Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 15
THE SEVEN SUPERUNIVERSES
1. The local universe to which your system belongs is pursuing a definite and well understood counterclockwise course around the vast swing that encircles the central universe...Your local universe of Nebadon belongs to Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse, which swings on between superuniverses one and six, having not long since (as we reckon time) turned the southeastern bend of the superuniverse space level...Urantia belongs to a system which is well out towards the borderland of your local universe; and your local universe is at present traversing the periphery of Orvonton.
2. There are seven superuniverses in the grand universe, and they are constituted as follows:
1. The System. The basic unit of the supergovernment consists of about one thousand inhabited or inhabitable worlds...Each inhabited planet is presided over by a Planetary Prince, and each local system has an architectural sphere as its headquarters and is ruled by a System Sovereign.
2. The Constellation. One hundred systems (about 100,000 inhabitable planets) make up a constellation. Each constellation has an architectural headquarters sphere and is presided over by three Vorondadek Sons, the Most Highs...
3. The Local Universe. One hundred constellations (about 10,000,000 inhabitable planets) constitute a local universe. Each local universe has a magnificent architectural headquarters world and is ruled by one of the co‑ordinate Creator Sons of God of the order of Michael...
4. The Minor Sector. One hundred local universes (about 1,000,000,000 inhabitable planets) constitute a minor sector of the superuniverse government; it has a wonderful headquarters world, wherefrom its rulers, the Recents of Days, administer the affairs of the minor sector...
5. The Major Sector. One hundred minor sectors (about 100,000,000,000 inhabitable worlds) make one major sector. Each major sector is provided with a superb headquarters and is presided over by three Perfections of Days, Supreme Trinity Personalities.
6. The Superuniverse. Ten major sectors (about 1,000,000,000,000 inhabitable planets) constitute a superuniverse. Each superuniverse is provided with an enormous and glorious headquarters world and is ruled by three Ancients of Days.
7. The Grand Universe. Seven superuniverses make up the present organized grand universe, consisting of approximately seven trillion inhabitable worlds plus the architectural spheres and the one billion inhabited spheres of Havona. Practically all of the starry realms visible to the naked eye on Urantia belong to the seventh section of the grand universe, the superuniverse of Orvonton. The vast Milky Way starry system represents the central nucleus of Orvonton...When the angle of observation is propitious, gazing through the main body of this realm of maximum density, you are looking toward the residential universe and the center of all things.
4. Some of the confusion of Urantian star observers arises out of the illusions and relative distortions produced by the following multiple revolutionary movements:
1. The revolution of Urantia around its sun.
2. The circuit of your solar system about the nucleus of the former Andronover nebula.
3. The rotation of the Andronover stellar family and the associated clusters about the composite rotation‑gravity center of the star cloud of Nebadon.
4. The swing of the local star cloud of Nebadon and its associated creations around the Sagittarius center of their minor sector.
5. The rotation of the one hundred minor sectors, including Sagittarius, about their major sector.
6. The whirl of the ten major sectors, the so‑called star drifts, about the Uversa headquarters of Orvonton.
7. The movement of Orvonton and six associated superuniverses around Paradise and Havona, the counterclockwise processional of the superuniverse space level.
5. There are not many sun‑forming nebulae active in Orvonton at the present time, though Andromeda, which is outside the inhabited superuniverse., is very active. This far distant nebula is visible to the naked eye, and when you view it, pause to consider that the light you behold left those distant suns almost one million years ago.
6. The superuniverse of Orvonton is illuminated and warmed by more than ten trillion blazing suns. These suns are the stars of your observable astronomic system. More than two trillion are too distant and too small ever to be seen from Urantia. But in the master universe there are as many suns as there are glasses of water in the oceans of your world.
7. The Dark Island of Space. These are the dead suns and other large aggregations of matter devoid of light and heat ... They hold the gravity balance of power in many constellations; many physical systems which would otherwise speedily dive to destruction in near‑by suns are held securely in the gravity grasp of these guardian dark islands.
