Paper 23 — The Solitary Messengers

P.256 – §1 Solitary Messengers are
the personal and universal corps of the Conjoint Creator; they are the
first and senior order of the Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit.
They represent the initial creative action of the Infinite Spirit in solitary
function for the purpose of bringing into existence solitary personality
spirits. Neither the Father nor the Son directly participated in this
stupendous spiritualization.

P.256 – §2 These spirit messengers were personalized
in a single creative episode, and their number is stationary. Although
I have one of these extraordinary beings associated with me on this present
mission, I do not know how many such personalities exist in the universe
of universes. I only know, from time to time, how many are of registry-record
as functioning for the time being within the jurisdiction of our superuniverse.
From the last Uversa report I observe that there were almost 7,690 trillion
Solitary Messengers then operating within the boundaries of Orvonton;
and I conjecture that this is considerably less than one seventh of their
total number.

1. NATURE AND ORIGIN OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS – P.256

P.256 – §3 Immediately following the creation of
the Seven Spirits of the Havona Circuits the Infinite Spirit brought into
being the vast corps of Solitary Messengers. There is no part of the universal
creation which is pre-existent to the Solitary Messengers except Paradise
and the Havona circuits; they have functioned throughout the grand universe
from near eternity. They are fundamental to the divine technique of the
Infinite Spirit for self-revelation to, and personal contact with, the
far-flung creations of time and space.

P.256 – §4 Notwithstanding that these messengers
are existent from the near times of eternity, they are all aware of a
beginning of selfhood. They are conscious of time, being the first of
the creation of the Infinite Spirit to possess such a time consciousness.
They are the first-born creatures of the Infinite Spirit to be personalized
in time and spiritualized in space.

P.256 – §5 These solitary spirits came forth in the
dawn of time as full-fledged and perfectly endowed spirit beings. They
are all equal, and there are no classes or subdivisions founded on personal
variation. Their classifications are based wholly on the type of work
to which they are assigned from time to time.

P.256 – §6 Mortals start out as well-nigh material
beings on the worlds of space and ascend inward towards the Great Centers;
these solitary spirits start out at the center of all things and crave
assignment to the remote creations, even to the individual worlds of the
outermost local universes and even on beyond.

P.256 – §7 Though denominated Solitary Messengers,
they are not lonesome spirits, for they truly like to work alone. They
are the only beings in all creation who can

P.257 – §0 and do enjoy a solitary existence, albeit
they equally enjoy association with the very few orders of universe intelligence
with whom they can fraternize.

P.257 – §1 Solitary Messengers are not isolated in
their service; they are constantly in touch with the wealth of the intellect
of all creation as they are capable of "listening in" on all
the broadcasts of the realms of their sojourn. They can also intercommunicate
with members of their own immediate corps, those beings doing the same
kind of work in the same superuniverse. They could communicate with others
of their number, but they have been directed by the council of the Seven
Master Spirits not to do so, and they are a loyal group; they do not disobey
or default. There is no record that a Solitary Messenger ever stumbled
into darkness.

P.257 – §2 The Solitary Messengers, like the Universe
Power Directors, are among the very few types of beings operating throughout
the realms who are exempt from apprehension or detention by the tribunals
of time and space. They could be cited to appear before no one except
the Seven Master Spirits, but not in all the annals of the master universe
has this Paradise council ever been called upon to adjudicate the case
of a Solitary Messenger.

P.257 – §3 These messengers of solitary assignment
are a dependable, self-reliant, versatile, thoroughly spiritual, and broadly
sympathetic group of created beings derived from the Third Source and
Center; they operate by the authority of the Infinite Spirit resident
on the central Isle of Paradise and as personalized on the headquarters
spheres of the local universes. They are constant partakers of the direct
circuit emanating from the Infinite Spirit, even when they function in
the local creations under the immediate influence of the local universe
Mother Spirits.

