Though the term Milky Way (galaxy) is not preferred by the authors of The Urantia Book, its reference to the superuniverse of Orvonton is key to developing a proper understanding of Urantia Book cosmology.
This cross-reference study offers a comprehensive review of how the revelators use galaxy (along with its derivatives) and Milky Way. See Nigel Nunn’s paper Massive Orvonton for a deeper study of this topic and go to this page for a broader appreciation of his scholarship.
How are the terms galaxy and Milky Way used in The Urantia Book?
All authors, even if they are not Urantia Book revelators, make choices about whether to presume upon their reader’s familiarity with common usage and the availability of dictionaries. They can also choose to coin and define new words. Or they can redefine existing terms. Naturally, because The Urantia Book is written for a multigenerational audience and provides revelatory concepts and information about cosmology, the authors especially need to go beyond contemporary usages and dictionary definitions.
Sometimes the revelators specifically redefine (or better define) a term for us with a statement like, “And the mixed descendants of this improved Badonite stock appeared on the stage of action as an apparently new people — the Neanderthal race.” Sometimes the redefinition of an existing term is more contextual and/or can be derived from the grammatical construction of the sentence in which the term is used.
This presentation starts with a study of the word galaxy and its derivatives because this is the larger conceptual context into which the specific example of Milky Way is considered.
Notwithstanding the value of a broader cosmological perspective that can only come by integrating Urantia Book teachings with science, nonetheless, this type of analysis provides a fundamental understanding of how the authors use terms. There is an abundance of consistent grammatical and contextual usage to conclude that the term Milky Way galaxy is to be associated with the superuniverse of Orvonton.
Subgalactic
Subgalactic appears once:
15:3.5 The rotational center of your minor sector is situated far away in the enormous and dense star cloud of Sagittarius, around which your local universe and its associated creations all move, and from opposite sides of the vast Sagittarius subgalactic system you may observe two great streams of star clouds emerging in stupendous stellar coils.”
Galaxy
Galaxy is used ten times. The first instance appears directly after the three paragraphs that first introduce the term Milky Way.
15:3.4 If you could look upon the superuniverse of Orvonton from a position far-distant in space, you would immediately recognize the ten major sectors of the seventh galaxy.
The next two instances of galaxy occur when it is used immediately after Milky Way.
15:4.8 The Milky Way galaxy is composed of vast numbers of former spiral and other nebulae, and many still retain their original configuration. . . .
15:4.9 The vast star clouds of Orvonton should be regarded as individual aggregations of matter comparable to the separate nebulae observable in the space regions external to the Milky Way galaxy. . . .
The last seven instances are all in the context of personalities, gods, and saints, where it is used to mean “many.” Examples include, “galaxy of Olympian gods” and “limitless galaxy of personalities.”
32:4.2 God has full understanding of the need of every intelligent creature for function and experience, and therefore, in every situation, be it concerned with the destiny of a universe or the welfare of the humblest of his creatures, God retires from activity in favor of the galaxy of creature and Creator personalities who inherently intervene between himself and any given universe situation or creative event.
95:6.2 He had learned of the story of the Seven Master Spirits as the tradition lingered in Ur, and, accordingly, he created a galaxy of seven supreme gods with Ahura-Mazda at its head.
98:2.4 In so far as the Greek philosophers gave recognition to the divine and the superfinite, they were frankly monotheistic; they gave scant recognition to the whole galaxy of Olympian gods and goddesses.
98:3.2 In the great monotheistic renaissance of Melchizedek’s gospel during the sixth century before Christ, too few of the Salem missionaries penetrated Italy, and those who did were unable to overcome the influence of the rapidly spreading Etruscan priesthood with its new galaxy of gods and temples, all of which became organized into the Roman state religion.
106:8.23 Such a concept of the I AM implies full self-realization—it embraces that limitless galaxy of personalities who have become volitional participants in the self-revelation of the I AM, and who will remain eternally as absolute volitional parts of the totality of infinity, final sons of the absolute Father.
120:2.7 You are bestowing this life of mortal incarnation upon Urantia, but you are to live such a life for the spiritual inspiration of every human and superhuman intelligence that has lived, now exists, or may yet live on every inhabited world which has formed, now forms, or may yet form a part of the vast galaxy of your administrative domain.
195:4.2 A new spiritual menace arose in the creation of a galaxy of “saints” who were assumed to have special influence at the divine courts, and who, therefore, if effectively appealed to, would be able to intercede in man’s behalf before the Gods.
