Adam and Eve
These unique beings serve as “divine reproducing couples” on evolutionary worlds with a purpose of ameliorating the shortcomings of human biological evolution as well as many other special duties. They comprise the order of “Material Sons and Daughters of God” (see entry) and typically reside on the system capitol (see “local system”). Our Adam-and-Eve pair materialized on Urantia nearly 38,000 years ago for the purpose of biologically uplifting the mortals of the realm. The progeny of Adam and Eve on Urantia were known as the “violet race.” However, our planetary Adam and Eve had a very difficult mission compared to Adam-and-Eve appearances on other planets, because of the planetary quarantine on Urantia—a result of the Lucifer Rebellion—that isolated them from contact with the rest of the universe. Their story is recounted in the garbled record contained in the book of Genesis in the Bible and is updated for the modern age in Papers 73-76 in The Urantia Book.
adjudication; adjudication of Lucifer Rebellion
The case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer was launched early in the twentieth century before the courts of the Ancients of Days (see entry), concurrently with the reception of the Papers in Chicago that would later become The Urantia Book. Gabriel vs. An adjudication would mean that the quarantine of Urantia could be lifted so that all “off-world” communication circuits to the planet could be reinstated. The reasons for the rebellion and the story of its aftermath are discussed at length in The Urantia Book and especially in Papers 52 and 53.
adjutant mind-spirits; seven adjutant mind-spirits; adjutants of wisdom and worship
Adjutants represent the functioning of the “mind ministry” of the Infinite Spirit (see entry), and are of origin in the Mother Spirit of any local universe. Adjutant mind-spirits are not beings or entities, but operate more like connectivity circuits as they operate with the creature mind. The first five adjutants—the spirits of intuition, understanding, courage, knowledge, and counsel—minister to the lower levels of experiential minds (animals and humans), and the last two—the spirits of worship and wisdom—operate only in mortal minds with spiritual potential. Adjutant mind-spirits have been compared to the “seven chakra” system in Vedanta and other teachings about the human energy body. [See UB, Paper 36, sec. 5.]
Adjuster—see Thought Adjuster
Ancient of Days
In power, majesty, and scope of authority the Ancients of Days are the most versatile and mighty of any of the direct rulers of the time-space creations. They oversee the administration of superuniverses (i.e., galactic organizations that comprise approximately one trillion inhabited planets). In all of the vast universe they alone are invested with the high powers of final executive judgment concerning the eternal extinction of will creatures (e.g., the case of annihilation of Lucifer and Satan that concluded the Lucifer Rebellion). The Ancients of Days are the most perfect and the most divinely endowed rulers in all time-space existence.
architectural spheres
These worlds are purposely constructed for their intended uses. The local universe of Nebadon (see entry) contains over 600,000 of these spheres. While they may receive some light from nearby stars, these worlds are heated and lighted independently and therefore do not emit enough light to be seen by Urantia’s telescopes. These worlds do not suffer from geologic instability or weather phenomena. They are made from morontia materials (see entry under “morontia”), which include one hundred additional elements that are not found on Urantia, and are very beautiful. Each of us will see our first architectural world when we awaken from the death experience, on mansion world number one. [See UB, Paper 15, sec. 7.]
Avonal Son
One of three “descending” orders of revealed beings or origin on Paradise in the central universe; also known as Magisterial Sons (see entry).
Billion worlds—see central universe
Christ Michael; Michael; Creator Son; Jesus Christ
Michael is our local universe father, creator, and sovereign, and is also know to us as Jesus Christ, who incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth on our planet. He is of the order of Michael—high beings with creator prerogatives who are also known as Creator Sons; they are directly of origin from God the Father and God the Son. In partnership with the Mother Spirits who are their equals (see “Mother Spirit”), Michaels create local universes and their myriad inhabitants, over which they rule with love and mercy. Their unending love for us is typified in the fact that they may incarnate in the likeness of their creatures on the worlds they have created.
central universe; Havona; billion worlds
Havona, the central universe, is not a time creation; it is an eternal existence. This never-beginning, never-ending universe consists of one billion spheres of sublime perfection. At the center of Havona is the stationary and absolutely stabilized Isle of Paradise (see “Paradise”). The mass of this central creation is far in excess of the total known mass of all seven sectors of the grand universe (the time-space creations).
Constellation; constellation level of authority
Constellations are comprised of one hundred local systems, and thus consist of up to one-hundred thousand inhabited worlds. The name of our Constellation’s headquarters world is Edentia, and the beings know as the Most Highs (see entry) preside there. [See UB, Paper 43.]
cosmic mind
The cosmic mind encompasses all finite mind levels in the evolutionary universes.