P.257 – §4 There is a technical reason why these
Solitary Messengers must travel and work alone. For short periods and
when stationary, they can collaborate in a group, but when thus ensembled,
they are altogether cut off from the sustenance and direction of their
Paradise circuit; they are wholly isolated. When in transit, or when operating
in the circuits of space and the currents of time, if two or more of this
order are in close proximity, both or all are thrown out of liaison with
the higher circulating forces. They are "short circuited" as
you might describe it in illustrative symbols. Therefore they have inherent
within them a power of automatic alarm, a warning signal, which unerringly
operates to apprise them of approaching conflicts and unfailingly keeps
them sufficiently separated as not to interfere with their proper and
effective functioning. They also possess inherent and automatic powers
which detect and indicate the proximity of both the Inspired Trinity Spirits
and the divine Thought Adjusters.

P.257 – §5 These messengers possess no power of personality
extension or reproduction, but there is practically no work of the universes
in which they cannot engage, and to which they cannot contribute something
essential and helpful. Especially are they the great timesavers for those
who are concerned in the administration of universe affairs; and they
assist us all, from the highest to the lowest.

2. ASSIGNMENTS OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS – P.257

P.257 – §6 Solitary Messengers are not permanently
attached to any individual or group of celestial personalities. They are
on duty, always by assignment, and during

P.258 – §0 such service they work under the immediate
supervision of those who direct the realms of their attachment. Among
themselves they have neither organization nor government of any kind;
they are Solitary Messengers.

P.258 – §1 Solitary Messengers are assigned by the
Infinite Spirit to the following seven divisions of service:

P.258 – §2 1. Messengers of the Paradise Trinity.

P.258 – §3 2. Messengers of the Havona Circuits.

P.258 – §4 3. Messengers of the Superuniverses.

P.258 – §5 4. Messengers of the Local Universes.

P.258 – §6 5. Explorers of Undirected Assignment.

P.258 – §7 6. Ambassadors and Emissaries of Special
Assignment.

P.258 – §8 7. Revelators of Truth.

P.258 – §9 These spirit messengers are in every sense
interchangeable from one type of service to another; such transfers are
constantly taking place. There are no separate orders of Solitary Messengers;
they are spiritually alike and in every sense equal. While they are generally
designated by number, they are known to the Infinite Spirit by personal
names. They are known to the rest of us by the name or number designative
of their current assignment.

P.258 – §10 1. Messengers of the Paradise Trinity.
I am not permitted to reveal much of the work of the group of messengers
assigned to the Trinity. They are the trusted and secret servants of the
Deities, and when intrusted with special messages which involve the unrevealed
policies and future conduct of the Gods, they have never been known to
divulge a secret or betray the confidence reposed in their order. And
all this is related in this connection, not to appear boastful of their
perfection, but rather to point out that the Deities can and do create
perfect beings.

P.258 – §11 The confusion and turmoil of Urantia
do not signify that the Paradise Rulers lack either interest or ability
to manage affairs differently. The Creators are possessed of full power
to make Urantia a veritable paradise, but such an Eden would not contribute
to the development of those strong, noble, and experienced characters
which the Gods are so surely forging out on your world between the anvils
of necessity and the hammers of anguish. Your anxieties and sorrows, your
trials and disappointments, are just as much a part of the divine plan
on your sphere as are the exquisite perfection and infinite adaptation
of all things to their supreme purpose on the worlds of the central and
perfect universe.

P.258 – §12 2. Messengers of the Havona Circuits.
Throughout the ascendant career you will be vaguely, but increasingly,
able to detect the presence of the Solitary Messengers, but not until
you reach Havona will you recognize them unmistakably. The first of the
messengers you will see face to face will be those of the Havona circuits.

P.258 – §13 Solitary Messengers enjoy special relations
with the natives of the Havona worlds. These messengers, who are so functionally
handicapped when associating with one another, can and do have a very
close and personal communion with the Havona natives. But it is quite
impossible to convey to human minds the supreme satisfactions consequent
upon the contact of the minds of these divinely perfect beings with the
spirits of such near-transcendent personalities.

