The Urantia Book
PAPER 13
THE SACRED SPHERES OF PARADISE
Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom commissioned thus to function
by the Ancients of Days on Uversa
13:0.1 BETWEEN the central Isle of Paradise
and the innermost of the Havona planetary circuits there are
situated in space three lesser circuits of special spheres. The
innermost circuit consists of the seven secret spheres of the
Universal Father; the second group is composed of the seven
luminous worlds of the Eternal Son; in the outermost are the
seven immense spheres of the Infinite Spirit, the
executive-headquarters worlds of the Seven Master Spirits.
13:0.2 These three seven-world circuits of the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit are spheres of unexcelled
grandeur and unimagined glory. Even their material or physical
construction is of an order unrevealed to you. Each circuit is
diverse in material, and each world of each circuit is different
excepting the seven worlds of the Son, which are alike in
physical constitution. All twenty-one are enormous spheres, and
each group of seven is differently eternalized. As far as we
know they have always been; like Paradise they are eternal.
There exists neither record nor tradition of their origin.
13:0.3 The seven secret spheres of the
Universal Father, circulating about Paradise in close proximity
to the eternal Isle, are highly reflective of the spiritual
luminosity of the central shining of the eternal Deities,
shedding this light of divine glory throughout Paradise and even
upon the seven circuits of Havona.
13:0.4 On the seven sacred worlds of the
Eternal Son there appear to take origin the impersonal energies
of spirit luminosity. No personal being may sojourn on any of
these seven shining realms. With spiritual glory they illuminate
all Paradise and Havona, and they directionize pure spirit
luminosity to the seven superuniverses. These brilliant spheres
of the second circuit likewise emit their light (light without
heat) to Paradise and to the billion worlds of the
seven-circuited central universe.
13:0.5 The seven worlds of the Infinite Spirit
are occupied by the Seven Master Spirits, who preside over the
destinies of the seven superuniverses, sending forth the
spiritual illumination of the Third Person of Deity to these
creations of time and space. And all Havona, but not the Isle of
Paradise, is bathed in these spiritualizing influences.
13:0.6 Although the worlds of the Father are
ultimate status spheres for all Father-endowed personalities,
this is not their exclusive function. Many beings and entities
other than personal sojourn on these worlds. Each world in the
circuit of the Father and the circuit of the Spirit has a
distinct type of permanent citizenship, but we think the Son's
worlds are inhabited by uniform types of other-than-personal
beings. Father fragments are among the natives of Divinington;
the other orders of permanent citizenship are unrevealed to you.
13:0.7 The twenty-one Paradise satellites
serve many purposes in both central and superuniverses not
disclosed in these narratives. You are able to understand so
little of the life of these spheres that you cannot hope to gain
anything like a consistent view of them, either as to nature or
function; thousands of activities are there going on which are
unrevealed to you. These twenty-one spheres embrace the
potentials of the function of the master universe. These
papers afford only a fleeting glimpse of certain circumscribed
activities pertaining to the present universe age of the grand
universe -- rather, one of the seven sectors of the grand
universe.
1. THE SEVEN SACRED WORLDS OF THE FATHER
13:1.1 The Father's circuit of sacred life
spheres contains the only inherent personality secrets in the
universe of universes. These satellites of Paradise, the
innermost of the three circuits, are the only forbidden domains
concerned with personality in the central universe. Nether
Paradise and the worlds of the Son are likewise closed to
personalities, but neither of those realms is in any way
directly concerned with personality.
13:1.2 The Paradise worlds of the Father are
directed by the highest order of the Stationary Sons of the
Trinity, the Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy. Of these worlds I
can tell little; of their manifold activities I may tell less.
Such information concerns only those beings who function thereon
and go forth therefrom. And though I am somewhat familiar with
six of these special worlds, never have I landed on Divinington;
that world is wholly forbidden to me.
