The Urantia Book

39. The Seraphic Hosts

5. Planetary Helpers

^39.5.1 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.

^39.5.2 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:

^39.5.3 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.

^39.5.4 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.

^39.5.5 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.”

^39.5.6 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.

^39.5.7 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.

^39.5.8 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.

^39.5.9 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.

^39.5.10 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.

^39.5.11 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.

^39.5.12 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.

^39.5.13 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.

^39.5.14 And now, under the influence of the transformers and the transmitters, a strange metamorphosis begins as the seraphim is made ready to swing into the energy currents of the universe circuits. To outward appearance the seraphim grows pointed at both extremities and becomes so enshrouded in a queer light of amber hue that very soon it is impossible to distinguish the enseraphimed personality. When all is in readiness for departure, the chief of transport makes the proper inspection of the carriage of life, carries out the routine tests to ascertain whether or not the angel is properly encircuited, and then announces that the traveler is properly enseraphimed, that the energies are adjusted, that the angel is insulated, and that everything is in readiness for the departing flash. The mechanical controllers, two of them, next take their positions. By this time the transport seraphim has become an almost transparent, vibrating, torpedo-shaped outline of glistening luminosity. Now the transport dispatcher of the realm summons the auxiliary batteries of the living energy transmitters, usually one thousand in number; as he announces the destination of the transport, he reaches out and touches the near point of the seraphic carriage, which shoots forward with lightninglike speed, leaving a trail of celestial luminosity as far as the planetary atmospheric investment extends. In less than ten minutes the marvelous spectacle will be lost even to reinforced seraphic vision.

^39.5.15 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.

^39.5.16 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.

^39.5.17 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

^39.6.1 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:

^39.6.2 1. Seraphic Evangels.

^39.6.3 2. Racial Interpreters.

^39.6.4 3. Mind Planners.

^39.6.5 4. Morontia Counselors.

^39.6.6 5. Technicians.

^39.6.7 6. Recorder-Teachers.

^39.6.8 7. Ministering Reserves.

^39.6.9 More about these seraphic ministers to transitional ascenders you will learn in connection with the narratives dealing with the mansion worlds and the morontia life.

7. Seraphim of the Future

^39.7.1 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.

^39.7.2 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

^39.8.1 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.

^39.8.2 Seraphim may attain Paradise in scores - hundreds - of ways, but the most important as elaborated in these narratives are the following:

^39.8.3 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.

^39.8.4 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.

^39.8.5 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.

^39.8.6 Guardians of destiny are drawn from the ranks of the more experienced angelic personalities of all orders of seraphim who have qualified for this service. 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.

^39.8.7 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.

^39.8.8 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.

^39.8.9 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.

^39.8.10 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

^39.9.1 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.

^39.9.2 Large numbers of the completion seraphim return to their native universes, there to complement the ministry of divine endowment by the ministry of experiential 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.

^39.9.3 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.

^39.9.4 [Presented by a Melchizedek acting by request of the Chief of the Seraphic Hosts of Nebadon.]