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

Автор книги: Tigran Aivazian

^44:6.1 How I wish I knew how to portray the exquisite work of these unique artisans! Every attempt on my part to explain the work of spirit embellishment would only recall to material minds your own pitiful but worthy efforts to do these things on your world of mind and matter.

^44:6.2 This corps, while embracing over 1,000 subdivisions of activity, is grouped under the following seven major heads:

^44:6.3 1. The craftworkers of colour. These are they who make the 10,000 colour tones of spirit reflection peal forth their exquisite messages of harmonious beauty. Aside from colour perception there is nothing in human experience to which these activities may be compared.

^44:6.4 2. The sound designers. Spirit waves of diverse identity and morontia appreciation are depicted by these designers of what you would call sound. These impulses are in reality the superb reflections of the naked and glorious spirit-souls of the celestial hosts.

^44:6.5 3. The emotion designers. These enhancers and conservators of feeling are those who preserve the sentiments of morontia and the emotions of divinity for the study and edification of the children of time and for the inspiration and beautification of morontia progressors and advancing spirits.

^44:6.6 4. The artists of odour. This comparison of supernal spirit activities to the physical recognition of chemical odours is, indeed, unfortunate, but Urantia mortals could hardly recognize this ministry by any other name. These artisans create their varied symphonies for the edification and delight of the advancing children of light. You have nothing on earth to which this type of spiritual grandeur can be even remotely compared.

^44:6.7 5. The presence embellishers. These artisans are not occupied with the arts of self-adornment or the technique of creature beautification. They are devoted to the production of multitudinous and joyous reactions in individual morontia and spirit creatures by dramatizing the significance of relationship through the positional values assigned to different morontia and spirit orders in the composite ensembles of these diversified beings. These artists arrange supermaterial beings as you would living musical notes, odours, sights, and then blend them into the anthems of glory.

^44:6.8 6. The taste designers. And how can you be told of these artists! Faintly I might suggest that they are improvers of morontia taste, and they also endeavour to increase the appreciation of beauty through the sharpening of the evolving spirit senses.

^44:6.9 7. The morontia synthesizers. These are the master craftsmen who, when all others have made their respective contributions, then add the culminating and finishing touches to the morontia ensemble, thus achieving an inspiring portrayal of the divinely beautiful, an enduring inspiration to spirit beings and their morontia associates. But you must await your deliverance from the animal body before you can begin to conceive of the artistic glories and aesthetic beauties of the morontia and spirit worlds.

^44:7.1 These artists are not concerned with music, painting, or anything similar, as you might be led to surmise. They are occupied with the manipulation and organization of specialized forces and energies which are present in the spirit world, but which are not recognized by mortals. If I had the least possible basis for comparison, I would attempt to portray this unique field of spirit achievement, but I despair – there is no hope of conveying to mortal minds this sphere of celestial artistry. Nevertheless, that which cannot be described may still be implied:

^44:7.2 Beauty, rhythm, and harmony are intellectually associated and spiritually akin. Truth, fact, and relationship are intellectually inseparable and associated with the philosophic concepts of beauty. Goodness, righteousness, and justice are philosophically interrelated and spiritually bound up together with living truth and divine beauty.

^44:7.3 Cosmic concepts of true philosophy, the portrayal of celestial artistry, or the mortal attempt to depict the human recognition of divine beauty can never be truly satisfying if such attempted creature progression is ununified. These expressions of the divine urge within the evolving creature may be intellectually true, emotionally beautiful, and spiritually good; but the real soul of expression is absent unless these realities of truth, meanings of beauty, and values of goodness are unified in the life experience of the artisan, the scientist, or the philosopher.

^44:7.4 These divine qualities are perfectly and absolutely unified in God. And every God-knowing man or angel possesses the potential of unlimited self-expression on ever-progressive levels of unified self-realization by the technique of the never-ending achievement of Godlikeness – the experiential blending in the evolutionary experience of eternal truth, universal beauty, and divine goodness.

^44:8.1 Although celestial artisans do not personally work on material planets, such as Urantia, they do come, from time to time, from the headquarters of the system to proffer help to the naturally gifted individuals of the mortal races. When thus assigned, these artisans temporarily work under the supervision of the planetary angels of progress. The seraphic hosts co-operate with these artisans in attempting to assist those mortal artists who possess inherent endowments, and who also possess Adjusters of special and previous experience.

