Paper 44 Overview: The Celestial Artisans

The celestial artisans constitute a specialized order of composite personalities dedicated to the aesthetic enhancement and beautification of morontia and spirit domains throughout the grand universe. These master artists and artisans operate across all levels of cosmic administration, from superuniverse headquarters to local universes, constellations, and systems, though their principal sphere of activity is concentrated within the constellation realms, particularly on the seven hundred seventy worlds surrounding each headquarters sphere. While their work transcends material comprehension, they represent the sophisticated artistic and cultural dimensions of the morontia and spirit worlds, serving as custodians and creators of beauty in the post-material phases of existence.

The organizational structure of the celestial artisans reflects the comprehensive approach to aesthetic expression in the higher realms. Originating from a nucleus of seven thousand Havona instructors assigned by the Infinite Spirit in collaboration with the Seven Master Spirits, this corps has evolved to include volunteers from ascending mortals and numerous celestial groups. Membership requires a minimum commitment of one millennium (one thousand superuniverse years) and is open to any morontia personality or spirit entity below the rank of inherent divine sonship. Under the direction of morontia supervisors, these artisans operate in seven major divisions: Celestial Musicians, Heavenly Reproducers, Divine Builders, Thought Recorders, Energy Manipulators, Designers and Embellishers, and Harmony Workers. Each division contributes uniquely to the artistic tapestry that enriches experiential progress through the ascending career.

Among the courtesy colonies of the various divisional and universe headquarters worlds resides the unique order of composite personalities denominated the celestial artisans. These beings represent the master artists and artisans of the morontia and lower spirit realms, engaged in the sophisticated tasks of morontia embellishment and spiritual beautification. Their distribution spans the entirety of the grand universe, including superuniverse headquarters, local universe capitals, constellation centers, system spheres, and all worlds settled in light and life. However, their principal domain of activity is concentrated within the constellations, especially on the seven hundred seventy worlds surrounding each headquarters sphere. Although their artistic endeavors may appear almost incomprehensible to the material mind, it is essential to understand that the morontia and spirit worlds possess rich artistic traditions and sublime cultural expressions.

The celestial artisans are not created as such but comprise a selected and recruited corps assembled from teacher personalities native to the central universe and voluntary students drawn from ascending mortals and numerous other celestial groups. The original teaching corps of these artisans was assigned through the collaborative effort of the Infinite Spirit and the Seven Master Spirits, initially consisting of seven thousand Havona instructors, with one thousand allocated to each of the seven artistic divisions. From this foundational nucleus has developed, throughout the ages, the brilliant assemblage of skilled practitioners in spirit and morontia affairs. Any morontia personality or spirit entity below the rank of inherent divine sonship is eligible for admission to the artisan corps, including ascending sons from evolutionary spheres who, after arriving on the morontia worlds, may apply for admission and, if sufficiently gifted, choose such a career for a shorter or longer duration, though none may enlist for less than one millennium (one thousand years of superuniverse time).

The celestial musicians represent artistic expression that transcends the limited auditory range of mortal perception, operating in domains of sound and harmony that extend far beyond human comprehension. With the constrained scope of mortal hearing, humans can scarcely conceptualize morontia melodies, which include not only the unrecognized material range of beautiful sound but also the inconceivable spectrum of morontia and spirit harmony. Spirit melodies are not material sound waves but rather spirit pulsations received by the spirits of celestial personalities, encompassing a vastness of range, soul of expression, and grandeur of execution that thoroughly exceeds human comprehension. These sublime melodies can be transmitted throughout a universe, captivating millions of enraptured beings in states of sublime ecstasy as the harmonies of the spheres flow through the spiritual energy circuits.

These artistic specialists manipulate seven primary forms of spiritual forces to create celestial harmony: spiritual sound (spirit current interruptions), spiritual light (control and intensification of morontia and spirit realm illumination), energy impingements (melody produced through management of morontia and spirit energies), color symphonies (melody of morontia color tones, representing one of their highest accomplishments), harmony of associated spirits (creating melodies through the arrangement of different orders of beings), melody of thought (perfecting spiritual thinking to produce Havona-quality melodies), and music of space (properly attuning to melodies from other spheres on universe broadcast circuits).

