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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Inspirational
- Subject: Philosophy/Religion/Spirituality
- Published: 02/05/2021
Thus Spake Zarathustra
Born 1960, F, from San Carlos de Bariloche, ArgentinaTHUS SPAKE THE PERSIAN PROPHET ZARATHUSHTRA
“GOOD THOUGHTS, GOOD WORDS, GOOD DEEDS”
My objective in this essay is to help reinstate the widely misunderstood Zarathushtra in his rightful place in the spiritual and creative evolution of mainstream civilizations.
Morality: Zarathushtra’s “error”
“I have not been asked, as I should have been asked, what the name Zarathushtra means in precisely my mouth, in the mouth of the first inmmoralist”, frets Nietzsche in Ecce Homo, Why I am a Destiny (1). Nietzsche goes on to say that Zarathushtra created the most fateful of errors, morality: consequently he must be the first to recognize it. “Not only has he had longer and greater experience here than any other thinker - the whole of history is indeed the experimental refutation of the proposition of a so-called ‘moral world order’-: what is more important is that Zarathushtra is more truthful than any other thinker. His teaching, and his alone, upholds truthfulness as the supreme virtue. To tell the truth and to shoot well with arrows: that is Persian virtue. The self-overcoming of morality through truthfulness, the self-overcoming of the moralist into the opposite - into me - that is what the name Zarathushtra means in my mouth.” Thus spake Friedrich Nietzsche, who had a terrible fear that one day he would be pronounced holy, who had a need of washing his hands after contact with religious people: “One will guess why I bring out this book beforehand; it is intended to prevent people from making mischief with me... I do not want to be a saint, rather even a buffoon... Perhaps I am a buffoon...”
Belatedly, we have taken note of Nietzsche’s frustration and ended up delving into prehistoric times, unveiling cosmic moral principles of ancient beliefs that constitute the roots from which Western and Middle Eastern religions have sprung. Zarathushtra was indeed a pioneer in terrene morality - as opposed to abstract ideals - as well as a mystic. The Zarathushtrian movement had an important influence on judaeo christianity, although the suppression of this fact clouds the issue. It is hardly likely that Nietzsche, who was appointed to the chair of Classical Philology at Basle University, would have vented his wrath and grudging admiration on an obscure Persian prophet whose teachings could well be irrelevant to the western traditions which Nietzsche abhorred. During the nineteenth century a flood of words (2) was printed on the ancient Iranian prophet and the Zoroastrian civilization until the downfall of its last Empire around A.D. 600, with the advent of Mohammed (c.570-629) and the birth of the Islamic religion.
Zoroaster: The Recycling of an Ancient God
In much of Western literature and art, Zarathushtra is known carelessly as Zoroaster, a hierophantic Persian priest come mystic come magician, timeless and perhaps even creedless. His role as the High Priest Sarastro, in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, is the composer’s allegorical suggestion that Freemasonry will overcome its adversaries, mainly the Church. Mozart was a Mason and, along with many famous people, such as the fashionable fifteenth century philosopher, classicist and musical psychotherapist Marcilio Ficino, he associated Zoroaster with the Pythagorean, Persian and Egyptian schools of hermetic traditions related to the mathematical harmony of the celestial spheres. It would be a mistake to be a relativist about the importance of these ideas on the latter version of this ancient religion, known as Zoroastrianism, a creed practiced by many people to this very day. Famous Freddie Mercury and his family were Zoraoastrians. He was buried according to their faith (not in India, but in a secret gravesite in England, or so it's believed.
Yet it’s only fair to concede that Nietzsche was better informed on the subject of authentic Zarathushtrianism and able to carry out his coup de grace on the prophet from the vantage point of further nineteenth century research. So we must go back to the origins, regretfully sidestepping backstage Renaissance intellectual activity concerning magic, alchemy, astrology and the like, all of which was silenced by overly cautious historians in implicit collaboration with Illuminist scientism and religious intolerance.
3.
Zarathushtra: The mystery of a God
(Principal source: William W. Malandra, “An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion”, Univ. of Minnesota, Mineapolis, U.S.A., 1983)
Facts related to Zarathushtra’s historical circumstances and teachings are veiled in mystery. Mary Boyce (3) concludes that he was a hermit who lived about 3.500 years ago in a cave on a mountain, like a Stone Age man. During a teophany, it was revealed to Zarathushtra that Ahúra Mazda was the One God of the universe: all knowing, all-powerful and merciful. Zarathushtra came down from his mountain to preach the Good News to the nomadic Iranian tribes in northern Central Asia. Boyce estimates that Zarathushtra preached some time between 1700 and 1400 B.C.; that is to say, before the nomads moved down to the region of modern day Iran and part of Iraq.
