Foreword

FOREWORD

This work develops the author’s concepts of The Urantia Book. It is designed to explore the story of the master universe, and this story of the master universe is the story of creation and evolution. In the Prologue to this study, we will explore that which comes before the eras of creation and evolution in the master universe; in the Epilogue we will try to explore that which may sometime develop beyond the outer borders of the master creation.

That which comes before the master universe is mostly precreative; that which is after the master universe is apparently supercreative. The story of the master universe is the story of creation. It is also the story of evolution, and is the story of the growth and development of the Supreme Being and of God the Ultimate.

This study leads to the telling of three stories. There is the first story, the tale of finite growth and development. Then there is the second story, the story of absonite (superfinite) growth. At the very end, we can start but not finish the last story, the narrative of absolute growth.

The narrative has been written as simply as the author could contrive. It has been kept relatively free from references to the text of the Urantia Papers; most of these references will be found in the Appendices [112] which support the narrative. Each Appendix has been written with the intent that it should reasonably stand by itself as a short essay on a given subject. The narrative has been written for the interested reader, but the more detailed Appendices have been prepared for the serious student.

The reader may well ask, “Why was this work written?” It is the place of a Foreword to answer this question.

The Urantia Book is not written like a textbook; it is written more like a symphony. Wonderful themes of concept and movements of unfolding truth appear and reappear as the long story unfolds. Parts of this story are very melodious. The melody develops with such appealing simplicity that the reader is held enthralled. The story of Jesus is like this, a beautiful story of a man among men who grew up to become a living revelation of God among men. We all love this story.

Some of the Papers in the book are not so easy to understand; the movements of the harmonics of truth are more complex; the melody is not so easy to grasp. But the beauty is still there, even though it is less obvious. This Study of the Master Universe has been undertaken in an effort to bring out the beauty of the complex melody movements in the Urantia Papers. Many of the Papers which seem to be complex, obscure, and “far away,” are filled with exquisite movements of concept in the portraiture of living truth. And if the truth in the complex beauty of these passages can be grasped, then we might acquire a new horizon-line against which to evaluate the things of this life and this world – and then we could perceive these things with the greater insight of a new perspective, the most far-ranging perspective that our minds can grasp.

We are all part of God’s plans for the future. And these plans are so alive, so adventuresome, so challenging, and so beautiful that it does seem important we learn to appreciate, however dimly, that these plans do affect us. It is the magni­tude and the complexity of God’s challenge to us that obscures our comprehension of this challenge. It is the vastness of the unfolding adventure that makes it hard to understand. It is the endlessness of the eternal future that staggers our imaginations. And all of this is contained in the symphony of the concept of the master universe in The Urantia Book.

God’s plans are partially disclosed in the master universe. And if we can compre­hend these plans just a little better, we may be intrigued, challenged, and even inspired by the grandeur of the magnificent adventure that is being offered to us. If, perchance, this Study of the Master Universe can bring God’s plans just a little closer to our comprehension – closer to our feeling for the living truth of expanding growth, to the thrilling beauty of high adventure, and closer to the rewarding goodness of intelligent love – it will have served its intended purpose.

That is why this work was written.

Prologue in Eternity

PROLOGUE IN ETERNITY

The master universe is a future-eternal reality. But, excepting Havona, it is not a past-eternal reality. This study of the master creation does not, therefore, properly begin until we are ready to consider Havona in relation to the post-Havona universes. In this Prologue to the study proper, we will accordingly give attention to those eternity acts of Deity which set the stage of space for the master universe – even for Havona, itself.

This Prologue is presented in three parts:

FIRST PROLOGUE – Before the Beginning of Beginnings [14]

We begin with the Infinite

SECOND PROLOGUE – The Zero Age [15]

Before the Times of Havona [16]

An Exploration of Past Eternity [17]

Existential Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis [18]

THIRD PROLOGUE – The First Universe Age [19]

Dawn of Eternity [20]

Existential Realities [21]

Existential Trinity [22]

The Uniqueness of Eternal Havona [23]

Architects of the Master Universe [24]

Since we are starting with an exploration of the eternal past, we might just as well do a good job of it and start as far back as imagination can take us.

First Prologue - Before the Beginning of Beginnings

FIRST PROLOGUE

BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF BEGINNINGS

We Begin with the Infinite

All through the Urantia Papers there are statements and observations suggesting that behind everything, before the beginning, there is the Infinite. Somehow, we arrive at the “feeling” that all of the different manifestations of Reality – the Absolutes, the Deities, the Trinities – are different aspects and different phases of the Infinite. God seems to be the personification of the Infinite. The “Universal Father” is the name we give to God in recognition of his relationship to us – his mortal children.

Before the beginning of beginnings there is that being, that Infinite One, whom we know as God. His infinity must be the foundation on which he has built all the structure of Deity, and Absolutes, and Trinities, and all manner of other Reality – deified and undeified; existential and experiential; actual and potential; time-realities and eternity-realities; perfect existences and imperfect existences; space-creations and non-space conditions – in short, everything and everyone that could exist everywhere and everywhen.

This Being, this Infinite One, is likely known by only two others (his Deity equals), his Eternal Son and their Infinite Spirit. So, even as the Infinite, God the Father is not without associates who understand him; but the two eternal co-ordinates of the infinite God are able to know him only because they share his infinity. To us of the later-appearing and experiencing orders of being, the quest for the Infinite is the first and the final challenge. To accept such a challenge means that we are willing to embark upon an endless voyage of discovery, in the quantitative infinity of God-on-the-outside, while at the same time, we are in the process of the undertaking and equally endless qualitat­ive exploration of that spirit fragment of God-on-the-inside, the Adjuster (God’s spirit) that even now indwells us during this life in the flesh.

We will start this study with an exploration of the past-eternity, and we will start it with the firm belief that the unproven basis for all that happens is the Infinite – that being whom we call God.

We will pursue the unfolding of his divine purposes (as we are able to discern them) throughout time and transcended-time and on into future-eternity, to see how far we may hope to progress in the quest for the Final Father, the Unqualified Father, the Absolute Father – even the Father Infinite.

Second Prologue - The Zero Age

SECOND PROLOGUE

THE ZERO AGE

Before the Times of Havona [16]

An Exploration of Past Eternity [17]

Existential Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis [18]

If we are going to study the master universe it would be a sound idea to start as far back as we can go. There are things that happened on Paradise in preparation for the master universe. The master creation develops through six major divisions of time; these are the six universe ages. (We are now living in the second of these ages.) The First Age is the age of Havona, the central universe. This divine creation is the eternal core of perfection around which the rest of the master universe is slowly revolving, and is slowly expanding into the vastness of all outer space.

§ 1. Before the times of havona

Eternity “dawns” with eternal Havona already in existence. Prior to the “times” of eternal Havona there can be no Factual Reality – but we can still have Valid Concept. And this is an important distinction: concept may be useful and valid without being factual; when we apply time-space language to pre-time-space reality we can never grasp actual fact but we can still hope to have a relatively valid concept.

For example: in our system of counting, the number “one” is the first real number. Nevertheless, our arithmetic recognizes that behind the reality of the number “one” is the concept of “zero”. Zero is really not a factual reality, but it certainly is a valid concept and our mathematics would do very badly without it.

The First Universe Age is the first factual age, but behind it is the concept of a Zero Age, and age before the times of (eternal) Havona. The Papers make use of this Zero Concept without actually using the term, “Zero Age.” They speak of “the dawn of eternity,” a hypothetical state of affairs prior to the appearance of the Infinite Spirit and the central universe. It is this state of affairs that we propose to call the Zero Age. (Thinking about the Zero Age is something like thinking about the zero mark on a twelve-inch ruler. We do not actually measure anything with this mark, but it does show where the first inch starts.)

Source relationships in eternity. When we try to think about “origins” in past eternity we are in real trouble. For example, God is the Father of an Eternal Son who is just as “old” as God! This can be very confusing, even disconcerting. Suppose we forget all about “eternity” and use some comfortable “time language.” If we do this we will discover there are three basic and distinct “source relationships” to be found among the eternal realities – the Three Persons of Deity, the Paradise Isle, and the central universe:

(a) If the Infinite Spirit and the central universe are eternal, then it logically follows that –

(b) The Eternal Son and the Isle of Paradise are more eternal – eternaler – because they were both in existence when the Spirit and Havona appeared. And, if the Son and Paradise are eternaler, then –

(c) The Universal Father is most eternal – eternalest – because he is the Father of the Son and, at the same time, the Source of Paradise.

This line of reasoning helps us think of at least three stages of development inside of eternity – eternal, eternaler, and eternalest. Suppose we start with the “oldest” of these. Let us go back (or in) just as far as we can possibly go in concept, and then move forward (or outward) step by step, toward the First Universe Age, Havona, and factual reality.

§ 2. an exploration of past eternity

When we go back as far as we can in our thinking about God, we find we are trying to imagine what God would have been like before he became the Father of the Eternal Son. This is a pre-Father concept of God. (It is not a factual reality, but it is a valid concept.) What was it like when God was all alone – before he had made any plans about creating anything? If we can think that far back then we may be able to start at the very heart of the Zero Ago, and from there work our way outward toward factual reality.

(1) Static Deity. We are going to have to use a few rather uncommon words in this study – words like “static.” We cannot avoid these words, but we can define them as we go along:

Static is, in part, defined (in Webster) as: “ . . . resting; quiescent; not moving, active, or exerting force of any kind; stable.”

At the heart of the Zero Age we find quietness, absolute stability; nothing is moving. Here God is all-sufficient unto himself. He lives within himself; he is self-contained. He has an inside, but no outside; a within, but no beyond; an eternal present, but neither past nor future. He is self-existent. God is!

Now, here is a point we should bear in mind: What we have just been considering is not something (theoretical) that existed a long time ago and then stopped; it is just as true today as it was way back in the depths of past-eternity, and it will go right on being true for all future-eternity. This means we must think in a larger way about God – he can be static at the same time he is being everything else. He does all these many things at the same time, and keeps on doing them all the time. He does not have to go from one thing to another.

(2) Potential Deity. Now we are taking our first step away from the depths of the Zero Age toward factual reality. And again, a definition is in order – the definition of the word “potential”:

Potential is, in part, defined (in Webster) as follows: “Existing in possibility, not in actuality; becoming as distinguished from being; possible, or in the making as opposed to actual or realized; latent . . .”

At this point, we are thinking of God after he has made a plan. He has done nothing about it as yet, but he is planning to do something. God has now purposed to do something, and that “something” accordingly becomes a possibility; it be­comes a potential. We are, at this point, thinking about God after he has decided to express his will; he is self-willed Deity. Potentials have come into existence and Deity has become Potential.

Perhaps we can better understand Potential Deity if we make a picture of it. Suppose we go back and think of Static Deity as a circle with a dot in the center. Now, let us squeeze the circle around the middle until we have something that looks like an hour-glass. Let the dot be in the center of one of the lobes of the hour-glass. Now, pull the two lobes of the hour-glass completely apart, and we have two circles; one of them has a dot in it. The circle-with-the-dot we will call Deity; it has moved away from the other circle because God decided to do this. The other circle never moved; it is named not-deity, or non-deity. It does not have will; it can respond, but does not start anything. When God moves away from this non-deity circle, he changes what he moves. God thus has qualified the circle-with-the-dot. At this point, we have used a word that has more than one meaning in English – the word “quali­fied.” We should define it:

Qualified is, in part, defined (in Webster) as follows: (1) “Competent; fit.” (2) “Having complied with conditions . . .” (3) “Limited or modified in some way . . .”

It is in the last sense, “limited or modified in some way,” that we are using the word “qualified.” What God is doing to the circle-with-the-dot is to limit it, to modify it in some manner, in contrast to the circle left behind which is not modified or qualified in any manner.

STAGES IN THE TRANSITION OF

REALITY FROM STATIC, TO POTENTIAL,

TO ASSOCIATIVE

[113]

What is left behind has not changed, has not moved, is not qualified – hence is un-qualified. Since all of this is happening on the absolute level we will name the circle-which-is-left-behind, the Unqualified Absolute. This the Absolute that is not qualified – that is not modified.

That which has moved (the circle-with-the-dot) is modified, is qualified, is changed. It is Deity as well as Absolute, so we will call it the Qualified Absolute – later to be called the Deity Absolute.

Let us not forget that we are studying Potential Deity. We have studied the development of two realities: the Qualified (Deity) Absolute and the Unqualified Absolute. We should think of them as limitless reservoirs. They contain all God’s plans for the future, and he will draw on them as he makes his plans become real – as he actualizes his plans. If these plans have to do with things, with physical matter and not-personal materializations, God will draw upon the Unqualified Absolute; if these plans have to do with spirit, personal beings, and the like, then he will draw upon the Qualified (Deity) Absolute.

(3) Associative Deity. Now we are taking our next step toward the outer edge of the Zero Age and factual reality. Again a definition is in order:

Associative is defined (in Webster) as: “Tending to, inducting, or characterized by association.”

Perhaps the first associative act we should note is the association of the two Absolutes – Qualified and Unqualified. It comes about something like this: since both of them come from the same original (static) Reality, they are related, and the relationship between them is quite real. We could put it this way: when the One becomes Two, then we have – One and Another. The word “and” is also a reality, and it universally links together the two Absolutes that contain all of God’s plans for the future. Since this “linking-up action” is universal, it has been named the “Universal Absolute.” The Universal Absolute links the other two together like the middle link in a three-link chain. A good way to try to visualize the three Absolutes would be to draw three circles so that the middle one cuts a little way into the outer two; this makes a chain with three links. (See facing illustration.)

This linking-up of three Absolutes is one of the associative relationships of eternity. We should now consider another such relationship; this is a new relationship which God enters into, and through which he becomes the Universal Father.

The pre-Father becomes the Father. Up to now, we have really been thinking of God as if he were a pre-Father. (Conceptually, we have been thinking of him as pre-God as well as pre-Father.) As we have been thinking of him, God is the Absolute Person; as the Absolute Person, he is imprisoned by all the limitations of being absolute. He fills all of Deity – the Qualified (Deity) Absolute. He is all of Deity. There is no Deity outside of him; there is no “room” for action or maneuver. So, God sets out to produce some “room.” What he does is separate himself from all Deity, just as he separated himself from all Reality when he moved the Qualified Absolute away from the Unqualified Absolute.

How does God do this? He does it by separating himself from the Absolute Person. When he separates himself from the Absolute Person, three things happen:

(a) In removing himself from the Absolute Person, God causes this being to exist separate and apart from himself. He thus becomes the cause and the source of the Absolute Person.

(b) If God is the “cause” and the “source” of something, and if that something is a person, then God is the father of that person; therefore, if he can be the father of the Absolute Person then God can be the father of any and all persons, and thus be becomes the “Universal Father.”

(c) If God becomes the “father” of the Absolute Person, this makes that Absolute Person the Original Son of God; but he is nonetheless the Absolute Person for becoming the Son of God. It is customary to speak of this Original Son as the “Eternal” Son, because all of this is happening in eternity.

This is the beginning of the divine fraternity of the eternal Persons of Deity which is soon to be completed by the appearance of the Third Person – the Infinite Spirit.

§ 3. existential thesis, antithesis, and synthesis

We have used four unusual words in the caption to this section; they will be bear defining before we go on with the study:

Existential is a word especially used in the Papers. It means something eternal, without a beginning or an ending. There is no time at which it did not exist. An existential being has full knowledge before any experience. God is existential. Hence the word “existential” is used as the opposite of–

Experiential. This word designates beings and things that have origins. It also designates all beings that can grow by experience. Even some existential realities can have experiential growth to higher levels. Other realities are wholly experiential; man is wholly experiential in his growth.

Now, for the other three terms which are borrowed from the philosopher Hegel, who made much of them. We will use them several times in our study:

Thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, are, in part, defined (in Webster) as follows: “With Hegel (thesis is) the proposition or conception representing the first . . . stage of developing thought, contrasting with the second stage, or antithesis which negates the thesis, and with the third stage, or synthesis in which . . . thesis and antithesis are brought together.”

Thesis, then, is a proposition, a statement, a presentation. Antithesis (which would be better understood if it were written “anti-thesis”) is something that is different from, contrastive to, and stimulative of, the thesis – but not necessarily antagonistic to the thesis. Synthesis is the bringing together of the two into a mutually expanded and harmonious whole. This is a three-step process, and we will see it develop more than once in our study of the master universe.

Thesis, antithesis, and synthesis of Potential Reality. We have seen this three-step process in operation, but we did not apply our new terms to it. When God moved the Qualified Absolute away from Total Infinity he expressed himself in this movement thus constituting this (Qualified) Absolute the first expression of his will-to-action – his first thesis. That which remained behind was unmoved and not-qualified, and thus became the antithesis of what God had purposed. The Qualified (Deity) Absolute appears to be God’s first potential thesis; the residual Absolute, the Unqualified Absolute, appears to be the first potential antithesis. When the two are linked together (united) by the Universal Absolute, this constitutes the first synthesis.

Thesis and antithesis of Actual Reality. Let us go back to the “time” when God is separating himself from the Absolute Person, and is becoming the Father of that Absolute Person – who thereby becomes his Original Son; at this same time, God the Father constructs the Absolute Machine – the Isle of Paradise. He apparently builds it for the same reason that we build machines, to do something (relatively) mechanical and repetitive. The Isle of Paradise is designed to be the physical center and controller of the physical universes. The Eternal Son is the spiritual center and controller of the spiritual creation. The Son is personal and spiritual; he is the (actual) Deity thesis. Paradise is neither personal nor spiritual; it is the (actual) non-deity antithesis of the Son. Here we have a situation that is quite like the one involving the Absolutes, the main difference being that the Absolutes are potential while the Son and Paradise are actual. We have seen that God synthesized the two Absolutes in, and by, the Universal Absolute. If we did not know better, we might expect that he would do the same thing with the Son and Paradise. But God is not mechanical, and this did not happen. The unpredictable happened!

Thesis upon thesis of Deity Reality. God does not synthesize Paradise and the Son, the actuality of the not-spiritual and the spiritual. What he does is unify all (actual) Deity Reality, starting with himself and the Son. In so uniting, the Father-Son produces a Third Being who will forever be the perfect expression, not of either one, but both – the Conjoined Action of the Father-Son. This is the origin of the God of Action, the Infinite Spirit. In a way, this is a superim­position of thesis upon thesis. If the Son is now the (actual) Deity thesis, then the Father has become the pre-thesis of Deity, and the Spirit appears as the conjoint thesis of (actual) Deity. Their union (in the Trinity) expresses the undivided thesis of existential and actual Deity.

The non-synthesis of Actual Reality. If we had not been told about this, we might have expected that God would have synthesized the spirit Son with non-spirit Paradise. This would have produced a balanced situation. Actuals (Eternal Son, Paradise, and Infinite Spirit) would have been synthesized just like Potentials (Unqualified Absolute, Universal Absolute, and Deity [Qualified] Absolute). We could not have foretold that God would unite himself with the Son, in the Spirit, and as the Trinity. (This produces an artistic asymmetry that stands in contrast to a mathematical, or a mechanical, symmetrical balance. It is the difference between putting a dot in the exact center of a rectangle, and locating it somewhat off-center. God as an artist, evidently takes precedence of God as an engineer.)

When God does unify a part of Actual Reality, he causes this association to include Deity only. He does not synthesize all Actual Reality, he limits this unifica­tion to Actual Deity Reality. God leaves Paradise out. Since Paradise is left out of this existential synthesis, it presents a problem for all of God’s later-appearing associates and subordinates of experiential status. (See Appendix XXII., § 2. Why does Power-Personality Synthesis Take Place? [114])

And now, at last, we have reached the “dawn” of eternity at the close of the Zero Age, and the beginning of factual reality in the First Age of the master universe – the age of Havona.

(For general references to the Papers in support of this Prologue, see Appendix I., Master Universe Antecedents [115].)

Third Prologue - The First Universe Age

THIRD PROLOGUE

THE FIRST UNIVERSE AGE

Dawn of Eternity [20]

Existential Realities [21]

Existential Trinity [22]

The Uniqueness of Eternal Havona [23]

Architects of the Master Universe [24]

The first real universe age is the age of Havona. We might logically begin our study of the master universe at this point, except for the small technicality – Havona never was created. If this statement seems unreasonable and it does appear as though eternal Havona actually was created, then we would ask the one unanswer­able question, “When?”

Later we will find it convenient to look at Havona as a real creation, but at this point let us be very technical, and classify it as a precreation.

§ 1. the dawn of eternity – the beginning of the first age

Go back for a moment to the close of the Zero Age and take an inventory. We have the three Absolutes (Deity, Unqualified, and Universal) linked together; these are the infinite reservoirs that contain all of God’s plans for the future. This means they are potentials. They are often designated as the Absolutes of Potentiality.

What existed in the way of actuals? There are just three actualities: The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Isle of Paradise. In other words, there are two existential Deities and a physical base from which they can take action. This inven­tory is quite important to our study, so we will repeat it: At the end of the Zero Age there are two existential Deities, plus a base of operations. This is all there is of actual reality.

Trinitization at the dawn of the First Age. We have used a new term, “trinitization,” and we should define it before going on with the study:

Trinitization has a special meaning in the Papers. As we are using it here it means a “once only” act of creation – “limited trinitization.” Thus trinitizing partners put everything they have into this action; they produce a being equal to themselves, and they become united in some manner. This type of trinitization cannot be repeated. (See Appendix VIII., § 2. Trinitizing Techniques [116].)

SUMMARY: A THREE-WAY CLASSIFICATION OF THE SEVEN ABSOLUTES OF INFINITY I. THE ABSOLUTE ORIGINAL. Since we are going to divide Reality between Actual and Potential, we immediately encounter the problem of how to classify God himself. He started it all, so (in a way) he is before either Actuals or Potentials. For this reason, it seems best to place him in a class all by himself: (1) GOD, THE UNIVERSAL FATHER. He is truly infinite; he is the Source of all sources and the Center of all centers; all Reality (and especially personality) comes from him. II. THE ABSOLUTE ACTUALS. These are sometimes called the Absolutes of Actuality. They are classified as "actual" because they are fully and factually in existence, and their universal gravity circuits control everything else that is actual. (2) THE ETERNAL SON. The Absolute Person, the source and center of all things spiritual; universal and absolute spirit-gravity is centered in him. (3) THE ISLE OF PARADISE. The Absolute Machine, the source and center of all things physical; it is the center of universal and absolute material gravity. (4) THE INFINITE SPIRIT. The God of Action, the Father-Son in action; the source and center of mind; universal and absolute mind-gravity centers in him. III. THE ABSOLUTE POTENTIALS. These are sometimes called the Absolutes of Potentiality. They are called "potential" because they are limitless reservoirs. They provide the "room" and the "stuff" out of which all of the post-Havona persons and universes have been created. (5) THE DEITY (QUALIFIED) ABSOLUTE. This is the potential, the reservoir out of which emerge all new beings and other realities that are spiritual and divine. (6) THE UNQUALIFIED ABSOLUTE. This is the non-deity (not-deity) reservoir out of which emerge all of the physical energies that are organized into the new material universes – the nebulae, stars, and planets of space. (7) THE UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE. This is the Absolute that links the other two together. This Absolute is a part of the Reality that is classified as Deity, and has to do with keeping everything in balance. (Appendix VII., Sec. 1. The Sources of Growth: Original, Actual, and Potential [117].)

What is it that ends the Zero Age and begins the First Age? The action that begins the age of Havona is a Deity-trinitizing act on the part of the two existential Deities. This produces some immediate additions to, and changes in, the inventory of actualized reality:

(a) The Father and the Son unite as the Father-Son.

(b) The Infinite Sprit appears as their Deity equal.

(c) The central universe of Havona makes its appearance.

(d) The Father, Son, and Spirit unite as the Paradise Trinity.

In the dawn of the First Age we now have: the Three Absolutes of Potentiality, the Three Persons of Deity, Paradise and the central universe, and the Trinity. These realities are all precreative; none of them ever had a real beginning; each one is eternal – absolutely eternal.

(At this juncture, Paradise bestowed on the Unqualified Absolute the potential of all the uncreated physical universes of the future. In our previous discussions of the Unqualified Absolute we have assumed that this has taken place. See Appendix II., § 2. Relationship of Paradise and the Unqualified Absolute [118].)

§ 2. an inventory of existential (eternal) realities

We took inventory of what was in existence in the “twilight” of the closing of the Zero Age, and it would be a good idea to repeat this process in the “dawn” of the First Age. In taking this inventory, it will be helpful to classify the Seven Abso­lute Realities – the Seven Absolutes of Infinity – under three main headings. There are several ways in which this classification can be made. The most helpful and informative seems to be the following:

(a) The Absolute Original – God, the Universal Father

(b) The Absolute Actuals – the Son, Paradise, and the Spirit

(c) The Absolute Potentials – Deity, Unqualified, and Universal

On the summary such a classification has been made. This classification emphasizes a certain functional relationship which underlies all growth and change. All of the post-Havona creation (and evolution) of things and beings has come into existence, in the presence of the Original, as Reality has been trans­ferred from the Potential to the Actual.

This, then, is an inventory of eternal (and existential) Reality so far as concerns the Seven Absolutes of Infinity. We must take account of the Paradise Trinity and the central universe of Havona, they are also existential and eternal.

(For references to the Papers, see Appendix VIII., § 1. Creative Techniques [119], § 5. Evolutionary Techniques [120]; Appendix VII., § 1. The Sources of Growth: Original, Actual, and Potential [117].)

§ 3. the existential trinity

What is Trinity? A trinity is something new in our study. It is deity, but it is not personality. We know that the Paradise Trinity is the Deity-union of Father, Son, and Spirit. We probably think of this Trinity rather loosely, more or less like three persons working together but it is not three persons at all. The Trinity is something real, in and of itself, something that exist separate and apart from the three persons.

We might think of the Paradise Trinity as a corporation that is organized by the Three Persons of Deity. If we were to give this enterprise a corporate name we would name it “Undivided Deity, Incorporated.” This corporation has three directors: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. When they meet as directors that is the corporation, and when they act in this capacity that is the function of the corporaon – the Trinity.

When the three directors meet personally, socially, or informally, that is the meeting of three personalities, and it is not the Trinity. Any one, or two, or all three, might do business (as persons) with the corporation, but they would be doing business as persons with the legal entity of their own corporation.

(Here again, we should remember that while the Deities are continuously sitting as directors in the trinity union, at the same time they are apart from the Trinity and working as persons, either individually or together. They do not go from one activity to another; they do all these things at the same time, and they do them all of the time. Absolute Deity, even Ultimate Deity, is not limited by either time or space.)

A comparison of functions

We can see the difference between personal deity and trinity most clearly if we stop to consider the personal attitudes of the Deities in contrast to their collective function in the Trinity: the Father has a personal attitude of love for his creatures; the Son is the source of mercy, and mercy is love applied; the Spirit is the fountain­head of ministry, and ministry is mercy in action. In contrast to all of this, one of the important functions of the Paradise Trinity is justice administration; this is the collective and impersonal attitude of the Deities. Justice administration is something very different from the personal attitudes of love, mercy, and ministry (See Appendix X., § 2. The Nature of Trinity [121].)

Why is a trinity? Why not have just three persons of Deity who can work with each other, or not, as they choose? In other words, why not have just a partnership? Why bother with a corporation? Why have a trinity?

Apparently Deity really is indivisible. There can be a threeness only so long as there is also a oneness. By having a trinity, God is able to keep the unity of deity – the oneness – and, at the same time enjoy the association of two other equal beings. (Just suppose God had no one to talk to, no one who really understood him.)

It appears likely that Deity is so indivisible it could never be divided, and actually never was at any point in time or eternity. We are about to consider a series of happenings that have been grouped together under the heading, “God’s escape from Infinity.” We would suggest that all of these happenings are events that took place at the same “time.” In other words, God could separate himself from Total Deity (the Deity Absolute) only by replacing his undivided (pre-Father) Deity presence with the undivided Deity presence of the Paradise Trinity. As he is removing his (pre-Father) Deity presence, he is replacing it with the Trinity presence. While he is doing this, he is also becoming the Father of the Son; and with the Son, the trinitizing source of the Spirit; and with the Son and Spirit he is uniting in the Paradise Trinity. (See Appendix VIII., § 2. Trinitizing Techniques [116], especially the discussion of “The Original Trinitization.”)

God’s escape from infinity. Let us go back in our study, back near the beginning, back to where God is separating (qualifying) Deity from not-Deity (the unqualified). In doing this he is escaping from a situation in which he fills Total Reality – Infinity. We started with a picture of one circle, squeezed it into an hourglass, then separated the two lobes to form two circles, one of which had a dot in it. This circle-with-the-dot is our symbol for Deity, and the dot is the symbol of God’s will. At this point in the study God actually fills all of this second circle; he fills Total Deity – he is Total Deity. Now, when God separates himself from the Son and they produce the Spirit, then:

(a) He personally escapes from the situation in which he fills Total Deity.

(b) He is able to enjoy the association of two other equal beings. (Three is a minimum social group.)

(c) At the same time, in the Trinity, the Three Deities retain the oneness that still fills and dominates Total Deity.

(d) But the three personal Deities, as persons, are not the Trinity; each now has an existence as an individual that is independent of their corporative union in the Trinity.

This is the story of a magnificent break for liberty. God starts out so completely alone and so utterly infinite, that he finds it difficult to do anything. He fills everything; there is nothing but God, and no room for anything except God – so he begins to make some room. (It is one thing to say “In God all things consist.” It is quite something else to say, “All things consist of God.”) He moves away from a part of Total Reality, Infinity, leaving it unqualified – the Unqualified Absolute. That which moves away is the Qualified Absolute – Total Deity. He manages to with­draw, as a person, from Total Deity. This withdrawal he accomplishes by separating himself from the Absolute Person who becomes the Son, then by uniting with the Son in trinitizing the Spirit, and finally by consummating the Deity-union of all three in the Paradise Trinity. The Trinity union restores the original unity of undivided Deity as it was before God became the Father of the Eternal Son. Deity remains undivided in the Trinity, notwithstanding there are now Three Persons of Deity.

The Paradise Trinity enables God to be personally free from the limitations of being absolute and infinite, while retaining and maintaining the absolute unity of Deity. As the Trinity, the three Deities are still One; and as One, they still dominate Total Deity; and through Total Deity, they still dominate and control Total (infinite) Reality. Only by virtue of the Trinity could God enjoy the personality association of the Son and the Spirit, still maintain the absolute indivisibility of Deity, and retain the actual working control of Total Deity and of Total Reality.