P.259 – §1 3. Messengers of the Superuniverses. The
Ancients of Days, those personalities of Trinity origin who preside over
the destinies of the seven superuniverses, those trios of divine power
and administrative wisdom, are bountifully supplied with Solitary Messengers.
It is only through this order of messengers that the triune rulers of
one superuniverse can directly and personally communicate with the rulers
of another. Solitary Messengers are the only available type of spirit
intelligence–aside, possibly, from the Inspired Trinity Spirits–that
can be dispatched from the headquarters of one superuniverse directly
to the headquarters of another. All other personalities must make such
excursions by way of Havona and the executive worlds of the Master Spirits.

P.259 – §2 There are some kinds of information which
cannot be obtained either by Gravity Messengers, reflectivity, or broadcast.
And when the Ancients of Days would certainly know these things, they
must dispatch a Solitary Messenger to the source of knowledge. Long before
the presence of life on Urantia the messenger now associated with me was
assigned on a mission out of Uversa to the central universe–was absent
from the roll calls of Orvonton for almost a million years but returned
in due time with the desired information.

P.259 – §3 There is no limitation upon the service
of Solitary Messengers in the superuniverses; they may function as executioners
of the high tribunals or as intelligence gatherers for the good of the
realm. Of all the supercreations they most delight to serve in Orvonton
because here the need is greatest and the opportunities for heroic effort
are greatly multiplied. In the more needy realms we all enjoy the satisfaction
of a more replete function.

P.259 – §4 4. Messengers of the Local Universes.
In the services of a local universe there is no limit upon the functioning
of the Solitary Messengers. They are the faithful revealers of the motives
and intent of the local universe Mother Spirit, although they are under
the full jurisdiction of the reigning Master Son. And this is true of
all messengers operating in a local universe, whether they are traveling
out directly from universe headquarters, or whether they are acting temporarily
in liaison with Constellation Fathers, System Sovereigns, or Planetary
Princes. Before the concentration of all power in the hands of a Creator
Son at the time of his elevation as sovereign ruler of his universe, these
messengers of the local universes function under the general direction
of the Ancients of Days and are immediately responsible to their resident
representative, the Union of Days.

P.259 – §5 5. Explorers of Undirected Assignment.
When the reserve corps of the Solitary Messengers is overrecruited, there
issues from one of the Seven Supreme Power Directors a call for exploration
volunteers; and there is never a lack of volunteers, for they delight
to be dispatched as free and untrammeled explorers, to experience the
thrill of finding the organizing nucleuses of new worlds and universes.

P.259 – §6 They go forth to investigate the clues
furnished by the space contemplators of the realms. Undoubtedly the Paradise
Deities know of the existence of these undiscovered energy systems of
space, but they never divulge such information. If the Solitary Messengers
did not explore and chart these newly organizing energy centers, such
phenomena would long remain unnoticed even by the intelligences of adjacent
realms. Solitary Messengers, as a class, are highly sensitive to gravity;
accordingly they can sometimes detect the probable presence of very small
dark planets, the very worlds which are best adapted to life experiments.

P.260 – §1 These messenger-explorers of undirected
assignment patrol the master universe. They are constantly out on exploring
expeditions to the uncharted regions of all outer space. Very much of
the information which we possess of transactions in the realms of outer
space, we owe to the explorations of the Solitary Messengers as they often
work and study with the celestial astronomers.

P.260 – §2 6. Ambassadors and Emissaries of Special
Assignment. Local universes situated within the same superuniverse customarily
exchange ambassadors selected from their native orders of sonship. But
to avoid delay, Solitary Messengers are frequently asked to go as ambassadors
from one local creation to another, to represent and interpret one realm
to another. For example: When a newly inhabited realm is discovered, it
may prove to be so remote in space that a long time will pass before an
enseraphimed ambassador can reach this far-distant universe. An enseraphimed
being cannot possibly exceed the velocity of 558,840 Urantia miles in
one second of your time. Massive stars, crosscurrents, and detours, as
well as attraction tangents, will all tend to retard such speed so that
on a long journey the velocity will average about 550,000 miles per second.