13:1.3 One of the reasons for the secrecy of
these worlds is because each of these sacred spheres enjoys a
specialized representation, or manifestation, of the Deities
composing the Paradise Trinity; not a personality, but a unique
presence of Divinity which can only be appreciated and
comprehended by those particular groups of intelligences
resident on, or admissible to, that particular sphere. The
Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy are the personal agents of these
specialized and impersonal presences of Divinity. And the
Secrets of Supremacy are highly personal beings, superbly
endowed and marvelously adapted to their exalted and exacting
work.
13:1.4 1. DIVININGTON. This world is, in a
unique sense, the "bosom of the Father," the personal-communion
sphere of the Universal Father, and thereon is a special
manifestation of his divinity. Divinington is the Paradise
rendezvous of the Thought Adjusters, but it is also the home of
numerous other entities, personalities, and other beings taking
origin in the Universal Father. Many personalities besides the
Eternal Son are of direct origin by the solitary acts of the
Universal Father. Only the Father fragments and those
personalities and other beings of direct and exclusive origin in
the Universal Father fraternize and function on this abode.
13:1.5 The secrets of Divinington
include the secret of the bestowal and mission of Thought
Adjusters. Their nature, origin, and the technique of their
contact with the lowly creatures of the evolutionary worlds is a
secret of this Paradise sphere. These amazing transactions do
not personally concern the rest of us, and therefore do the
Deities deem it proper to withhold certain features of this
great and divine ministry from our full understanding. In so far
as we come in contact with this phase of divine activity, we are
permitted full knowledge of these transactions, but concerning
the intimate details of this great bestowal we are not fully
informed.
13:1.6 This sphere also holds the secrets of
the nature, purpose, and activities of all other forms of Father
fragments, of the Gravity Messengers, and of hosts of other
beings unrevealed to you. It is highly probable that those
truths pertaining to Divinington which are withheld from me, if
revealed, would merely confuse and handicap me in my present
work, and still again, perhaps they are beyond the conceptual
capacity of my order of being.
13:1.7 2. SONARINGTON. This sphere is the
"bosom of the Son," the personal receiving world of the Eternal
Son. It is the Paradise headquarters of the descending and
ascending Sons of God when, and after, they are fully accredited
and finally approved. This world is the Paradise home for all
Sons of the Eternal Son and of his co-ordinate and associate
Sons. There are numerous orders of divine sonship attached to
this supernal abode which have not been revealed to mortals
since they are not concerned with the plans of the ascension
scheme of human spiritual progression through the universes and
on to Paradise.
13:1.8 The secrets of Sonarington
include the secret of the incarnation of the divine Sons. When a
Son of God becomes a Son of Man, is literally born of woman, as
occurred on your world nineteen hundred years ago, it is a
universal mystery. It is occurring right along throughout the
universes, and it is a Sonarington secret of divine sonship. The
Adjusters are a mystery of God the Father. The incarnation of
the divine Sons is a mystery of God the Son; it is a secret
locked up in the seventh sector of Sonarington, a realm
penetrated by none save those who have personally passed through
this unique experience. Only those phases of incarnation having
to do with your ascension career have been brought to your
notice. There are many other phases of the mystery of the
incarnation of the Paradise Sons of unrevealed types on missions
of universe service which are undisclosed to you. And there are
still other Sonarington mysteries.
13:1.9 3. SPIRITINGTON. This world is the
"bosom of the Spirit," the Paradise home of the high beings that
exclusively represent the Infinite Spirit. Here forgather the
Seven Master Spirits and certain of their offspring from all
universes. At this celestial abode may also be found numerous
unrevealed orders of spirit personalities, beings assigned to
the manifold activities of the universe not associated with the
plans of upstepping the mortal creatures of time to the Paradise
levels of eternity.
13:1.10 The secrets of Spiritington
involve the impenetrable mysteries of reflectivity. We tell you
of the vast and universal phenomenon of reflectivity, more
particularly as it is operative on the headquarters worlds of
the seven superuniverses, but we never fully explain this
phenomenon, for we do not fully understand it. Much, very much,
we do comprehend, but many basic details are still mysterious to
us. Reflectivity is a secret of God the Spirit. You have been
instructed concerning reflectivity functions in relation to the
ascension scheme of mortal survival, and it does so operate, but
reflectivity is also an indispensable feature of the normal
working of numerous other phases of universe occupation. This
endowment of the Infinite Spirit is also utilized in channels
other than those of intelligence gathering and information
dissemination. And there are other secrets of Spiritington.