Deity Absolute
The Deity Absolute is the summation of the absolute of all experiential and existential realities of all existent personal beings created by God. In essence, it refers to the “personalizable and divine values” that are manifest in universe reality as opposed to the function of the Unqualified Absolute, which pertains to that which is nonpersonal, “nondeified,” and even randomly occurring.
Eternal Son
The Eternal Son is the great mercy minister to all creation. As the second person of the divine Trinity, he is known as the Original Son, and along with God the Father, he is the cocreator of other divine sons. He is the source of spirit, the administrator of all spirit, and the center of spirit in the universe and therefore all things spiritual are drawn to him; he is co-eternal and co-ordinate with the Father, and is a full equal to the Father. “The Eternal Son is the perfect and final expression of the ‘first’ personal and absolute concept of the Universal Father. Accordingly, whenever and however the Father personally and absolutely expresses himself, he does so through his Eternal Son, who ever has been, now is and ever will be, the living and divine Word. The Eternal Son is the spiritual personalization of the Father’s universal and infinite concept of divine reality, unqualified spirit, and absolute personality. As the Father is the First Great Source and Center, so the Eternal Son is the Second Great Source and Center.” [See UB: Papers 6 and 7.]
Fifth Epochal Revelation; epochal revelation
The purpose of revelation is to exalt and “up-step” the religions of evolution by periodic teachings that are tailored to the needs and capacity for receptivity of the mortals of a given world. Every inhabited evolutionary planet receives a series of epochal revelations throughout its history. The Urantia Book is one example of such a gift, and is the fifth such epochal revelation to be given to Urantia. The Fifth Epochal Revelation was designed to correct philosophical error, assess the evolutionary religions and sciences, and adjust planetary and human history to a factual account of events from the past.
fusion
The makeup of our being, our true self, is a combination of the personality, the soul, and the divine Father Fragment within. The goal of our personal spiritual evolution is the eternal fusion of these elements; in other words, these three aspects, when fused, are eternalized. For almost all of us on Earth today, fusion will only occur in our future heavenly life. Only a few documented cases of fusion exist while in a material body.
guardian angels; guardian seraphim
Although much of the existing teachings about guardian angels are based on myth, nevertheless they are real and play a crucial role in the spiritual destiny of mortals on all inhabited worlds. Their voluntary ministry is always to individual humans. These seraphim generally serve in pairs and are assisted by cherubim and sanobim. In the beginning of a mortal’s life, one seraphim pair will oversee a group of one thousand mortals with assistance from a company of cherubim; but as humans ascend in spiritual attainment, the numbers served by a seraphic pair become fewer in number, until such time as we achieve the requisite spiritual status to have a pair of destiny guardians assigned to us exclusively. Angels do not invade human mind or interfere with the free will decisions of the mortals of their assignment, but they guide us into situations of learning and spiritual growth. At death, these “destiny guardians” become the custodial trustees of our life records, our identity specifications, and our soul, until we are repersonalized on the mansion worlds (see entry). They remain our companions for much of the time while we progress toward Paradise, simultaneously furthering their own advancement of seraphic education. [See UB, Paper 113.]
God the Father; God; Father; Paradise Father
God is love; as the universal Father, God is the first person of deity, the First Source and Center of all things and beings. According to the Urantia Revelation, the term “God” always denotes personality. God the Father is the infinite and eternal God of love, as well as Creator, Controller, and Upholder of the universe of all universes. The first person of deity—God the Father—loves us with an attitude analogous to that of a divine father; the love and mercy of God the Son, the second person of deity, can be considered akin to the love of a mother. God the Spirit is the third person of deity, also know as the Infinite Spirit.
Father Fragment—see Thought Adjuster
Havona—see central universe
Light and Life; Age of Light and Life
The goal of all inhabited planets, the final evolutionary attainment of any world of time and space, is known as the Age of Light and Life. When a world has reached this utopian state of evolutionary consummation, its achievements along the way will have included the attainment of one worldwide language, one blended race, one unified world religion, universal peace, and a very advanced state of prosperity and happiness.
local system
A local system consists of about one thousand inhabited or inhabitable worlds. Cold worlds or planets too near their suns, and other spheres not suitable for creature habitation, are not included in this group. One thousand local worlds adapted to support life are called a system, but in the younger systems only a comparatively small number of these worlds may be inhabited. Each inhabited planet is presided over by a Planetary Prince, and each local system has an architectural sphere as its headquarters and is ruled by a System Sovereign. Our local system, named Satania, is not yet complete. So far there are 619 inhabited planets in the system, and there will be one thousand when it is complete. Urantia was the 606th world to have life implanted on it within the system. The administrative head of Satania is a Lanonandek Son named Lanaforge. He has served since shortly after Lucifer was deposed and incarcerated for disloyalty to the universe government. [See UB, Papers 45 and 46.]