W.B. Fleming (4) believed, with equal conviction, that Zarathushtra’s activity evolved in the relatively civilized state of Chorasmia, in the first part of the sixth century B.C., during the period that preceded the formation of the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great, whose reign lasted from 559 to 529 B.C. Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. and it’s claimed that his government was a Zoroastrian theocracy. Some say that Cyrus maliciously converted to various beliefs for the purpose of subverting them; first he worshipped the god Marduk, then Baal, and in both cases he ended up destroying their temples and monuments.
After Zarathushtra’s death - another controversial issue - the prophet’s teachings were manipulated under the aegis of the priests or Median magoi in the courts of the succeeding Persian kings. They reintroduced gods, orgiastic rites and animal sacrifices proscribed by the prophet, but on the other hand a dynamic theo-cosmological vision developed thanks to Babylonian sages well versed in Astronomy and Astrology. These constituted one Science of astounding mathematical precision. Primitive religious beliefs about man and the world flourished into a cosmological system based on complex zodiacal maps of the heavens with interesting theological derivations.
Zarathushtra’s now deified, hieratic figure became known as Zoroaster and the religion as Zoroastrianism. From A.D. 200 to 600 it was the State religion in Iran, and indeed a very powerful one in spite of the disintegration of the Persian Empire. Nevertheless, it’s essential to keep in mind that the figure of Zarathushtra is perhaps the most manipulated one in the history of religions, and that long before Islam his teachings were subjected to severe eclecticism on many fronts. Some sources have now vaguely assigned him the distinction of being the “Preparer of the Way” or “Forerunner”, whom God sent to the people of Iran to announce the coming of the Helper or Radiant Hero who will eventually judge Everyman according to his words, acts and deepest thoughts. Neo-Zoroastrianism is practiced in Western countries such as Canada, Australia, the U.S. and Great Britain, although the only authentic Asian communities live in India and are called Parsees.
Mazdaism: Background to Zarathushtra’s Teachings
Mazdaism is a very old religion whose origins are obscured by prehistoric myth, with roots spreading deep into Indoiranian polytheist traditions. Mazdaism is named after Ahúra Mazda, meaning Wise Lord, and also Truth and Justice. Zarathushtra belonged to a peace-loving, sedentary form of agricultural life in which animal husbandry played an important role. Pitted against it were the wild, lawless nomads and persistent followers of the bad old ways of cattle raiding; their priests did not form a community independent of the cattle warriors.
The Gathic hymn “Lament of the Soul of the Cow” is an allegorical portrayal of the conflict of two ways of life and religion in Eastern Iran, and of Zarathushtra”s struggle to establish his own way. He taught that the Good God is the “Creator of everything” through his creative aspect, Spenta Mainyu, the Beneficent Spirit, who made a world full of virtue and light. The Supreme Creator is personally involved in the moral and physical order of the macro- and micro-cosmos. The exercise of primordial Free Will, before the Creation, is paradigmatic for Man. Ahúra Mazda created cosmos - order - from chaos. Man is free and must choose between Truth and The Lie, since a bad or “fallen god”
-like the angel Lucifer- came to corrupt the world, so that we now live with a mixture of good and bad. The Evil One is called Anghra Mainyu, which means deceitfulness. Salvation depends on free will, good deeds, good thoughts and proper language. Evil in human affairs is always the result of will, not nature. The ethic dualism does not discriminate between matter and spirit, or body and soul, but rather between good and bad choices, because the material world enjoyed primordial purity. This is the essence of Zarathushtrianism, a religion that exalts life and sees in a prosperous world the triumph of good over bad.
The Myth of the Twins and Zarathushtra’s Gospel
The Myth of the Twins is apparently at the origins of Mazdaism. Two spirits, one good and one bad - Truth and Lie - are in conflict because of the choices they made when they created their dominions. So it is a struggle between ahuras (good spirits) and daewas (drugwants) over rituals, as well as a cosmic struggle that transcends human beings’ activities. But it must be remembered that Ahúra Mazda, God of Truth, appeared before Zarathushtra and pointed out that he had made all of Creation pristine, and that the daewas entered surreptitiously and are the cause of the fall of humankind and of Nature. Therefore Zarathushtra’s mission was to communicate the Good News, whereby salvation for Man and Nature could be attained by exemplary thought and deed. Under divine guidance, humankind is privileged with redemptive action through the power of peaceful living.