13:1.11 4. VICEGERINGTON. This planet is the
"bosom of the Father and the Son" and is the secret sphere of
certain unrevealed beings who take origin by the acts of the
Father and the Son. This is also the Paradise home of many
glorified beings of complex ancestry, those whose origin is
complicated because of the many diverse techniques operative in
the seven superuniverses. Many groups of beings forgather on
this world whose identity has not been revealed to Urantia
mortals.
13:1.12 The secrets of Vicegerington
include the secrets of trinitization, and trinitization
constitutes the secret of authority to represent the Trinity, to
act as vicegerents of the Gods. Authority to represent the
Trinity attaches only to those beings, revealed and unrevealed,
who are trinitized, created, eventuated, or eternalized by any
two or all three of the Paradise Trinity. Personalities brought
into being by the trinitizing acts of certain types of glorified
creatures represent no more than the conceptual potential
mobilized in that trinitization, albeit such creatures may
ascend the path of Deity embrace open to all of their kind.
13:1.13 Nontrinitized beings do not fully
understand the technique of trinitization by either two or three
Creators or by certain creatures. You will never fully
understand such a phenomenon unless, in the far-distant future
of your glorified career, you should essay and succeed in such
an adventure, because otherwise these secrets of Vicegerington
will always be forbidden you. But to me, a high Trinity-origin
being, all sectors of Vicegerington are open. I fully
understand, and just as fully and sacredly protect, the secret
of my origin and destiny.
13:1.14 There are still other forms and phases
of trinitization which have not been brought to the notice of
the Urantia peoples, and these experiences, in their personal
aspects, are duly protected in the secret sector of
Vicegerington.
13:1.15 5. SOLITARINGTON. This world is the
"bosom of the Father and the Spirit" and is the rendezvous of a
magnificent host of unrevealed beings of origin in the conjoint
acts of the Universal Father and the Infinite Spirit, beings who
partake of the traits of the Father in addition to their Spirit
inheritance.
13:1.16 This is also the home of the Solitary
Messengers and of other personalities of the superangelic
orders. You know of very few of these beings; there are vast
numbers of orders unrevealed on Urantia. Because they are
domiciled on the fifth world, it does not necessarily follow
that the Father had aught to do with the creation of Solitary
Messengers or their superangelic associates, but in this
universe age he does have to do with their function. During the
present universe age this is also the status sphere of the
Universe Power Directors.
13:1.17 There are numerous additional orders
of spirit personalities, beings unknown to mortal man, who look
upon Solitarington as their Paradise home sphere. It should be
remembered that all divisions and levels of universe activities
are just as fully provided with spirit ministers as is the realm
concerned with helping mortal man ascend to his divine Paradise
destiny.
13:1.18 The secrets of Solitarington.
Besides certain secrets of trinitization, this world holds the
secrets of the personal relation of the Infinite Spirit with
certain of the higher offspring of the Third Source and Center.
On Solitarington are held the mysteries of the intimate
association of numerous unrevealed orders with the spirits of
the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit, with the threefold
spirit of the Trinity, and with the spirits of the Supreme, the
Ultimate, and the Supreme-Ultimate.
13:1.19 6. SERAPHINGTON. This sphere is the
"bosom of the Son and the Spirit" and is the home world of the
vast hosts of unrevealed beings created by the Son and the
Spirit. This is also the destiny sphere of all ministering
orders of the angelic hosts, including supernaphim, seconaphim,
and seraphim. There also serve in the central and outlying
universes many orders of superb spirits who are not "ministering
spirits to those who shall be heirs of salvation." All these
spirit workers in all levels and realms of universe activities
look upon Seraphington as their Paradise home.