8. In your superuniverse not one cool planet in forty is habitable by beings of your order...In your solar system only three planets are at present suited to harbor life. Urantia, in size, density, and location, is in many respects ideal for human habitation ... An almost endless variety of creature life and other living manifestations characterizes the countless worlds of space.
9. Headquarters worlds are architectural spheres, space bodies specifically constructed for their special purpose ... Each has a sun which gives forth light without heat.,.. while each is supplied with heat by the circulation of certain energy currents near the surface of the sphere.
10. Time is standardized on the headquarters of the superuniverses. The standard day of the superuniverse of Orvonton is equal to almost thirty days of Urantia time. and the Orvonton year equals one hundred standard days. This Uversa year is standard in the seventh superuniverse, and it is twenty‑two minutes short of three thousand days of Urantia time, about eight and one fifth of your years.
11. In reality, all headquarters worlds are paradisiacal. They are indeed heavenly abodes, and they increase in material size, morontia beauty, and spirit glory from Jerusem to the central Isle ... All kinds of material, morontial, and spiritual beings are at home on these rendezvous worlds of the universes. As mortal creatures ascend the universe, passing from the material to the spiritual realms, they never lose their appreciation for., and enjoyment of, their former levels of existence.
12. The superuniverse of Orvonton is apparently now running down; the outer universes seem to be winding up for unparalleled future activities; the central Havona universe is eternally stabilized. Gravity and absence of heat (cold) organize and hold matter together; heat and antigravity disrupt matter and dissipate energy. The living power directors and force organizers are the secret of the special control and intelligent direction of the endless metamorphoses of universe making, unmaking, and remaking. Nebulae may disperse, suns burn out, systems vanish, and planets perish, but the universes do not run down.
13. The requisites for admission to the councils of the Ancients of Days, membership in the superuniverse confederation, are:
1. Physical Stability. The stars and planets of a local universe must be in equilibrium; the periods of immediate stellar metamorphosis must be over. The universe must be proceeding on a clear track; its orbit must be safely and finally settled.
2. Spiritual Loyalty. There must exist a state of universal recognition of, and loyalty to, the Sovereign Son of God who presides over the affairs of such a local universe. There must have come into being a state of harmonious cooperation between the individual planets, systems, and constellations of the entire local universe.
14. Your local universe is not even reckoned as belonging to the settled physical order of the superuniverse, much less as holding membership in the recognized spiritual family of the supergovernment.
15. The executive branch of the supergoverment ... is immediately directed by one of the Seven Master Spirits of supreme supervision ... Each superuniverse is presided over by three Ancients of Days, the joint chief executives of the supergovernment. In its executive branch the personnel of the superuniverse government consists of seven different groups: ... Ancient of Days ... Perfectors of Wisdom ... Divine Counselors... Universal Censors ... These ... groups are Co‑ordinate Trinity Personalities, taking origin directly and divinely in the Paradise Trinity. The remaining three orders, Mighty Messengers, Those High in Authority, and Those without Name and Number, are glorified ascendant mortals.
16. At almost all times it is possible to find representatives of all groups of created beings on the headquarters worlds of the superuniverses. The routine ministering work of the superuniverses is performed by the mighty seconaphim and by other members of the vast family of the Infinite Spirit.
17. The superuniverses do not maintain any sort of ambassadorial representation; they are completely isolated from each other. They know of mutual affairs only through the Paradise clearinghouse maintained by the Seven Master Spirits ... This isolation of the superuniverses will persist until such time as their co‑ordination is achieved by the more complete factualization of the personality‑sovereignty of the evolving experiential Supreme Being.
18. The executive branch of the supergovernment originates in the realms of perfection; the legislative branch springs from the flowering of the evolutionary universes ... This legislative or advisory council consists of seven houses, to each of which every local universe admitted to the superuniverse councils elects a native representative ... Never have I known of a disagreement between the Orvonton executives and the Uversa assembly. Never yet, in the history of our superuniverse, has the deliberative body ever passed a recommendation that the executive division of the supergovernment has even hesitated to carry out. There always has prevailed the most perfect harmony and working agreement, all of which testifies to the fact that evolutionary beings can really attain the heights of perfected wisdom which qualifies them to consort with the personalities of perfect origin and divine nature.