On the mundane level, the conflict manifests itself in human choice; in concrete reality, the choice is made empirically. That is to say: one can observe from people’s behavior which side they are on (for good or for evil). It’s as simple as that. But Zarathushtra also saw the cosmic conflict in sociopolitical terms: he championed the cause of peaceful, ordered pastoral life, which was threatened by barbarous nomadic people who raided and plundered the settled folk, egged on by daewas.
It’s difficult to judge from the Gathas how far Zarathushtra had developed his ideas on life after death, yet it appears that he posited at
least the germinal concept of “last things”. Later, Zoroastrianism was to formulate an eschatological system in which Judaic messianism probably found its original inspiration. Yet Zarathushtra was a realist in the sense that he focused on the here-and-now. He often refers to the rewards of the righteous and of the iniquitous in terms of immediate signs. His faith in the power of Ahúra Mazda was such that he did not envisage a perpetual situation in which the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. He did have a concept of saviour figures, which he called Saoshyants and among whom he numbered himself. He also believed in a future life in which the rewards not realized presently would be obtained after the Day of Judgment. The final judgment of the departed souls takes place at the Bridge of Judgment; those who cross safely, because of their good deeds, proceed to their reward in heaven. The others fall into a chasm where men wail and gnash their teeth.
Since the world continued in its sinful ways, a theological reassessment must have taken place. Zoroastrians came to expect the fulfillment of their religion at the end of time: a novel concept in itself. The last Saoshyant or Saviour would appear at the end of history in the final triumph of Ahúra Mazda over the Evil Spirit. Nevertheless, one can only conjecture as to whether Ahúra Mazda’s ultimate peaceful dominion will correspond in some way to our material existence, or to an otherworldly celestial sphere. Judging by Zarathustra’s positive evaluation of this world and its bounties, I reserve for myself the opinion that he envisioned a “Paradise on Earth”, brought about by humankind’s conscious enlightenment and spiritual transformation.
Zarathushtra: Profile of a Dynamic Reformer
Such is the message that Ahúra Mazda enjoined Zarathushtra to broadcast to all humanity. If Zarathushtra composed the 17 complex and allusive Gathic hymns dedicated to Ahúra Mazda, contained in the Sasanid Avesta, he must have had a rigorous priestly education prior to his withdrawal to the mountain cave. The Gathas are meant only for the initiated. But we cannot be sure that Mazdaism existed independently before the Teophany on the mountain; most probably Ahúra Mazda was an important god of an Indoiranian pantheon. He can be favorably compared to the great Vedic deity Varuna. Zarathushtra may have been instrumental in bringing him to the forefront.
What is essential is that Zarathushtra “came down” (from wherever) to teach with simple words to ordinary people. His family name was Spitama; it means “who has brilliant strength”. Spitamid Zarathushtra’s personal vitality launched him on a course that distinguished him from the anonymity of his predecessors. He did not teach that religion is a question of political or geographical boundaries. Neither was he a precursor of Manacheism, a religion that sustains that the fight between good and evil forces is eternal and that only the body, or matter, is corrupt. (Manacheism and Gnosticism were in favour of celibacy, and strongly advised against marriage and procreation, since that would strengthen the eternal evil forces)
Evil can be eradicated from the whole of Nature, the Spitamid affirmed, because it was introduced, not created. Man can, of his own free will and because he has the capacity for doing good, carry out this task. It is, in fact, his duty to do so. The world and everything in it was created by God for man’s enjoyment, and it is more sinful to lead an ascetic, celibate life than a full and prosperous one.
The Yasna, selections from the Avesta sacred writings, reflect the situation in which the rebel Zarathushtra found himself as the prophet of the new faith in confrontation with spokesmen for the old religion: he asks for help in distinguishing followers of Truth from those who follow Lie. Zarathushtra may have retired to his mountain because he disapproved of the caste of priests in his country. Mary Boyce believes he began his mission at the age of forty, when he apparently spoke simple words to ordinary folks, teaching them to use kind words, do good deeds and have pure thoughts.