The celestial musicians employ over one hundred thousand different modes of sound, color, and energy manipulation—techniques analogous to human musical instruments—though human dancing represents only a crude approximation of the celestial harmony of being placement and personality arrangement. The music of the seven levels of melodious association serves as the universal code of spirit communication, with its highest expression in the material realms found in the schools of Jerusem, where semimaterial beings study sound harmonies. The best music of Urantia represents merely fleeting echoes of the magnificent strains heard by celestial associates, and someday, a truly gifted musician may appear whose melodies could transform the evolutionary trajectory of an entire civilization.

The heavenly reproducers undertake the preservation and reproduction of supernal experiences that hold supreme value within the morontia and spirit domains but remain largely unknown on evolutionary worlds like Urantia. These artisans capture and recreate the myriad sublime realities that exist beyond mortal comprehension—those experiences that have hardly "entered into the mind of man" and represent the treasures God has prepared for those who survive the material life. These specialized artists function within seven distinct groups, each focusing on different aspects of experiential preservation and recreation for the edification of ascending beings and other spirit entities throughout the realms.

The seven specialized divisions include: singers (harmonists who reiterate specific harmonies of the past and interpret present melodies at the morontia level), color workers (artists of light and shade who preserve passing scenes and transient episodes for future morontia enjoyment), light picturizers (creators of semispirit-phenomena preservations that make motion pictures seem primitive by comparison), historic pageant creators (who dramatically reproduce crucial events from universe records and history), prophetic artists (who project historical meanings into the future), life-story tellers (who perpetuate the meaning and significance of life experience and project present personal experiences into future attainment values), and administrative enactors (who depict the significance of governmental philosophy and administrative technique through celestial dramatization of sovereignty).

The heavenly reproducers frequently collaborate with reversion directors, combining memory recapitulation with specific forms of mind rest and personality diversion to create spectacular presentations before morontia conclaves and spirit assemblies, sometimes involving more than one million actors producing thousands of sequential scenes. Their work transcends mere entertainment, as higher intellectual teachers and transition ministers utilize these reproducers for educational purposes, creating both transient illustrations and permanent works that will remain as legacies for all future time.

The divine builders create and maintain the architectural foundations that support life and activity in the morontia and spirit realms, constructing environments that parallel yet transcend material world structures. As the scriptural reference affirms, there are indeed cities "whose builder and maker is God," and in spirit counterpart, ascending beings encounter all the familiar elements of material existence and inexpressibly more. The divine builders function in seven specialized groups, each addressing different aspects of constructed environments needed for the varied activities and requirements of morontia and spirit existence.

The seven divisions of divine builders consist of: home designers and builders (who construct and remodel individual and group domiciles, creating genuine though invisible-to-material-sight residences customized to the needs of their inhabitants), vocation builders (who design and assemble workplaces for the routine functionaries of the spirit and morontia realms, contributing to vocational enhancement through specialized facilities), play builders (who create enormous edifices for recreation and appropriate forms of reminiscent humor during periods of rest and spiritual recharging), worship builders (the experienced architects of spirit and morontia temples, which represent the most exquisite creations of the morontia realms and spirit spheres), education builders (who construct the headquarters of morontia training and advanced spirit learning, supporting the continuous acquisition of knowledge throughout the ascendant career), morontia planners (who build for coordinated association of all personalities present on a sphere), and public builders (the artisans who plan and construct designated assembly places separate from worship sites).

While these structures and their embellishments would not register on the sensory perception of material mortals, they exist as definite and absolute realities to morontia and spirit beings, who clearly discern and fully enjoy these magnificent creations.

The thought recorders are dedicated to the preservation and reproduction of the superior intellectual and spiritual concepts generated throughout the realms, functioning as the archivists of the universe's most profound and valuable ideations. Operating in seven distinct groups, these specialized artisans capture and maintain the diverse manifestations of thought that emerge across the spectrum of morontia and spirit activity. The thought preservers form the foundation of this enterprise, serving as custodians of the elevated thinking produced within the realms, treasuring the gems of mentation across the morontia worlds and preserving noble ideas in the language of Uversa, the communication medium of the superuniverse.