Extragalactic and Galactic
Extragalactic appears once and in the same paragraph as when galactic is used for the first time:
12:2.3 In the not-distant future, new telescopes will reveal to the wondering gaze of Urantian astronomers no less than 375 million new galaxies in the remote stretches of outer space. At the same time these more powerful telescopes will disclose that many island universes formerly believed to be in outer space are really a part of the galacticsystem of Orvonton. The seven superuniverses are still growing; the periphery of each is gradually expanding; new nebulae are constantly being stabilized and organized; and some of the nebulae which Urantian astronomers regard as extragalactic are actually on the fringe of Orvonton and are traveling along with us.
The three additional usages of galactic occur as more general references to the created universes:
104:4.15 Love may characterize the divinity of the first triunity, but pattern is the galactic manifestation of the second triunity.
116:4.7 But the local universes are the real laboratories in which are worked out the mind experiments, galactic adventures, divinity unfoldings, and personality progressions which, when cosmically totaled, constitute the actual foundation upon which the Supreme is achieving deity evolution in and by experience.
117:3.2 The Supreme is the divine channel through which flows the creative infinity of the triodities that crystallizes into the galactic panorama of space, against which takes place the magnificent personality drama of time: the spirit conquest of energy-matter through the mediation of mind.
Galaxies
Galaxies appears eleven times. When it is not used as general reference to the cosmos, as in “the harmonious beauties of the galaxies of time,” it refers to either the aggregate of the seven superuniverses and/or to regions in the outer space levels.
11:7.7 The relatively quiet zones between the space levels, such as the one separating the seven superuniverses from the first outer space level, are enormous elliptical regions of quiescent space activities. These zones separate the vast galaxies which race around Paradise in orderly procession. You may visualize the first outer space level, where untold universes are now in process of formation, as a vast procession of galaxies swinging around Paradise, bounded above and below by the midspace zones of quiescence and bounded on the inner and outer margins by relatively quiet space zones.
11:7.9 This alternate zoning of the master universe, in association with the alternate clockwise and counterclockwise flow of the galaxies, is a factor in the stabilization of physical gravity designed to prevent the accentuation of gravity pressure to the point of disruptive and dispersive activities. Such an arrangement exerts antigravity influence and acts as a brake upon otherwise dangerous velocities.
12:2.3 In the not-distant future, new telescopes will reveal to the wondering gaze of Urantian astronomers no less than 375 million new galaxies in the remote stretches of outer space. At the same time these more powerful telescopes will disclose that many island universes formerly believed to be in outer space are really a part of the galactic system of Orvonton. The seven superuniverses are still growing; the periphery of each is gradually expanding; new nebulae are constantly being stabilized and organized; and some of the nebulae which Urantian astronomers regard as extragalactic are actually on the fringe of Orvonton and are traveling along with us.
12:4.15 But the greatest of all such distortions arises because the vast universes of outer space, in the realms next to the domains of the seven superuniverses, seem to be revolving in a direction opposite to that of the grand universe. That is, these myriads of nebulae and their accompanying suns and spheres are at the present time revolving clockwise about the central creation. The seven superuniverses revolve about Paradise in a counterclockwise direction. It appears that the second outer universe of galaxies, like the seven superuniverses, revolves counterclockwise about Paradise. And the astronomic observers of Uversa think they detect evidence of revolutionary movements in a third outer belt of far-distant space which are beginning to exhibit directional tendencies of a clockwise nature.
40:10.8 What the ultimate destiny of these stationary orders of local and of superuniverse citizenship will be we do not know, but it is quite possible that, when the Paradise finaliters are pioneering the expanding frontiers of divinity in the planetary systems of the first outer space level, their Son- and Spirit-fused brethren of the ascendant evolutionary struggle will be acceptably contributing to the maintenance of the experiential equilibrium of the perfected superuniverses while they stand ready to welcome the incoming stream of Paradise pilgrims who may, at that distant day, pour in through Orvonton and its sister creations as a vast spirit-questing torrent from these now uncharted and uninhabited galaxies of outer space.
112:7.16 You have been instructed to a certain extent about the organization and personnel of the central universe, the superuniverses, and the local universes; you have been told something about the character and origin of some of the various personalities who now rule these far-flung creations. You have also been informed that there are in process of organization vast galaxies of universes far out beyond the periphery of the grand universe, in the first outer space level. . . .
112:7.17 We believe that the mortals of Adjuster fusion, together with their finaliter associates, are destined to function in some manner in the administration of the universes of the first outer space level. We have not the slightest doubt that in due time these enormous galaxies will become inhabited universes.
115:2.1 From the existential standpoint, nothing new can happen throughout the galaxies, for the completion of infinity inherent in the I AM is eternally present in the seven Absolutes, is functionally associated in the triunities, and is transmitively associated in the triodities.
