Текст книги "The British Study Edition of the Urantia Papers"

Автор книги: Tigran Aivazian

^39:1.1 These seraphim are the highest of the 7 revealed orders of local universe angels. They function in 7 groups, each of which is closely associated with the angelic ministers of the Seraphic Corps of Completion.

^39:1.2 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.

^39:1.3 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.

^39:1.4 ¶ 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.

^39:1.5 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 Centre, the Eternal Son.

^39:1.6 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.

^39:1.7 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.

^39:1.8 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.

^39:1.9 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.

^39:1.10 3. Universe Orientators. These are the true friends and postgraduate counsellors 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.

^39:1.11 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.

^39:1.12 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.

^39:1.13 4. The Teaching Counsellors. These angels are the invaluable assistants of the spiritual teaching corps of the local universe. Teaching counsellors 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 7 mansion worlds surrounding Jerusem.

^39:1.14 These seraphim become associates of the division chiefs of the numerous educational and training institutions of the local universes, and they are attached in large numbers to the faculties of the 7 training worlds of the local systems and of the 70 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 counsellors of the supreme seraphim.

^39:1.15 The fourth creature bestowal of the Creator Son was in the likeness of a teaching counsellor of the supreme seraphim of Nebadon.

^39:1.16 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.

^39:1.17 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.

^39:1.18 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.

^39:2.1 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.

^39:2.2 The superior seraphim function in the following 7 groups:

^39:2.3 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.

^39:2.4 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.

^39:2.5 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.

^39:2.6 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.

^39:2.7 4. Assistant Teachers. The assistant teachers are the helpers and associates of their fellow seraphim, the teaching counsellors. 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 marvellous corps of this order of seraphim functions on Urantia for the purpose of fostering and furthering the cause of truth and righteousness.

^39:2.8 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.

^39:2.9 ¶ 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.

^39:2.10 ¶ 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.

^39:2.11 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.

^39:2.12 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.

^39:2.13 ¶ 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.

^39:2.14 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.

^39:2.15 ¶ 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.

^39:2.16 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.

^39:2.17 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 intercommunication, but there is always a residue of messages which requires dispatch by personal messengers.

^39:2.18 ¶ 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.

^39:3.1 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.

^39:3.2 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.

^39:3.3 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 favours 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.

^39:3.4 3. Social Architects. From the individual planets up through the morontia training worlds, these seraphim labour 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 endeavouring to facilitate the interassociation of will creatures on a basis of real self-understanding and genuine mutual appreciation.

^39:3.5 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.

^39:3.6 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 70 divisions on Edentia, and these divisions minister on the 70 morontia progress worlds encircling the headquarters sphere.

^39:3.7 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 counsellors 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 70 satellites of the Norlatiadek capital.

^39:3.8 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.

^39:3.9 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 299,789 km/s. 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 885,139 to almost 899,623 km/s. The velocity is affected by the mass and proximity of neighbouring 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.

^39:3.10 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.

^39:3.11 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.