(For a more detailed analysis of trinity, and references to the Papers, see Appendix X., § 2. The Nature of Trinity [121]; § 6. The Gestalt of a Trinity. [122])

The Paradise Trinity as the eternal thesis. When we view the Trinity in conjunction with the perfect Havona we are looking at the existential thesis of perfection. Havona is an expression of Paradise-potential in actuality. The Trinity and the personal Deities of Paradise are the source of the divine ideal of perfection that is the final goal of all evolutionary growth on all subabsolute levels – finite or absonite. Here again, we encounter some terms that should be defined:

Finite reality is time-space reality. It is the kind of reality with which we are familiar. Post-Havona finite reality is experiential (not existential) and such finites have origins in time; they may be future-eternals, but never past-eternals.

Absonite reality is something new; it is introduced in the Papers. It is the “middle reality” between finite and absolute. This reality is sometimes called “transcendental.” It transcends time and space but does not ignore them. (See Appendix XV., § 6. The Meanings of the Word “Absonite.” [123])

Absolute reality is timeless and spaceless. Absolutes are not even conscious of time or space. A good illustration of this (with regard to timelessness) is the Adjuster that indwelt Jesus. The Adjuster stated he was completely unaware of the reality of time. (151:6.4) 136:5.4 [124] The absolute level is eternal and existential. Some absolute realities are also experiential; the Deity Absolute is one of these– existential and experiential.

The Paradise Trinity functions on all three levels of reality and seems to initiate activities on each level. The Trinity (and Deities) of Paradise give origin to those personalities who come out into time and space and start the whole evolutionary process. The administration of the central universe and of the superuniverses is of Trinity origin.

While the Father and Son produced the central creation in and through the Spirit, the net result is that all three Deities are the source of Havona. This makes the divine universe a Trinity-origin “creation.”

§ 4. the uniqueness of havona

The last item in our inventory of existential and eternal realities is Havona, the central and divine universe. Havona is, by far, the most interesting part of the master universe. It is so unique; it is so difficult to classify. (See Appendix I., § 1. The First Universe Age [125]; Appendix VI., § 3. Paradoxes in the Status of Havona [126].)

At the very beginning of this prologue, we considered the paradoxical fact that eternal Havona was never actually created. Yet, for all practical intents and pur­poses, we think of the central “creation”; and it functions as a true creation at the present time – in the Second Age. In the First Age Havona was entirely alone, it was an isolated universe; in fact, it was completely isolated because there was nothing but empty space outside of it. In those remote times it had not external relationships, only relationships within itself and inwardly towards Paradise.

Havona is also difficult to classify in terms of the levels of functional reality; it is neither finite nor absonite – nor is it absolute. Beings exist and things are happe­ning in Havona on each of the three functional levels. Because of this it is almost impossible to put the central universe in a specific category. It is a creation that was never created; the creatures that live in Havona were never created. It is finite in space, just so large and no larger; but it is much more than finite when we consider what is going on in the affairs of its billion perfect worlds.

A SIMPLIFIED CHART

OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE

[127]

There are seven worlds in each of the circuits of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. One billion worlds are distributed in the seven planetary circuits. (See Appendix I., Sec. 1. The First Universe Age [125].)

Havona is really something of everything. It is the “pattern universe” which God created, and it probably has the capacity to serve as a pattern creation for any local universe, for the seven superuniverses, for the whole master universe, or for anything else that might develop beyond the master creation.

§ 5. the architects of the master universe

Before we leave the study of the First Age we should consider a rather unusual group of beings – the Architects of the Master Universe. These beings are not created, they are “eventuated.” This is a new word and it should be defined:

Eventuated has a special meaning in the Papers. It is a word that describes how someone is brought into being, like the word “created,” but eventuated does not mean created. It does mean some sort of initiating act that is pre-time, precreative, or of eternity status. We are informed that God, as a person, creates; as a superperson, eventuates. Absonite beings, the Transcendentalers, are not created – they are eventuated. (See Appendix VIII., § 3 [128].)

These “eventuated” Master Architects are present in the First Age. There is even a possibility they were present before the First Age (Appendix I., § 3. The Zero Age [129].), but we may be quite sure they are present and functional in the First Age. The Master Architects are not finite, neither are they absolute – they are absonite beings – which is to say they are Transcendentalers.

The Architects are not creators, neither are they creatures. They seem to be almost like living and intelligent blueprints, or architect’s plans, of the master universe – personifying God’s plan for the entire master creation. The Architects begin their work in the post-Havona creations long before anyone else is on the scene of action, getting the space-stage ready for new developments, and all of this work is in process long before the creators and the administrators of these post-Havona universes make their appearance. They are organized for service in seven corps, all in accordance with the geographic plans of the cosmos, the plan of Paradise and the master universe – the Central Isle and the six concentric space levels.

(See Appendix III., Space Levels of the Master Universe [130]; Appendix XV., Master Architects and Transcendentalers [131].)

Introduction

A STUDY OF THE MASTER UNIVERSE

This is the story of the creative and the evolutional expansion of Paradise-Havona divinity into time and space. It is also the story of the consolidation of such expansion; on finite levels in the Supreme, and on the absonite levels in the Ultimate. It begins, but cannot finish, the story that goes on beyond the Ultimate.

The study is presented in three main parts:

THE FINITE STORY [30]

THE ABSONITE STORY [47]

THE BEGINNING OF THE LAST STORY [77]

This study properly begins when the past-eternal age of Havona gives way to an age that has an origin in time – the Second Age – the one in which we are now living. This study will have to come to an end not long after the last age of the master universe has closed in time and has given way to an age that is future-eternal.

INTRODUCTION

The Uses of the Word “Universe” [26]

Universe Space Levels [27]

Universe Ages [28]

The Scheme of this Inquiry [29]

Actually, what is the master universe? Do we really have much of an understanding of what the Papers mean when they speak of it? Do we have any proper understanding of how God’s purposes are unfolding in the master universe? Do we have an appreciation of the purpose of the master universe itself?

§ 1. the uses of the word “universe”

The Papers make use of the word “universe” in several different ways: They speak of local universes and superuniverses, of the central universe, and the grand universe, and the master universe.

Havona is the name of the central universe. This is the creation that immediately surrounds Paradise. (The Isle of Paradise is not a part of any universe; it is the motionless and absolute center of all material things.) Havona is encircled by the seven superuniverses, and Orvonton is the name of the seventh superuniverse – our superunivese. Each superuniverse is designed to embrace exactly 100,000 local universes, and Nebadon is the name of our local universe.

When the Papers want to speak about the central universe plus the seven superuniverses, they use the name “grand universe.” This is the presentely organized and inhabited creation; it stands in contrast to the unorganized and uninhabi­ted space regions outside of it – the four outer space levels. When the Papers desire to speak of the grand universe plus these four outer space levels, they use the term “master universe.” In this study, when we want to refer to those four outer space levels alone, we will use the term “outer universes,” or “outer-space universes.” (The term “universe of universes” is also used in the Papers. This term is not precisely defined. It can be roughly defined as the grand universe, with or without the outer space levels. This term, universe of universes, will not be used in this study except where it is unavoidable.)

A SIMPLIFIED CHART OF THE

MASTER UNIVERSE

[132]

The innermost area, designated “P” is the Isle of Paradise. The surrounding area is the central universe, Havona. Surrounding Havona are the seven superuniverses; they are designated by number; our superuniverse, Orvonton, is number seven. The four outermost areas are the four outer space levels. (See Appendix III., Space Levels of the Master Universe [130].)

§ 2. universe space levels

The best general description of the master universe appears in the Papers on (128.4) 12:1.1 [133], Space Levels of the Master Universe. The story which is given there presents a picture of the master creation as consisting of six concentric and elliptical space levels. Each of these space levels has two names that are used rather interchangeably, as tabulated below:

(1) The Havona space level	The central universe
(2) The superuniverse space level	The seven superuniverses
(3) The first outer space level	The Primary Space Level
(4) The second outer space level	The Secondary Space Level
(5) The third outer space level	The Tertiary Space Level
(6) The fourth outer space level	The Quartan Space Level

In this study we will find the concept of these six space levels to be most helpful to the organization of our thinking. (See Appendix III., Space Levels of the Master Universe [130].)

§ 3. universe ages

There is another concept presented in the Papers that we will find most useful; this is the concept of the six successive universe ages. The Papers present each universe age as a period of time that is associated with the opening and the develop­ment of a new space level. This relationship is presented in the following tabulation:

The Universe Age	The New Space Level Involved
(1) The First Universe Age	The Havona Space Level
(2) The Second Universe Age	The Superuniverse Space Level
(3) The Third Universe Age	The Primary Space Level
(4) The Fourth Universe Age	The Secondary Space Level
(5) The Fifth Universe Age	The Tertiary Space Level
(6) The Sixth Universe Age	The Quartan Space Level

We will study the growth and development of the master universe, paying particular attention to the sequence of events – how the universe ages synchronize the expansion of the Paradise creative forces and personalities outward into the concentric space levels. (See Appendix IV., The Universe Ages [134].)

§ 4. the scheme of this inquiry

It is the intent of this study to see what we can learn about God’s purpose through a careful study of the master universe. We will try to bring together what­ever the Papers have to say about the master creation, and its space levels, and its universe ages. If we can assemble the pertinent data, then, by interpolation and extrapolation, we may be able to add a little to our understanding of the master creation, and to our understanding of God’s plan for the creators and the creatures of this wide-spreading domain.

There are many questions which can be raised and to which we may seek answers. This study proposes to examine such questions as these:

(1) How large is a space level? How do the space levels compare in size? How big are the outer space levels in comparison to the grand universe? How large is the grand universe? How large is the whole master universe?

(2) How long a time is a universe age? Do some ages last longer than others? Do these ages have any relationships other than sequence? Is there any qualitative difference between universe ages? Or, are any such differences merely a matter of duration – quantity of time?

(3) How is the growth of experiential Deity related to the universe ages? What relationships exist between these Deity evolutions and the expanding space levels? How is the development of the two experiential trinities related to the universe ages and to the universe space levels?

(4) What creative themes and principles have developed, are developing, and may yet develop, in the successive ages and on the expanding space-stages of the six concentric space levels? Can we discover any basic principles which seem to underlie these events?

(5) How is man, as a finaliter, related to all these developments in the present age, and in the future ages – on the present space-stage of the grand universe, and on the future space-stages of the outer universes?

(6) Is the master universe the final creation? Or, will it in the distant future, exist in relation to something even greater than itself?

(7) What are the final limits? What is the final goal?

We propose to investigate these questions by an examination of the successive universe ages. There was just one age before the present one; this was the First Age, the age of Havona. We have already given consideration to this age in the Prologue to our study. We are now living in the Second Age, the age of the superuniverses, and we will begin our study with an examination of this present universe age. After this, we will undertake the study of the four future ages of the master universe – the successive ages of the four outer space levels.

When we encounter gaps in the available data, we will make an effort to bridge them by intensive and extensive reasoning. We will understand that all such types of speculative reasoning are bound to suffer from the limitations inherent in our human ignorance. Nevertheless, at the very least, we may achieve a better “unification of ignorance” as a result of these efforts. Let us embark adventuresomely on our study of the master universe: its lengthening age; its widening space levels; and its ever-expanding scope of creator and creature self-realization. Let us embark with intellectual humility – but nonetheless, with courage!

The Finite Story

THE FINITE STORY

This is the story of the evolution of the seven superuniverses. Most of the Papers are concerned with this narrative. This is the tale of creation and evolution in time and space, and of how all these activities find their destiny in the perfected superuniverses under the sovereignty of the Supreme Being.

This story is presented in three Chapters:

Chapter I – The Creative Thesis of Perfection [31]

Chapter II – The Evolutionary Antithesis [35]

Chapter III – The Synthesis: God the Supreme [41]

This is the story of the Second Universe Age, the story of here and now. It begins with the creation of the Master Spirits and the Ancients of Days. It ends with the completed evolution of the Supreme Being.

Chapter I. The Creative Thesis of Perfection

chapter I

THE CREATIVE THESIS OF PERFECTION

The Dawn of Time: Beginning of the Second Age [32]

God the Sevenfold: Creative Deity [33]

Second-Age Havona: The Thesis of Perfection [34]

With the opening of the Second Universe Age – the present age – we have actually started our study of the master universe. This Second Age, like the four ages that follow it, is comprehensible. It had an origin in time and it will have an ending in time – it has definite duration. (Appendix VII., § 3 [135].) After our excursion into past eternity (in the Prologue) this is comforting.

§ 1. the dawn of time: beginning of the second age

Just what is it that ends the age of Havona and begins the age of the superuniverses? As we study the Papers, it is apparent that this was not a sudden happening; it came about gradually, like the dawning of a new day. The twilight of the First Age gradually became the dawn of the Second Age.

(Long before the Second Age was an official reality, we suspect that the Architects of the Master Universe had their deputies, the Force Organizers, out in the superuniverse space level functioning on the mobilization of energy, organizing nebulae, and getting things physically started in anticipation of events to come.)

Probably the first event that would be really post-eternal (post-Havona) was the creation of the Seven Master Spirits. These high Spirits are not absolute beings; however, they represent Paradise Deity on every level below the absolute – finite, absonite, and finite-absonite. (Or, to state it in more usual language: Supreme, Ultimate, and Supreme-Ultimate.) These Master Spirits are not existential; they are experiential. They are the first expressions of experiential Deity. They also perso­nally express the seven possible combinations of the Three Persons of Deity: Father, Son, Spirit, Father-Son, Father-Spirit, Son-Spirit, and Father-Son-Spirit. They could not possibly be any more or any fewer Master Spirits; seven are all that is mathematically possible – and this why the superuniverse space level was divided into seven parts. Each Master Spirit presides over one of these seven parts, one of the seven superuniverses. (Appendix XIV., § 3 [136].)

Sometime during this twilight period, another thing happened: God the Supreme appeared in Havona. His presence was derived from the Paradise Trinity, and he came into existence as a spirit person. He was resident in the central universe before the superuniverses were formally organized. Then, as now, he was not contactable by creatures.

Then came the mandate of the Paradise Trinity organizing the grand universe – the seven superuniverses in relation to Havona. At about this time, the Trinity must have created the 21 Ancients of Days; the triune rulers of the seven super­creations. Shortly thereafter, the headquarters worlds of the seven superuniverses were constructed, and the Ancients of Days probably departed from Paradise to take up residence on their respective capital spheres. As the Papers say, they have ruled the superuniverses since “near eternity.” (See Appendix IV., § 5-A. The Transitional Times between the First and Second Ages [137].)

At some later point in time, the Father and Son must have begun the creation of the Creator Sons, with the Infinite Spirit responding by the complemental produc­tion of Creative Spirits. In due time, these Universe Sons and Spirits were commissioned as rulers of local universes – the oldest of the local creations. Now, the Second Age is in full bloom. Soon the evolutionary mortals made their appear­ance on the worlds of space; then began the long Paradise ascent of the pilgrims of time in the quest for the Universal Father. (See Appendix IX., The Chronology of Local Universes [138].)

Experiential beings. All these newly-appearing beings are experiential in nature; they are not existential. This is true from the creature level of mortal man right on up to the deity levels of the Master Spirits and God the Supreme. These beings do not know all before they have experienced all; they have the capacity to learn and to grow with learning and living. This is true even of the creators, themselves, and is most clearly seen in the creators of the local universes – the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits. Service in the time-space creations, experience in the organizing and perfecting of the local universes, changes the status of these Universe Sons and Spirits – they grow. (See Appendix XIII., § 3. Son-Spirit Creative Trios [139].)

§ 2. god the sevenfold: creative deity

The creative-association of God the Sevenfold began to function when the seven superuniverses were organized. God the Sevenfold is a creative-associative expansion of the Paradise Deities into time and space; this is their method of making contact with all the creatures of the super- and local universes. God the

THE SEVEN SUPERUNIVERSES

IN RELATION TO HAVONA

[140]

Sevenfold provides the living ladder of divine personalities that bridges the gap between man and the Paradise Father.

This deity association functions on the seven levels and its members are classi­fied in three major groups:

(1) The Universal Father	}
(2) The Eternal Son		The Paradise Deities
(3) The Infinite Spirit
(4) The Supreme Being Experiential Deity
(5) The Master Spirits	}
(6) The Ancients of Days		The Corps of Supreme Creators
(7) The Creator Sons

We are familiar with the Paradise Deities – Father, Son, and Spirit. The Corps of the Supreme Creators is something new. These are the creators who made their appearance after eternal Havona; they are the post-Havona creators. Theirs is the work of organizing and perfecting the seven superuniverses and the projected 700,000 local universes. Each of the Master Spirits pervades one of the superuniverses, thus determining its individual nature. By threes, the Ancients of Days function as the direct rules of the seven supercreations. The Creator Sons (and their associ­ated Creative Spirits) organize the local universes, and create (or evolve) the living beings who are native to these realms. (See Appendix IX., The Chronology of Local Universes [138]; Appendix XII., § 1. Present Constitution of God the Sevenfold [141].)

The Supreme Being is an evolving, experiential Deity. He is slowly emerging as a result of the successes of the Supreme Creators in the time-space realms, as a result of their successful collaboration with the Paradise Deities, and as a result of his own efforts to grow.

Creative Deity. At this point, we should stop to consider the Deity appears to be working on a new level of activity. In the Prologue we recognized that Deity started on the static level, progressed to the potential level, and was working on the associative level at the dawn of the First Age. Apparently one of the basic differences between the First and the Second Ages is Deity’s entrance upon the fourth level of activity – the creative level. What does this mean? It means that Deity is now beginning to draw upon the great reservoirs of latent reality – the potentials of the three Absolutes. These basic potentials (pre-spirit, pre-mind, and pre-matter) are now being so transformed that they are beginning to emerge in the new universes as new spirit, new mind, and new matter.

The creative process is actually a transforming process; potentials are transfor­med into actuals – something new has come into existence. It may be a new spirit personality, new level of the function of mind, or the organization of a new physical nebula in space that will become the material substance of some local universe. All of these “new realities” have to come from somewhere, and the “somewhere” from which they emerge is (in the final analysis) the three Absolutes of Potentiality. (See Appendix VIII., § 1. Creative Techniques [119]; Appendix VII., § 2. The Maturation of Potentials [142].)

§ 3. havona in the second age: the thesis of perfection

In the Prologue to our study we gave consideration to Havona in the First Age; there we studied Havona as a precreative existence – something that actually had no beginning. Technically, this is probably the correct way to classify the central universe; but from a practical standpoint, when we consider Havona in relation to the superuniverses, it is a creation; it is the pattern universe of divine perfection.

Havona, in the Second Age, is the divine thesis of perfection – God’s challenge to the imperfection of the encircling evolutionary universes. To each creature, God has made a challenging invitation, “Be you perfect even as I am perfect.” To all the Creator Sons and Creative Spirits in the evolutionary local universes, Havona presents God’s challenge of a universe of divine perfection. This is the challenge: Can these Universe Sons and Spirits, by experiential creation and evolution, dupli­cate in their time-space domains the eternal perfection of the existential universe at the center of all things?

Coming events cast their shadows. If Havona is a challenge to the imperfection of the superuniverses, the superuniverses (with all their needs) are no less a challenge to Havona. The central creation responds to this challenge long before the first of the mortal ascenders ever reaches these settled realms. As the First Age enters into its “twilight period” (which is also the “dawn” of the Second Age) challenge, for the first time, enters changeless Havona. New beings appear. The seven circuits of Havona are eternal, but now Circuit Spirits are discovered to be functioning in each of these seven divisions. Power Centers take up their perpetual stations on the seven circuits. Universal Censors are assigned to each of the billion spheres. The central creation is preparing itself for the events of the future.

Grandfanda. The arrival in Havona of Grandfanda, the first mortal pilgrim, triggers a multitude of new developments. New orders of ministering spirits (sec­ondary supernaphim) appear; the Citizens of Paradise begin their pilgrimage out­ward through Havona; the first of the Graduate Guides greets Grandfanda; and many other unmentioned, but important, changes must take place in the universe of divine perfection.

The ascenders from the superuniverses are bringing the seeds of the evolution­ary growth-process into the central creation. In the Second Age Havona is still pre­creative and eternal, but it also becomes creative and changing – even evolutio­nal.

(For references to the Papers in support of this section, see Appendix IV., § 4-B. Havona in the Second Age [143]; § 5-A. The Transitional Times between the First and Second Ages [137].)

Chapter II. The Evolutionary Antithesis

chapter ii

THE EVOLUTIONARY ANTITHESIS

The Challenge of Imperfection: Growth Capacity [36]

God the Sevenfold: Evolutional Deity [37]

The Emptiness of Imperfection: Growth Capacity [38]

The Challenge of Power-Personality Unification [39]

Challenge and Response [40]

In the present universe age the central and divine universe is obviously the Creative Thesis of Perfection. The superuniverses (starting as imperfect creations) are the great antithesis of Havona perfection. These imperfect universes constitute the greatest possible challenge to those personalities of Paradise and Havona who are the creators and administrators of the evolutionary realms of time and space. Theirs was the first great adventure– the Supreme Adventure – the bringing of the perfection of eternity and divinity out into the evolutionary domains of original imperfection.

God the Sevenfold was (and is) the Deity response to the challenge of imperfec­tion. And God the Sevenfold brings the counter-challenge of divine perfection into the very heart of the evolutionary realms, even to the inhabited worlds themselves, through the creature bestowals of the Paradise Sons of God.

§ 1. the challenge of imperfection

This study advances the opinion that God is possessed of those qualities of being that are ancestral to that enjoyment of adventure– a responsiveness to the stimulus of challenge – which appears in the character of progressive creatures. Why else would be suddenly confront the Paradise-Havona system of eternal perfection with the startling challenge of the abysmal imperfection of the seven superuniverses?

In the First Universe Age everything is in balance; all is orderly; the spheres of eternal Havona swing in settled and established orbits around the motionless Isle of Paradise. Disharmony is unknown; disorder has never appeared. Total creation follows in unchanging pattern of flawless perfection, age upon age – and age after age. And then, God expands this perfectly balanced and symmetrical creation. The organized universe expands outward and spaceward. Suddenly it encompasses new and outlying realms; realms of unsettled physical development; realms of imperfect nature; realms in which creatures of imperfection will soon appear; realms of potential evil – even sin – through the unwise choice of imperfect creatures.

Pause to think how startling and unprecedented were these challenges of long ago to the inerrant beings of eternity. What was their first reaction to dissonance – these beings who had known nothing but harmony? How did they first regard disorder – these beings who had known nothing but the pattern of flawless perfec­tion? What was their response to potential evil – these beings who had always chosen the good in the absence of all contrastive evil? And what was their reaction when, for the first time in their experience, potential evil became actual evil through creature choice? And what a shock it must have been when evil puts insincerity “equivalated” to sin and even to iniquity!

Suddenly, so to speak, we have a vast creation teeming with imperfect creatures; every one of them has been endowed with the priceless power of choice by God. Each one of these creatures is a sovereign within himself. Each one of them can choose, pro or con, concerning citizenship in the universe and sonship with God. And no one dare interfere with these choices lest he find himself trespassing the will of God, for it is God who gives to creatures this priceless power of choice. Without this power of choice, without God’s gift of personality, we would be very little more than living machines. But with this gift of (relative) free will, we are more than machines; we are men and we may choose to be even more than men, we may choose to be ascending sons of God. We may also choose badly and keep on choosing badly, and no one can stop us – only time and oblivion.

This was the challenge of long ago which confronted the citizens of the eternal realms. They embarked upon this adventure – the Supreme Adventure – when they left the settled domains of divine perfection and came out into the new creative frontier, into the new space level of the superuniverses, there to take up posts as the creators, organizers, and administrators of the unsettled and uncertain evolutio­nary domains of time.

Who, but God, would have dared to unite the purest form of spirit with the lowest type of creature capable of being endowed with personality – mortal man! Here, truly, is the bringing together of the highest and the lowest. And who, but God, would so combine the spirit of adventure with that divine love which would cause an Infinite Being to be willing to enter into everlasting partnership with the mortal children of the animal-origin races of the inhabited worlds!

If these actions and transactions are not exciting, and adventurous, and unpredi­ctable – then what is? Or what could be? Suddenly, so to speak, the existential perfection of the flawless creation of eternity is challenged by the appearance of the antithesis of perfection, by the appearance of the imperfect and evolutionary domains of time and space.

SUMMARY: A FUNCTIONAL PRESENTATION OF GOD THE SEVENFOLD
GOD THE SEVENFOLD	A Three-Level Grouping of God the Sevenfold
(1) The Creator Sons	THE SUPREME CREATORS. These three groups are the Corps of the Supreme Cre­ators. They are the post-Havona creators of the uni­verses of time and space, the local universes and the superuniverses. They work with the Deities and Trinity of Paradise to evolve the power of the Al­mighty, which is the experiential basis for the emerging sovereignty of the Supreme Being in the superuniverses.
(2) The Ancients of Days
(3) The Master Spirits
(4) The Supreme Being	ALMIGHTY POWER, deriving from all the Supreme Creators, is joined with the spirit person of the Supreme, deriving from the Paradise Tri­nity, by the action of Supreme Mind, which was bestowed by the Conjoint Actor. This takes place on the pilot world of the outer circuit of the central universe.
(5) The Infinite Spirit	TRIUNE PARADISE DEITY is the name some­times used to designate this group, and some­times it is the Paradise Trinity. We believe it likely that the Supreme Creators work with Para­dise Deity in both respects – as the Three Persons and as the Trinity. The “union of the creative power of the Su­preme Creators with the creative potentials of the Trinity is the very sour­ce of the actu­ality of the Supreme Being.”
(6) The Eternal Son
(7) The Universal Father
See Appendix XXII., Sec. 5. Finite Power-Personality Synthesis [144].)

§ 2. god the sevenfold: evolutional deity

God the Sevenfold is the Deity response to the challenge of imperfection. As we have noted in our study of creative Deity, this sevenfold association began to function at the time of the organization of the superuniverses. There are several ways of studying this Deity association, and one of them is to consider the Sevenfold from a functional viewpoint. The Summary makes such a presentation of God the Sevenfold. Emphasis is placed on the three interacting groups within this seven-level association:

(a) The Supreme Creators

(b) The Supreme Being

(c) Triune Paradise Deity

The various beings who are collaborating in these three groups of the Sevenfold Deity are working on the potential, associative, creative, and evolutional levels of Deity activity in time and space. Partly because of their successful efforts in the evolutionary universes, the Supreme Being is slowly evolving (emerging) as an experiential Deity.

Evolutional Deity. We have traced the expansion of the action of total Deity from the static, through the potential, to the associative level. In the previous chapter we observed God the Sevenfold enter upon the fourth level, the creative level. Now, we observe that Deity is functioning on the fifth level of activity, the evolutional level.

The Supreme Being is evolving. He starts in the dawn of the Second Age as a spirit person in Havona. And then he begins to grow, to evolve, as the Supreme Creators are successful in perfecting their imperfect creations – including worlds like the one we live on. These successes of the Supreme Creators (and their co-ordinates, associates, and subordinates) are like many springs and brooks that converge into streams which merge into larger streams that, in turn, become the great tributaries of a mighty river. This “mighty river” of divinity success in time and space is something which is called the “experiential power of the Almighty.” Like a “mighty river” flows into the sea, so this inflowing and converging power of the Almighty unites with the spirit person of the Supreme in Havona. This is the source of the growth of the sovereign power of the Supreme who starts out as a spirit person (with no sovereign power at all) and is gradually growing (evolving) as the experiential sovereign of the seven superuniverses. (See Appendix XXII., § 5. Finite Power-Personality Synthesis [144].)

Even the Supreme Creators, themselves, evolve. They participate in the growth process of the Second Age. This is particularly true of the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits, but it is probably also true of the entire Corps of the Supreme Creators. (See Appendix X., § 3. Evolution of the Members of the Trinity Ultimate [145]; Appendix XIII., Evolution of Universe Sons and Spirits [146].)

The big difference between creation and evolution is the factor of time. Creation takes place without the passage of time, in an instant. Evolution slows down the transformative process to the point where creatures can understand what is going on, and can participate in it – can play a conscious part in their own growth. In this way, man (and other evolutionary creatures) can go into partnership with God; man can become a conscious partner with God in the evolution of himself, determining what he is to be. (See Appendix VIII., § 5. Evolutionary Techniques [120].)

Interaction of levels. The Supreme Being is not just a passive recipient of all this effort; he is personally active in doing something about his own growth and evolution. He is reaching back into the creative and the associative levels (of total Deity function) to actualize the potentials of the Paradise Deities. He is expressing his own emerging will and purpose in distributing himself to the time-space creations. In doing this, he is slowly making himself real as he expands into the evolutionary universes and identifies himself with all creature growth, and with all growing creatures. (See Appendix VI., § 1. An Analysis of the Levels of Total Deity Function [147]; Appendix VII., § 4. The Growth of the Supreme: Growth in the Second Age [148]; Appendix XXII., § 5. Finite Power-Personality Synthesis [144].)

§ 3. the emptiness of imperfection: growth capacity

We, who are native to the Second Age, take evolutionary growth and finite experience as a matter of course. It is all that we know. But from a larger perspective it is something that is quite peculiar to, and unique in, the present universe age. This is the age of growth of the Supreme. He is growing just as we are growing; he grows by virtue of our growth; and we are able to grow because we are growing inside of him – we are a part of his growth. In a way, we might think of the grand universe as the arena in which the Supreme Being is evolving, and almost everything in this arena is evolving along with him. We grow in him and he grows in us – it is a two-way procedure.

This is the age in which it is possible to have finite experience. The Supreme Being is growing in finite experience. Other ages will provide for experience but it will not be finite; it may be post-finite, or super-finite, but it will certainly be other-than-finite. This is because the growth of the Supreme is something that is limited to the Second Age, the present age. When this process has been completed, he will emerge as a Deity that we can all perceive and know. Then his evolutionary growth will have come to an end, and so will the possibility to participate in it – the possibil­ity to have finite experience.

Human beings start at the very bottom of finite creature existence. They start as superanimals and have a chance to ascend by evolutionary growth to the heights of finaliter status. We start the lowest of all, hence our opportunity is the greatest – we start with the least, hence our growth can embrace the most.

