Episode:Experiential Deity—God the Supreme (Part 1)

From Symmetry of Soul


God the Supreme, the Supreme Being, is the beauty of physical harmony, the truth of intellectual meaning, and the goodness of spiritual value. He is the sweetness of true success and the joy of everlasting achievement. He is the oversoul of the grand universe, the consciousness of the finite cosmos, the completion of finite reality, and the personification of Creator-creature experience.

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Keywords: Urantia, The Supreme Being, The Supreme, Grand Universe, Supremacy

Summary by Kermit

Commentary after Review

We began the post summary discussion reiterating the importance of becoming more nimble in thinking in both the reality and deity perspectives. The authors are not shy to combine these perspectives in the same sentence. This precision of expression pushes language to the limits of its utility. Much of our discussion of the text is taken with identifying such usage. Who would imagine the word “reality” being circumscribed to the extent that it refers to but a single aspect of a multifaceted existence? Much of the difficulty we encounter in comprehending these issues of deity is due to our well-nigh exclusive familiarity with and dependence upon the reality perspective in all aspects of our life. All of our efforts to reach any recognition and appreciation of the deity perspective would be doomed to failure were it not for the threefold spirit ministry (Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth, and Thought Adjuster) and the superconscious registrations, shadows of which may be cast down in our conscious mind. The distinction between mind and body (matter and mind) which the first philosophers began to consider provides a helpful parallel with which to approach the deity-reality problem. Mind is certainly akin to the non-thingness of deity in comparison to the thingness matter. Considering we are mindal selves, the ancient aphorism “know thyself” becomes an invitation to seek synchronization with deity. For the first time in human history the 5th ER provides a concept frame which can acknowledge the existence of a deity-stuff, transcendent of threefold cosmic reality, liberating mankind from the necessity of attributing the eternal source of genuine religious insights to mystical magical phenomena. Stop to ponder, God is not a reality object. God is personalized Deity. And Deity—the ineffable, cannot be truthfully approached in a Reality concept frame.

Paper 117 God the Supreme

This is the paper wherein our author formally introduces the Universal Mother. Following the logic of the first two papers of this arc, we might expect the title of this paper to be the Universal Mother, but no. Listen again, carefully to the discussion of the preface to this paper for a rather complex logical stepwise guide to our quest in search of the Universal Mother. We have mentioned the idea that the Universal Mother should not be envisioned so definitively as an individuality, but more as a Deity fact casting a shadow of quasi individuality in reality.

The preface continues to reinforce the reciprocal interplay of power-pattern Almighty emergence with increasing observability of the personal-purposive personality of God the Supreme. The Almighty is becoming and the pre-existent Mother is becoming increasingly discernable. And all of this is proceeding in parallel with the progress of mortal ascenders attuning to the leadings of the indwelling Adjuster.

In the words of the final paragraph of the preface. “The parts and individuals of the grand universe evolve as a reflection of the total evolution of the Supreme, while in turn the Supreme is the synthetic cumulative total of all grand universe evolution. From the mortal viewpoint both are evolutionary and experiential reciprocals.” Not magic, but advanced physics!

117:1 Nature of the Supreme Being

The section title should drive home the idea that rigidity of nomenclature is to be avoided to make room for a more relative approach. The paper title is God the Supreme, the first section refers to the Supreme Being, not unlike Paper 115 seemingly interchanging these various terms. The Supreme Being’s nature is presented in triune terms of beauty, truth, and goodness. Along with this identification with cosmic reality, the Supreme is here referred to as the oversoul of the grand universe. Listen to the discussion about the two ways “soul” is used in the revelation and its meaning here in relation to a dual interpretation of oversoul. Finally, the paragraph ends with an advanced reference to trinity relationships of Deity.

The reciprocal acts of the Supreme Creators (descending and God revealing) and evolving and ascending creatures (ascending and Father seeking) achieve the mutual discovery of eternal and universal brotherhood. And such reciprocal and dual interplay is a revelation of the Deity of the Supreme, the synthesis of perfect-Creator cause and perfecting creature response.

Despite the Creator-creature dual elements of the Supreme Being, they are united in ONE Deity whose will is expressive of ONE divine personality. In terms of the deity-reality perspectives, [0:5.1] tells us personality is a level of deified reality (individuation of deity). And (lower-case “d”) deity is the philosophic quality of non-thingness.