Yet no man is a prophet in his own country, says the Christian Gospel, and Zarathushtra was no exception to the rule. He was forced into exile because of the difficulties he brought upon himself by his reformist ideas: this progressive man opposed the sacrifice of animals on the altars of fire -fire played a mediator’s function- and he ruled out orgiastic rites and ceremonial drunkenness. The priests prepared a drink from the haoma plant, which has curative powers, but like most herbal extracts it could also ferment and have a high alcoholic content.
Zarathushtra eventually gained the patronage of King Vistashpa, whereupon his mission took hold and spread to important cities, such as Babylon. (The reader will notice quite a few chronological discrepancies in this report: trouble is, any “single-bullet theory” would be a grievous mistake, since nobody can even be sure when it's a referrance to Zarathushtra himself, or to the Zarathushtrian movement that evolved from Mazdaism and carried on for many generations and eventually became known as Zoroastrianism)
In general it's better to stick to the proposition that Zarathushtra was a reformer of Mazdaism, and that he -or his followers- carried out his mission around 600 B.C., before or during the Persian occupation of, and the Judaic exile in, Babylon. This estimate is not accepted by those who rely on Middle Persian dialect in the Book-Pahlavi Denkard texts which were written in 900 A.D., well after the advent of Islam. Because of the vicissitudes suffered by Zoroastrians and their eventual refuge in India during the succeeding centuries, the once glorious, inmense corpus Sasanid Avesta -Scripture- was lost.
Zarathushtra’s legacy: respect for Nature and peaceful living
I’ve already mentioned that neo-Zoroastrianism is practiced in parts of the Western world, but it would be a mistake to assert that the essence of Zarathustra’s teachings has survived intact to the present day. There is do a fair account by the Jesuit priest Carlos G. Vallés (6) of the Parsee community in India. He describes a people with a great sense of humor and the ability to enjoy an intellectual as well as a sensuous life, grounded on an Ethics that espouses a dynamic worldview.
9.
The Parsees are descendents of the Persians who embarked on a journey to India when persecution commenced in the 7th. century A.D. They settled there peacefully and are the only religious community in India that has not been involved in fundamentalist uprisings. Perhaps that’s why few people have heard of them? They also tend to be wealthy and to succeed in life, keeping a low profile.
These people have a carefree outlook on life, yet show a mystical respect for God’s Creation. Nevertheless, most Westerners are shocked when they hear that some people in India quietly and privately offer the bodies of their dead to carrion birds. Parsees will not tolerate the clutter of overcrowded cemeteries; neither do they approve of crematoriums that pollute the air with unsavory smoke; they are horrified at the idea of fouling rivers or the sea. So their solution is to place the body, after a religious ceremony, at the top of special “Silent Towers”, where carrion birds work quickly and efficiently. The sun-dried bones, transformed into minerals, are washed away by the rains. It sounds a macabre operation, but it is an ecological answer and one which, put into perspective, solves man’s ultimate problem: how to disappear while doing good and causing the least trouble.
“All the teachings that have come to earth in the past would, united, form a single flight of steps to the pedestal on which Truth is to stand, as it has so often been proclaimed to mankind in various promises. There would be no difference in the interpretations, much less differences in the teachings themselves.
For all teachings were at one time willed by God, precisely adapted to the individual peoples and countries, and formed in complete accord with their actual spiritual maturity and receptivity. The bringers of all the individual teachings were Forerunners of the Word of Truth Itself.” Zoro-Tushtra. Life and Work of the Forerunner in Iran.
Principal source: William W. Malandra, “An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion”, Univ. of Minnesota, Mineapolis, U.S.A., 1983.
(1) Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, Penguin Classics, London, 1992.
(2) F. Crawford, Zoroaster, 1885. New Edition: 1990. M. Dhalla, Zoroastrian Theology from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 1914. New Edition: 1972. G. Carter, Zoroastrianism and Judaism, 1918. New Edition: 1970.
(3) Mary Boyce: “Zoroastrians”, London, 1979.
(4) W.B.Fleming, Zoroaster, Oxford, 1951, mentioned by W. Malandra.
(5) Zoroaster. Life and Work of the Forerunner in Iran. Stiftung Gralsbotschaft Pub.Co., Stuttgart.
Thus Spake Zarathustra(Sylvia Maclagan)
THUS SPAKE THE PERSIAN PROPHET ZARATHUSHTRA
“GOOD THOUGHTS, GOOD WORDS, GOOD DEEDS”
My objective in this essay is to help reinstate the widely misunderstood Zarathushtra in his rightful place in the spiritual and creative evolution of mainstream civilizations.
