Abstract

Numerically considered, Zoroastrianism is today the smallest of the world’s living religions… Yet it lives, unrecognized, in the churches of its successful rivals and quietly influences their most cherished doctrines.

Charles Potter

© Dr M D Magee
Contents Updated: Thursday, December 14, 2000

Abstract

Salvation

Almost every passage of the Gathas refers to eschatology. Nothing in Akkadian religions suggests the world would end. That was Zoroaster’s innovation. But, Ahuramazda was sure to triumph and restore the world to his perfect creation—the kingdom of God.

Zoroaster, like Jesus, thought Eunomia—the kingdom, the power and the glory of God—was at hand when he wrote the Gathas, as they make plain. The Wise Lord, together with the Amesha Spentas, would finally vanquish the spirit of evil, ending cosmic and ethical dualism. Zoroaster’s mission was a final appeal to humanity before it all happened. He thought he would see the end of the world himself and the dawn of the kingdom of Ahuramazda when Ahuramazda, his angels and righteous believers would decisively defeat the evil spirit and his demons. The final epoch would end with a Last Judgment and the utter destruction of the Devil and all his forces of evil. So, he announced an end to the visible world, “the last turn of creation”. The world would then be restored only for the good, who would live forever in joy in God’s desirable domain. Since the world was to be restored, a resurrection of the dead was necessarily implied, and is found in some of the Gathas.

The failure of it to happen forced a theological revision, just as it did for the Christians. The later idea was that advent of Zoroaster began a final epoch of three thousand years by which time Ahuramazda’s message would have been spread throughout the world. The End would come when Ahriman and his angels rose out of the Abyss to attack the Good spirit and the Angels of Light. Neither good nor evil would be victorious but eventually Ahriman would be defeated by a Deliverer sent by god, the Saoshyant. The Saoshyant, of the line of Zoroaster or perhaps the prophet himself reincarnated, would herald the beginning of a new age. Ahuramazda promised eternal life to good people:

In eternity shall the souls of the righteous be joyful.

The “Millennium” was the resurrection of the Righteous to live forever in Ahuramazda’s perfect Creation, unplagued by death, corruption, disease, flies and all the rest of the Evil Creation. Hardship on earth is done away with and so all hills are flattened so that no one has to exert themselves walking up a hill—the earth would be levelled into a great plain just as it is in Isaiah 40. but the great variety of life remains—there is no return to the primeval beings. In the Slavonic Enoch:

When all the Creation that was created by the Lord will come to an end, and every man will go to the Great Judgement of the Lord, then the times will perish, there will not be any more years, or months or days, the hours will not be counted any more, but the Aion will be one. And all the Righteous that will escape the Great Judgement of the Lord will join the Great Aion, and at the same time the Aion will join the Righteous, and they will be eternal, and there will not be in them any more labour or suffering or sadness or the expectation of violence.

The “Day of the Lord” is a trial by ordeal of mankind. The dead were to be resurrected, good and wicked, and all of mankind, resurrected and not yet dead, would experience the earth bathed with molten metal, which will burn up the wicked forever, but allow the righteous to bathe in it as in warm milk. When the Righteous emerge unscathed they will be united with their souls in their uncorruptible resurrected bodies—bodies in the primeval state of perfection. This trial by ordeal echoes an ancient practice of the Iranians and other people.

It is the fire referred to by John the Baptist in Matthew:

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. (Mt 3:11)

Paul makes the parallels even clearer, especially as the passage has been clumsily amended to suit the idea that the believer will be saved irrespective of his sins:

Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (1 Cor 3:13-15)

Finally, Ahriman would be cast back into the Abyss and all resurrected righteous souls would live in a cleansed world, the good kingdom or simply the kingdom—Ahuramazda’s kingdom, an undivided heaven and earth, free of decay, old age and death—where they lived as immortals alongside the angels in the realm of light, in the eternal fellowship of Ahuramazda. A “future body” in a future resurrection was among the magian beliefs recorded by Theopompos in the fourth century BC. As for the wicked, they were incinerated once and for all in the molten flame never to plague the world again. The molten metal will apparently even purify Hell and kill the evil demons. The molten metal is, of course, from heaven, itself considered made of metal (as a form of stone).

