Paper 44 Overview: The Celestial Artisans

The celestial artisans are a specialized group of composite personalities who create beauty in the morontia and spirit realms throughout the grand universe. They operate on various headquarters worlds, with their primary activity concentrated in the constellation realms, especially on the seven hundred seventy worlds surrounding each constellation headquarters sphere. These master artists and artisans are not inherently created as such but comprise a selected corps of teacher personalities from the central universe and volunteer pupils drawn from ascending mortals and other celestial groups.

The artisans are organized into seven major divisions: Celestial Musicians, Heavenly Reproducers, Divine Builders, Thought Recorders, Energy Manipulators, Designers and Embellishers, and Harmony Workers. Any morontia personality or spirit entity below the rank of inherent divine sonship can apply to join this corps, though they must commit to serve for at least one millennium (one thousand years of superuniverse time). Through their diligent work, these artisans help translate the arts of Havona to the worlds of space, enhancing the beauty and meaning of spirit and morontia existence for all inhabitants.

The celestial artisans constitute a unique order of composite personalities who beautify and enhance the morontia and spirit realms. They operate throughout the grand universe—on superuniverse headquarters, local universe capitals, constellation centers, system spheres, and all worlds settled in light and life. While their work may seem incomprehensible to material minds, the morontia and spirit worlds possess rich artistic traditions and sophisticated cultural expressions that parallel but transcend material world accomplishments.

The original teaching corps of these artisans was assigned by the Infinite Spirit in collaboration with the Seven Master Spirits, initially consisting of seven thousand Havona instructors with one thousand specialists assigned to each division of artisans. From this foundation, a brilliant body of skilled workers has developed through the ages. Any morontia personality or spirit being below the rank of inherent divine sonship may join this corps, including ascending mortals after they reach the morontia worlds, provided they serve for a minimum of one millennium and demonstrate appropriate talent.

Celestial Musicians create harmonies that far exceed human comprehension, working with spirit pulsations instead of material sound waves. The range and expression of these melodies can transport millions of beings into sublime ecstasy and can be broadcast throughout the universe. These musicians manipulate various spiritual forces to create their harmonies, including spirit sound currents, spiritual light, energy impingements, color symphonies, and even the melody of thoughts.

These artists employ over one hundred thousand different techniques of sound, color, and energy manipulation that loosely parallel human musical instruments. The music of the seven levels of melodious association serves as the universal code of spirit communication. The best music on Urantia represents merely fleeting echoes of the magnificent strains created by celestial associates of human musicians. The presence of a truly gifted musician on a world can transform an entire civilization, as "melody has power a whole world to transform" and will forever remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.

The Heavenly Reproducers preserve and recreate valuable experiences from the morontia and spirit realms that have no equivalent on material worlds like Urantia. These artisans capture countless sublime realities that God has prepared for those who survive mortal existence, working in seven specialized groups to fulfill their mission. The singers harmonize past melodies and interpret current compositions, while color workers preserve scenes and episodes for future enjoyment.

Other groups include the light picturizers (creating semi-spirit phenomena preservations), historic pageant creators, prophetic artists, life-story tellers, and administrative enactors. These reproducers frequently collaborate with reversion directors, combining memory recapitulation with certain forms of mind rest and personality diversion. They sometimes create dramatic spectacles involving millions of actors portraying thousands of scenes. Their work is not merely for entertainment but serves important educational purposes, with much of their output becoming permanent legacies that enlighten future generations about the eternal values of the spirit world.

Divine Builders create the physical structures of the spirit realms, designing and constructing homes, workplaces, and gathering spaces for morontia and spirit beings. In the spirit counterpart to the material world, celestial residents enjoy homes, comforts, and necessities that both resemble and transcend what mortals experience on evolutionary planets. These builders operate in seven specialized divisions that address different aspects of the built environment.

The specialized groups include home designers who create personal residences, vocation builders who construct specialized workplaces, play builders who develop recreational facilities, worship builders who craft temples, education builders who design learning centers, morontia planners who coordinate living arrangements, and public builders who create assembly spaces. While material mortals would be unable to perceive these structures with physical senses, these creations are completely real to morontia and spirit beings who inhabit and utilize them for their daily activities and spiritual growth.

