Paper 66 Overview: The Planetary Prince of Urantia

The arrival of a Planetary Prince marks an important step in a world's development, and on Urantia this happened about 500,000 years ago. Caligastia was appointed as Urantia's Planetary Prince and established a headquarters city called Dalamatia, where he and his staff of 100 worked to advance human civilization.

The Prince and his staff made great progress in teaching humans about agriculture, animal domestication, and basic social organization over a period of 300,000 years. Unfortunately, Caligastia later joined the Lucifer rebellion, betraying his sacred trust and causing great damage to Urantia's development.

The arrival of a Lanonandek Son as Planetary Prince usually happens when humans first show the ability to choose the path of eternal survival. On Urantia, the Planetary Prince Caligastia arrived about 500,000 years ago when the six colored races appeared, which was almost half a million years after human will first emerged.

At the time of the Prince's arrival, almost half a billion primitive humans lived on earth, scattered across Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Prince established his headquarters in Mesopotamia, which was close to the center of the world's population at that time.

Caligastia was a Lanonandek Son of the secondary order, number 9,344. He had experience in the administration of the local universe and the management of the local system of Satania, having served on Lucifer's personal staff.

Caligastia had sought a commission as Planetary Prince multiple times, and was particularly interested in being sent to a decimal or life-modification world. When he finally received his assignment to Urantia, he left Jerusem with an excellent record of loyalty and devotion to the universe, despite showing some restlessness and tendency to disagree with established orders.

The Planetary Prince came to Urantia with the usual group of assistants and administrative helpers. His associate-assistant was Daligastia, another secondary Lanonandek Son, who served as the head of the prince's planetary staff.

The most interesting members of the staff were the corporeal members, often called "the Caligastia one hundred." These were 100 rematerialized ascendant citizens from Jerusem who volunteered for the Urantia mission. They were given special bodies made with the life plasm of selected Andon and Fonta descendants, becoming unique threefold beings who could interact directly with primitive humans.

The headquarters of the Planetary Prince was located in the Persian Gulf region, in an area that later became known as Mesopotamia. The climate and landscape there were very favorable for the work of the Prince's staff and their efforts to help primitive humans.

Dalamatia was a simple but beautiful city surrounded by a forty-foot wall. It was divided into ten sections, with the headquarters of the ten councils located in the center of each section. At the very center of the city stood the temple of the unseen Father, with the administrative headquarters of the Prince and his associates arranged in twelve chambers around this temple.

The arrival of the Prince's staff made a profound impression on the surrounding tribes. It took nearly a thousand years for news of these extraordinary beings to spread widely, but the tribes near Mesopotamia were greatly influenced by the teachings and conduct of the one hundred new visitors to Urantia.

The one hundred members of the Prince's staff were extraordinary threefold beings. They had physical bodies containing the life plasm of the Andonic race of Urantia, which allowed them to reproduce. They were also superhuman beings with souls of ascendant growth, and they were personally immortal thanks to the antidotal complements of the life currents of the system that circulated through their bodies.

The one hundred staff members were organized into ten autonomous councils of ten members each. When two or more councils met in joint session, Daligastia presided over the meetings.

The ten councils were: the council on food and material welfare led by Ang; the board of animal domestication and utilization directed by Bon; the advisers regarding the conquest of predatory animals captained by Dan; the faculty on dissemination and conservation of knowledge presided over by Fad; the commission on industry and trade led by Nod; the college of revealed religion headed by Hap; the guardians of health and life led by Lut; the planetary council on art and science directed by Mek; the governors of advanced tribal relations led by Tut; and the supreme court of tribal co-ordination and racial co-operation directed by Van.

The level of culture in a world is measured by the social heritage of its people, and the rate of cultural expansion depends on the ability of its inhabitants to understand new and advanced ideas. The Caligastia one hundred helped overcome tradition-bound customs by teaching about individual initiative within social groups.

The staff of Caligastia knew the arts and culture of Jerusem well, but they understood that sudden change would not work with primitive humans. Instead, they patiently worked to advance the interests entrusted to them by attracting the best minds from surrounding tribes, training them, and then sending them back to their people as representatives of social progress.

The Prince's headquarters was beautifully designed to impress primitive humans of that age, but it was still modest in nature. The buildings were not especially large because the teachers wanted to encourage the development of agriculture through animal husbandry.

The corporeal staff set an example of family life by living together as fathers and mothers. Though they had no children of their own, the fifty pattern homes in Dalamatia sheltered at least 500 adopted children from the superior families of the Andonic and Sangik races. These children received special training and, after three years in the Prince's schools, were eligible to marry and become representatives of the Prince to their respective races.

Looking back at Caligastia's long career, the most noticeable feature of his character was his extreme individualism. He tended to side with those who expressed mild criticism and was restless under authority, though he always proved loyal in tests before his betrayal of Urantia.

Both Lucifer and Caligastia had been patiently instructed and warned about their critical tendencies and pride, but they viewed this helpful advice as unwarranted criticism. From the arrival of Prince Caligastia, planetary civilization progressed normally for almost 300,000 years until the Lucifer rebellion, when Caligastia betrayed his trust and joined the rebellion, creating long-lasting confusion on the planet.