23:2.1 Solitary Messengers are not permanently attached to any individual or group of celestial personalities. They are on duty, always by assignment, and during such service they work under the immediate supervision of those who direct the realms of their attachment. Among themselves they have neither organization nor government of any kind; they are Solitary Messengers.
23:2.2 Solitary Messengers are assigned by the Infinite Spirit to the following seven divisions of service:
23:2.3 These spirit messengers are in every sense interchangeable from one type of service to another; such transfers are constantly taking place. There are no separate orders of Solitary Messengers; they are spiritually alike and in every sense equal. While they are generally designated by number, they are known to the Infinite Spirit by personal names. They are known to the rest of us by the name or number designative of their current assignment.
23:2.4 1. Messengers of the Paradise Trinity. I am not permitted to reveal much of the work of the group of messengers assigned to the Trinity. They are the trusted and secret servants of the Deities, and when intrusted with special messages which involve the unrevealed policies and future conduct of the Gods, they have never been known to divulge a secret or betray the confidence reposed in their order. And all this is related in this connection, not to appear boastful of their perfection, but rather to point out that the Deities can and do create perfect beings.
23:2.5 The confusion and turmoil of Urantia do not signify that the Paradise Rulers lack either interest or ability to manage affairs differently. The Creators are possessed of full power to make Urantia a veritable paradise, but such an Eden would not contribute to the development of those strong, noble, and experienced characters which the Gods are so surely forging out on your world between the anvils of necessity and the hammers of anguish. Your anxieties and sorrows, your trials and disappointments, are just as much a part of the divine plan on your sphere as are the exquisite perfection and infinite adaptation of all things to their supreme purpose on the worlds of the central and perfect universe.
23:2.6 2. Messengers of the Havona Circuits. Throughout the ascendant career you will be vaguely, but increasingly, able to detect the presence of the Solitary Messengers, but not until you reach Havona will you recognize them unmistakably. The first of the messengers you will see face to face will be those of the Havona circuits.
23:2.7 Solitary Messengers enjoy special relations with the natives of the Havona worlds. These messengers, who are so functionally handicapped when associating with one another, can and do have a very close and personal communion with the Havona natives. But it is quite impossible to convey to human minds the supreme satisfactions consequent upon the contact of the minds of these divinely perfect beings with the spirits of such near-transcendent personalities.
23:2.8 3. Messengers of the Superuniverses. The Ancients of Days, those personalities of Trinity origin who preside over the destinies of the seven superuniverses, those trios of divine power and administrative wisdom, are bountifully supplied with Solitary Messengers. It is only through this order of messengers that the triune rulers of one superuniverse can directly and personally communicate with the rulers of another. Solitary Messengers are the only available type of spirit intelligence—aside, possibly, from the Inspired Trinity Spirits—that can be dispatched from the headquarters of one superuniverse directly to the headquarters of another. All other personalities must make such excursions by way of Havona and the executive worlds of the Master Spirits.
23:2.9 There are some kinds of information which cannot be obtained either by Gravity Messengers, reflectivity, or broadcast. And when the Ancients of Days would certainly know these things, they must dispatch a Solitary Messenger to the source of knowledge. Long before the presence of life on Urantia the messenger now associated with me was assigned on a mission out of Uversa to the central universe—was absent from the roll calls of Orvonton for almost a million years but returned in due time with the desired information.
23:2.10 There is no limitation upon the service of Solitary Messengers in the superuniverses; they may function as executioners of the high tribunals or as intelligence gatherers for the good of the realm. Of all the supercreations they most delight to serve in Orvonton because here the need is greatest and the opportunities for heroic effort are greatly multiplied. In the more needy realms we all enjoy the satisfaction of a more replete function.
23:2.11 4. Messengers of the Local Universes. In the services of a local universe there is no limit upon the functioning of the Solitary Messengers. They are the faithful revealers of the motives and intent of the local universe Mother Spirit, although they are under the full jurisdiction of the reigning Master Son. And this is true of all messengers operating in a local universe, whether they are traveling out directly from universe headquarters, or whether they are acting temporarily in liaison with Constellation Fathers, System Sovereigns, or Planetary Princes. Before the concentration of all power in the hands of a Creator Son at the time of his elevation as sovereign ruler of his universe, these messengers of the local universes function under the general direction of the Ancients of Days and are immediately responsible to their resident representative, the Union of Days.
23:2.12 5. Explorers of Undirected Assignment. When the reserve corps of the Solitary Messengers is overrecruited, there issues from one of the Seven Supreme Power Directors a call for exploration volunteers; and there is never a lack of volunteers, for they delight to be dispatched as free and untrammeled explorers, to experience the thrill of finding the organizing nucleuses of new worlds and universes.
23:2.13 They go forth to investigate the clues furnished by the space contemplators of the realms. Undoubtedly the Paradise Deities know of the existence of these undiscovered energy systems of space, but they never divulge such information. If the Solitary Messengers did not explore and chart these newly organizing energy centers, such phenomena would long remain unnoticed even by the intelligences of adjacent realms. Solitary Messengers, as a class, are highly sensitive to gravity; accordingly they can sometimes detect the probable presence of very small dark planets, the very worlds which are best adapted to life experiments.
23:2.14 These messenger-explorers of undirected assignment patrol the master universe. They are constantly out on exploring expeditions to the uncharted regions of all outer space. Very much of the information which we possess of transactions in the realms of outer space, we owe to the explorations of the Solitary Messengers as they often work and study with the celestial astronomers.
23:2.15 6. Ambassadors and Emissaries of Special Assignment. Local universes situated within the same superuniverse customarily exchange ambassadors selected from their native orders of sonship. But to avoid delay, Solitary Messengers are frequently asked to go as ambassadors from one local creation to another, to represent and interpret one realm to another. For example: When a newly inhabited realm is discovered, it may prove to be so remote in space that a long time will pass before an enseraphimed ambassador can reach this far-distant universe. An enseraphimed being cannot possibly exceed the velocity of 558,840 Urantia miles in one second of your time. Massive stars, crosscurrents, and detours, as well as attraction tangents, will all tend to retard such speed so that on a long journey the velocity will average about 550,000 miles per second.
23:2.16 When it develops that it will require hundreds of years for a native ambassador to reach a far-distant local universe, a Solitary Messenger is often asked to proceed there immediately to act as ambassador ad interim. Solitary Messengers can go in very short order, not independently of time and space as do the Gravity Messengers, but nearly so. They also serve in other circumstances as emissaries of special assignment.
23:2.17 7. Revelators of Truth. The Solitary Messengers regard the assignment to reveal truth as the highest trust of their order. And they function ever and anon in this capacity, from the superuniverses to the individual planets of space. They are frequently attached to commissions which are sent to enlarge the revelation of truth to the worlds and systems.