^44:8.2 There are three possible sources of special human ability: At the bottom always there exists the natural or inherent aptitude. Special ability is never an arbitrary gift of the Gods; there is always an ancestral foundation for every outstanding talent. In addition to this natural ability, or rather supplemental thereto, there may be contributed the leadings of the Thought Adjuster in those individuals whose indwelling Adjusters may have had actual and bona fide experiences along such lines on other worlds and in other mortal creatures. In those cases where both the human mind and the indwelling Adjuster are unusually skillful, the spirit artisans may be delegated to act as harmonizers of these talents and otherwise to assist and inspire these mortals to seek for ever-perfecting ideals and to attempt their enhanced portrayal for the edification of the realm.

^44:8.3 ¶ There is no caste in the ranks of spirit artisans. No matter how lowly your origin, if you have ability and the gift of expression, you will gain adequate recognition and receive due appreciation as you ascend upward in the scale of morontia experience and spiritual attainment. There can be no handicap of human heredity or deprivation of mortal environment which the morontia career will not fully compensate and wholly remove. And all such satisfactions of artistic achievement and expressionful self-realization will be effected by your own personal efforts in progressive advancement. At last the aspirations of evolutionary mediocrity may be realized. While the Gods do not arbitrarily bestow talents and ability upon the children of time, they do provide for the attainment of the satisfaction of all their noble longings and for the gratification of all human hunger for supernal self-expression.

^44:8.4 But every human being should remember: Many ambitions to excel which tantalize mortals in the flesh will not persist with these same mortals in the morontia and spirit careers. The ascending morontians learn to socialize their former purely selfish longings and egoistic ambitions. Nevertheless, those things which you so earnestly longed to do on earth and which circumstances so persistently denied you, if, after acquiring true mota insight in the morontia career, you still desire to do, then will you most certainly be granted every opportunity fully to satisfy your long-cherished desires.

^44:8.5 Before ascending mortals leave the local universe to embark upon their spirit careers, they will be satiated respecting every intellectual, artistic, and social longing or true ambition which ever characterized their mortal or morontia planes of existence. This is the achievement of equality of the satisfaction of self-expression and self-realization but not the attainment of identical experiential status nor the complete obliteration of characteristic individuality in skill, technique, and expression. But the new spirit differential of personal experiential attainment will not become thus leveled off and equalized until after you have finished the last circle of the Havona career. And then will the Paradise residents be confronted with the necessity of adjusting to that absonite differential of personal experience which can be leveled off only by the group attainment of the ultimate of creature status – the seventh-stage-spirit destiny of the mortal finaliters.

^44:8.6 ¶ And this is the story of the celestial artisans, that cosmopolitan body of exquisite workers who do so much to glorify the architectural spheres with the artistic portrayals of the divine beauty of the Paradise Creators.

^44:8.7 [Indited by an Archangel of Nebadon.]

PAPER № 45
THE LOCAL SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION

Melchizedek

^45:0.1 The administrative centre of Satania consists of a cluster of architectural spheres, 57 in number – Jerusem itself, the 7 major satellites, and the 49 subsatellites. Jerusem, the system capital, is almost 100 times the size of Urantia, although its gravity is a trifle less. Jerusem’s major satellites are the 7 transition worlds, each of which is about 10 times as large as Urantia, while the 7 subsatellites of these transition spheres are just about the size of Urantia.

^45:0.2 The 7 mansion worlds are the 7 subsatellites of transition world number one.

^45:0.3 This entire system of 57 architectural worlds is independently lighted, heated, watered, and energized by the co-ordination of the Satania Power Centre and the Master Physical Controllers in accordance with the established technique of the physical organization and arrangement of these specially created spheres. They are also physically cared for and otherwise maintained by the native spornagia.

^45:1.1 The 7 major worlds swinging around Jerusem are generally known as the transitional culture spheres. Their rulers are designated from time to time by the Jerusem supreme executive council. These spheres are numbered and named as follows:

^45:1.2 ¶ Number 1. The Finaliter World. This is the headquarters of the finaliter corps of the local system and is surrounded by the receiving worlds, the 7 mansion worlds, dedicated so fully to the scheme of mortal ascension. The finaliter world is accessible to the inhabitants of all 7 mansion worlds. Transport seraphim carry ascending personalities back and forth on these pilgrimages, which are designed to cultivate their faith in the ultimate destiny of transition mortals. Although the finaliters and their structures are not ordinarily perceptible to morontia vision, you will be more than thrilled, from time to time, when the energy transformers and the Morontia Power Supervisors enable you momentarily to glimpse these high spirit personalities who have actually completed the Paradise ascension, and who have returned to the very worlds where you are beginning this long journey, as the pledge of assurance that you may and can complete the stupendous undertaking. All mansion world sojourners go to the finaliter sphere at least once a year for these assemblies of finaliter visualization.

