The Local System Headquarters

46:5.1The res­i­den­tial reser­va­tions as­signed to the ma­jor groups of uni­verse life are des­ig­nated the Je­ru­sem cir­cles. Those cir­cle groups which find men­tion in these nar­ra­tives are the fol­low­ing:

46:5.21. The cir­cles of the Sons of God.

46:5.32. The cir­cles of the an­gels and higher spir­its.

46:5.43. The cir­cles of the Uni­verse Aids, in­clud­ing the crea­ture-trin­i­tized sons not as­signed to the Trin­ity Teacher Sons.

46:5.54. The cir­cles of the Mas­ter Phys­i­cal Con­trol­lers.

46:5.65. The cir­cles of the as­signed as­cend­ing mor­tals, in­clud­ing the mid­way crea­tures.

46:5.76. The cir­cles of the cour­tesy colonies.

46:5.87. The cir­cles of the Corps of the Fi­nal­ity.

46:5.9Each of these res­i­den­tial group­ings con­sists of seven con­cen­tric and suc­ces­sively el­e­vated cir­cles. They are all con­structed along the same lines but are of dif­fer­ent sizes and are fash­ioned of dif­fer­ing ma­te­ri­als. They are all sur­rounded by far-reach­ing en­clo­sures, which mount up to form ex­ten­sive prom­e­nades en­tirely en­com­pass­ing ev­ery group of seven con­cen­tric cir­cles.

46:5.101. Cir­cles of the Sons of God. Though the Sons of God pos­sess a so­cial planet of their own, one of the tran­si­tional-cul­ture worlds, they also oc­cupy these ex­ten­sive do­mains on Je­ru­sem. On their tran­si­tional-cul­ture world the as­cend­ing mor­tals freely min­gle with all or­ders of di­vine son­ship. There you will per­son­ally know and love these Sons, but their so­cial life is largely con­fined to this spe­cial world and its satel­lites. In the Je­ru­sem cir­cles, how­ever, these var­i­ous groups of son­ship may be ob­served at work. And since mor­ontia vi­sion is of enor­mous range, you can walk about on the Sons’ prom­e­nades and over­look the in­trigu­ing ac­tiv­i­ties of their nu­mer­ous or­ders.

46:5.11These seven cir­cles of the Sons are con­cen­tric and suc­ces­sively el­e­vated so that each of the outer and larger cir­cles over­looks the in­ner and smaller ones, each be­ing sur­rounded by a pub­lic prom­e­nade wall. These walls are con­structed of crys­tal gems of gleam­ing bright­ness and are so el­e­vated as to over­look all of their re­spec­tive res­i­den­tial cir­cles. The many gates—from fifty to one hun­dred and fifty thou­sand—which pen­e­trate each of these walls con­sist of sin­gle pearly crys­tals.

46:5.12The first cir­cle of the do­main of the Sons is oc­cu­pied by the Mag­is­te­rial Sons and their per­sonal staffs. Here cen­ter all of the plans and im­me­di­ate ac­tiv­i­ties of the be­stowal and ad­ju­di­ca­tional ser­vices of these ju­ridi­cal Sons. It is also through this cen­ter that the Avo­nals of the sys­tem main­tain con­tact with the uni­verse.

46:5.13The sec­ond cir­cle is oc­cu­pied by the Trin­ity Teacher Sons. In this sa­cred do­main the Day­nals and their as­so­ciates carry for­ward the train­ing of the newly ar­rived pri­mary Teacher Sons. And in all of this work they are ably as­sisted by a di­vi­sion of cer­tain co-or­di­nates of the Bril­liant Evening Stars. The crea­ture-trin­i­tized sons oc­cupy a sec­tor of the Day­nal cir­cle. The Trin­ity Teacher Sons come the near­est to be­ing the per­sonal rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Uni­ver­sal Fa­ther in a lo­cal sys­tem; they are at least Trin­ity-ori­gin be­ings. This sec­ond cir­cle is a do­main of ex­traor­di­nary in­ter­est to all the peo­ples of Je­ru­sem.