P.260 – §3 When it develops that it will require
hundreds of years for a native ambassador to reach a far-distant local
universe, a Solitary Messenger is often asked to proceed there immediately
to act as ambassador ad interim. Solitary Messengers can go in very short
order, not independently of time and space as do the Gravity Messengers,
but nearly so. They also serve in other circumstances as emissaries of
special assignment.

P.260 – §4 7. Revelators of Truth. The Solitary Messengers
regard the assignment to reveal truth as the highest trust of their order.
And they function ever and anon in this capacity, from the superuniverses
to the individual planets of space. They are frequently attached to commissions
which are sent to enlarge the revelation of truth to the worlds and systems.

3. TIME AND SPACE SERVICES OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS –
P.260

P.260 – §5 The Solitary Messengers are the highest
type of perfect and confidential personality available in all realms for
the quick transmission of important and urgent messages when it is inexpedient
to utilize either the broadcast service or the reflectivity mechanism.
They serve in an endless variety of assignments, helping out the spiritual
and material beings of the realms, particularly where the element of time
is involved. Of all orders assigned to the services of the superuniverse
domains, they are the highest and most versatile personalized beings who
can come so near to defying time and space.

P.260 – §6 The universe is well supplied with spirits
who utilize gravity for purposes of transit; they can go anywhere any
time–instanter–but they are not persons. Certain other gravity traversers
are personal beings, such as Gravity Messengers and Transcendental Recorders,
but they are not available to the super- and the local universe administrators.
The worlds teem with angels and men and other highly personal beings,
but they are handicapped by time and space: The limit of velocity for
most nonenseraphimed beings is 186,280 miles of your world per second
of your time; the midway creatures and certain others can, often do, attain
double velocity–372,560 miles per second–while the seraphim and others
can traverse space at triple velocity, about 558,840 miles per second.

P.261 – §0 There are, however, no transit or messenger
personalities who function between the instantaneous velocities of the
gravity traversers and the comparatively slow speeds of the seraphim,
except the Solitary Messengers.

P.261 – §2 It is wholly beyond my ability to explain
to the material type of mind how a spirit can be a real person and at
the same time traverse space at such tremendous velocities. But these
very Solitary Messengers actually come to, and go from, Urantia at these
incomprehensible speeds; indeed, the whole economy of universal administration
would be largely deprived of its personal element were this not a fact.

P.261 – §3 The Solitary Messengers are able to function
as emergency lines of communication throughout remote space regions, realms
not embraced within the established circuits of the grand universe. It
develops that one messenger, when so functioning, can transmit a message
or send an impulse through space to a fellow messenger about one hundred
light-years away as Urantia astronomers estimate stellar distances.

P.261 – §4 Of the myriads of beings who co-operate
with us in the conduct of the affairs of the superuniverse, none are more
important in practical helpfulness and timesaving assistance. In the universes
of space we must reckon with the handicaps of time; hence the great service
of the Solitary Messengers, who, by means of their personal prerogatives
of communication, are somewhat independent of space and, by virtue of
their tremendous transit velocities, are so nearly independent of time.

P.261 – §5 I am at a loss to explain to Urantia mortals
how the Solitary Messengers can be without form and yet possess real and
definite personalities. Although they are without that form which would
naturally be associated with personality, they do possess a spirit presence
which is discernible by all higher types of spirit beings. The Solitary
Messengers are the only class of beings who seem to be possessed of well-nigh
all the advantages of a formless spirit coupled with all the prerogatives
of a full-fledged personality. They are true persons, yet endowed with
nearly all of the attributes of impersonal spirit manifestation.

P.261 – §6 In the seven superuniverses, ordinarily–but
not always–everything which tends to increase any creature’s liberation
from the handicaps of time and space proportionately diminishes personality
prerogatives. Solitary Messengers are an exception to this general law.
They are in their activities all but unrestricted in the utilization of
any and all of the limitless avenues of spiritual expression, divine service,
personal ministry, and cosmic communication. If you could view these extraordinary
beings in the light of my experience in universe administration, you would
comprehend how difficult it would be to co-ordinate superuniverse affairs
were it not for their versatile co-operation.