Morality: Zarathushtra’s “error”
“I have not been asked, as I should have been asked, what the name Zarathushtra means in precisely my mouth, in the mouth of the first inmmoralist”, frets Nietzsche in Ecce Homo, Why I am a Destiny (1). Nietzsche goes on to say that Zarathushtra created the most fateful of errors, morality: consequently he must be the first to recognize it. “Not only has he had longer and greater experience here than any other thinker - the whole of history is indeed the experimental refutation of the proposition of a so-called ‘moral world order’-: what is more important is that Zarathushtra is more truthful than any other thinker. His teaching, and his alone, upholds truthfulness as the supreme virtue. To tell the truth and to shoot well with arrows: that is Persian virtue. The self-overcoming of morality through truthfulness, the self-overcoming of the moralist into the opposite - into me - that is what the name Zarathushtra means in my mouth.” Thus spake Friedrich Nietzsche, who had a terrible fear that one day he would be pronounced holy, who had a need of washing his hands after contact with religious people: “One will guess why I bring out this book beforehand; it is intended to prevent people from making mischief with me... I do not want to be a saint, rather even a buffoon... Perhaps I am a buffoon...”
Belatedly, we have taken note of Nietzsche’s frustration and ended up delving into prehistoric times, unveiling cosmic moral principles of ancient beliefs that constitute the roots from which Western and Middle Eastern religions have sprung. Zarathushtra was indeed a pioneer in terrene morality - as opposed to abstract ideals - as well as a mystic. The Zarathushtrian movement had an important influence on judaeo christianity, although the suppression of this fact clouds the issue. It is hardly likely that Nietzsche, who was appointed to the chair of Classical Philology at Basle University, would have vented his wrath and grudging admiration on an obscure Persian prophet whose teachings could well be irrelevant to the western traditions which Nietzsche abhorred. During the nineteenth century a flood of words (2) was printed on the ancient Iranian prophet and the Zoroastrian civilization until the downfall of its last Empire around A.D. 600, with the advent of Mohammed (c.570-629) and the birth of the Islamic religion.
Zoroaster: The Recycling of an Ancient God
In much of Western literature and art, Zarathushtra is known carelessly as Zoroaster, a hierophantic Persian priest come mystic come magician, timeless and perhaps even creedless. His role as the High Priest Sarastro, in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, is the composer’s allegorical suggestion that Freemasonry will overcome its adversaries, mainly the Church. Mozart was a Mason and, along with many famous people, such as the fashionable fifteenth century philosopher, classicist and musical psychotherapist Marcilio Ficino, he associated Zoroaster with the Pythagorean, Persian and Egyptian schools of hermetic traditions related to the mathematical harmony of the celestial spheres. It would be a mistake to be a relativist about the importance of these ideas on the latter version of this ancient religion, known as Zoroastrianism, a creed practiced by many people to this very day. Famous Freddie Mercury and his family were Zoraoastrians. He was buried according to their faith (not in India, but in a secret gravesite in England, or so it's believed.
Yet it’s only fair to concede that Nietzsche was better informed on the subject of authentic Zarathushtrianism and able to carry out his coup de grace on the prophet from the vantage point of further nineteenth century research. So we must go back to the origins, regretfully sidestepping backstage Renaissance intellectual activity concerning magic, alchemy, astrology and the like, all of which was silenced by overly cautious historians in implicit collaboration with Illuminist scientism and religious intolerance.
3.
Zarathushtra: The mystery of a God
(Principal source: William W. Malandra, “An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion”, Univ. of Minnesota, Mineapolis, U.S.A., 1983)
Facts related to Zarathushtra’s historical circumstances and teachings are veiled in mystery. Mary Boyce (3) concludes that he was a hermit who lived about 3.500 years ago in a cave on a mountain, like a Stone Age man. During a teophany, it was revealed to Zarathushtra that Ahúra Mazda was the One God of the universe: all knowing, all-powerful and merciful. Zarathushtra came down from his mountain to preach the Good News to the nomadic Iranian tribes in northern Central Asia. Boyce estimates that Zarathushtra preached some time between 1700 and 1400 B.C.; that is to say, before the nomads moved down to the region of modern day Iran and part of Iraq.