local universe; Nebadon
Our local universe, called Nebadon, was created by Christ Michael, and is ruled by Michael as Master Son and Sovereign, and by Nebadonia, our Mother Spirit or Divine Minister. The local universe administrative headquarters is Salvington, which is also the abode of Michael and Nebadonia. Nebadon is still in the process of formation and will eventually contain 10,000,000 inhabited planets. Nebadon is one of 700,000 local universes within the Grand Universe. [See UB, Papers 32 and 33.] In Urantia Book cosmology, Paradise is a stationary body at the center of the space-time universe (see “central universe” and “Paradise”), which is surrounded by a central universe of inherently perfect worlds, which is in turn encircled by seven discrete aggregations of galaxies (galaxy clusters) called superuniverses. Each superuniverse is comprised of 700,000 local universes. As stated, The Urantia Book indicates that a local universe is made up of approximately 10,000,000 inhabitable planets and is evolving toward perfection. Each local universe is ruled by one of the Creator Sons of God of the order of Michael.
Lucifer Rebellion
Lucifer was a high celestial being and brilliant administrator of a system of 607 inhabited planets, who with his first assistant Satan launched a rebellion against the local universe government of Christ Michael some 200,000 years ago. Lucifer’s insurrection created pandemonium in the celestial hierarchy and on our planet—as well as in 36 other planets in our local system. Among other contentions, Lucifer claimed that the Universal Father does not really exist, and he attacked the right of Christ Micael to assume sovereignty of Nebadon in the name of the Father. The majority of celestial beings in the celestial hierarchy of our planet went over to the way of Lucifer, causing major distortions and aberrations ever since in the evolution and history of our planet. The planetwide era of conscious awakening known as the Correcting Time (of which the Teaching Mission is a part), was launched in the mid-1980s, we are told, after the final adjudication of the Lucifer rebellion in celestial courts.
Magisterial Mission
A visitation by a Paradise Son of the Avonal order occurs when a planet has reached an evolutionary limit of intellectual and ethical progress. These beings may also appear in judicial actions “at the end of an age” as so-called dispensation terminators. In this role they liberate sleeping survivors (those in repose after death) for resurrection in the mansion worlds of the afterlife. Each Avonal Son (also known as a Magisterial Son, see next entry) also has at least one incarnating bestowal mission, where he is born of woman, as was Jesus. On missions other than bestowals, they appear in visible form as adult males. Planets may have numerous Magisterial Missions.
Magisterial Sons
These beings are the joint creation of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, and there are about one billion in number in the grand universe, each one representing a new and divine ideal of loving service. They come into being as divine administrators, descending Sons who reveal themselves as servers, bestowers, judges, teachers, and truth revealers. They work closely with the Creator Sons, the Michaels, of each local universe. [UB, Paper 20, sec. 1-4.]
Most Highs; Most Highs of the constellation
Three so-called Vorondadek Sons rule over each constellation for a set period of years. These Most Highs are the invisible rulers of the polities or political organizations of humans on all planets as over-controllers of political evolution; they are occupied with groups, not individuals, and they foster the greatest good for the greatest number of people, without violating human free will. [See UB, Papers 43 and 134.] One hundred local systems (see entry) or about 100,000 inhabitable planets make up a constellation.
mansion worlds
In the afterlife, those mortals who survive the transition of death are repersonalized on these worlds; these seven heavenly planets are the first post-mortal residences for all survivors of life in the flesh. The mansion worlds are training worlds—the first two providing remedial training—whose purpose is to prepare us for the vast career ahead as we journey across the universe in our age-long ascent to God on Paradise. Some Teaching Mission lessons are based in part on the curriculum of the mansion worlds.
Michael—see Christ Michael
Michael Sons; order of Michael
This order of Paradise Son, some 700,000 in number in the universe, are created by the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. Each are known as the “only-begotten Son” because, even though they function alike in their domains, each has an individual personality that makes him unlike any other Michael Son. These Sons are the personification of the Paradise Father-Son, to and in their local universes. Each is destined to create a local universe of his own making, and with the Mother Spirit, to create the living beings that will inhabit this physical creation. Each Michael must earn the right to govern his local universe creation as its sovereign, by completing seven bestowals, in which he incarnates as one of each order of beings that he himself created. In this way he becomes a wise, merciful and loving brother and Father to his sons and daughters. [See UB, Papers 21 and 33.]
