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                  Urantia Book Paper 39 The Seraphic Hosts
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  Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe :
The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local
    Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers
  Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe
   The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local
 Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The
  Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion
    Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The
  Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The
        Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity
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                          Paper 39 The Seraphic Hosts

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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

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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.

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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-

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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.

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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

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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-

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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

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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.

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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-

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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

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t, 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.

                                top of page - 437

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.

                                top of page - 438

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.

                                top of page - 439

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.

                                top of page - 440

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-

                                top of page - 441

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-

                                top of page - 442

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.]

                                top of page - 443

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe :
The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local
    Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers
  Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe
   The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local
 Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The
  Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion
    Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The
  Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The
        Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity

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