W.B. Fleming (4) believed, with equal conviction, that Zarathushtra’s activity evolved in the relatively civilized state of Chorasmia, in the first part of the sixth century B.C., during the period that preceded the formation of the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great, whose reign lasted from 559 to 529 B.C. Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. and it’s claimed that his government was a Zoroastrian theocracy. Some say that Cyrus maliciously converted to various beliefs for the purpose of subverting them; first he worshipped the god Marduk, then Baal, and in both cases he ended up destroying their temples and monuments.
After Zarathushtra’s death - another controversial issue - the prophet’s teachings were manipulated under the aegis of the priests or Median magoi in the courts of the succeeding Persian kings. They reintroduced gods, orgiastic rites and animal sacrifices proscribed by the prophet, but on the other hand a dynamic theo-cosmological vision developed thanks to Babylonian sages well versed in Astronomy and Astrology. These constituted one Science of astounding mathematical precision. Primitive religious beliefs about man and the world flourished into a cosmological system based on complex zodiacal maps of the heavens with interesting theological derivations.
Zarathushtra’s now deified, hieratic figure became known as Zoroaster and the religion as Zoroastrianism. From A.D. 200 to 600 it was the State religion in Iran, and indeed a very powerful one in spite of the disintegration of the Persian Empire. Nevertheless, it’s essential to keep in mind that the figure of Zarathushtra is perhaps the most manipulated one in the history of religions, and that long before Islam his teachings were subjected to severe eclecticism on many fronts. Some sources have now vaguely assigned him the distinction of being the “Preparer of the Way” or “Forerunner”, whom God sent to the people of Iran to announce the coming of the Helper or Radiant Hero who will eventually judge Everyman according to his words, acts and deepest thoughts. Neo-Zoroastrianism is practiced in Western countries such as Canada, Australia, the U.S. and Great Britain, although the only authentic Asian communities live in India and are called Parsees.
Mazdaism: Background to Zarathushtra’s Teachings
Mazdaism is a very old religion whose origins are obscured by prehistoric myth, with roots spreading deep into Indoiranian polytheist traditions. Mazdaism is named after Ahúra Mazda, meaning Wise Lord, and also Truth and Justice. Zarathushtra belonged to a peace-loving, sedentary form of agricultural life in which animal husbandry played an important role. Pitted against it were the wild, lawless nomads and persistent followers of the bad old ways of cattle raiding; their priests did not form a community independent of the cattle warriors.
The Gathic hymn “Lament of the Soul of the Cow” is an allegorical portrayal of the conflict of two ways of life and religion in Eastern Iran, and of Zarathushtra”s struggle to establish his own way. He taught that the Good God is the “Creator of everything” through his creative aspect, Spenta Mainyu, the Beneficent Spirit, who made a world full of virtue and light. The Supreme Creator is personally involved in the moral and physical order of the macro- and micro-cosmos. The exercise of primordial Free Will, before the Creation, is paradigmatic for Man. Ahúra Mazda created cosmos - order - from chaos. Man is free and must choose between Truth and The Lie, since a bad or “fallen god”
-like the angel Lucifer- came to corrupt the world, so that we now live with a mixture of good and bad. The Evil One is called Anghra Mainyu, which means deceitfulness. Salvation depends on free will, good deeds, good thoughts and proper language. Evil in human affairs is always the result of will, not nature. The ethic dualism does not discriminate between matter and spirit, or body and soul, but rather between good and bad choices, because the material world enjoyed primordial purity. This is the essence of Zarathushtrianism, a religion that exalts life and sees in a prosperous world the triumph of good over bad.
The Myth of the Twins and Zarathushtra’s Gospel
The Myth of the Twins is apparently at the origins of Mazdaism. Two spirits, one good and one bad - Truth and Lie - are in conflict because of the choices they made when they created their dominions. So it is a struggle between ahuras (good spirits) and daewas (drugwants) over rituals, as well as a cosmic struggle that transcends human beings’ activities. But it must be remembered that Ahúra Mazda, God of Truth, appeared before Zarathushtra and pointed out that he had made all of Creation pristine, and that the daewas entered surreptitiously and are the cause of the fall of humankind and of Nature. Therefore Zarathushtra’s mission was to communicate the Good News, whereby salvation for Man and Nature could be attained by exemplary thought and deed. Under divine guidance, humankind is privileged with redemptive action through the power of peaceful living.
On the mundane level, the conflict manifests itself in human choice; in concrete reality, the choice is made empirically. That is to say: one can observe from people’s behavior which side they are on (for good or for evil). It’s as simple as that. But Zarathushtra also saw the cosmic conflict in sociopolitical terms: he championed the cause of peaceful, ordered pastoral life, which was threatened by barbarous nomadic people who raided and plundered the settled folk, egged on by daewas.
