Introduction
In eternity God the Father separated spirit from energy-matter and put spirit under the control of the Eternal Son and energy-matter under the control of Paradise. But interestingly, the revelators point out that on Paradise, from which both forms are distributed to the universes, the two energy forms are indistinguishable—they cannot be told one from the other. In Havona, we are told, they are distinguishable but the harmonious nature of Havona and its inhabitants means that there is no difficulty in relating one form of energy to the other. But by the time those two energy forms are projected to the superuniverses, however, spirit and energy-matter have diverged so far that they do not relate to one another. And thereby hangs a tale so pregnant with possibilities that the culture of the Grand Universe may be said to derive from it. For the only way in which spirit and energy-matter can interact is through mind, as mind is the only reality with which both can interact. Mind can contact spirit, and mind can also contact energy-matter, so through mind the two energy forms can relate to one another.
It is, of course, a matter of everyday experience for us inhabitants of the Grand Universe to recognise that spirit and energy-matter are utterly different. But the Father’s requirement that the Grand Universe should be perfected leads us to realise that they must be integrated with one another. And it turns out that it is the job of us Grand Universe inhabitants to bring this about. For the task of completing the evolution of the Grand Universe involves:
The subjugation of energy-matter by spirit through the intervention of mind in the unifying presence of personality.
The exact quote is:
“The goal of the evolutionary universes is the subjugation of energy-matter by mind, the co-ordination of mind with spirit, and all this by virtue of the creative and unifying presence of personality.” [Paper 116:6.1, page 1275.1]
This is stated directly a number of times; in fact eight by my count. Here they are:
Page Paper and section
9.10 0:6.8
480.4 42:10.1
484.3 42:12.15
1222.3 111:6.4
1274.5 116:5.15
1275.1 116:6.1
1281.4 117:3.2
1292.7 117:7.13
I might have missed some. But the same thing is implied numerous times without being explicitly stated. In fact, if any concise description is required of what is taking place in the Grand Universe, this is as good as any.
The Supreme Being
The Grand Universe exists in time and space—in finite reality. Paradise Deity exists in absolute reality—timeless and spaceless. It is not possible for absolute realities to interact directly with finites without some attenuation of absoluteness. So provision is made for a sub-absolute deity to interact with finite reality. The Paradise Trinity provides a finite deity—a deity with a beginning in time and a presence in space—to preside over the Grand Universe and to participate in its evolution. This is how God—the existential God in Paradise—enables his will to be done in finite—experiential—reality. This finite god is the Supreme Being and the Grand Universe is the realm of supremacy.
The Supreme grows and evolves as the Grand Universe grows and evolves. He begins as a spirit presence in Havona—on the sixth circuit—and he evolves in capacity and attributes with the superuniverses through the agency of the Supreme Creator Personalities, who are the activating influences endeavouring to subjugate energy-matter to spirit. The Supreme himself does not act so much as react to the performances of his creator personalities, and his growth is a consequence of their activities. But it is undoubtedly his spirit influence which gives direction and purpose to finite evolution.
It is here that the great opportunity for creatures is revealed, for deity wants the energy/matter of the superuniverses to be perfected—conforming to God’s will—by being subjected to spirit. And spirit can reach energy/matter only through mind. So creature mind, brought into being by the efforts of the supreme creator personalities, is given the task of subjecting energy/matter to spirit through the mediation of mind directed by personality. This is how deity directs the evolution of the grand universe, bringing it to perfection by the action of creatures who are themselves evolving the capacity to undertake the task.
Everything evolves to bring the grand universe to perfection, the Supreme Being to completion and the universe age finalised by the action of creatures doing the will of the Universal Father.
The Supreme Creator Personalities
The beings who are actually responsible for doing the work of the Supreme are known as the Supreme Creator Personalities, and they constitute the first three levels of God the Sevenfold—namely the Seven Master Spirits, the Ancients of Days in the superuniverses and The Creator Son/Creative Spirit partnerships in in the local universes.
Each one of the Master Spirits sponsors one of the superuniverses, which are all different from one another and which are kept in isolation from one another. There is no direct communication between one superuniverse and another so that they develop individually without outside interference. Each Master Spirit is projected by the Infinite Spirit as one of the permutations of threefold deity, and each one distributes the cosmic mind which pervades his superuniverse. The cosmic mind is as much of the infinite mind as can be made manifest in finite reality. But nevertheless, this mind is sufficient to sustain the phenomenon of reflectivity which enables the reflective spirits on the superuniverse capitals to keep the Ancients of Days on those capitals informed of the doings of the entire superuniverse. This is the only aspect of supremacy which is complete. Reflectivity has actualised all its potentials and in this aspect the Supreme is complete, and has personalised this completeness as Majeston.
