Buddha literally means the “Awakened One,” and comes from a root that is Widespread and Old in Indo European speech. The reconstructed root in Proto Indo European is *bheudh.

Cognates include Avestan baôδaiti “wake up to, understand,” Vedic bódhati “awake,” Lithuanian bundú “awake,” Gothic ana-biudan “rules to observe, order,” Old English beodan, Old Norse bjóða “inquire, pay attention to, look into.”

We read in the gathas/songs of seer/prophet Zarathustra:

 pará mazé ýáv.aηhö//ahmái né saz.diiái baôd.añtö paitî

“Before the great battle// awaken ye to this revelation, doctrine.”

The “great or magnificent battle” in the sacred poetry of the gathas refers to the final battle between the Immortals of light against demons of gloom, and the final triumph of the new age of eternal spring and progress.

The notion of the final, “majestic battle” is repeated again in Yasna 36.2 mazištái ýáv.aηhãm where the renewal of the worlds comes through illumination and fire of the Mindful lord, Ahûrá Mazdá.

In the gathic doctrine, each soul must hasten the coming of the eternal spring and the Splendid age of the Immortals through “spiritual awakening and enlightenment” to the superb wisdom and doctrine of the wise ahurás. The Titans or Primeval God Powers within must be awakened baôd.añtö, thus the splendid new universe comes about.

The doctrine of 10,000 Bodhisattvas, the “awakened, enlightened ones” who have attained Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings, and Amitābha “Buddha of Infinite light,” show striking similarities to the 10,000 Immortals of Zoroastrianism, and the “Giants/Mighty Lords of Ages,” the Saöšiiánts of the gathic poetry.

In conclusion, I shall add that the term ārya; Pāli: ariya is a term frequently used in Buddhism that can be translated as “noble, exalted, pure, and is frequently used in sacred texts to designate a spiritual warrior light or virtuous hero.

The “Four Noble Truths” in Buddhism are called the catvāry ārya satyāni (Sanskrit) or cattāri ariya saccāni (Pali.)

Also, the “Noble Eightfold Path” of right vision dhyana, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditative focus are called the ārya mārga (Sanskrit,) ariya magga (Pāli) in the original texts.

ardeshir

The ancient Zoroastrian method of disposal of the dead is SKY BURIAL. The corpse is placed on a mountaintop to be eaten by carrion birds/vultures, while it is exposed to the rays of the sun and stars.

In Zoroastrianism, death, decay and disease are the handiwork of the diabolic, dark forces. Hence, dead matter called nasuu is considered most unclean and defiled by forces of decay, and destruction.

Accordingly, there is no need to preserve the dead body after death, as it is now a lifeless, contaminated vessel. The birds atop a “special built tower” on a mountaintop or hill, shall strip the flesh, free the spirit, remove the potential for pollution, and reduce the remains to a handful of clean bones.

Special care is made to preclude any possible tainting of the good earth, waters and fire from coming into contact with decaying, dead matter. The word for dead matter nasuu goes back to reconstructed Proto Indo European *neḱ-. Cognates include Latin nex, noxius “harmful, noxious,” and Greek nekrós “dead body.”

The rule is to avoid rotting away, and to dispose the carcass/dead corpse as efficiently and speedily as possible. For that purpose, circular towers called dakhma are constructed on top of desolate mountaintops or high hills. Zoroastrian sky burial practices are first attested in the mid-5th century BCE Histories of Herodotus, but the use of “sky burial towers” is first documented in the early 9th century BCE.

In modern times, circular, raised towers are referred to as “Towers of Silence.” The term is attributed to Robert Murphy, a translator for the British colonial government of India in the early 19th century.

The original word for “sky burial towers” or dakhma denotes the idea of setting “ablaze, aflame.” Avestan dažaiti “burn,” Lithuanian degù “burn,” Old Irish daig “flame” are possibly connected, and cognates.

This suggests that towers of silence were originally raised, built pyres on mountaintops and hills, before the Zoroastrian era. In much of the ancient Iranian lands, the topography is extremely mountainous, and the ground is too hard, rocky, and cold to dig, also, the scarcity of fuel and timber, made sky burial probably much more practical than cremation.

The carved tombs of the Achaemenid Rulers at mountain cliffs in Naqsh-e Rustam, and the raised, above the ground mausoleum in Pasargadae, suggest sky burial practices, until the clean bones could safely be collected and placed in an above the ground astôdán, “ossuary”.

It shall be added, that to avoid any possible contamination of the underground waters and the good earth, any collection of clean mortal remains such as bones, MUST take place in ABOVE THE GROUND vaults, crypt structures, and burial mausoleums, in the ancient, orthodox Zoroastrian practice.

Parallels could be drawn with the funeral of Patroclus as it is described in book 23 of the Iliad. Patroclus is burned on a pyre, and his bones are collected into a golden urn. An above the ground barrow is built on the location of the pyre. Also, Beowulf’s body is taken to Hronesness, where it is burned on a funeral pyre. Afterwards, a mound is built on top of a hill, overlooking the sea, and filled with treasures.

Other important above the ground burial mounds/kurgans are found in Ukraine and South Russia and are associated with much more ancient steppe peoples, notably the Scythians (e.g., Chortomlyk, Pazyryk) and early Indo-Europeans (e.g., Ipatovo kurgan.)

Beside Zoroastrians, the practice of sky burial appears to have been the favored method of the disposal of the dead among the ancient Celts. It is believed that sites close to STONEHENGE were used for sky burial rites.

Sky burial was practiced also among American Indians, and to this day, sky burial is practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Inner Mongolia, where Vajrayana Buddhist traditions teach that sky burial is the most generous way to dispose of the dead.

REGRETTABLY, in the early twentieth century, the Iranian Zoroastrians gradually discontinued the use of sky burial, and began to favor burial. A former, lush Qajar dynasty era palace, some 10 km from Tehran, by the name of Ghassr-e Firouzeh “Firouzeh’s Palace,” was purchased, and turned into a cemetery. The graves were lined with rocks and plastered with cement to prevent direct contact with the earth.

However, digging graves is in no way in compliance with ancient Zoroastrian disposal practices. In case, that sky burial is under no pristine conditions possible, the only religiously acceptable form of disposal is burial in ABOVE THE GROUND, RAISED vaults, crypt structures, and mausoleums.

ardeshir

Forty days after winter solstice celebrations, at the height of the freezing cold and frost, the great festival of sadeh is celebrated in the Zoroastrian calendar. The festival of sadeh celebrates the longer daylight, and the discovery of fire. It is the sacred observance of the powers of vitality, and the energy of renewal, embodied in huge lit bonfires.

Sadeh, celebrates the discovery of fire, and its ability to banish the freezing cold, stagnation, and gloom. This festival is held in the frigid depths of winter, and has been faithfully kept alive among Iranian Zoroastrians.

The name sadeh most logically goes back to the Avestan sareta “burning cold, freeze, frost,” and seem to be a corruption of the Avestan original. Avestan sareta is a cognate of Lithuanian šáltas “cold,” and Latvian salts. Old Church Slovanic slana “hoar, frost” is also a possible cognate. The word seems to denote the “intensity, and burning sensation of COLD, FROST.”

All references to modern Persian sad, Latin centum “hundred,” appear to be recent folk etymology.

Godhood in Zoroastrianism is the bringer of light, illumination, vital energy and fire to mankind. There are many parallels between ahûrá god-powers of Zoroastrianism, and the legend of the Titan Prometheus, who defies the gods by stealing fire and giving it to humanity, an act that enabled discovery, progress and civilization.

Fire in the gathic poetry symbolizes “forethought, emotional intelligence, and passionate willpower.” It represents human striving, and the quest for the brilliant wisdom and the unfailing energy of the ahûrás, the pristine god-powers.

The bonfires of sadeh embody the creative genius, and all brilliant efforts that improve mortal existence, and will set the stage for the cosmological triumph of light/genius over stagnation and darkness.

ardeshir

February 18-19 marks the festival of Speñtá Ármaiti, the Immortal or the genius of the “sacred meditation, right thinking, the divine feminine” in Zoroastrianism. She is the guardian of good earth and women.

It was to Her that Artaxerxes II prayed for the health of his wife Atoussá, whose name is rendered in Greek as Hera “the goddess of women.”

In the poetic gathas or songs of the seer/prophet Zarathustra, (Yasna 45.4,) CREATION comes about through the union of “sacred focus, right meditation” speñtá ármaiti with the supreme god mazdá ahûrá, the “lord of mind, inspiring creativity and wisdom.”

Ármaiti comes about 42 times in the gathas/sacred songs of Zarathustra. She comes in close association with daæná “power to see, vision, keen insight,” and is also equated with “silent, tacit or quiet meditation,” tüšná maitiš  (See Yasna 43.15, 3^rd rhymed verse line.)

Ár-maiti is a compound word. The maiti part means “meditation, contemplation,” and the first part comes from the root ar “fitting rightly.” Thus, ármaiti or the “divine feminine in Zoroastrianism,” refers to “meditation, and focus of mind” that is evenly, and RIGHTLY undistracted, leading to “calm, serenity, creative visions and higher knowledge.”

The ancient commentaries translation of ármaiti to bündak manišni confirms the above understanding of the term in ancient Zoroastrian theology, verses the erroneous translation into humility/piety that started to appear in the early 19^th century.

Ármaiti like other Immortals has the epithet Spǝñtá “the auspicious, endowed with the vibrant, splendid life force, the sacred.”

Avestan spǝñtá is a cognate Old Slavonic svętŭ, Lithuanian šventas, Russian svjatój, and Old Prussian swints.

The twelfth month in the Zoroastrian calendar, also called the “auspicious or sacred month” speñtá or Esfand in farsi, is named after this auspicious Immortal or the divine feminine.

Rue called the “sacred incense,” speñtá or Esfand in modern Persian, goes back to the same root.

Another epithet of ármaiti is vaηuhîm or vaηhû.yáv “good, superb, bounteous.” For the god-beings are “superb, brilliant and giver of good things.”

The festival of Speñtá Ármaiti called Spandārmað in middle Iranian, (February 18-19) is a special time to honor the scared earth, and women. The divine feminine is entreated for powers of procreation, serenity, and protection against evil. On this day, special charms are made and hung on doors.