It’s difficult to judge from the Gathas how far Zarathushtra had developed his ideas on life after death, yet it appears that he posited at
least the germinal concept of “last things”. Later, Zoroastrianism was to formulate an eschatological system in which Judaic messianism probably found its original inspiration. Yet Zarathushtra was a realist in the sense that he focused on the here-and-now. He often refers to the rewards of the righteous and of the iniquitous in terms of immediate signs. His faith in the power of Ahúra Mazda was such that he did not envisage a perpetual situation in which the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. He did have a concept of saviour figures, which he called Saoshyants and among whom he numbered himself. He also believed in a future life in which the rewards not realized presently would be obtained after the Day of Judgment. The final judgment of the departed souls takes place at the Bridge of Judgment; those who cross safely, because of their good deeds, proceed to their reward in heaven. The others fall into a chasm where men wail and gnash their teeth.
Since the world continued in its sinful ways, a theological reassessment must have taken place. Zoroastrians came to expect the fulfillment of their religion at the end of time: a novel concept in itself. The last Saoshyant or Saviour would appear at the end of history in the final triumph of Ahúra Mazda over the Evil Spirit. Nevertheless, one can only conjecture as to whether Ahúra Mazda’s ultimate peaceful dominion will correspond in some way to our material existence, or to an otherworldly celestial sphere. Judging by Zarathustra’s positive evaluation of this world and its bounties, I reserve for myself the opinion that he envisioned a “Paradise on Earth”, brought about by humankind’s conscious enlightenment and spiritual transformation.
Zarathushtra: Profile of a Dynamic Reformer
Such is the message that Ahúra Mazda enjoined Zarathushtra to broadcast to all humanity. If Zarathushtra composed the 17 complex and allusive Gathic hymns dedicated to Ahúra Mazda, contained in the Sasanid Avesta, he must have had a rigorous priestly education prior to his withdrawal to the mountain cave. The Gathas are meant only for the initiated. But we cannot be sure that Mazdaism existed independently before the Teophany on the mountain; most probably Ahúra Mazda was an important god of an Indoiranian pantheon. He can be favorably compared to the great Vedic deity Varuna. Zarathushtra may have been instrumental in bringing him to the forefront.
What is essential is that Zarathushtra “came down” (from wherever) to teach with simple words to ordinary people. His family name was Spitama; it means “who has brilliant strength”. Spitamid Zarathushtra’s personal vitality launched him on a course that distinguished him from the anonymity of his predecessors. He did not teach that religion is a question of political or geographical boundaries. Neither was he a precursor of Manacheism, a religion that sustains that the fight between good and evil forces is eternal and that only the body, or matter, is corrupt. (Manacheism and Gnosticism were in favour of celibacy, and strongly advised against marriage and procreation, since that would strengthen the eternal evil forces)
Evil can be eradicated from the whole of Nature, the Spitamid affirmed, because it was introduced, not created. Man can, of his own free will and because he has the capacity for doing good, carry out this task. It is, in fact, his duty to do so. The world and everything in it was created by God for man’s enjoyment, and it is more sinful to lead an ascetic, celibate life than a full and prosperous one.
The Yasna, selections from the Avesta sacred writings, reflect the situation in which the rebel Zarathushtra found himself as the prophet of the new faith in confrontation with spokesmen for the old religion: he asks for help in distinguishing followers of Truth from those who follow Lie. Zarathushtra may have retired to his mountain because he disapproved of the caste of priests in his country. Mary Boyce believes he began his mission at the age of forty, when he apparently spoke simple words to ordinary folks, teaching them to use kind words, do good deeds and have pure thoughts.
Yet no man is a prophet in his own country, says the Christian Gospel, and Zarathushtra was no exception to the rule. He was forced into exile because of the difficulties he brought upon himself by his reformist ideas: this progressive man opposed the sacrifice of animals on the altars of fire -fire played a mediator’s function- and he ruled out orgiastic rites and ceremonial drunkenness. The priests prepared a drink from the haoma plant, which has curative powers, but like most herbal extracts it could also ferment and have a high alcoholic content.