117:7.17 The perfected grand universe of those future days will be vastly different from what it is at present. Gone will be the thrilling adventures of the organization of the galaxies of space, the planting of life on the uncertain worlds of time, and the evolving of harmony out of chaos, beauty out of potentials, truth out of meanings, and goodness out of values. The time universes will have achieved the fulfillment of finite destiny!
118:9.9 God the Supreme is the personalization of all universe experience, the focalization of all finite evolution, the maximation of all creature reality, the consummation of cosmic wisdom, the embodiment of the harmonious beauties of the galaxies of time, the truth of cosmic mind meanings, and the goodness of supreme spirit values.
118:10.23 Providence is the sure and certain march of the galaxies of space and the personalities of time toward the goals of eternity, first in the Supreme, then in the Ultimate, and perhaps in the Absolute. And in infinity we believe there is the same providence, and this is the will, the actions, the purpose of the Paradise Trinity thus motivating the cosmic panorama of universes upon universes.
Milky Way
Milky Way is used seven times. The first three times are in Paper 15: The Seven Superuniverses, Section 3: The Superuniverse of Orvonton, which begins:
15:3.1 Practically all of the starry realms visible to the naked eye on Urantia belong to the seventh section of the grand universe, the superuniverse of Orvonton. The vast Milky Way starry system represents the central nucleus of Orvonton, being largely beyond the borders of your local universe. This great aggregation of suns, dark islands of space, double stars, globular clusters, star clouds, spiral and other nebulae, together with myriads of individual planets, forms a watchlike, elongated-circular grouping of about one seventh of the inhabited evolutionary universes.
Note that the word “represents” is used to associate Milky Way with Orvonton and that “galaxies” is not included in the list of things comprising Orvonton.
The second paragraph is one sentence:
15:3.2 From the astronomical position of Urantia, as you look through the cross section of near-by systems to the great Milky Way, you observe that the spheres of Orvonton are traveling in a vast elongated plane, the breadth being far greater than the thickness and the length far greater than the breadth.
The description becomes more refined when combined with this statement from further down in Section 3:
15:3.16 The local universes are in closer proximity as they approach Havona; the circuits are greater in number, and there is increased superimposition, layer upon layer. But farther out from the eternal center there are fewer and fewer systems, layers, circuits, and universes.
By the third paragraph in Paper 15, Section 3, the authors demote the term Milky Way with the qualifier “so-called.” Perhaps this is done because not all of Orvonton looks “Milky” with stars.
15:3.3 Observation of the so-called Milky Way discloses the comparative increase in Orvonton stellar density when the heavens are viewed in one direction, while on either side the density diminishes; the number of stars and other spheres decreases away from the chief plane of our material superuniverse. When the angle of observation is propitious, gazing through the main body of this realm of maximum density, you are looking toward the residential universe and the center of all things.
After the first three usages of Milky Way in the first three paragraphs of Paper 15, Section 3, the next two appearances of the term occur in the next section:
15:4.8 The Milky Way galaxy is composed of vast numbers of former spiral and other nebulae, and many still retain their original configuration. But as the result of internal catastrophes and external attraction, many have suffered such distortion and rearrangement as to cause these enormous aggregations to appear as gigantic luminous masses of blazing suns, like the Magellanic Cloud. The globular type of star clusters predominates near the outer margins of Orvonton.
15:4.9 The vast star clouds of Orvonton should be regarded as individual aggregations of matter comparable to the separate nebulae observable in the space regions external to the Milky Way galaxy. Many of the so-called star clouds of space, however, consist of gaseous material only. The energy potential of these stellar gas clouds is unbelievably enormous, and some of it is taken up by near-by suns and redispatched in space as solar emanations.
The sixth occurrence of Milky Way:
32:2.11 The Satania system of inhabited worlds is far removed from Uversa and that great sun cluster which functions as the physical or astronomic center of the seventh superuniverse. From Jerusem, the headquarters of Satania, it is over two hundred thousand light-years to the physical center of the superuniverse of Orvonton, far, far away in the dense diameter of the Milky Way. Satania is on the periphery of the local universe, and Nebadon is now well out towards the edge of Orvonton. From the outermost system of inhabited worlds to the center of the superuniverse is a trifle less than two hundred and fifty thousand light-years.
And here with the last use of Milky Way, the sentence structure has it unambiguously referring to Orvonton, the seventh of the superuniverses:
42:5.5 3. The short space rays. These are the shortest of all purely electronic vibrations and represent the preatomic stage of this form of matter. These rays require extraordinarily high or low temperatures for their production. There are two sorts of these space rays: one attendant upon the birth of atoms and the other indicative of atomic disruption. They emanate in the largest quantities from the densest plane of the superuniverse, the MilkyWay, which is also the densest plane of the outer universes.