A Map of the Mormon Cosmos
From the Book of Abraham
When Larry King interviewed Mormon prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, he asked whether the church teaches that members will get their own planets in the next life. In Battlestar Galactica, Glen Larson — show creator and practicing church member — called humanity’s birth planet Kobol, an anagram of Kolob. The writers of The Expanse book and TV series, not members themselves, included a Mormon colony ship as a key plot element.
The space-themed Mormon lore traces its roots to the Book of Abraham, one of the more obscure LDS books of scripture. Back in the 1830s, ancient Egypt had captured the popular imagination, including the imagination of the Mormons. When an Egyptian artifact salesman visited Ohio, Joseph Smith promptly bought a mummy from him. It came with some papyri which he allegedly translated, much like he did with the Book of Mormon. This translation became the Book of Abraham, which is now held with the same reverence in Mormon theology as the Bible and Book of Mormon.
The story of the book is certainly strange. It purports to have been originally included in the Bible, but was removed by Catholic priests to hide the truth of the scriptures from the human race:
And the angel of the Lord said unto me: Thou hast beheld that the book proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew; and when it proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew it contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord… And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious… And all this have they done that they might pervert the right ways of the Lord, that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men. 1 Nephi 13: 24-27, Book of Mormon. Emphasis added.
The book contains the origin story of Abraham, the true order of the cosmos (including the planet Kolob), and the story of Adam and Eve. This is where all that space lore comes from.
Despite the fact that the Mormon cosmos has found its way into our popular culture, I’ve never seen anybody actually compile these unique astronomical bodies into one chart or map. So I decided to do it myself. Below I have written a synopsis of the Book of Abraham to describe the context of where this all comes from and what it means. Even among Mormons, the book is rather confusing, naturally generating lots and lots of commentary. I’ve tried to tell the story and make this map exactly as it is written in the book; no editorializing, no analysis. If you take Joseph Smith’s translation at face value (consider it plain and precious), this is the universe.
Abraham’s story starts in Chaldea some time after the flood of Noah. Society has been rebuilt in the Fertile Crescent. After the flood had receded a woman named Egyptus founded the kingdom of Egypt, giving the kingdom her name. Her son Pharaoh became the first king of the land and from that point on the Egyptian rulers took his name as a title. Egypt now reigned over the whole region, extending its religious practices throughout the known world.
Although Pharaoh was a righteous man, he erroneously sought to lay claim to the Priesthood: the power of God on Earth. Through the Priesthood a man can move mountains, perform miracles, and act as the mouthpiece of God. However, the Priesthood could only be transferred through a righteous male lineage and Pharaoh was a descendent of Ham. Ham had been wicked and disobeyed God, and as a curse his lineage was forever barred from the Priesthood. Lacking the true power of God, Pharaoh created various cults of false deities to emulate the power he could never hold. His priests imitated the rites of the true Priesthood, but over time the ceremonies devolved into rituals of human sacrifice.
Abraham’s father was one of these priests. He worshiped the god Elkenah and conducted human sacrifice upon Potipher’s Hill. Abraham witnessed these rituals, including the murder of three virgins that refused to bow before the idolatrous gods. Disturbed by these practices and — in his own words — desiring to become the father of many nations, Abraham sought the true God and started preaching against the idols of Egypt.
Incensed, the wicked priests arrested Abraham, tied him to a sacrificial altar, and planned to kill him for Elkenah. Abraham’s father would strike the killing blow. At the last moment, as his father prepared to plunge the knife, Abraham prayed to God. Suddenly, an angel appeared and loosed Abraham’s bindings. The heavenly messenger declared Abraham the true heir of Noah and promised that the Lord would blight Chaldea with a famine as a punishment for unrighteousness. Abraham was to flee the land. In time, God would reveal the true order of the heavens to him and the history of the universe from creation to the end.
As Abraham, his wife Sarai, and his brother’s son Lot fled from Chaldea they began receiving angelic visitations culminating in a visit from Jehovah. In Mormon theology, this is Jesus Christ in a premortal state. Abraham was promised much of the same things we read about in the Bible: becoming the father of many nations, his progeny settling in the Holy Land, promises of blessings. Uniquely, he was promised to have the order of the heavens revealed to him through the Urim and Thummim.
This device is the same one that is mentioned in the Book of Exodus, although its appearance in the Book of Abraham would imply that the device existed in the time of Genesis. In Mormonism the mystical artifact takes the form of a breastplate with glasses attached to the front. Each lens of the glass is a special stone that a true priest of God could look through and receive revelations. In Joseph Smith’s case, he claimed to use the stones to receive a direct translation of the Golden Plates he found buried near his home. This translation became the Book of Mormon.