46:5.14The third cir­cle is de­voted to the Mel­chiz­e­deks. Here the sys­tem chiefs re­side and super­vise the al­most end­less ac­tiv­i­ties of these ver­sa­tile Sons. From the first of the man­sion worlds on through all the Je­ru­sem ca­reer of as­cend­ing mor­tals, the Mel­chiz­e­deks are fos­ter fa­thers and ever-pres­ent ad­vis­ers. It would not be amiss to say that they are the dom­i­nant in­flu­ence on Je­ru­sem aside from the ever-pres­ent ac­tiv­i­ties of the Ma­te­rial Sons and Daugh­ters.

46:5.15The fourth cir­cle is the home of the Voron­dadeks and all other or­ders of the vis­it­ing and ob­server Sons who are not oth­er­wise pro­vided for. The Most High Con­stel­la­tion Fa­thers take up their abode in this cir­cle when on vis­its of in­spec­tion to the lo­cal sys­tem. Per­fec­tors of Wis­dom, Di­vine Coun­selors, and Uni­ver­sal Cen­sors all re­side in this cir­cle when on duty in the sys­tem.

46:5.16The fifth cir­cle is the abode of the La­non­an­deks, the son­ship or­der of the Sys­tem Sov­er­eigns and the Plan­e­tary Princes. The three groups min­gle as one when at home in this do­main. The sys­tem re­serves are held in this cir­cle, while the Sys­tem Sov­er­eign has a tem­ple sit­u­ated at the cen­ter of the gov­ern­ing group of struc­tures on ad­min­is­tra­tion hill.

46:5.17The sixth cir­cle is the tar­ry­ing place of the sys­tem Life Car­ri­ers. All or­ders of these Sons are here as­sem­bled, and from here they go forth on their world as­sign­ments.

46:5.18The sev­enth cir­cle is the ren­dezvous of the as­cend­ing sons, those as­signed mor­tals who may be tem­porar­ily func­tion­ing on the sys­tem head­quar­ters, to­gether with their se­raphic con­sorts. All ex-mor­tals above the sta­tus of Je­ru­sem cit­i­zens and be­low that of fi­nal­i­ters are reck­oned as be­long­ing to the group hav­ing its head­quar­ters in this cir­cle.

46:5.19These cir­cu­lar reser­va­tions of the Sons oc­cupy an enor­mous area, and un­til nine­teen hun­dred years ago there ex­isted a great open space at its cen­ter. This cen­tral re­gion is now oc­cu­pied by the Mi­chael memo­rial, com­pleted some five hun­dred years ago. Four hun­dred and ninety-five years ago, when this tem­ple was ded­i­cated, Mi­chael was pres­ent in per­son, and all Je­ru­sem heard the touch­ing story of the Mas­ter Son’s be­stowal on Uran­tia, the least of Sa­ta­nia. The Mi­chael memo­rial is now the cen­ter of all ac­tiv­i­ties em­braced in the mod­i­fied man­age­ment of the sys­tem oc­ca­sioned by Mi­chael’s be­stowal, in­clud­ing most of the more re­cently trans­planted Sal­ving­ton ac­tiv­i­ties. The memo­rial staff con­sists of over one mil­lion per­son­al­i­ties.

46:5.202. The cir­cles of the an­gels. Like the res­i­den­tial area of the Sons, these cir­cles of the an­gels con­sist of seven con­cen­tric and suc­ces­sively el­e­vated cir­cles, each over­look­ing the in­ner ar­eas.

46:5.21The first cir­cle of the an­gels is oc­cu­pied by the Higher Per­son­al­i­ties of the In­fi­nite Spirit who may be sta­tioned on the head­quar­ters world—Soli­tary Mes­sen­gers and their as­so­ciates. The sec­ond cir­cle is ded­i­cated to the mes­sen­ger hosts, Tech­ni­cal Ad­vis­ers, com­pan­ions, in­spec­tors, and re­cord­ers as they may chance to func­tion on Je­ru­sem from time to time. The third cir­cle is held by the min­is­ter­ing spir­its of the higher or­ders and group­ings.

