Van's Memoirs

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Imagine Van returning to Urantia, and publishing his memoirs. Van is one of the most amazing people who ever lived on our planet, yet virtually unknown. Not only because he lived here almost a half million years, but also because of his steadfastness in holding to the will of God. Below are the first two chapters of "The Planetary Prince & Van the Steadfast," how I imagined it:

Chapter 1 - Overview

I am Van, onetime head of Earth’s tribal coordination and racial cooperation council. I was born on a world much like, but far from Earth, died and was resurrected in the halls of Mansion World Number One, the same as you will do after the lessons of your first life, your Earth-life, have been acquired.

Of the past 10,000 years of planetary history, you have but faint and faulty records. Of the previous 500,000 years you have mostly fossils and a few artifacts. My associates and I arrived on Earth about that time, as aides to the Planetary Prince. A prince’s regime is the first in a long line of divinely appointed administrators sent to govern and enlighten worlds where human will has finally appeared. These descending sons and daughters of God are entrusted with the education, training, and progress of ascendant children, the mortals of the realm. This is standard procedure on all inhabited spheres.

Life begins on a planet when a specialized order of beings, the Life Carriers, formulate, implant, and foster it over hundreds of millions of years. Life Carriers do not create life; they only organize it with prevailing conditions in mind. It is God who enlivens their formulas, and God who is the primary initiator of all orders of beings.

It was approximately one-half billion years ago when the Life Carriers implanted their formula in Earth’s shallow tidal pools. These implants introduced the first living forms, microbial creatures. Then came the oxygen-producing plants, followed by an array of animal life, and finally the first human beings, creatures of will dignity, the capacity for seeking and knowing God.

After a planet’s life formula produces beings who have the ability to contemplate divinity, a Planetary Prince and his staff, composed of highly trained superhumans, arrive as guides and teachers. The prince is invisible to human eyes, but the members of his staff take up physical form, incarnate in bodies provided by Life Carriers. We become visible beings who can engage the native beings—as and where they are. The prince’s principal mission is to lead his staff in teaching humanity about life’s origin, history, meaning, purpose, value, and destiny, both as individuals and as a social collective. To achieve that end, the prince’s schools offer instruction in the three arenas of cosmic reality: the physical, the intellectual, and the spiritual.

Once the prince’s group establishes rule on a world, and after civilization has been initiated, other teachers come, beings of higher and higher origin bringing greater and greater truths, refinements of the God concept, until the planet reaches its ultimate destiny, an age of Light and Life, planetary perfection.

In the million years since the first two humans appeared on the evolutionary scene, Earth has hosted these epochal revelations. First came the prince, then Adam and Eve, followed by Melchizedek who, in turn, prepared the way for Earth’s most famous and revered visitor; the one known as Jesus of Nazareth.

Because he will often be cited, and because he is a central figure in Earth’s history, I will preface this narrative with Jesus’ background. He is recognized in the celestial realm as Michael, father, creator, and now sovereign of all inhabited worlds in our local universe, having the name Nebadon. In the seven time-space universes there are 700,000 Creator Sons of God, the order of Michael. Each Creator Son selects a segment of space in which to create ten million unique, evolutionary planets. The Michaels also create administrators, a vast order of beings, to manage their creations.

One order is the Lanonandek Sons, who may become Planetary Princes; others include the Adams and Eves and the Melchizedek Sons. There are yet other orders who rule the worlds in his name. Michael, as part of his experiential perfection process, is required to live—to actually incarnate—as seven of his created beings in his universe. His final self-bestowal was as a man of the Earth, son of Joseph and Mary. This bestowal provided Michael with an understanding of the human, the mortal point of view. All seven bestowals afforded him insights from both perspectives, the ascending and descending, wisdom that can only come from actual involvement in the lives of his own creatures.

After the seven self-bestowals were completed, he was granted full sovereignty of Nebadon. This is God’s plan to ensure his Creator Sons (the Michaels) will rule perfectly, justly, compassionately and reflect the Universal Father’s ideals of perfection attainment. Your scriptural record is correct where it states God’s plan for all: “Be you perfect, even as the Father in heaven is perfect.” Upon completion of the experiential training regimen the Master Michaels rule in perfection for all to witness and someday achieve in their realm as he has in his.

With those cosmic facts reviewed, I can better reveal Earth’s fascinating history. When the human family was well spread over Eurasia and Africa, approximately a half million years ago, Prince Caligastia was chosen to govern Earth in Michael’s name and begin the process of guiding humanity on its long journey into the ages of Light and Life. The Planetary Princes of the Lanonandek order are a type of being specially designed to initiate this service on spheres where will creatures have finally emerged. Lanonandeks are also, and by design, naturally sympathetic with, and not too far removed from humans, both intellectually and spiritually.