^45:1.3 ¶ Number 2. The Morontia World. This planet is the headquarters of the supervisors of morontia life and is surrounded by the 7 spheres whereon the morontia chiefs train their associates and helpers, both morontia beings and ascending mortals.

^45:1.4 In passing through the 7 mansion worlds, you will also progress through these cultural and social spheres of increasing morontia contact. When you advance from the first to the second mansion world, you will become eligible for a visitor’s permit to transitional headquarters number two, the morontia world, and so on. And when present on any one of these six cultural spheres, you may, on invitation, become a visitor and observer on any of the 7 surrounding worlds of associated group activities.

^45:1.5 ¶ Number 3. The Angelic World. This is the headquarters of all the seraphic hosts engaged in system activities and is surrounded by the 7 worlds of angelic training and instruction. These are the seraphic social spheres.

^45:1.6 ¶ Number 4. The Superangel World. This sphere is the Satania home of the Brilliant Evening Stars and a vast concourse of co-ordinate and near-co-ordinate beings. The 7 satellites of this world are assigned to the 7 major groups of these unnamed celestial beings.

^45:1.7 ¶ Number 5. The World of the Sons. This planet is the headquarters of the divine Sons of all orders, including the creature-trinitized sons. The surrounding 7 worlds are devoted to certain individual groupings of these divinely related sons.

^45:1.8 ¶ Number 6. The World of the Spirit. This sphere serves as the system rendezvous of the high personalities of the Infinite Spirit. Its 7 surrounding satellites are assigned to individual groups of these diverse orders. But on transition world number six there is no representation of the Spirit, neither is such a presence to be observed on the system capitals; the Divine Minister of Salvington is everywhere in Nebadon.

^45:1.9 ¶ Number 7. The World of the Father. This is the silent sphere of the system. No group of beings is domiciled on it. The great temple of light occupies a central place, but no one can be discerned therein. All beings of all the system worlds are welcomed as worshippers.

^45:1.10 The 7 satellites surrounding the Father’s world are variously utilized in the different systems. In Satania they are now used as the detention spheres for the interned groups of the Lucifer rebellion. The constellation capital, Edentia, has no analogous prison worlds; the few seraphim and cherubim who went over to the rebels in the Satania rebellion have been long since confined on these isolation worlds of Jerusem.

^45:1.11 As a sojourner on the 7^th mansion world, you have access to the 7^th transition world, the sphere of the Universal Father, and are also permitted to visit the Satania prison worlds surrounding this planet, whereon are now confined Lucifer and the majority of those personalities who followed him in rebellion against Michael. And this sad spectacle has been observable during these recent ages and will continue to serve as a solemn warning to all Nebadon until the Ancients of Days shall adjudicate the sin of Lucifer and his fallen associates who rejected the salvation proffered by Michael, their universe Father.

^45:2.1 The chief executive of a local system of inhabited worlds is a primary Lanonandek Son, the System Sovereign. In our local universe these sovereigns are intrusted with large executive responsibilities, unusual personal prerogatives. Not all universes, even in Orvonton, are so organized as to permit the System Sovereigns to exercise such unusually wide powers of personal discretion in the direction of system affairs. But in all the history of Nebadon these untrammelled executives have exhibited disloyalty only three times. The Lucifer rebellion in the system of Satania was the last and the most widespread of all.

^45:2.2 In Satania, even after this disastrous upheaval, absolutely no changes have been made in the technique of system administration. The present System Sovereign possesses all the power and exercises all the authority that were invested in his unworthy predecessor except for certain matters now under the supervision of the Constellation Fathers which the Ancients of Days have not yet fully restored to Lanaforge, the successor of Lucifer.

^45:2.3 ¶ The present head of Satania is a gracious and brilliant ruler, and he is a rebellion-tested sovereign. When serving as an assistant System Sovereign, Lanaforge was faithful to Michael in an earlier upheaval in the universe of Nebadon. This mighty and brilliant Lord of Satania is a tried and tested administrator. At the time of the second system rebellion in Nebadon, when the System Sovereign stumbled and fell into darkness, Lanaforge, the first assistant to the erring chief, seized the reins of government and so conducted the affairs of the system that comparatively few personalities were lost either on the headquarters worlds or on the inhabited planets of that unfortunate system. Lanaforge bears the distinction of being the only primary Lanonandek Son in all Nebadon who thus functioned loyally in the service of Michael and in the very presence of the default of his brother of superior authority and antecedent rank. Lanaforge will probably not be removed from Jerusem until all the results of the former folly have been overcome and the products of rebellion removed from Satania.

