Zoroaster

Zoroaster (in Greek) AKA Zarathustra (in the original Persian) may have been Pourushaspa, or that may have been 1st disciple

Iran / Iraq. @1,000 BCE

“original Gnostic” teacher that the observable world was a false front, created by an Evil Demi-God pretending to be the True God and Creator, who was hidden. Ormuzd the good god was the hidden “invester”, while Ahriman (Angra Mainyu) the evil god was his “manager”. To pierce the false and touch the True God was to experience Gnosis, or direct Knowledge and Wisdom of the Divine, uncluttered by physical impressions and lies; Ahmadi Muslims view Zoroaster as a Prophet of God; Babylon; Human conduct determines an afterlife in Paradise, or not. Said Mithras and the other Gods existed, but we owe our worship to our Creator, the Creator not the Sun God or others. Choose Truth, keep your Oaths, Fight Evil was the creed. Tolerance towards the religions of conquered peoples, like the Judeans; Gnostic ; most of what we have from him is recreations from the Greek-Egyptian Alexandrian period and later Christians, not the original documents; championed the Mazdayasnians (Monotheists)against the Daêvayasnians (Polytheists); constant warfare between Spenta Mainyus (the Creative or Augmenting Spirit), and Angro Mainyus (the Destructive or Decreasing Spirit); dualism; Zoroastrian Scriptures contain the Enuma Elish Flood tale later seen in the Bible story of Noah; “Humata” (good thoughts), “Hukhta” (good words), and “Hvarshta” (good deeds); The the Avestan aka “Zend” AKA “Old Bactrian” language and literature of Zoroaster was unknown for many years, eventually being related to Vedic Sanskrit in India, indicating migration East; the Avestan alphabet develops after the spoken language dies out, but is used in Sacred Writings aka Din dabireh aka “religion writing”; led to a war between the Mazdayasnians (Monotheists), and the Daêvayasnians (Polytheists), which traveled from Babylon to India and took root there; sky burial;

Connections

Teachers

Ahura Mazda (Ahura [the Lord] Mazda [the All-knowing]), the True God and Ahraman, the God of Evil and Materialism; Pythagoras;

Students

King Gushtasp; Mani aka Manes of Manichaeism; Pliny the Elder; Herodotus; Plutarch; Diogenes Laertius; Agathias; Friedrich Nietzsche; Richard Strauss; Zartosht Bahram e Pazhdo; Heraclides Ponticus; Sir Thomas Browne; S.A. Kapadia; Mozart (he appears as the villain of The Magic Flute) ; Jean-Philippe Rameau; Voltaire; Abraham Anquetil-Duperron; W.B. Yeats; Gore Vidal; Mani ; Lucian of Samosata; Albert de Jong; Joseph Bidez ; Franz Cumont; H. Lamar Crosby; Thomas Hyde; Baha'u'llah founder of Bahá'í; Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim; Cyrus the Great ; Darius of Persia; Thomas Moore, poet; L. Cranmer-Byng; Xerxes the Persian King; E. M. Butler aka Elizabeth M. Butler, author of The Myth of the Magus; Karl Kiesewetter aka Carl Kiesewetter aka Carolus Kiesewetterus; Isaac de Beausobre, 1659 – 1738, author of His­toire critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme, 2 volumes, vol. 1, 1734, vol. 2, 1739; H. S. Nyberg aka Henrik Samuel Nyberg; Elijah Hayyim ben Benjamin of Genazzano; Gedalyah ben Yehiyah ; Abraham Yagel; Muslim Sufi master Suhrawardi al-Maqtul aka Ishraqi aka The Illuminated;

Friends

Kava Vishtaçpa, patron;

Organizations

founder of Zoroastrianism; inspired Mithraism; inspired The Gnostic philosophy;

Author

TEACHINGS OF ZOROASTER (well, maybe); the Yasna Haptanghaiti; the Gathas, hymns ; On Nature (Peri physeos)(maybe); Asteroskopita (or Apotelesmatika) AKA Astrology; On Virtue of Stones (Peri lithon timion); Avesta;

External Resources

 

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