Listen also to the discussion of how the inevitabilities of evolutionary creature life provide us mortals with the opportunity to contribute to the summation of the almighty in choosing to respond positively when confronted with negative stimuli.

Think about this. We receive Father love from descending Sons and in turn bestow Supreme love to our fellows. Motivated by Father’s love in the inner-life, we express Supreme (Mother’s) love in the outer-life. Think how this corresponds to the consecration of will to the Father’s will, and consecration of mind to the universal harmony of God the Mother.

The final paragraph of the section expresses a tone of totality: “The Supreme is symmetrically inclusive. The First Source and Center is potential in the three great Absolutes, is actual in Paradise, in the Son, and in the Spirit; but the Supreme is both actual and potential, a being of personal supremacy and of almighty power, responsive alike to creature effort and Creator purpose; self-acting upon the universe and self-reactive to the sum total of the universe; and at one and the same time the supreme creator and the supreme creature. The Deity of Supremacy is thus expressive of the sum total of the entire finite.”

Notes by Brad

  • Being a serious student
    • Sentences come alive when your understanding is more synthetically complete.
      • It's easy to breeze over sentences in a static, dead way, breezing past all the fine detail in the line and (even moreso) in between the lines.
      • We aren't just labeling this object, and that object, in some dead motionless universe of matter.
    • As you read advanced papers like Paper 117, notice the authors expect you to keep in mind all details from the previous papers.
      • The hint at the Sevenfold Spirit, for example, ("the united ministry of the Master Spirits") but don't call it by name again.
    • Read precisely.
      • It's "grand universers", not "grand universes". Can you not just see what your eyes assumed were there as this author did?
    • Aim higher: Plant your feet in eternity.
      • Can you be more than a gastropod (stomach-foot)? Are you interested in more than just eating and sleeping?
      • You're a mindal self, not a material self.
      • You cannot examine atoms, molecules, even reality itself directly to have direct sight of your mindal self.
      • Mind is more akin to the functioning of Deity than it is the doings of reality.


  • Paper 117 is "God the Supreme" instead of "The Universal Mother." Why?
    • "The Universal Mother" seems more logical given titles of 115 (The Supreme Being, outside of time) and 116 (The Almighty Supreme, in time, the upwelling "it")
    • Titling it "God The Supreme" reminds us that Mother Deity is a downwelling fact—must be properly considered form the top down.
      • Mother Deity is not just some object in reality.
      • At most, it casts a small shadow into reality we might denominate "The Universal Mother."
    • Authors still gently conditioning our minds for Mother deity's formal unveiling
      • They don't want us to to read about the Mother and reinvent some anthropomorphic goddess cult.
      • They want us to properly comprehend the Mother as stemming from the Paradise Trinity--way up there!


  • Don't think of the Supreme monolithically.
    • It's reciprocal pairings, over and over.
    • The authors hit this note over and over, pounding it repeatedly, to help insist we get this!
    • Think of it in dual terms. Upwelling and downwelling... the Almighty Supreme and the Mother.
    • A downwelling paradise perfection. An upwelling time-space experience.
      • The consequence is superadditive, not additive (what is it exactly we are building out here in time and space??)
      • "God the Supreme is truth, beauty, and goodness"


  • It only appears the downwelling Universal Mother is "evolving" as the grand universe evolves.
    • Not really. Not precisely.
    • More precisely: the upwelling Almighty Supreme is becoming more complete ("becoming-ness") and is allowing more and more of the Universal Mother to be identified with.
      • Not becoming more existent, only more apparent to us down in time and space.
    • The Universal Mother is "the end from the beginning," already evolutionary complete in the precise sense.
    • Mother-ness is not coming into existence, it's coming increasingly into finite appearance.
      • The more that potentiality becomes actuality in time and space, the more a pre-existent downwelling actuality—the Mother—can can engage this actualized actuality of the upwelling.
    • Yes, non-thing stuff is becoming a reality.
    • But it's a long, long, long, long, long, long time away before the Supreme Being will be literally standing as a completed object before us; that's the grand universe settled in light and life.
      • That's when the personal-purposive will have integrated completely with the power-pattern—then together as one individual.


  • Concerned about the word "sweetness" being to fuzzy-wuzzy in [117:1.1]? Don't be.
    • They mention "joy" here, which is temporal pleasure. No problem there.
      • We understand the pleasure of joy.
    • And paired with that joy is "true success," where "true" connotes something eternal, not temporal.
    • What is transcendent of joy? Happiness.
      • What word do our authors used to describe the "pleasure of happiness?" See the inevitabilities.
    • You have a moral duty—a cosmic duty—to respond positively to a negative stimulus; to be happy.
      • That's how the Supreme grows. And you have a duty to the Supreme.


  • What is "oversoul?"
    • Reminder of the two modes of soul:
      • 1) The literal morontia object that is above (over) our selves.
      • 2) The upper domain in the hourglass analogy of mind--what is copied into the soul.
    • In parallel, two modes for oversoul:
      • 1) Literally, the Supreme Being, who is over all of the finite.
      • 2) More generally, the Supreme. Recall that the Supreme (while Deity) is "creature-identified Deity" and so engages us within our fininte domain, albeit in a little-understood way.


  • Deity required: there is no God-knowingness to be found in musings on reality.
    • See with 2 eyes open at the same time: the two sides of your hand analogy
    • The back side is with the front side of my hand, even though I can only see one side at a time, but I have insight to know the other side is always there.
    • They aren't both sitting in the palm of your hand at the same time.
    • Example: body and mind
      • Body is analogous to Reality: you can observe it
      • Mind is analogous to Deity: you can't observe/touch/dissect it directly. It's on the other side of your hand.
      • (This is not a loose metaphor; recall that Deity is unity, and mind also is unity)
      • Can you stop imagining your mind resting on reality ("my mind is between my ears") and know it rests on Deity?
    • Example: reality and Deity
      • "the culmination and consummation of this effort" suggests reality concepts (culmination) and Deity concepts (consummation) of Supremacy.
      • The Almighty Supreme is in reality. The Almighty is Deity.
      • The Unqualified Absolute is the reality perspective. The Infinite Capacity is the Deity perspective
      • The Universal Father is an individual—the reality perspective. The Father a facet of Deity—the Deity perspective.
      • Capital Supermacy is a Deity term. Lowercase supermacy is a reality term (and "the divinity of Supremacy" is a synonym for supremacy). Creature experience involves supremacy, not Supremacy.
    • God is not in reality with us; God is personalized Deity.
      • For a million years ghost cults have crammed it all into the reality perspective, including God. Including Deity.
      • If you conceive of Deity as existing in reality (which it doesn't!) all you get is a magical, mystical fuzz.
    • Considering Deity is not some delightful, pointless, abstract intellectual exercise.
      • Get your concept frame correct (see Deity and reality with both eyes open) and you'll begin to understand the cosmos.
      • The God you seek can only be found with insight, not sight and musings based on reality.
    • If you confuse Deity with reality, you end up doing more harm than good in the world without even intending to.


  • Yes, feelings are still important for recognition.
    • You can "feel" the purposing of an oxygen atom.
    • You can "feel" Deity as tangibly as reality; a shadow is cast from the 6th level of meaning down to the 2nd level (feelings).
    • You can "feel" your feet planted on eternity.
    • Feelings can aid recognition via feet planted in eternity, not just cognition via feet planted in the dust of the Earth.
    • But be not deceived: imagination can trick you into thinking you've found Deity
      • When all you're really found is some vivid of island of thought in your own mind.


  • Mind energy versus mind activity
    • Consciousness is in the mind activity.
    • "Mentality" refers to mind activity.
      • Hence you have different mental states: mind-activity states


  • All creators and creatures in the grand universe exist within a womb of mind.
    • Maybe we can imagine playing time forward, like a movie, to a time of light and life for the grand universe.
    • But without the Mother, any such exercise is magical in its thinking and there's no such thing as magic
  • Good news: Paradiseness is an onramp, in reality, to Deity.
    • If you can "feel" your other foot planted on the Isle, insight will take you the rest of the way.
  • God and Deity are not synonyms.
    • "God is personalized Deity" is ludicrous if it's just saying "God is personalized God."
    • Facets of Deity are not "he," not "she," not even "it."
  • The Universal Mother is different in size and scope than the Universal Father
    • She is concerned with the grand universe and the completion of this universe age.
    • He is more transcendent than that.
  • What happens, after "Day 1" of the absonite universe age, to God the Supreme?
    • It's always going to be God the Supreme. "Throughout all future eternity God the Supreme will voice the reality of volitional experience in the trinity relationships of Deity."


  • You synchronize with, and are motivated by, fatherly love on the inside, sure. But with your brethern on the outside, motherly love is what allows you to connect to them to convey love.