I shall conclude by the following beautiful gathic sacred verse:

speñtãm vé ármaitîm vaηuhîm vare.maidî// há-né aηhat

 Spəntá Ármaiti, the bountiful, the good, we want, and desire//May she be ours.

ardeshir

In the ancient Germanic Futhark alphabet, *wunjô is the rune of “joy, intense desire, passion.” *Wunjô is the inner desire for realization of the soul’s true love/passion.

This rune wards off sorrow, and is the formula for aligning our thoughts, words and deeds with the vision of loveliness.

*Wunjô teaches to act upon our passion, and by doing so to complete our purpose in this lifetime.

*Wunjō is a cognate of Gothic winja, Old English wynn. In the Old Avestan Songs, the Gathas of the seer/prophet Zarathustra, it appears as váunû. Old Norse vinr, Vedic vánas, Latin venus are other cognates.

The reconstructed Proto Indo European root is *venh, *wénhos “loveliness, achieve through intense desire, passion.”

We read in an Old English rune poem:

Wenne bruceþ, ðe can weana lyt
sares and sorge and him sylfa hæfþ
blæd and blysse and eac byrga geniht.

Lust, longing, he enjoys who knows not/suffering, sorrow nor anxiety and has /prosperity and happiness and a good enough shelter.

In the sacred songs or gathas, the ancient prophet sings:

ahûrem ýásá váunûš//naröi frša.öštrái maibiiá.čá

I yearn passionately for god-powers, for the quality of being like ahuras// (on the behalf) of the valiant Frashoshtar and Myself.

tã ýazái xváiš náménîš pairi.čá jasái vañtá

I hallow the Immortals under their own names, and go to them with longing, love.

In Zoroastrianism, Immortals are fairest, and wisest of all beings, and Godhood is goodness, genius, and healthy, vital energy. Therefore the concept of fear of God does not exist in Zoroastrianism. Instead Immortals and the qualities of Godhood are to be passionately longed for.

In another song, the seer/prophet sings about the realization of the “vision of loveliness.”

ašáû.nãm áat ûrûnö ýaza.maidæ//kûdö-záta.nãm.čît narãm.čá náiri.nãm.čá

ýaæšãm vahæhîš daæn.áv//vana.iñtî vá véñg.hen vá vaônaré vá

The soul of the followers of excellence we honor//wherever born, both valiant men and women//those whose vision of betterment, loveliness//win, prevail, will triumph or have prevailed.

Passion is energy, the intense desire to reach for the stars, the Immortal Gods. Mortals need something greater to look up to. It is this vision of loveliness, betterment that at the end will prevail, overcome against all odds, and will touch the sublime here on earth.

ardeshir

From the dawn of history the Indo Europeans, especially the ancient Iranians have celebrated the horse in their art and in their literature. Avestan hymns abound with praises of the horse (Swift horses were among the most desired boons bestowed by aši, the ahûrá god-being of wealth, prosperity (Yašt 17.12.)

The myth of the Sun’s horse-drawn chariot is wide spread among Indo-European people. In the sacred lore of the Zoroastrians, the Avestá, the myth of the Sun’s horse-drawn chariot is retold in the hymn to Mithrá.

“Four speedy (white horses,) undying, reared on spiritual/mental food (mainyuuš xvarəθa), the fore hooves shod with gold, their hind hooves with silver” draw the chariot of Mithrá (Yašt 10.125.)

Mithrá embodies the “Invincible powers of light, including the Invincible Sun,” and “friendship with the Gods.”

Similarly, Odin and other Norse gods ride horses. Their horses are immortal, like Mithra’s steeds, having been reared on mental/spiritual food (mainyuuš xvarəθa) that never weary or die.

In the Avestan hymns, Vərəθraγna (the beloved ahûrá of victory) and Tištriya (Tri star, Sirius) both take form in the shape of a bright, white horse, among other astrological representations (Yast 149; 8.18.)

Also, four white horses draw the chariot of Sraôšá (Yasna 57.27.) Sraôšá is “divine Inspiration, the call of the Immortals to overcome limitations, and achieve everlasting glory, and good fame.”

Chariot imagery appears twice in the poetic gathas of Zarathustra, We read in Yasna 50.6:

He who gives superior wisdom to be the charioteer of my tongue// teach me his sacred formulas with good spirit/mind//I will yoke you the swiftest steeds, ones widely victorious in your laudation//Mindful Lord, in excellence/truth, powerful with good spirit/mind//ride ye with them, and bring Me divine favor, luck.

At Yasna 30.10, the seer/prophet declares: that “when luminous vision triumphs, the swiftest (steeds) will be yoked from the fair, brilliant dwelling of good spirit/mind of the Mindful lord, and of excellence/truth, and they will win good fame.”

Among the Greek poets, the horse-drawn chariot is identified as that of the Muse or Muses which shows a strong parallel to the last gathic verses as well as the account of the horse drawn chariot of sraôšá “divine Inspiration” in the Avesta.

Both Vedic and Celtic poets were rewarded with gifts of horses and cattle, whereupon the patron of the poet received further praise for his liberality. Likewise, in Yasna 44.18, seer/prophet Zarathustra talks about his reward of ten mares with stallion and an aurochs/camel.

The honored position of the horse in the Avestan lore is underlined by the fact that many notable Avestan heroes—including prophet Zarathustra’s forebears—and patron Vištaspá bore names compounded with aspá-“horse.”

Avestan aspá “horse” is a cognate of Vedic ášva, Old Prussian aswinan, Lithuanian ašvîenis, Greek híppos, Luwian azuwa, Lycian esbe, Modern Persian asb, Old Latin equos, Hittite *ēkkus, all going back to reconstructed Proto Indo European *ék̑wos.

In the ancient Germanic Futhark alphabet, rune *ehwaz “horse” comes from the same ancient Aryan root.

The word for “horse” in ancient Indo European speech is connected with the word for “swift” e.g. Avestan ásü aspá “swift horses” or Vedic term áśvāh āšávah. Thus the word for “horse” designated or meant originally “the swift one.”

The Vedic ašvín “divine horses” were notable for their constant travelling between the realm of Immortals and mortals (RV 7. 67. 8.)

In the imagery of horses and Sun’s chariot, we find the idea that the sacred song/hymn makes swift movement between the boundless, brilliant realm of Immortals and limited world of men possible.

In the Avesta, the patron deity of horses is called Drváspá “possessing strong, healthy horses.” Strict rules are prescribed by the Avesta concerning the breeding, grooming, training, and feeding of horses, and guarding them from diseases and harm, (see, e.g. *Duzd-sar-nizad Nask as summarized in Dēnkard 8.24. and Nikátüm in Nask, 8.19, 40).

I like to conclude with An Old English rune poem:
Eh byþ for eorlum æþelinga wyn,
hors hofum wlanc, ðær him hæleþ ymb[e]
welege on wicgum wrixlaþ spræce
and biþ unstyllum æfre frofur.
The horse is a joy to princes in the presence of warriors, / a steed in the pride of its hoofs, / when rich men on horseback bandy words about it; / and it is ever a source of comfort to the restless.

ardeshir

The exact moment of spring equinox is the beginning of the year in the Avestan sacred hymns. The Persian word Nauv rooz refers to the “new dawn/light” after spring equinox.

The Avestan term for “vernal equinox” hamaß.paθ.maiδ.iia refers to the time when the sun has reached the “middle point” maiδ.iia of its “path” paθ from the winter to the summer solstice. Equinox is the moment when the celestial points are at the “same” hamaß distance from each other. Almut Hintze translates hamaß.paθ.maiδ.iia as “the “middle path” that is the point between winter and summer solstices.

This “fresh, new dawn” of Nauv rooz, the “first day of spring” is a reminder of the unageing “Dawn/light” which will bring the future age of the Brilliant Immortals, and the coming of the everlasting spring, the faršö kereiti, when the worlds entire will be made “splendid, glorious and brilliant” for all eternity.

The concept of faršö kereiti “to (remake) create, freshly, brilliantly, and splendidly” is of great theological and eschatological importance in Zoroastrianism. The association with spring is evident in the meaning of the term frašö the “reinvigorating nectars of spring when nature is reborn, and swells with life-giving saps.” The life-giving saps and nectars of spring allude to the coming splendid age of Immortals and god-men in an eternal spring.

On the auspicious occasion of Nauv rooz the “Fresh, New Dawn” of spring is celebrated. For the appearance of the “New Light of Spring” heralds an end to the toils of winter and frost.

 Nauv means “new” Rooz “light” comes from Avestan raôča, Vedic rociṣ-/ruci, Old English lēoht, German licht, Latin. lūx, AstLeon. lluz; Spanish luz, all going back to reconstructed Proto Indo European *lóuks/léukos– “light.”

Many Indo-European peoples had festivities to celebrate the beginning of spring or summer, the time when the sun began to shine more warmly after the winter months. However, Nauv rooz is the plainest example of the “New Dawn” becoming attached to fresh, life-giving saps and nectars of spring, and powers of reinvigoration. Other close examples include the Anglo-Saxon Eostre and her Germanic counterpart Ôstara, who have given us Easter and the Ostertage.

The custom of getting up before dawn to greet the rising sun is widely attested in the Zoroastrian ritual associated with the new-year celebrations. The “brilliant dawn” prayer formula or uš bám is a must read for every devout Zoroastrian in early morning hours.

According to the Zoroastrian tradition, on the first day of spring, the first, spring dawn is celebrated, via raising a torch or making bonfires on the high mountains, or rooftops. Beacons of hope are lit.

The ten days before the spring equinox are sacred times to honor our ancestors, and deep roots back to the very beginning. Early Spring Bonfires are lit, and people begin a period of pondering, reflection pætat. Also, every part of the house is thoroughly cleaned, dusted and washed. This is to underline the importance of purity. We must become cleansed of all negative influences before welcoming the New Year, and become fresh and pure.

The Nauv rooz table consists of seven items starting with the letter s. These seven symbolic items beginning with the letter S are a symbolic offering to the foremost 7 Speñtá “sacred, auspicious” Immortals of Zoroastrianism or Amešá/Amertá Speñtá. In Zoroastrianism, Godhood is celebrated through various aspects of good, vibrant creation.

The mirror on the Nauv rooz table reminds us to evaluate ourselves objectively, and look at ourselves truthfully. Other items include rose water and incense, lit candles and bowl of fresh, rainwater. Hyacinth flower is the special flower on the table. Apples and sour oranges are the designated fruits of the Nauv rooz table, and symbolize good health.

