© 2019 André Desjardins
© 2019 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| Growth in the Kingdom of Heaven | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 87 — September 2019 | Report of the AFLLU Ordinary General Meeting |
Guardian angels or guardians of destiny are undoubtedly the most misunderstood and unknown celestial helpers for most human beings. The vast majority of people living on our planet believe in angels and their personal guardian angel, but many of these beliefs are often far-fetched and do not conform to the real functions of angels. Many things are said or have been said and much is written about angels; one only has to go to stores specializing in esotericism or go to a bookstore in the “spirituality” section to realize this. This means that we can have a very personal interpretation according to the image we have of angels and their functions. The purpose of this study is to better understand the function of the Seraphic Guardians in relation to the function of the Thought Adjusters. Their task is less recognized and yet so essential to the survival of the personality of its human associate.
Perhaps the best description of these seraphic bodies is in The Urantia Book and several papers are devoted to them, and even then these seraphim seem to be unknown among most knowledgeable readers. These spirit beings are a creation of the Mother Spirit of the local Universe and number over 71,663,616 individuals as mentioned in The Urantia Book: [UB 38:6.2] constitutes the largest operational organization of seraphim, an angelic army. It is rather difficult to fully elaborate and understand the very numerous work and functions of all the Seraphic Corps in our local universe. Some of these angelic beings are destined to serve in various capacities in their local universe and others are destined to become guardian angels.
“The erroneous idea that angels possess wings is not wholly due to olden notions that they must have wings to fly through the air. Human beings have sometimes been permitted to observe seraphim that were being prepared for transport service, and the traditions of these experiences have largely determined the Urantian concept of angels. In observing a transport seraphim being made ready to receive a passenger for interplanetary transit, there may be seen what are apparently double sets of wings extending from the head to the foot of the angel. In reality these wings are energy insulators—friction shields.” (UB 39:5.12)
Guardian angels are perhaps the most intriguing of the seraphim; they lack the prestige and notoriety of the Thought Adjuster because they work in the shadows of the latter. They do not have the same appeal as the indwelling Adjuster, but their work in the background is essential to personality survival since the morontia soul is in their precious custody. Their origin is different from the Thought Adjuster, and this is perhaps the primary reason why they do not have the same appeal. Thought Adjusters emanate from the Universal Father, and seraphim have their origin in the local universes; they are a creation of the Mother Spirit of a local universe, and the majority of seraphim serve in various capacities there, but most of them can qualify for the attainment of the sacred spheres of Paradise.
Seraphim are not born as men; they are born as they are and in full possession of all their faculties but can change their status through their service to the ascenders. They are born in an adult and mature state but are devoid of experience unlike the birth and experiential growth of a human being such as here on the planet. It is rather difficult to comprehend the full complexity of their ministry, but in all these cases seraphim must conform to the injunction to be perfect; no one can evade this obligation of the experience of evolutionary perfection in space-time. Thought Adjusters must also conform to it in order to have the real and essential experience for their ministry; even our Son Michael of Nebadon had to bestow himself seven times in order to have the experience among the creatures of his universe.
Regarding seraphim, The Urantia Book states: [UB 39:0.10] “Man begins life as a helpless infant, and every human achievement must therefore include all the experiential prerequisites. Seraphim do not pass through this pre-adult life—they have no childhood. Yet they are experiential creatures. Through experience and additional education, they can augment their innate and divine aptitude by experimentally acquiring functional skill in one or more seraphic services.” Thus, the evolution of seraphim is different from human beings; the difference is in their service; they must acquire skill and practical experience in the experiential worlds by evolving in status and experience through their service to mortals, and thus they acquire practical experience.
However qualified these angels may be, they cannot take the initiative in leaving their local universes; they are confined there according to their abilities and functions for the needs of the personalities who reside there. If it were possible for the seraphim to go out of their local universes on their own initiative, the seraphim population might decrease and influence their service to mankind. According to The Urantia Book, the creation of seraphim is still current: [UB 38:1.3 ] “The periodic creation of seraphim continues to this day; the universe of Nebadon is still under construction. The Mother Spirit never ceases her creative activity in a universe in the process of growth and perfection.” » This assumes that as soon as a seraphic guardian leaves his local universe in order to pursue his co-destiny with his human associate, he is replaced considering that the creation of seraphim is still current in order to maintain the minimum of 71,663,616 individuals as mentioned in The Urantia Book. Thus the Mother Spirit of the Universe creates another seraphim in order to replace the void left by this seraphic guardian. This new seraphim is born without experience, a bit like a baby being born on our planet.
