near point of the seraphic carriage, which shoots forward with lightninglike speed, leaving a trail of celestial luminosity as far as the planetary atmospheric investment extends. In less than ten minutes the marvelous spectacle will be lost even to reinforced seraphic vision.
While planetary space reports are received at noon at the meridian of the designated spiritual headquarters, the transporters are dispatched from this same place at midnight. That is the most favorable time for departure and is the standard hour when not otherwise specified.
6. The Recorders. These are the custodians of the major affairs of the planet as it functions as a part of the system, and as it is related to, and concerned in, the universe government. They function in the recording of planetary affairs but are not concerned with matters of individual life and existence.
7. The Reserves. The Satania reserve corps of the planetary seraphim is maintained on Jerusem in close association with the reserves of the Material Sons. These abundant reserves repletely provide for every phase of the manifold activities of this seraphic order. These angels are also the personal message bearers of the local systems. They serve transition mortals, angels, and the Material Sons as well as others domiciled on the system headquarters. While Urantia is, at present, outside the spiritual circuits of Satania and Norlatiadek, you are otherwise in intimate touch with interplanetary affairs, for these messengers from Jerusem frequently come to this world as to all the other spheres of the system.
6. TRANSITION MINISTERS
As their name might suggest, seraphim of transitional ministry serve wherever they can contribute to creature transition from the material to the spiritual estate. These angels serve from the inhabited worlds to the system capitals, but those in Satania at present direct their greatest efforts toward the education of the surviving mortals on the seven mansion worlds. This ministry is diversified in accordance with the following seven orders of assignment:
1. Seraphic Evangels.
2. Racial Interpreters.
3. Mind Planners.
4. Morontia Counselors.
5. Technicians.
6. Recorder-Teachers.
7. Ministering Reserves.
More about these seraphic ministers to transitional ascenders you will learn in connection with the narratives dealing with the mansion worlds and the morontia life.
7. SERAPHIM OF THE FUTURE
These angels do not minister extensively except in older realms and on the more advanced planets of Nebadon. Large numbers of them are held in reserve on the seraphic worlds near Salvington, where they are engaged in pursuits relevant to the sometime dawning of the age of light and life in Nebadon. These seraphim do function in connection with the ascendant-mortal career but minister almost exclusively to those mortals who survive by some one of the modified orders of ascension.
Inasmuch as these angels are not now directly concerned with either Urantia or Urantians, it is deemed best to withhold the description of their fascinating activities.
8. SERAPHIC DESTINY
Seraphim are of origin in the local universes, and in these very realms of their nativity some achieve service destiny. With the help and counsel of the senior archangels some seraphim may be elevated to the exalted duties of Brilliant Evening Stars, while others attain the status and service of the unrevealed co-ordinates of the Evening Stars. Still other adventures in local universe destiny may be attempted, but Seraphington ever remains the eternal goal of all angels. Seraphington is the angelic threshold to Paradise and Deity attainment, the transition sphere from the ministry of time to the exalted service of eternity.
Seraphim may attain Paradise in scores--hundreds--of ways, but the most important as elaborated in these narratives are the following:
1. To gain admission to the Paradise seraphic abode in a personal capacity by achieving perfection of specialized service as a celestial artisan, a Technical Adviser, or a Celestial Recorder. To become a Paradise Companion and, having thus attained the center of all things, perhaps then to become an eternal minister and adviser to the seraphic orders and others.
2. To be summoned to Seraphington. Under certain conditions seraphim are commanded on high; in other circumstances angels sometimes achieve Paradise in a much shorter time than mortals. But no matter how fitted any seraphic pair may be, they cannot initiate departure for Seraphington or elsewhere. None but successful destiny guardians can be sure of proceeding to Paradise by a progressive path of evolutionary ascent. All others must patiently await the arrival of the Paradise messengers of the tertiary supernaphim who come with the summons commanding them to appear on high.
3. To attain Paradise by the evolutionary mortal technique. The supreme choice of seraphim in the career of time is the post of guardian angel in order that they may attain the career of finality and be qualified for assignment to the eternal spheres of seraphic service. Such personal guides of the children of time are called guardians of destiny, signifying that they guard mortal creatures in the path of divine destiny, and that in so doing they are determining their own high destiny.
Guardians of destiny are drawn from the ranks of the more experienced angelic personalities of all orders of seraphim who have qualified for this ser-
vice. All surviving mortals of Adjuster-fusion destiny have temporary guardians assigned, and these associates may become permanently attached when mortal survivors attain the requisite intellectual and spiritual development. Before mortal ascenders leave the mansion worlds, they all have permanent seraphic associates. This group of ministering spirits is discussed in connection with the Urantia narratives.
It is not possible for angels to attain God from the human level of origin, for they are created a "little higher than you"; but it has been wisely arranged that, while they cannot possibly start up from the very bottom, the spiritual lowlands of mortal existence, they may go down to those who do start from the bottom and pilot such creatures, step by step, world by world, to the portals of Havona. When mortal ascenders leave Uversa to begin the circles of Havona, those guardians of attachment subsequent to the life in the flesh will bid their pilgrim associates a temporary farewell while they journey to Seraphington, the angelic destination of the grand universe. Here will these guardians attempt, and undoubtedly achieve, the seven circles of seraphic light.
Many, but not all, of those seraphim assigned as destiny guardians during the material life accompany their mortal associates through the Havona circles, and certain other seraphim pass through the circuits of the central universe in a way that is wholly different from the mortal ascent. But irrespective of the route of ascent, all evolutionary seraphim traverse Seraphington, and the majority pass through this experience instead of the Havona circuits.
Seraphington is the destiny sphere for angels, and their attainment of this world is quite different from the experiences of the mortal pilgrims on Ascendington. Angels are not absolutely sure of their eternal future until they have attained Seraphington. No angel attaining Seraphington has ever been known to go astray; sin will never find response in the heart of a seraphim of completion.
The graduates of Seraphington are variously assigned: Destiny guardians of Havona-circle experience usually enter the Mortal Finaliter Corps. Other guardians, having passed their Havona separation tests, frequently rejoin their mortal associates on Paradise, and some become the everlasting associates of the mortal finaliters, while others enter the various nonmortal finaliter corps, and many are mustered into the Corps of Seraphic Completion.
9. THE CORPS OF SERAPHIC COMPLETION
After attainment of the Father of spirits and admission to the seraphic service of completion, angels are sometimes assigned to the ministry of worlds settled in light and life. They gain attachment to the high trinitized beings of the universes and to the exalted services of Paradise and Havona. These seraphim of the local universes have experientially compensated the differential in divinity potential formerly setting them apart from the ministering spirits of the central and superuniverses. Angels of the Seraphic Corps of Completion serve as associates of the superuniverse seconaphim and as assistants to the high Paradise-Havona orders of supernaphim. For such angels the career of time is finished; henceforth and forever they are the servants of God, the consorts of divine personalities, and the peers of the Paradise finaliters.
Large numbers of the completion seraphim return to their native universes, there to complement the ministry of divine endowment by the ministry of ex-
periential perfection. Nebadon is, comparatively speaking, one of the younger universes and therefore does not have so many of these returned Seraphington graduates as would be found in an older realm; nonetheless our local universe is adequately supplied with the completion seraphim, for it is significant that the evolutionary realms disclose increasing need for their services as they near the status of light and life. Completion seraphim now serve more extensively with the supreme orders of seraphim, but some serve with each of the other angelic orders. Even your world enjoys the extensive ministry of twelve specialized groups of the Seraphic Corps of Completion; these master seraphim of planetary supervision accompany each newly commissioned Planetary Prince to the inhabited worlds.
Many fascinating avenues of ministry are open to the completion seraphim, but just as they all craved assignment as destiny guardians in the pre-Paradise days, so in the post-Paradise experience they most desire to serve as bestowal attendants of the incarnated Paradise Sons. They are still supremely devoted to that universal plan of starting the mortal creatures of the evolutionary worlds out upon the long and enticing journey towards the Paradise goal of divinity and eternity. Throughout the whole mortal adventure of finding God and of achieving divine perfection, these spirit ministers of seraphic completion, together with the faithful ministering spirits of time, are always and forever your true friends and unfailing helpers.
[Presented by a Melchizedek acting by request of the Chief of the Seraphic Hosts of Nebadon.]
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