Garlic cloves and vinegar are also used in Nauv rooz decorations. Garlic was esteemed by the Ancient Iranians for its healing powers and a means of warding off the evil eye and demonic powers. The Achaemenid Persians named one of their months thāi-garchi– “Month/time of garlic.”

The time of vernal equinox is a sacred time, to re-evaluate our-selves objectively. It a time to make sure our roots are deep, pure, well grounded and healthy, our vision is luminous and bright, our thoughts are big, our consciousness is free from negativities and limitations, and our energy is vibrant, and pure. It is a time to experience glimpses into how our “limited time” will be succeeded by the “Time of Long Ages or the Age of the Gods” daregö xva-δátahæ as it was first in the luminous thought of Ahûrá Mazd­­á.

ardeshir

In the ancient Germanic Futhark alphabet *uruz is the rune of “virility, primal raw energies, life force, and the valiant spirit.” Rune *uruz symbolizes the “subconscious will power, and passion of the untamed nature.”

*Uruz literally means “auroch,” and stands for “primal, pristine energies.” *Uruz “Auroch,” Old Norse úrr, Gothic urs, Old English úr, Old High English ūro/ ūrochso, Germanic ur, all go back to reconstructed Indo European*usrus or *usr.

The second part of the name Zarathûštrá, the seer/prophet of the ancient Aryans, is ûštrá, a cognate of *uruz as well as ūro/ūrochso. Ûštrá stems from Proto Indo Iranian *ušra and means anything from the “wild bovine aurochs to buffalo and/or Bactrian camel,” a native of Eurasian steppes.

Since Bactrian camel is a native of cold Eurasian steppes east of the Ural Mountains, it is highly unlikely that the word describing it would have been a foreign loan word.

Another theory suggests that Avestan ûštrá in Zarathustra’s name is related to Old High English ustrī “industry” and ustinōn “to function, be industrious, useful.”

The first part of the name of the seer/prophet of the ancient Aryans zarath, is a cognate of Greek gérontas, géros, Vedic járant, Ossetian zœrond, Old Norse karl, Middle Persian zál “elder, senior, of an advanced age, pale, albino.”

Zaraθûštra’s religion is rooted in the will to enhance, increase and strengthen the “primeval, vibrant life force.” Zoroastrianism is the religion of healthy mind/spirit and NOT the faith of a sick, gloomy soul. This ancient faith strives for wholeness and wellness in each and every part of being. In Zoroastrianism, the healthy, virile body is an expression of a vigorous soul.

For this reason, every idea of killing the senses, of asceticism, lies impossibly remote from Zoroastrianism, and appears as an attempt to belie the pristine, vibrant, godly nature.

The Mazdyasni vision is a colorful, lively vision that conceives the whole being, the whole world, the whole universe and human life in it, as part of a beautiful, artistic order.

The furtherance of all growth comes from the Immortals of the Mindful Lord, Mazdá, the prospering of cattle and of the fruits of the fields; the Immortals present mortal men with “success, health, children and everything good and beautiful.”

In Zoroastrian religiosity “Sacred” Spǝñtá does NOT mean “off limits, taboo or restricted” but instead refers to what is “endowed with vibrant life force.”

Avestan Spǝñtá “the sacred, the auspicious,” is a cognate of Old Slavonic svętŭ, Lithuanian šventas, Russian svjatój, Old Prussian swints.

Spǝñtá “endowed with vibrant life force, auspicious” is the epithet of the Immortals or Ahûrás of Mazda in Zoroastrianism who are preparing a new, splendid creation, and an eternal spring.

In his poetic gathas, the seer/prophet sings: “arise within me ahura” ûs-möi ûz.árešvá ahûrá, referring to the rise of the Titan within.

In his ancient faith, the Titan and Godlike is a force that bursts with “health, virility and vigorous energy.” The God-force by its very nature possesses every formula of “health, and well-being” and bestows primal, vibrant energies on mortals in the form of great health and by omens of good fortune.”

Zoroastrianism is a faith that probably more than any religion celebrates subconscious will power, virility, primal raw energies of the life force, and the heroic, valiant spirit to rewrite destiny.

Concerning the ancient seer/prophet Zarathustra, We read in the Avestan hymn to the first ancestors:

For whom the Auspicious/Brilliant Immortals longed, in one accord with the sun, in the full devotion of the heart; as the godly lord and wise master of the riddles of world, as the lauder of the most majestic, most beautiful, and most fair Excellence/Truth, as having the wisdom of the vision, of the most excellent of all existences;

In whose birth and growth the waters and the plants rejoiced; in whose birth and growth the waters and the plants grew; in whose birth and growth all the creatures of the good creations cried out, Hail!

Hail to us! For he is born, the keeper of the flame, Spitámá Zarathuśtrá. Zarathustra will offer us hallowed veneration with libations and bundles of sacred twigs; and there will the luminous vision of the Mindful lord, Mazdá through all the seven climes and kingdoms.

ardeshir

In Avesta, the sacred lore of the Zoroastrians, the “Victorious Lord” Verethraγna/Verethraghna, the great yazatá or “hallowed god of victory” takes the bodily shape of a “fiery bird” called várǝγna/váreghna in his seventh incarnation. The Old Avestan dictionaries translate várǝγna/váreghna into the German word for bird or “Vogel,” or the name of a bird. The name simply means “the bird,” and refers to mythical “falcon or hawk.”

We read in the verse 19 of the hymn to Victory: ahmái haptathö ájasat vazemnö//verethraghnö ahûra-dhátö//mereghahæ kehrpa váreghnahæ

To him for the seventh time he came flying//the Victorious Lord, set into motion by the ahuras//in the bodily form of a fiery falcon//

The name of the “fiery bird” váreghna is closely associated with the “mythical falcon/hawk” Simorgh. The mythical falcon/hawk represents the union between heaven and earth in ancient Iranian mythology, serving as mediator bird and messenger of the Immortals. The name Simorgh appears in the Avesta as mərəγö saænö ‘the falcon/hawk bird.”

The “swift flying hawk or falcon” in the ancient Greek poetry of Hesiod corresponds to the fiery falcon/bird of the Avesta váreghna. In Hervarar saga (10 ad fin.) of the Norse mythology, Odin under the identity of a stranger takes the form of a falcon. Also Loki, in order to go flying, has to borrow a special “falcon form” valhamr from Freyja or Frigg.

In the Norse myth, the Giant Thiazi, taking the form of an eagle/falcon, carries off Idunn “The Rejuvenating One.” Idunn is the owner and dispenser of apples that impart immortality. After the capture of Idunn, the Immortals are begin to grow old and grey, until the Lady Of Youth Idunn is recaptured by Loki, flying in the form of a falcon.

In the beautiful Zaam-yád Yašt “Hymn to the good earth,” the fiery glory” leaves Yimá, the great ruler of the golden age, (a cognate of Norse Ymir) in the form of váreghna “hawk or falcon.”

In the Avestan hymn to the sacred mountains and the earth Zaam-yád, the imagery of “luminous glory or godly charm” xᵛarənah is intertwined with váreghna “hawk or falcon.” Xᵛarənah comes from Scytho-Sarmatian and Alan farnah, and is a “magic force or power of luminous and fiery nature”.

The Persian name farrox/farrokh “fortunate, blessed, lucky” comes from the same ancient Avestan root.

In traditional Zoroastrian interpretations “glory,” “splendor,” “luminosity” and “shining fortune,” connected with sun and fire, are considered the primary meanings of the term farr(ah), xᵛarənah. xᵛarənah.

Avestan xᵛarənah– “shinning fortune, godly charisma, glory” is traditionally reconstructed from the verb hvar “to shine.” Kellens however, derives it from the root xᵛar “to eat,” and argues that xᵛarəna refers to “the magical power obtained after eating sacred fruits.”

In Yašt 10.127, the kávi-“wise ruler/ seer priest” is identified with a “blazing fire” (átarš yöupa.sûxtö,) that precedes Mithrá in his chariot. Mithrá is associated with the “sun, heavenly lights,” and represents friendship/favor with the Immortal Gods.

In the Avesta, the “fiery glory and shining fortune” of xᵛarəna belongs to the “Supreme God of Mind Powers” Ahûrá Mazdá (Yt. 19.10); the “Brilliant, Auspicious Immortals” aməša spəṇtás (Yt. 19.15); and the “hallowed gods” yazatás (Yt. 19.22), including Mithrá who is the “the most endowed with glory” xᵛarən.aŋu.hastəma, (Yt.19.35; Vd. 19.15.)

As a “fiery, living, creative force” xᵛarəna/farna is also associated with the waters of the wide shored ocean Vouru.kaša (Yt. 19.51, 19.56-57) holy waters, and the sacred lakes.

The sacred lore of the Zoroastrians, Avesta, talks of the “luminous, fiery glory of the ancient wise rulers/seer priests” (kavaæm xᵛarənö,) the “luminous, fiery glory of the Aryans, (airya.nąm xᵛarənö,) and of the “magical, fiery glory” of the Mazdá worshipping religion/vision, and the future “victorious giants of the ages,” the saôšiiánts.

The Avestan hymn to the “sacred mountains and earth” provides a summary of sacred history, the heart of which is about the “luminous, godly glory” xᵛarənah– of the “ancient philosopher kings/ seer priests” kávi– in the land of Scythians (Sîstán,) and how this “fiery, noble glory” will pass from ancient Kávis such as Haô-srava (73-77,) Vīšt.áspá (83-87,) and Prophet Zarathustra (78-82,) to the Giant of the future age, the victorious saôšiiáṇt who embodies “excellence incarnate (in bone, flesh) astvat-areta.

In passages 53-54 of the same hymn, the supreme God Ahûrá Mazdá informs prophet/seer Zarathustra that “every mortal” kas.čiṱ mašiia.nąm must seek the fiery and luminous xᵛarənah-, in order to obtain good fortune and success.

The concept/idea of the “godly, fiery glory” of the Kávî, the ancient “wise, seers and rulers” of the ancient Indo Europeans was later mingled with that of “divine fortune and charismatic kingship,” in the Achaemenid inscriptions in phrases such as “by the wish/favor of Ahûrá Mazdá” (vašná Aûramazdáha.)

The solar, fiery aspects of xᵛarəna–farna in the form of a “flying sun-disc” became the sign of the dynastic charisma of the Achaemenid sovereigns later.

This motif of the “divine good luck,” of the “wise rulers and airyás” in the form of a “fiery bird or solar falcon” was also depicted in the banner of the kávis or derafš kávián of the ancient Iranian royal dynasties.

