Key Takeaways
Mazdaism is the human beings ’s quondam surviving monotheistic religion and , many scholars think , the original sourceof spiritual conceptions of heaven , hell , SatanandJudgment DayinJudaism , Christianity andIslam . Yet many multitude outside of Iran or India have never even get wind of Zoroastrianism or cerebrate it ’s an ancient organized religion that died out with the arrival of these well - acknowledge religions .
Today , there arezoroastrianism / demographics / index.htm">fewer than 140,000Zoroastrians worldwide , but Zoroastrianism is very much a live religious belief . Its adherents worship a single , all - powerful and unknowable God called Ahura Mazda , the source of all introduction and all good in the universe . But there is also confrontation , a powerful force of evil that is the source of all lies and decease . The design of life , according to Zoroastrianism , is to actively prefer the trade good in thought , word and human activity .
Who Was Zarathushtra?
The founder of Zoroastrianism is a mysterious prophetic figure known as Zarathushtra ( or Zoroaster in Greek ) . Very little is cognize about Zarathushtra outside of the Zoroastrian scriptures , the early of which are believed to have been written by the human being himself . Scholars of Zoroastrianism have contend to pin down the century or even the millennium in which he may have lived .
" The closest thing to a scholarly consensus about the time when Zarathushtra lived is the late second millennium ( 1,000 to 2,000 ) B.C.E. , " tell Benedikt Peschl , a doctoral student in Indo - Iranian languages and Zoroastrianism at SOAS University of London . " He would have survive somewhere in Central Asia near innovative - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan . "
In the Gathas , a collection of ancient anthem compose by Zarathushtra , the oracle broke with the survive polytheistic religion of Central Asia and established the single divine authority of Ahura Mazda . In those early Zoroastrian texts , Zarathushtra have reply through orison and inspiration , while later writings distinguish colourful tales of Zarathushtra rise to heaven to speak directly with God .
K. E. Eduljee is a lifelong Zoroastrian living in Vancouver , British Columbia , and author of the impressiveZoroastrian Heritagewebsite . When Eduljee gives presentations about Zoroastrianism , he plainly name Zarathushtra as " the founder of the faith . "
" Zarathushtra was just a human being , not God manifested as human , " say Eduljee . " He was a saucy soul . "
alfresco of Zoroastrianism , the name Zarathushtra is best experience from Friedrich Nietzsche ’s novel " Thus Spake Zarathustra " ( using an alternative spelling ) , in which the existential German philosopher put his own parole and opinion in the mouth of the ancient seer . inspire by Nietzsche , the 19th - century composer Richard Strauss drop a line the epic opus of orchestral euphony also call " Thus SpakeZarathustra " by and by feature inthe wild curtain raising sceneof " 2001 : A Space Odyssey . "
What Zoroastrians Believe: Monotheism and Dualism
Central to the Zoroastrian opinion scheme is the idea that Ahura Mazda , the sovereign being of goodness and lightness , is opposed by Angra Mainyu , a powerful ( but not equally powerful ) spirit of darkness and evil . The embodiment of this malefic look is Ahriman , the equivalent of Satan or the Devil .
To Zoroastrians , all of reality is shaped by these dueling personnel of light and dark , and every human being is free to pick out their own way of life . The most righteous way of life is draw by the " Zoroastrian Creed , " which reads , " On three noble ideals be ever enwrapped : The upright thought process well mean . The upright word well spoken . The good deed well done . "
Eduljee says that Zoroastrianism stress activity over belief . There ’s an ethical imperative to go a undecomposed life and treat others with kindness rather than a theological imperative mood to profess a certain Seth of belief . And it ’s the actions you take in biography , both good and bad , that determine your luck in the afterlife .
" Every single idea , word and deed is written on your somebody , " pronounce Eduljee . " It ’s an ancient concept of karma . If you ’ve feed out painful sensation and excruciation to others , you ’re go to experience that for all infinity and there ’s no way of getting around it . "
Zoroastrianism’s Influence on Judaism and Christianity
Mazdaism flourished in the ancient globe and had a strong influence on Jewish creative thinker and writers . Peschl says that after the Babylonian exile , when the Jews were temporarily expelled from Israel , many take to remain in Babylonian Empire , where they exchanged religious idea with Zoroastrians .
after , during a time be intimate as the " intertestamental period " ( the period between the dates deal in the Old and New Testaments in the Bible , just about the third and 2nd C B.C.E. ) , Zoroastrian - fashion dualism showed up in apocryphal Judaic literature .