Michael; Christ Michael
The creator of our local universe, Christ Michael, is Father and brother to all living beings of his creation, and is one and the same as Jesus Christ, who incarnated on Earth. He possesses and represents all the divine attributes and powers of the Eternal Son within the local universe of Nebadon, and has additional power and authority to fully represent the Universal Father to his creatures. To our local universe, Michael represents God; he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He is ably assisted by his consort, the Universe Mother Spirit, known as Nebadonia. His main concerns within his realm are creation, sustenance, and ministry. He does not participate in judicial affairs, as creators never sit in judgment on their creatures. [See UB, Paper 33.]
morontia
In the local universe, the morontia realm is the vast reality domain intervening between the material and spirit levels of existence. We are told that “the warp of morontia is spiritual; its woof is physical.” While material planets have one hundred naturally occurring physical elements on the atomic chart (i.e., the periodic table of elements), the morontia realm has two hundred such elements. Morontia is a semi-material substance composed of varying mixtures of spirit and material energies; the more spiritual the mixture, the “lighter” the substance. (Morontia substance is normally invisible to the human eye.) The human soul is formed of this material as it grows during the mortal lifetime. With each step of progress through the morontia career in the afterlife, the ascender gradually becomes slightly less physical and slightly more spiritual, and each transition to a higher world necessitates a change of the body or life vehicle. [See UB, Paper 42, sec.10; Paper 48, sec 1.]
mota; mota of morontia
Mota is defined as that ability that allows additional intellectual insight into material and spiritual relationships. We cannot experience mota while in the flesh, but once we are removed to the mansion worlds, a new mind circuit provides the additional capacity to see the relationships of the spiritual universe with the material universe in greater dimension. The higher philosophical insights of humankind come close to emulating the function of mota, but fall short of actually performing as mota performs for ascenders. The Urantia Book explains it this way: “Mota is more than a superior philosophy; it is to philosophy as two eyes are to one; it has a stereoscopic effect on meanings and values. Material man sees the universe, as it were, with but one eye—flat. Mansion world students achieve cosmic perspective-—depth-—by superimposing the perceptions of the morontia life upon the perceptions of the physical life . . . Reason is the understanding technique of the sciences; faith is the insight technique of religion; mota is the technique of the morontia level. Mota is a supermaterial reality sensitivity which is beginning to compensate incomplete growth, having for its substance knowledge-reason and for its essence faith-insight . . . Metaphysics stands for man’s well-meant but futile effort to compensate for the absence of the mota of morontia.” [See UB: Paper 103, sec 6.]
Mother Spirit; Universe Mother Spirit
Just as Michael is our local universe Father, the Mother Spirit is our local universe Mother. As Christ Michael is a personalization of the first and second persons of the Trinity, the Creative Mother Spirit is a personalization of the third person of deity. She is Christ Michael’s consort in the administration and in the ministry of love and mercy to the myriad of planets in Nebadon (see entry). Among the many powers and duties of Mother Spirits is the ability to give life; she supplies the essential factor of living plasm to all creatures high and low. She also loves and ministers to us through her vast retinue of angels and other ministering celestial beings.
Mystery Monitor—see Thought Adjuster
Nebadon
This is the name of the local universe in which our planet is located. Nebadon presently contains approximately 3,800,000 inhabited planets. It is a relatively young universe and sits on the outer edges of Orvonton, the superuniverse in which it is located. Nebadon is ruled by Christ Michael, also known as Jesus Christ, and his consort, the Mother Spirit, who are the creators of Nebadon.
Nebadonia—see Mother Spirit
Paradise
At the literal center of the cosmos, yet outside of space and time, is the only stationary body in all creation, and the Urantia revelation designates this reality as Paradise. God is personally present on Paradise, and from his infinite being flow the floodstreams of life, energy, and personality to all universe. Paradise is a stupendously large island located at the geographical center of infinity. All physical energy and all cosmic-force circuits, including all forms of gravity, have their origin at Paradise. It also has residential zones; all God-conscious mortal will someday attain and reside on Paradise.
personality
This refers to that part of a person by which we know them as unique, and designates those personal qualities that endure and which are recognizable regardless of changes in age, status, behavior or other external qualities. We are told that personality is a high and divine gift to each person from God the Father. It is that changeless metaphysical quality that confers upon them their unique identity in the cosmos, and could be called the “image of God” within us. Personality is absolutely unique and immutable; it does not in itself evolve, but its relationship with the indwelling spirit (Thought Adjuster) and the soul continually evolves. Functionally, personality also acts as the unifier and integrator of all aspects of an individual’s relationship with his or her environment.