Several scholars have argued that it is depicted in a damaged portion of the Alexander mosaic from Pompeii, at the battle of Issus. Xenophon (Anabasis 1.10.12) mentions that the standard of the Achaemenid king was a golden eagle/falcon on a shield carried on a spear. Arthur Christensen states that same motif of “divine falcon representing godly glory” was the royal standard of the Sassanid dynasty in the imagery of the Derafš–e Kávî-án.

The concept was carried over, and became widespread in the Hellenistic and Roman period, in the idea tychē basileōs, fortuna regia; the fortune of the rulers/sovereigns.

ardeshir

The Kávis are the seers of yore, the ancient “Wizards or Wise Ones” of the Avesta, the sacred Lore of Zoroastrianism. Avesta talks of kavaæm xᵛarənö the “fiery magic force/charisma” of the kávis, the “SEER Wise Ones” of the ancient Indo Iranians/Aryans.

The term Kávi is very ancient, and goes back to the early Indo European times. Avestan Kávi or Kavá “seer wise,” is a cognate of Lydian kawe- “seer poet/priest,” Latin caveo “take heed, observe,” Old Church Slavonic čujo “note, be mindful, remember” čudo “wonder,” Russian čúkhatî “perceive.” The reconstructed Proto Indo European form is *keu to “perceive.”

A variant cognate of Kávi is English show, German schauen, Old English scēawian and scîene to “see, know.” Modern Persian škōh “splendor, beauty, glory” is derived from the same root.

The ancient “SEER Wise Ones” of the Avesta possessed much persuasive and mental power over the heart and will of men, and knew of the hopes and dreams of mortals. Their role was to use their wondrous wisdom to help mortals achieve their own destiny, and to keep the forces of evil/darkness at bay.

Their persuasive power was made of thoughts (mati), and their spiritual “visions, powers to see” (dhī) into the other realms. They were the guardians of ṛtá “the “superb cosmic order” per the Rig Vedic poetry, (Rigveda 2.24.7.)

Kávis of the Avesta have many characteristics in common with the Istari in Lord of the Rings. Like Kávis, the Istari in struggle against the Dark Lord, helped Men to achieve their own destiny, rather than trying to dominate them.

But many Kávis, just like Saruman in lord of the Rings, failed when they tried to set themselves up as a tyrants and cruel despots in the world of men. In the Older Avesta, many kávis are said to have joined with the forces of darkness and evil, and are listed together with sorcerers, evil beings, and false teachers.

Among the Avestan Wizards of the yore, very few remained faithful to their noble charge.

In the poetic gathas, Vištáspá is the most illustrious kavá “seer wise one.” His name is mentioned 3 times in the gathas/songs of the prophet Zarathustra, in connection with the spiritual powers/divine rewards, which agrees with his mention at the end of the hymn to Anáhitá “lady of the unblemished, pure waters,” as a prototype of those who won the race (Yašt 5.132).

The name Vištáspá means “he who gives the horses free rein” (Rigveda 6.6.4 víṣitāso áśvāḥ “horses let loose or given free rein”), which agrees with the description of Vištáspá as the prototypical winner of the chariot race in the Avestan hymn to the Lady of the unblemished, pure waters.

In the Zoroastrian eschatology, kavá Vištáspá and Kávi Haô.sravah play central roles. The Avesta contains more details about Kávi Haô.sravah than any of the other Kávis, except Vištáspá.

The name Haô.sravah or more accurately *hû-sravah means “he who has good fame/glory.” Haô.sravah’s standing epithet is arša airya.nąm daxyu.nąm “stallion of the Aryan lands.”

According to holy Denkart 7.1.38; Kávi Siá.waxš (waxing black) built the Shangri La of the ancient Indo Iranians/Aryans, the Kang-dæž, by means of the xᵛarənö, the “fiery magic force/charisma” of the kávis, and the might of Ahûrá Mazdá and the Brilliant, Auspicious Immortals. Kang-dæž or the Shangri La of the ancient Indo Iranians/Aryans is said to contain numerous wonders and secrets of daæná “vision/religion of the ahuras,” to be used to redress the age and the rule of the Noble Ones. This Kávi is also said to have connected power and victory with daæná “vision/religion of the ahuras.” The location of Kang-dæž/ Kang-dež is said to be somewhere in the Tian Shan and Pamir mountains of Central Asia. It is the son of *hû-sravah “he who has good fame/glory” who is the chief in Kang-dež and will march out of there to establish the rule of “the noble, wise and the good” at the end of times.

ardeshir

April 30^th marks the beginning of the maiδyö.zarem  “mid-spring” festival in the Avestan calendar. The mid-spring festival lasts for 5 days till May4th, and is in essence a spring rite, thought to fire up/stir “virility, youthfulness, growth, and nectars of the spring.” Maiδyö.zarem is an “in between festival” maiδyö, “mid/in between” the spring and summer solstices.

Mid-Spring is a sacred time to honor the plants, their sap/milk, and a time to bless the herds, their young, and their milk by walking them between sacred bonfires. Sacred rituals are performed to protect the cattle, crops and encourage their sap/milk, and their growth.

 In the Avestan book of vispa ratü “all the rites/right formulas,” maiδyö.zarem is described as the festival of payan “milk, syrup, nectar of flowers and sap of trees, life-force.”

Avestan payan “milk” is a cognate of with Lithuanian pienas, Latvian piêns, Vedic páyas “milk,” Vedic pipyúši “rich in milk” and is derived from reconstructed Proto Indo European *pieh “be fat, prosperous, swollen,” and *pipih usih “rich, overflowing in milk.”

Offerings of milk mixed with holy water, are made to holy wells. Cattle are decorated with flowers. Milk is also poured at the doorsteps. Mid-Spring is an especially auspicious time to bless the dairy products, and the sap of trees.

Maiδyö.zarem celebrates the triumph of spring/sun energy over winter and frost. The saps of spring are honored in connection with the waxing power of the sun wheel. Household fires are re-lit from the sacred bonfires, and village fire temples. Cattle and everywhere is decorated with flowers.

 Zarem, the second part of maiδyö.zarem comes from Avestan zairi “fresh green, lush or golden” and can be compared with Old Church Slavonic zelenū, Lithuanian geltas, želvas “yellow/golden,” Latvian zęlts “golden,” Russian zelënyj “green.” In post Indo European times, the word for golden/yellow were often the sources for new words for green. This root is recorded from Celtic to Vedic, and is assured in Proto- Indo European. This also argues that the Proto Indo Europeans saw yellow/golden as a primary color.

The primary color yellow evokes fire, and golden is the color of the sun, symbolizing, “passion, pure energy, charming magnetism, powers of fertility, virility and the life-force.

The ancient Avestan maiδyö.zarem “mid-spring” festival shares many common rites with, and the same roots as the Celtic Beltane, and the German Hexennacht “Witches’ Night.” Hexennacht is the night from 30 April to 1 May, when witches are reputed to hold a large celebration on the Brocken (the highest of the Harz Mountains of north central Germany,) to mark the triumph of spring/the sun over winter. The holiday was later replaced by the feast day for a Catholic Saint as Walpurgisnacht.

In Zoroastrianism, the spiritual life and sacred worship are entwined with hearth-fire, kinship and Clan, home, happiness, pets and farm, fertility of the land, and magical rites/seasons of the year (Avestan yaar ratö.); all related in a sacred world order wherein mortal man lives as a member of his genos, and is governed by the laws of renewal, waxing power of the sun wheel, youthfulness, virility, beauty, nobility, much happiness, and reverence for nature.

ardeshir

In Zoroastrianism, the relationship between Immortal Gods and men is viewed as “bonds of friendship, reciprocity and mutual promise.” The lofty ahûrá that represents our “soul’s contract with the gods, genuine promise, and treaty/agreement” is Miθrá.

Miθrá is the first god to approach the mountain range of the SUN hará ahead of the sunrise; from there he surveys the whole land of the Āryans (10.13).

Avestan Mithrá/Miθrá, comes from reconstructed Indo European root *meit– and is a cognate of Vedic Mitrá, Latin mūtō, Gothic maidjan, Latvian mietot.

Miθrá appears in the poetic gathas/somgs of the prophet Zarathustra, Yasna 46.5, 2^nd rhymed verse line in the form of the noun miθrö.ibyö in the sense of “reciprocal friendship/mutual understanding, agreement, treaty.”

The Brilliant and Auspicious Immortals aməša spəntas called Miθrá the godly lord (ahü) and wise master of the riddles (ratü) of all the living worlds (10.92).

To break a contract/treaty in Avestan is called miθrəm druj “a liar/deceiver to Miθrá” (Yt. 10.45.) The Avestan term corresponds to a phrase in the Rig Veda 10.89.12 namely “drógha.mitra” “whose contract, promise is a lie, deception.”

The Avestan hymn to Miθrá starts with the statement of the supreme god Ahûrá Mazdá that he created Miθrá and made him as worthy of worship and prayer as he himself (10.1).

Then it states that a dishonest man who deceives a treaty destroys the whole country, killing the truthful as much as a hundred sorcerers would. This is immediately followed by the injunction not to break a contract/treaty, whether concluded with a deceitful person or a truthful follower of the Beautiful Religion (Zoroastrianism,) for the contract/treaty is valid for both (10.2.)

Miθrá, when deceived by the lord of the house, or the clan, or the tribe, or the country, smashes their respective domains (10.18; cf. 83-87).

The treaty between countries is dominant in the hymn. Miθrá aids those who are true to the treaty and punishes those who break it. He robs the treaty-breakers of the vigor of their arms, the strength of their feet, the light of their eyes, the hearing of their ears (10.23; cf. 49). The arrows, spears, sling-stones, knives, and maces of those who enrage Miθrá become ineffectual (10.39-40)..

To those who are faithful to the treaty Miθrá brings rain and makes plants grow (10.61); this refers to the ruler, since the welfare of a country depends on his moral behavior (cf. Thieme, 1975, p. 32).

Miθrá is the beneficent protector and guardian of all creatures (10.54; cf. 103). He is the lord of the country (10.78, 99) and the lord of the country of all countries (10.145,)

Miθrá strike down the evil sons of those who offer bloody sacrifices like the diabolic viiāmburas (Yt. 14.57). Miθra’s most frequent epithet having “ wide cattle-pastures” (vourú.gaô.yô.iti) reflects his concern with peaceful cattle and their ability to graze, and roam freely across vast, happy living spaces.