13:1.20 The secrets of Seraphington
involve a threefold mystery, only one of which I may mention --
the mystery of seraphic transport. The ability of various orders
of seraphim and allied spirit beings to envelop within their
spirit forms all orders of nonmaterial personalities and to
carry them away on lengthy interplanetary journeys, is a secret
locked up in the sacred sectors of Seraphington. The transport
seraphim comprehend this mystery, but they do not communicate it
to the rest of us, or perhaps they cannot. The other mysteries
of Seraphington pertain to the personal experiences of types of
spirit servers as yet not revealed to mortals. And we refrain
from discussing the secrets of such closely related beings
because you can almost comprehend such near orders of existence,
and it would be akin to betrayal of trust to present even our
partial knowledge of such phenomena.
13:1.21 7. ASCENDINGTON. This unique world is
the "bosom of the Father, Son, and Spirit," the rendezvous of
the ascendant creatures of space, the receiving sphere of the
pilgrims of time who are passing through the Havona universe on
their way to Paradise. Ascendington is the actual Paradise home
of the ascendant souls of time and space until they attain
Paradise status. You mortals will spend most of your Havona
"vacations" on Ascendington. During your Havona life
Ascendington will be to you what the reversion directors were
during the local and superuniverse ascension. Here you will
engage in thousands of activities which are beyond the grasp of
mortal imagination. And as on every previous advance in the
Godward ascent, your human self will here enter into new
relationships with your divine self.
13:1.22 The secrets of Ascendington
include the mystery of the gradual and certain building up in
the material and mortal mind of a spiritual and potentially
immortal counterpart of character and identity. This phenomenon
constitutes one of the most perplexing mysteries of the
universes -- the evolution of an immortal soul within the mind
of a mortal and material creature.
13:1.23 You will never fully understand this
mysterious transaction until you reach Ascendington. And that is
just why all Ascendington will be open to your wondering gaze.
One seventh of Ascendington is forbidden to me -- that sector
concerned with this very secret which is (or will be) the
exclusive experience and possession of your type of being. This
experience belongs to your human order of existence. My order of
personality is not directly concerned with such transactions. It
is therefore forbidden to me and eventually revealed to you. But
even after it is revealed to you, for some reason it forever
remains your secret. You do not reveal it to us nor to any other
order of beings. We know about the eternal fusion of a divine
Adjuster and an immortal soul of human origin, but the ascendant
finaliters know this very experience as an absolute reality.
2. FATHER-WORLD RELATIONSHIPS
13:2.1 These home worlds of the diverse orders
of spiritual beings are tremendous and stupendous spheres, and
they are equal to Paradise in their matchless beauty and superb
glory. They are rendezvous worlds, reunion spheres, serving as
permanent cosmic addresses. As finaliters you will be domiciled
on Paradise, but Ascendington will be your home address at all
times, even when you enter service in outer space. Through all
eternity you will regard Ascendington as your home of
sentimental memories and reminiscent recollections. When you
become seventh-stage spirit beings, possibly you will give up
your residential status on Paradise.
13:2.2 If outer universes are in the making,
if they are to be inhabited by time creatures of ascension
potential, then we infer that these children of the future will
also be destined to look upon Ascendington as their Paradise
home world.
13:2.3 Ascendington is the only sacred sphere
that will be unreservedly open to your inspection as a Paradise
arrival. Vicegerington is the only sacred sphere that is wholly
and unreservedly open to my scrutiny. Though its secrets are
concerned in my origin, in this universe age I do not regard
Vicegerington as my home. Trinity-origin beings and trinitized
beings are not the same.
13:2.4 The Trinity-origin beings do not fully
share the Father's worlds; they have their sole homes on the
Isle of Paradise in close proximity to the Most Holy Sphere.
They often appear on Ascendington, the "bosom of the
Father-Son-Spirit," where they fraternize with their brethren
who have come up from the lowly worlds of space.
13:2.5 You might assume that Creator Sons,
being of Father-Son origin, would regard Vicegerington as their
home, but such is not the case in this universe age of the
function of God the Sevenfold. And there are many similar
problems that will perplex you, for you are sure to encounter
many difficulties as you attempt to understand these things
which are so near Paradise. Nor can you successfully reason out
these questions; you know so little. And if you knew more about
the Father's worlds, you would simply encounter more
difficulties until you knew all about them. Status on any of
these secret worlds is acquired by service as well as by nature
of origin, and the successive universe ages may and do
redistribute certain of these personality groupings.