^45:2.4 ¶ While all the affairs of the isolated worlds of Satania have not been returned to his jurisdiction, Lanaforge discloses great interest in their welfare, and he is a frequent visitor on Urantia. As in other and normal systems, the Sovereign presides over the system council of world rulers, the Planetary Princes and the resident governors general of the isolated worlds. This planetary council assembles from time to time on the headquarters of the system – “When the Sons of God come together.”

^45:2.5 Once a week, every 10 days on Jerusem, the Sovereign holds a conclave with some one group of the various orders of personalities domiciled on the headquarters world. These are the charmingly informal hours of Jerusem, and they are never-to-be-forgotten occasions. On Jerusem there exists the utmost fraternity between all the various orders of beings and between each of these groups and the System Sovereign.

^45:2.6 These unique assemblages occur on the sea of glass, the great gathering field of the system capital. They are purely social and spiritual occasions; nothing pertaining to the planetary administration or even to the ascendant plan is ever discussed. Ascending mortals come together at these times merely to enjoy themselves and to meet their fellow Jerusemites. Those groups which are not being entertained by the Sovereign at these weekly relaxations meet at their own headquarters.

^45:3.1 The chief executive of a local system, the System Sovereign, is always supported by two or three Lanonandek Sons, who function as first and second assistants. But at the present time the system of Satania is administered by a staff of 7 Lanonandeks:

^45:3.2 1. The System Sovereign — Lanaforge, number 2,709 of the primary order and successor to the apostate Lucifer.

^45:3.3 2. The first assistant Sovereign — Mansurotia, number 17,841 of the tertiary Lanonandeks. He was dispatched to Satania along with Lanaforge.

^45:3.4 3. The second assistant Sovereign — Sadib, number 271,402 of the tertiary order. Sadib also came to Satania with Lanaforge.

^45:3.5 4. The custodian of the system — Holdant, number 19 of the tertiary corps, the holder and controller of all interned spirits above the order of mortal existence. Holdant likewise came to Satania with Lanaforge.

^45:3.6 5. The system recorder — Vilton, secretary of the Lanonandek ministry of Satania, number 374 of the third order. Vilton was a member of the original Lanaforge group.

^45:3.7 6. The bestowal director — Fortant, number 319,847 of the reserves of the secondary Lanonandeks and temporary director of all universe activities transplanted to Jerusem since Michael’s bestowal on Urantia. Fortant has been attached to the staff of Lanaforge for 1900 years of Urantia time.

^45:3.8 7. The high counsellor — Hanavard, number 67 of the primary Lanonandek Sons and a member of the high corps of universe counsellors and co-ordinators. He functions as acting chairman of the executive council of Satania. Hanavard is the 12^th of this order so to serve on Jerusem since the Lucifer rebellion.

^45:3.9 ¶ This executive group of 7 Lanonandeks constitutes the expanded emergency administration made necessary by the exigencies of the Lucifer rebellion. There are only minor courts on Jerusem since the system is the unit of administration, not adjudication, but the Lanonandek administration is supported by the Jerusem executive council, the supreme advisory body of Satania. This council consists of 12 members:

^45:3.10 1. Hanavard, the Lanonandek chairman.

^45:3.11 2. Lanaforge, the System Sovereign.

^45:3.12 3. Mansurotia, the first assistant Sovereign.

^45:3.13 4. The chief of Satania Melchizedeks.

^45:3.14 5. The acting director of the Satania Life Carriers.

^45:3.15 6. The chief of the Satania finaliters.

^45:3.16 7. The original Adam of Satania, the supervising head of the Material Sons.

^45:3.17 8. The director of the Satania seraphic hosts.

^45:3.18 9. The chief of the Satania physical controllers.

^45:3.19 10. The director of the system Morontia Power Supervisors.

^45:3.20 11. The acting director of system midway creatures.

^45:3.21 12. The acting head of the corps of ascending mortals.

^45:3.22 ¶ This council periodically chooses three members to represent the local system on the supreme council at universe headquarters, but this representation is suspended by rebellion. Satania now has an observer at the headquarters of the local universe, but since the bestowal of Michael the system has resumed the election of 10 members to the Edentia legislature.