37:1.10 (406.12) During the earlier times of Nebadon, Gabriel worked quite alone with Michael and the Creative Spirit. As the universe grew and administrative problems multiplied, he was provided with a personal staff of unrevealed assistants, and eventually this group was augmented by the creation of the Nebadon corps of Evening Stars.
2. The Brilliant Evening Stars
37:2.1 (407.1) These brilliant creatures were planned by the Melchizedeks and were then brought into being by the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit. They serve in many capacities but chiefly as liaison officers of Gabriel, the local universe chief executive. One or more of these beings function as his representatives at the capital of every constellation and system in Nebadon.
37:2.2 (407.2) As chief executive of Nebadon, Gabriel is ex officio chairman of, or observer at, most of the Salvington conclaves, and as many as one thousand of these are often in session simultaneously. The Brilliant Evening Stars represent Gabriel on these occasions; he cannot be in two places at the same time, and these superangels compensate for this limitation. They perform an analogous service for the corps of the Trinity Teacher Sons.
37:2.3 (407.3) Though personally occupied with administrative duties, Gabriel maintains contact with all other phases of universe life and affairs through the Brilliant Evening Stars. They always accompany him on his planetary tours and frequently go on special missions to the individual planets as his personal representatives. On such assignments they have sometimes been known as “the angel of the Lord.” They frequently go to Uversa to represent the Bright and Morning Star before the courts and assemblies of the Ancients of Days, but they seldom journey beyond the confines of Orvonton.
37:2.4 (407.4) The Brilliant Evening Stars are a unique twofold order, embracing some of created dignity and others of attained service. The Nebadon corps of these superangels now numbers 13,641. There are 4,832 of created dignity, while 8,809 are ascendant spirits who have attained this goal of exalted service. Many of these ascendant Evening Stars started their universe careers as seraphim; others have ascended from unrevealed levels of creature life. As an attainment goal this high corps is never closed to ascension candidates so long as a universe is not settled in light and life.
37:2.5 (407.5) Both types of Brilliant Evening Stars are easily visible to morontia personalities and certain types of supermortal material beings. The created beings of this interesting and versatile order possess a spirit force which can be manifested independently of their personal presence.
37:2.6 (407.6) The head of these superangels is Gavalia, the first-born of this order in Nebadon. Since the return of Christ Michael from his triumphant bestowal on Urantia, Gavalia has been assigned to the ascendant mortal ministry, and for the last nineteen hundred Urantia years his associate, Galantia, has maintained headquarters on Jerusem, where he spends about half of his time. Galantia is the first of the ascendant superangels to attain this high estate.
37:2.7 (407.7) No grouping or company organization of the Brilliant Evening Stars exists other than their customary association in pairs on many assignments. They are not extensively assigned on missions pertaining to the ascendant career of mortals, but when thus commissioned, they never function alone. They always work in pairs—one a created being, the other an ascendant Evening Star.
37:2.8 (407.8) One of the high duties of the Evening Stars is to accompany the Avonal bestowal Sons on their planetary missions, even as Gabriel accompanied Michael on his Urantia bestowal. The two attending superangels are the ranking personalities of such missions, serving as cocommanders of the archangels and all others assigned to these undertakings. It is the senior of these superangel commanders who, at the significant time and age, bids the Avonal bestowal Son, “Be about your brother’s business.”
37:2.9 (408.1) Similar pairs of these superangels are assigned to the planetary corps of Trinity Teacher Sons that functions to establish the postbestowal or dawning spiritual age of an inhabited world. On such assignments the Evening Stars serve as liaisons between the mortals of the realm and the invisible corps of Teacher Sons.
37:2.10 (408.2) The Worlds of the Evening Stars. The sixth group of seven Salvington worlds and their forty-two tributary satellites are assigned to the administration of the Brilliant Evening Stars. The seven primary worlds are presided over by the created orders of these superangels, while the tributary satellites are administered by ascendant Evening Stars.
37:2.11 (408.3) The satellites of the first three worlds are devoted to the schools of the Teacher Sons and the Evening Stars dedicated to the spirit personalities of the local universe. The next three groups are occupied by similar joint schools devoted to the training of ascending mortals. The seventh-world satellites are reserved for the triune deliberations of the Teacher Sons, the Evening Stars, and the finaliters. During recent times these superangels have been closely identified with the local universe work of the Corps of the Finality, and they have long been associated with the Teacher Sons. There exists a liaison of tremendous power and import between the Evening Stars and the Gravity Messengers attached to the finaliter working groups. The seventh primary world itself is reserved for those unrevealed matters which pertain to the future relationship that will obtain between the Teacher Sons, the finaliters, and the Evening Stars consequent upon the completed emergence of the superuniverse manifestation of the personality of God the Supreme.
3. The Archangels
37:3.1 (408.4) Archangels are the offspring of the Creator Son and the Universe Mother Spirit. They are the highest type of high spirit being produced in large numbers in a local universe, and at the time of the last registry there were almost eight hundred thousand in Nebadon.
37:3.2 (408.5) Archangels are one of the few groups of local universe personalities who are not normally under the jurisdiction of Gabriel. They are not in any manner concerned with the routine administration of the universe, being dedicated to the work of creature survival and to the furtherance of the ascending career of the mortals of time and space. While not ordinarily subject to the direction of the Bright and Morning Star, the archangels do sometimes function by his authority. They also collaborate with others of the Universe Aids, such as the Evening Stars, as is illustrated by certain transactions depicted in the narrative of life transplantation on your world.
37:3.3 (408.6) The archangel corps of Nebadon is directed by the first-born of this order, and in more recent times a divisional headquarters of the archangels has been maintained on Urantia. It is this unusual fact that soon arrests the attention of extra-Nebadon student visitors. Among their early observations of intrauniverse transactions is the discovery that many ascendant activities of the Brilliant Evening Stars are directed from the capital of a local system, Satania. On further examination they discover that certain archangel activities are directed from a small and apparently insignificant inhabited world called Urantia. And then ensues the revelation of Michael’s bestowal on Urantia and their immediately quickened interest in you and your lowly sphere.
37:3.4 (409.1) Do you grasp the significance of the fact that your lowly and confused planet has become a divisional headquarters for the universe administration and direction of certain archangel activities having to do with the Paradise ascension scheme? This undoubtedly presages the future concentration of other ascendant activities on the bestowal world of Michael and lends a tremendous and solemn import to the Master’s personal promise, “I will come again.”
37:3.5 (409.2) In general, the archangels are assigned to the service and ministry of the Avonal order of sonship, but not until they have passed through extensive preliminary training in all phases of the work of the various ministering spirits. A corps of one hundred accompanies every Paradise bestowal Son to an inhabited world, being temporarily assigned to him for the duration of such a bestowal. If the Magisterial Son