The virtue of an empty vessel is that it can be filed. (So said Lao-Tse in the Tao Te Ching.) The virtue of imperfection is that it can be filled with the experience of consciously growing into a state of perfection. The imperfection of the time-space creations provides the possibility for this kind of growth. Had they been created in perfection, the superuniverses would have been nothing more than an extension of the central creation – Havona all over again, but on a larger scale. And this superuniverse need, this very lack of perfection, gives the Paradise-Havona perso­nalities the opportunity for new growth in their enlarged service as they try to help us reach the divine heights of perfection from which they have descended. (See Appendix XI., § 7. Cytoplasmic Need Expands Nuclear Functions [149].)

§ 4. the challenge of power-personality unification

The pattern of growth in the Second Age is set by the Supreme. He derives his power (as the emerging Almighty Sovereign of the superuniverses) from the activities and the successes of the Supreme Creators and all the inhabitants of the time-space universes. If the acts of these beings are evil, then growth is thwarted; if their acts are good, then growth is augmented. The time-space growth of the Supreme depends on the inflowing power of the Almighty. This converging power is united with the spirit person of the Supreme, in Havona, by the action of the mind endow­ment of the Supreme Being. And this is the important fact: Power united with, and subject to, the control of spirit personality by the unifying action of mind.

This growth principle – power-personality synthesis – is encountered many times in the Papers. Power-personality synthesis is a transaction that takes place because of a certain set of conditions which obtain in the time-space universes. In these domains, it appears that energy-matter has been given a head start – it is dominant – while spirit is striving to become dominant. But spirit alone, is impotent. Spirit does not actually touch matter at any point. It takes mind to achieve the mastery of matter, of physical reality; and only that mind which is also personal possesses the power to choose to subordinate itself to spirit, even while achieving the mastery of energy-matter. But, if such an energy-mastering mind does not choose to be spirit-led, then it can never succeed (persist and survive) in the long run. As an example, consider the state of affairs in our world today: we have achieved a considerable mastery over the forces and secrets of nature – and we are afraid! (See Appendix XXII., § 5. Finite Power-Personality Synthesis [144], especially discussion of “The divergence of the three energies.”)

The question has sometime been raised, “How can the meek ever inherit the earth?” The answer is simple enough; no one but the meek possibly could – and keep the inheritance! Of course, such meek persons would also have to be very strong persons to start with. And, when such persons of great strength are also meek, then their strength makes no one afraid. When the strong are not meek, it is then that their strength begets fear. And it is this fear of unbridled strength that, sooner or later, causes the gathering together of even greater counter-strength through the formation of a confederacy of those who fear. Strength (power) without spirit-leading or spirit-restraint begets fear; and those who fear, will in due time, so combine together as to destroy the strong.

The growth challenge of the present age seems to be just this: can we use mind to master the problems of the physical creation, and, at the same time, subject this victorious mind to the overcontrol of spirit by the power of personality-choice? If we can do this, then we may become both strong and meek. Such a matter-domina­ting and spirit-affiliated mind is beginning to strike step with the unfolding of the evolutionary movements of the universes. Which is to say, we will have become relatively successful in our efforts to do the will of God.

§ 5. challenge and response

The Papers tell us (435.7) 39:4.14 [150] that there are three keys to the kingdom of heaven: “sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity”; and that we make progress in the kingdom “by decisions, by more decisions, and by more decisions.” These instructions seem to place a high premium on honesty first, then on courage – on moral strength of character.

The exercise of moral courage, the making of moral decisions, can lead only to the development of moral strength. To what does this moral strength lead? If such strength turns inward to the self, then all is lost – it can become, at best, no more than ethical. But, if such strength turns inward to man’s spirit nucleus, to the Ad­juster, then all is gained – then can the moral transcend the ethical in reaching for the spiritual.

The reaching out for spiritual values – the quest for God – is an act caused by a feeling of need that is born of hunger in the human heart. Such hunger is begotten by the realization of smallness, by the feeling of humility. Out of such humility, out of this realization of human limitations, comes a surging and questing hunger to know the will of God and to find some way to do this will. This is the victory of meekness over pride, when a strong man – not a meek man – contemplates the comparative values of the will of man and the will of God.

With the moral strength that comes from decision-action, and with honest feelings of humility, and hunger, and meekness, a human being could begin to aspire to levels of real (and rare) understanding – levels of relative wisdom and of a kindly sophistication that could be completely anticynical. Such a human being could begin to be intelligently trustful of God; and such a wise and childlike faith is something very different from the blind presumptuousness of an ignorant and childish faith. The insights of an anticynical sophistication could generate a discerning tender-heartedness – a responsiveness to human problems and to human needs that would be something much more than mere sentimentality. Of course, in becoming respon­sive to human need, the discerning person has laid himself wide open to pain. The capacity to feel human need is the same capacity that can feel pain, than can mourn the tragedies of life.

At about this time in the maturing process of human being, the qualities of tenderness, humility, and anticynical sophistication could all meld together into the heightened insights of a rich humor – a genuine capacity to laugh at one’s self, and to laugh with (but not at) one’s fellow men. A realization, however dim, of the infinity of God coupled with an acute awareness of the finite smallness of man, can contrib­ute greatly to the growth of humor – a humor that can be turned inward upon the self, and especially directed toward the ever-hungry ego and pride of a normal human being. Given such self-directed humor (humor turned inward as a check on ego exaltation) it becomes easier for a human being to live with himself, and by laughing often at himself, to learn to live at peace with himself.

Such a maturing person, a person who has intelligently welded humor and wisdom to sympathy and understanding, is one who can give effective comfort; and in the giving can create in himself the capacity to receive and to benefit from the same ministration of understanding. Such kindly and sophisticated understanding could serve as the foundation for true mercy. We are instructed (315.1) 28:6.8 [151] that mercy is not a simple thing. Mercy grows out of justice, and fairness, and patience, and kindness; such mercy is truly love in action. But this love-in-action is a love that has become wise and discerning by virtue of the insights of experience. Love-in-action is mercy, and mercy-applied is ministry. (75.10) 6:3.5 [152]; (94.4) 8:4.2 [153] Ministry may be effective, or it may be ineffective, all depending on the content of wisdom – as well as the quality of selflessness in the underlying motivation of love.

The act of giving enlarges the capacity to receive, regardless of the wisdom or the effectiveness of the giver. If the art of giving is to be really effective, actually constr­uctive, and genuinely helpful – true and beautiful, as well as good – it may require the full use of all human resources of wisdom, humor, experience, and love. An unwise giver may reap the spirit benefits of sincere, but ineffective, giving; but what of the plight of the needy one, who profits not from this unartful ministry?

The effective and constructive giver is engaged in a ministry of positive action. He is becoming responsive and understanding in his giving; he is becoming an active and beneficial force among his fellow men; he is a bringer of good will; he is an ameliorator of difficulties and a reconciler of contentions. He is actively “waging peace” among his fellows.

Such a strong, loving, and wise person is becoming unafraid to live on earth as a citizen of a greater kingdom – even as a “universe conscious citizen.” The attempt to live this kind of a life may lead to trouble and contentions – even to pain. But such a human being will not shrink from these challenges to inner courage; challenges which test the quality and endurance of his humor; challenges to his very highest convictions of truth, beauty, and goodness. Albeit, such strong feelings of inner assurance could be humanly safe only if they were associated with sincerity and humility; only if they are governed by the urge of honesty and constrained by the realization of smallness, and especially held in check by the ego-controlling ministry of an active sense of humor.

Perhaps this is why on a certain occasion Jesus said what he said to twelve human beings:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure at heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5: 3–10. [154]

And he closed this address to the twelve with the ninth statement concerning the human response to God’s challenge to men:

“Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for so men perse­cuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matt 5: 11–12.) [155]

God’s challenge to man is not something vaporous, rosy, distant, and theoretical. God’s challenge is the most real thing that a human being can possibly know in this lifetime. What do we do about this challenge? What is our response?

As we respond successfully to God’s challenge, we grow. This growth is not something that is projected into the far, far, future of the distant events of some inconceivably remote age. This is a “here and now” challenge, and our response to it is “here and now,” and our growth, as a result of successful responses, is also “here and now.”

God inhabits eternity, and like the eternal God his challenge is timeless – utterly divorced from the past-future of time – it is ever-present in the everlasting present moment of NOW. We respond to God’s challenge – not by regrets concerning the past, not by resolutions concerning the future – but by decision, by action, in the NOW of time.

The Universal Father has equipped each one of us royally; he has endowed us with all the powers and attributes necessary to respond to his challenge. He has invested us with the priceless powers of choice that accompany his gift of personal­ity. He has entrusted to our custody a small portion (an Adjuster-fragment) of his own unfathomable nature to serve as our spirit nucleus and as our pilot to Paradise. And, having thus endowed us richly, he challenges us greatly, and then abides patiently to see what we will do with what we have, in view of what he has done. (70.2) 5:6.1 [156]

From each of us he asks for all – all that we have. But this “all” is always in proportion to our capacity to give. To one he says, “Be a good shepherd, feed my sheep.” To another one he may say, “Be diligent and faithful in the doing of what­ever work you can best do.”

To some he asks, “Do you love me?” Of others he queries, “Do you trust me?” Of one he may question, “Do you serve me?” Of another he may inquire, “Do you obey me?” And of yet another he may ask, “Do you believe in me?” (2047.5) 192:2.1 [157] Always is the challenge personalized and individualized – not a challenge to all men, but a challenge to each man. And always is it made in terms of the individual capabilities and the needs of the particular person whom God is personally challen­ging. Always does God’s challenge “take note of the man, in what manner he was born.” (314.1) 28:6.2 [158]

In brief, God has enriched us and he is challenging us to invest our “talents” with profit – with profit to ourselves and to his creation. But most of all, he is challenging us with love, with an infinite love that is all but blinding in the intensity of its mani­festation. The question that confronts us – and every other free-will being in the present universe age – is a very simple one: What are we going to do about this love, this love we can feel even without understanding it? What are we going to do about it, here and now?

Chapter III. First Synthesis: God the Supreme

chapter iii

FIRST SYNTHESIS: GOD THE SUPREME

The Emergence of the Supreme Being [42]

Synthesis on the Creative Level of Existence [43]

The Completed Grand Universe [44]

Creative Associations of Dual-Deity [45]

Son and Spirit in the Second Age [46]

At this point in our study, we are passing from the past and the present into the future of time. In many parts of the ensuing study, however, it may be conve­nient to treat then-current events as though they were present events. We will, on occasion, use the present tense to narrate happenings that are current in the Chapter concerned; in the same context, we will speak of earlier Chapters in the past tense; and of later Chapters in the future tense. This adaptation of the present tense will not be followed uniformly, because there are some situations in which it would be quite awkward.

It seems reasonable to assume that there is a “quiet time” between universe ages, just as there is a “quiet zone” between adjacent space levels. If this is the case, then we may properly consider the full attainment of evolutionary destiny at the end of the Second Universe Age, without complicating this survey by having to reckon with events which have to do with the opening phases of the next age.

During such a “quiet time,” at the closing of the present universe age, the grand universe is experiencing the satisfaction of completed growth – attained destiny.

The long evolutionary effort and travail has finally won through to experiential victory! The Supreme Creators have met the challenge of Havona perfection, and the end result is 700,000 perfected local universes culminating in the settling of the seven superuniverses in light and life.

In a certain sense, the time-space creations are “resting on their oars.” For the duration of this quiet time the grand universe is a self-contained and self-sufficient creation, something like Havona in the First Age. This is the time when creators and creatures can taste the sweetness of goals attained. This is the momentary pause in the eternal growth of creation, when satisfaction displaces effort, and consumma­tion (for the moment) takes precedence over the never-ending challenge of growth. The whole grand universe is pausing in time to consolidate its achievements and to complete its unification under the new sovereignty of the newly-emerged experiential Deity of finite existences – the Supreme Being.

§ 1. the emergence of the supreme being

The event that brings the Second Universe Age to the zenith and culmination of all finite growth is the final emergence of the Supreme Being as the experiential ruler of the perfected superuniverses. This means this hitherto unapproachable Deity has become approachable and contactable by all creatures. God the Father is infinite and will always be a mystery to us, but God the Supreme is finite and is therefore com­prehensible to finite creatures. Since all finite creatures have evolved with and within this finite Deity, there is a real and factual experiential kinship which serves as the basis for mutuality of understanding.

Supreme Deity. At this point in our study we are encountering a new level of the function of total Deity. We have been making careful note of these levels as we have encountered them. We first took note of the static level, then the potential and the associative levels, and then the creative and the evolutional levels. We are now at a point where we can examine the sixth level – the supreme level.

The first three levels are precreative: static, potential, and associative. They might be likened to the levels on which Deity “unfolded” and prepared for the adventure of expansion into time and space.

The next two levels are outgoing: creative and evolutional. On these levels God (Deity) is distributing himself to all creation; he is revealing himself to the universes; he is expanding outward into the post-Havona realms: he is going into partnership with his creatures – actually identifying himself with some of them through the indwelling of his spirit, the Adjuster. The activities of Deity on these outgoing levels are, perhaps, best disclosed in the ministry of God the Sevenfold.

Now, on the sixth level, the Supreme level, we observe an incoming – a gathering together of that which has been poured out upon all creation. The Supreme is the first great synthesis, the putting together of the thesis of perfection and the antithesis of imperfection – imperfection which, by evolutionary growth, has achieved a perfected status. On this level even Deity is experiential. On this level God and men can become one, as in the natures of the Paradise Bestowal Sons. (See Appendix VI., § 1. An Analysis of the Seven Levels of Total Deity Function [147].)

A SYMBOLIC PORTRAITURE

OF THE SEVEN MASTER SPIRITS

[159]

I. The Universal Father
II. The Eternal Son
III. The Infinite Spirit
IV. The Father-Son
V. The Father-Spirit
VI. The Son-Spirit
VII. The Father-Son-Spirit

§ 2. synthesis on the creature level of existence

However difficult it may be to visualize these events of the remote future, we may in principle examine the same type of synthesis that is taking place right now with respect to certain creatures. We have noted that Havona provides the original thesis of perfection; the antithesis of this is the imperfection of all the superuniverses, and this original imperfection can become perfected through evolutionary growth. Can we now find an example of the synthesis of the perfected and the perfect on creature levels?

Such a synthesis could take place between two creatures in the trinitizing union of a finaliter and a Havona native. (250.4) 22:7.10 [160] Can the reader think of anyone more unlike a perfect Havona native than some unwashed and unkempt cave dweller on some primitive planet? And yet, that primitive human could be Adjuster indwelt, could exhibit perfection hunger, could survive, ascend to Paradise, and be mustered into the Corps of the Finality. And as a finaliter, he might join some native of Havona in the adventure of trinitization, and experience actual union (spiritual bi-unification) with that Havona native. This would be a very literal synthesis of the perfected and the perfect.

But there will always be a difference between the perfect nature of eternal existence, and the perfected nature of experiential attainment. The attitude of the (perfect) Havoner might possibly be expressed as, “Things work, they always work, why would they be any different?” The attitude of the (perfected) ascender might be expressed as, “Things work because we have learned how to make them work, and it used to be very different!”

§ 3. the completed grand universe

All during the long period of evolutionary growth in the Second Age, each superuniverse has developed entirely on its own, under the unique influence of one of the Master Spirits. These Seven Master Spirits are uniquely diverse in nature because they personalize the seven possible combinations (singular and plural) of the Three Paradise Deities. In the illustration, we have symbolized the unique nature of each Master Spirit by the arrangement of three circles. These three circles are so drawn that there are seven areas – three areas where there is no over­lap, three areas where there is a double overlap, and one area that has a triple over­lap. This is a reasonably good symbol for the Master Spirits, just as the three concen­tric circles are a meaningful symbol for the Three Persons of Deity in, and as, the Paradise Trinity.

Divergence and convergence. Each Master Spirit is unique in nature. Since each Spirit pervades and dominates the entire environment of one superuniverse, it follows that each superuniverse and its native beings are also unique – they are forever stamped with the individual nature and character of the supervising Master Spirit. Each superuniverse would also tend to develop its own distinctive culture, its own unique “civilization.”

With the emergence of the Supreme Being as the sovereign of all superuniverses, the barriers separating the supercreations during the Second Age are going to be removed. Then, for the first time, all seven can begin to function as a single unit, as an administrative and cultural whole.

This intermingling of all seven cultures should result in a new stimulus to growth, growth in terms of the Second Age. We would identify this transaction as a good illustration of the principle of divergence and convergence. Growth is first encour­aged to become individualistic and distinctive by divergence, and then, in the fullness of time, all that has developed in relative isolation is brought together and consoli­dated.

This is an interesting parallel to what happens in the development of a normal inhabited world. First, the evolutionary races are encouraged to diverge, to go their separate ways. While so isolated each race tends to develop its own unique culture and civilization. Later in planetary development all races and cultures are blended with the Adamic peoples and the Edenic civilization.

(See Appendix IV., § 5-B. The Superuniverses in Light and Life [137]; § 6-A. Local Universes in Light and Life [161]; Appendix XIV., § 1. The Principle of Divergence-Convergence [162]; § 3. Superuniverse Administration: Present and Future [136].)

§ 4. creative associations of dual-deity

We have noted the principle of divergence and convergence. We should take notice, at this point, of another principle. Certain creative associations of Dual-Deity appear to be of prime importance in certain of the universe ages.

In the First Age, the significant association of Dual-Deity was that of the Father-Son. The union of the Father-Son trinitizes the Infinite Spirit and eternalizes the central universe of perfection.

In the Second Age, the significant association of Dual-Deity appears to be the working partnership of the Son and the Spirit. We are informed that the Spirit sustains the same relationship to the Son in the post-Havona creations that the Son sustains to the Father in the central creation. But, the active co-operation between the Son and Spirit does not seem to be taking place on Paradise as much as in the local universes in the collaboration of the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits – the creators, organizers, and perfecters of these evolutionary domains.

The result of the Father-Son association is the appearance of the Infinite Spirit and Havona. What will be the final result of the consummation of 700,000 Son-Spirit partnerships in time and space? (See Appendix V., Dual-Deity of the Universe Ages [163].)

§ 5. son and spirit in the second universe age

The event which terminates the Zero Age and begins the First Universe Age is the trinitizing union of the Father and the Son that produces the Infinite Spirit and the central universe of perfection. We are informed that in the Second Age the Spirit has the same relations to the Son that the Son has to the Father in the First Age. If this is the case, what will result from such a Son-Spirit partnership? Does this mean some new liaison between the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit on Paradise? We think not. The observable partnership between the Son and the Spirit is not being worked out on Paradise; it is seemingly being worked out in time and space and in the local universes. The Paradise Son and Spirit are going into partnership in the persons of their Universe Sons and Spirits – the creators and organizers of the local universes.

The Father-Son union is an existential relationship, and is an eternity event taking place on Paradise. The Son-Spirit unions are experiential relationships, and are time events taking place in space. The Dual-Deity partnership of the Second Age could result in the trinitizing unions of 700,000 Universe Sons and Spirits, sometime following the establishment of all local universes in light and life. But the trinitizing episode that begins the First Age will probably not find its analogue until the close of the Second Age. It is not until the very end of the Second Age that the local universes will have achieved a perfected status that is (finitely) comparable to the eternal perfection of the central creation.

(a) The evolution of Creator Sons. If we go back again to the Zero Age, we may observe that the Eternal Son is a fully personal being before the times of Havona. A Creator Son is also a fully personal being before his local universe is even started, much less settled in light and life. This means that the entire evolutionary growth of Michael, even his pre-creator experience and training, is as a personal being.

The Sevenfold Creator Son, a Master Michael, is experientially much more than he was when he first appeared on Paradise as a new Creator Son of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. In his work of organizing and perfecting his local universe he has experienced much. In his seven bestowals in the likeness of his creatures he has added much to his nature that was not a part of his original endow­ment of Paradise divinity.

A Master Michael still personifies that original and individual thesis of divinity that was jointly conceived by the Paradise Father and Son, and which gave him origin. He has added to this original endowment all of his acquired experiential nature which encompasses the antithesis of Paradise divinity, for it is drawn out of the evolutionary imperfection of the time-space creations. A Master Michael has had experience with the imperfections inherent in the evolutionary growth of his own creatures; he knows what it is like to be a creature; his complex and composite nature includes the nature of the creature – even as Joshua ben Joseph still lives in Michael of Nebadon. In his personal synthesis of these opposite (antithetical) qualities such as a Master Michael becomes akin to, and is expressive of, the experiential divinity of the Supreme Being. The Supreme Being is the finite Deity-synthesis of an original spirit personality of Havona perfection plus the attained experiential sovereignty of the seven superuniverses – imperfection evolving into a perfected estate.

(b) The evolution of Creative Spirits. If we return once again to the Zero Age we may observe that the Infinite Spirit is not yet a personality, and that the Sprit attains personality status by functioning as a co-operative creator in the actualizing of Havona. A Creative Daughter of the Infinite Spirit, a Creative Spirit, earns persona­lity status in like manner by working as a co-operative creator in the perfecting of a local universe.

The fiat (sudden non-growth and timeless) appearance of Havona is an eternity event, and the Infinite Spirit likewise achieves personal status as an eternity event – simultaneously with the appearance of perfect Havona. The evolutionary perfec­tion of a local universe is a time event, and its Creative Spirit likewise achieves personality status as a time even when her local universe (and, perhaps all others) is settled in light and life. Thus, each Creative Being resembles the universe and achieves personality status in the creation of this universe.

All of this means that the training and early local universe experience of the Creative Spirit are as prepersonal beings. In this respect, their evolutionary growth is very unlike that of the personal growth-experiences of the associated Creator Sons. (See Appendix VIII., § 6-B. A Comparison: The Infinite Spirit and Creative Spirits [164].)

The present growth-limit of a Creative Spirit appears to be the sixth stage of being. Such a matured Spirit is experientially quite different from a first-stage col­league, one that has just differentiated within the Infinite Spirit in response to the concurrent birth of the complemental Creator Son. The growth of a Universe Son adds the experiential natures of time-space creatures to the original endowment of Paradise divinity. The growth of a Universe Spirit adds the experience of achieving experiential personality-in-time – of personalizing the original focalization of the Infinite Spirit that is the segregated presence of a new Creative Spirit.

The Universe Sons and Spirits both grow – they both evolve. The growth of each, however, is very different from that of the other; because it is so very different, it should be highly complementary. Together, they may likely encompass all growth that is possible to a creative being in the Second Universe Age.

(c) The Son-Spirit union. Not since the Universal Father and the Eternal Son united in the trinitizing of the Conjoint Actor have two creators produced a third being who is their equal in creative nature and creator attributes. The trinitizing union of the Universe Sons and Spirits must likely await the close of the Second Age, or even the beginning of the Third. It will probably not take place until all 700,000 local universes have been settled in light and life.

The trinitizing union of the local universe Sons and Spirits would transform their Dual-Deity association into a triune relationship – the duo would become a trio – by the appearance of a co-ordinate third being, an Associate Creator of co-ordinate status. We have elected to name such a triune association a “Son-Spirit Creative Trio.” The newly-appearing Associate Creator would be expressive of:

(1) The original Paradise divinity endowment of the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit.

(2) The experience of organizing and perfecting a local universe on the part of the Universe Son and Spirit.

(3) The experiential creature natures which the Creator Son has acquired in the course of his seven bestowals.

(4) The experiential personality status of the Creative Spirit which she has acquired in time as a co-operating creator.

(5) The “superadditive consequence of the union” of the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit.

Such a third being might be “provisionally subordinate in sovereignty but (could) in many ways (be) the most versatile in action.” This Associate Creator might well disclose attributes of a Supreme-Ultimate nature. We forecast that the Son-Spirit Creative Trios are going to play an important part in the opening of the Primary Space Level and in the further development of all the universes of outer space.

(For references to the Papers in support of this section, see Appendix V., Associations of Dual-Deity [163]; Appendix VIII., § 6-A. The Personalization of a Focalization [164]; Appendix XIII., The Evolution of Universe Sons and Spirits [146].)

The Absonite Story

THE ABSONITE STORY

This is the story of the evolution of the universes of outer space. It is also the story of the continued growth of the grand universe and of the sometime unification of this universe with the outer space creations under the sovereignty of God the Ultimate.

This story is told in six chapters:

Chapter IV – Nuclear and Cytoplasmic Universes [48]

Chapter V – The Transformation of Synthesis [52]

Chapter VI – The Second Creative Thesis [56]

Chapter VII – The Second Antithesis [63]

Chapter VIII – Master Universe Magnitudes [69]

Chapter IX – Second Synthesis: God the Ultimate [73]

This story covers the next four universe ages. It begins with the invasion of the first outer space level. It ends with the completed growth of the master universe and the final emergence of God the Ultimate.

Chapter IV. Nuclear and Cytoplasmic Universes

chapter iv

NUCLEAR AND CYTOPLASMIC UNIVERSES

Havona, the Nucleus of the Grand Universe [49]

The Grand Universe as the Nucleus of the Master Universe [50]

The Outer Space Levels are Cytoplasmic Universes [51]

At this point in our study of the master universe, it is desirable to introduce two new words: “nucleus” and “cytoplasm.” If the master universe could be likened to a growing organism, and in many ways it is, then we could think of it as having a nucleus which is surrounded by cytoplasm. Some definitions are now very much in order:

Nucleus is defined (in Webster) as follows: “An organ present in the proto­plasm of most plant and animal cells, and regarded as an essential agent in their constructive metabolism, growth, and reproduction and in the hereditary transmission of characters.”

Cytoplasm stands in contrast to nucleus, and is, in part, defined (in Webster) as follows: “. . . the protoplasm of the cell exclusive of the nucleus.”

Illustration: In an egg, the yellow portion (the yolk) is the nucleus and the surrounding white (or translucent portion) is the cytoplasm.

This study advances the theory that the master universe has more than one nucleus. We believe it has two of them: one is existential, and the other is a combi­nation of existential-experiential. The Havona nucleus is existential; the grand universe nucleus (the seven superuniverses plus Havona) is existential-experiential. Let us examine the evidence available to see if there is any support for this proposi­tion.

§ 1. havona, the nucleus of the grand universe

The central creation does appear to be the nucleus of the presently organized and inhabited creation, the grand universe. The Isle of Paradise does not appear to be a true nucleus because it is not really a part of the master universe, or of any universe. But Havona is a real part of the master creation; the Havona space level is the first space level of the master universe, and the age of Havona is the First Universe Age.

If Havona really is a nuclear universe, then what special characteristics identify it as such? We would suggest that the following qualities are characteristic of, and serve to identify, a nuclear universe:

(a) Unique Nature. Havona is, in nature, radically different from the superuniverses. Havona has an eternity origin and is perfect in the existential sense. The superuniverses have a time origin, are imperfect, are perfecting by slow evolution, and will eventually become perfected in the experiential sense.

(b) Deity Appearance. The appearance of eternal Havona is associated with the simultaneous appearance of new Deity, the Infinite Spirit.

(c) Trinity Formation. Havona appears at the same “time” as the appearance of the Infinite Spirit, and the appearance of the Infini­te Spirit makes it possible for the three Deities to unite in the Paradise Trinity.

(d) Transmissive. Hereditary characteristics of divine perfection are transmitted to the outlying, or cytoplasmic, superuniverses by the Paradise-Havona creators and administrators who serve in the time-space creations. The ministry of the Supreme Creators is a good example of this.

It seems quite obvious that Havona is the nucleus of the grand universe. This immediately raises another question: Is Havona also the nucleus of the master universe? We would answer this question in the negative. We believe that the grand universe is the nucleus of the master creation because its completed evolution will produce another series of events that are analogous to those which we have associ­ated with Havona in identifying it as a nuclear creation.

§ 2. the grand universe as the nucleus of the master universe

We submit the proposition that the grand universe is the Second Nuclear Universe, and that it will function as the existential-experiential nucleus of the master universe. If this is a valid theory, then it should be possible to make a comparison between the grand universe and the central universe concerning those events which we have associated with the appearance of a nuclear creation. Such a comparison should be made between original Havona and the completed grand universe – the grand universe at the end of the present age, when the seven super­universes are settled in light and life, and the Supreme being has completed his evolutionary growth and has emerged as a fully functional and fully contactable Deity.

The perfected grand universe discloses the following characteristics, and its achievement of perfected status is associated with the following events:

(a) Unique Nature. The perfected grand universe is, in nature, radically unlike the outer space universes. Nothing else in the master universe could be like the grand universe because it is the space-stage on which the Supreme Being completes his experiential growth. All subsequent creations will be post-Supreme in nature and in growth potential; they will be devoid of all finite experience.

(b) Deity Appearance. The perfection and completion of the grand universe is associated with the emergence of new Deity – the Supreme Being.

(c) Trinity Formation. The final emergence of the Supreme Being makes it possible to form the First Experiential Trinity. This Trinity is made up of the Master Architects, the Supreme Cre­ators, and the Supreme Being. Until the Supreme Being has fully emerged he cannot function in this Trinity, and this Trinity can­not, therefore, complete its factual formation prior to the comple­tion of the grand universe.

(d) Transmissive. Hereditary qualities from the grand universe – finite experience – will be transmitted to the cytoplasmic universes of outer space by the Supreme Being, by the First Experiential Trin­ity, and by a host of finaliters and others who will be serving in these realms.

The events associated with the completion of the grand universe seem to be quite analogous to the events which are associated with the appearance of the central universe. We are, accordingly, of the opinion that both are nuclear universes. Havona is the First Nuclear Universe, the nucleus of the grand universe; the grand universe is the Second Nuclear Universe, the nucleus of the master universe.

§ 3. the outer space levels are cytoplasmic universes

If Havona is the first nucleus, and the grand universe is the second, then would it not logically follow that the completed development of the Primary Space Level would produce the Third Nuclear Universe? We would answer that question in the negative. We submit that the completed development of the first outer space level will not result in the formation of a third, and larger, nucleus of the master universe.

Let us test the validity of this proposition by applying to the Primary Space Level the same measurements we have used in determining that the central universe and the grand universe are nuclear creations:

(a) Unique Nature. As nearly as this study can determine, the four outer space levels are not different from each other in the radical way that Havona is different from all post-Havona creations, and that the grand universe is different from the outer space universes. The universes of all four outer space levels are post-Supr­eme universes, creations that are organized after the full emergence of the Supreme Being.

(b) Deity Appearance. No new deity appears with the completion of the development of the first outer space level.

(c) Trinity Formation. Without the appearance of new experiential deity there can be no formation of a new experiential trinity.

(d) Transmissive. No new deity or trinity appears as the vehicle for the transmission of hereditary characteristics; each of the four suc­ceeding outer space levels appears to be an extension and a was expansion of the preceding one.