So, in the final days of the world, all will be judged and all the dead will be resurrected in their bodies once again. The rebirth occurs at the rebirth, “No Roz”, ceremony when the priest faces west instead of east as usual because the cycle of time will cease and the sun will be set at noon forever. The Saoshyant will prepare Haoma in this final holy ceremony or act of worship and give it to humanity so as to make the bodies shining, ageless and immortal. The white Haoma juice prepared by him will be an elixir of immortality that will banish death forever from the world. Death, the instrument of the evil one will no longer prey upon the good creation of Ahuramazda. The Righteous become like the Holy Immortals just as Jesus says in the New Testament, accepting that they are angels, immortal inhabitants of heaven.

Suffering, in this material earth and time, is the price of ultimately defeating evil, so it is necessary and commendable, serving a real purpose in helping to defeat the Evil Spirit rather than succumbing to him. Since the Jewish and Christian God is all powerful, there is no explanation in these religions for suffering—an all-powerful god could end it immediately. Ahuramazda is not all-pwerful until the end of history, so is excused. The whole blame is with the Devil. Humanity therefore provide Ahuramazda’s foot soldiers in the war with his implacable enemy. Human beings individually chose the side they are on, and are ultimately rewarded or punished. Salvation therefore depends upon humanity—upon human choice—not upon God, who expects humans as part of his Good Creation to chose Good and reject Evil. He does not stick his finger in human history and stir it up like the Jewish God, and expects his human army to remain loyal and fight their battles against Evil confident that by making the right choice, the battle will be won and they will be rewarded. Should anyone despair in the face of adversity, the Amesha Spentas were ready to offer their qualities in support.

Yasht 34:10-11 say that Health and Life are the rewards of Ahuramazda’s “Desirable Kingdom”—desirable for the Righteous People on earth. It is, of course, the victory of the Good Creation and so in the Judaeao-Christian myth, a return to the unspoilt “Garden of Eden”. While the Evil Spirit was active in the world spoiling the Good Creation with his Evil deeds, the holy kingdom could not be in earth, but at the end of “Time of Long Dominion”, the desirable kingdom began, because the Evil Spirit was confined. Christian concepts are close indeed to this outlook.

Doctrine of Humanity

In his doctrine of humanity, Zoroaster began with the freedom of everyone to choose their ethical course in life. Ahuramazda created humans with free will to think, say and do as they choose, and so people can be tempted by the evil powers. Zoroaster had a doctrine of free will and individual responsibility for all actions, writing:

Whoso worketh ill for the Liar by word or thought or hands, or converts his dependents to the Good, such men meet the will of Ahuramazda to his satisfaction.

This freedom of the will is also clearly expressed in Yasna, 31:11:

Since thou, 0 Mazda, didst at the first create our being and our consciences in accordance with thy mind, and didst create our understanding and our life together with the body, and works and words in which man according to his own will can frame his con-fession, the liar and the truth-speaker alike lay hold of the word, the knowing and the ignorant each after his own heart and understanding. Armaiti searches, following thy spir~t, where errors are found.

People take part in the cosmic conflict through their lives and deeds in the world. By every good thought, word and deed, by continually keeping a pure body and soul, every person impairs the power of evil and strengthens the might of goodness, laying a claim for reward from Ahuramazda. By every evil thought, word and deed, and self-abasement, everyone increases evil and renders service to the Evil One.

Other religious systems have evil spirits, but Zoroaster’s implied division of the world between the powers of Good and of Evil, both evenly balanced until the final conflict, effectively invented our modern concept of the Devil, who manifested himself within people as the the “Druj” or the “Lie”:

Let none of you listen to the Liar’s words.

In the battle of Good and Evil, humans had free will to refuse evil—people were free to side with either of the two spirits. It was everyone’s personal choice. Everything that people did in life involved these choices, every bad choice extending Satan’s influence and every good choice helping to keep him chained in hell. By choosing righteousness people were their own saviours.