46:5.22The fourth cir­cle is held by the ad­min­is­tra­tor ser­a­phim, and the ser­a­phim serv­ing in a lo­cal sys­tem like Sa­ta­nia are an “in­nu­mer­able host of an­gels.” The fifth cir­cle is oc­cu­pied by the plan­e­tary ser­a­phim, while the sixth is the home of the tran­si­tion min­is­ters. The sev­enth cir­cle is the tar­ry­ing sphere of cer­tain un­re­vealed or­ders of ser­a­phim. The re­cord­ers of all these groups of an­gels do not so­journ with their fel­lows, be­ing domi­ciled in the Je­ru­sem tem­ple of rec­ords. All rec­ords are pre­served in trip­li­cate in this three­fold hall of ar­chives. On a sys­tem head­quar­ters, rec­ords are al­ways pre­served in ma­te­rial, in mor­ontia, and in spirit form.

46:5.23These seven cir­cles are sur­rounded by the ex­hibit pan­o­rama of Je­ru­sem, five thou­sand stan­dard miles in cir­cum­fer­ence, which is de­voted to the pre­sen­ta­tion of the ad­vanc­ing sta­tus of the peo­pled worlds of Sa­ta­nia and is con­stantly re­vised so as to truly rep­re­sent up-to-date con­di­tions on the in­di­vid­ual plan­ets. I doubt not that this vast prom­e­nade over­look­ing the cir­cles of the an­gels will be the first sight of Je­ru­sem to claim your at­ten­tion when you are per­mit­ted ex­tended leisure on your ear­lier vis­its.

46:5.24These ex­hibits are in charge of the na­tive life of Je­ru­sem, but they are as­sisted by the as­cend­ers from the var­i­ous Sa­ta­nia worlds who are tar­ry­ing on Je­ru­sem en route to Eden­tia. The por­trayal of plan­e­tary con­di­tions and world prog­ress is ef­fected by many meth­ods, some known to you, but mostly by tech­niques un­known on Uran­tia. These ex­hibits oc­cupy the outer edge of this vast wall. The re­main­der of the prom­e­nade is al­most en­tirely open, be­ing highly and mag­nif­i­cently em­bel­lished.

46:5.253. The cir­cles of the Uni­verse Aids have the head­quar­ters of the Evening Stars sit­u­ated in the enor­mous cen­tral space. Here is lo­cated the sys­tem head­quar­ters of Galan­tia, the as­so­ciate head of this pow­er­ful group of super­an­gels, be­ing the first com­mis­sioned of all the as­cen­dant Evening Stars. This is one of the most mag­nif­i­cent of all the ad­min­is­tra­tive sec­tors of Je­ru­sem, even though it is among the more re­cent con­struc­tions. This cen­ter is fifty miles in di­am­e­ter. The Galan­tia head­quar­ters is a mono­lithic cast crys­tal, wholly trans­par­ent. These ma­te­rial-mor­ontia crys­tals are greatly ap­pre­ci­ated by both mor­ontia and ma­te­rial be­ings. The cre­ated Evening Stars ex­ert their in­flu­ence all over Je­ru­sem, be­ing pos­sessed of such ex­trap­er­son­al­ity at­tri­butes. The en­tire world has been ren­dered spir­i­tu­ally fra­grant since so many of their ac­tiv­i­ties were trans­ferred here from Sal­ving­ton.

46:5.264. The cir­cles of the Mas­ter Phys­i­cal Con­trol­lers. The var­i­ous or­ders of the Mas­ter Phys­i­cal Con­trol­lers are con­cen­tri­cally ar­ranged around the vast tem­ple of power, wherein pre­sides the power chief of the sys­tem in as­so­ci­a­tion with the chief of the Mor­ontia Power Super­vi­sors. This tem­ple of power is one of two sec­tors on Je­ru­sem where as­cend­ing mor­tals and mid­way crea­tures are not per­mit­ted. The other one is the de­ma­te­ri­al­iz­ing sec­tor in the area of the Ma­te­rial Sons, a se­ries of lab­o­ra­to­ries wherein the trans­port ser­a­phim trans­form ma­te­rial be­ings into a state quite like that of the mor­ontia or­der of ex­is­tence.

