Zoroastrianism is a religion created by Persians over 2,000 years ago! It was the first religion to promote cosmic dualism. It has it own symbols, rituals, scriptures, priesthood, and beliefs. Zoroastrianism is related to Brahmanism because Persians are Aryan. Brahmanism comes from Aryans in India. It had a huge impact on Abrahamic religions, Buddhism, and Greek philosophers/religious leaders. It had several daughter religions. Followers of this religion were persecuted by Muslims. They fought back but were defeated. The ones who survived moved to India. They are known as the Parsis (Persians).
Zoroaster is the founder of this religion. He was born around 628 BCE or earlier. He got a vision from Ahura Mazda, then he knew the truth. He spread the message after he got the vision. Persian were polytheistic at this time. Zoroaster wanted them to only worship Ahura Mazda; he saw the other gods as demons. He called nomads the followers of the Lie because they would cause a lot ruckus in his town. A king in Central Asia was the first person to convert to Zoroastrianism.
Ahura Mazda: The most high god. Creator of all.
Amesha Spenta: Beneficent Immortals. 6 archangels. 3 are male and 3 are female. They represent virtues.
Spenta Mainyu: The Holy Spirit. A part of Ahura Mazda.
Ahriman: Father of the Lie. He is evil. Enemy of Ahura Mazda.
Daevas: Demons created by Ahriman to help him destroy all that's good.
Cycles of Time: Each cycle is 3,000 years.
Spiritual World: The invisible world. It is full of goodness, evil cannot touch it.
Material World: Full of evil.
Judgement Day: The day when the saviour will separate the sheep from the goats.
Mantras: They chant certain words to please Ahura Mazda and the Amesha Spenta.
Scriptures & Symbols
The holy books of Zoroastrianism are called Avesta. It's like their Koran or Bible. Within the Avesta is 5 hymns called Gathas. The explain in detail the beliefs of Zoroastrianism. Sometimes the Amesha Spenta are seen as people other times as concepts. They have a book of prayers called Khorda. Vendidad is a book of myths, prayers, and holidays.
Faravahar: It is a man in a sun disc. The sun disc is a Kemetic symbol.
Fire: It represents goodness. Fire created the universe. The Zoroastrians turn toward the light when they worship.
Rituals
They cremate dead bodies. They have rites of passage for boys and girls. Priests purify and bless weddings. There is a ceremony the priests do to help the soul go into the afterlife. They have several purification ceremonies.
The Zoroastrian priests were known as Magi. They were government officials and had a lot of clout. They did libations and sacrificed cows. They were able to predict the future and interpret dreams. They engaged in conflict resolution. They were judges of common law. The Magi are broken down into 3 levels. The word magic comes from Magi.
The Aryans lived in Central Asia. Some them went west and founded Persia. It is now called Iran, which means Aryan Land. Some Aryans conquered India. After which they created Brahmanism. Since these Aryans at one time were the same people their religions had a lot in common. The element of fire was important to both groups and they had some of the same deities. They both believed in asuras & devas but flip-flopped them.
The Persians were very nice to Hebrews. They help free from the Babylonians. Hebrews incorporated a lot of Zoroastrian beliefs into their religion. The Hebrews learned about the afterlife from the Persians. Avesta influenced some of the written of the bible.
Most of Christ-insanity is Zoroastrian. The virgin birth, judgement day, angels, demons, end of time, messiah, etc were already beliefs of Zoroastrianism long b4 Christ-insanity.
Muslims pray five times a day, Zoroastrians do too. A lot of Islamic beliefs comes from Judaism and Christ-insanity. A lot of their beliefs come from Zoroastrianism.
The people that translated Buddhist texts into Chinese were Zoroastrian. Some of the concepts of Zoroastrianism seeped in because of this. Some of the prayers of z are similar to the prayers of Mahayana Buddhism. Heaven is similar in both religions. Both religions see deities as evil. The Taoist have 8 immortals and the Zoroastrians have 7 amesha spenta. Maybe they influenced each other or they may have developed it independently.