" That ’s the period when certain elements of Zoroastrianism enter into Judaism , " says Peschl , " include the increase grandness of the Devil figure and the idea of a Final Judgment . "
In Zoroastrianism , the individual departs the body four days after death , at which point it traverse the Chinvat Bridge or Bridge of Judgment . in force souls are greeted by a beautiful maiden and show into heaven , while vicious soul are captured by an old hag and dragged down to hell . Our Word of God " paradise " is derive from the Old Iranian wordpairi - daeza , which approximately translates to " heavenly garden . "
Zoroastrian Holidays, Rituals and Symbols
Thetraditional Zoroastrian calendarallots 30 days to each month with an extra five or six daylight tacked on at the destruction of the year to make up the deviation . Every calendar month starts with the first day of the first week and Zoroastrian holiday come down on the same dates every year .
One of the biggest and most wide celebrated Zoroastrian holidays isNowruz , the New Year ’s festival hold on the first day of outflow . ( It ’s celebrated by people of Iranian descent , even if they belong to other faiths beside Zoroastrianism . ) Eduljee says that grow up , the preparedness for Nowruz protrude a month before New Year with a unspoiled leaping cleansing .
" The whole construct is that you ’re go life story afresh , cleaning the someone and cleaning the house , " says Eduljee . " If there are old run-in , you ’re supposed to settle them . "
During Nowruz , every planetary house lay out a merry spread complete with fruit , sweets and long - stem ashen flower call tuberoses . Then natural endowment are change , particularly young clothes for the New Year .
While Zoroastrians do n’t have " churches " with regularly schedule times for worship , larger residential district support one or more temples in which Zoroastrian priest or " magi " conduct ritual prayers in the ancient Avestan linguistic process during particular daylight of the year . Otherwise , member pray severally .
fervor is the most sacred factor to Zoroastrians and pattern prominently in temple ritual like theYasna . An endless flame is keep on afire in Zoroastrian temple 24 hours a mean solar day . fit in to theShahnamehor " Book of Kings , " one of Zarathushtra’sfirst teachingswas about the transformative power of fire .
Other hallowed constituent include H2O , air and dry land . For this reason , Zoroastrians traditionally bury their dead in special towers ( afterward called " Towers of Silence " ) where the corpses would be left to be eaten by birds of target — that style not polluting the air , earth , fire or piddle . The bones would be decolourize by the sun and then place in a pit . presently this is only practiced in India , as in most component of the existence this would be illegal or considered inappropriate . Modern Zoroastriansmay inter their deadin graves protect by concrete or gemstone .
The most visible symbol of Zoroastrianism is theFaroharorFaravahar , what looks like a large winged bird of Jove with the body and head of a whiskered man . This image is famously carve into the ruin at Persepolis , the ancient capital of the Zoroastrian Achaemenid Empire in Iran , and now grace Zoroastrian temple and gravesites .
The Rise, Fall and Future of Zoroastrianism
Peschl say that Zoroastrianism reached the acme of its power and political influence during the Sasanian Dynasty ( 224 - 651 C.E. ) of Iran , the last Zoroastrian empire to rule Iran before the arrival of Islam . The Sasanians rule from the Black Sea in the West down through the Persian Gulf and all the way East into India .
" Zoroastrianism lost its political power within a very little period as a aftermath of the Arab conquest of Iran in the seventh century , " says Peschl . " Right from the kickoff , there was a warm incentive for Zoroastrians in Iran to convert to Islam . "
Those who did n’t change over face unspeakable persecution in Iran , says Eduljee , which is why many Zoroastrians chose to migrate to India starting over 1,300 years ago . In India , Zoroastrians became known as Parsees , a word derived from the same root as Persians . Eduljee himself was born in India to a Parsee forefather and a female parent whose great - grandparents migrated from Iran to India more recently .
The Parsee community in India still boasts the large concentration of Zoroastrians in the earth . An estimated60,000 to 70,000 Parsees live in India , mostly in upper - form enclave around Mumbai , although their numbers are shrinking . Traditionally , Zoroastrians have not commute citizenry to their religion . However , late , they have begun to accept those who choose to become Zoroastrians through their own alternative . Low birth rate are , however , pack a toll .
Eduljee , whose Vancouver Zoroastrian community is about 1,000 people strong , admits that he ’s " very concerned " about the future of Zoroastrianism , although he believes " we might just live . "
