101 Names of God In Zoroastrianism, 101 names of God (Pazand Sad-o-yak nam-i-khoda) is a list of names of God (Ahura Mazda). The list is preserved in Persian, Pazand and Gujarati. The 101 names God are often taken during Baj (ceremonial prayer) during the Yasna ritual while continuously sprinkling with the ring made of “Hasht” (eight)...
Ahura Mazda Ahura Mazda (Avestan: Mazdā Ahura also known as Oromasdes, Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hourmazd, Hormazd, and Hurmuz) is the creator and highest deity of Zoroastrianism. Ahura Mazda is the first and most frequently invoked spirit in the Yasna. The literal meaning of the word Ahura is “lord”, and that of Mazda is “wisdom“. Ahura Mazda first appeared in the Achaemenid period (c. 550 – 330 BCE) under Darius...
Ancient Iranian Religion Ancient Iranian religion refers to the ancient beliefs and practices of the Iranian peoples before the rise of Zoroastrianism. The Iranian peoples emerged as a separate branch of the Indo-Iranians in the 2nd-millennium BC, during which they came to dominate the Eurasian Steppe and the Iranian Plateau. Their religion is derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, and...
Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism, or Mazdayasna, is one of the world’s oldest religions that remains active. It is a monotheistic faith (i.e. a single creator God), centered in a dualistic cosmology of good and evil and an eschatology predicting the ultimate destruction of evil. Ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra), it exalts a deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda (Wise...
What Is Frashokereti? Frashokereti is the Avestan-language term for the Zoroastrian doctrine of a final renovation of the universe, when evil will be destroyed, and everything else will be then in perfect unity with God (Ahura Mazda). The doctrinal premises are (1) good will eventually prevail over evil; (2) creation was initially perfectly...
Ahriman Angra Mainyu (Avestan: Aŋra Mainiiu) is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism‘s hypostasis of the “destructive spirit”. The Middle Persian equivalent is Ahriman (Angra Mainyu is Ahura Mazda’s adversary. In the Avesta In Zoroaster’s revelation Avestan angra mainyu “seems to have been an original conception of Zoroaster’s.” In the Gathas, which are the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and are attributed to the...
Amesha Spenta In Zoroastrianism, Amesha Spenta (Avestan) is a class of divine entities literally means “Immortal (which is) holy.” Later Middle Persian variations of the term include the contraction ‘Ameshaspand’ as well as the specifically Zoroastrian ‘Mahraspand’ and ‘Amahraspand’. As the great “divine sparks” Significantly more common than the non-specific meaning of Amesha Spenta (see below) is...
Angels In Zoroastrianism There are different angels in Zoroastrianism. For example, each person has one guardian angel, called Fravashi. They patronize human beings and other creatures and also manifest God’s energy. The Amesha Spentas have often been regarded as angels, although there is no direct reference to them conveying messages, but...
Yazata Yazata (Avestan) is the Avestan language word for a Zoroastrian concept with a wide range of meanings but generally signifying (or used as an epithet of) a divinity. The term literally means “worthy of worship or veneration“, and is thus, in this more general sense, also applied to certain healing plants, primordial creatures, the fravashis of...