13:2.6 The worlds of the inner circuit are
really fraternal or status worlds more than actual residential
spheres. Mortals will attain some status on each of the Father's
worlds save one. For example: When you mortals attain Havona,
you are granted clearance for Ascendington, where you are most
welcome, but you are not permitted to visit the other six sacred
worlds. Subsequent to your passage through the Paradise regime
and after your admission to the Corps of the Finality, you are
granted clearance for Sonarington since you are sons of God as
well as ascenders -- and you are even more. But there will
always remain one seventh of Sonarington, the sector of the
incarnation secrets of the divine Sons, which will not be open
to your scrutiny. Never will those secrets be revealed to the
ascendant sons of God.
13:2.7 Eventually you will have full access to
Ascendington and relative access to the other spheres of the
Father except Divinington. But even when you are granted
permission to land on five additional secret spheres, after you
have become a finaliter, you will not be allowed to visit all
sectors of such worlds. Nor will you be permitted to land on the
shores of Divinington, the "bosom of the Father," though you
shall surely stand repeatedly at the "right hand of the Father."
Never throughout all eternity will there arise any necessity for
your presence on the world of the Thought Adjusters.
13:2.8 These rendezvous worlds of spirit life
are forbidden ground to the extent that we are asked not to
negotiate entrance to those phases of these spheres which are
wholly outside our realms of experience. You may become creature
perfect even as the Universal Father is deity perfect, but you
may not know all the experiential secrets of all other orders of
universe personalities. When the Creator has an experiential
personality secret with his creature, the Creator preserves that
secret in eternal confidence.
13:2.9 All these secrets are supposedly known
to the collective body of the Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy.
These beings are fully known only by their special world groups;
they are little comprehended by other orders. After you attain
Paradise, you will know and ardently love the ten Secrets of
Supremacy who direct Ascendington. Excepting Divinington, you
will also achieve a partial understanding of the Secrets of
Supremacy on the other worlds of the Father, though not so
perfectly as on Ascendington.
13:2.10 The Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy,
as their name might suggest, are related to the Supreme; they
are likewise related to the Ultimate and to the future
Supreme-Ultimate. These Secrets of Supremacy are the secrets of
the Supreme and also the secrets of the Ultimate, even the
secrets of the Supreme-Ultimate.
3. THE SACRED WORLDS OF THE ETERNAL SON
13:3.1 The seven luminous spheres of the
Eternal Son are the worlds of the seven phases of pure-spirit
existence. These shining orbs are the source of the threefold
light of Paradise and Havona, their influence being largely, but
not wholly, confined to the central universe.
13:3.2 Personality is not present on these
Paradise satellites; therefore is there little concerning these
pure-spirit abodes which can be presented to the mortal and
material personality. We are taught that these worlds teem with
the otherwise-than-personal life of the beings of the Eternal
Son. We infer that these entities are being assembled for
ministry in the projected new universes of outer space. The
Paradise philosophers maintain that each Paradise cycle, about
two billion years of Urantia time, witnesses the creation of
additional reserves of these orders on the secret worlds of the
Eternal Son.
13:3.3 As far as I am informed, no personality
has ever been on any one of these spheres of the Eternal Son. I
have never been assigned to visit one of these worlds in all my
long experience in and out of Paradise. Even the personalities
cocreated by the Eternal Son do not go to these worlds. We infer
that all types of impersonal spirits -- regardless of parentage
-- are admitted to these spirit homes. As I am a person and have
a spirit form, no doubt such a world would seem empty and
deserted even if I were permitted to pay it a visit. High spirit
personalities are not given to the gratification of purposeless
curiosity, purely useless adventure. There is at all times
altogether too much intriguing and purposeful adventure to
permit the development of any great interest in those projects
which are either futile or unreal.