The Ṛgveda has only one hymn to Mitrá,. The Vedic hymn to Mitrá is considered pale and insignificant in compare to the splendid Avestan one to the god. However, P. Thieme (1957, pp. 38 ff.) has shown that the Vedic hymn clearly reflects the main characteristics of the god. Mitrá makes peoples take a firm position in their relationship to each other, and stick to their agreements/treaties (5.65.6.)

The main difference between the Vedic Mitrá and the Avestan Miθrá is that the Vedic Mitrá lacks the superb heroic and martial qualities of the Avestan Miθrá almost completely.

In the Avesta, Miθrá is accompanied in battle against falsehood, by the god of Victory Verəθraγna, by Inspiration Sraôšá “hearing the Immortals” and by Rašnü “righteousness, integrity, honesty.” They participate in Miθra’s battles against the evildoers and treaty breakers along with Nairiiö.saŋha, the valiant messenger of the gods (10.52.)

ardeshir

Mary Boyce, a great scholar of Zoroastrian studies once asked, who were likely to have a deeper understanding of the ancient Zoroastrian religion and terms, western academics or the devout priests who have upheld the ancient beliefs and practices for thousands of years?

She developed her theory of the continuity of Zoroastrian belief and practice from the time of the seer/prophet of the ancient Aryans Zarathustra, right down to modern times. Boyce summed this up in a little-known article “The Continuity of the Zoroastrian Quest.”

Boyce rejected the biblical/evangelical approach and understanding of Zoroastrian concepts, and saw Zarathustra as a visionary, seer/prophet, and an inspired, Indo-Iranian poet-priest. For Mary Boyce, the background and training of Zarathustra as a poet-priest of the ancient Indo European tradition was fundamental in understanding his Gāthās or Sacred Songs/Poetry.

She took issue with translations of Humbach, Insler and Kellens for approaching the Gāthās /Sacred Songs of Zarathustra only from a textual perspective, and not taking account of the beliefs, and ancient commentaries of the Zoroastrian tradition.

I personally believe that the ancient commentaries, and traditions of Zoroastrianism shed great light on the correct meaning of the gathas/songs of the ancient seer/prophet. While the ancient commentaries might contain some elements of folk etymology, nevertheless, they always give right clues as to the correct meanings of the sacred passages. Furthermore, an accurate and objective study of Zoroastrianism and the Gāthās /Sacred Songs of Zarathustra is IMPOSSIBLE without comparative Indo European Poetics.

The following example from the poetry of the gathas demonstrates the validity of Mary Boyce’s position. In the gathas, Yasna 32.16, first rhymed verse line, we encounter the word ušuruyæ. The word appears a second time in the gathas, in the form of ušǝurü (See Yasna 34.7, 2^nd rhymed verse line.)

The ancient Avestan commentaries translate the term as faráḵ hûshi “dawning, wide intelligence, understanding without limitation.”

Humbach derives the term from the root uš to “shine, radiate” but translates it as “pleasant, pleasant way.” The great scholar Martin L. West, following Humbach, translates the term as “safe haven” in Yasna 32.16 and as “innocuous, soft” in Yasna 34.7.

The Avestan original of the passages are as follows:

hamém tat vahištá.čît//ýé ušuruyæ syas.čît dahma.ahyá

Same as the very best// are the intelligent sayings of the wise.

hamém tat vahištá.čît “Same as the very best,” at the Old Avestan passage here is comparable to the Vedic term samó deváih “equal to the gods.”

In other words, if we follow the “tradition inspired” understanding of the above passage the meaning is “the intelligent or bright teachings of the wise are the best/divine.”

Martin L. West’s translates the passage as: “There is nothing finer than if one just draws back to the safe haven of the enlightened one.” Humbach translates the above passage: Equal to what is very best, is the pleasant way of the very promoter of the wise.

It is important to remember that both the aforementioned scholars derive the terms ušuruyæ, ušǝurü from the root uš to “shine, dawn, to shed light, radiate.”

In the second Old Avestan passage where the term ušǝurü appears we read:

séñg.hüš raæḵa.náv aspen.čît sádrá.čît//caḵrayö ušǝurü

Teachings and traditions will turn around misfortune and hardship// by their light and brightness

In other words, “teachings and traditions by their luminous quality/intelligence will turn around what is inauspicious and hard, hateful into advantage.”

The Avestan word séñg.hüš translated as “teaching” is in fact a cognate of Latin censeo, and means to “announce, declare, recommend, estimate or evaluate.”

The word for “tradition” raæḵna comes from the root *rik. Vedic reknas is a cognate. The reconstructed Proto Indo European root is *leik.

Avestan raæḵna recalls the Germanic noun lehan in the sense of “loan,” that is “sacred legacy,” customs and beliefs that go back to the beginning, and are LEFT to us by our ancestors.

The word a-spen translated as misfortune, literally means “inauspicious,” and the word for “hardship, what is hateful” sádrá is a cognate of the Old Norse hatr.

ardeshir

In the living, folk traditions of the Zoroastrians, the worship of the great Yazatá of “Victory” Vərəθra.ghna/Vərəθra.γna plays a most prominent role. The Avestan name of the “Victorious Lord” has evolved into Vahrám in middle Iranian, Bahrám in modern Persian, and Behrám among Parsi Zoroastrians.

There is a tradition of praying to the god-force of “Victory,” by reciting his Avestan hymn continuously for 40 days to overcome all sort difficulties, and achieve great success/victory in every material as well as spiritual sphere.

Among Iranian Zoroastrians, sacred shrines are dedicated to the Yazatá of “Victory.” One such very popular shrine known as Shaw Varhrám Izad is located in southern Tehran, the capital of Iran.

More Importantly, the most sacred grade of fire in Zoroastrianism, átash vahrám/bahrám “Victorious fire,” is dedicated to the yazatá of victory, the one who shatters all obstacles.

Vərəθra.ghna/Vərəθraγna is the personification of a “victorious god being” that shatters and overcomes any difficulty or obstacle, and is an unstoppable force established, and set in motion by the ahûrás, Titans (ahûra.δátö.)

Among the Brilliant, Auspicious Immortals, the “Victorious Lord” is a co-worker” ham-kár “of Ašá/Arthá, “power to excel, create a new order/reality.”

Vərəθra.ghna also joins forces with Vanaintî Uparatát “Winning, Upper Force” (Yt. 14.0, 64,) and Ama “Mighty Attacking Power.”

The “Victorious Lord” is venerated as yazata.nąm zayö.tə̄mö “the most armed of the gods” (Yt. 14.1,) ama.vas.təmö “the most mighty,” (Yt. 14.3), and xᵛarən.aŋu.has.təmö “the most endowed with xᵛarəna, fiery glory or magical charm” (Yt. 14.3.)

In the Avestan hymn, Yašt 14.28-33, the god, is closely linked to magical elements, and the “magic of the feather,” i.e., oracles based on the falling or flying of a falcon’s feather (vv. 34-46.)

According to the Avestan hymn, Yašt, the “Victorious Lord” transmits his “untamable strength and virile powers” to the Airya “the noble ones,” and confounds all their enemies.

The gift of Vərəθraγna “Victorious Lord” on the seer/prophet Zaraθuštrá was “Victory in thought, Victory in word, and Victory in deed,” as well as “impassioned speech,” in conformity with the Indo-Iranian practice of verbal contest/retort (See Kuiper, “The Ancient Aryan Verbal Contest,” pp. 243, 246.)

In the poetic gathas/sacred songs of Zaraθuštrá, the god-being/force of victory that shatters and overcomes any difficulty or obstacle is invoked in the most venerated Ké Vərəθrəm-já sacred formula.

Likewise, the 14^th Avestan hymn dedicated to the Yazatá of “Victory” belongs to the most ancient sections of the Younger Avesta, and is one of the better preserved Avestan Yašts “odes of praise.” The hymn contains a wealth of archaic elements, which point to a more ancient Indo-Iranian era (P. Thieme, “The “Aryan” Gods of the Mitanni Treaties,” pp. 312-14.)

The hymn starts by enumerating the ten physical incarnations of the “Victorious Lord,” and gives a very vivid and virile picture of the unstoppable, warrior god.

Vərəθra.ghna/Vərəθraγna takes the physical form of a relentless, powerful wind (Yt.14.2-5); a bull with horns of gold (v. 7); a white horse with ears and muzzle of gold (v. 9); an aurochs/camel in sexual excitement/heat (vv. 11-13); a boar (v. 15); a youth at the ideal age of fifteen (v. 17); a falcon várəγna– (vv. 19-21); a ram (v. 23); a wild goat (v. 25); and an armed warrior (v. 27.)

The material incarnations of the Yazatá of Victory show some very interesting resemblance to the Chinese Zodiac symbolism.

We read of his fourth physical form/manifestation as an aurochs/camel in verse 11 of the hymn: ahmái. tüiryö. ájasat̰ vazəmnö vərəϑraγnö ahûraδátö uštrahæ kəhrpa vaδaryaôš dadán.saôš aiwi.tačinahæ urvatö fras.paranahæ gaæϑáuš mašyö vaŋhahæ.

The word for any large cattle from “aurochs, to buffalo, and/or camel” in the original Avestan is uštrahæ. The Avestan term for “large, powerful cattle” appears also in the second part of the name of Zaraθuštrá. Rune uruz is a very likely cognate.

Avestan kəhrpa is the word for “bodily form,” (German körper.) The word vaδaryaôš denotes “sexual excitement, feverish energy, passionate life-force.”

The word dadán.saôš or dadąsaôš (also appearing as vakąsaôš) refers to “devouring, tearing into small pieces, biting.”

The first part of the compound word dadán/dadą means“denture/teeth.” The second part kánsaôš or kąsaôš “biting off” appears also in the beautiful Zám-yaad Yašt the “hymn to the good earth.” The word appears in the 3^rd verse of the 19^th Yašt, in relation to the “biting frost of the snowy peak where the legendary falcon Simôrgh (Avestan saæna,) nests, upáiri saæna kánsö tafəδra varafa.

The Avestan poetic imagery clearly shows that Zoroastrianism highly celebrates sexuality, untamable strength and great virility.

ardeshir

An extensive research by David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard University, strongly suggests that there was a migration of AGRICULTURALISTS into northwestern India from what is now Western Iran/Zagros Mountains, around 4000BCE.

This migration was followed two millennia later around 2000BCE, just before the Vedic Age—by a large influx from the area between the Black and Caspian Seas, North of Caucasus Mountains. These newcomers appear to have shared the same ancestry with the populations of the European peninsula/continent.

But who were these earlier, ancient Iranian Agriculturists??? For one, the Neolithic, Iranian Agriculturists shared same ancestry with Old Hittite DNA remains, (the earliest speakers of Indo European Languages,) and with some Assyrian/North Mesopotamian Lineages (See Genetic studies of Damgaard et al. 2018.)

They lived in the Zagros Mountains, where some of the earliest evidence of wine making/production has been discovered. Zagros mountain range begins in northwestern Iran, South of Caucasus, and creates a geographic barrier between the Mesopotamian flat deserts, and the towering Iranian Plateau/Mountains. It has a total length of 1,600 km (990 miles.) The highest point is Mount Dena at an elevation of 4,409 meters (14,465 feet.)

Remnants of the originally widespread oak-dominated woodland can still be found in Zagros Mountains. The ancestors of many familiar foods, including wheat, barley, lentil, almond, walnut, pistachio, apricot, plum, pomegranate and grape can be found growing wild throughout Zagros.

Ancient DNA tests have revealed that the majority of Early Neolithic farmers who colonized Europe belonged to Y-haplogroup G2a. However, the Iranian Agriculturists had a higher frequency of T1a Y-DNA lineages than G haplogroup. Interestingly, during the Copper and Bronze Ages, haplogroup T appears to have been an important paternal lineage among the ruling elites of ancient peoples such as Sumerians, and the Assyrians.

Within Europe the frequency of Y-DNA T lineages is most common in the mountainous parts of the southern Balkans, the central and southern Apennine Mountains in Italy, Auvergne Mountains in France, and mountain pasturelands of southwestern Iberia.

All the aforementioned mountainous regions share many features with Iranian Zagros Mountain Range in Northwestern Iran, South of Caucasus.

The Paternal T lineage is also believed to have been closely associated with maternal HV haplogroup.

HV is the most successful maternal lineage in Europe today. Over half of the female European population descends from a single female, HV lineage progenitor who lived at least 25,000 years ago. Most Europeans belonging to the HV lineage descend from a branch that was renamed haplogroup H.

The modern distribution of mtDNA HV is particularly reminiscent of hotspots for Y-DNA haplogroup T. This strongly suggests that maternal HV and paternal T lineages spread together from a spot in modern day Northwestern Iran, South Caucasus, and Iraqi Kurdistan, to the Fertile Crescent, notably Northern Mesopotamia, as well as to Central and Eastern Europe.

The distribution of HV maternal haplogroup today is as follows:

HV2: found among Zoroastrians, Kurds, and in Slovakia
HV5: found around Lithuania, Belarus and Poland
HV6 : found in Iran, Russia, Slovakia and Britain
HV7 : found in Russia, Ukraine and Sicily
HV8 : found in southern Russia and Slovakia
HV9 : found in Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Scandinavia and Britain
HV10 : found around the Alps
HV11 : found in Italy
HV12 : found in Iran
HV13 : found in Iran

Today, about 20% of Iranian Zoroastrian priests belong to Y-DNA haplgroup T1a, a lineage that goes back to Neolithic Iranian Agriculturists. Also after mtDNA U4, mtDNA HV2 is the most common Zoroastrian maternal lineage.

However, 80% of Iranian Zoroastrian priests belong to Y-DNA lineages I* and I2*. Both I* (I M170) and I2* (I P215) are associated with Cro Magnon/Early European Robust humans, and are exceedingly rare among modern populations.

I* (M170) is the Paleolithic lineage from which all subclades of Y-DNA I derive. I* (I M170) is My Personal Y-DNA marker.

About 86% of the Parsi Zoroastrian Priests belong to R1a1a1 Y-DNA marker, a proto Indo European marker that goes back to ancient Yamnaya culture, and hails from the regions surrounding Dnieper river in modern day Ukraine, and what is now Southern Russia.

Another 14% of Parsi Zoroastrian Priests belong to haplgroup L. According to Dr. Spencer Wells, Haplogroup L-M20 originated in the rugged and mountainous Pamir Knot region in Tajikistan of Central Asia. This haplogroup was found in remains attributed to an elite member of the Hun tribes in Hungary.

In conclusion, I shall add that Pre-historic people in northern Caucasus, Southern Caucasus and Zagros Mountains would have adopted farming and exchanged goods and languages for thousands of years. These Neolithic Iranian Agriculturists of Zagros Mountains soon merged with proto Indo Europeans, and became one people with them.

There is also the great likelihood that the first speakers of an Indo-European language could have hailed from south of the Caucasus Mountains, perhaps in present-day Iran or Armenia.

ardeshir

Dialectical monism, also known as dualistic monism, holds that all reality consists ultimately of one substance, and that this one substance expresses itself in terms of dialectical or opposing forces.

The sacred poetry/songs of Zarathustra teach that the magic substance of all reality is “mind-energy,” and that “mind, imagination, visions and ideas” are the prime force.

Accordingly, “mind energy, imagination, consciousness, spirit,” creates and determines all manifestation or reality. In other words, universe is ultimately dependent, and composed of the energy of “mind or spirit.”

The most pertinent Old Avestan/Gathic passages that assert “imagination, mind-power and ideas” to be the origin of all reality are Yasna 30, Yasna 31.7, Yasna 31.11 and Yasna 45.

Godhood in Zoroastrianism is the “odyssey of consciousness, the endless adventures, and the progressive journey of healthy, vibrant and energetic mind or spirit.” The Supreme God of Zoroastrianism Mazdá is the very definition of this eternal journey of the “vibrant energy of healthy mind/spirit to establish, and create ever better, and more splendidly.”

Mazdá is the “Boundless Will to learn, discover, innovate and create,” and is the essence of Godhood. What the Rig Veda calls ásurasya māyáyā (See RV 5.63.7 “magic of the ásuras,) is the closest description to the supreme god of Zoroastrianism Ahûrá Mazdá.

For Mazdá “powers of mind to summon into being” is the magic stuff of the ahûrás, æsir, the Titans, and the very essence of Godhood according to the poetic Gathas/Songs of Zarathustra.

Ancient commentators of the most sacred verse in Zoroastrianism ahün–var “will to become godlike,” use a magic word play on the meaning of the name of the supreme god Mazdá.

According to Yasna 19.13 daz.dá man.aηhö “establishing, creating through mind energy,” in the second rhymed verse line of the holiest formula, is a play on the name of Mazdá who is pristine “mind, spirit,” para îm iδa man.aηhæ činasti.

While Godhood in Zoroastrianism is the endless adventures of the “vibrant mind power, passion of the spirit to overcome limitations, and brilliantly create; the diabolic/evil is the diseased, stagnated, broken spirit.

The heaven or abode of Immortals is in the “Vibrant, Energetic Spirit/Disposition, or the “Good Mind,” that gives mortal men a connection to the realm of “creativity and brilliant imagination.” In Zoroastrianism, this adventurous, healthy “Good Mind/Spirit” is the pathway to the Gods.

The Gathas/Songs of Zarathustra teach about a “progressive dialectical or plural monism.” Accordingly, the flow of change, consciousness tends toward a “spiral-shaped progression” rather than a perpetual non-progressive (repetitive) circling of history. The wheel of time moves in circles but always forward with an adventurous spirit, toward endless betterment, (See Yasna 44.17.)

In Zoroastrianism, “mind energy, consciousness, Godhood, and the universe” are marked by an increasing progress. What stagnates and begins to rot though is the anti-God, the diabolic.

This “dialectical or plural monism” taught by the Zoroastrian sacred lore recognizes the existence of a multiplicity of God entities/beings, which in the Avestan text are called “the ten thousand Immortals.”

The number of the Immortals of Mazdá has been cited as 7 (eternity, infinity) 33 (infinite wisdom,) 50, 100, 1000, 10,000, and “beyond reckoning” in the Avetsa, (See Vispered 8.1 for example.)

The Old Avestan gathic formula mazdávs.čá ahûráηhö “Mazdá and his ahûrás,” is a reference to the 10,000 Immortals or Immortals beyond reckoning in the Avestan sacred lore. Darius worship of Auramazdā together with all the other gods (baga) is a reflection of the same concept.

The gathic formula of mazdávs.čá ahûráηhö “Mazdá and his ahûrás,” reminds one of the Old Norse Skáldskaparmál 41: Óðni ok öllum ásum “to Odin and all the æsir,” Skáldskaparmál 23: Óðins ok ása “of Odin and the aesir,” Hávamál 143: Óðinn með ásum “Odin with the Æsir,” also Baldr” Gylfaginning 49: Baldrs ok asana, (See Didier Calin, Dictionary of Indo European Poetic and Religious Themes page 139.)

Scottish Evangelist, John Wilson attacked the Zoroastrian reverence of the Brilliant Immortals Amertá/Amešá Spenta and the Hallowed God Beings Yazatas as a clear form of polytheism claiming that Zoroastrians are worshipers of ahûras and elements of nature, such as of fire, waters, sun, the moon and the heavenly lights.

Zoroastrian Litanies to fire, water, the moon, sun, and Mithra “friendship with the Immortals” compromise the daily Zoroastrian worship. The conservative (or traditional) view of the gathas, and ancient Zoroastrianism is indeed a dualistic worldview. All reality is mind energy and mind independent.

The origins of Monotheism must be traced back to Pharaoh Akhenaten and his cult of Aton, and not to ancient Zoroastrianism, for nothing in the gathas, the Zoroastrian sacred lore or age old tradition can substantiate anything other than a dialectical or dualistic monism.

ardeshir

Modern revisionist Moslem historians, and scholars such as the late Ayatollah Motahari, have attributed the fall of the mighty Sassanid Empire, the last native, Zoroastrian Empire of ancient Iran to the “simplicity, clarity and class equality of the monotheistic Islam.”

According to contemporary Moslem revisionists, “the great unpopularity of the Zoroastrian Priesthood of the late Sassanid period combined with the arrogance selfishness, and cruelty of an elitist, Sassanid nobility, gifted victory to the invading Moslem Arabs.” The myth states that the invading Moslem armies were met with little or virtually NO resistance from a disgruntled population who almost immediately embraced the superior ideology of Islam!!!

Unfortunately for the modern Moslem revisionists, their fairly recent account of islamization of ancient Persia DOES NOT AT ALL AGREE with EVEN ONE SINGLE early Islamic historian or chroniclers, such as Balāḏorī’s Fotūḥ (Conquests,) chronicles of Al Ṭabarī, and histories of Masʿūdī, Morūǰ.