46:5.275. The cir­cles of the as­cend­ing mor­tals. The cen­tral area of the cir­cles of the as­cend­ing mor­tals is oc­cu­pied by a group of 619 plan­e­tary memo­ri­als rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the in­hab­ited worlds of the sys­tem, and these struc­tures pe­ri­od­i­cally un­dergo ex­ten­sive changes. It is the priv­i­lege of the mor­tals from each world to agree, from time to time, upon cer­tain of the al­ter­ations or ad­di­tions to their plan­e­tary memo­ri­als. Many changes are even now be­ing made in the Uran­tia struc­tures. The cen­ter of these 619 tem­ples is oc­cu­pied by a work­ing model of Eden­tia and its many worlds of as­cen­dant cul­ture. This model is forty miles in di­am­e­ter and is an ac­tual re­pro­duc­tion of the Eden­tia sys­tem, true to the orig­i­nal in ev­ery de­tail.

46:5.28As­cend­ers en­joy their Je­ru­sem ser­vices and take plea­sure in ob­serv­ing the tech­niques of other groups. Ev­ery­thing done in these var­i­ous cir­cles is open to the full ob­ser­va­tion of all Je­ru­sem.

46:5.29The ac­tiv­i­ties of such a world are of three dis­tinct va­ri­eties: work, prog­ress, and play. Stated oth­er­wise, they are: ser­vice, study, and re­lax­ation. The com­pos­ite ac­tiv­i­ties con­sist of so­cial in­ter­course, group en­ter­tain­ment, and di­vine wor­ship. There is great ed­u­ca­tional value in min­gling with di­verse groups of per­son­al­i­ties, or­ders very dif­fer­ent from one’s own fel­lows.

46:5.306. The cir­cles of the cour­tesy colonies. The seven cir­cles of the cour­tesy colonies are graced by three enor­mous struc­tures: the vast as­tro­nomic ob­ser­va­tory of Je­ru­sem, the gi­gan­tic art gallery of Sa­ta­nia, and the im­mense as­sem­bly hall of the re­ver­sion di­rec­tors, the the­ater of mor­ontia ac­tiv­i­ties de­voted to rest and recre­ation.

46:5.31The ce­les­tial ar­ti­sans di­rect the sporna­gia and pro­vide the host of cre­ative dec­o­ra­tions and mon­u­men­tal memo­ri­als which abound in ev­ery place of pub­lic as­sem­bly. The stu­dios of these ar­ti­sans are among the largest and most beau­ti­ful of all the match­less struc­tures of this won­der­ful world. The other cour­tesy colonies main­tain ex­ten­sive and beau­ti­ful head­quar­ters. Many of these build­ings are con­structed wholly of crys­tal gems. All the ar­chi­tec­tural worlds abound in crys­tals and the so-called pre­cious met­als.

46:5.327. The cir­cles of the fi­nal­i­ters have a unique struc­ture at the cen­ter. And this same va­cant tem­ple is found on ev­ery sys­tem head­quar­ters world through­out Neb­a­don. This ed­i­fice on Je­ru­sem is sealed with the in­signia of Mi­chael, and it bears this in­scrip­tion: “Unded­i­cated to the sev­enth stage of spirit—to the eter­nal as­sign­ment.” Ga­briel placed the seal on this tem­ple of mys­tery, and none but Mi­chael can or may break the seal of sov­er­eignty af­fixed by the Bright and Morn­ing Star. Some day you shall look upon this silent tem­ple, even though you may not pen­e­trate its mys­tery.

46:5.33Other Je­ru­sem cir­cles: In ad­di­tion to these res­i­den­tial cir­cles there are on Je­ru­sem nu­mer­ous ad­di­tional des­ig­nated abodes.