Ministering Spirits of the Local Universe

38:8.1Nu­mer­ous av­enues of ad­vanc­ing ser­vice are open to cheru­bim and sa­no­bim lead­ing to an en­hance­ment of sta­tus, which may be still fur­ther aug­mented by the em­brace of the Di­vine Min­is­ter. There are three great classes of cheru­bim and sa­no­bim with re­gard to evo­lu­tion­ary po­ten­tial:

38:8.21. As­cen­sion Can­di­dates. These be­ings are by na­ture can­di­dates for se­raphic sta­tus. Cheru­bim and sa­no­bim of this or­der are bril­liant, though not by in­her­ent en­dow­ment equal to the ser­a­phim; but by ap­pli­ca­tion and ex­pe­ri­ence it is pos­si­ble for them to at­tain full se­raphic stand­ing.

38:8.32. Mid-phase Cheru­bim. All cheru­bim and sa­no­bim are not equal in as­cen­sion po­ten­tial, and these are the in­her­ently lim­ited be­ings of the an­gelic cre­ations. Most of them will re­main cheru­bim and sa­no­bim, al­though the more gifted in­di­vid­u­als may achieve lim­ited se­raphic ser­vice.

38:8.43. Mor­ontia Cheru­bim. These “fourth crea­tures” of the an­gelic or­ders al­ways re­tain their quasi-ma­te­rial char­ac­ter­is­tics. They will con­tinue on as cheru­bim and sa­no­bim, to­gether with a ma­jor­ity of their mid-phase breth­ren, pend­ing the com­pleted fac­tu­al­iza­tion of the Su­preme Be­ing.

38:8.5While the sec­ond and third groups are some­what lim­ited in growth po­ten­tial, the as­cen­sion can­di­dates may at­tain the heights of uni­ver­sal se­raphic ser­vice. Many of the more ex­pe­ri­enced of these cheru­bim are at­tached to the se­raphic guard­i­ans of des­tiny and are thus placed in di­rect line for ad­vance­ment to the sta­tus of Man­sion World Teach­ers when de­serted by their se­raphic se­niors. Guard­i­ans of des­tiny do not have cheru­bim and sa­no­bim as helpers when their mor­tal wards at­tain the mor­ontia life. And when other types of evo­lu­tion­ary ser­a­phim are granted clear­ance for Seraph­ing­ton and Par­a­dise, they must for­sake their for­mer sub­or­di­nates when they pass out of the con­fines of Neb­a­don. Such de­serted cheru­bim and sa­no­bim are usu­ally em­braced by the Uni­verse Mother Spirit, thus achiev­ing a level equiv­a­lent to that of a Man­sion World Teacher in the at­tain­ment of se­raphic sta­tus.

38:8.6When, as Man­sion World Teach­ers, the once-em­braced cheru­bim and sa­no­bim have long served on the mor­ontia spheres, from the low­est to the high­est, and when their corps on Sal­ving­ton is over­recruited, the Bright and Morn­ing Star sum­mons these faith­ful ser­vants of the crea­tures of time to ap­pear in his pres­ence. The oath of per­son­al­ity trans­for­ma­tion is ad­min­is­tered; and there­upon, in groups of seven thou­sand, these ad­vanced and se­nior cheru­bim and sa­no­bim are re-em­braced by the Uni­verse Mother Spirit. From this sec­ond em­brace they emerge as full-fledged ser­a­phim. Hence­forth, the full and com­plete ca­reer of a ser­a­phim, with all of its Par­a­dise pos­si­bil­i­ties, is open to such re­born cheru­bim and sa­no­bim. Such an­gels may be as­signed as guard­i­ans of des­tiny to some mor­tal be­ing, and if the mor­tal ward at­tains sur­vival, then do they be­come el­i­gi­ble for ad­vance­ment to Seraph­ing­ton and the seven cir­cles of se­raphic at­tain­ment, even to Par­a­dise and the Corps of the Fi­nal­ity.