Bliss shall flee from them that despise Righteousness. In such wise do you destroy for yourselves the spiritual life.

If they became “Followers of the Lie” they could expect the worst but the righteous had naught to fear:

…at the last the Worst Existence shall be the followers of the Lie, but the Best thought to him that follows Right. Of these twain Spirits, he that followed the Lie chose the worst things; the Holiest Spirit chose Right…

Herodotus, writing about the Persians of his day, recorded:

They teach boys, from five years to twenty, three things only—to ride, to shoot and to be truthful…Most disgraceful of all is lying.

Persians were also sexually prudish and forbade masturbation, promiscuity and prostitution, and rape and sodomy were punished by death as it was for the Babylonians. Other capital crimes included treason, cremating or burying the dead, murder, invading the king’s privacy or approaching one of his concubines. Among the ways people were despatched were crucifixion, hanging and stoning.

Persians had a strong sense of correct behaviour and did not eat or drink in the street or spit. Eating only sufficient was a virtue, and Persians only had one meal a day and drank only water. Persians were hospitable, generous, warm hearted, open, and honest.

The summary of the Zoroastrian practical ethic is the short mantra:

Good Thoughts. Good Words. Good Deeds.

The choice made has its effects on the five aspects of the human person:

1. Vitality (Ahu) is the strength of life including moral strength and so applies to physical vitality and mental vitality where it seems to overlap with Baodha.
2. Self (Daena) is a measure of a person’s individual choices in life and manifests itself as Conscience, a personal sense of responsibility for actions. It is separate from Urvan and from Fravashi but appears to the person after death, when they go for judgement, as a maiden who is pretty or ugly according to the sum total of anyone’s actions in life.
3. Wisdom (Baodha) guides the person in making the right choices as if it were a personal light to illuminate their path. The Avestan word is the same word as Veda and Boddhi.
4. Soul (Urvan) is the person’s spiritual body that suffers the results of their life choices, ultimately being lost into the Abyss of Hell if the choices are evil or residing in paradise, as fravashis if good.
5. Heavenly Double (Fravashi, Confession of Faith) is a person’s guardian angel. Zoroaster called people to support Ahuramazda’s goodness, and those who “confessed faith” in Ahuramazda in the struggle between right and wrong, were granted a guardian angel to help them achieve virtue. It is always good and equates with the soul of righteous people. The concept is similar to the genius of the Romans, the ka of the Egyptians, and Plato might have taken his concept of “Ideas” from the Persian. Even animals have their fravashi, and so do objects like forces of Nature and stars, suggesting that the Star of Bethlehem was pursued by the Magi because the author of Matthew considered it signified the fravashi of a god. Later, the fravashis of particularly holy people were revered in the same way that Christians revere their saints.

Rabindranath Tagore has reminded us that what remains novel even today is that Zoroaster, around 3000 years ago, taught that moral goodness is not a question of ritual or rote practice. It is a question of personal intent. All of those modern Christians, Jews and Moslems who still think zombie-like acts of worship will earn them salvation, should refer back to Zoroaster to learn a truth that has not yet penetrated to the thickest parts of the human mentality. People still fearfully practice blind formalisms hoping to gain God’s approval, and blame their sins, though consciously decided by themselves, onto to a supernatural third party. Zoroaster had no idea that the Evil Spirit could compel a human being to do wrong. He taught it was their choice to do it. Human beings individually chose between the Good and the Evil. Nothing compelled them either way, and no amount of ritual adoration could make up for the wrong choice. All that could atone for a sin was to devote the rest of a lifetime to Good in the hope of counterbalancing the sin in the Book of Life. Realising this makes us understand the greatness of Zarathushtra, and the true path of righteousness.

