Teutons and Hellenes combined the plurality of the Gods in the unity of their Might and Power!
Dion of Prusa (XXXI, 11) says of the deeply prudent men of his time: “They simply combine all Gods together in one might (ishys) and power (dynamis)” and Plotinus expresses this in the Enneads (I, 6, 8.)
The pagan north Germans, who believed that godhood was present in all “men of high mind,” were called Godless by early Christians (gud-lauss or gud-lausir menn.)
But long ages ago, it was the seer/prophet Zarathûštra who first among the Indo Europeans proclaimed that the essence of godhood is in “inspiring creativity and the powers of mind/spirit to build, shape, make,” in a supreme God called Mazdá.”
Mazdá is the Ahûrá/Æsir par excellence in Zoroastrianism. Mazdá is the essence of godhood and means “inspiring creativity and mind-power.”
Mazdá is closely connected to, if not almost identical to Óðinn, the greatest of the Æsir in Norse Mythology, with both their association with “wisdom, powers of mind to recall and summon into being.”
Mazdá or Ma(n)zdá (*mens-dheh-) incorporates the Indo European noun *mens of the stem ménos “mind-force, will power, spirit, determination, imagination” and the verb dheh “to set, establish, do, create.” (Courtesy of Didier Calin)
MUSES “Inspiring Creativity” in ancient Greek lore and Vedic Medhá, “mind-power, imagination, insight,” used as an epithet of the highest and most powerful gods in the Vedas share the same exact etymology with Mazdá.
In Zoroastrianism, ahûrá par excellence Mazdá with all the ahûrás or god powers perpetually struggle against the anti-God Añgrö (Middle Persian Ahriman) “limitation, restriction, fault.”
In Zoroastrianism, there exists an inseparable duality between God-powers united in Mazdá or “powers of mind/spirit, inspiring creativity, boundlessness” and the anti-gods or diabolic forces known as daævás headed by añgrö “limitation, constriction.”
For the Gods represent boundlessness, the creative and ever better ORDER of the worlds, while devil and anti gods represents “limitation, restriction, chaos, disintegration and deformity.”
All forms of reality may be considered as modes of mind-energy in Zoroastrianism. The boundlessness, creativity and eternal progress of the mind-power (Mazdá) are manifested in the Gods, while limitation, restriction and deformity of imagination are the brood of the devil and diabolic forces.
Zoroastrianism ONLY sees godhood in goodness and betterment, in the wondrous, creative order of all that exists and in Good Spirit/Disposition as it reveals itself in man, nature and animal.
This spirit, mind/mode of becoming ever better is called vohü-manö – also vaηhǝ̄uš manaηhö or vohü manaηhá in the poetry of the ancient seer-prophet.
It comes from Proto Indo European *wésu, and Vedic personal name *vásu mánas as well as Greek personal Euménēs and the Greek expression ménos ēú “good spirit/intention” come from the same ancient root (See Didier Calin.)
Martin Lichtfield West, in Indo-European Poetry and Myth, pp. 143 states: “We have seen that the gods were celebrated as givers of good things, these being denoted in Indo-Iranian with the word vásu-, vaηhuu- (*wésu-). Combined with *poti- it gives vásupati- ‘lord of good things’, which occurs some fifteen times in the Rig Veda. There is also a class of deities, known as the Vasus (Vásavaḥ), the Good Ones. Vásavaḥ represents the active principle of goodness, betterment, progress, and advancement.
The *wesu- stem is attested by personal names such as the Italo-Celtic goddess who appears in central Italy as Vesuna and perhaps at Baden-Baden as Visuna. Vesuna is surely the ‘Mistress of good things.’
Mallory/Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, p. 438 states that “the spiritual property of the hero is embedded in the concept of *menes- “Mental strength,” or “mental inspiration or power,” that motivates and enables the hero to accomplish great deeds.
Seer/prophet Zarathûštrá taught that mortal men must share or participate in the Good, the True and the Beautiful as partners of the Immortal Gods through their vohü manö or good mental/spiritual inspiration and power.
The creative order of life preserves and renews itself only through the brave, heroic and constant struggle of virtuous men and Immortals against the powers hostile to excellence, against ahriman and the daævás or diabolic forces, against the limiting forces of Utgard.
This creative order of the worlds is called in the Avestan ašá and/or arthá, Vedic r̥tá and Latin ars, artus, ritus, from the root ar “the right fit, precise arrangement, ingenious order, artistry.”
The German word fromm, meaning religious or devout, is derived from the stem meaning capable or fit, just as the root ar for ašá and/or arthá.
Zoroastrian religiosity is partaking in the divine artistry and nature religiosity or worship. Zoroastrian religiosity is in the descriptions and worship of the “Landscapes filled with the glory of the divine” (khvarenah — Josef Strzygowski: Die Landschaft in der nordischen Kunst, pp. 143, 261 et seq.),
The ahûrás are god-beings, because of their mastery of máyá magical knowledge of this superb artistry and the ingenious order of the worlds.
The stem ah-ü or as-u (=artful command) has a relative in Old English ós and in Old Norse aes/äs/áss as in Aesir (the gods, plural) or As-gard Old Norse “Ásgarðr” ” Enclosure of the Æsir.
The Germanic sub-branches have a stem ans- (ansu in runic), which means “power to animate, bring to life/existence/being.” C. Watkins connects the root with Hittite hassu and Old Irish eisi (2001: 7-9).
This is why the idea of the greatness of the God beings did not permit the ancient Iranians/ancient Aryans to enclose the divine within walls. Similarly they possessed no images of Immortals, corresponding to a pantheistic religiosity that sees the godhood in a broad vision worship of the elements.
The nature of ahûrás is connected with the world order, ingenuity and superb artistry. Mortal men join with the Gods or ahûrás in “mind-power and inspiring creativity called mazdá” against all powers hostile to progress, goodness and Godhood, against chaos, against demons, añgrö, “limitation” and Utgard.
For Mazdá “inspiring creativity, mind-power, wisdom, powers of mind to recall and summon into being” is the magic stuff of the æsir and the very essence of godhood, what the Vedas call ásurasya māyáyā (See RV 5.63.7 “magic of the ásuras.)
In Zoroastrianism, there is no better life than that of friendship with the Gods through the magic stuff of mind, imagination, will power (Mazdá) and by sharing and participating in the Good, Better, and the more Beautiful creative order of life as partners of the Immortal Gods.
ardeshir