P.262 – §1 No matter how much the universe may enlarge,
no more Solitary Messengers will probably ever be created. As the universes
grow, the expanded work of administration must be increasingly borne by
other types of spirit ministers and by those beings who take origin in
these new creations, such as the creatures of the Sovereign Sons and the
local universe Mother Spirits.

4. SPECIAL MINISTRY OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS – P.262

P.262 – §2 The Solitary Messengers seem to be personality
co-ordinators for all types of spirit beings. Their ministry helps to
make all the personalities of the far-flung spiritual world akin. They
contribute much to the development, in all spirit beings, of a consciousness
of group identity. Every type of spirit being is served by special groups
of Solitary Messengers who foster the ability of such beings to understand
and fraternize with all other types and orders, however dissimilar.

P.262 – §3 The Solitary Messengers demonstrate such
an amazing ability to co-ordinate all types and orders of finite personality–even
to make contact with the absonite regime of the master universe overcontrollers–that
some of us postulate that the creation of these messengers by the Infinite
Spirit is in some manner related to the Conjoint Actor’s bestowal of Supreme-Ultimate
Mind.

P.262 – §4 When a finaliter and a Paradise Citizen
co-operate in the trinitization of a "child of time and eternity"–a
transaction involving the unrevealed mind potentials of the Supreme-Ultimate–and
when such an unclassified personality is dispatched to Vicegerington,
a Solitary Messenger (a conjectured personality repercussion of the bestowal
of such deity mind) is always assigned as guardian-companion to such a
creature-trinitized son. This messenger accompanies the new son of destiny
to the world of his assignment and nevermore leaves Vicegerington. When
thus attached to the destinies of a child of time and eternity, a Solitary
Messenger is forever transferred to the sole supervision of the Architects
of the Master Universe. What the future of such an extraordinary association
may be, we do not know. For ages these partnerships of unique personalities
have continued to forgather on Vicegerington, but not even a single pair
has ever gone forth therefrom.

P.262 – §5 Solitary Messengers are of stationary
numbers, but the trinitization of the sons of destiny is apparently an
unlimited technique. Since each trinitized son of destiny has assigned
to him a Solitary Messenger, it appears to us that at some time in the
remote future the supply of messengers will become exhausted. Who will
take up their work in the grand universe? Will their service be assumed
by some new development among the Inspired Trinity Spirits? Is the grand
universe at some remote period going to be more nearly administered by
Trinity-origin beings while the single- and dual-origin creatures move
on into the realms of outer space? If the messengers return to their former
service, will these sons of destiny accompany them? Will the trinitizations
between finaliters and Paradise-Havoners cease when the supply of Solitary
Messengers has been absorbed as guardian-companions of these sons of destiny?
Are all our efficient Solitary Messengers going to be concentrated on
Vicegerington? Are these extraordinary spirit personalities going to be
eternally associated with these trinitized sons of unrevealed destiny?
What significance should we attach to the fact that these couples forgathering
on Vicegerington are under the exclusive direction of those mighty mystery
beings, the Architects of the Master Universe? These

P.263 – §0 and many similar questions we ask ourselves,
and ask numerous other orders of celestial beings, but we do not know
the answers.

P.263 – §1 This transaction, together with many similar
occurrences in universe administration, unmistakably indicates that the
personnel of the grand universe, even that of Havona and Paradise, is
undergoing a definite and certain reorganization in co-ordination with,
and with reference to, the vast energy evolutions now taking place throughout
the realms of outer space.

P.263 – §2 We incline to the belief that the eternal
future will witness phenomena of universe evolution which will far transcend
all that the eternal past has experienced. And we anticipate such tremendous
adventures, even as you should, with keen relish and ever-heightening
expectation.

P.263 – §3 [Presented by a Divine Counselor from
Uversa.]