Fravashis

Fravashis (“faravahars”) or protective spiritual doubles were mainly creatures of the night. The time of night, from sunset to sunrise was dedicated to fravashis. They were venerated at their own festival held at the New Year, or rather on the last night of the old year, in the old calendar being in the autumn, so broadly corresponding with the Christian “All Hallows Eve” (Halloween) and “All Souls Day”, but later, with the change in the calendar, in the month Nisan or roughly March to us—Easter—the Persian festival commemorated in the scriptural Book of Esther! The ritual ended with the lighting of fires before dawn to assist the fravashis to return to their abode before the sun rose. Their association with night, the creation of the Evil Spirit, and the fact that worship otherwise was not to be done at night shows that the fravashis were not thought of a fully benign. They are the relic of the worship of dead spirits, and originally might have been good or bad.

Fravashis came from the old Iranian cult of heroes, whose spirits were venerated and came to be thought of as assigned to each person as a spiritual protector. Fravashis were certainly warlike but were pictured as winged females that lived at first in the air, and later as they were thought of as increasingly benign, in heaven hob-nobbing with the gods. Yasht 23:3 implies the fravashis were not in heaven but on earth, so they indeed lived in the air answering and delivering prayers and responding to calls for help. They were angels. The thirteenth Yasht describes a fravashi as flying like a well winged bird, and the winged figure of Ahuramazda shown on Persian sculptures might be meant to be the fravashi of the High God—all righteous entities having one. Yasht 13:12 describes them as “fravashis of the just” confirming them as spirits of righteous people. Ultimately, dwelling in heaven with the gods gave them the odour of sanctity and they were assigned as assistants to the Holy Spirit at the Creation. So spirits of righteous people were present at the Creation, a concept that emerges in the Scrolls and in the myth of Jesus.

Besides the possible reference to the Star of Bethelehem as a fravashi, the concept occurs twice more in the Christian New Testament. When Jesus is made to speak of “little ones” in the gospels he is not speaking of babies but of the newly penitent apostate Jews that have joined his Nazarenes.

Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. (Mt 18:10)

The penitents have become righteous by repenting and taking baptism, and so their Heavenly Doubles behold the face of God, something possible only for the righteous. Their angels in heaven are fravashis. The same allusion appears in Acts:

A damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. (Acts 12:13-15)

Peter could not have been there, they thought, so the double of him was his fravashi, his heavenly Double or Guardian Angel.

Zoroaster favoured the word “urvan” translated as soul for the after-life spirit, but the fravashis seemed too popular to displace, and in the evolution of Zoroastrianism the two began to overlap, and mingle also with the khvarenah (ability, talent) to some degree. Urvan however was the person’s soul that went for judgement. The long hymn to the fravashis shows the mingling of the two ideas (Yt 13). The difference between them is that the fravashis had power and could be prayed to, whereas the soul had none and had to be prayed for.

The soul did not depart from the body immediately on death and it is an ancient belief of the Iranians that it remained for three days before ascending, requiring detailed rituals. Note that the scriptural idea of a general resurrection on the third day in the book of Hosea (Saviour, suggesting the Persian king) and perhaps the messianic feast come from the same source, slightly misunderstood (Hos 6:2), and gave rise to the further misunderstanding that Jesus was predicting his own particular resurrection on the third day, when he meant the general resurrection of Hosea. Jonah, in the belly of the whale, is more precise and is used by a late editor of Matthew to explain the three days. When anyone died, their souls were tormented in hell for three days for whatever sins they had committed in life then, on the fourth day, the soul departed to judgement. On that day special funeral rituals were held and food was offered for the soul and his fravashi in the next world.

That was not the end of it, though, because it then had to be honoured for thirty years! It was time for a whole generation and ensured that the memory of a deceased father was retained for the next generation. For the initial three days, the relatives fast and display their grief. On the third day a full set of clothing is prepared for the dead man and consecrated while three religious offices are said during the day. First in the morning an animal sacrifice is made, the fat being used to feed the flame that carried the soul aloft at sunrise on the fourth day. Further offerings are consecrated daily for 30 days, followed by another sacrifice, then offerings are made at 30 day intervals for the whole year of 360 days. For the next 30 years the offering is made annually on the anniversary of the departure of the soul. These are ancient practices because they are followed by the Brahmans too.

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