Zoroastrianism, an Ancient Religion

Zoroastrianism is the usual name of the ancient religion formulated by Zarathustra, who is thought by many western scholars to have lived in 600 BCE, or as early as 1000 to 1200 BCE according to Anthony, p. 51. It seems that Zarathustra was very upset when some "Indra-worshippers" or "Deva-worshippers" took his cow. The Indra- and Deva-worshippers can be identified with the priests of the Rig Veda. This seems to have spurred him to create a religion in which the objects of reverence were "Blessed Spirits" or Amesha Spentas, which represent Water, plant life, animal life, and also virtues, such as "truth" and "wisdom" etc. Zoroastrianism is characterized by a respect for life and a high standard that adherents should work for the good of the community through Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds.

History

Zoroastrianism has been in existence for thousands of years and like all great religions it has changed over time.

The oldest texts of the Zoroastrian religion are the Gathas, thought to have been written by Zarathustra himself. This did not have gods based on deified natural phenomena as in other Indo-European religions but the Amesha Spentas or "Blessed Spirits" which were rather abstract personifications of virtues.

The earlier form was eventually superseded by the reintegration of Indo-European gods, sometimes in altered form. Ahura Mazda is mentioned in inscriptions of the Persian kings such as Darius. Descriptions of the Mage priesthood are mentioned by Greek historians Herodotus and Aristotle (Encyclopedia Britannica), and this early form seems to have been iconoclastic (without images of gods). Anahita, Mithras and other deities (devtas or yazidis) were reintroduced and became very important by the time of Artaxerxes, one of the great kings of the Achmaenid (Persian) dynasty.

Zurvanism developed in the Sasanian dynasty (which ended in the 3rd century CE), and was characterized by a set of purity laws and obsessive rituals. Images of the later Zoroastrian gods appear on coins of the Sasanians, and at the unique monument at Comagena, in modern Turkey. Among later Zoroastrians, Zarathustra himself was deified.

Affect on other Religions

Zarathustra introduced the concept of dualism, that is, the division of divine beings (and humans) into two groups, either all good or all bad. Zarathustra also predicted that eventually there would be a cosmic struggle between the forces of good (Spenta Mainyu and his allies) and the forces of evil (Angra Mainyu and his allies), resulting in a final battle after which the world would be permanently changed. These concepts, along with the idea of a supreme being Ahura Mazda were borrowed into Judaism (see for example the correspondence between Gatha 44:3-5 with the Old Testament/Hebrew text Isaiah 40-48. For a discussion of the influences on other religions, see under Zoroastrianism at Encyclopedia Britannica. From Jewish tradition the influence spread to both Christianity and Islam. The Zoroastrian concept of duality and eschatology is quite different from the usual Indo-European system of pagan gods in which any deities can be either good or bad depending on whether they are happy or unhappy (with humans) at the time, and time is cyclical. Also, considering the great respect for cows in India, it is difficult to imagine that Zoroastrianism did not have a strong affect on Hinduism too.

Rituals

Worshipping Fire in the Temple is an important part of religious practice. Modern temples are situated in a park or garden that has earth, plants, birds and a fountain which represent the four elements necessary to life.

An annual festival calendar with seven major holidays is celebrated. Seven was a very important number to Zarathustra, as there were seven Amesha Spentas.

Towers of Silence: A notable practice among Zoroastrians is the disposal of the dead by "exposure" that is, corpses are left on special towers where vultures can devour the bodies. This prevents corpses, which are considered unclean, from contaminating fire, air, water, or earth, the four sacred elements in Zoroastrian religion.

Priesthood

The reintroduction of gods and the development of power in the Achaemenid dynasty (Persian kings) coincided with the development of the Mage priests, an extremely powerful priesthood who held themselves necessary for the performance of any ritual (see Herodotus, I.131-132). Much nonsense has been written about the Mage priests and the word has come into English as the source of our word for "magic" meaning special powers. The Zoroastrian priests still hold considerable power in the Zoroastrian community.

Sacred Texts

The traditional scriptures of the Zoroastrians are available in English on the Sacred-Texts website (see General Links below). These were first published in the Sacred Books of the East (SBE), specifically Volumes 4, 5 and 23. Included are the ''Zend Avesta'', with the Gathas and Yashts and the ''Bundahišn.'' Zoroastrians still recite prayers and tales of the gods from these ancient texts.

Parsîs in the modern world

Zoroastrians normally call themselves Mazdeans, as followers of Ahura Mazda. "Gabars" means "infidels" and is not very polite but it is the usual word for Mazdeans living in Iran, where Zoroastrians are objects of extreme hostility in this Moslem country right now. Parsîs or Parsees (meaning "Persians") is the usual name for them in India, where many live in Mumbai (Bombay). Both groups are well-represented in California and major cities in several English-speaking countries including England and Australia. The two main groups now have a different tradition of priestly succession and different calendars. The main difference is that some celebrate Assur (the beginning of the year) at the spring equinox and others celebrate it in August.

Although Mazdeans do not make up a large population anywhere, they have a very high standard of education and of community responsibility (it is a religious requirement to offer charity even to non-Zoroastrians), and they make many positive contributions to the societies where they live. Zoroastrians do not allow any strangers in their temples, and they do not allow photos, so there are no photos of modern Zoroastrian temples or rituals.

Affect on Popular Culture

One of the earliest borrowings from Zoroastrianism into the west was the introduction of Mithraism (worship of Mithra) in the Roman army in late classical times. However since this involved the sacrifice of a bull, it's difficult to imagine how genuine Zoroastrians could regard it with anything other than horror.

Freemasonry developed in the Middle Ages as a guild for stone-masons, but "in the 17th and 18th centuries adopted the rites and trappings of ancient religious orders and of chivalric brotherhoods" according to the Encyclopedia Britannica under Freemasony, although it is not at all clear how such influence came about. This has resulted in some influences on the development of the United States, since several early American leaders in the 1700's were Freemasons (hence the pyramid with eye on the dollar bill).

Manuscripts of Zoroastrian texts came to the attention of western scholars and were translated and published with great excitement in Europe, by Franz Bopp (1833), Max Muller (1845) and others. They represented a very ancient religion and an ancient language which confirmed theories of historical linguistics. Much of the excitement penetrated popular culture but usually in an inaccurate way.

Freemasonry provided the plot for Mozart's opera the Magic Flute (1791) with its main characters of Zoroaster (Zarathustra) and Anahita (the Queen of the Night). Mozart joined the Freemasons in 1784.

Freemasonry was also picked up by the Mormon church, founded in 1830. Joseph Smith was a freemason, and used the traditions and rituals of freemasonry as the basis for some rituals in the Mormon church.

Zoroastrianism appears in Nietzsche's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" (he was one of the early translators of Zoroastrian texts). This was popularized in musical form by Richard Strauss (1896) which provided the orchestration of the opening sequence in the movie "2001, A Space Odyssey."

The vast majority of this would be completely unrecognizable to real Zoroastrians.

References

The Horse, the Wheel and Language by David W. Anthony, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2007.

Encyclopedia Britannica Complete Home Library, Newsweek Edition, 2004

The History: Herodotus translated by David Grene, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987.

Sacred Books of the East, translated by various Oriental scholars, series ed. by Max Müller, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1879-1904.