The linguistic infrastructure of the grand universe demonstrates remarkable complexity and sophistication, with each superuniverse possessing its distinct language (like the tongue of Uversa in our superuniverse) and each local universe maintaining its own communication system. Higher orders in Nebadon are typically bilingual, speaking both their local universe language and the superuniversal tongue, while entities from different local universes communicate in the language of Uversa, requiring translators only when beings from different superuniverses interact. The additional six categories of thought recorders include: concept recorders (who preserve concept pictures and idea patterns in a form unknown to material realms, enabling the absorption of substantially more knowledge in one hour than a human could gain in a century of reading), ideograph recorders (who preserve ideographs and improve concept picturizations by a factor of one thousand), promoters of oratory (who preserve thought for reproduction through oratory, enabling a half-hour address in Nebadon to cover the equivalent of an entire Urantian lifetime of subject matter), broadcast directors (who supervise universe-wide communications, censoring and editing broadcast material for appropriate adaptation to different audiences), rhythm recorders (the universe's poets who capture myriad forms of self-expression and social harmonization), and morontia recorders (who preserve ensemble pictures of morontia affairs and spirit transactions for future reference).

This comprehensive system of thought preservation ensures that the intellectual and spiritual achievements of the universe remain accessible across time and space, serving the educational and developmental needs of countless ascending beings.

The energy manipulators represent a cadre of technical specialists adept at working with and transforming the various energy forms—physical, mindal, and spiritual—that undergird the cosmos. These specialists operate across multiple domains of expertise, addressing the manipulation, integration, and application of energy in its diverse manifestations throughout the morontia and spirit realms. The physical-energy manipulators collaborate extensively with power directors, becoming virtuosos in the manipulation and control of numerous phases of physical energy, demonstrating comprehensive knowledge of the three basic currents and thirty subsidiary energy segregations of the superuniverses while persistently studying the cosmic projections of Paradise.

The seven specialized classifications of energy manipulators include not only the physical-energy experts but also: mind-energy manipulators (who facilitate intercommunication between morontia and other intelligent beings, promoting intellectual liaison experiences beyond human comprehension), spiritual-energy manipulators (who work with spirit force according to established and reliable laws, having developed improved techniques for spiritual energy intake over recent millions of years), compound manipulators (dedicated to the functional association of physical, mindal, and spiritual energies in pursuit of experiential unification of grand universe divinity through God the Supreme), transport advisers (technical consultants to transport seraphim who assist in route planning and traffic supervision on inhabited worlds), experts of communication (long-experienced technicians who understand the laws of transmittal and interference in communications), and teachers of rest (who instruct on the essential techniques of energy replenishment, helping beings understand that morontia and spirit energy must be replenished just as physical energy requires restoration).

These specialists provide crucial instruction to ascending mortals about divine rest and the techniques of spiritual energy intake, preparing them for the transition from time to eternity wherein they must be inducted into the revivifying rest of Paradise. This is not merely a technical requirement but an essential form of rest for replenishing energy and storing spiritual power reserves for the eternal career.

The designers and embellishers constitute the aesthetic architects of the morontia and spirit realms, creating experiential beauty through the sophisticated manipulation of energies, emotions, and sensory stimuli that transcend material comprehension. Their work extends beyond any possible material parallel, presenting significant challenges in explanation to material beings whose conceptual frameworks remain limited by physical existence. Despite these explanatory limitations, these artisans operate within seven major specializations, each addressing different dimensions of experiential aesthetics that enrich the lives of morontia and spirit beings.