When we apply these measurements to the Primary Space Level, it does not appear that it will be associated with the grand universe to form a new nuclear creation. The same measurements may also be applied to the Secondary and the Tertiary Space Levels with the same negative conclusions. This study, therefore, submits that the four outer space levels are a single cytoplasmic unit in relation to the grand universe which serves as their nucleus.

Chapter V. The Transformation of Synthesis

chapter v

THE TRANSFORMATION OF SYNTHESIS

The First Cycle of Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis [53]

The Transformation of Synthesis [54]

The Second Cycle of Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis [55]

Back in the Prologue to this study, we explored the three-way relationship of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. In the last chapter, we developed the idea of nuclear universes and cytoplasmic universes. In this chapter, we would like to associate these two concepts.

§ 1. the first cycle of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis

Let us review our study of the Havona thesis, the superuniverse antithesis, and the final synthesis of the perfect and perfected in the completed grand universe, which synthesis was witnessed by the final emergence of the Supreme Being. Again, let us consider the three steps that were involved:

(a) First Thesis. We have studied Havona, first as a precreative exis­tence and then as the subsequent thesis of divine perfection. We have recognized that it is a nuclear universe. When did it become nuclear? When was it no longer a self-existent and self-sufficient creation? When did it become a thesis? – a challenge? We would suggest that this took place with the formation of the association of God the Sevenfold, and this association of Deity began to function when the superuniverses were organized. In order for Havona to be a nucleus it had to exist in relation to some cyto­plasmic creation. Something had to be present to be challenged before God the Sevenfold could function as a thesis, as the challenge of divine perfection.

(b) First Antithesis. The original imperfection of the superuniverses is certainly the antithesis of perfect Havona, and the seven super­universes are cytoplasmic in relation to nuclear Havona. Their imperfection constitutes the counter-challenge of need which confronts God the Sevenfold and all of the concurring personal­ities from the Paradise-Havona system who have descended into the time-space universes to help creatures of imperfection climb upward, to reach the heights of evolutionary perfection.

(c) First Synthesis. We have observed that the completed grand universe is the synthesis of the perfect and the perfected. This is creature-demonstrated when man fuses with the indwelling Ad­juster and ascends to find God on Paradise; it is creator-demon­strated when God becomes man, as in the bestowals of the Paradise Sons; it is Deity-demonstrated by the power-personality synthesis of the total finite reality, leading to the final emergence of the Supreme Being.

This is the first cycle: Havona thesis, superuniverse antithesis, and the grand universe synthesis. This is what we have been studying in the first three chapters, the three chapters that tell the first story of the master universe – the Finite Story.

§ 2. the transformation of synthesis

This cycle of growth would appear to be completed when the process of synthe­sis succeeds in putting together those things which were originally so different from, and so challenging to, each other. When thesis and antithesis achieve synthesis, that is the attainment of destiny – at least the destiny that was implied in the original challenge which thesis makes to antithesis, and the counter-challenge which antithe­sis makes to thesis. (We should not forget that our own imperfection must be just as much of a service-challenge to a being of divine perfection, as his divine perfection is an ascension-challenge to each of us.)

The attainment of destiny, however, always seems to set something new in motion. If the settling of the superuniverses in light and life and the completion of the grand universe led only to the emergence of the Supreme Being and nothing more, then the grand universe might enter upon a static condition of non-growth at the end of the present age. But the appearance of the Supreme sets in motion certain other events: the First Experiential Trinity forms as a factual reality, as the direct consequence of his completed growth.

We submit that the completion of the Supreme Being stands for, and consum­mates, the completion of the First Synthesis. We further submit that the formation of the First Experiential Trinity is a transaction which has the effect of transforming this First Synthesis into the Second Thesis. The completion of the Supreme is the equivalent of destiny attained; the formation of the new experiential trinity (The Trinity Ultimate) is the equivalent of the new challenge of a new thesis. This new challenge presents a new and greater goal, a new and higher destiny to be achieved.

We believe that the transformation of an old synthesis is a basic principle that runs through the whole growth-history of the master universe. An old synthesis becomes a new thesis. This old synthesis is personalized in the appearance of new Deity; the new thesis is presented in the formation of a new trinity.

The First Experiential Trinity, the Trinity Ultimate, is concerned with the whole master universe, not just with the grand universe. This Trinity really is a new thesis; it is the Second Thesis.

§ 3. the second cycle of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis

Now, having formulated this new principle of the transformation of synthesis into new thesis, we may attempt to look ahead, to forecast what will happen as the result of the appearance of the Second Thesis on the space-stage of the master universe:

(a) Second Thesis. First of all, we must re-evaluate the grand universe. As the First Synthesis, it has attained destiny; as a new nucleus, it stands on the threshold of a new and greater destiny to be at­tained. As the Second Nuclear Universe, it is the power-base from which the Second Thesis will be projected. This Second Thesis is the First Experiential Trinity. This Trinity and the hosts of per­sonalities it will mobilize will be working outward from the nu­clear base of the grand universe into the cytoplasmic creations of the four outer space levels.

(b) Second Antithesis. This must be the domain of the outer space levels. These outer universes will undoubtedly be as different from the grand universe as the superuniverses were different from Havona. The outer universes will be post-Supreme in nature, and will therefore be entirely devoid of any capacity for finite experi­ence.

(c) Second Synthesis. If we are correct in our deductions concerning the Second Thesis and the Second Antithesis, then logic directs us to expect that their mutual challenge must eventually lead to a Sec­ond Synthesis – to the putting together of the cytoplasmic outer universes and the nuclear inner creations. But such a possible synthesis would require the completed growth and the final devel­opment of the entire master universe. And, as we will observe in our study, this is a formidable undertaking.

When we view the master universe from a larger perspective it does appear that it is developing rather rapidly. The Havona thesis is followed by the superuniverse antithesis and the grand-universe synthesis. This will be followed by the Second Thesis and the Second Antithesis, all of which will inaugurate the second great adventure – the Ultimate Adventure – in the wide-spreading universes of the now-uninhabited realms of outer space.

Chapter VI. The Second Creative Thesis

chapter vi

THE SECOND CREATIVE THESIS

New Factors Appearing on the Absonite Level [56]

The First Experiential Trinity [58]

Nature of the Trinity Ultimate [59]

The Second Nuclear Universe [60]

Nuclear and Cytoplasmic Characteristics [61]

The Mobilization and the Invasion of Outer Space [62]

This chapter really begins the second story of the master universe, the Absonite Story. This story is a far longer one than the Finite Story. We can symbolize this in terms that convey some feeling: if the whole of the Finite Story could be told in about an hour, then, by comparison, we must estimate that it would take more than 10,000 years to complete the telling of the Absonite Story. (See Appendix XVII., § 4 [165].)

§ 1. new factors appearing on the absonite level

The Finite Story, the study of the Second Universe Age, closed with the perfec­tion of the seven superuniverses and the final emergence of the Supreme Being as their experiential sovereign. This emergence of God the Supreme on the stage of cosmic action produces a number of changes in the absonite level of existence; it introduces at least four new elements onto the absonite level of reality. (See Appendix XXII., § 8 [166].)

(a) The First Experiential Trinity. The Supreme Being is a member of this Trinity, the Trinity Ultimate, together with the Corps of the Supreme Creators and the Architects of the Master Universe.

(b) The Supreme Being. The Supreme functions as a Deity-member of the First Experiential Trinity, but he is also personally active in the master universe. This is his activity as a super-almighty and his expression of some new and unknown potential of mind.

(c) The Corps of Supreme Creators. The Corps of Supreme Creators has to be looked at in two ways: as unified Deity and as many personalities. As unified Deity, the Corps, itself, is a member of the Trinity Ultimate. But the Supreme Creators, themselves, are also personally active in the master universe of the post-Supreme ages. These beings are the post-Havona creators and organizers of the (then) perfected time-space evolutionary universes; the corps embraces the Master Spirits, the Ancients of Days, and the Creator Sons (with their associated Creative Spirits). These beings are the creative leaders of all that vast host of Paradise-Havona person­alities who responded to the first great experiential challenge in the dawn of the Second Age, and who embarked upon the Supreme Adventure out in the newly-organizing and imperfect realms of the superuniverses. They have completed this adventure; they have perfected these universes of one-time imperfection; they, themselves, have been changed in status and modified in nature by having evolved along with their evolutionary realms. These beings have become more than creators of Paradise perfection; they are also beings of experiential attainment, status, and nature.

Perhaps the best illustrative example of the results of this evolutionary growth is offered by comparing a Master Son to a Creator Son. They are the same order of being, but a Master Son has experientially added the nature of the creature to the nature of the creator. A Creator Son is of the essence of Paradise divinity; a Master Son incorporates in his nature the hard-won experience of organizing a local universe, and of having experientially earned the sovereignty of this domain by his seven bestowals in the likeness of the nature of his creatures. As an example: Michael of Nebadon is more than a Creator Son: his composite nature incorporates the nature and character of a Melchizedek, a Lanonandek, an Adam, a seraphim, and the three levels of evolving human nature – spiritual, morontial, and material. (1319.1) 119:8.8 [167] Michael of Nebadon is an experiential creature as well as a divine creator, and he is (or will be) one of 700,000 others like him.

At the same time, the post-Supreme ages will be opening avenues for service to all the Creator Sons and Creative Spirits who were afforded no chance to organize local universes in the Second Age. We believe these younger creators will be supporting the efforts of their seniors in outer space. The addition of these new Universe Sons and Spirits may result in the forming of the Second Corps of the Supreme Creators.

We deem it likely that all of these beings will be functioning in a superfinite manner. We are informed that all of them have such capacities – Master Spirits, Ancients of Days, and the Creator Sons and Creative Spirits. (See Appendix XXII., § 8 [166].)

(d) Post-finite Creatures. These are the personalities, perfect and perfected, who have participated in the growth of the Supreme and, in association with him, escape previous limitations to begin the new adventure toward the goal of creature existence on new levels of Ultimate reality. These beings will specifically include the mortal finaliters as well as their finaliter-associates of the six non-mortal finaliter corps, and many non-finaliter colleagues. All of these beings will be serving in the outer space universes, and will, at the same time, be engaged in the absonite quest for God the Father – the attempt to find God as Ultimate.

These are the known factors that will be introduced on the absonite level of reality by the emergence of the Supreme Being, the first experiential Deity. These new influences are destined to have a profound effect on the development of the outer universes as they bring to these realms the ingredient of finite experience – the finite experience that has been experientially distilled out of the perfecting of the seven superuniverses.

§ 2. the first experiential trinity

If the emergence of the Supreme Being is the Deity personification of the first major synthesis, then the factual formation of the First Experiential Trinity, the Trinity Ultimate, must constitute the Deity expression of the second major thesis. This new Trinity has the following membership:

(a) The Deity of the Corps of the Master Architects

(b) The Deity of the Corps of the Supreme Creators

(c) The Deity of the Supreme Being

Let us carefully consider the nature of this new Trinity. What is being unified – trinity unified – in this association of Deity?

There is one feature of the Trinity Ultimate that is going to make us think more clearly about what a trinity is, and what it is not. When there are only three – like the Father, Son, and Spirit – involved in the make-up of a trinity, we could think care­lessly about their association; we may regard it as something like a loose partnership. However, we should not think carelessly of the First Experiential Trinity, for there are entirely too many involved. If we include the Creative Spirits along with their associate Creator Sons, we arrive at the startling total of 1,428,040 personalities that are related to this Trinity! This makes it quite impossible not to see that a trinity is a real entity, a real entity that exists entirely separate and apart from the personal beings related to it. Each one of these 1,428,040 personalities can sustain a personal relationship to the factual entity of the Trinity Ultimate. This Trinity is their union as Deity, not as personalities. (See Appendix X., The First Experiential Trinity [168].)

Let us examine the corporate membership of the Trinity Ultimate – the three Deity realities whose union is this Trinity:

(a) The Deity of the Corps of the Master Architects. These universe planners were present in the First Age and may have been present in the Zero Age. (See Third Prologue, § 5 [24].) These are the absonite beings who literally personify all of God’s plans for the entire master creation. They are “living blueprints.” They have ever been plan­ning and working for the master universe as a whole – from Ha­vona to the Quartan Space Level. They have been the co-ordina­tors of the master creation prior to the factualization of the Trinity Ultimate. They are members of this Trinity, not as persons (or superpersons) but in the sense that the unified Deity (a single entity) of their entire Corps is a member.

(b) The Deity of the Corps of the Supreme Creators. The completed evolu­tion of the Almighty Supreme (in time and space) is to the Corps of the Supreme Creators, what the appearance of the Infinite Spirit (in eternity and on Paradise) is to the partnership of the Father and the Son. The successful efforts of the Supreme Crea­tors is the source of the power of the Almighty, and their success in evolving this experiential power of the Almighty is probably the achievement that so unifies their total experiential divinity as to constitute it a real entity – a Deity entity that can qualify as a member in the Trinity Ultimate. While the Supreme Creators, as such, cannot be members of this Trinity (they are personalities), the unified Deity of their entire Corps (of over a million persona­lities) can be such a member. And this Deity entity of the entire Corps must be a true portrayal of the union of the original quality of Paradise perfection of divinity with the hard-won experiential qualities that were acquired by actual living, and striving, and victory, in the time-space creations. (See Appendix X., § 3 [145].)

(c) The Deity of the Supreme Being. This completed evolutionary Deity embodies total finite experience and all earned experiential power, since these evolutionary qualities have been unified with the spiri­tual personality that was bequeathed by the Paradise Trinity to the finite level as God the Supreme. The Supreme Being has synthesized the earned experiential power of the finite with this spiritual personality of Finite Reality.

The First Experiential Trinity incorporates the whole of the original Paradise endowment of divinity in the Master Architects, Supreme Creators, and Supreme Being, which has been enriched and enlarged by the participation in the Supreme Adventure, the adventure of the Second Universe Age – the age of the time-space perfecting of the seven superuniverses. This new Trinity is the Second Thesis; the challenge that moves spaceward in the dawn of the Third Age, outward into the new creative frontier, there to inaugurate the Ultimate Adventure.

§ 3. nature of the trinity ultimate

The Trinity Ultimate is something really new in the universes; it is an experiential trinity. The original Trinity, the Paradise Trinity, is an existential Trinity. The Paradise Trinity does not grow, the Ultimate Trinity does. The Paradise Trinity has nothing to “learn,” the Trinity Ultimate has. The Paradise Trinity is a finished expression of deity unity, whereas, the Trinity Ultimate is able to form as a factual entity at the close of the Second Age, but it has to earn its unified status by experi­ential effort and success in the post-Supreme ages of the four outer space levels. (See Appendix XIX., § 5. The Evolutions of Experiential Trinities [169].)

The objective of the First Experiential Trinity is the completed development of the entire master universe. Success in this project will equal the completion of the development (unification) of this Trinity, and will result in the emergence of the second of the experiential Deities – God the Ultimate. Like the Supreme, the Ultimate has long been present in Havona. Just as the Supreme emerges when the grand universe has completed its growth, so does the Ultimate emerge when the master universe has completed its growth. (See Appendix XVIII., § 1. Emergence of the Ultimate [170].)

The two trinities. For the first time in the universe history, two trinities will be collaborating – the Paradise Trinity and the Trinity Ultimate. Both will be active on the absonite level in relation to the master universe. The Paradise Trinity has always (eternally) functioned on the absonite level – existentially. We have the opinion that the Paradise Trinity will withdraw in function just as fast as the Trinity Ultimate is able to function – experientially. (See Appendix X., § 4. Functions of the Trinity Ultimate [171].)

Relationship to God the Sevenfold. The Papers are rather clear in presenting the idea that God the Sevenfold will expand in function in the post-Supreme ages and in the service of the outer space creations. But what the relationship between the Sevenfold and the Trinity Ultimate will be is a matter of conjecture. As we have observed, there will be two trinities collaborating in the outer universes, and it would seem likely that God the Sevenfold would sustain a co-operative role in relation to each of them. Of one point, however, we are quite sure: the Master Spirits and the Creator Sons will be very active in these new realms. (This theme will be developed at greater length in the next chapter. See also, Appendix XII., § 4. Will the Sevenfold become Tenfold in Outer Space? [172])

§ 4. the second nuclear universe

Deity always seems to operate from a power-base – a base from which divinity and sovereignty can expand. Trinity is Deity, and is no exception to this seemingly general rule. The Existential Trinity operates from the power-base of the Paradise-Havona system; Havona provides the nuclear universe from which this Trinity expands outward in its activities. The First Experiential Trinity will operate from a similar power-base, the Second Nuclear Universe, the grand universe of existential-experiential status.

We have studied the grand universe in its growth stages, the superuniverses as the imperfect antithesis of central-universe perfection. We have considered the original challenge presented by the thesis of perfect Havona to the imperfect superuniverses. To creatures, this challenge is presented in the Father’s astounding invitation-com­mand, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” And now, in the Third Age, these evolutionary realms have completed their initial response – their finite response – to this challenge; they have achieved that status of (relative) perfection signalized by settlement in light and life. They have become co-ordinated with Havona (on the finite level) as one integrated whole, the nuclear grand universe. They have under­gone the transition from a completed synthesis of the perfect and the perfected to their new status as a nuclear creation that expresses a new thesis – the Second Creative Thesis. This new thesis is the challenge to the new creations of outer space.

But wherein does the grand universe as a completed synthesis differ from the same grand universe as a new thesis? It is something of the same difference that we have already noted in our study of Havona – the difference between First-Age Havona and Second-Age Havona. In the First Age, Havona was an isolated and self-suffi­cient universe; in the Second Age, it is a nuclear universe, and its citizens are expanding outward into the cytoplasmic superuniverses.

And as it was with Havona, so it is with the completed grand universe. At the close of the Second Age, the grand universe experiences the satisfaction of destiny-attained; at the opening of the Third Age, it will mobilize to meet the challenge of the new adventure – the Ultimate Adventure – in the unorganized domains of outer space. The transition from a completed synthesis to a new thesis is the transition from the passive to the active state – from a temporary end to a new beginning. This is a difference caused by passing from a static state of destiny-attained, to a dynamic state of destiny-pursued.

New growth in the grand universe. The nuclear universe, the grand universe, will experience new kinds of growth because it is now in relationship to the outer space universes. For comparisons, let us go back to the beginning of our study and con­sider Havona. In the First Age the central creation was caught in the existential stalemate of flawless perfection; how could there possibly be improvement in that which God has projected in divine perfection? And still, in the Second Age, the pilgrims of time broke the static stalemate of existential perfection by bringing the dynamic expansion of experiential growth to Havona. This resulted in a break­through of old barriers; Havona transcended its previous limit of growth. Undoubt­edly, Havona will break through its growth-limits a second time when the first of the outer-spacers arrive in the central universe. This will also hold true of the super­universes; at the present time, they are limited in growth to the attainment of the status of light and life. The coming of the outer-spacers will change all that, and the once settled superuniverses will embark on a new adventure of growth – growth beyond the finite, beyond finite experience and finite limitations.

§ 5. nuclear and cytoplasmic characteristics

Perhaps the superuniverses will best serve to illustrate the difference between a nuclear creation and a cytoplasmic universe; they have been both. In the Second Age, when the superuniverses were cytoplasmic in relation to Havona, they were domains of maximum creative activity. During the Second Age, either on Paradise or on the billion worlds of Havona, what could compare with the outpouring of creativity in 700,000 local universes? – not to mention the probable torrent of procreativity among midsoniters and the Material Sons in seven billion local systems, and among the human races on seven trillion inhabited worlds.

As the superuniverses pass in transition from cytoplasmic creations to become an integral part of a new nucleus, there must be a slowing down of creativity (and, perhaps, procreativity) in the process of the gradual transition to a more settled and stabilized status, a stability somewhat comparable to that of the central universe.

This transition is best seen in the local universes. If the Creator Sons (and the Creative Spirits) are to serve in outer space (and we believe that they are), then with their departure, the local universes must cease to be the areas of maximum creativity. The creators have departed. Such local universes will then become more like the sectors of the superuniverses, administrative units that are rather sable and which are no longer characterized by the maximum proliferation of new creatures. This does not mean that all creativity must stop, but it will probably be greatly diminished in comparison with the activities of the previous age.

A nuclear universe, then, is a domain that is characterized by (relative) stability, in contrast to a cytoplasmic universe which is a domain characterized by the (relative) instability that is inseparable from a high velocity of growth and change. Cosmically speaking, a nucleus is mature; cosmically considered, a cytoplasm is not. A nuclear universe is a power base, a foundation from which outward expansion can be initiated. From a nuclear universe come those initiating creators, those concurring co-ordinates, and those co-operating subordinates, who constitute the pioneering personnel for the new expansion into the new creations on the new creative frontier.

§ 6. mobilization, and the invasion of outer space

Long, long ago (in the dawn of time), the whole Paradise-Havona system must have been charged with expectancy as it stood on the brink of the Supreme Adven­ture, the invasion of the superuniverse space level. We must not forget that all of the descending beings are also personalities; God has endowed them with the capacity to respond to the exciting stimulus of the unknown. This must be true from the Ancients of Days to the volunteer supernaphim. All of these high-origin beings are personalities; they have imaginations, can be somewhat unpredictable in choice, even have the capacity to choose evil. (238.6) 21:3.12 [173] and (238.8) 21:3.14 [174] In other words, theirs was a true adventure, a real experience of being tried and tested and stimulated by the unknown, the immense, the inexplicable, and the unpredictable.

Someday, in the far future, the grand universe will pass through a comparable experience. It, too, will be charged with expectancy as the First Experiential Trinity begins to marshal the powers and the personalities of the Second Nuclear Universe in preparation for the Ultimate Adventure in outer space. The “quiet time” between the universe age will draw to a close as this great mobilization slowly becomes apparent, and as it slowly builds up momentum.

What will this mobilization be like? What will actually take place? We can only speculate, but there is enough in the Papers about the Ultimate Adventure to provide a foundation for reasonable speculation. (352.8) 31:10.1 [175]

We believe this mobilization will slowly become evident as the finaliters are gradually withdrawn from superuniverse service. The Trinity Ultimate has at its disposal and command not only the Corps of Mortal Finaliters, but also the six other associated corps. Slowly, ever so slowly, these finaliters may withdraw from their long-established stations in the settled superuniverses as they converge on Paradise. Little by little this thinning-out process will become apparent; it will become obvious that the finaliters are retiring from the time-space creations of perfected status. Little by little many of the personalities of single- and dual-origin are leaving their posts as their place are filled by Trinity-origin administrators. Slowly the pioneers of the Supreme Adventure and their evolutionary colleagues are withdrawing from the settle creations in preparation for new adventure in new and uncharted universes.

Finally, there will come that day when the mobilization is complete. All seven of the finaliter corps may be present in full strength on Paradise. What a gathering this could be! The solid ranks of the time-tested and faith-proven veterans of the First and the Second Universe Ages there assembled – probably for the first time, and perhaps for the last time – all together, from Creator Sons to midwayer and mortal finaliters. We would venture that it might be at this time that all of those concerned would receive their commissions as creators, organizers, and administrators of the outer space universes. Then, there might follow the command of execution, perhaps issuing from the Senior Architect of the Master Universe. Following the command of execution, the beginning of the great exodus from Paradise – wave upon wave, streaming outward through the settled and eternal circuits of Havona, and still on and outward through the superuniverses settled in light and life, and on beyond, past the outer rim of the grand universe and into the quiet zone that surrounds it, and still beyond – on into the formidable vastness of the first outer space level.

Chapter VII. The Second Antithesis

chapter vii

THE SECOND ANTITHESIS

Cytoplasmic Need Expands Nuclear Function [64]

The Challenge of the Ultimate Adventure [65]

Administration of the First Outer Space Level [66]

The Spirit and the Supreme [67]

Stages in the Emergence of the Ultimate [68]

The present age (the Second Universe Age) is the time of the evolutionary growth of the Supreme Being. With this in mind, we might call the preceding age (the First Age) a pre-Supreme age; and, by the same line of reasoning, we could name the future ages of the outer space creations the post-Supreme ages. They are the ages that will follow the completed growth and final emergence of the Supreme. As we have noted (in Chapter IV [176].) these four ages of the outer space levels are related; they are all post-Supreme ages – ages during which the First Experiential Trinity is working to accomplish three objectives:

(1) Its own unification.

(2) The completion of the master universe.

(3) The emergence of God the Ultimate.

These four post-Supreme ages – the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ages – are the times of the great expansion of the Paradise creative forces and agencies into the domains of outer space. Associated with these creative personalities, and with other administrators from Paradise and Havona, are all the experiential veterans of the Second Universe Age – the age of the evolution of the superuniverses. This is the first great combined venture, the first united effort on the part of the perfect and the perfected – the perfect Paradise-Havoners, and all the veterans of the evolutio­nary superuniverses. This is their joint venture, the Ultimate Adventure, the organi­zation of the outer space creations.

§ 1. cytoplasmic need expands nuclear function

In the present universe age the creative personalities are working with certain potentials (unrealized possibilities) that come from the three Absolutes. These potentials, being absolute, would be of little or no use to creators who are working on the finite level. This means that these absolute potentials have to be modified in some manner before they can be useful to finite creators. This where the emerging experiential Deities play an important part.

Long before the Supreme and the Ultimate emerge they are active and are working in relation to these absolute potentials. The Ultimate (who is in direct contact with the absolute level) starts to organize these absolute potentials so they will respond to creative action. Then the Supreme further modifies them so they are suitable for use on the finite level. This is how creators can “create;” there must be something out of which they create things and beings, and this “something” consists of the potentials that the Ultimate and the Supreme have prepared for their use.

The change in cosmic growth potential. When the Second Age gives way to the Third, an important change takes place in the available potential for creation and growth. During the Second Age (the present age) the Supreme Being is growing. Beings who are created and beings who evolve in the Second Age can share in this growth of the Supreme. But, at the close of the present universe age the Supreme will have completed his growth, and this potential (this capacity) for finite experience will be exhausted – all used up. This particular potential is finite, therefore it can be exhaus­ted.

For example: Let us imagine a Third-Age Creative Spirit; she is working in the first outer space level. Let us compare her with a Second-Age Creative Spirit working in one of the present evolutionary local universes. The present-age Spirit can create seraphim who have the capacity to grow (evolve) by finite experience; she is working in, and with, the potentials of the growing Supreme. The Third-Age Spirit is, in basic nature, just like her senior colleague, but she will never be able to create seraphim like those of the present local universes. That raw material (the potential) out of which the Second-Age seraphim were created is no longer available. The Third-Age Creative Spirit will be working with post-Supreme potentials; these potentials will likely be absonite, not finite. Her created children will be post-Supreme in nature, hence post-finite beings, which means they will always be devoid of finite experi­ences – this finite experience will be outside of their inherent capaci­ties.

The lack of finite experience. What are these outer space universes going to be like? What kind of beings will be native to them? It is impossible to speculate in any positive way about these unknowns, they are entirely outside our range of experi­ence. We may be sure, however, that the outer-spacers will be unlike Havona natives or any beings native to the superuniverses. Outer-spacers are beyond our capacity to imagine. (We must have been unimaginable to the Havona natives, until they actually encountered the first of the ascending pilgrims on the circuits of the central universe.) But we do know there is one thing that will be missing in all the domains of outer space, lacking in all of its native beings – finite experience.

This lack is our opportunity. We are especially endowed with the very quality that will be missing from the creations of outer space. We are the children of the Supreme; finite experience is the very heart of the nature of all the experiential and evolutionary beings of origin in the grand universe. We are like the Supreme because we have grown in him, even as he has grown in us. And the Supreme Being is the Finite God – the God of finite experience.

By service in the outer universes we escape from the limitations of growth that we encounter in the present age. As finaliters (in the present age) we are sixth-stage spirits, but we are still incomplete beings. We have attained destiny, but only within the limits of the present age. We are still unfinished creatures despite all of our evolutionary growth toward perfection. We still fall short of the attainment of three goals:

(1) Ultimate creature status.

(2) Finality of creature service.

(3) Finality of the attainment of experiential Deity.

These are the goals that are still ahead of us when we are finaliters. The attain­ment of these goals awaits our sometime service in the expanding creations of outer space. As we there minister to make up for the total lack of finite experience, we will rise above our present limitations. This is exactly what happened to our prede­cessors from Paradise and Havona when they came out into the superuniverses that were so lacking in divine perfection – the perfection that is inherent in the natures of our predecessors.

§ 2. the challenge of the ultimate adventure

Back in the dawn of time, the citizens of the settled and established creations of eternity were challenged by God’s unfolding purpose: the original imperfection of the seven superuniverses. Long ago these Paradise-Havona beings (beings of inher­ent perfection) were challenged, and they responded to this challenge by embarking on the time-space adventure – the Supreme Adventure – of facing up to the uncertainties and the unpredictabilities of the (then) unorganized and unsettled realms of the superuniverse space level.

At the same time, God challenged all creatures of imperfect nature with that great command of invitation, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” God personi­fies this challenge through the invasion of the superuniverse space level by the forces and personalities of Paradise-Havona perfection, who carried it right on down to the evolutionary worlds. (When God’s infinite perfection is humanized, as Jesus human­ized it, it becomes comprehensible to us.)

Now, for a second time God is challenging all creation, this time to embark on the adventure of the outer universes – the Ultimate Adventure – in the invasion of the wide-spreading domains of outer space. In his first challenge, he set up a prob­lem by subtracting the quality of inherent and innate perfection from the new superuniverses. The problem he devised was the problem of perfecting the imperfect through finite growth and experience, by evolution in time and space. In this new challenge, this second challenge, God has again subtracted something; this time he has subtracted the possibility of growth through finite experience. He has challenged the entire citizenry of the grand universe to the task of compensating for this lack in the outer creations. This deficiency is our opportunity. We should have the capacity to respond to this challenge, because, by then we will truly be the children of the Supreme Being. Even our minds will be affiliated with the mind of the Supreme. The Papers tell us that we will portray God the Supreme just as naturally as Jesus por­trayed the Universal Father. And our mission will be to reveal the Supreme Being to the new creatures of the new universes of outer space.

The Papers instruct us that we will be well equipped for this duty and service. We combine the Adjuster-endowment of divinity with the hard-won experiential wisdom of the evolutionary ascent to Paradise, plus the long service in the growing super­universes. We may aspire to become effective, efficient, and understanding adminis­trators in these frontier creations. We may expect to be confronted with new prob­lems of immensity; new situations of uncertainty; a new adventure of coping with the unexpected, the unpredictable, and the inexplicable. Once again we will be young and growing, like new creatures in the fresh dawn of a new creation. Once again we will experience the sudden expansion of horizons as we begin to sense the immensity of the task before us.