Abraham’s Urim and Thummim experience focused on the stars, starting at the most important place in the universe: the Throne of God.
The Throne of God is not detailed in the revelation; it is not clear if it is a star, or a planet, or something else. The astronomical body nearest to the Throne of God is the star Kolob. This star is called the “great one” due to its peculiar rotational characteristics. Kolob rotates so slowly on its axis that one Kolobian day is equivalent to 1,000 Earth years. Accordingly, this is the time scale that God uses when talking to humans. When God mentions a day in the Bible, it should be understood as 1,000 years to humans.
Abraham learns that the rotational rate is tied to the greatness or holiness of an astronomical body. The slower an object rotates, the greater it is. God gives Abraham an example: because the moon has a longer day than the Earth (one lunar day = 27.3 Earth days) it is a greater object. Following this increasing order of holiness from the Earth to the moon and beyond, one eventually comes to Kolob, the slowest rotating of all astronomical objects, and thus the holiest.
With this principle in mind, Abraham learns the true names of the astronomical bodies in God’s language. The Sun is Shinehah. The moon is Olea. Kokob (not to be confused with Kolob) is the general term for any star. Kokaubeam is the name for all the stars taken together. Each of them has a level of holiness dictated by their rotational periods.
Similarly, Abraham learns that people have different levels of intelligence, with God taking the top slot. Among humans there are some that are very close to the intelligence of God — these are called the “noble and great ones.” They have been the most intelligent human beings since time immemorial even while they lived as spirits in the premortal existence, waiting to be born into physical bodies.
While living in this disembodied state and before the Earth was formed, the noble and great ones conferred with God to create a plan for the redemption and exaltation of all the spirits. Before they could be exalted, they would need to go to Earth to get bodies first. Living embodied on Earth would open human beings to temptation and sin, thus jeopardizing their chance to live with God after death. There needed to be some way for the human race to be redeemed of the sins they would inevitably commit.
Two plans were presented. Jesus Christ presented a plan where he would come down to Earth and die for all of humanity’s sins, giving them the option to choose wickedness if they’d like and thus retain free will. Unfortunately this meant that some of the spirits would never return to God, having chosen wickedness in their mortal life. Satan proposed a different plan. In his schema everybody would be automatically saved by nature of being born into mortal bodies. The catch? The glory for the plan would go to Satan, not God. The noble and great ones chose Jesus’s plan, but Satan himself had followers. The premortal world split into two camps, plunging the spirit world into open conflict. Ultimately the noble and great ones prevailed and expelled Satan into a realm of eternal darkness, yet allowed to tempt the children of man during their time on Earth.
The rest of the Book of Abraham retells the Genesis creation story, so let's get back to astronomy. The church helpfully includes some facsimiles from original Egyptian papyrus in the Book of Abraham along with Joseph Smith’s interpretation. Facsimile 2 is dedicated to astronomy.
We learn once again that Kolob is the most important astronomical object and was called by the Egyptians “Jah-oh-eh.” The next most important object is Oliblish. This star or planet (it's not clear which) has the key to the governing power over the rest of the planets in the universe. Oliblish also spins at a rate that makes one day equivalent to one thousand years. The ancient Egyptians had a word for this period of time — Raukeeyang. They also used this to describe the firmament, or in modern terms, all of space.
Next up is our sun, also known as Shinehah in God’s tongue and Enish-go-on-dosh in ancient Egyptian. Shinehah is bright because it retransmits light from Kolob. This light is transferred through space by the medium Kae-e-vanrash, also known as the Grand Key. Likewise, fifteen other planets, the moon (which we learn is called Floeese in Egyptian), and the Earth are bright because of the light transmitted through Kae-e-vanrash. A second medium, Kli-flos-is-es or Hah-ko-kau-beam, gives these astronomical objects their power. What that power is remains undefined. Apparently there are two other unnamed stars (figures 22 and 23), that receive their light from Kolob. Abraham is told that there are worlds without end that God has created, but we learn nothing more about them or why they are different from the unnamed fifteen planets from Facsimile 2. And that’s it. That’s the universe.
So the nonsense about project looking glass comes from the Mormon deep state.
The triune system of Throne of God, Kolob, and Oliblish seems to fit quite well with the triune system of Alpha Centori A, Alpha Centori B, and Proxima Centori. Just saying....it does.