Earth has a long and rich history, but so little of it is known to you. Perhaps this record will, in some measure, begin to alleviate that crippling and wisdom-depriving deficiency. The people of Earth deserve to know their origin, history, and eventual destiny.

Chapter 2 - The Mission

Many are the myths that grew out of the voids of history and the lingering traditions of pre-literate times. As a member of the prince’s staff, I spent about five hundred thousand years on Earth during which I developed a fondness for humanity. My term of service ended when the next order of descending teachers arrived, the ones you know as Adam and Eve. That was 38,000 years ago.

Much has transpired since then; Melchizedek followed Adam, and Jesus came not long after Melchizedek. These epochal, historical events became confused and conflated in the minds of humans, so much so that I was asked to create this narrative to replace myth with facts, because no world can reach its intended goal of perfection until its inhabitants understand their history and know their reason for existence. In the mind of God there is a perfection plan that encompasses every planet, even every individual.

Before being selected as Earth’s prince, Caligastia had long sought such a challenging role. He was particularly fascinated by Earth and planets like it because they are cosmic laboratories where new life formulas are tested. Only on one in ten worlds are Life Carriers and planetary administrators permitted such experimental latitude. This freedom from the more routine services of his order interested the brilliant Caligastia.

Before being chosen, the prince had amassed an enviable record of success, loyalty, and dedication. All agreed he was a gifted, experienced, original-minded personality who would be an exceptionally wise and creative world administrator. This was the highest office yet attained in his long career.

Prior to his selection, Caligastia was attached to the Satania System’s Corps of Life Carriers as an adviser, information collector, and consultant. Their records state, among other laudatory comments that Caligastia “fulfilled five assignments with honor and trust.” Subsequently he was promoted to princely status and then granted his petition to govern an experimental sphere.

Before arriving on Earth, the prince drew up a plan that received approval from the chief of his kind. It called for one hundred former mortals to organize ten educational councils, one of which I headed. We council members took origin on worlds similar to Earth and, after suitable training and accreditation, volunteered for this noble service that lifts planets out of cosmic ignorance, readied for the biologic uplift brought by the next order of global governors, the Adams and Eves.

Ten of us were selected to lead the councils, according to our expertise and successes on other assignments of local universe unfolding. Before being appointed to the prince’s staff, I served as a jurist on the Council of Interplanetary Coordination on Jerusem, the Satania System administrative headquarters. Earth is one of over six hundred inhabited worlds belonging to this system, and Satania will eventually contain one thousand such worlds. Systems are the basic units of local universe organization, and Jerusem is a typical headquarter sphere. Jerusem has fifty-six satellites, each with a specific administrative responsibility.

Before incarnating on Earth, we ten council leaders were given new names, simple ones the primitive humans of half a million years ago could easily pronounce and remember. Each of us had an area of service and education, running from the material to the spiritual to the judicial. The council I led served dual functions, tribal cooperation, and justice administration.

Of course, we council leaders could not accomplish our separate tasks of world management alone. Before coming, the prince chose nine qualified and proven volunteers to serve on each of the ten councils. These ninety were also former mortals with long experience in the system’s administrative functions. And too, a host of angelic ministers is always assigned to such missions as ours.

There was one other who came with us, Caligastia’s assistant and fellow Lanonandek, Daligastia. They were longtime associates in service. Besides being Caligastia’s adviser and deputy he presided over discussions when two or more of the councils met.

We one hundred volunteers were pledged to work for and with those two descending sons, both of celestial origin and training. Regardless of origin or experience, we one hundred and two were wholly united in our ten-fold plan to establish the government of God on Earth, number 606 of the Satania System. Such ministry extends to every inhabited world in the time-space universe.

Caligastia’s one hundred volunteers were winnowed from almost 800,000 applicants, all fully accredited citizens of Jerusem. Besides serving acceptably in various assignments on diverse evolutionary worlds, every one of us were graduates of Satania’s mansion world training regime. And each of us had attained citizenship on the system capital where more expansive service records are still in evidence. We were all intimately familiar with Jerusem’s exquisite arts and refined culture.

We arrived on the planet with the best intentions and supreme hopes for its inhabitants, present and future. I can attest that every member was sincere, qualified, and eager to begin our audacious mission. No one can say we were not adequately trained and suitably qualified to foster progressive civilization on an evolutionary sphere. After our records were thoroughly examined, we received personal approval from the System Sovereign and were thereby certified for service on Earth as worthy representatives. When all was in readiness, Caligastia arranged a pre-departure gathering at a great hall on the skirt of the Sea of Glass, Jerusem’s transport center.