(Balāḏorī, Fotūḥ (Conquests) is the main authentic moslem source for the islamic take over of the Iranian plateau. The narration of arab moslem conquests is divided topically by each geographical region of the Iranian Plateau, See pp. 68-94, 105-13, 241-89, 301-431.

See also the chronicles of Al Ṭabarī, I, p. 1528 to III, p. 2. Yaʿqūbī, II, pp. 54-410, and Masʿūdī, Morūǰ (ed. Pellat) III, p. 29 to IV, p. 83.)

All the early Islamic sources attribute the fall of the Sassanid Empire to Moslem resolve to establish the POLITICAL and MILILTARY DOMINATION of Islam, greater mobility/flexibility of Bedouin armies, Sassanid dynastic instability after Ḵosrow II Parviz, great discord among the Sassanid nobles thereafter, and complicity of the Persian local nobles and rulers with the invading Moslem armies for their short-term Political and Economic expediency.

According to ALL the early Moslem early sources, the main concern of the invading Moslem armies was to establish the Political and Military Domination of the Islamic religion, and impose Islamic taxation or jazziya on the conquered non- Moslem populations. For example after the battle of Qādesīya, a decisive victory for the Moslems which opened the Mesopotamian rich territories of the Sassanid Empire to the Arabs, the Arab commander Saʿd approached al-Madāʾen (“apex of all cities” Arab term for the Sassanid seat of Power Ctesiphon,) slaughtered the Sassanid garrison near Ctesiphon, captured most of the royal treasure, accepted the surrender of the people in the White Palace and at Rūmīya in return for tribute/treasures, and quartered the Muslim army there.

The Moslem arrangement was tributes in return for nominal security of the local populations. Also, Jazziya or Tribute paid by Non Moslems was substantially raised after each rebellion.

We read in Qur’an 9:29—“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth, from among the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizzyah (heavy tribute/poll tax) with submission, and feel themselves subdued and humiliated.”

Moslem invaders drew upon hadith “sayings” attributed to the Prophet of Islam, and the first Shi‘ite Imām “religious leader ” ‘Ali b. Abi Tālib (598-661) for incorporating Zoroastrians into the ahl al-ḏhimma “communities enjoying blood protection guarantee.”

The Zoroastrians were not given full status like Christians and Jews but the dhimmi status provided nominal safety for the conquered Zoroastrian masses. The dhimmi or the “blood protection guarantee” for Zoroastrians was halfheartedly recognized by Omar the second Caliph, and the Umayyad (661-750) and the ‘Abbasid (750-1258) Caliphates.

Zoroastrianism clearly represented the Dominant faith numerically, though NO LONGER politically in the Mountainous Iranian Plateau, Caucasus, and Central Asia for FEW CENTURIES after the Islamic conquest.

The conversion to Islam by the native Iranian populace has been narrated by the early Islamic sources, as very slow, gradual, and at times very violent. The overnight adoption of Islam by the oppressed masses is a false myth that is entirely ABSENT from all the early Moslem accounts.

Places such as Hamadān and ancient City of Ray, were taken and retaken several times. Ḥoḏayfa b. al-Yamān accepted the surrender of the town and district of Nehāvand from its lord, called Dīnār; he arranged to pay tribute in return for protection for the walls, property, and houses of the people there.

Hamadān was taken over on similar terms. The territory of Ray was taken from the marzbān with the help of a local noble called Faroḵān, on terms similar to Nehāvand. A tribute of 500,000 dirhams was imposed on Ray and Qūmes; in return the fire temples were not to be destroyed nor the people killed or enslaved.

Ḥoḏayfa b. al-Yamān marched west to Azerbaijan, where he defeated the marzbān, took the capital of Ardabīl, and imposed a tribute of 100,000 dirhams. According to the terms made by Ḥoḏayfa, the people were not to be killed or taken captive; and their fire temples would not be destroyed.

The people of Šīz were allowed to keep their fire temple and to perform their dances at religious festivals.   

After the death of the second Caliph ʿOmar in 23/644, all the places in Azerbaijan, the Highlands, and the Heartland of Pārs withheld tribute and had to be retaken.

While the Muslims were preoccupied with their own first civil war (35-41/656-61), most of ancient Zoroastrian Iran slipped out of their control, and there were numerous popular revolts all over the conquered territories.

The Hephthalites of Bāḏḡīs, Herat, and Pūšang withheld tribute, as did Nīšāpūr; the people of Zarang overthrew their Muslim garrison, when the third Caliph ʿAlī was busy with Kharijite revolts in Iraq, widespread tax revolt broke out in the Highlands, Highland of Pārs, and Kermān in 39/659; the tax collectors were driven out, and Zīād b. Abīhi was sent to bloodily suppress/crush rebels at Eṣṭaḵr Pārs and Kermān. The third Calipf ʿAlī also managed to send a military force that retook Nīšāpūr in the northeast. Eastern Iran had to be re-conquered under Moʿāwīa.

The outbreak of the second Muslim civil war at Moʿāwīa’s death in 61/680 ended expansion in the east for twenty-five years, and after the death of Moʿāwīa’s son, Yazīd in 64/683, Moslem rule collapsed in Khorasan and Sīstān.

The lush mountains of Northern Iran, and the breadbasket of Zābolestān in the East, were never permanently controlled by the Moslem, except through their elite proxies. It took the Moslem armies over 100 years to fully control/conquer all the Mountainous Iranian plateau, and the Sassanid territories east of Mesopotamia.

To ensure the conquered population paid their jazziya or Islamic taxation, Arab garrisons were established at key former Sassanid urban administrative centers, and in frontier regions of the ancient Persian Empire. The countryside was controlled indirectly through local nobles and landlords dihqans who were willing to collaborate with the Moslem Arab invaders.

An agricultural reform during Ḵosrow I Anôshirvan allowed local landlords and nobles to switch production to cash crops, such as cotton or sugar cane. This led to a substantial increase in local economies and wealth. However Ḵosrow II Parviz used this new economic boom to fund his wars of expansion with Byzantium. The local nobles and landlords wanted to keep their own land and increased wealth for themselves, and saw collaboration with Arabs much more lucrative than staying loyal to the Sassanid Empire, and financing the Empire’s war machine with Byzantium.

The collection of tributes/Jazziya by the local nobles in their own districts or little, autonomous kingdoms had the effect of establishing protectorates by the Arab Moslems. The new Moslem overlords by using collaborative local rulers and installing Arab garrisons, secured most of ancient Iran under their rule. However, after numerous popular rebellions, tribute arrangements had to be constantly re-imposed.

ACCESS TO POWER meant adopting Arabism and Islam. The ELITE adopted the new Islamic ideology, and gained positions of authority by doing so, from the eighth through tenth centuries, two or three centuries AFTER the Islamic conquest. Arabic became the language of religion, literature, and science thereafter. No scientific work could be published and no scientist could be recognized unless they adopted Islam as religion and Arabic as the sacred and scientific language.

A good many among the Zoroastrian priests became early interpreters of the canonical beliefs of the Islamic religion. The conversion of the Persian elite to Islam around this time period has contributed if not wholly but substantially to the rise of the Islamic Golden Age, for over 90% percent of Moslem scientists and scholars of this golden age era are Persian.

We read in the Preface to Greater Bundahishn (the Zoroastrian account of Creation, finally put down in writing around 10^th or 11^th century,) Owing to the coming of the Arabs to the realm of the Aryans, and their promulgation of heterodoxy and ill-will, orthodoxy has vanished and fled from the magnates, and respectability from the upholders of religion; deep wonderful utterances, and the proper reasoning of things, meditation for action, and word of true reason, have faded from the memory and knowledge of the populace.

On account of evil times, even he of the family of nobles, and the magnates upholding the religion, have joined the faith and path of those heretics; and for the sake of prestige, they have defiled, with blemishes, the word, dress, worship and usages of the faithful.

He too, who had the desire to learn this science and secret, could not possibly appropriate them, from place to place, even with pain, trouble and difficulty. 

Islam spread among native Zoroastrian rural folk from the tenth through thirteenth centuries. According to tradition, the dastūrān dastūr, the “ Zoroastrian supreme high priest” moved to the desolate and rugged central Iranian village of Torkābad, north of Yazd in the late twelfth century, after Zoroastrianism was no longer the majority religion.

After the late 12^th century the Zoroastrians steadily moved to the out-of-the-way locales into rugged, and desolate Mountains of Central Iran.

The Safavid period (1501-1736), and the institutionalization of Shi‘ism, marked a horrific time for the followers of the ancient faith in Iran. Up to the Safavid period, Zoroastrians constituted a substantial minority similar to the Copts in Egypt that make up about 20% of the population.

Forcible conversion of Zoroastrians to Shi‘ism, execution of Zoroastrians who refused to comply, coupled with destruction of their fire temples and other places of learning and worship was decreed by Solṭān Ḥosayn (r. 1694-1722; Lockhart, pp. 72-73; for the Shiʿite religious context, see also MAJLESI, MOḤAMMAD-BĀQER.)

During the reign of Shah ʿAbbās I (1587-1629), Zoroastrians had been forcibly relocated to the capital city Isfahan as skilled, slave labor (Pietro della Valle [1586-1652], tr., II, p. 104; Garcia de Silva y Figueroa [1550-1624], tr., p. 179.)

Shah ʿAbbās even had a high priest or dastur dasturān executed together with other Zoroastrian notables for failing to deliver to the royal court a magical manuscript that the Zoroastrians were thought to have possessed (John Chardin [1643-1713], II, p. 179.).

In the mid-1650s, among the harsh measures undertaken during the reign of ʿAbbās II (r. 1642-66), mass expulsion of Zoroastrians from Isfahan’s city center took place—on account of their presence being deemed UNCLEAN, detrimental to the orthodox Moslem beliefs, ritual purity, and day-to-day safety of Moslems. See chronicler Aṙakʿel of Tabriz (tr. in Bournoutian, pp. 347-61.)

The Ritual Uncleanliness of Zoroastrian was justified based on the following Verse, Qur’an 9:28—O ye who believe! Truly the Pagans are unclean.

Similarly, after Zoroastrians sided with the more religiously tolerant Zand dynasty (1750-94), which made overtures to ancient Iranian tradition, Zoroastrians were designated as traitors and were most cruelly punished by Āḡā Moḥammad Khan Qājār.