Planetary Prince
A Planetary Prince appears on a world when it has for the first time evolved primitive human beings of will status. Although a Planetary Prince is invisible to the humans, his staff is not. The staff sets up schools and teach a variety of skills, such as basic cultivation of the soil, home building, and spiritual culture. The classes are progressive in nature; the mortals are taught agriculture, food preservation, government, sanitation, pottery, metal working and so on. The students are then sent out among their people to share the knowledge. The Prince and his staff normally stay on a world, teaching ever-higher concepts of wisdom, philosophy, brotherhood and religion, until a planet reaches the Age of Light and Life. Urantia’s Prince Caligastia served admirably for 300,000 years before following his superior, Lucifer, into rebellion, about 200,000 years agao. Caligastia was then removed from his post. (See Lucifer Rebellion.)
quarantine; quarantined worlds
After a period of observation, worlds and systems that have participated in open rebellion or disloyalty to the Creator Son are placed in isolation until the courts of the Ancients of Days (see entry) are able to rule on the matter. Urantia and 36 other inhabited worlds were placed in quarantine (all communications severed) when Lucifer and Caligastia went into rebellion against the universe government. The isolation continued for 200,000 years, until the adjudication took place in 1985. Our world is now being normalized and brought back into the communication circuits through the action of Michael’s Correcting Time.
seraphim
The order of seraphim are the angels we have come to know in literature and story. A large category of beings created by the local universe Mother Spirit, they serve in a myriad of ways throughout a local universe. There are over five hundred million pairs of seraphim on our planet. [See UB, Papers 26, 30, 31, 37-40.]
soul
The indwelling spirit or Thought Adjuster is a perfect gift of God, but the soul is an experiential achievement. As we choose the divine will in our lives, the effect of this experience is that our soul grows in substance and quality. We are told in The Urantia Book that the indwelling spirit is the father of our soul, just as the material mind—as a result of its moral choice—is the mother of the emerging soul. In the afterlife, it is the soul alone that survives death and becomes the container of our actual identity, through the agency of our personality.
Spirit of Truth
This is the unique spiritual endowment conferred on each person on this planet from our Creator Son, Christ Michael. This high and pure spiritual influence was first gifted universally to humankind on the day of Pentecost, just after Jesus’ resurrection. The Spirit of Truth enhances each person’s ability to recognize truth. Its effectiveness is limited by each person’s free-will consecration of his or her will to doing the will of God, but its influence is universal. When actively sought, the Spirit of Truth purifies the human heart and leads the individual to formulate a life purpose based on the love of truth.
Supreme Being; God the Supreme
The Supreme Being is the evolving deity of time and space. He is not a direct creator, but he is a synthetic co-ordinator of all creature-Creator (or “cocreative”) universe activities. The Supreme Being, now actualizing in the evolutionary universes, is the Deity correlator and synthesizer of time-space divinity, the ultimate summation of the value-laden import of all personal experience of all creatures on all worlds. The Supreme is the “world-soul” who is the repository of the universal akashic field always being created by evolving souls everywhere.
Thought Adjuster; indwelling spirit; Father Fragment; Mystery Monitor; Adjuster
This is the specialized Urantia Book term for “God-within”—the indwelling spark of God—and we are told that an actual fragment of God the Father that indwells every normal-minded and morally conscious human being. The TA is wholly subservient to our will, yet represents the actual will of God, resident in our own minds. Through the practice of stillness, meditative worship, and loving service to others, we can attune ourselves to the influence of this inner divinity, thereby discerning the will of God for us as individuals. Also known as the Father Fragment or Mystery Monitor, the Adjuster is God’s gift to each of us in addition to our personality, and its influence arouses our hunger for perfection, our quest for the divine. In addition, our Thought Adjuster and our material mind, working together, actually create our soul (see “soul”). According to The Urantia Book, the great goal of our spiritual evolution is to actually fuse with the Adjuster—i.e., come into complete union and identification with the indwelling spirit of God, and by so doing achieve immortality.
Trinity; Paradise Trinity
This refers to the eternal deity union of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit.
Urantia (“you-ran-sha”)
Urantia is the name by which our planet is known in our local universe, according to the celestial authors of The Urantia Book. Urantia is said to be a disturbed planet by virtue of its participation in the Lucifer Rebellion, and yet is a blessed planet because it was the site of the incarnation bestowal of Michael, as Jesus of Nazareth.