Previously, we one hundred had attended several formal planning meetings hosted by Caligastia, but this pre-departure meeting was informal, an opportunity to become better acquainted with the other ninety-nine members of our group. I recall being impressed by the many great souls that had been chosen. There was indeed enough talent and accumulated wisdom in the one hundred to efficiently and effectively transform a whole world.

Near the end of this meeting the newly appointed prince addressed those gathered, the one hundred volunteers, our families, friends, and teachers, some five thousand in all. There was confident expectation, even presumption, that we would succeed in our mission and someday return to Jerusem triumphant.

Before compiling this narrative, I retrieved the chronicle of our mission from the system archives. It begins with Caligastia’s address given that evening prior to our venture on Earth.

The prince said, in part:

“Welcome everyone, to our departure jubilee. I thank each of you for the many farewell wishes I have received since the announcement of our mission to 606. I, my staff—the Caligastia One Hundred—and Daligastia, my first lieutenant and loyal friend, are keenly anticipating this venture on an experimental world, one with unique potentials to improve and possibly accelerate the evolutionary process.

“The experiment on 606 has two main parts, the first has already manifested, the emergence of a race of will creatures, primitive humans. The Life Carrier implants required over a half billion years of planetary time to bring about human will and intelligence. That occurred 500,000 years ago. You are all aware that a superhuman planetary administration is usually established concurrently, or soon after humans have appeared; it may be that our challenges on this unique experimental world will be greater due to this unusual delay. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned by allowing free will creatures to exist for so long without divine guidance. We shall see.

“Most of you know of Andon and Fonta, Earth’s first humans, the first to achieve free will status on 606. They live and serve still, here in the system. One of their current assignments is greeting survivors at Resurrection Hall on Mansion One. I pray, when our mission is complete, they shall have many more ascending souls to greet, increasing across the ages.

“When Andon and Fonta’s progeny grew to five hundred million the six colored races—embedded in the Life Carriers’ formula—emerged. This event was unusual in that all six came in one family having nineteen children, not one at a time as occurs on non-experimental worlds. Earth now has these six colored races, and the original Andonic race. I have conferred with the chief of the Life Carriers and we concluded all seven have inherent value to our mission, that each one has traits worthy of conservation.

“The Life Carrier reports indicate the Andonites are at their peak biologically and intellectually. Already have the Carriers gathered germplasm from one hundred of the best of this Andonite stock. In the making of the bodies of my corporeal staff, this plasm will serve as the pattern. The Carriers’ chief assured me they will look much like the native inhabitants.

“And when the germplasm was extracted from the one hundred Andonites a complement of the system’s life circuit was inserted into their bodies thereby conferring immortality. I intend they shall become personal assistants for my one hundred, and for as long as we serve on 606.

“But the Caligastia one hundred and their assistants will not engage in physical procreation. Already have my one hundred been instructed not to produce offspring among themselves or with any human until just before Adam and Eve arrive. And this is the other unique experimental aspect being planned for 606. Immediately prior to Adam’s arrival, my one hundred staff members will be permitted to parent their replacements. These offspring will then mate with the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, thereby producing a race of evolutionary enhancers, mortals of superior governing ability, but most especially the capacity to be indwelt by the Father’s spirit fragments. Someday, because of our preparatory work, all natives will be capable of hosting one of these divine fragments.

“It is a solemn honor to be assigned the responsibility of carrying out this unprecedented experiment intended to improve and accelerate spiritual advancement, to hasten the evolutionary process. I sincerely thank the Most Highs for trusting me to lead this mission. I believe 606 is brimming with unparalleled potentials and am grateful to Michael and his divine plan of reaching down so that new souls may reach up; we go now to actualize this universal wisdom.

“Our first task shall be to educate and enlighten the inhabitants, to take the primitive will creatures from savagery to civility, to convert them from hunters to herders, in preparation for Adam and Eve, who will turn herders into gardeners. I am pleased to say already have many Adamic couples applied to follow me in service to this world. All this ministry will culminate in a citizenry well suited to soul making and divine indwelling, and in less time than is required on non-experimental worlds.

“Now we go to Earth as God’s ministers to carry out this novel experiment, to increase humanity’s spiritual receptivity and produce a creature that has a greater chance to host God’s indwelling spirit, that incomparable gift he reserves for the least of his will-creatures.

“Tomorrow, at midday, the one hundred, Daligastia, and I shall depart from you, and this, our longtime home. Jerusem citizens will not see us again, eye to eye, for an age. With the team I have assembled, I foresee no circumstance wherein we might fail. Guide us, Father God, in our mission to this unique world, and comfort our beloved families and friends in our long absence.

“And if this absence is too much to bear, you have an open-ended invitation to visit us on 606, where we shall abide and serve until the attainment of Light and Life, until the Father of all declares ‘well done faithful sons and daughters.’”

English, paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0984YYTHP/

Spanish, paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09SPCTPDZ/

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