The seven primary divisions of these artisans include: craftworkers of color (who generate ten thousand distinct color tones of spirit reflection that communicate harmonious messages of exquisite beauty), sound designers (who craft spirit waves of diverse identity and morontia appreciation, representing superb reflections of the celestial hosts' naked and glorious spirit-souls), emotion designers (who preserve and enhance sentiments of morontia and emotions of divinity for the edification of time children and the inspiration of morontia progressors), artists of odor (who create varied symphonies for the advancement of light children despite the unfortunate comparison to physical chemical odors), presence embellishers (who dramatize relationship significance through positional values assigned to different morontia and spirit orders in composite ensembles), taste designers (who enhance morontia taste and increase beauty appreciation by sharpening evolving spirit senses), and morontia synthesizers (the master craftsmen who add culminating and finishing touches to collective creations, achieving inspiring portrayals of divine beauty that endure as inspiration for spirit beings and their morontia associates).

These sophisticated artists work collaboratively to create multilayered aesthetic experiences that both delight and educate, though material beings must await deliverance from the animal body before they can begin to conceptualize the artistic glories and aesthetic beauties of the morontia and spirit worlds.

The harmony workers represent perhaps the most abstract and conceptually challenging artistic domain within the celestial artisan corps, as they manipulate and organize specialized forces and energies present exclusively in the spirit world but unrecognizable to mortal consciousness. Their artistic endeavors exist entirely beyond meaningful material comparison, presenting insurmountable descriptive challenges for communication to material intelligences. Nevertheless, though direct description remains impossible, certain philosophical implications and relationships can be suggested that might provide glimpses into their profound significance within the cosmic order.

The harmony workers operate at the intersection of intellect, emotion, and spirit, demonstrating through their artistry that beauty, rhythm, and harmony are intellectually associated and spiritually akin, just as truth, fact, and relationship form inseparable intellectual constructs connected to philosophical beauty, and goodness, righteousness, and justice interrelate philosophically while spiritually binding with living truth and divine beauty. Their work illustrates how cosmic concepts of true philosophy, celestial artistic portrayal, and human recognition of divine beauty cannot achieve true satisfaction when expressed in isolation; these manifestations of the divine urge within evolving creatures require the unification of intellectual truth, emotional beauty, and spiritual goodness to manifest the authentic soul of expression.

This tripartite integration represents the experiential goal toward which all ascending beings progress, with the divine qualities of truth, beauty, and goodness perfectly and absolutely unified in God. Every God-knowing individual, human or angel, possesses the potential for unlimited self-expression through progressive levels of unified self-realization, advancing through the never-ending achievement of Godlikeness by experientially blending eternal truth, universal beauty, and divine goodness throughout their ascending career.

Although celestial artisans do not regularly operate on evolutionary worlds like Urantia, they occasionally descend from their system headquarters to offer assistance to naturally gifted individuals among the mortal races. When assigned to such special missions, these artisans function under the supervision of the planetary angels of progress, collaborating with the seraphic hosts to nurture and develop the inherent creative capacities present in certain mortals. This selective intervention represents part of the universe's investment in cultivating aesthetic and creative potential across the evolutionary domains, recognizing that the artistic dimensions of personality expression contribute meaningfully to cosmic progress.

Human artistic ability emerges from three distinct but potentially complementary sources: foundational natural or inherent aptitude derived from ancestral endowment, supplementary guidance from the Thought Adjuster (particularly when the indwelling Adjuster has had relevant experience with other mortal beings on other worlds), and occasional direct assistance from celestial artisans who harmonize these talents and inspire mortals toward ever-perfecting ideals. The morontia career completely eliminates the hierarchical constraints and inequalities that characterize mortal existence, as the ascension scheme recognizes no caste distinctions among artisans—only the quality of creative contribution matters. Every limitation of human heredity or environmental deprivation that might have hindered artistic expression during physical life finds full compensation in the morontia career through personal advancement.

Those earnest longings and frustrated creative aspirations experienced during mortal existence will find satisfaction in the morontia and spirit domains, though ascending beings also learn to socialize their formerly self-centered ambitions and participate more fully in collaborative creative endeavors. Before departing the local universe for their spirit careers, ascending mortals achieve complete satisfaction regarding every intellectual, artistic, and social longing that characterized their mortal or morontia existence, establishing equality in self-expression and self-realization while maintaining their distinctive individuality in skill, technique, and creative expression.