The Ancients of Days are the executives of the superuniverses, three in each superuniverse capital. They have enormous executive power, including the power to extinguish life, and they remain at the superuniverse capital as foci of the reflectivity system through their associated reflective spirits. They function with a huge host of seconaphim who participate in reflectivity, but they do not contact their fellows in other superuniverses. The revelators are not able to explain to us much of what they do, but like the Master Spirits they are engaged in helping to perfect their superuniverses by causing spirit to subjugate energy-matter through mind, and thus progressively evolving the Supreme.
The real workshops and laboratories of evolution are the local universes and it is there that the Creator Son/Creative Spirit partnerships make their contribution. Inheriting the finite realm of energy-matter from the Force Organisers, they spend many billions of years bringing some kind of basic harmony to the chaotic state of their chosen region, which has been governed only by Paradise gravity prior to their acceptance of responsibility. In this they are assisted by the power centres and other physical controllers who mostly must work within the laws of physics—using mind to bring energy-matter under control. (Some of them do have extraordinary powers, such as anti-gravity, but most must work by understanding the laws of energy-matter and applying that understanding.)
Once mind has established basic control of energy-matter, the Creator Son and Creative Spirit can begin to populate their universe with beings who respond to the spirit circuits of the Eternal Son, and subjecting mind to spirit becomes the dominant goal. This proceeds in a straightforward fashion as spirit creation unfolds, from Bright and Morning Stars and other ministering spirits of the local universe are created and integrated. Melchizedeks, Vorondadeks, Lanonandeks, Material Sons, Seraphim and others are created. This is when the Creative Spirit becomes the Local Universe Mother Spirit as she herself evolves. But when physical life evolution produces humans of will dignity the work is not so straightforward.
The Mortals of Time and Space
This is interesting for us because we come to spirit through mind. Our animal evolution is guided by mind in the form of the adjutant mind spirits, which are part of the mind of the local universe Mother Spirit, and she is a daughter of the Infinite Spirit—the god of mind.
As our animal ancestors evolve, the life carriers co-operate with the adjutants, each adjutant making contact with whatever life forms respond, until eventually the sixth adjutant manages to connect with a pre-human. In our case this was with Andon and Fonta—Fonta first—and when the worship urge was activated the seventh adjutant quickly followed, and human life had evolved. And so it is in all Local Universes. When the seventh adjutant makes contact, the animal contacted is a human—a free willed mortal of time and space.
It is only at this point that true spirit, the spirit of the Divine Minister becomes involved. Up to this time evolution had proceeded with the adjutant mind spirits which although part of the Mother Spirit’s mind, are really mindal realities, not spiritual ones. Now that animal mind has become human, the mother spirit can exercise her divine ministry, and the way is opened for the three cosmic intuitions to function. One of these is the worship urge, reinforcing the sixth adjutant, and it functions unless specifically inhibited. And the free willed mortal is eventually eligible to host an indwelling thought adjuster.
Mind evolved animals whose minds gradually dominated their bodies. At first the lower animals had very little conscious control of their material activities. Insects are largely robotic, with only a small degree of individual choice. As the species evolve, increasing intelligence gives them a greater level of control over instinctual behaviour, until eventually human will appears, and even thought adjusters will not abridge human free will.
But the thought adjusters are now devoted to attracting the freewill minds of mortals to the goal of allowing spirit to dominate them. They are attempting to spiritualise the thinking of men. Mind dominated matter in evolving men, now adjusters are engaged in causing spirit to dominate mind. The growth of the Supreme and the progress of the universe are integrated so that spirit is required to dominate mind just as mind has subjugated energy-matter.
Difficulties
All the local universes must undertake this process, and in our case, here on Urantia of Nebadon we are making heavy weather of it. Because of the Lucifer Rebellion and the Adamic default the civilizations we have developed seem pretty good at mind dominating matter but rather slow in allowing spirit to dominate mind. We seem a bit slow in showing forth the brotherly love which results from spirit dominance and tardy in putting aside the competitive conflict which mind without spirit dominance seems to generate.
Of course this does not alter the fact that individual humans such as us here now, can make contributions to the growth of the Supreme. Whenever a mortal responds to the indwelling adjuster and makes a choice in accordance with the Father’s will, then does the Supreme grow a little. In a small way, spirit has subjugated energy-matter to spirit through the intervention of personal mind.
But on a planetary scale we are a long way from contributing much. Urantia’s civilisations by and large are secular, and as the revelators say:
“The inherent weakness of secularism is that it discards ethics and religion for politics and power. You simply cannot establish the brotherhood of men while ignoring or denying the fatherhood of God.” [Paper 195:8.11, page 2082.3]
They warn us about the problem of mind dominating energy-matter while failing to allow spirit to give direction to mind. That’s where we are today. Lots of clever people working in science, in education, in the humanities, in the arts, in finance, in government—all of the fields of human endeavour—working for mind to establish control over energy-matter, and often succeeding, but without interest in causing spirit to dominate mind. They are secular intellectuals without knowledge of or interest in spirit, regarding God as a primitive superstition which all sensible men should grow out of. Thus their efforts lack the purpose and direction that true spiritual values impart to their activities and are devoid of survival value. Tut-tut, I thought when I first started thinking about this (conveniently overlooking that I was, for a while, myself, in the same position!).
But after thinking about it a bit more I began to realise that these secular mortals are all adjuster indwelt, or most of them are. Adjusters are trying to spiritualise their thinking just as they are with those of us who have the advantage of the Urantia book. They are not wicked, and they exhibit the normal range of concern for their fellow man. When they do something unselfish they feel good, and they learn sometimes to do good to others, enjoy doing it and would like to do it more. Remember:
Love is the desire to do good to others. [Paper 56:10.21, page 648.4]
And this constitutes spiritual experience. So even though many of these secularists reject the notion of spirit, they are nevertheless exhibiting some spirit leading without recognising it for what it is.
Remember also:
The great circuit of love is from the Father, through sons to brothers and hence to the Supreme. Paper 117:6.10, page 1289.3]
So I have come to realise that many secularists are not as secular as they think they are, and some of their thinking is influenced by their indwelling adjuster
I have therefore concluded that spirit is subjugating mind rather more than I previously thought. Then it occurred to me that it might be thought that these mortals were being spiritualised against their will, and we know that God would never do that. He regards free will as sacrosanct. But of course, the adjuster can only do what the freewill mortal allows it to do. When the so-called secularist thinks so deeply that his mind impinges on spirit then he has an experience which he regards as purely mental but which in fact is spiritual, or has a spiritual component. In fact, I have great difficulty in discerning which of my experiences are spiritual, and which are only mental, and I know of no reliable method of distinguishing the difference. Perhaps that would be a good subject for a conference in the future.
Now of course such experiences would be much more frequent and profound if the secularist was not secular, believed in God and desired to be like Him and enjoyed the advantage of the Urantia book. But it is a start.
Skin in the Game
An aspect of the Supreme’s growth which interests me is that all the agencies involved in it are themselves evolved by their participation. To the extent that we mortals contribute, we add to our survival prospects and grow our souls. If we consider our Creator son, his successive bestowals as his own creatures wins him the sovereignty of his universe. The Creative Spirit begins as a barely differentiated part of the Infinite Spirit and evolves to the mother spirit of her universe and a fully personal Divine Minister. About the Ancients of Days we must be less certain as we are not given much information about their evolution, but we know that the Master Spirits will evolve with the Supreme because when the Supreme has finished his growth the barriers between the superuniverses will be removed and everything will be reorganised as one Grand Universe.
I realised that all the personalities involved must themselves grow as the Supreme grows when I read the message which a thought adjuster gave to his indwelt subject on P 1213.5 and I realised that adjusters are interested in our progress, not only because they love us, but also because they have something to gain from our progress. Altruism is there, but it is not the sole motive.
“And I exhort him to survival, not to disappoint me, not to deprive me of the reward of my patient and intense struggle. On the human will our achievement of personality depends. Circle by circle I have patiently ascended this human mind, and I have testimony that I am meeting the approval of the chief of my kind. Circle by circle I am passing on to judgement. I await with pleasure and without apprehension the roll call of destiny; I am prepared to submit all to the tribunals of the Ancients of Days.” [Paper 110:7.10, page 1213.5]
So I reason that if thought adjusters—fragments of absolute deity—have skin in the game, then probably all evolving beings do to.
Humans have their own survival to gain, Creator Sons have the sovereignty of their universes to gain, Creative Spirits have full individual personality to gain. We all have “skin in the game”. It’s worth remembering that we grow as we simultaneously contribute to the Supreme’s growth.
Michael’s Bestowals
As we are told quite a bit about Our own Creator Son—Michael of Nebadon—it might be worth tracing his bestowals, as they illustrate how he, himself, benefits from his efforts to contribute to Supremacy and to perfect his universe. For with each of his bestowals he advances towards his own goal of achieving full sovereignty of Nebadon. He bestows himself first as one of his own Melchizedek Sons—the senior order of teachers and emergency personalities. Next he becomes one of his own Lanonandek sons, serving as a system sovereign in a system where the original system sovereign had rebelled against his father, Michael’s rule. The third bestowal is as a material Son on a planet quarantined by rebellion of which he becomes the Planetary Prince. Next he bestows himself as a supreme seraphim serving as a master teacher on 22 different planets ending as an attachment to a Paradise Trinity Teacher Son. The fifth bestowal was as an ascendant pilgrim on the superuniverse capital, Uversa. This pilgrim was of course a spirit form. The sixth bestowal was in morontia form as a pilgrim on a constellation headquarters, where apparently his achievements were too remarkable to be revealed to us. And of course his seventh bestowal was right here on Urantia, born as a mortal as Jesus, where he traversed the entire path of a perfected mortal as a man of the realm.
At each of these bestowals he progressed towards his personal goal by serving his own universe until finally, exclaiming “it is finished” as he died on the cross, he fulfilled the final requirement of his Father to earn the sovereignty of Nebadon.
The progress of science and technology has transformed the material conditions of life for much of the planet’s population. If that transformation is to contribute to the permanent progress of humanity towards the condition of light and life then it will need to be subjugated to spirit. For the Supreme to grow spirit must increasingly become dominant.
As the revelators say:
The great circuit of love is from the Father, through sons to brothers, and hence to the Supreme. [Paper 117:6.10, page 1289.5]
And that’s where we are today.
The Future
The Supreme grows and is gradually perfected as the Supreme Creator Personalities succeed in causing mind to dominate matter, and spirit to dominate mind. As men evolve by following God’s will, planets become settled in light and life, and when all the inhabited planets in a system, constellation and local universe are so settled then God’s plan is progressing. Apparently there are some local universes in this position, but Nebadon has a long way to go.
The revelators state definitely that no major sector of any superuniverse has achieved stabilisation as yet, but that suggests that there are minor sectors which have achieved it, and this means that there must be at least one hundred local universes which have perfected themselves, and possibly more, so that gives pause for thought.
Eventually all the seven superuniverses are settled in light and life and stabilized. God’s will has been done, energy-matter has been subjected to spirit through the intervention of mind in the presence of personality. The Supreme has completed his growth, he emerges as God the Supreme and takes control of his grand universe from Uversa, the capital of Orvonton.
This will constitute the greatest event since the propagation of the superuniverse space level, and has consequences unimaginable to us involving sweeping changes in the entire organisation of the seven superuniverses.
The Synthesis
If we stop to think about what has been achieved at this point, then we must find ourselves amazed. A process has been begun in which the perfection of the Grand Universe has been undertaken by beings who must develop the capacity to achieve the task by taking their innate abilities and learning to apply them towards the goal as they go along. Everyone involved is learning on the job and for all but a few of them this is a faith journey—for they not only have little understanding of the goal itself, but have only faith to guide them towards it. An unexplained perfection comes into existence through the action of beings who find out what it is that they are doing only by the process of doing it—a work in progress where those who achieve it must discover what they are to achieve by trying to do it, and learning how to do it by experience. The Supreme evolves to completion, and those responsible for it themselves evolve by learning how to do it. Everything results from the desire to do the will of the Father.
Speculating about the purpose of God the Father may be futile, but this synthesis does tempt us!
Look at what has been achieved.
The Supreme has finished his growth.
The supreme creator personalities have been the active agents in achieving this, and in the process have made personal progress themselves.
The local universe ministering spirits have gained experience and many have progressed to Paradise ascent.
The physical cosmos has been stabilized and harmonised.
The local universes have been settled in light and life.
And countless mortals have survived physical death and proceeded to Paradise and membership in the corps of the finality.
The stage is set for the invasion of the first outer space level and the inauguration of the Ultimate adventure.