35:8.4 (392.4) 1. Primary Lanonandeks. Of the highest rank there were 709,841. These are the Sons designated as System Sovereigns and assistants to the supreme councils of the constellations and as counselors in the higher administrative work of the universe.
35:8.5 (392.5) 2. Secondary Lanonandeks. Of this order emerging from Melchizedek there were 10,234,601. They are assigned as Planetary Princes and to the reserves of that order.
35:8.6 (392.6) 3. Tertiary Lanonandeks. This group contained 1,055,558. These Sons function as subordinate assistants, messengers, custodians, commissioners, observers, and prosecute the miscellaneous duties of a system and its component worlds.
35:8.7 (392.7) It is not possible, as it is with evolutionary beings, for these Sons to progress from one group to another. When subjected to the Melchizedek training, when once tested and classified, they serve continuously in the rank assigned. Neither do these Sons engage in reproduction; their number in the universe is stationary.
35:8.8 (392.8) In round numbers the Lanonandek order of Sons is classified on Salvington as follows:
35:8.9 (392.9) Universe Co-ordinators and Constellation Counselors . 100,000
35:8.10 (392.10) System Sovereigns and Assistants . . . . . . . . . . . 600,000
35:8.11 (392.11) Planetary Princes and Reserves . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000,000
35:8.12 (392.12) Messenger Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400,000
35:8.13 (392.13) Custodians and Recorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100,000
35:8.14 (392.14) Reserve Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800,000
35:8.15 (392.15) Since Lanonandeks are a somewhat lower order of sonship than the Melchizedeks and the Vorondadeks, they are of even greater service in the subordinate units of the universe, for they are capable of drawing nearer the lower creatures of the intelligent races. They also stand in greater danger of going astray, of departing from the acceptable technique of universe government. But these Lanonandeks, especially the primary order, are the most able and versatile of all local universe administrators. In executive ability they are excelled only by Gabriel and his unrevealed associates.
9. The Lanonandek Rulers
35:9.1 (393.1) The Lanonandeks are the continuous rulers of the planets and the rotating sovereigns of the systems. Such a Son now rules on Jerusem, the headquarters of your local system of inhabited worlds.
35:9.2 (393.2) The System Sovereigns rule in commissions of two or three on the headquarters of each system of inhabited worlds. The Constellation Father names one of these Lanonandeks as chief every dekamillennium. Sometimes no change in the head of the trio is made, the matter being entirely optional with the constellation rulers. System governments do not suddenly change in personnel unless a tragedy of some sort occurs.
35:9.3 (393.3) When System Sovereigns or assistants are recalled, their places are filled by selections made by the supreme council located on the constellation headquarters from the reserves of that order, a group which is larger on Edentia than the average indicated.
35:9.4 (393.4) The supreme Lanonandek councils are stationed on the various constellation headquarters. Such a body is presided over by the senior Most High associate of the Constellation Father, while the junior associate supervises the reserves of the secondary order.
35:9.5 (393.5) The System Sovereigns are true to their names; they are well-nigh sovereign in the local affairs of the inhabited worlds. They are almost paternal in their direction of the Planetary Princes, the Material Sons, and the ministering spirits. The personal grasp of the sovereign is all but complete. These rulers are not supervised by Trinity observers from the central universe. They are the executive division of the local universe, and as custodians of the enforcement of legislative mandates and as executives for the application of judicial verdicts, they present the one place in all universe administration where personal disloyalty to the will of the Michael Son could most easily and readily intrench itself and seek to assert itself.
35:9.6 (393.6) Our local universe has been unfortunate in that over seven hundred Sons of the Lanonandek order have rebelled against the universe government, thus precipitating confusion in several systems and on numerous planets. Of this entire number of failures only three were System Sovereigns; practically all of these Sons belonged to the second and third orders, Planetary Princes and tertiary Lanonandeks.
35:9.7 (393.7) The large number of these Sons who have lapsed from integrity does not indicate any fault in creatorship. They could have been made divinely perfect, but they were so created that they might better understand, and draw near to, the evolutionary creatures dwelling on the worlds of time and space.
35:9.8 (393.8) Of all the local universes in Orvonton, our universe has, with the exception of Henselon, lost the largest number of this order of Sons. On Uversa it is the consensus that we have had so much administrative trouble in Nebadon because our Sons of the Lanonandek order have been created with such a large degree of personal liberty in choosing and planning. I do not make this observation by way of criticism. The Creator of our universe has full authority and power to do this. It is the contention of our high rulers that, while such free-choosing Sons make excessive trouble in the earlier ages of the universe, when things are fully sifted and finally settled, the gains of higher loyalty and fuller volitional service on the part of these thoroughly tested Sons will far more than compensate for the confusion and tribulations of earlier times.
35:9.9 (394.1) In the event of rebellion on a system headquarters, a new sovereign is usually installed within a comparatively short time, but not so on the individual planets. They are the component units of the material creation, and creature free will is a factor in the final adjudication of all such problems. Successor Planetary Princes are designated for isolated worlds, planets whose princes of authority may have gone astray, but they do not assume active rulership of such worlds until the results of insurrection are partially overcome and removed by the remedial measures adopted by the Melchizedeks and other ministering personalities. Rebellion by a Planetary Prince instantly isolates his planet; the local spiritual circuits are immediately severed. Only a bestowal Son can re-establish interplanetary lines of communication on such a spiritually isolated world.
35:9.10 (394.2) There exists a plan for saving these wayward and unwise Sons, and many have availed themselves of this merciful provision; but never again may they function in those positions wherein they defaulted. After rehabilitation they are assigned to custodial duties and to departments of physical administration.
10. The Lanonandek Worlds
35:10.1 (394.3) The third group of seven worlds in the Salvington circuit of seventy planets, with their respective forty-two satellites, constitute the Lanonandek cluster of administrative spheres. On these realms the experienced Lanonandeks belonging to the ex-System Sovereign corps officiate as administrative teachers of the ascending pilgrims and the seraphic hosts. The evolutionary mortals observe the system administrators at work on the system capitals, but here they participate in the actual co-ordination of the administrative pronouncements of the ten thousand local systems.
35:10.2 (394.4) These administrative schools of the local universe are supervised by a corps of Lanonandek Sons who have had long experience as System Sovereigns and as constellation counselors. These executive colleges are excelled only by the administrative schools of Ensa.
35:10.3 (394.5) While serving as training spheres for ascending mortals, the Lanonandek worlds are the centers for extensive undertakings having to do with the normal and routine administrative operations of the universe. All the way in to Paradise the ascending pilgrims pursue their studies in the practical schools of applied knowledge—actual training in really doing the things they are being taught. The universe educational system sponsored by the Melchizedeks is practical, progressive, meaningful, and experiential. It embraces training in things material, intellectual, morontial, and spiritual.
35:10.4 (394.6)