The Miraculous Socioeconomic Success of the Parsi Zoroastrians under the British Raj, and their coming to the aid of their Iranian brethren was the only thing that saved Zoroastrians in Iran during the Qajar rule.

I shall conclude this article by addressing the last false myth regarding the collapse of the Sassanid Dynasty, namely the overreaching and corrupt power of the Zoroastrian Priesthood at the end of the Sassanid dynasty.

Khosrow II Parviz and some of the Late Sassanid kings after him, EXCEPT the noble Yazdgerd III were all known for making public overtures to the Mesopotamian Christian communities of their Empire. Khosrow II Parviz (r.591-628), the quintessential last-Sassanid king of kings, married an Armenian Christian wife, and had a Christian chief minister. Likewise, in the course of gathering support for his campaigns against Byzantium, Khosrow Parviz supported the Nestorian Christian community in present day Syria.

The same Khosrow Parviz, upon conquering, and entering Jerusalem, moved the True Christian Cross from Jerusalem to Khuzistan in the South-West of Iran in order to provide prestige for the Christians of his empire. Christians, in fact, were the dominant population in Mesopotamian territories of the Sassanid. In all reality, the Sassanid dynasty ended with Khosrow II in 628.

There is NO EVIDENCE of a state sponsored, all-powerful Zoroastrian Priesthood at the end of the Sassanid era. Rather all the evidence suggests that during the reign of, and after Khosrow II Parviz, Orthodox Zoroastrianism was increasingly disassociated from the late Sassanid State.

ardeshir

The Avestan*Miθra-kāna, modern Persian Mehrägān is an ancient Zoroastrian Autumnal festival, closely connected to the equinox, and dedicated to Miθrá (reciprocity, mutual bond, friendship with the Gods.)

The celebration of Baga Miθrá in the 7th month of the Achaemenid calendar Baga-yadi– also coincided with celebrations for the autumnal equinox.

Equinox is the astronomical phenomenon most clearly linked to the concept of “equity, balance, duty, fidelity, and genuine friendship.”  Zoroastrian religiosity is allegiance to the Gods, commitment to virtue and wisdom, and having unshakeable faith in a higher destiny or mission.

In Zoroastrianism, mortal man is a friend of the Gods, a charioteer of the Invincible Sun, a bridge between the primal, and the boundless ideal of the Immortals.

Zoroastrian religiosity is NOT rooted in any kind of fear of hell or slavery to an all-powerful Despotic God. Instead Zoroastrian religiosity is about believing in Gods as Friends/Allies Miθrá. The Mazda Worshipping Religion teaches commitment to a luminous vision, and faith in a higher mission, destiny.

To believe in the Gods as allies/friends means that Immortal Gods, and men are bound together through “wisdom, virtue, an eternal quest for excellence, light and truth.” Mehrägān is a time to re-examine our allegiance to the Immortal Gods, to see if we are committed to our higher destiny or Not, to see if we are Loyal to the Powers of light/the Invincible Sun, and finally if we are fulfilling our contract/duties toward the Brilliant Immortals.

Mehrägān has a dominant solar warrior aspect, and marks the triumph of Justice over usurpation, and imposter. The victory of the epic healer hero of the ancient Aryans thraætaoôna over the Mesopotamian tyrant dragon Żaḥḥāk is celebrated during Mehrägān. The moral message of Mehrägān is that Dominion and Power will go back to its rightful heirs, and at last Kingship will be for the downtrodden noble ones, the true allies, friends of the Gods.

Ancient Zoroastrian Sovereigns marked Mehrägān as an official occasion in which the king assigned “duties and assignments. We have to fundamentally understand that Zoroastrianism is not about a false sense of entitlements, BUT about Duties toward the Brilliant Immortals, and fulfilling our higher destiny/contract with the Gods.

Ancient Greeks attributed the epithet mesítēs to Miθrá (according to Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, 46,) and understood Mithrá to act as an arbitrator/mediator on the cosmological, eschatological, and anthropological levels (Belardi, pp. 32-45.)

The importance of Mehrägān was not lost to early Persian converts to islam. For example the first Persian covert to islam, Behrouzán later called Salman the Persian has said that “In Magi times we used to say that Gods have created an ornament for mortals, of rubies on Nowruz, of emeralds on Mehrajān. Therefore these two days excel all other days in the same way as these two jewels excel all other jewels” (cf. similar point in Ps-Jāḥeẓ, Maḥāsen, p. 361).

Thus the two poles of the religious Zoroastrian year were understood to be the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Mehrägān is a time for exchanging gifts, drinking great amounts of red wine, and holding lavish banquets in honor of the Immortals.

I like to conclude by the following words from Counsels to PŌRYŌTKĒŠĀN, the “counsels of the foremost or ancient sages.” The passage is also a commentary to the first three words at.čá töi vaæm “may we be like you” in Yasna 30.9 of the Gathas; “I have come from the unseen world, I belong to Öhrmazd, I belong to the Gods, not to the demons, to the good, not to the wicked. I am a man, not a demon. My mother is Spandarmad, (the Earth), and my father is Öhrmazd. My humanity is from Martyæ and Martyánæ.  I belong to the Auspicious Brilliant Immortals. I have no bonds to the Lord of flaws, and his demons of darkness and gloom.

ardeshir

In the Zoroastrian sacred calendar there are 6 great festivals. These 6 festivals that mark the “proper or propitious points in time” are called yáirya ratvö (right or advantageous times of the year) in the Avestan lore. The autumnal thanksgiving festival or Ayáθrima is celebrated from October 12-October 16.

Ayáθrima literally means “coming to home/shelter.” The first part of Ayáθrima comes from a root that mean “get to a place, come,” and the second part comes from the root thrá “protection/shelter.” This 4^th of the great thanksgiving festivals celebrates the “coming home of livestock,” every autumn, from their lush mountain pastures to their shelters.

Ayáθrima goes back to the ancient Indo European nomadic, pastoralist traditions. Animals are beautifully decorated, milk, cheese and other refreshments are offered to the needy or simply to onlookers.

Very Similar traditions still exist among the rural populations of Eastern Europe. The Bavarian festivals of Almabtrieb and Verschied, celebrated in the alpine region of Allgäu are almost identical to Ayáθrima. Verschied and its close partner Almabtrieb celebrate the return of the prodigal cows, every autumn from the their lush mountain pastures, high in the Alps.

Among the 6 ^“most favorable times the year,” the 3rd festival Paitiš.hahya (bringing in the harvest, fruits) and the 4^th Ayāθrima (homecoming of the livestock to their shelter,) celebrate times important for ancient Indo European pastoralists and farmers, while the other festivals mark the solstices, and equinoxes. The fact that the winter solstice festival is called Maiδ.yaar “midyear” shows that these festivals belonged originally to a calendar in which the year was reckoned from the summer solstice.

The auspicious holidays are celebrated with religious services, communal banquets at which the consecrated food are shared, with drinking of lots wine and much merrymaking. The lavish banquets suppose to bring rich and poor together, renew fellowship, with forgiveness of wrongs and charity to the poor. The Sassanid kings are known to have given lavish banquets for their citizens during these auspicious festivals. In Islamic times, down to the 20th century, the Iranian Zoroastrians have regularly endowed these festivals as times of great charity.

ardeshir

Unlike the Book of Genesis, which is the religious sourcebook of Judeo-Christian Civilization, in the Poetic Gathas of Zarathustra, the Cosmos has already been made, and consists of the world of “thoughts, imagination, mind energy” mainyü, and the world of “physical form” called literally the world of “bones and flesh” astvatö.

The process of “manifestation” into physical form involves: “power of thoughts/mind,” “focusing,” “establishing,” and “fitting into the right place.” This “perfect fitting, work of art” is called apa in the archaic Avestan, and is a cognate of Vedic ápas, Latin opus, Old Norse efna “work.”

In the Poetic Gathas, hvapa “Superb Artisan,” fashions Cosmos out of mind stuff, (See Yasna 37.2, 2nd rhymed verse line, Yasna 44.5, 2^nd and third rhymed verse lines, Yasht 5.85.)

The supreme God Ahûrá Mazdá, at the primordial yasná “desire, yearning,” thinks the realms of light, and superb order (See 31.7, 1^st rhymed verse, and Yasna 31.19, 1^st rhymed verse line.)

The ahûrás “Artisan Gods” formulate the mind formulas (See Yasna 29.7, 1^st rhymed verse line,) and set in place the pristine existence.

The word for “Creator” Avestan dátár, Vedic dhátár, comes from the ancient root dheh “to set, establish.” Cosmic Order is “set in place, established” through ašá/arthá “excellence, right fit, truth of the Immortals.”

In Zoroastrianism, this artistic power “to establish, set in the right place” is a splendid, wondrous God force, and universe is a battleground between the forces of Excellence/Order of the Brilliant Immortals, and chaos of the diabolic forces.

In this world of physical forms, the battle is fought between the warriors of light, and those who follow drûj “lies, darkness, deception” that distorts the cosmic quest for excellence/order.

The climatic battle is fought between those who bring out the invincible sun, the powers of light, virility and life, and the creatures of darkness who try to prevent the sun/dawn from rising, (See Yasna 32.10, 2^nd rhymed verse line, Yasna 43.16, 4^th rhymed verse line, Yasna 46.3, 1^st rhymed verse line, Yasna 50.2, 3^rd rhymed verse line, Yasna 50.10, 3^rd rhymed verse line.)

The splendid remaking of the cosmic order after periods of chaos is according to ratü “right formulae” or “blueprint” of the pristine manifestation ahûna vairiia (will to become godlike.)

The “right formulas of mind/consciousness” are taught by Ármaiti, “Perfect Calm/Meditation,” (See Yasna 43.6, 4^th rhymed verse line.) The marvelous regeneration of the worlds by Ahûrá Mazdá is achieved through the combined efforts of the Gods, and righteous men supporting the quest for eternal excellence, cosmic order, and truth.

In conclusion, it be shall emphasized that Creation in Zoroastrianism is NOT ex nihilo, or creation out of nothing. All the words that come in connection with “creation” refer to “cutting, sculpting, fashioning, forging, and fitting into the right place.”

Avestan thwöreštar “creator” is the superb artificer who cuts/hews, and creates works of art. Another common term for Creator tašan means “artisan, builder carpenter.” Avestan tašan combines the notion of “weaver” with that of “builder.” Greek tékton is a cognate. Cosmos has already been there, Godhood only fashions cosmos into ever more splendid excellence.

ardeshir