The best way for a seraphim to get out of the local universe is to apply for the position of seraphic guardian, but before they can hold this office they must qualify and gain the experience necessary to attain the title of personal guardian assigned to a human associate. In this connection The Urantia Book tells us: [P. 440.7, 39:8.5] <The supremely chosen position of seraphim in the career of time is that of guardian angel, which enables them to attain the career of finality and to qualify for assignment to the eternal spheres of seraphic service. Only successful guardians of destiny can be sure of following with their human associate the progressive path of evolutionary ascension. Such seraphim, through the ascending experience of mortal beings, thus share the destiny of our human nature. The Urantia Book states: [UB 113:7.8] “For seraphim, the surest way to reach the Paradise Deities is to successfully guide a soul of evolutionary origin to the gates of Paradise. Therefore an assignment as guardian of destiny is the most highly valued seraphic post.” These seraphim have a personal interest in guiding an ascending mortal. Since these angels guide the ascending career and destiny of their human associate, they can thus step out of the local universe and be enrolled in the Corps of the Finality. Therefore they are rightly called guardian of destiny. This guardian of destiny who is associated with us in time also becomes our finaliter associate in eternity; for this seraphim, this is the quintessence of his achievement.
By guiding an ascending mortal, the seraphic guardian thus secures a pass to achieve this goal. To give an example, imagine a bodyguard carrying important files on behalf of a dignitary; this in effect gives him permission to go anywhere to follow and accompany this dignitary, in the same way that this same bodyguard cannot take any initiative to go anywhere if he is not accompanied by his dignitary. Thus, by guiding the destiny of ascenders, these guardians of destiny determine their own destiny.
The difference between the Thought Adjuster and the Seraphic Guardian lies in their respective functions, but they always work together in perfect harmony as mentioned in The Urantia Book: [UB 113:4.5] “Although there is apparently no communication between the inner Adjuster and the seraphim surrounding him, the two seem to always work in perfect harmony and charming agreement.” In order to better understand the difference in their respective functions, one must imagine how a computer works. There are two important components inside a computer: the burner, the hard drive and the data written to the hard drive.
Let’s assume that the recorder is the Thought Adjuster, the hard drive could represent our mind and the data recorded could be represented by the Seraphic Guardian on the hard drive. In order to simplify these actions, we must be able to give a concrete example of these actions. Thus The Urantia Book mentions: [UB 110:2.3] “The Adjuster does not seek to control your thought as such, but rather to spiritualize it, to give it an eternal character.” The Urantia Book also mentions: [UB 113:3.4] “This is where the reason is revealed why the seraphic guardian ultimately becomes the personal custodian of the mental patterns, memory formulas and soul realities of the human survivor during the interval between his physical death and his morontia resurrection.”
By coordinating all of this information and changing the Thought Adjuster’s term “spiritualize” to “digitize” and changing the Seraphic Guardian’s term “memory formulas” to “inscribed data” and ultimately our mind and identity could represent the hard drive on the computer.
The Father has thought of everything and has done everything to ensure that nothing is lost of the identity so essential to the survival of the human personality. Thus the seraphic Guardian is the eternal guardian in order to preserve the experiential values of his human associate always accompanied by his complement of being as quoted in The Urantia Book: [UB 113:2.9] “When a seraphic couple accepts a guardian assignment, they thus serve for the remainder of the life of the human being concerned. The complement of being (one of the two angels) becomes the historian of the enterprise. These complementary seraphim are the recording angels for the mortals of the evolutionary worlds.” In digital language we could call the complement of being like the “back up” or an exact copy of the original on a computer.
The work of the seraphic guardian takes on its full meaning during repersonalization and with the complicity of the Thought Adjuster and assisted by the complement of being, he so preciously preserves the values and personal data attached to the experience of his human associate. Thus with the help of the Thought Adjuster and the complicity of the complement of being, everything must be coordinated and unified so that everything conforms to the repersonalization of the unique identity of the associated personality. This coordination is essential for repersonalization on the morontia worlds, just as in a computer; everything must conform so that the data recorded is gathered, unified and synchronized as in a single operation.
In conclusion of this study; although our morontia soul is a joint co-creation of our mind and our Thought Adjuster, but without the intervention of our seraphic guardian we could not access this eternal union with our Thought Adjuster as described in The Urantia Book: [UB 113:7.4] “During your ascension of the morontia spheres, it is ultimately the seraphic guardians who witness and certify the decrees which certify your eternal union with the Thought Adjuster.” This is why the seraphic guardian plays an essential role in the repersonalization of his human associate because everything that is attached to personal values relating to our personality is preserved by him.
Andre Desjardins
St-Alexis-des-Monts — Quebec
| Growth in the Kingdom of Heaven | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 87 — September 2019 | Report of the AFLLU Ordinary General Meeting |