And this challenge is not only an extensive one, it is also intensive. We are not only confronted with the massive magnitudes of time and space and mass in the outer universes, we are also confronted with the new challenge of the new quest for the Universal Father. We have found the Father as Supreme; now can we find the Father as Ultimate? This new quest for the Universal Father, on levels beyond the finite, will become the absorbing personal adventure for all the citizens of the post-Supreme ages. (See Appendix VII., § 6. Post-Supreme Growth [177]; Appendix XI., § 6. Finaliters and Others in Outer Space [178].)

§ 3. administration of the first outer space level

We have considered the post-Supreme ages in general terms. Let us now, in more careful detail, look at the events of the Third Age – the organization of the Primary Space Level. What do we know, and what may we deduce, about the first of the post-Supreme ages? Based on what we do know, what can we project concerning the administration of the next outer space level?

Present administration of the Primary Space Level. We are told a few facts about this next outer space level. At the present time, there are some 70,000 large galaxies of matter that are mobilizing in these regions. Each one of them is, presumably, still growing; and already, each one is larger than a superuniverse. Since 70 of the Architects of the Master Universe are assigned to this space level, it appears likely that each Architect is concerned with the oversight of 1,000 of these large aggregations of physical matter. (See Appendix III., § 3., (d) The First Outer Space Level [179].)

The Master Spirits. There is very strong evidence to warrant the belief that the Seven Master Spirits are concerned with the segments in outer space that are corre­lated with their spheres of jurisdiction in the superuniverses. If this is so, then it is logical to assume that each Master Spirit would have jurisdiction over one-seventh of the 70,000 galaxies, and one-seventh of the 70 Architects. The jurisdiction of one Master Spirit would then encompass the domain of 10 Architects, and 10,000 galaxies – each one of which is an over-sized superuniverse.

(In our calculations of the space magnitudes of the master universe, in the next chapter, we have computed that the Primary Space Level is 100 times the size of the grand universe. This calculation may be much too conservative; there is a distinct possibility that it may be more than 10,000 times as large! However, we will let our conservative calculations stand, since even they take us to sizes and magnitudes that are formidable.)

Each Master Spirit would tend to dominate the environmental trend of his outer space domain, just as he now dominates the environmental trend of his present superuniverse. (See Chapter III., § 3 [44].) This means the Primary Space Level will duplicate the superuniverses by providing seven diverse environments, each of which is derived from the diverse nature of one of the Master Spirits. Each environ­ment will be expressive of one aspect of the diverse manifestations of Paradise Deity: Fatherlike, Sonlike, Spiritlike, Father-Sonlike, Father-Spiritlike, Son-Spiritlike, and Father-Son-Spiritlike. Each such environment will place an indelible stamp upon every native being. This is a nice, comfortable way of looking at the organiza­tion of the Primary Space Level; just the seven superuniverses all over again, but on a much larger scale. This picture, however, becomes much more complicated when we consider the Son-Spirit Creative Trios who may be assigned to these new universes. (See Appendix XIV., § 4. Administration of the Primary Space Level [180].)

Son-Spirit Creative Trios. In the study of the partnership of the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits in the Second Age (Chapter III., § 5 [46].) we deduced that all of these 700,000 pairs were likely to consummate their Dual-Deity association by trinitizing a Third Being, an Associate Creator. By uniting as Son-Spirit they are constituting themselves as a Son-Spirit Creative Trio. If this reasoning is valid, there will be exactly 700,000 of these Creative Trios available for assignment to outer space.

One point we did not cover in Chapter III [181], is the fact that all of these 700,000 Trios are not going to be alike. There will be seven types, because there are seven types of Creative Spirit. Each Creative Spirit is, in nature, like the Master Spirit who had jurisdiction of the superuniverse in which this Creative Spirit served. This means there are 100,000 each of seven types of Son-Spirit Creative Trios (See Appendix XIII., § 3. Son-Spirit Creative Trios [139].)

Since the whole evolutionary-creative trend of the master universe seems to favor diversity rather than uniformity, it seems likely these seven types of Trios will be distributed evenly in the outer space domains of each Master Spirit. For example: all seven types of Trios will serve in the domain of the First Master Spirit; 100,000 diverse Trios will be assigned to this particular domain, a domain embracing 10,000 galaxies. Accordingly, we would deduce that each Son-Spirit Trio would have jurisdiction around one-tenth of a galaxy (a realm considerably larger than one-tenth of a superuniverse, which embraces 10,000 local universes with their 100 billion inhabited worlds.) Each Trio will tend to dominate the environment within this realm, and since there will be seven types of Trios in service, it follows there will be seven environmental trends in the domain of the First Master Spirit.

What is true of the domain of one Master Spirit will hold true of the domains of all seven. Since there will be seven environmental trends in the domain of the First Master Spirit and since there are seven Master Spirits, there will be 49 (7 ´ 7) environmental trends altogether. We believe this is most significant, because it would have an important influence on the creators and the creatures who would be working and growing under these influence. The seven superuniverses are producing seven different types of creatures and seven types of Creative Spirits. The Primary Space Level will produce 49 such diverse and individual types.

We advance the opinion that all of this will have a pronounced effect on the development of the following ages – the Fourth Age and those that follow. We believe that the factor of seven will continue to be superimposed on itself. We observe that there are seven basic environments in the superuniverse; we project 49 (7 ´ 7) such environments in the Primary Space Level. Will there be seven-times-forty-nine (7 ´7 ´ 7) in the Secondary Space Level? We believe this is very likely. It is significant that the number of Master Architects assigned to these levels seems to parallel the augmenting products of seven-times-seven. (See Appendix XIV., § 5. Master Spirits and Creative Trios in the Primary Space Level [182], § 6. The Results of the Interaction of Seven times Seven [183]; Appendix XV., § 2. The Numbers of the Master Architects [184].)

Third-Age Sons and Spirits. We know that the number of Creator Sons (and Cre­ative Spirits) is already in excess of 700,000 and more are being created all the time. We also know there will be exactly 700,000 local universes in the present seven superuniverses – exactly this number, and no more. This must mean all Universe Sons and Spirits in excess of 700,000 must be destined to be commissioned as universe organizers in the outer space levels. Accordingly, we project there will be two (or perhaps three) kinds of Universe Sons and Spirits serving in the Primary Space Level. We would further suggest the younger Sons and Spirits may serve under the jurisdiction of the Son-Spirit Creative Trios.

This means each Creative Trio may sustain a relationship to the younger Sons and Spirits somewhat like the relationship which is now sustained by the rulers of the major sectors of the superuniverses to the rulers of the local universes. If this is the case, there will be a very large number of younger Creator Sons and Creative Spirits commissioned as universe organizers, for the first time, in outer space. There may be 10,000 times as many as those who saw service in the seven superuniverses. (See Appendix XIII., Evolution of Universe Sons and Spirits [146].)

§ 4. the spirit and the supreme: dual-deity in outer space

We have observed that certain creative associations of Dual-Deity appear to be particularly active in certain universe ages. In the First Age (the age of Havona) it was the partnership of the Father-Son that took the initiative. In the Second Age it was the local-universe partnership of the Son-Spirit that seemed to predominate. In the post-Supreme ages, the ages after the emergence of the Supreme Being, it seems likely that the new Dual-Deity association will be that of the Spirit-Supreme. (See Appendix V., Dual-Deity in the Universe Ages [163].)

The outer space activities of the Supreme. We are informed the Supreme Being has (or will have) three functions apart from his associations in the experiential trinities:

(1) In the central universe, he operates as a spirit person.

(2) In the superuniverses, he acts as a sovereign of power.

(3) In the master universe, he has a third function about which there is some uncertainty. He may act as a personality of super-power, as a super-Almighty, or he may function as some unknown mind-potential, or (we believe) he will do both.

In either event, or both, we believe the Supreme Being will be operating in the outer universes as a direct and positive influence, and will be working in partnership with the Spirit. (See Appendix XI., § 3. The Supreme in the Inner and the Outer Universes [185].)

The Spirit in outer space. In studying the possible relationship between the Supreme and the Spirit, we should remember the Seven Master Spirits distribute the Infinite Spirit to the extra-Havona universes. We have the belief that the Spirit-Supreme liaison is going to take place between the Master Spirits and the Supreme Being. This does not deny the Supreme’s continued collaboration with the Infinite Spirit, nor does it mean he will sustain no relationship to the Creative Spirits. We do not know what the end-product of the relationship of Spirit and Supreme might be. The Father-Son partnership personalizes the Infinite Spirit and leads to the formation of the Paradise Trinity. The Son-Spirit partnership may result in the trinitization of 700,000 Associate Creators, and the formation of a like number of Son-Spirit Creative Trios. The results of the Spirit-Supreme Dual-Deity association cannot be forecast; the Papers give us no grounds whatsoever for speculation. (See Appendix XI., § 4. The Spirit and the Supreme [186].)

§ 5. stages in the emergence of the ultimate

So far in our study we have grouped the four post-Supreme ages and the four outer space levels together, and have dealt with them as a single unit. For the most part we think this is sound; but there is one particular relationship which requires us to think of these time spans and these space areas as four distinct ages and four separate space levels. This particular relationship concerns the emergence of God the Ultimate.

The Supreme Being is emerging as the evolutionary consequence of the events of one universe age, and the developments of one space level. The Ultimate is emerging as the result of the completed growth and development of creation through five ages, and in five space levels. This may mean the Ultimate is emerging in several distinct steps, or phases; and this is quite unlike the emergence of the Supreme which takes place in one phase, in one universe age, and in one universe space level.

For example: There could be some interesting relationship between the Primary and Secondary Space Levels. Suppose the sovereignty of the Ultimate is established in the Primary Space Level before the opening of the Secondary, this would be a condition that has no parallel in the evolution of the Supreme. The sovereignty of the Ultimate has factualized with respect to the Primary Space Level, but is unat­tained with regard to the Secondary. Of course, this same relationship could later exist between the Secondary Space Level and the Tertiary.

This suggests four stages in the unification of the First Experiential Trinity, and for stages in the emergence of God the Ultimate. (See Appendix XVIII., § 1. Emergence of the Ultimate [170]; Appendix XIX., § 5. The Evolutions of Experiential Trinities [169].)

Chapter VIII. Master Universe Magnitudes

chapter viii

MASTER UNIVERSE MAGNITUDES

Space Magnitudes [70]

Mass Magnitudes [71]

Time Magnitudes [72]

So far in our study we have been voyaging outward from Havona, through the superuniverses and into the outer space levels, without giving too much thought to how big they are in space or how long these adventures are going to take in time. It may be a good idea to pause, at this point, long enough to consider the size and duration of the master universe. How big is it? How massive is it? How long do the universe ages last in time?

§ 1. space magnitudes of the master universe

We know the seven superuniverses are much larger in space than the central universe. Havona contains one billion (and 21) worlds and the plans for the super­universes provide for seven trillion inhabited worlds. We do not know exactly how big Havona is, but we do know that Orvonton (our superuniverse) is about one-half million light-years across. If we ignore Havona, then we could estimate the grand universe is about one million light-years across.

Now, we are shortly going to encounter some sizes that are very much greater than that of the grand universe. This means we will have to symbolize the size of the grand universe by likening it to a tennis ball. We can then compare it to the Primary Space Level, if we compare the tennis ball to a rather large living room. This means the first outer space level is ever so much larger than the whole of the present organized and inhabited creation.

We have symbolized the comparative size of the grand universe and the first outer space level. What is the comparison in size between the Primary and the Secondary Space Level? This can be expressed by comparing our sizeable living room with a rather long city block. First think of this city block as a cube, then think of the living room as being suspended in the center of this cube. We are now thinking of how the Primary Space Level fits inside the Secondary Space Level. These comparisons should help us to develop something of a “feeling” for the great increases in the size of the space levels as we proceed outward.

How about the Tertiary Space Level? How big is it? Well, on the scale that we have been using it would be symbolized by a rather large city – or, rather, by the cube of a large city. Think of a cube that is 32 miles by 32 miles square, and then is 32 miles high. This cube gives us the relative size of the Tertiary Space Level.

The Quartan Space Level is, by far, the largest of all. If the diameter of our moon were about one-half larger, then the moon would serve as an ideal symbol for the size of this final space level. (The moon is 2100 miles in diameter and the symbol for the Quartan Space Level should be 3200 miles in diameter.) We will use the moon as a symbol, anyway.

Now, to get a real feeling for the increases in size (as we proceed outward from the grand universe to the edge of the master universe) let us start with the tennis ball. Let it float in the center of the large living room; suspend the living room in the center of the large city block (the block that we have pictured as a cube); picture the cubic city block floating at the center of the cubic city (the cube that is 32 miles long on each edge); and then, finally, float the cube of the big city in the middle of our moon. Now go back and think about the tennis ball; it symbolizes the size of the grand universe – the presently organized and inhabited creations consisting of Havona, plus the seven superuniverses, with their 700,000 local universes and seven trillion inhabited worlds.

Think about the tennis ball – then think about the moon.

§ 2. mass magnitudes of the master universe

We have less information about the probable physical mass of the master universe than we have about its size in space. But we do know the physical masses in outer space are very much greater than anything known in the grand universe.

We are informed that there are at least 70,000 aggregations of matter in outer space and each one of these is already larger than a superuniverse. In another passage in the Papers we are told our astronomers will soon be able to see 375 million new galaxies in outer space. Whether these two statements refer to the same physical creations or not, we do not know. But we believe that they do, and that all of these large masses are in the Primary Space Level.

RELATIONSHIPS OF ADJACENT

SPACE LEVELS

[187]

We also know that most of the drawing power of Paradise gravity is absorbed in exercising control over these outer space creations. These universes of the future are now just getting started; they are going to continue to grow for a very long time.

What little we do know about the physical materialization of the outer universes seems to support the idea that the outer space creations are very much greater in space-size and physical-mass than is the grand universe.

§ 3. time magnitude of the master universe

The calculations of the length of the universe ages take us into numbers that are awkward because they are so very large. We normally reckon time in years. This can become difficult, as difficult as it would be to figure astronomic distances in miles, instead of light-years. Suppose we work out a convenient unit for measuring time – such as the light-year is used for measuring distance – some unit that takes in a lot of time. We might take the age of the Andronover nebula (about a trillion years) as such a useful time unit. We could then express the estimated length of the universe ages in terms of “Andronover Time Units.” We could even abbreviate this as “ATU” for one unit, and as “ATUs” for more than one.

In terms of “ATUs” the universe ages can be calculated as having the following time spans:

The second age – 50 thousand ATUs

The third age – 5 million ATUs

The fourth age – 500 million ATUs

The fifth age – 50 billion ATUs

The sixth age – 5 trillion ATUs

In selecting “Andronover Time Units” (about a trillion years) we are selecting the longest time-span that is mentioned in the Papers – the age of Andronover, the nebula that gave birth to our sun. The numbers tabulated simply tell us how many times longer the universe ages are than the age of Andronover.

We have calculated that it is possible the Second Universe Age, the present age, may be as much as three-fourths completed. Even so, there remains approximately one-fourth of the present age; this is more than 10,000 ATUs, more than 10,000 trillions of years. We still have ample time to reach Paradise!

(For general references to Papers, and for the reasoning and the mathematics which support the findings presented in this chapter, see: Appendix XVI., Physical Magnitudes of the Master Universe [188]; and Appendix XVII., Time Magnitudes of the Master Universe [189].)

Chapter IX. Second Synthesis: God the Ultimate

chapter ix

SECOND SYNTHESIS: GOD THE ULTIMATE

Unification of the First Experiential Trinity [74]

The Emergence of God the Ultimate [75]

The Completed Master Universe [76]

Large as is the master universe, it does have limits. There is an outermost edge. The last outer space level does come to an end – somewhere. Given enough time this limit will be reached and, in eternity, we may be sure that there will be “enough time.” The master universe is of extraordinary size, and it will take an extraordinary length of time to complete its growth. But, somewhere in the remote regions of outer space it has an end, and expanding growth will eventually reach these most distant regions and will finally come to an end.

§ 1. unification of the first experiential trinity

The completion of the master universe brings us face-to-face with the second major synthesis. To refresh memory, let us go back and look at the First Cycle of Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis: First Thesis was the challenge of the perfect central creation; First Antithesis was the original imperfection of the seven super­universes; First Synthesis took place when the perfection of the seven superuniverses achieved the perfected status of light and life and attained finite co-ordination with the perfect central creation. This synthesis was reflected on the deity levels by the final emergence of the Supreme Being. In the Supreme Being, a spirt person (God the Supreme) was united with the evolved and experiential sovereign power (of the Almighty) coming up from the time-space creations. This is the completion of power-personality synthesis in relation to total finite reality. (See Appendix VII., § 4. Growth of the Supreme: Growth in the Present Age [148].)

With the appearance of the Supreme a new trinity is able to form in fact. Because of the formation of this new trinity, the First Synthesis becomes transformed into the Second Thesis. This Second Thesis is the First Experiential Trinity, which operates from the new power-base of the new nuclear universe (the grand universe) and reaches out into the outer space creations in conjunction with a host of concur­ring creators and co-operating creatures. The Second Antithesis consists of the cytoplasmic outer space universes. These are the post-Supreme creations of the four outer space levels, and the nature of these creations is quite unlike anything that has yet appeared in the entire master creation. (See Appendix VII., § 6. Post-Supreme Growth [177].)

Second Synthesis. The final completion of the entire master universe is the triumph of the First Experiential Trinity. The Paradise Trinity could have produced an existential universe on the scale of the master creation – but to what purpose? This would have been nothing more than Havona all over again – only on a vaster scale. Such an enormous creation of inherent perfection would probably have added nothing to the quality of actual existential divinity, merely more quantity. The Paradise Trinity did not do this; Havona must have been designed to be just large enough to serve as a proper pattern for all subsequent universes. This quantitative restraint on the part of the Paradise Trinity makes possible the appearance and the collaboration of the First Experiential Trinity, by virtue of which the master universe is organized and established as an experiential creation – not a duplicate of Havona, but something new and different.

The completion of the master universe is due to the successful efforts of the First Experiential Trinity to achieve deity unification – to become a unified deity reality like the Paradise Trinity. The Trinity Ultimate was a qualified reality (a partial, or incomplete, reality) even before the emergence of the Supreme Being. It became a factual reality when the full emergence of the Supreme Being completed its membership. And now, with the completion of the master universe, it has achieved final power-personality synthesis and has become a fully unified reality. This experiential Trinity has achieved destiny. (See Appendix XIX., § 5. The Evolutions of Experiential Trinities [169].)

With the completion of the whole master universe, and with the unification of the Trinity Ultimate, the Second Synthesis becomes possible. This means the unifica­tion of the nuclear grand universe with the cytoplasmic outer universes. This synthe­sis is reflected on deity levels in the final emergence of God the Ultimate, the experiential sovereign of the master creation.

§ 2. emergence of god the ultimate

All during the long time of the growth of the master universe, God the Ultimate has been slowly emerging from the status of an unknowable and incomplete Deity, to the status of a knowable and experientially completed Deity. Mortals have been conscious of the challenge of the Ultimate ever since they entered the finaliter corps. After the attainment of the Supreme, the Ultimate becomes an experiential-Deity quest of the finaliters – and of all other growing beings. From the standpoint of relative time magnitudes, the Supreme can be attained rather quickly; the Ultimate takes much longer.

If we recall our consideration of master universe magnitudes – our symbolic concepts of the “tennis ball” at the beginning, and the “moon” at the end – then we can say that it takes the magnitude of the former to complete the Supreme, and the magnitude of the latter to complete the Ultimate. From the standpoint of relative time, the Supreme emerges rather quickly, in the matter of about an “hour” on the eternity scale; the Ultimate takes quite a bit longer. If we were to say that the super­universes took as long as an “eternity hour” to achieve perfection, then, by compari­son we estimate that the master universe would require “ten-thousand eternity years.” The completion of the master universe and the emergence of God the Ultimate is going to require a respectable amount of time – respectable even by the standards of eternal Havona.

God the Ultimate is the second experiential Deity. What the Supreme is to finite growth, the Ultimate is to the absonite growth. What the Supreme power-personal­izes (unifies) in terms of the grand universe, the Ultimate power-personalizes with respect to the entire master universe. As the Supreme symbolizes (personifies) the Paradise Trinity to finite creatures, so the Ultimate symbolizes the Paradise Trinity to absonite beings. But the Ultimate is more than a super-Supreme Deity; the Ultimate is not only quantitatively larger than the Supreme, but also qualitatively more com­plex.

As the Supreme is ubiquitous (many-where present) so the Ultimate is omni­present (every-where present). The Supreme is truly almighty, the Ultimate is omnip­otent. The reflectivity consciousness of the Supreme stands in contrast to the omniscience of the Ultimate. The ability of the Supreme to correlate and totalize foreknowledge could also be contrasted with the omniscience of the Ultimate. Within the confines of the master universe the Ultimate is truly omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.

It seems reasonable to assume that no creature will find the Ultimate until all creatures find him; this is what we have been told about the Supreme. But, when we do we find the Ultimate, we will be able to understand him. And, in thus understanding, we will also be able to comprehend the Father as Ultimate. This, then, must be the end of the absonite quest for the Universal Father. (See Appendix XVIII., The Nature of God the Ultimate [190].)

Ultimate Deity. With the emergence of God the Ultimate, we have finally reached the completion of the seventh level of total deity function. This is the final creative level. We have studied static Deity, potential Deity, and associative Deity. We have considered how God willed to change from stillness and quiet to the making of a plan for action; and then to execution of that plan, resulting in the appearance of the Son and Paradise; then, in the appearance of the Spirit and Havona. Then we studied creative Deity; the Gods are now drawing on the infinite reservoirs of the Absolutes of Potentiality – the new post-Havona universes are coming into being. After this, we studied evolutional Deity – both the Supreme Being and God the Sevenfold evolve (change and grow) with the passing of time and the participation in experi­ence. And last of all we considered the sixth level of total deity function, the supreme level. On this level there is interaction between the Paradise Trinity, the Supreme, and the Sevenfold, operating in and on the finite level as the Supremacy of Deity. (See summary.)

Now, in our study of Second Synthesis, we observe Deity working on the seventh level, the level of the Ultimacy of Deity. This is the level of the interaction of the two trinities (existential and first-experiential) in association with God the Ultimate. This is the final creative level, and on this level Deity is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. (See Appendix XVIII., § 7. The Ultimacy of Deity [191].)

We can recapitulate: Deity is function on three precreative levels – static, potential, and associative. Then Deity operates on two outgoing levels of action – creative and evolutional. These are followed by two incoming or consolidating levels – supreme and ultimate. Final power-personality synthesis (experiential unification) on these last two levels is achieved by the Supreme and the Ultimate. (See Appendix VI., Universe Ages and the Levels of Total Deity Function [192].)

§ 3. the completed master universe

The completion and the unification of the master universe, from Havona to the last outer space level, is an awesome prospect. The master universe is so very large! Nevertheless, let us attempt a survey of the completed master creation, starting with the inner universes and proceeding outward.

The central universe. Now, the central creation should begin to correlate with the post-Havona universes somewhere near its full potential. The divine universe contains much that is superfinite, and some of these meanings and values should become functionally co-ordinated with the master universe by the end of the Sixth Age. The final emergence of the Ultimate would appear to mark the completion, the end, of all experiential growth of an absonite nature; this must mean the beginning of post-absonite (post-ultimate) growth. Such post-ultimate growth must be super-ultimate, and super-ultimates are absolute – or, at the very least, co-absolute or associable-absolute.

SUMMARY: THE SEVEN LEVELS OF TOTAL DEITY FUNCTION I. PRECREATIVE LEVELS. Since these levels are precreative, they are originally occupied by existential Deity before the organization of the master universe. The Associative and Potential Levels are, later on, also penetrated by experiential Deity, by the Supreme and the Ultimate. (See Second Prologue, Sec. 2. [17], for our original study of these three levels.) (1) THE STATIC LEVEL. Here, Deity is quiet and unmoving. No plans have yet been made. God is self-existent and self-contained. God is! (2) THE POTENTIAL LEVEL. Here God has begun to plan, and these plans have accordingly become possibilities, potentials. We here encounter the Absolutes of Potentiality. (3) THE ASSOCIATIVE LEVEL. Here God has unified the two Absolutes (Qualified and Unqualified) in the Universal Absolute. He has also unified all Deity in the Paradise Trinity. II. OUTGOING LEVELS. These levels are designated as outgoing, be­cause on them, Deity is expansive and distributive. Here Deity is revealed to creatures, and thereon Deity becomes identified with creatures, goes into partnership with them. (4) THE CREATIVE LEVEL. On this level, Deity is beginning to draw upon the Absolutes of Potentiality in bringing new things and new beings into exis­tence. The original expression of creative Deity is God the Sevenfold (See Chapter I., Sec. 2. God the Sevenfold: Creative Deity [33].) (5) THE EVOLUTIONAL LEVEL. On this level we encounter creativity linked with time, creativity in which even creatures can participate. On this level, Deity evolves. (See Chapter II., Sec. 2. God the Sevenfold. Evolutional Deity [37].) III. INCOMING LEVELS. These levels are designated incoming, because on them Deity is consolidating and unifying everything that has taken place. The first such consolidation is on the finite levels; the second on absonite levels. (6) THE SUPREME LEVEL. This is the level of Deity in relation to the finite. On this level Deity consolidates all of the activities of the finite and unifies them in the Supreme. (See Chapter III., Sec. 1. The Emergence of the Supreme Being [42].) (7) THE ULTIMATE LEVEL. This is the level of Deity in relation to the absonite. On this level, Deity consolidates all of the activities of the absonite and unifies them in the Ultimate.  (See Appendix VI., Universe Ages and the Levels of Total Deity Function [192].)

We believe this development will open certain phases of Havona life that have been hitherto unpenetrated by experiential beings, phases which are the post-Ultimate aspects of Havona life. We are informed that life in the central universe extends in range from the finite to the absolute levels of existence. One thing is certain: there is no development within the master universe (or outside the master universe) that is likely to exceed the capacities and the functions of the pattern universe, the central and divine creation. (See Appendix IV., § 4-C. Havona in the Post-Supreme Ages [143].)

The grand universe. The grand universe probably continues under the rule of the Supreme, and under the over-sovereignty of the Ultimate. The superuniverses are now, for the second time, breaking through the experiential barriers to growth.

The first break-through was at the time of the emergence of the Supreme Being, when absonite growth was superimposed on the finite limitations of settled status in light and life. The second break-through is now taking place in connection with the final emergence of the Ultimate, when post-ultimate potentials are superimposed on the experiential limitations of completed absonite growth. This exposes the inner universes to the unfathomable possibilities of co-absolute expansion.

Could we possibly imagine what a planet such as Urantia would be like at this very distant time? Consider an inhabited world, a world that has been long estab­lished in the final stage of light and life; consider this world in relation to a very primitive world, the two worlds are a great distance apart in terms of civilization and culture. We would suggest that a world like ours, in the post-ultimate stage of development, would be more remote from a world in the final stage of light and life than such a settled world would be in relation to a primitive planet of cave-dwelling days. A post-ultimate inhabited world is simply beyond our capacity to imagine!

The master universe is now united under the experiential sovereignty of the Ulti­mate. This absonite sovereign now fully and completely unifies this vast domain, from the innermost circuits of the central creation to the outermost space level – from the Father’s circuit in the near-regions of Paradise to the outer periphery of the Quartan Space Level. (This is also the functional domain of the First Experiential Trinity.)

The outer universes are experiencing the first break-through as concerns the limits of experiential growth, the transcendence of absonite growth-limits. Thus, the entire master universe stands on the verge of post-ultimate growth, and this develop­ment of the master universe very likely completes the story of creation.

The Master Architects have fulfilled their function as universe planners. They are the living blueprints of the whole master universe, the eternal personifications of God’s entire plan for the whole master creation. Now this plan has been consumm­ated – it has become an actual reality – the Architects have fulfilled their ordained function as universe planners. But we would raise the question: have they also fulfilled their function as concerns the internal and intensive growth of the master universe on post-ultimate levels? In other words, even though the Architects have fostered the development of the master creation through the supreme (finite) and the ultimate (absonite) levels of growth, still there remain potentialities of a Supreme-Ultimate nature that appear to be unrealized – even at the close of the Sixth Universe Age.

We might possibly consider that our study of the master universe had reached its logical conclusion at this point in our survey of the events of the remote future. Indeed, our study of the expanding growth of the master universe has come to a close. But this is not the end of the story as concerns internal and intensive growth. As we have already learned, the successful completion of a major synthesis has proved to be the beginning of the transformation of that completed synthesis into a new thesis.

* * *

The growth of the master universe has been followed through the remoteness of all four of the post-Supreme ages – Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth. Let us now look beyond the closing of the Sixth Universe Age; let us look even farther ahead, into the still more remote future, to see what we may learn about the master universe in the post-Ultimate age.

Beginning of the Last Story

BEGINNING OF THE LAST STORY

We can begin, but we cannot finish, the last of the three stories of the master universe. The last story starts with the completed master universe, functioning under the experiential rule of God the Ultimate, and attempts to go on from there.

This story, like the first, is presented in three chapters:

Chapter X – The Final Creative Thesis [78]

Chapter XI – Beginning of the Final Antithesis [82]

Chapter XII – The Impossible Synthesis [89]

This story ends on a note of suspense and perplexity. Experiential creative forces and agencies, having exhausted the possibility for growth on the finite and the absonite levels, are finally baffled by the limitlessness of absolute levels of growth and progression. This is the final challenge, the challenge of infinity!

Chapter X. The Final Creative Thesis

chapter x

THE FINAL CREATIVE THESIS

The Final Nuclear Universe [79]

The Trinity Absolute [80]

The Last Mobilization [81]

Is the master universe an end, in and of itself? We know that its completion is a very distant goal, but it is a final goal? Is there a possibility that this vast creation, itself, is really a nucleus, a nucleus of something that could be even larger? Could cytoplasmic universes exist at some time beyond the outer boundary of the Quartan Space Level?

So far, we have studied two nuclear universes: Havona as the nucleus of the grand universe, and the grand universe as the nucleus of the master universe. We should now consider this possibility: that the master creation, itself, is a nucleus, perhaps the third and the final nucleus.

§ 1. the final nuclear universe

We have used four criteria to identify a nuclear creation, and it will be helpful to recapitulate these:

(a) A nuclear universe is unique in nature; it is not like the cytoplasmic creations that surround it.

(b) The completion of a nuclear universe is associated with the appearance of new deity.

(c) The completion of a nuclear universe is also associated with the factual formation of a new trinity.

(d) The nucleus is transmissive of characteristics to the cytoplasmic outer creations through the activities of the new trinity, the con­curring creators, and the associated administrators, who come out from the nuclear universe to serve in the new outer creations.

The Havona nucleus. In the identification of Havona as a nuclear universe (in Chapter IV., § 1 [49].) we observed: the central creation is existential; it is the only such creation, no other creation could be like it because none are eternal. The existential Infinite Spirit appeared simultaneously with the appearance of existential Havona. The Paradise Trinity formed with the appearance of the Infinite Spirit. Hereditary characteristics of divine perfection were transmitted to the cytoplasmic superuniverses by God the Sevenfold, and by the other ministers and administrators who came out from the Paradise-Havona system to serve in the cytoplasmic superuniverses.

The nuclear grand universe. In identifying the grand universe as the second nuclear creation, we observed: no other creation could be like the grand universe because this domain is associated with the evolution of the Supreme Being, and all subse­quent creations will be post-Supreme in nature. The experiential Supreme emerged simultaneously with the perfection of the experiential superuniverses. The First Experiential Trinity was able to form as a factual reality with the completed emergence of the Supreme Being. Hereditary characteristics were transmitted from the nucleus to the cytoplasmic outer creations by the First Experiential Trinity, and by the host of concurring creators and associated creatures from the grand universe who served in these outer creations.

The nuclear master universe. Now, let us apply these same criteria to the completed master universe to see if it does, or does not, constitute a nuclear creation:

(a) Unique nature. The master universe is radically different from any possible creation that might follow it. No subsequent realm could be like the master universe, because it is the space-stage whereon the Ultimate grew and finally emerged. Any later-appearing cre­ation would have to be post-Ultimate in nature.

(b) Deity appearance. The completion of the master universe is concur­rent with the final emergence of God the Ultimate.

(c) Trinity formation. The final emergence of the Ultimate makes it possible for the Second Experiential Trinity to form as a factual reality.

(d) Transmissive. The Second Experiential Trinity has the capability so to mobilize the total resources of the master universe as to trans­mit experiential meaning-values of the finite and the absonite to any possible outer and cytoplasmic creations that might develop in the future.

These comparisons seem to indicate that the master universe is not a final end-product; that it is a nuclear creation and, as such, is similar to the grand universe and to the central universe. The master universe appears to be the nucleus of some domain that must be external to it and even greater in size.

§ 2. the final creative thesis: the trinity absolute

The completion of the third nuclear universe, in association with the factual formation of the Second Experiential Trinity, would appear to constitute the third (and final) creative thesis – God’s final challenge to all creation. This new challenge is made real by the emergence of a new trinity, the Trinity Absolute, that is able to form in fact when God the Ultimate appears on the scene of action. The corporative members of this Trinity are:

(a) The Supreme Being, the first experiential Deity.

(b) God the Ultimate, the second experiential Deity.

(c) The Unrevealed Consummator of Universe Destiny.

This Trinity encompasses the sum total of all experiential attainment in the whole master creation, plus the addition of the unpredictable factor represented by the presence of the Destiny Consummator.

Let us evaluate the members of this Trinity, the Second Experiential Trinity. They represent and power-personalize almost everything that we have been studying thus far in our examination of the master universe.

(a) The Supreme Being. This experiential Deity enjoys a unique relationship to the two experiential Trinities; he is a member of both. (Chapter VI., § 1 [57].) We believe, however, that his relationship to these two Trinities takes place on different levels. Let us go back to the completion of the Second Universe Age to re-evaluate the Supreme, and then compare this evaluation with the Supreme after the close of the Sixth Age, after the completion of the master universe.

(1) At the close of the Second Age, the Supreme Being has completed the power-personality synthesis of the total finite. He has become a contactable and approachable Deity. His growth has exhausted the potentiality of the total finite. It is as such a total-finite Deity that he functions as a member of the First Experiential Trinity.

(2) At the close of the Sixth Age, the Supreme Being is something a great deal more than finite Deity. He has been personally growing and expanding on the absonite level during all of the long ages of the outer space universes. He has been doing this as a deity partic­ipant in the efforts of the Trinity Ultimate to unify. He has also been doing this as a personal participant in the affairs of the outer universes. At the close of the Sixth Age, we would suggest that the Supreme has undergone and has completed the whole of the absonite growth that will characterize the four outer space levels.

If this line of reasoning is valid, then the Supreme Being, who is a deity-member of the First Experiential Trinity, is a post-finite being. The Supreme Being, who is a deity-member of the Second Experiential Trinity, is a post-ultimate being. This is an interesting point, because that which is post-ultimate must be absolute – perhaps co-absolute, associate-absolute, or quasi-absolute – but not sub-absolute. (See Appendix XIX., § 3 [193].)

(b) God the Ultimate. The completed emergence of the Ultimate means that he has incorporated within his being all of the experiential meanings and values of the entire master universe; that he has unified these with the original absonite values of Paradise origin which must have been imparted to him initially by the Paradise Trinity. As with the Supreme in relation to the total finite, so the Ultimate has completed the growth process in relation to the total absonite. The final emergence of the Ultimate, then, is an indication of the exhaustion of the possibilities for further growth on the absonite level. This means that the Ultimate, like the Supreme at this point, is “post-ultimate;” and, as we have already noted, that which is post-ultimate cannot be sub-absolute. (See Appendix XIX., § 3 [193].)

(c) The Consummator of Universe Destiny. This is just about the most mysterious being that is of record in the Papers. We know virtually nothing about him, except that he is concerned with the consummation of destiny. He is the third member of the Second Experiential Trinity and, so far as we know, may be pre-existent to both the Supreme and the Ultimate. (He may occupy a position in the Second Experiential Trinity that is analogous to that of the Corps of Master Architects in the First – both are pre-existent to the other two members.) The Destiny Consummator obviously has something to do with the attainment of destiny; but, concerning his possible contribution to such destiny we cannot even speculate. (See Appendix XIX., § 6 [194].)

It should now become apparent why the Second Experiential Trinity is named the Trinity Absolute. Its members appear to be absolute, at least we may be sure that they are post-ultimate. This Trinity has a scope of function that includes the whole master universe and appears to project into the space regions outside of it. The First Experiential Trinity is ultimate in function; the Second is absolute. The objectives of the First Experiential Trinity were threefold:

(a) Its own unification

(b) The completion of the master universe

(c) The emergence of God the Ultimate

The objectives of the Second Experiential Trinity likewise appear to be threefold:

(a) The unification of the Trinity Absolute

(b) The completion of the creations outside the master universe

(c) The final emergence of God the Absolute

These objectives appear to be limitless and, therefore, may be most difficult to attain. Nevertheless, the Trinity Absolute is the post-ultimate result of the comple­tion of the entire master universe, and the final challenge to the citizens of the post-Ultimate age.

§ 3. the last mobilization

The idea of the possible mobilization of the total resources of the entire master universe is quite beyond imagination. Nevertheless, we submit that something along this line is bound to happen under the direction of the Trinity Absolute.

The first great mobilization took place in the “dawn of time.” This is when the citizens of the perfect creations of eternity were challenged by the opening of the imperfect superuniverse. This was the Supreme Adventure, the adventure out into the superuniverse space level, the adventure of the Second Age.

The second mobilization followed the beginning of the Third Universe Age, when the total resources of the grand universe were marshaled by the Trinity Ultimate for the invasion of outer space. This has been named in the Papers, the Ultimate Adventure.

Now, we are trying to visualize the third mobilization – the mobilization of all the resources of the master universe – all the resources from Havona to the Quartan Space Level. This is much too much to try to visualize, but we do have the belief that some such marshaling of resources will herald the proclamation of the Absolute Adventure.

We have come quite a way in our study. We have looked back to visualize the Supreme Adventure; then forward, to try to picture the Ultimate Adventure; and now, at last, we are trying to imagine the final adventure – the Absolute Adventure.

Chapter XI. Beginning of the Final Antithesis

chapter xi

BEGINNING OF THE FINAL ANTITHESIS

The Post-Ultimate Age [83]

The Adjustment to Eternity [84]

Post-Ultimate Growth: The Transcendence of Old Limits [85]

The Capacities of Finaliters [86]

The Concept of the Cosmos Infinite: The Unending Cytoplasm [87]

The Adjustment to Infinity: An Analogy [88]

When we begin our study of the Final Antithesis, we are, for the first time, lacking certain familiar guideposts that have been very helpful in the past. We have passed beyond the confines of the outermost space level and beyond the times of the Sixth Universe Age. There are no Architects of the Master Universe to serve as guides to our thinking about that which is outside of the master universe. Again, we must devise terms to deal with these times and places that are so very far removed from Here and Now.

Those events that take place after the eternity-appearance of the central creation are denominated “post-Havona.” In like manner, we have designated the events that follow the completion of the grand universe and the emergence of the Supreme Being as “post-Supreme.” Now that we are dealing with post-master universe events (those transactions that take place after the final emergence of God the Ultimate) it would appear proper to designate them as “post-Ultimate.”

§ 1. the post-ultimate age

We have observed that the universe ages differ quantitatively; they seem to become longer as we follow them, in sequence, from the Second to the Sixth Age. Some of them also differ qualitatively; the Second Age is uniquely different from those that follow, it is the age of the growth of the Supreme. The four ages of the outer space levels are qualitatively alike; we have called them the post-Supreme ages, they are the ages after the emergence of the Supreme, the ages of the experiential growth of the Ultimate. Now, in the post-Ultimate age, we have reached a new era, one that is qualitatively different from all that has gone before. Suppose we take inventory of just how it differs from the post-Supreme ages: (Appendix XX., § 1 [195].)

(1) The master universe has completed its growth.

(2) The Supreme has completed his post-finite (absonite) growth.

(3) The First Experiential Trinity has become fully unified.

(4) God the Ultimate has finally emerged.

(5) The Second Experiential Trinity has formed as a factual reality.

(6) Absonite growth-potential has become exhausted.

(7) The Absonite quest for the Father as Ultimate has been completed.

There is another manner in which the post-Ultimate age will differ from the other universe ages: it apparently has no ending in time. Perhaps we might think of it as the Final Age. In this respect it is like the First Age – both are eternal. The First Age has no beginning in time, although it ends in time; the Final age has no ending in time, although it begins in time.

Post-Ultimate epochs. An eternal age does not necessarily have to be a “grey blur” of monotonous, endless, unpunctuated time – something that just goes on, and on, and on! We believe it likely that Final Age will have many epochs that will present successive goals that actually will be attainable – but each of these attainable goals will unfold to reveal a new and more distant goal to be attained.

The seven Planetary Mortal Epochs are the major divisions of the history of an inhabited world. The seventh epoch is designated “The Era of Light and Life” – apparently it goes on and on. But, when the Papers examine this final epoch in detail, we discover that it is divided into seven stages of progressive advancement in the era of light and life. We venture that a more detailed study of the seventh stage of light and life would disclose that it, too, has subdivisions – perhaps it is also divided into seven units – seven substages of progressive growth.

This is how we visualize the post-Ultimate age: it is a period of unfolding epochs, each one of which will originate and will terminate, will begin and end – all but the very last one of a given series. This final epoch will always introduce a new series of growth-stages that will point to a new and larger horizon of goal attainment. (See Appendix XX., § 4 [196].)

§ 2. the adjustment to eternity

The Papers tell us when mortal ascenders (in the Second Age) pass through the final transit sleep, between the inner Havona circuit and the Isle of Paradise, they become the “children of eternity.” Then, they are no longer creatures of time. This seems like a reasonable introduction to the quality of eternity, but hardly an adequate basis for a comprehension of the quantity of eternity.

We would suggest that a feeling for the quantity of eternity may grow as a slow evolutionary process in the consciousness of mortals, ascenders, and finaliters. We believe this process starts Here and Now. Consider the following line of reasoning:

Objective time (time-by-the-clock) is one thing; it goes on, sixty-seconds-to-the-minute and sixty-minutes-to-the-hour, day after day – never changing. Subjective time (time-in-our-consciousness) is something very different; this sort of time is a variable – not a constant. When we get bored, time drags; when we are experiencing pleasure, time is speeded up – it passes quickly.

Subjective time varies from day to day, depending on what we are doing and how we feel; but it also exhibits a long-term trend: it goes faster the longer we live. This is because we interpret subjective time. We evaluate it. We “feel” this kind of time, and we feel it in terms of how long we have lived. We also feel it in terms of how far ahead we can look, can look with “feeling” into the future. When a human being has lived forty years, or more, he can look back into the past for at least thirty years with remembrance and feeling. This equips him to look forward for an equal amount of time – he has a “feeling” of a future time-span of thirty years. This should give him a time-base of sixty years with which to evaluate the passing present time – thirty years back, plus thirty years forward.

From this standpoint, our ability to comprehend time and to deal with time is growing at twice the rate of the actual passage of time – the passage of time-by-the-clock. This is reflected in the long-term change in our “feeling” for time – time-in-our-consciousness; this kind of time seems to go faster as we grow older. A summer vacation is a “small slice out of eternity” to a ten-year old; three months is a rather short time to a person of forty.

We have all had this experience, there is nothing new about it. What may surprise us, later on, is the doubling-up of this rate of change afer Adjuster-fusion. We are informed that, among other things, the Adjuster contributes to the partnership something that is called experience-and-memory of past eternity. With this in mind, let us consider an ascender who has just recently fused with his Adjuster. There is all of this unending memory of total past eternity and experience that is suddenly open to his consciousness. What can he do about it? We believe that he will be able to absorb only as much of this as he has capacity to absorb. In other words, how much of it can he understand? How much time has he consciously experienced? If he is on the mansion worlds and is one thousand years old, then he should be able to com­prehend an additional thousand years of past eternity experi­ence and memory from the Adjuster. If he can do this, then he can reach back two thousand years into the past. This should give him a feeling for an equal length of future time – two thou­sand years. He now has a four-thousand-year time-base with which to deal with time – two thousand years in the past, plus two thousand years in the future. But this ascender has consciously lived for only one thousand years. This means that his feeling for time, his ability to evaluate the present in terms of the combined past-future, is growing at four times the rate of the actual passage of time.

We submit the theory that finite creatures are completely time-bound only to the extent that they are completely imprisoned within the present moment. We begin to escape from the limitations of time as we are able to associate the present moment with more of the past and the future; as we draw upon the past for experience; as we forecast the consequences of conduct into the future; and as we combine these estimates of the past-future into wisdom – wisdom which is exercised in the making of decisions that lead to action in the “present” of time. If there is any merit to this line of reasoning, then we, as human beings, are escaping from time at a rate that is twice as great as the passage of time. As Adjuster-fused ascenders, our rate of escape may be doubled; it may be four times as fast as the passage of time.

When we are a million years old we should have a time-base (a past-future comprehension) that is four million years. When we are a trillion years old (about as old as the Andronover nebula that gave origin to our sun) we will have a four-trillion year time-base. When we enter the post-Ultimate age we may be five trillion times as old as Andronover – five trillion-trillions of years old. We should then have a time comprehension that is four times as great as this. This is the age we have calculated for the entire master universe – five trillion-trillions of years – and when we have lived through it we should be able to comprehend something that is four times as long.

If we can grow in our comprehension of time at a rate that is four times as fast as its actual passage, then, given long enough time even the quantity of eternity is going to become partially comprehensible – at least it will be a good deal less formidable. (See Appendix XX., § 3 [197].)

§ 3. post-ultimate growth: the transcendence of old limits

Experiential growth beyond the Ultimate level of reality is a real break-through as concerns all preceding growth limits. This would also be the third time that such growth limits have been transcended. Each of these episodes has been caused because God has subtracted something from pre-existent conditions. Let us go back and re-examine the three instances in which God has challenged existing creation by the establishment of a new need in a new experiential domain:

(a) Post-Havona Needs. The first challenge that issued from God to all creation was when he promulgated the superuniverses and sub­tracted inherent perfection from them – when he started them as finite and imperfect creations. This was the challenge to Paradise and Havona and, at the same time, the opportunity for the perfect beings of the eternal realms to engage in the adventure of new service-ministry in the imperfect superuniverses. In meeting this challenge, Havona rose above the limitations of inherent perfec­tion and added evolutionary growth and experience to its original and divine perfection.

(b) Post-Supreme Needs. The second challenge that God made to (then) total creation was the challenge to the citizens of the grand universe, when he opened the outer space levels and subtracted from these domains all possibility for finite experience. In the meeting of this challenge, the grand-universers rose above the limitations of finite growth and entered upon the progression of post-Supreme growth – absonite growth.

(c) Post-Ultimate Needs. The third, and (possibly) final challenge issuing from God to all creation, would appear to be his challenge to the citizens of the completed master universe. We believe God will challenge them with the prospect of the Cosmos Infinite – a domain from which he will have subtracted all possibility for finite and absonite growth and experience. If the citizens of the master universe can meet this challenge, then it seems likely they will embark upon the final adventure, the Absolute Adventure; the attempt to compensate the experiential beings native to the final universe for complete lack of capacity to have both finite and absonite experience. In meeting this challenge the citizens of the master universe may embark upon growth of an absolute nature.

In each instance of the transcendence of old limits the process starts when God challenges the citizens of a nuclear universe. The transcendence of old limits is accomplished when the citizens of that nucleus respond to the challenge by their successful service-ministry in the new and external cytoplasmic realms (See Appendix XXI., § 4 [198].)

§ 4. the capacities of finaliters

What are the prospects of the finaliters in the post-Ultimate age, the age in which all finite growth and all absonite growth is finished and done with? The mortal finaliters have come a long way from the Paradise ascent in the Second Universe Age, the quest for a finite comprehension of the Universal Father. They have grown and progressed through the post-Supreme ages, through the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Universe Ages – all the way through to the completion of the master universe, the emergence of God the Ultimate, the finding of the Universal Father as an ultimate experience, and to the final exhaustion of all absonite growth potential. What are the prospects for still further growth? The question of “further growth” is really formidable. After finite and absonite growth is finished, then all relative growth is finished; when relative growth is finished, all that could possibly remain is absolute growth.

We submit that the prospects for the finaliters are good. There is not a great deal of evidence for this in the Papers, but there is quite enough to give good support to this opinion. The finaliters have the potential for unending growth:

(a) First of all, they have personality which they have received from God, and such a personality has capacity for expression and growth on the finite level. It also has capacity for expression and growth on the absonite level; and, finally, it has the capacity to penetrate the absolute level – not to encompass this level, but to penetrate it and to grow there.

(b) In addition to these unfolding dimensions of personality, a finali­ter has fused with a fragment of God; and when an Adjuster fuses with an ascending mortal, the Adjuster contributes to the partnership an element of absoluteness. This aspect of absolute­ness is, at the time of fusion, a potential quality that can hardly be realized or expressed immediately; but it will surely be realized in the distant future. This quality of absoluteness is limited or quali­fied as to extent. We deduce that this potential of absoluteness is limited as to quantity of external self-expression but not as to quality of internal self-realization.

These two endowments, one inherent in personality, the other deriving from the Adjuster, both come from God – so it is not beyond belief that each could carry the potential for absolute growth. We accordingly deduce that the finaliters certainly do have the capacity to grow in the post-Ultimate age. We further deduce that nothing can ever stop their growth. We finally deduce that they will never complete all the growth possible in this age, from a quantitative standpoint; they will never reach the end of all growth.

Finaliters appear to have the capacity to attain a destiny that is qualitatively absolute, but not quantitatively infinite. We believe that they are destined to find God as absolute, but never to know all of God as absolute – always more, and evermore, but never all.

§ 5. the concept of the cosmos infinite: the unending cytoplasm

If Havona is the nucleus of the grand universe, and if the grand universe is the nucleus of the cytoplasmic universes of the four outer space levels, then the master universe is the nucleus – of what? This study submits that the master universe is the potential nucleus of a possible Cosmos Infinite – the unending cytoplasm, the final antithesis.

The Cosmos Infinite would have to be the third and final antithesis. It must be different from, and unlike, everything that has ever appeared before it, from the circuits of Havona to the realms of the Quartan Space Level. The cental universe appears to be precreative, the master universe seems to be creative (and evolution­al), perhaps the final universe of infinity is super-creative.

We are sure that the postulated unending cosmos will be experiential, but it will also be post-finite and post-absonite. Perhaps it will be existential-experiential. This is not a new concept, for the Deity (Qualified) Absolute is described as being both existential and experiential.

Even the thought of an endless universe is not impossible to reconcile with the concept of the limits of space at a given moment of time. All we have to do is to assume that space is increasing faster than creation, and we can accommodate a limitless creation. We do know that space does extend beyond the present known border of the master creation.

The Papers do not have very much to say about this potentially infinite universe of the distant future, but they are quite definite in forecasting its sometime appear­ance. (See Appendix XXI., The Cosmos Infinite. [199])

§ 6. the adjustment to infinity: an analogy

We advance the opinion that the adjustment to infinity, like the adjustment to eternity, is a slow process. We do not suddenly look out over some starry expanse at some distant moment and say, “Well, so this is infinity – at last!” We have the belief that we will slowly become used to infinity, although we may be quite well aware of the milestones that will mark our progress from the finite to the super-finite.

When we deal with words that have no meaning – words like absolute, eternal, and infinite – we will do well to sacrifice some fact for more truth; better that we develop a little actual feeling for these concepts than drown in a flood of ponderous language. With this thought in mind, the following story is offered as a concept-symbol that may possibly add something to our feeling of the way in which a finite creature might be adjusted to infinity.

* * *

Suppose that you are a young chap, a student at some fine university. It is a grand experience; you have the feeling of growing and of reaching out into new fields of knowledge and accomplishment. One of the things you most enjoy there is football. The school has a very good team and it is no easy job to become a member, or to win your letter as a member of this team. You show up faithfully for practice, every day, without fail. You work very hard to develop real skill. In time, you qualify for the second team, then as a substitute on the first team, and finally you win a coveted position as a first-string member of the team. It has been a long time coming and it is a great pleasure, a grand feeling of accomplishment, to make the team.

This is the day of the “big game.” This is the moment of the crucial play – the play that means victory or defeat. You are the receiver of the long, long forward pass that somehow gets off in spite of the opposition swarming all over the quarter­back. It’s a good pass and you have the ball. Now there is only one man who could stop you, and somehow you twist sideways and elude the tackle. The field is clear, clear all the way ahead, and you are vaguely conscious of while chalk lines passing underfoot as you carry the ball down the field and across the goal line for a touch­down! The kick for point is made and now the game is over, and all the way to the locker room success and victory are sweet to the taste.

Back in the locker room you experience the warm feeling of closeness and camaraderie that comes when men who have done things together, are together. There is a renewal of the feeling of self-realization and accomplishment, of being a peer among your fellows; like having a seat at the “round table” of the knights of old, and sitting there legitimately. You have earned your place and have won your letter. You have “arrived.”

Later, as you are leaving, having showered and changed, the coach taps you on the shoulder and says, “Could you spare a minute? There’s something I’d like to show you.” Of course you say, “Yes.” Off you go in the twilight together, walking slowly back toward the playing field. By the time you are crossing the field it has gotten quite dark, and finally you are standing on the goal line – just a few yards away from the spot where you made the winning touchdown. You turn to the coach with a question, “What was it you wanted to show me?” “Just a minute,” he replies, “I’ll turn the light on.” Bending over a small hatch that is countersunk in the turf, working at the fastening he finally gets it open, reaches inside and throws a switch. Floodlights go on, and suddenly you perceive that the goal line you crossed for the touchdown is actually the goal line of another playing field, a field that stretches on and on – clear out of sight!

You turn to the coach, “Gosh! How big a field is it?” He replies, “It’s a ten-thousand yard field. I thought you’d like to see it – after today.” You ask, “Do I have to play this field now?” “No, not until you are ready. You’ll probably want to stay with the hundred-yard field you are used to – at least for a while. Besides, I’d like to have you help me get the boys in shape. But, whenever you do feel like it, there’s a big field to play on.”

And so, for a while, you enjoy being an “old boy.” You are a graduate student and most of your time is spent teaching your juniors, and helping the coach with the team. Until – until there comes a day when you get to thinking about that ten-thousand- yard field. It’s been most pleasurable being an “old boy,” being an assistant coach; but, what would it be like to try out for a team that played on a field like that, a field a hundred times as large as the old one? What would it be like?

Curiosity is the everlasting despoiler of contentment. The urge for adventure will always win, in the long run. There comes a day when you have a little talk with the coach, say goodbye to the undergraduates, have a farewell dinner, and move on to try out for the team that plays on the “big field.”

It takes much longer to make this team – ever so much longer. But you are the persevering type, and eventually you do make the first team. In enough time history will repeat itself; and this very thought flashes through your mind as you are running down the field to receive one of the longest passes ever attempted. It comes off cleanly, you have the ball and here is no one ahead. You pound down the field, white chalk line after white chalk line passing underfoot; and it’s over! It’s a touch­down!

After the game, back in the locker room, you have that same good feeling of belonging, of accomplishment, of having measured up to a challenge; the same good feeling of being a part of the team, of being a part of something that is bigger than you are, of being worthy to be there, and of having earned it all fair and square.

Just as you are leaving the locker room, you have an odd feeling of “having been here before.” It is a feeling as though something old and familiar were about to happen. You experience a sensation almost like a release of tension when the coach strikes step with you and says, “Say, there’s something I’d like to show you.” Walking along in silence together, it becomes apparent that you are retracing your steps to the playing field. Then you stop, turn to the coach, and say, “This one is a million yards, isn’t it?” And the coach replies, “Yes, but how did you know?”

Chapter XII. The Impossible Synthesis

chapter xii

THE IMPOSSIBLE SYNTHESIS

The Basis for Experiential Deity and Trinity [90]

The Barrier of Infinity, The Impasse of the Absolutes [91]

The Incompletion of the Trinity of Trinities [92]

In our study, we have traced the history of the master universe from the “dawn of time” until after the close of the Sixth Age. We have seen the completion of the first major division of this history in the First Synthesis, the emergence of God the Supreme. Then we studied the second major division of this history and saw it culminate in the Second Synthesis, in the emergence of God the Ultimate. It is now time to ask these questions: Why do these experiential Deities evolve and emerge? Why have two such Deities emerged? Will there be a third?

§ 1. the basis for experiential deity and trinity

As usual, God’s decisions and plans are at the bottom of this whole phenomenon of the experiential Deities and Trinities. Those plans, back in past eternity, make the appearance of these Deities and Trinities quite inescapable. However, to answer our questions (why experiential Deities? and Trinities?) we will have to go all the way back to the First Universe Age, even back to the Zero Age.

Perhaps we can better understand the outworking of God’s purposes by analyzing what actually happened. In this way, we can better understand what seem to be his plans in relation to experiential Deity and Trinity. Consider these steps:

(1) Existential synthesis of potentials. When God produces the Absolutes he synthesizes them in the Universal Absolute, so that in eternity they are one Absolute. This is an existential synthesis – it is not an experiential synthesis.

(2) Non-synthesis of actuals. When God produces the deity thesis of the Eternal Son, he also produces the antithesis of the Son – non­spiritual and nonpersonal Paradise. God does not synthesize these two absolute actualities. He does co-ordinate them by mind, but otherwise leaves them separated, as a problem to be solved by the later-appearing experiential Deities and Trinities.

(3) Thesis upon thesis. Since the Original Son is the Absolute Person, he becomes the pre-thesis of Deity; God, as the Father of this Son, becomes the pre-thesis of Deity. Then God joins with the Son in trinitizing the Spirit, who thus becomes the conjoint thesis of Deity. All three unite in the Paradise Trinity, which becomes the undivided thesis of Deity. This is a superimposition of thesis upon thesis – not the creation of a synthesis. It has the effect of com­pletely unifying existential Deity and of completely separating it from non-deity, except as functionally co-ordinated by mind.

(4) Sub-absolute reality. With the appearance of Havona, God projects two new levels of reality, in addition to the absolute level on which everything is taking place. These two levels are the finite and the absonite levels, making three altogether: finite, absonite, and absolute. In the First Age, and in Havona, all three levels are existential; nothing yet has appeared of an experiential nature.

(5) Experiential reality. In the dawn of time God projected a new kind of reality, experiential reality. Thus began the Second Universe Age. The Paradise Trinity had (presumably) always pervaded the three functional levels of reality – finite, absonite, and absolute. Consequently, on each level there would be a reflection of the presence of the Trinity. It seems reasonable to assume that with the creation of experiential reality these Trinity-reflections become the potentials of the three experiential Deities: on the finite level, the spirit person of God the Supreme; on the absonite level, God the Ultimate; on the absolute level, the potential of an experiential person in the Deity Absolute – the potential of God the Absolute.

(6) The synthesis of power and personality. These three potentials of Experiential Deity – Supreme, Ultimate, and Absolute – can become personalized as actual Deities only by solving the problem that God has deliberately left unsolved: What to do about the Isle of Paradise? Or, how can total actual reality be consolidated (synthesized) on the finite, absonite, and absolute levels? This problem (apparently) can be solved only by the process of power-personal­ity synthesis, which means putting total power together on each level and co-ordinating (unifying) it with the spirit person of Deity by the action of mind. In other words, mind achie­ves the conquest of energy-matter and then becomes subordinated to spirit direc­tion by virtue of the power of personality choice.

(7) Finite power-personality synthesis. The Supreme Creators work with the Paradise Deities (in God the Sevenfold) and the result of their success in the time-space creations is the convergence of the inflowing power of the Almighty Supreme. This power, this sovereign power, unites with the spirit person of the Supreme by virtue of the co-ordinating action of mind. When the total potential of the grand universe has been exhausted, then this synthesizing process has reached completion; the superuniverses are perfected, the Supreme has completed his growth, and he emerges as a newly-contactable Deity.

(8) Absonite power-personality synthesis. The completion of the Supreme Being brings the First Experiential Trinity into factual existence. It is the function of this Trinity to bring about the completion of the master universe. The First Experiential Trinity is unifying itself, and in the process, is unifying (synthesizing) the total reality of the master creation – physical, mindal, and spiritual. When the master universe has become a completed creation God the Ultimate will have completed his growth. God the Ultimate is the power-personality synthesis of all the experiential power of the whole absonite level of reality in all the wide-spreading master universe.

(9) Absolute power-personality synthesis. God existentially synthesizes the absoluteness of potential power and potential personality in the synthesis of the three Absolutes – in eternity and in infinity they are one. The problem remaining for experiential solution is the experiential synthesis of these Absolutes, which becomes the problem of the Second Experiential Trinity, the Trinity that comes into being with the appearance of God the Ultimate.

This outline, in many respects, is a recapitulation of the entire study of the master universe. It reasonably answers our questions: Why the experiential Deities? and Trinities? It also sets the stage for our consideration of the difficult problem that confronts the Second Experiential Trinity; the problem of attempting to bring about the experiential synthesis of the Absolutes.

§ 2. the barrier of infinity, the impasse of the absolutes

The problem of the unification of the Second Experiential Trinity, the achieve­ment of the final power-personality synthesis, can be simply stated: The three Absolutes of Potentiality are infinite and the Second Experiential Trinity is not. This Trinity Absolute cannot be infinite because it embraces derived Deities – the Supreme and the Ultimate – experiential Deities derived from the existential Trinity, the Paradise Trinity.

The scope of power-personality synthesis has been growing from stage to stage and from level to level. The Supreme took in the total finite; the Ultimate took in the total absonite; and now, the Second Experiential Trinity is “face to face” with the total absolute – but this is infinite! The Supreme encompasses the total of the finite meaning-values of the grand universe; the Ultimate synthesizes the total of the absonite meaning-values of the master universe; God the Absolute (could he be experientialized) would take in the total of the experiential meaning-values of an unending universe – the Cosmos Infinite.

The Trinity Absolute, as its name suggests, is really absolute in possible function. We have, at last, reached the classical paradox: What happens when the “irresistible force” of an absolute trinity meets the “immovable fact” of eternal infinity?

The unification of experiential Deity has been total on each level, nothing is left out. Things, meanings, and values; matter, mind, and spirit; facts, ideas, and relationships; all are encompassed in the power synthesis of the emerging Deities of experi­ential nature. This process can proceed to completion on the finite and the absonite levels because these levels have limits – just as the grand universe and the master universe have limits – each has an “outside.” On the final level, however, we encoun­ter a situation that has no limits. Where is the “outside” of an infinite creation?

The final power-personality synthesis would require the experiential unification of the Deity and the Unqualified Absolutes; it would mean the experiential unifica­tion of the Absolutes that are now existentially unified. This is an infinite project – it has no end, no limit, no outside, no beyond! Physically, this project would require the material completion of the Cosmos Infinite; spiritually, it would require the final experiential exhaustion (actualization) of the infinity potential in the Deity Absolute; personally, it would require the total unification of these two infinity-potentials (deified and non-deified) in one comprehensible and contactable Absolute. This is not possible! Infinity does not readily lend itself to quantitative exhaustion.

No sub-infinite trinity can do (experientially, what the infinite trinity actually did do (existentially). The Trinity Absolute may begin this project, may continue with it indefinitely, but will never finish it – will never achieve such unification. This means that God the Absolute will not be able to emerge from the infinity potential of the Deity Absolute.

This is the stalemate of The Barrier of Infinity; this is the stalemate of The Impasse of the Absolutes.

§ 3. the incompletion of the trinity of trinities

Regardless of the frustration of the Trinity Absolute, its factual appearance does make it possible to bring about the grand consolidation of total Deity (Trinity) in the union of the three Trinities. This union produces a multiple trinity, a three-fold trinity, the Trinity of Trinities. This is a unique deity union – not a trinity of three Deities, but a trinity of three trinities, and a trinity of three levels of deity association. Three trinities are united on the First Level, three experiential Deities are trying to unite on the Second Level, and some final deity reality must be present on the Third Level.

In considering the Trinity of Trinities, let us first review the natures of the three Trinities, whose union will bring this threefold Trinity into factual existence:

(a) The Paradise Trinity. The Original Trinity is existential, absolute, infinite, and unified.

(b) The Trinity Ultimate. The First Experiential Trinity is experiential, sub-infinite, sub-absolute, and unified.

(c) The Trinity Absolute. The Second Experiential Trinity is experiential, sub-infinite, absolute and not unified.

Here at last, is the objective of the long, long, growth and development of the master universe: the formation of a complex trinity union that takes in all of Deity – existential and experiential. This is the thesis of theses, the final deity thesis.

Since this Trinity also has a threefold vertical dimension, we should consider the nature of the Second Level. There are three Trinities on the First Level, and three experiential Deities are projected for the Second Level. Two-thirds of the membership of the Second Level is factually present, God the Supreme and God the Ulti­mate; but we are lacking God the Absolute – we do not have even a limited person­alization of the Deity Absolute. The experiential personalization of God the Abso­lute is dependent on the unification of the Second Experiential Trinity. The unifica­tion of this Trinity requires the exhaustion of all infinity – but infinity cannot be quantitatively exhausted. Therefore, while the Trinity of Trinities can form, because its constituent Trinities are factual realities, it is not going to be possible to complete the Second Level of this threefold Trinity. And, if the Second Level cannot be completed, there is no use even speculating about what might possibly constitute the Third Level. Again, our study is frustrated by The Barrier of Infinity – by The Impasse of the Absolutes.

This appears to be the end of the story of the master universe. This gigantic experiential creation has the capacity to generate two experiential Deities and two experiential Trinities, and to provide for the factual formation of the Trinity of Trinities. But here we are stalemated. The Trinity Absolute is not able to unify, God the Absolute cannot therefore power-personalize, and the threefold Trinity cannot complete the factual formation of its Second Level.

God is not thus frustrated. He inhabits eternity, and accordingly approaches infinity from the inside – existentially. But experiential Deity must approach infinity from the outside; and to complete the experiential penetration of all infinity would require another eternity.

We have come all the way round the circle. In order to exhaust infinity it is necessary to reach the ends of eternity; but eternity is infinite, just as infinity is eternal. Even the Paradise Trinity could not experientialize the Deity Absolute; it could do this only if it were, itself, an experiential trinity. Even the Trinity of Infinity cannot do the nondoable.

Conclusions

CONCLUSIONS

The Purpose of the Master Universe [94]

The Answers to Seven Questions [95]

Themes, Principles, and Patterns [96]

We have completed our study of the master universe. It has been a long journey in concept since we first considered the dawn of time and he beginning of the Second Universe Age. We have traced the development of the master creation from the First Creative Thesis of Perfection (Havona in relation to the imperfect super­universes) – through the Finite Story, with the emergence of the Supreme Being and the perfecting of the superuniverses. We have explored the whole of the Absonite Story – starting with the Second Creative Thesis (the grand universe in relation to the outer space creations) and have followed it to the final emergence of the Ultimate and the completion of the vast master universe. We have twice seen the completion of the cycle of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis; we have observed the beginning, but not the ending of the third cycle. We have come a very long way and our study proper has drawn to its logical conclusion.

§ 1 the purpose of the master universe

The very first paragraph in the Introduction to this study consisted of several questions. We would do well to repeat them here:

“Actually, what is the master universe? Do we really have much of an under­standing of what the Papers mean when they speak of it? Do we have any proper understanding of how God’s purposes are unfolding in the master universe? Do we have an appreciation of the purpose of the master universe, itself?

At the conclusion of our study proper we should have arrived at some fairly valid answers to these questions – at least valid from the human perspective. We have learned something about what the master universe is, in terms of physical size; and we have estimated the duration of the universe ages, in terms of time. But, as concerns God’s purpose in the master creation and the purpose (or purposes) of master universe, itself, we have probably done very little more than scratch the surface of the whole concept.

Nevertheless, we have (rightly or wrongly) developed certain concepts about the whole master creation, the reasons for its existence, and God’s purposes that are unfolding in it. Based on our study we would submit that the master creation is the arena of God’s adventure into the realms of relative reality, sub-absolute reality – finite and absonite reality. In the master creation God is adventuring, and a part of his adventure is to see if he can win the allegiance of creatures such as us, and win it by the compelling power of love alone.

One who spoke for God, said “He who would save his life will lose it . . .” There is likely to be little merit in working out a plan for bargaining with God in terms of constructive morality, contrived ethics, good works, or “planned survival.” But, to respond to the challenge of love (the challenge to partake of divine perfection) could lead us into the immediate adventure of the Paradise ascent, and thence to the eternal adventure of exploring the infinity of God and the infinity of God’s love.

From eternal Paradise and Havona God projected himself, existentially, in past eternity. The master universe appears to be the base, the foundation, from which he seems to intend to project himself, experientially, in future eternity.

From a creature’s viewpoint, the master universe is our larger home. It is the place where we are born, grow, decide, ascend, find God, complete finite destiny, and go on to absonite levels of growth and achievement. When we have attained the fullness of absonite destiny we will probably have “come of age.” Then we will likely be mature citizens of the master creation. We will have attained a status which should qualify us to participate in the final experiential adventure, the eternal adven­ture, the quest of the Father as absolute. From the larger perspective, the entire master-universe career is one of preparation for the final challenge and the last adventure – the Absolute Adventure. Some day we will look back on all of this, and know in fact what we now visualize in faith. The master universe is the spawning ground of the children of experience who will someday participate in the establish­ment of the unending universe of infinity.

From the perspective of Deity, the master universe appears to have four pur­poses: the evolution of the two experiential Deities and the emergence of the two experiential Trinities. Without the two experiential Deities there could be no forma­tion of the two experiential Trinities. And, without the two experiential Trinities there could be no organization of the Trinity of Trinities. The deity-function of the master universe is the generation of the Supreme Being and the Trinity Ultimate, as well as the emergence of God the Ultimate and the Trinity Absolute. All this makes possible the final reassociation of total actual Deity in the existential-experiential Trinity of Trinities.

§ 2. the answers to seven questions

Toward the end of the Introduction to this study we asked seven questions about the master universe. At the Conclusion of the study, it is fitting to see how we have fared in working out the answers to these questions. Let us repeat our original questions, and then take inventory of the answers as this study has worked them out.

(1) How large is a space level? Do they compare in size?

We have determined that space levels very greatly in size. The grand universe is comparatively small in comparison with the outer universes. The space levels increase in size as we move outward from the superuniverses to the fourth outer space level. The progressive increase in size is very great.

(2) How long a time is a universe age? Are some ages longer than others?

We have found that a universe age is quite a long time. We have esti­mated that the Second Age (the one in which we are now living) is around fifty-thousand times greater than the age of the nebula that gave origin to our sun – and this nebula is about a trillion years old. It also appears the outer space ages will be of much longer duration than the present age – very much longer.

We have also seen that all universe ages are not qualitatively alike. The First Age is unique; it is a past-eternal age. The Second Age is also unique; it is the age of the growth of the Supreme Being. The four ages of the outer space levels can be grouped together because they are qualitatively akin; they are post-Supreme Ages (after the growth of the Supreme). They are the ages of the growth of the Ultimate. We have projected that there will be a Final Age, a post-Ultimate age; it is also unique – a future-eternal age, unending.

(3) How are the evolutions of the experiential Deities and the experi­ential Trinities related to the space levels and to the universe ages?

We have discovered that there seems to be a close relationship between these developments. All universes are not alike; some are nuclear universes, others are cytoplasmic universes. We have identified three successive creations that are nuclear in relation to external domains that are cytoplasmic:

(a) The central universe as the nucleus of the superuniverses.

(b) The grand universe as the nucleus of the outer universes.

(c) The master universe as the nucleus of the Cosmos Infinite.

A nuclear universe is associated with the appearance of new Deity and new Trinity; existential Deity and Trinity in relation to the existential central creation, experiential Deity and Trinity in relation to the experiential grand universe and master universe. A nuclear universe functions as a nucleus in relation to the external cytoplasmic creations that are dependent on it.

(4) What themes, patterns, and principles can we discover?

We have found a number of these. We will list them after the inventory of these answers to the seven questions we asked ourselves in the Introduc­tion.

(5) How is man, as a finaliter, related to all this?

We have observed that the finaliters have the capacity to go on through all projected post-Havona growth: Supreme growth, post-Supreme growth, and even post-Ultimate growth. It appears that the finaliters have the personality and the needed attributes that will enable them to continue growing forever – they will never encounter absolute or final limits to growth. They may never be able to attain an infinite goal – a goal that is expanding faster than they are growing – but neither will they ever be stalemated or frustrated in their endless progression toward such a goal.

(6) Is the master universe the final creation?

We have reasonably established that the master universe is not the final creation. It appears to be the third (and perhaps the final) nuclear universe. It must exist as the nucleus of some greater cytoplasmic creation that will be external to it.

(7) What are the Final Limits? What is the Final Goal?

We cannot find the answers to these questions within the limits of our study of the master universe. But we have determined that the Final Limits and the Final Goal are external to the vast master creation.

These were the seven questions we asked ourselves at the start of this study; these are the answers we have worked out.

§ 3. themes, principles, and patterns

While we were unable to work out an answer to the seventh question (concerning the Final Limits and the Final Goal) within the confines of this study, still, we have been able to work out a number of answers to the fourth question: “What themes, principles, and patterns can we discover?” There are a number of themes, principles, and patterns that seem to run through the creative design of the master universe. Let us take an inventory of our findings:

I. Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis.

The principle of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, seems to characterize all of the history of the master universe, even its antecedents. An original proposition is made, it is then contrasted by the formulation of a stimulative anti-proposition, and the two are then unified to the benefit and expansion of both.

II. The Transformation of Synthesis.

We have observed that a major synthesis (of a thesis and an antithesis) is signal­ized by the emergence of new deity. This is an expression of the synthesis. The emerging of such deity sets in motion a chain of events that results in the formation of a new trinity. This new trinity is the new thesis, a new challenge that arises out of the transformation of an old thesis.

III. Nuclear and Cytoplasmic Universes.

All universes are not alike; some are nuclear in relation to others which are external and cytoplasmic. We have observed that a nuclear universe is associated with the appearance of new deity and new trinity. Such a creation sustains a nuclear relationship to the creations that are external to it. Havona is the first nucleus, in relation to the cytoplasmic superuniverses. The grand universe is the second nucleus, in relation to the cytoplasmic outer universes. The master universe is the third nucleus, the final nucleus, in relation to the cytoplasmic Cosmos Infinite.

IV. Cytoplasmic Need Expands Nuclear Function.

Each new cytoplasmic creation suffers from the lack of something that is (or was) present in the nuclear universe. The superuniverses lack Havona perfection; the outer universes will lack finite experience. This cytoplasmic need challenges the nuclear creation to expand in service ministry. In meeting this challenge, the nuclear creation rises above the growth-limit that had been previously attained.

In the present universe age, Havona adds evolutionary growth to the static condition of inherent and eternal perfection. In the next universe age, the superuniverses will add some unknown growth potential to the present evolutionary growth-limit that is represented by established status in light and life. What the Cosmos Infinite might add to the nuclear master universe could be the opening of co-abso­lute growth potential to a creature-creation that had completely exhausted all possi­bilities for finite and absonite growth.

V. Power-Personality Unification.

All experiential growth seems to involve the union of power and personality. This is true on deity levels in the evolution of the Supreme and the Ultimate. It is also true on creature levels, in human experience. On creature levels, the successful unification of power and personality seems to depend on the subordination of matter-dominating mind to spirit direction by virtue of the free-will choice of the personal creature. On deity levels, the union of power and personality seems to require the consolida­tion (within experiential Deity) of all things, meanings, and values (all matter, mind, and spirit reality) of the level concerned – be it finite, absonite, or absolute.

VI. Creative Associations of Dual-Deity

We have observed that Dual-Deity partnerships function on the creative frontier, that Trinity administration takes over after universes have been organized and perfected. We have also observed the transition in the Dual-Deity associations: from Father-Son in the First Age, to Son-Spirit in the Second, and to Spirit-Supreme in the ages of the outer space creations. We have noted that this evolution of these dual associations apparently goes on to the Supreme-Ultimate and beyond, but we cannot trace these dual relationships beyond the Spirit-Supreme within the confines of the master universe.

VII. Divergence and Convergence.

The diversification of reality seems to be favored because it is a technique of avoiding the monotony of sameness. On the deity level, this is illustrated by the uniquely different natures of the Seven Master Spirits. These seven Spirits personal­ize seven unique expressions of the unity of Paradise Deity. These divergent expressions converge (unite) finitely in the Supreme, absonitely in the Ultimate.

In terms of the universes this is illustrated by the uniqueness of each superuniverse, each one being uniquely different from all others because each is reflective of the unique nature of its supervising Master Spirit. This uniqueness is fostered until the consolidation of the superuniverses after the full emergence of the Supreme Being. Subsequent to his emergence there is a convergence, a consolidation, of the seven cultures of the supercreations. (On the planetary level, each of the evolution­ary races is encouraged to develop its own individualistic culture; later, all of these diverse cultures are blended in the Adamic civilization.)

This divergence may grow in complexity in the outer space creations. There are seven diverse environments and cultures in the superuniverses; there may be 49 in the Primary Space Level, and still more in the succeeding space levels.

VIII. Organic Consistency.

The universe is a living organism and it exhibits qualities of organic consistency. Certain actions give rise to certain repercussions that are inherent in the acts them­selves. This appears to be true because the universes do function, in many ways, like living organisms. Omnipotence, for example, does not mean that the nondoable can be accomplished. The acts of God are consistent, and the functions of his co-ordinates are likewise consistent.

IX. Trinitization as an Escape from Infinity.

We did not actually derive this principal from our study of the master universe – it is pre-master universe, and (perhaps) post-master universe. At the end of this study we encountered The Barrier of Infinity and The Impasse of the Absolutes. This produced a stalemate in the efforts of the Second Experiential Trinity to unify. In the Prologue to our study, we observed that God escaped from the limitations that were inherent in his infinity status by the technique of trinitization. In the Epilogue, we will encounter a similar situation – but with a difference. God was “breaking out” of infinity; the experiential Deities will be trying to “break in.”

We submit this has been a profitable study.

Epilogue in Eternity

EPILOGUE IN ETERNITY

Our study of the master universe began with a Prologue in Eternity. In it we attempted to examine certain precreative acts of existential Deity which set the space-stage for the whole ensuing story of the master creation: the mighty outward expansion of Paradise creativity and divinity, and the subsequent consolidation of the experiential results of this expansion on Supreme and on Ultimate levels of reality.

In the Epilogue to this study, we will set ourselves the task of trying to visualize certain possible super-creative acts of experiential Deity which may possibly break The Barrier of Infinity and, to a certain extent, circumvent The Impasse of the Absolutes.

This Epilogue in Eternity is presented in three parts:

First Epilogue – The Final Universe Age [98]

Second Epilogue – The Depths of the Final Age [104]

Third Epilogue – After the Ending of Endings [110] - We end, as we began, with the Infinite.

First Epilogue - The Final Universe Age

first epilogue

THE FINAL UNIVERSE AGE

Quality and Quantity [99]

Experiential Deity Trinitization [100]

A New Transformation of Synthesis [101]

Beginning of the Cosmos Infinite [102]

Formation of the Trinity of Trinities [103]

Our study of the master universe ended on a distinct note of frustration! The irresistible force of an absolute trinity has met the immovable fact of an eternal infinity. The result is stalemate.

The unification of the Trinity Absolute is an endless project. The Trinity of Trinities is in a state of incompletion. On the First Level, one of its trinity-members is not unified; on the Second Level, one member is missing altogether. The Trinity Absolute cannot emerge from the potentials of the Deity Absolute. And, until God the Absolute emerges, the Second Level of the Trinity of Trinities cannot be completed.

The master universe is being mobilized (as a nuclear universe) in readiness for the development of the cytoplasmic domains that will be external to it, but there are no such cytoplasmic domains – the space outside the master universe is empty. The Force Organizers, who have been the organizers of all the nebulae of the master universe, are the agents of the Architects of the Master Universe, and it is doubtful that these Architects have plans that extend beyond the perimeter of the master creation.

§ 1. quality and quantity

Perhaps we may be able to continue our study a little farther if we make a distinction between that which is undiluted and absolute in quality and that which is universal and infinite in quantity. In this consideration, we would like to associate the word “absolute” with the concept of undiminished quality and the word “infinite” with the concept of unlimited quantity.

Given these distinctions we may approach the question of final destiny from a new angle. We submit that absolute destiny may be attained, if it is recognized that the quality of an absolute meaning-value can be attained in a sub-infinite manner. This implies an undiminished quality of attainment, associated with a definite limitation as to the universality, or the quantity of attainment.

A simple illustration: A human being could hardly (even in a lifetime) breathe all the air on the planet. But this limitation as to quantity does not mean that such a person can breathe no air at all. In this situation, the limit as to quantity has nothing whatso­ever to do with the fact of breathing, nor with the quality of the air that is breathed.

Havona, as an example. When the Father and the Son trinitized the Spirit and produced Havona, they gave full expression to the existential quality of divine perfection in the central creation; it is the perfect pattern universe. But the Deities did not give infinite expression to the quantity of this existential universe. Had they done so, then all (eternal) space would have been filled with a universe of existential perfection. The Father and Son chose to limit the quantity of creation in Havona; they limited it to a billion worlds and to a circumscribed area in space. They gave full expression to the quality of divine perfection, but still limited their handiwork as to the quantity of expression. They did not project the master universe as an existential creation, neither did they eternalize the Cosmos Infinite by fiat. They were satisfied to produce a pattern universe that is undiluted as to quality of perfec­tion but is strictly sub-infinite as to quantity, or size.

By thus limiting Havona the Paradise Deities made possible all the latter, and experiential, developments of the post-Havona creations. By similarly limiting the quantity, or universality, to which absoluteness can be experientialized, the same Deities have made provision for eternal growth – growth with no limit.

After all, there is really only one perceivable alternative to endless growth, and that is a kind of growth that does come to an end. What happens then?

§ 2. experiential deity trinitization

In the Third Prologue to this study we gave rather careful consideration to the First Universe Age, to the existential-eternal age of Havona. In this Epilogue we should give equally careful consideration to the Final Universe Age, to the experiential-eternal age of the Cosmos Infinite. The two ages – First and Final – have points of comparison: the First has an ending time, but no origin in time; the Final has an origin in time, but no ending in time. The First Age is a past-eternal reality; the Final Age is a future-eternal reality

Trinitization at the dawn of the First Age. We have noted certain analogies between the First and the Final Age. Let us now go back to the very dawn of the First Age, and take inventory of actual reality. We find that actualized reality consisted of two existential Deities plus a base of operations. We note the existence of the Father, the Son, and the Isle of Paradise. What is the act of the Father and the Son that inaugurates the First Age? The Father and the Son unite as the Father-Son in trinitizing their Deity equal, the Infinite Spirit. The repercussions of that action are the appearance of Havona, and the formation of the Paradise Trinity – the existential thesis of undivided Deity.

Trinitization at the dawn of the Final Age. We believe that universe history will repeat itself. At the dawn of the Final Age there is an analogous inventory of actualized reality – actualized experiential reality. At the dawn of the Final Age there are two experiential Deities and a base of operations. The two Deities are the Supreme Being and God the Ultimate; the base of operations is the completed master universe. What will these two experiential Deities do that will inaugurate the Final Age? We submit, cosmic history will repeat itself. That which occurred in the existential sense at the dawn of the First Age will be duplicated experientially at the dawn of the Final Age. We believe the Final Age will be inaugurated when the Supreme and the Ultimate unite as the Supreme-Ultimate in trinitizing their Deity equal, God the Absolute. We believe the repercussions of that action will be the beginning of the Cosmos Infinite and the formation of the Trinity of Trinities – the existential-experiential thesis of undivided Deity.

The Father and the Son are existential and infinite Deities, hence the results of their trinitizing union is existential and infinite – God the Spirit. The Supreme and the Ultimate are experiential and sub-infinite Deities, hence the result of their trinitizing union will also be experiential and sub-infinite – an experiential and limited expression of God the Absolute. The Supreme and the Ultimate are sub-infinite, but they are also almighty and omnipotent. They are fully capable of mobilizing the grand total of all the actualized experiential reality that is represented in the completed master universe – from the “tennis ball” to the “moon.” Such a mobilization of total earned experiential power should result in the sub-infinite appearance of God the Absolute.

The original trinitization is existential, and appears to be pre-creative. The final trinitization is experiential and seems to be super-creative. The ultimate level is the final creative level; the Supreme-Ultimate and God the Absolute are post-Ultimate in appearance, hence would appear to be super-creative manifestations of experiential Deity.

A symbolic picture. This trinitizing action of the Supreme and the Ultimate is symbolized in the writer’s mind by the following picture:

There are two mighty and experiential brothers, a greater and a lesser, carrying an extraordinary battering ram. This battering ram is massive with all the power-potential that has been earned in the achievement of the experiential sovereignty of the entire universe – the master universe. The two brothers are approaching a formidable wall that is labeled, “Infinity.” And, as they arrive before this wall, the greater speaks to the lesser, saying, “Swing hard, brother! We are going through!” They know full well they can never demolish this wall, but they equally know they can, and will, breach it. Consider, just consider, the massiveness of the battering ram they are swinging; it is weighted with all the power-personality mobilization of all the experiential things, meanings, and values of the entire universe.

§ 3. a new transformation of synthesis

The trinitizing action of the Supreme and the Ultimate is, in our opinion, a new kind of transformation of synthesis. Back in Chapter V [200]., we considered what hap­pened when an old synthesis is transformed into a new thesis. We observed that this takes place, after the completed evolution of finite reality, when the synthesis in the Supreme gives rise to a new thesis in the First Experiential Trinity. This same process again takes place after the completed development of the absonite, when the synthesis in God the Ultimate gives rise to a new thesis in the Second Experiential Trinity. In our previous study of the Supreme and the Ultimate we considered them, respectively, the Synthesis of the Total Finite, and the Synthesis of the Total Absonite.

In their trinitizing union, these two experiential Deities seem to be transforming themselves into two new experiential theses – the Supreme as the Thesis of the Total Finite, and the Ultimate as the Thesis of the Total Absonite. Their trinitized expression of God the Absolute should be a third thesis – the (limited) experiential Thesis of the Absolute.

Here, we encounter what appears to be a superimposition of thesis upon thesis. Is this an unprecedented happening? Have we observed something like this in our study of past eternity? We have, of course, observed a similar transaction: something analogous to this takes place in the connection with God’s escape from infinity.

In emerging from infinity God constitutes the Son the absolute thesis of (existential) Deity and, as father of the Son, constitutes himself the pre-thesis of Deity. In their trinitizing union, the Father-Son constitute the Spirit the conjoint thesis of Deity. This is a threefold superimposition of thesis upon thesis, and it culminates in the Paradise Trinity – the undivided thesis of (existential) Deity.

The union of the Supreme-Ultimate in the trinitizing of God the Absolute, appears to be a (sub-infinite and experiential) duplication of the eternity action of the Father-Son in trinitizing the Spirit. If this is valid reasoning, then God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute constitute the threefold thesis of experiential Deity. Wherein is this threefold thesis unified? We believe it achieves union in quality (although limited in quantity) on the Second Level of the Trinity of Trinities, and in the process of unification expands outward in the factual formation of this threefold Trinity – the undivided thesis of total Deity – existential and experiential.

We have drawn a parallel between the action of the Father-Son and that of the Supreme-Ultimate. They do indeed appear to be similar, but they are not the same. They are analogous but not homologous. The Father-Son in trinitizing God the Spirit is in process of emerging from infinity; the Supreme-Ultimate in trinitizing God the Absolute is seeking to gain entrance to infinity. What the Father-Son accomplishes in the total (quality and quantity) sense, the Supreme-Ultimate may achieve in the quality-sense only. God the Absolute emerges as an absolute reality in terms of quality, but in terms of quantity (universality) and infinity he is a sub-infinite manifestation of the Absolute.

§ 4. beginning of the cosmos infinite

We have the opinion that the trinitized appearance of God the Absolute will be the most profound occurrence in the history of the universes since the eternity appearance of the Infinite Spirit. In our opinion, there are close comparisons be­tween the appearance of these two Deities. The Infinite Spirit is the result of the First-Deity-Trinitization; God the Absolute would appear to be the product of the Final-Deity-Trinitization.

When the Infinite Spirit comes into existence, he personalizes as a creative corollary of the appearance of the eternal universe. We have the idea that the appearance of God the Absolute will also be attended by the appearance of the beginning of the infinite universe. The first creation is actually eternal; the final creation is potentially infinite.

How is the Cosmos Infinite likely to be projected by, and in, the trinitizing of God the Absolute? We believe the Supreme and the Ultimate are capable of mobili­zing physical as well as spiritual potentials. In our opinion, their union in the Final-Deity-Trinitization is a total union – nothing is left out. This trinitizing effort on the part of the two experiential Deities is total. This total includes all mobilizable things, meanings, and values (physical, mindal, or spiritual) – all experiential reality. We accordingly have the opinion that God the Absolute will appear concurrently with the materialization of the innermost zone of the Cosmos Infinite.

What will this “first installment” of an infinite universe be alike? As we have already considered (in Chapter XI., § 5 [87].), this universe will be like nothing that has ever appeared in the entire master creation. For the first time the transcendental plans of the Architects of the Master Union will be transcended. No creature is likely to have an accurate pre-picture of the beginning of the infinite universe. We believe there are aspects of Havona that could be used to deduce the character of this new domain, but these are existential and absolute phases of eternal Havona and this new universe is experiential. Albeit, we believe the central creation has its phases of existential absoluteness that are co-ordinate with anything experiential that might appear in the Cosmos Infinite.

As to the size of this new domain – we can only guess. Let us go back to our estimates of the magnitudes of the master universe. We likened the grand universe (the presently organized and inhabited creation) to a tennis ball and, on the same scale, compared the master universe to an over-sized moon. This is a comparison of something that is two inches in diameter with a space body that is 3200 miles in diameter. We would guess the innermost zone of the Cosmos Infinite would be related in size to the size of the master universe, as the master universe is related to the grand universe. In other words, if the master universe were the tennis ball, then the innermost zone of the Cosmos Infinite would be something like the moon. And this is only the innermost zone – perhaps by far the smallest.

We have a reason for this speculation. In each past instance the nucleus of new cytoplasm has been very small in size when compared with the outlying domain. Havona must be very small in comparison with the size (but not mass) of the superuniverses. We have computed that the grand universe is quite small when compared with the master universe. Now, when we consider the master universe as the nucleus of some exterior creation we believe the same relationship will exist; the nuclear master universe will be small in comparison with even the bare beginning of the Cosmos Infinite.

§ 5. formation of the trinity of trinities

The appearance of God the Absolute has another parallel with the appearance of the Infinite Spirit: both result in the formation of a trinity. The Infinite Spirit com­pletes the existential personalization of Deity and makes it possible to form the existential Trinity – the Paradise Trinity. The appearance of God the Absolute is the (limited) appearance of the third experiential Deity and factually completes the Second Level of the Trinity of Trinities.

Back in Chapter XII [201]. of the study, we observed that the Trinity of Trinities could form as a factual reality, but could not complete its formation because one of the three members of the Second Level was missing – God the Absolute. With the appearance of this third experiential Deity, we can take inventory of the Trinity of Trinities:

(a) On the First Level, there are three Trinities: the Paradise Trinity, the Trinity Ultimate, and the Trinity Absolute.

(b) On the Second Level, there are three Deities: God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and (the limited expression of) God the Abso­lute.

(c) On the Third Level, there is something or someone, but we can­not be sure as to just what or who.

We believe the Third Level of the threefold Trinity will be occupied by the Universal Absolute just so long as God the Absolute will always be unfinished, incomplete, and limited – in the quantity-sense. Were he to complete his experiential growth and development we would reach the outside of infinity and would be beyond the end of eternity.

Second Epilogue - The Depths of the Final Age

second epilogue

THE DEPTHS OF THE FINAL AGE

The Third Experiential Trinity [105]

Experiential Growth of God the Absolute [106]

Final Associations of Dual-Deity [107]

Final Levels of Total Deity Function [108]

The mirror images of the first and the final levels [109]

The trinitization of God the Absolute, and the massive break-through into the Cosmos Infinite, opens unending vistas of growth and progress beyond the confines of the master universe – out into the final expanse of the limitless universe. The breaching of The Barrier of Infinity opens all future eternity to endless specula­tion; so much so, that it becomes needful to build some conceptual dykes lest we be flooded by a veritable ocean of speculative and subjunctive possibilities – “ifs” – that could go on and on into final absurdity. In an effort to make the Final Age and the Cosmos Infinite somewhat intelligible we propose to establish three concept-bound­aries to our thinking:

Stage One. The first stage of the Cosmos Infinite we identify with its inner­most zone, that part of the endless universe that factualizes (actualizes) as a reper­cussion of the trinitized appearance of God the Absolute. We also associate this phase of development with the Dual-Deity association of the Supreme-Ultimate.

Stage Two. We visualize the second stage of the Cosmos Infinite as an intermedi­ate stage of development, a stage following the factualization of the innermost zone. This phase of intermediate development may, or may not, have an end, a conclusion. We associate “stage two” with the Dual-Deity partnership of the Ultimate-Absolute.

Stage Three. This final stage of the expansive growth of the never-ending cosmos may be a purely theoretical consideration. However, if it never becomes a factual reality, it still may be a valid concept. We associate this final stage with the final associa­tion of Dual-Deity, the association of Absolute and Father-Infinite – the “completion” of the cycle of reality.

What we are trying to do, in establishing these classifications of three stages of progress, is to create some framework for thinking about the endless universe. It is conceptually unimportant as to whether there are three, or seven, or a million divisions. We elect three classifications because it is the minimum number that will accommodate the presentation of the concept of beginnings, intermediaries, and destinies – of inception, realization, and consummation.

For concept purposes we believe three categories of thinking are necessary. There may be, and probably will be, any number of additional categories that will character­ize and punctuate the progress of the events of the Final Age and the unfolding development of the final universe.

§ 1. the third experiential trinity

Let us go back to our study of the formation of the Trinity of Trinities and look once more at the Second Level of this multiple Trinity. On the First Level there are three Trinities: existential, first-experiential, and second-experiential. On the Second Level we have the Supreme, Ultimate and the trinitized expression of God the Absolute. We advance the proposition that this Second Level of the Trinity of Trinities is also a trinity – that it is the Third Experiential Trinity.

If we look again at the origin of the Paradise Trinity we will find it has a striking resemblance to the origin of the Third Experiential Trinity:

In the beginning, God the Father and God the Son unite as the Father-Son in trinitizing God the Spirit, the Third Person of existential Deity. The three persons of existential Deity then unite as the existential Trinity – the Paradise Trinity.

At the ending, God the Supreme and God the Ultimate unite as the Supreme-Ultimate in trinitizing God the Absolute, the Third Person of experiential Deity. The three persons of experiential Deity then unite in the final experiential Trinity – the Third Experiential Trinity.

This comparison is too striking to be ignored! It certainly appears that God the Absolute sustains a relationship to the Supreme-Ultimate that is analogous (but not homologous) to the relationship of the Infinite Sprit to the Father-Son. Much as God the Spirit completes the final existential actualization of Deity, so does God the Absolute begin the final experiential actualization of Deity.

Here is a vital difference: The Spirit completes the existential actualization of Deity; the trinitized expression of the Absolute begins the final experiential actualiza­tion of Deity.

What is the significance of this difference? It is just this: The original deity-trinitization (by the Father-Son) is an infinity-action; it is an action that has no limits, no bounds. The final deity-trinitization (by the Supreme-Ultimate) is an action that is qualitatively absolute, but is not quantitatively infinite. The trinitized expression of God the Spirit is actually infinite; the trinitized expression of God the Absolute may be potentially infinite, but it is actually less than infinite because neither the Supreme nor the Ultimate (nor even the Supreme-Ultimate) are factually infinite.

Just what is the difference between being potentially infinite and being actually infinite? It is the difference between growth and non-growth. The Infinite Spirit is eternalized as a “finished being.” God the Absolute is trinitized as an actualization of a part of the infinity of the Deity Absolute, the Qualified Absolute, which we studied in the Second Prologue. The Infinite Spirit could hardly grow; God the Absolute, as trinitized, stands on the threshold of limitless growth – eternal growth into infinity.

The trinitized appearance of God the Absolute begins the unification of the Third Experiential Trinity; just as the analogous appearance of God the Spirit completes the unification of the existential Trinity, the Paradise Trinity. We believe the Third Experiential Trinity represents the last experiential outreach (as trinity) toward infinity and the Infinite. This Trinity, like each of the Trinities, is unique – different. It is the only one that is composed of experiential Deity and nothing else. It is like the Paradise Trinity in that its third member is trinitized; it is unlike the Paradise Trinity in that it is a growing, expanding, and unifying Trinity. It is experi­ential like the Trinity Ultimate, but it is not unified like the Trinity Ultimate. This Third Experiential Trinity must be absolute, like the Second Experiential Trinity, but it sustains a unique relation to the Second because this Second Trinity is the one whose unification is supposed to bring God the Absolute into being. Having been trinitized, God the Absolute is now in a position to collaborate with this non-unified Second Experiential Trinity, whose unification is an experiential prerequisite to his origin. Finally, the Third Experiential Trinity is the only one that is internal to another, being the Second Level of the Trinity of Trinities.

§ 2. the experiential growth of god the absolute

The trinitized appearance of the third experiential Deity gives us additional ground for conjecture as concerns further growth of an experiential nature. We project three such relationships of growth:

(a) The Trinity Absolute. The relationship between the trinitized expression of God the Absolute and the Second Experiential Trinity is unique. Here we have the factual personalization of God the Absolute. Obviously, this Deity should not be in existence prior to the unification of the Trinity Absolute; however, by the technique of trinitization God the Absolute comes into being and is now collaborating with the non-unified ancestral Trinity – the Second Experiential Trinity.

(b) The Supreme-Ultimate. Much as the Spirit is intensively expressive of the Father-Son partnership, so do we believe the trinitized expression of the Absolute will be extensively expressive of the Supreme-Ultimate partnership. God the Absolute will respond when the Supreme-Ultimate functions and will grow in collaborative relationship with this Dual-Deity association.

(c) The Deity Absolute. The most unique growth relationship of all is that which may be sustained between God the Absolute and the Deity Absolute. We should recall that the potentials of the Absolutes are infinite. We should further recall that the trinitized ex­pression of God the Absolute is sub-infinite. This mans God the Absolute has been actualized out of a part, but not all, of the infinity potential of the Deity Absolute. What then, is the relationship of God the Absolute to that (infinite) portion of the Deity Absolute which was untouched by the trinitizing-outreach of the Supreme-Ultimate?

We visualize this peculiar relationship as follows:

God the Absolute is real, factual, and actual. He exists in relation to much reality that is external to himself, but which is not yet real, not yet factual, and not yet actual. This external reality (as deity reality) is the potential of Deity Absolute and (as undeified reality) the potential of the Unqualified Absolute. God the Abso­lute will expand outward into this potential. This expansion is the equivalent of growth. Since the external potential (the room for growth) is infinite, such growth is unending – eternal. Since this growth is unending, it can never be completed; this means that experiential growth can never be completed.

We deduce that God the Absolute will grow; that his efforts to grow experiential­ly will augment the experiential efforts of the Supreme-Ultimate and will contribute to the unification of the Trinity Absolute. Since God the Absolute is, in essence, an existential-experiential Deity, his efforts to grow will also augment the efforts to unify on the part of the existential-existential Trinity – the Trinity of Trinities.

§ 3. the final associations of dual-deity

We have, all along in this study, observed the working of a basic principle which might be expressed as follows –

Dual-Deity pioneers; Trinity consolidates.

Now that we have passed beyond the confines of the master universe does this principle still hold? Does it still apply when we enter the domains of infinity? When we enter the never-ending universe? In attempting to answer this question let us go back and recapitulate what we know (what we have been told) about the partnerships of Dual-Deity. We are informed that there are (or will be) six of these interesting dual associations:

(1) The Father-Son partnership

(2) The Son-Spirit partnership

(3) The Spirit-Supreme partnership

(4) The Supreme-Ultimate partnership

(5) The Ultimate-Absolute partnership

(6) The association of Absolute and Father-Infinite

These six associations of Dual-Deity can be classified in four possible categories: eternal, master universe, post-master-universe, and future-eternal. These associations start as existential, become increasingly experiential, then move in the direction of experiential-existential. We would classify the first association, the Father-Son, as eternal. The next two partnerships, Son-Spirit and Spirit-Supreme, relate to the post-Havona creations of the master universe. And the final association, Absolute and Father-Infinite, would seem to be a future-eternal association.

At this point in our study we would like to coin a term – a term that is expressive of this series of Dual-Deity associations. We believe this series is expressive of something that might be called “The Processional of Initiative.” The thought we are trying to convey is this: God seems to be concerned with sharing the initiative of creative self-expression with his co-ordinates, to the fullness of their capacity to function.

God initiates Reality by becoming the Father of the Original Son, then joins with this Original Son in the creation of Creator Sons. These Creators, as Sons, enjoy the full experience of sonship in relation to the Paradise Deities, but they are also destined to experience the relationship of fatherhood; they become experiential Fathers in their evolutionary universes.

In the original relationship (of Father-Son) the Spirit personalizes as the co­operative creative agency for the Havona-expression of the Father-Son union. In the next relationship (of Son-Spirit) the Spirit, through his Creative Spirits, becomes the “second creator” in relation to the evolutionary local universes. Thus do the Creator Sons and God experience the relationship of Father in and to their local universes; while the Spirits of the Spirit enact the role of concurrent, co-operative, and co-ordinate creators in these same realms – thus experiencing in time and space what the Eternal Son “experienced” in eternity and on Paradise.

The third phase of “The Processional of Initiative” in the partnership of Dual-Deity appears to relate to the post-Supreme ages of the outer space levels of the master universe. Since this relationship is enshrouded in the unknown future of time, we cannot be sure as to the ultimate results of this partnership – the partnership of Spirit-Supreme. It would appear, however, that in the outer space levels the Spirit is to assume a new and primary initiative; and this initiating Spirit is to be seconded in all creative efforts by the Supreme. (At this time, the Supreme Being will have completed his evolutionary growth and will be fully active as an actualized experiential Deity.) We have not speculated as to the end results of this Dual-Deity associa­tion, because the Papers give us no warrant for such speculation. But we doubt not that the unrevealed fruits of this partnership will be meaningful to the further growth of the universes, and to the outworking of God’s multiple plans.

We are unable to trace the associations of Dual-Deity beyond the partnership of the Spirit-Supreme within the confines of the master universe. The Conclusion to our study proper recognized this limitation. However, in this Epilogue we are presuming to look far beyond the master creation; and with such a widened horizon of concept we can attempt to go further in the examination of these intriguing dual-associations.

Let us, then, consider the final associations of Dual-Deity. These last three partnerships are post-master-universe because the very first involves the Ultimate, and the Ultimate does not make his factual appearance on the space-stage of action until after the completion of the entire master creation. It would appear that these three partnerships will “pioneer” the expanding creative frontier as it continues to push outward into the depths of uncharted space.

(a) The Supreme-Ultimate. We regard this Dual-Deity partnership as analogous (but not homologous) to the partnership of the Father-Son. The Supreme-Ultimate is like the Father-Son in the following ways:

(1) This Dual-Deity association trinitizes the Third Person of Experi­ential Deity; the Father-Son partnership trinitizes the Third Per­son of Existential Deity.

(2) The trinitizing action of the Supreme-Ultimate (probably) initiates the beginning of the universe of infinity; the Father-Son partnership actualizes the universe of eternity.

(3) The Supreme-Ultimate joins with God the Absolute to form the final experiential Trinity; the Father-Son unites with God the Spirit to form the existential Trinity – the Paradise Trinity.

The partnership of the Supreme and Ultimate is unlike the partnership of the Father and Son in a most important particular: The Father-Son partnership initiates the personalization of existential Deity, realizes the factualization of the existential universe, and consummates the unification of the existential Trinity; the Supreme-Ultimate partnership initiates analogous things (in the experiential sense) but does not fully realize them, and by no means consummates them. The Father-Son begins, realizes, and consummates; the Supreme-Ultimate begins, may partially realize, but does not consummate.

We associate the Supreme-Ultimate with Stage One in the development of the Cosmos Infinite, and picture this stage as one in which the fast core of the endless universe will make its appearance. We visualize this newly-appearing domain as coming into existence concomitant with the trinitizing of God the Absolute, and believe this gigantic realm will utterly dwarf the master universe in size. We have the opinion that this innermost zone of the Cosmos Infinite will relate (in size) to the master universe, as the master universe relates to its nucleus – the grand universe.

We submit the idea that the appearance of God the Absolute and the materializing of the innermost zone of the Cosmos Infinite will constitute Stage One in the Final Universe Age. We further suggest that the duration of Stage One of the Final Age may be very long – even in terms of the universe ages we have computed. In other words, when we leave the master universe and embark upon the final adven­ture – the Absolute Adventure – we are likely to encounter magnitudes that are unprecedented. It is unlikely we can do very much about trying to visualize such magnitudes. It would be much like a machinist who works to one ten-thousandths of an inch in precision, and who is suddenly asked to consider the relative dimensions of the outer galaxies that may be millions of light-years away. One ten-thousandth of an inch is one order of magnitude; a million light-years is something quite different.

(b) The Ultimate-Absolute. We have come so very far from the Here and Now of reality that it becomes most difficult even to conjecture about the association of Ultimate and Absolute – presumably the partnership of God the Ultimate and God the Absolute. Nevertheless, we can still reason (or speculate) by analogy. We have likened the partnership of the Supreme-Ultimate to that of the Father-Son. Can we then liken the extensive projection of God the Absolute to the intensive personali­zation of the Infinite Spirit? Will the (trinitized) Absolute sustain the same relationship to the Ultimate (in Stage Two of the Final Age) that the Ultimate sustains to the Supreme (in Stage One)? Is this the possible meaning of the partnership of Ultimate-Absolute? (Here we are drawing a parallel between the Ultimate-Absolute and the Son-Spirit, where each association may develop out of the preceding partnership – Supreme-Ultimate in the first instance, and Father-Son in the second.)

If the Supreme-Ultimate is the initiator of the Cosmos Infinite, then we deduce that the Ultimate-Absolute could well function in the intermediate phases of this domain as a partnership that is concerned with the fuller “realization” of the unending universe. We have no way of suggesting any possible limit to this association – one partner is inseparable from the Absolutes of Potentiality, and these Absolutes are, in turn, inseparable from infinity.

We can see a beginning, realization, and (qualitative) consummation of the Supreme-Ultimate partnership. It is conjoined, finds limited realization in the factualization of the innermost zone of the Cosmos Infinite, and is (qualitatively) consummated in the trinitized appearance of God the Absolute. But, the partnership of the Ultimate and Absolute can hardly attain even a qualitative destiny, much less a quantitative destination. The Dual-Deity association of Ultimate and Absolute can start, can begin, but can attain only partial realization. We do not believe it can be consummated.

We associate this dual-association with the development of the infinite cosmos that may take place after the factualization of the innermost zone. We feel this innermost zone may, in some respects, be analogous to Havona in the manner of its appearance, its factualization. It may make its appearance as a repercussion of Deity-trinitization – it may appear suddenly. If we continue to reason by analogy, the growth of the Cosmos Infinite may be sequential; and if it is sequential, then it is endless. Therefore, we do not know how to place a conceptual limit on the “realiza­tion” phase of the Ultimate-Absolute association, much less how to suggest a “consummation” of this partnership.

(The reality of this partnership as a value-level in the present grand universe should be noted. The Ultimate-Absolute represents a present value-level that consti­tutes the known limit of the scope of the activities of the Personalized Adjusters. These beings are the personalizations of the same fragments of God with which we fuse. And if the Personalized Adjusters can function on the level of the Ultimate-Absolute, then we believe that the finaliters can also work there – and given enough time and growth, they will!)

(c) The First and Last Partnership. The original partnership of Dual-Deity is en­shrouded in the mysteries of past-eternity. The dual-association of the Father-Son is a never-beginning and never-ending reality that always exists. We are informed that the final association of Dual-Deity, the partnership of Absolute and Father-Infinite, is the “completion” of the cycle of reality. This should give us pause for thought. When we reach the level of the Absolute, at least the Deity Absolute, we know we have entered upon a domain of the existential and the experiential. The Deity Absolute is one of the Seven Absolutes of Infinity; God the Absolute is experiential (and existential) and has an origin in time – at least as we would view such a happening.

What then, is the final relationship between the Absolute and the Father-Infinite? We submit that it is an existential-experiential association. As an existential reality, it is ever-existent; as an experiential reality, it is ever-remote; as an existential-experiential reality, it may be a “becoming reality” – a reality that is characterized by increasing actualization, which in no manner diminishes the unactualized potential that will forever remain unexpressed.

If this dual-association is the “completion” of the cycle of reality, then it may be a pure-eternity relationship, and as such, becomes utterly meaningless (in terms of growth) when evaluated in relation to the past or the future time – or, even the past or the future of eternity. This relationship may not be beyond concept, but it cer­tainly is beyond comprehensible concept.

§ 4. the final levels of total deity function

What we have been observing, as we have been trying to follow God’s purposes to the ends of time and space, may be the opening of the final levels of the function of total Deity. We have considered these levels from the very beginning of our study. Back in the Second Prologue we considered the static, potential, and asso­ciative levels. In the study proper we looked at two outgoing levels, creative and evolutional; then we studied two incoming levels, Supreme and Ultimate. This completes the inventory of the seven levels of the function of total Deity.

But, are these all of the levels? The Ultimate level is the final creative level, but God the Absolute is super-creative. None of these levels is spoken of as absolute, and the absolute level is referred to as one that is existentially attained by the Paradise Trinity. We believe there are only these seven levels, pending the factualizati­on of the experiential Deities. We further believe the factualization of the three experi­ential Deities will disclose three additional levels of the function of total Deity.

Before we examine these conjectured levels, let us consider what may happen when existential Deity goes back to the creative level – back to the first three levels. As existential Deity moves toward infinity we believe it passes from the associative level back into potentials, and eventually reaches the static level. We believe this is the progression of existential Deity toward infinity. However, we do not believe this is the approach that experiential Deity makes toward infinity.

Existential Deity originates in infinity and seeks to emerge; experiential Deity originates outside of infinity (on sub-infinite levels) and seeks to penetrate. Once experiential Deity has factualized and has become capable of working (at least qualitatively) on the absolute level of reality, we believe it will disclose an approach to infinity that will be new and different. We have the belief that as experiential Deity tries to approach infinity, it opens three new levels of the action of total Deity – reassociative, actualizing-potential, and static-dynamic.

Let us examine the concept of each of these three levels. It may be helpful to our efforts to understand Future Eternity and the Final Limits and the Final Goal which God has established.

§ 5. The mirror images of the first and the final levels.

Before we study each of these three new levels in particular it will prove informative to consider all three of them to­gether. Let us compare the last three levels with the first three. The last three appear to be mirror images of the first three.

(8) The Reassociative Level	(3) The Associative Level
(9) The Actualizing-Potential Level	(2) The Potential Level
(10) The Static-Dynamic Level	(1) The Static Level

We believe that Destiny could be thought of as a mirror image of Source, except there is a change in meaning though not in absolute values. The value of the infinite could hardly change, but the meaning of the Infinite – the relationships of the Infinite – is susceptible to well-nigh infinite change. And this is why we think these last three levels are like mirror images of the first three.

(a) The Reassociative Level. We make a connection (in concept) between the associative level and the reassociative level of the function of total Deity. The best example of the associative level would appear to be the Paradise Trinity – the existential association that absolutely unifies existential Deity. The Trinity of Trinities would appear to be the best example of the reassociative level. In this threefold Trinity there takes place a reassociation of all of the multiple actualizations of all Deity – existential and experiential. In the threefold Trinity all actual (and actualizing) Deity is (or will be) unified.

From the experiential standpoint, the Trinity of Trinities would appear to remain ever-unfinished; still we should not forget that the Paradise Trinity is a constituent member, and the Paradise Trinity is existentially infinite. The original Trinity could, at all “times,” compensate the incompletion of the Trinity of Trinities. We can, therefore, visualize the existential-experiential Trinity of Trinities as being fully functional; except, it must depend on the existential Trinity (the Paradise Trinity) to make up for its experiential deficiencies. In future eternity, the existential factor can diminish; but the existential compensation for experiential limitations can hardly be eliminated.

The reassociative level would appear to be first activated by the association of the Supreme-Ultimate. When this partnership forms and trinitizes God the Absolute, this factualizes the Second Level of the Trinity of Trinities. All of this constitutes an invasion of the absolute level of reality by experiential Deity.

(b) The Actualizing-Potential Level. There is more than one name that might be given to this level. We might call it the “Actualized-Potential Level,” but this would imply the “using up” of all potentials, and these potentials cannot be “used up” because there is no end to them. The name “actualizing-potentials” seems best because it does not imply a completion of the process, just a continuation of the actualizing of that which is without end.

When we think about this level we are probably thinking about the function of the Second Stage of post-Ultimate Deity. The First Stage appears to be the Supreme-Ultimate, the second seems to be the Ultimate-Absolute. This level appears to be one that is quality-attained experientially, but does not seem to be attainable in the universal, or quantity-infinite sense. In order to attain this level in the quantitative sense three things would need to occur:

(1) The capacity of the Unqualified Absolute would have to be ex­hausted. In other words, the Cosmos Infinite would have to factual­ize as an actual reality – as an actual universe with no out­side, with no end to it.

(2) The capacity of the Deity Absolute would have to be exhausted. In other words, God the Absolute would have to be completed as the experiential-absolute Person of Deity. This means that he would become the co-ordinate of the Eternal Son, who is the Absolute Personality – the existential-absolute Person of Deity.

(3) The non-deity expression of infinity (the Cosmos Infinite) and the experiential deity-expression of infinity (God the Absolute) would have to become completely unified – power-personality synthesized. This, in effect, would be the experiential unification of the Absolutes – the experiential equivalent of what the Universal Absolute actually does, existentially.

We should not be frustrated by the quantitative non-attainability of this level. What would happen if all potentials were to be actualized? This would mean the absolute end of all growth, all change, all adventure. It would add up to an experiential static condition, a condition of no change. It would mean an everlasting today – with no tomorrow of widening horizons and new worlds to conquer.

God, in his wisdom, has avoided all of this. Whether this be inherent in infinity, or a part of the plans of the Infinite, is quite beside the point. The fact remains that God’s plans seem to provide for a universe that is forever young and growing, for a creation that always hovers on the brink of new adventure, for a cosmos that lives eternally in the fresh dawn of a never-ending springtime.

(c) The Static-Dynamic Level. This may well be the final level of the function of total Deity. (It is the final level that we present, in concept, for consideration in this study.) What is the significance of this level? We believe it represents the final outreach of experiential Deity – and, perhaps, experiential creatures – toward the Father as Infinite. This is the concept of the Universal Father in the beginning of all things, even in the beginning of beginnings. This is the concept of God as Infinite that is conceived at the heart of the Zero Age, at that point in the theoretical past which the Papers describe as “the hypothetical static moment of eternity.”

We are here presenting an analogous concept. We are trying to conceive of a destiny-moment that theoretically exists in future-eternity. This would be the “hypothetical static-dynamic moment of eternity.” We believe this is a valid concept even though it may never be attainable as a factual reality. Could we attain this mo­ment, then we might know the Father as Infinite. Since it appears we can never attain this moment, we will never know the Father as Infinite. We shall find him as absolute; we shall search for him as infinite.

Since we will never find God as infinite, it seems likely we will continue to “pursue” the Shadow of Infinity which is cast across the limitlessness of potential reality. We submit the belief that this Shadow is best conceived as the presence of the Universal Absolute. We will doubtless continue to be intrigued, puzzled, and stimulated by the presence and performance of the Universal Absolute whose eternal mystery will continue to grow with the growing universes, and whose eternal com­plexity may be growing faster than the finaliters will grow.

Third Epilogue - After the Ending of Endings

third epilogue

AFTER THE ENDING OF ENDINGS

We end, as we began, with the Infinite

In one place in the Papers (1152.1) 105:0.1 [202], they speak of all Reality as being symbolized by a great ellipse. It starts from an infinite and absolute Source and ever seeks a Destiny that is equally infinite and absolute. In the First Prologue to this study we sought to understand this Source. In the Last Epilogue we find ourselves again seeking after this same Source – only now we use another name, Destiny. In the beginning, and at the ending, we are searching for the Source-Destiny of Reality. This must be the Infinite, that Being who is best known to us as God.

As we have been attempting to follow the unfolding of God’s purposes through­out the ages of the universes and across the light-years of space, we have reached certain conclusions. It appears he is engaged in the eternal project of revealing himself to, and of sharing his nature with, all of his Sons and his Sons’ sons – even as he bequeathed his absolute nature upon the First Son, and then shared the sovereignty of all creation with him, in their Spirit, and as the Trinity.

We have followed the divine expansion of God’s creative forces and personalities from the shores of Paradise into the uttermost depths of outer space in the never-ending Cosmos Infinite. Yet, with all of this unimaginable expansion, God has neither increased nor decreased in value. The Infinite is unchanged! But the meaning of the Infinite, the meaning of God, has been modified, enriched, and enlarged, as concerns every single being who participated in the Supreme Adventure, the Ultimate Adventure, and the never-ending Absolute Adventure. (1261.2) 115:2.2 [203]

When ascending mortals finally attain Paradise and find God, they have a finite experience in the comprehension of the Universal Father. As finaliters complete their service in the encircling superuniverses, they return to Paradise to find still more of the Father; they have grown in the capacity to comprehend. At the end of the Second Age, when we find the Supreme, we will have a comprehension-experi­ence with the wholeness of Deity – Finite Deity. All of this should enable us to understand the Father as finite, God as he is knowable to finite creatures.

When we embark upon the Ultimate Adventure, we have embarked upon the quest for the Father as super-finite, the Father as absonite. We have seen what a very long time it will take to complete this quest; however, this goal does have a distant limit, and eternity endures, and sometime this limit will really be attained. We will know – actually know – the Ultimate. And in this absonite achievement we will find the capacity to know the Father beyond the finite, to know the Father as Ultimate.

The final adventure – the Absolute Adventure – is without end. But nothing shall ever daunt us; nothing shall ever stop us; we shall never reach a stalemate, a final barrier to progress. We will really find God as Absolute, but we will never complete this discovery; the exploration of the infinity of God must be endless. We will find him as absolute, but we can never know him as infinite!

“God, your Father, and my Father, is that phase of the Infinite which we perceive in our personalities as an actual experiential reality . . .” (1153.3) 105:1.6 [204]

But still, we know the Infinite is there, that he is real, and that he is before the First Source and after the Final Destiny. At the end of time, we will still find truth in the words of the teacher of old, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” (Heb. 11:1) [205]

Afterword

AFTERWORD

In the Foreword to this work we likened The Urantia Book to a symphony. And so it is. In this Afterword we would like to compare it to a romance – a story of love and adventure. Time after time, in the labor of this work, the writer has been struck with the divine affection on the on hand, and on the other by the great adventuresomeness that seems to underlie God’s purposes – as they appear to be revealed in the happenings of the history of the master universe, in all that goes before, and in all that follows after.

God pours himself out upon creation in such a prodigal manner. He gives without measure that all may be enriched by these gifts. Such are the fruits of the infinite love which he seems to bear for all beings.

God is so loving, but so un-soft. He, who gives so much in love, is also the one who challenges those whom he loves. He is the creator of problems, in the solutions of which his children grow.

God is so unchanging, but always the cause of change. Always is he putting the ferment of the new and the challenging into the old and the established. And as the old and the new react to each other each challenges the other, and as each responds to the challenge of the other both grow and rise above the former limitations. God seems to want all of his children to grow, and he seems to want to be a partner with each one in that adventure of growth. He gives his spirit to live within us, to share with us the adventure of exploring his infinity in fact and his infinity of love.

In the preparation of this work the feeling has grown upon the writer that it is a story of romance and adventure, a thrilling tale of challenge and response. The real hero of the whole story is God! This Being is the most exciting personality in the wide-spreading universes. This Being is the most interesting and intriguing perso­nality in existence. This Being is the author of love, and (we believe) the real Source of the spirit of adventure. When he spoke as a Man among men, and to men, he said, “Follow me!”

And if we dare, we may.

* * *

We have traversed many conceptual kilometers in this study. We have been bold in speculation and courageous in adventuresome thinking. There is a passage in the Papers that should comfort us in this regard. The Papers instruct us (330.2) 30:0.2 [206] it is best that we not be told too much, that too much information “would deprive the thinking mortals of the next thousand years of that stimulus to creative speculation which these partially revealed concepts supply.”

The writer is painfully aware of the limitations of human mind. We perceive so dimly, we comprehend so slowly, we seem so impervious to the light of truth. The speculations in this study are undoubtedly very prone to error. We are so unlikely to reason through to valid facts. But, even here, at the very last, another passage from the Papers (2096.7) 196:3.31 [207] offers much by way of comfort:

“All of man’s universe romancing may not be fact, but much, very much is truth.”