Zoroastrianism connection to Greek Philosophy
A lot of Gnostics believed the martial world was evil. In Zoroastrianism, the martial is the only place evil can exist. In Neoplatonism, the One is the summum bonum, so is Ahura Mazda. Some of the Gnostics saw Yahweh as the evil demiurge. This idea is similar to Ahriman. The Gnostics believed in a benevolent creator god, so did Zoroastrians. Cosmic dualism was a big deal in Gnosticism as well as Zoroastrianism. There were Magi in Kemet during the Ptolemy dynasty.
Daughter Religions
Zurvanism: The god of this religion is Zurvan. It is the god of spacetime. Zurvan is the creator of Ahura Mazda and Ahriman. Zurvan is non-moral. It is beyond good and evil. There was a priest named Zatsparam. He is the last known person to follow Zurvanism. There were 3 types of Zurvanism: Classical and Materialist. Classical Zurvanism saw Zurvan as the father of the Ahura Mazda and Ahriman. Materialist Zurvanism saw Zurvan as the ground of all reality, like Brahman. People that followed this form of Zurvanism didn't believe in the afterlife. Fatalist Zurvanism had a strong belief in destiny. Zurvanism was influenced by Greek and Indian ideas. Limitation of infinite spacetime caused the creation of the universe. Men were seen as good and women are seen as evil. But in reality, the reverse is true.
Mandaeism: This religion has a lot of beliefs from Zoroastrianism and it is sort of like Christianity. They believed in John the Baptist. Europeans used to call them Disciples of John the Baptist. They followers of this religion live in the Middle East. Sometimes they face discrimination. Disciples of John the Baptist do a lot of baptisms, which they learned from Hebrews. They have a lot of their own scriptures. The Book of John has John the Baptist sermons in it. They have mass for the dead and a book of prayers. Disciples of John the Baptist believe in the Zodiac. Ptahil is the name of the demiurge. Ptah is the name of a Kemetic creator deity. There is a world of light and world of darkness. There is a cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil. The mass of the dead is to help the soul of the corpse to ascend to heaven. Salvation is the main goal for Disciples of John the Baptist.
The Arabs defeated the Persians in the 7th century CE. Persia lost the war because it was exhausted from wars with Byzantine and it had succession problems. Years later a Muslim dynasty came to power and promoted Islam. The people that followed the religions of their ancestors were persecuted. Persian freedom fighters fought the Muslim overlords, but they lost.
Most of the followers of the ways of their ancestors that escaped persecution went to India. They still practice Zoroastrianism there. The majority of Zoroastrians live in India. Their numbers are shrinking because they're not allowed to proselytize. It is only 40,000 Parsis worldwide.
Zoroastrianism is a wonderful religion! This is the bedrock of Christ-insanity. I love the complexity of this religion. It has much to teach, learn as much as you can.
References
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Zoroaster-Iranian-prophet
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/zoroastrianism/beliefs.asp
http://www.religioustolerance.org/zoroastr2.htm
http://www.avesta.org/
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zoroastrian-rituals
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/zoroastrianism/practices.asp
http://heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/purification/index.htm
http://members.efn.org/~opal/therealmagi.html
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/magi
http://heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/priests/index.htm
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Zarathushtrian/z_influence_abrahamic.htm
http://www.pyracantha.com/Z/zjc3.html
https://authenticgathazoroastrianism.org/2014/03/03/scythian-zoroastrian-influence-on-early-buddhism/
http://tengudev.com/epiclore/2013/12/06/connections-between-zoroastrianism-and-mahayana-buddhism/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zurvanism
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/zurvanism.htm
http://gnosis.org/library/Mandaean_Religion_Rudolf.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Manichaeism
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35219331
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/chinese-iranian-i
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