Thought Recorders preserve and reproduce the superior thinking of the realms, operating in seven specialized groups to capture various forms of intellectual and spiritual expression. The thought preservers treasure the gems of mentality throughout the universe, preserving noble ideas in the language of Uversa. Each superuniverse has its own language, as does each local universe, with translation being necessary between different regions of the grand universe.

The other specialized groups include concept recorders who preserve idea patterns, ideograph recorders who improve upon concept pictures, oratory promoters who preserve speeches, broadcast directors who supervise universe communications, rhythm recorders who capture poetic expressions, and morontia recorders who preserve images of morontia activities. Their methods of recording and preserving thought are vastly more efficient than human communication, with the ability to record the equivalent of over half a million words per minute of Urantia time, making it possible to convey in a half-hour address what would take an entire Urantian lifetime to express.

Energy Manipulators work expertly with physical, mindal, and spiritual energies across various domains of cosmic existence. The physical-energy manipulators collaborate with power directors to manage physical energy, serving for extended periods and gaining expertise in the three basic currents and thirty subsidiary energy segregations of the superuniverses. Mind-energy specialists facilitate communication between morontia beings, helping ascending personalities develop their abilities to connect with one another.

The additional specialized groups include spiritual-energy manipulators who work with spirit forces according to established laws, compound manipulators who combine all three energy types, transport advisers who assist seraphim with routing, communication experts who handle space messages, and teachers of rest who instruct on spiritual energy replenishment. These specialists help morontia and spirit beings understand that just as physical energy must be replenished, spirit energy also requires periodic restoration through techniques of divine rest, which becomes an essential practice for all ascending beings moving toward Paradise.

Designers and Embellishers create aesthetic experiences for morontia and spirit beings that have no direct parallel in human experience. Working in seven major groups, these artisans generate experiences of beauty that evolve beyond material comparisons. The craftworkers of color create ten thousand tones of spirit reflection that communicate harmonious beauty, while sound designers craft spirit waves that represent diverse emotional qualities.

The other specialized groups include emotion designers who preserve morontia sentiments and divine feelings, artists of odor who create spiritual "fragrances," presence embellishers who arrange beings to create meaningful relationships, taste designers who enhance appreciation of beauty, and morontia synthesizers who add finishing touches to collective creations. These artists work with materials and energies that transcend physical understanding, creating experiences that mortals can only begin to enjoy after leaving the physical body behind. Their creations provide ongoing inspiration and beauty for spirit beings and their morontia associates.

Harmony Workers practice a unique form of artistry that involves manipulating specialized forces and energies present in the spirit world but unrecognizable to mortals. Their work transcends any possible human comparison, dealing with aspects of celestial reality that have no counterpart in material existence. Though impossible to describe directly, their purpose can be implied through philosophical relationships between truth, beauty, and goodness.

These artists help integrate the cosmic concepts of true philosophy, celestial artistry, and divine beauty recognition. They demonstrate that when these expressions of the divine urge are unified in the life experience of the artisan, scientist, or philosopher, they achieve their greatest power and meaning. God perfectly unifies these divine qualities, and every God-knowing being possesses the potential for unlimited self-expression through progressive achievement of Godlikeness—the experiential blending of eternal truth, universal beauty, and divine goodness.

Celestial artisans occasionally visit material planets like Urantia to assist naturally gifted individuals develop their talents. Working under the supervision of planetary angels, these artisans collaborate with Thought Adjusters and seraphic hosts to nurture special human abilities. Exceptional talent derives from three potential sources: natural inherited ability, guidance from Thought Adjusters with relevant prior experience, and assistance from spirit artisans who harmonize and inspire these talents toward perfecting ideals.

The morontia career eliminates all the disadvantages of human heredity or environmental limitations that might have hindered artistic expression during mortal life. In the spirit realms, there are no class distinctions among artisans—all are judged solely on their abilities and contributions. Those earnest ambitions unfulfilled during material existence will find satisfaction in the morontia and spirit worlds, though ascending beings also learn to socialize their formerly selfish desires. Before leaving the local universe, ascending mortals will have fulfilled every intellectual, artistic, and social longing that characterized their mortal or morontia existence, achieving equality in self-expression while maintaining their distinct individuality.