19. The courts of the Ancients of Days are the high review tribunals for the spiritual adjudication of all component universes…Mandates of judgment originate in the local universes but sentences involving the extinction of will creatures are always formulated on, and executed from, the headquarters of the superuniverse. The Sons of the local universes can decree the survival of mortal man, but only the Ancients of Days may sit in executive judgment on the issues of eternal life and death.
20. As the magnificent satellites of Uversa are concerned with your final spiritual preparation for Havona, so are the seventy satellites of Umajor the fifth devoted to your superuniverse intellectual training and development ... Minor sector ... headquarters worlds are surrounded by the seven instruction spheres which constitute the entrance schools of the superuniverse and are the centers of training for physical and administrative knowledge concerning the universe of universes.
21. There are seven major purposes which are being unfolded in the evolution of the seven superuniverses. Each major purpose in superuniverse evolution will find fullest expression in only one of the seven superuniverses, and therefore does each superuniverse have a special function and a unique nature. Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse, the one to which your local universe belongs, is known chiefly because of its tremendous and lavish bestowal of merciful ministry to the mortals of the realms ... Orvonton is a universe demonstration of love and mercy.
22. It is, however, very difficult to describe our conception of the true nature of the evolutionary purpose which is unfolding in Orvonton, but it may be suggested by saying that in this supercreation we feel that the six unique purposes of cosmic evolution as manifested in the six associated supercreations are here being interassociated into a meaning‑of‑the‑whole; and it is for this reason that we have sometimes conjectured that the evolved and finished personalization of God the Supreme will in the remote future and from Uversa rule the perfected seven superuniverses in all the experiential majesty of his then attained almighty sovereign power.
23. Your world is called Urantia, and it is number 606 in the planetary group, or system, of Satania. This system has at present 619 inhabited worlds, and more than two hundred additional planets are evolving favorably toward becoming inhabited worlds at some future time. Satania has a headquarters world called Jerusem, and it is system number twenty four in the constellation of Norlatiadek. Your constellation, Norlatiadek, consists of one hundred local systems and has a headquarters world called Edentia. Norlatiadek is number seventy in the universe of Nebadon. The local universe of Nebadon consists of one hundred constellations and has a capital known as Salvington. The universe of Nebadon is number eighty‑four in the minor sector of Ensa. The minor sector of Ensa consists of one hundred local universes and has a capital called Uminor the third. This minor sector is number three in the major sector of Splandon. Splandon consists of one hundred minor sectors and has a headquarters world called Umajor the fifth. It is the fifth major sector of the superuniverse of Orvonton, the seventh segment of the grand universe. Thus you can locate your planet in the scheme of the organization and administration of the universe of universes.
24. The grand universe number of your world, Urantia, is 5,342,482,377 666 ... Your planet is a member of an enormous cosmos; you belong to a well‑nigh infinite family of worlds but your sphere is just as precisely administered and just as lovingly fostered as if it were the only inhabited world in all existence.
Discussion Questions
1. What insights might the elaborate organization of the universe have on our lives and spiritual growth?
2. Why did Christ Michael in the Fifth Epochal Revelation give us a universe picture much larger than that received by most planets at our stage of evolution?
3. Are there benefits in living in a universe not yet having physical stability, just beginning its development toward light and life?
4. To what extent is love and mercy, the characteristics of Orvonton, demonstrated on our world?
5. Is Ezekiel’s universe vision of “wheels within wheels” suggestive of the cosmology we find in The Urantia Book ? How did ancient people achieve views which tend to parallel discovered fact and truth?
6. What considerations might the Ancient of Days explore when deciding on the eternal life or death of an individual?
7. What are the potential advantages of never losing our capacity to appreciate and enjoy lower levels of existence as we advance in the universe?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship