14:1 The Paradise-Havona System
14:1.1 From the periphery of Paradise to the inner borders of the seven superuniverses there are the following seven space conditions and motions:
- 1. The quiescent midspace zones impinging on Paradise.
- 2. The clockwise processional of the three Paradise and the seven Havona circuits.
- 3. The semiquiet space zone separating the Havona circuits from the dark gravity bodies of the central universe.
- 4. The inner, counterclockwise-moving belt of the dark gravity bodies].
- 5. The second unique space zone dividing the two space paths of the dark gravity bodies.
- 6. The outer belt of dark gravity bodies, revolving clockwise around Paradise.
- 7. A third space zone—a semiquiet zone—separating the outer belt of dark gravity bodies from the innermost circuits of the seven superuniverses.
14:1.2 The billion worlds of Havona are arranged in seven concentric circuits immediately surrounding the three circuits of Paradise satellites. There are upwards of thirty-five million worlds in the innermost Havona circuit and over two hundred and forty-five million in the outermost, with proportionate numbers intervening. Each circuit differs, but all are perfectly balanced and exquisitely organized, and each is pervaded by a specialized representation of the Infinite Spirit, one of the Seven Spirits of the Circuits. In addition to other functions this impersonal Spirit co-ordinates the conduct of celestial affairs throughout each circuit.
14:1.3 The Havona planetary circuits are not superimposed; their worlds follow each other in an orderly linear procession. The central universe whirls around the stationary Isle of Paradise in one vast plane, consisting of ten concentric stabilized units—the three circuits of Paradise spheres and the seven circuits of Havona worlds. Physically regarded, the Havona and the Paradise circuits are all one and the same system; their separation is in recognition of functional and administrative segregation.
14:1.4 Time is not reckoned on Paradise; the sequence of successive events is inherent in the concept of those who are indigenous to the central Isle. But time is germane to the Havona circuits and to numerous beings of both celestial and terrestrial origin sojourning thereon. Each Havona world has its own local time, determined by its circuit. All worlds in a given circuit have the same length of year since they uniformly swing around Paradise, and the length of these planetary years decreases from the outermost to the innermost circuit.
14:1.5 Besides Havona-circuit time, there is the Paradise-Havona standard day and other time designations which are determined on, and are sent out from, the seven Paradise satellites of the Infinite Spirit. The Paradise-Havona standard day is based on the length of time required for the planetary abodes of the first or inner Havona circuit to complete one revolution around the Isle of Paradise; and though their velocity is enormous, owing to their situation between the dark gravity bodies and gigantic Paradise, it requires almost one thousand years for these spheres to complete their circuit. You have unwittingly read the truth when your eyes rested on the statement "A day is as a thousand years with God, as but a watch in the night."[1] One Paradise-Havona day is just seven minutes, three and one-eighth seconds less than one thousand years of the present Urantia leap-year calendar.
14:1.6 This Paradise-Havona day is the standard time measurement for the seven superuniverses, although each maintains its own internal time standards.
14:1.7 On the outskirts of this vast central universe, far out beyond the seventh belt of Havona worlds, there swirl an unbelievable number of enormous dark gravity bodies. These multitudinous dark masses are quite unlike other space bodies in many particulars; even in form they are very different. These dark gravity bodies neither reflect nor absorb light; they are nonreactive to physical-energy light, and they so completely encircle and enshroud Havona as to hide it from the view of even near-by universes of time and space.
14:1.8 The great belt of dark gravity bodies is divided into two equal elliptical circuits by a unique space intrusion. The inner belt revolves counterclockwise; the outer revolves clockwise. These alternate directions of motion, coupled with the extraordinary mass of the dark bodies, so effectively equalize the lines of Havona gravity as to render the central universe a physically balanced and perfectly stabilized creation.
14:1.9 The inner procession of dark gravity bodies is tubular in arrangement, consisting of three circular groupings. A cross section of this circuit would exhibit three concentric circles of about equal density. The outer circuit of dark gravity bodies is arranged perpendicularly, being ten thousand times higher than the inner circuit. The up-and-down diameter of the outer circuit is fifty thousand times that of the transverse diameter.
14:1.10 The intervening space which exists between these two circuits of gravity bodies is unique in that nothing like it is to be found elsewhere in all the wide universe. This zone is characterized by enormous wave movements of an up-and-down nature and is permeated by tremendous energy activities of an unknown order.
14:1.11 In our opinion, nothing like the dark gravity bodies of the central universe will characterize the future evolution of the outer space levels; we regard these alternate processions of stupendous gravity-balancing bodies as unique in the master universe.