Zarathushtra eventually gained the patronage of King Vistashpa, whereupon his mission took hold and spread to important cities, such as Babylon. (The reader will notice quite a few chronological discrepancies in this report: trouble is, any “single-bullet theory” would be a grievous mistake, since nobody can even be sure when it's a referrance to Zarathushtra himself, or to the Zarathushtrian movement that evolved from Mazdaism and carried on for many generations and eventually became known as Zoroastrianism)
In general it's better to stick to the proposition that Zarathushtra was a reformer of Mazdaism, and that he -or his followers- carried out his mission around 600 B.C., before or during the Persian occupation of, and the Judaic exile in, Babylon. This estimate is not accepted by those who rely on Middle Persian dialect in the Book-Pahlavi Denkard texts which were written in 900 A.D., well after the advent of Islam. Because of the vicissitudes suffered by Zoroastrians and their eventual refuge in India during the succeeding centuries, the once glorious, inmense corpus Sasanid Avesta -Scripture- was lost.
Zarathushtra’s legacy: respect for Nature and peaceful living
I’ve already mentioned that neo-Zoroastrianism is practiced in parts of the Western world, but it would be a mistake to assert that the essence of Zarathustra’s teachings has survived intact to the present day. There is do a fair account by the Jesuit priest Carlos G. Vallés (6) of the Parsee community in India. He describes a people with a great sense of humor and the ability to enjoy an intellectual as well as a sensuous life, grounded on an Ethics that espouses a dynamic worldview.
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The Parsees are descendents of the Persians who embarked on a journey to India when persecution commenced in the 7th. century A.D. They settled there peacefully and are the only religious community in India that has not been involved in fundamentalist uprisings. Perhaps that’s why few people have heard of them? They also tend to be wealthy and to succeed in life, keeping a low profile.
These people have a carefree outlook on life, yet show a mystical respect for God’s Creation. Nevertheless, most Westerners are shocked when they hear that some people in India quietly and privately offer the bodies of their dead to carrion birds. Parsees will not tolerate the clutter of overcrowded cemeteries; neither do they approve of crematoriums that pollute the air with unsavory smoke; they are horrified at the idea of fouling rivers or the sea. So their solution is to place the body, after a religious ceremony, at the top of special “Silent Towers”, where carrion birds work quickly and efficiently. The sun-dried bones, transformed into minerals, are washed away by the rains. It sounds a macabre operation, but it is an ecological answer and one which, put into perspective, solves man’s ultimate problem: how to disappear while doing good and causing the least trouble.
“All the teachings that have come to earth in the past would, united, form a single flight of steps to the pedestal on which Truth is to stand, as it has so often been proclaimed to mankind in various promises. There would be no difference in the interpretations, much less differences in the teachings themselves.
For all teachings were at one time willed by God, precisely adapted to the individual peoples and countries, and formed in complete accord with their actual spiritual maturity and receptivity. The bringers of all the individual teachings were Forerunners of the Word of Truth Itself.” Zoro-Tushtra. Life and Work of the Forerunner in Iran.
Principal source: William W. Malandra, “An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion”, Univ. of Minnesota, Mineapolis, U.S.A., 1983.
(1) Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, Penguin Classics, London, 1992.
(2) F. Crawford, Zoroaster, 1885. New Edition: 1990. M. Dhalla, Zoroastrian Theology from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 1914. New Edition: 1972. G. Carter, Zoroastrianism and Judaism, 1918. New Edition: 1970.
(3) Mary Boyce: “Zoroastrians”, London, 1979.
(4) W.B.Fleming, Zoroaster, Oxford, 1951, mentioned by W. Malandra.
(5) Zoroaster. Life and Work of the Forerunner in Iran. Stiftung Gralsbotschaft Pub.Co., Stuttgart.
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Alan S Jeeves
02/06/2021Quite a write Sylvia. A wealth of information here. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book For All And None.
"That which does not kill us makes us stronger" ~ Friedrich Nietzsche.
Kind regards, Alan
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Sylvia Maclagan
02/13/2021Yes, I shortened an essay I wrote long ago for the subject of "Compared Religions". Some say "Thus spake Zarathustra", but never mind. Oh dear, my mother used to say the same as Nietzsche! She never read him, of course. We were taught to "grin and bear it" or to "keep a stiff upper lip"...lol. Have you posted new stories? I'll check, but the last time I visited, you had no new ones. Kind regards to you, Sylvia
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BEN BROWN
02/05/2021BEN BROWN
A very well written piece. I myself am influenced by the subject of spirituality.
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Sylvia Maclagan
02/13/2021Ben, I'm glad you like it. Yes, I'm also influenced by spirituality. More than traditional religions. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
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