4. THE WORLDS OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT
13:4.1 Between the inner circuit of Havona and
the shining spheres of the Eternal Son there circle the seven
orbs of the Infinite Spirit, worlds inhabited by the offspring
of the Infinite Spirit, by the trinitized sons of glorified
created personalities, and by other types of unrevealed beings
concerned with the effective administration of the many
enterprises of the various realms of universe activities.
13:4.2 The Seven Master Spirits are the
supreme and ultimate representatives of the Infinite Spirit.
They maintain their personal stations, their power focuses, on
the periphery of Paradise, but all operations concerned with
their management and direction of the grand universe are
conducted on and from these seven special executive spheres of
the Infinite Spirit. The Seven Master Spirits are, in reality,
the mind-spirit balance wheel of the universe of universes, an
all-embracing, all-encompassing, and all-co-ordinating power of
central location.
13:4.3 From these seven special spheres the
Master Spirits operate to equalize and stabilize the cosmic-mind
circuits of the grand universe. They also have to do with the
differential spiritual attitude and presence of the Deities
throughout the grand universe. Physical reactions are uniform,
unvarying, and always instantaneous and automatic. But
experiential spiritual presence is in accordance with the
underlying conditions or states of spiritual receptivity
inherent in the individual minds of the realms.
13:4.4 Physical authority, presence, and
function are unvarying in all the universes, small or great. The
differing factor in spiritual presence, or reaction, is the
fluctuating differential in its recognition and reception by
will creatures. Whereas the spiritual presence of absolute and
existential Deity is in no manner whatever influenced by
attitudes of loyalty or disloyalty on the part of created
beings, at the same time it is true that the functioning
presence of subabsolute and experiential Deity is definitely and
directly influenced by the decisions, choices, and
will-attitudes of such finite creature beings -- by the loyalty
and devotion of the individual being, planet, system,
constellation, or universe. But this spiritual presence of
divinity is not whimsical nor arbitrary; its experiential
variance is inherent in the freewill endowment of personal
creatures.
13:4.5 The determiner of the differential of
spiritual presence exists in your own hearts and minds and
consists in the manner of your own choosing, in the decisions of
your minds, and in the determination of your own wills. This
differential is inherent in the freewill reactions of
intelligent personal beings, beings whom the Universal Father
has ordained shall exercise this liberty of choosing. And the
Deities are ever true to the ebb and flow of their spirits in
meeting and satisfying the conditions and demands of this
differential of creature choice, now bestowing more of their
presence in response to a sincere desire for the same and again
withdrawing themselves from the scene as their creatures decide
adversely in the exercise of their divinely bestowed freedom of
choice. And thus does the spirit of divinity become humbly
obedient to the choosing of the creatures of the realms.
13:4.6 The executive abodes of the Seven
Master Spirits are, in reality, the Paradise headquarters of the
seven superuniverses and their correlated segments in outer
space. Each Master Spirit presides over one superuniverse, and
each of these seven worlds is exclusively assigned to one of the
Master Spirits. There is literally no phase of the sub-Paradise
administration of the seven superuniverses which is not provided
for on these executive worlds. They are not so exclusive as the
spheres of the Father or those of the Son, and though
residential status is limited to native beings and those who
work thereon, these seven administrative planets are always open
to all beings who desire to visit them, and who can command the
necessary means of transit.
13:4.7 To me, these executive worlds are the
most interesting and intriguing spots outside of Paradise. In no
other place in the wide universe can one observe such varied
activities, involving so many different orders of living beings,
having to do with operations on so many diverse levels,
occupations at once material, intellectual, and spiritual. When
I am accorded a period of release from assignment, if I chance
to be on Paradise or in Havona, I usually proceed to one of
these busy worlds of the Seven Master Spirits, there to inspire
my mind with such spectacles of enterprise, devotion, loyalty,
wisdom, and effectiveness. Nowhere else can I observe such an
amazing interassociation of personality performances on all
seven levels of universe reality. And I am always stimulated by
the activities of those who well know how to do their work, and
who so thoroughly enjoy doing it.
13:4.8
Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom commissioned thus to function
by the Ancients of Days on Uversa.
