seen from Netherlands
seen from Taiwan
seen from Switzerland
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from Germany
seen from New Zealand
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Switzerland
seen from Singapore
seen from Türkiye
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
: What song do you listen while drawing?
Me blessings my ears with this prayer:
Don't tell me that you still haven't found farya faraji's YouTube channel😐it's full of crusader vibes and much of masterpieces 🌌...
This is what I exactly do to those who ignore my posts:
The Yazatas
The Zoroastrian religion is home to many powerful beings called Yazatas, which translate to "worshipful ones" or "worthy of worship." These Yazatas are believed to be divine sparks that originate from Ahura Mazda, embodying the different qualities and attributes of the divine.
Three Yazatas, Sraosha, Rashnu, and Mithra, form a critical triad in the Zoroastrian religion, responsible for maintaining justice and ensuring that every person receives the appropriate consequences for their actions. Sraosha symbolizes God's all-hearing ears, Mithra as God's all-seeing eyes, and Rashnu as the judge who represents God's justice and decides the fate of souls. Their abilities to perceive everything leave nothing hidden from them, and they ensure that perfect justice is guaranteed in the afterlife.
Apart from their judicial duties, they also perform other critical roles. Sraosha is the source of revelation and serves as a two-way channel between God and mankind. He acts not only as God's ears but also a source of intuition for all righteous people, who share a spiritual connection with Ahura Mazda. Mithra, on the other hand, serves as the Yazata who upholds the sanctity of contracts and is a staunch adversary of falsehood. Mithra ensures that those who break their promises face justice.
The Zoroastrian religion is steeped in rich culture and beliefs, with the Yazatas being just one of the many fascinating aspects. These powerful entities serve as an essential link between humanity and the divine, guiding us towards righteousness and justice. As such, they remain an integral part of the Zoroastrian faith, embodying the religion's core principles of truth, justice, and righteousness.
“Hear with your ears to the wondrous. See with a shining, glowing mind. Will wisely like a wizard, each hero and heroine for own self, in flesh and blood. Before the Great Battle, awaken to our teaching, lore.”
Hā 30.2
HISTORY: ZOROASTRIANISM
Zoroastrianism, also called Mazdaism and Magianism, is an ancient Iranian religion and a religious philosophy. It was once the state religion of the Achaemenid Empire and Sassanid Empire. In the eastern part of ancient Persia over 1000 years BCE, a religious philosopher called Zoroaster simplified the pantheon of early Iranian gods into two opposing forces: Ahura Mazda (Illuminating Wisdom) and Angra Mainyu (Destructive Spirit) which were in conflict.
HISTORY: ISLAM
Islam, an Abrahamic religion that began in Mecca, claims to be the revelation of God (Allah) through the angel Gabriel to a man named Muhammad, born in approximately 570 CE.
In Muslim tradition, Muhammad is viewed as the last in a series of prophets. The content of these revelations, known as the Qur'an, was memorized and recorded by his companions. During this time, Muhammad in Mecca preached to the people, imploring them to abandon polytheism and to worship one god.
THE ORIGINAL MYTHICAL JOURNEYS TO "HEAVEN"
ISLAM: MUHAMMAD'S NIGHT JOURNEY
The Isra and Mi'raj are the two parts of a Night Journey that, according to Islamic tradition, the prophet of Islam, Muhammad took during a single night around the year 621. It has been described as both a physical and spiritual journey.
In the journey, Muhammad travels on the steed Buraq to "the farthest mosque" where he leads other prophets in prayer. He then ascends through the seven heavens where he speaks to Allah, who gives Muhammad instructions to take back to the faithful regarding the details of prayer. In the end, Allah instructs Muhammad to tell the people to pray five times per day.
ZOROASTRIANISM: ARTA VIRAF'S NIGHT JOURNEY
A night journey to the heavens is found in an old Pahlavi book known as "The Book of Arta Viraf." The Zoroastrian story describes the journey of a saintly priest, Arta Viraf, who went into a trance and his spirit went up to the heavens under the guidance of an angel named Sarosh. He passed from one utopia to another until he reached the presence of Ormazd, the great deity of the whole universe. When Arta saw the heavens and how happy its inhabitants were, Ormazd commanded him to return to earth as his 'messenger' to tell the people all that he saw and heard. Ormazd commanded that his followers pray five times a day.
PRAYING FIVE TIMES A DAY
In both religions there is a a specified worship of five times a day commanded by god. Zoroastrianism and Islam share a specified worship in relation the movement of Sun. Zoroastrians call this specified worship ‘Gah worship/prayer’. The term ‘Gah’ means ‘period of time’ or ‘place’. So Gah worship means, loosely, "timed worship."
The striking similarity between Islam and Zoroastrianism in the timing of five daily worship is given below:
Time Islam Zoroastrianism Dawn Fajr Havaan Noon Zuhar Rapithwan Afternoon Asr Uziren Evening Maghrib Aiwisuthrem Night Isha Ushaen
RELIGIOUS SIMILARITIES
CALL TO PRAYER
Just like the believers are called for Salat in a mosque by a Muezzin (caller) in Islam five times a day, the Zoroastrian believers are summoned by the ringing of a bell in the Atash Behram / Agiary / Fire Temple to perform Yasna (Gah worship) five times a day.
ABLUTION
Muslims are required to do ritual purification like washing of the face and limbs before commencing Salat. Likewise, Zoroastrians are required to wash their face and limbs before commencing Yasna (Gah worship).
HEAD COVER
In the same way as Muslims cover their heads traditionally when performing Salat, Zoroastrians are required to cover their heads when performing Yasna (Gah worship).
FACING THE DIRECTION
The direction in which Muslims are to perform prayer is toward the Kabaa in Mecca. Most mosques contain a wall niche, known as mihrab, that indicates the Qiblah (direction of the Kabaa in Mecca). Zoroastrians worship facing a blazing fire, as a symbol of God's grace.
READING/RECITING SCRIPTURE IN ORIGINAL LANGUAGES
As Muslims are required to read/recite portions from the Quran in the original language of its revelation (Arabic) while performing Salat, Zoroastrians are required to read/recite portions from the Avesta (Gathas) in the original language of its revelation (Avesta) when performing Yasna (Gah worship).
MISCELLANEOUS PARALLELS
Also, the Zoroastrians taught, long before Islam, there was a marvelous tree in Paradise called 'humaya', which corresponds very closely to the 'sidrah', the lote tree of Islam.
Finally, there is another Zoroastrian work the 'Zerdashtnama', which has a story of how Zoroaster himself ascended into the heavens and obtained permission to visit hell, where he found Ahriman, the Devil.
Paitiš-hahya the end of summer thanksgiving holiday
Paitiš-hahya is the name of the 3rd out of the six Zoroastrian thanksgiving festivals, marking the end of summer. Paitiš-hahya literally means “towards the harvest.”
This auspicious holiday falls almost a week before the autumnal equinox, starting on September 12th and culminating on September 16th. It is a time to honor “crops, bountifulness and harvest.”
It is an auspicious time to celebrate the bounty of harvest. Bonfires are lit to mark the transition into the cold season and longer nights. It is a time to gather in joy and celebrate “love, fertility, and fruit-bearing trees.”
Paitiš-hahya consists of 2 parts. The first part of the word paitiš comes from the Avestan paiti meaning: “Towards, on the way to, in the direction of, on the road to, en route to.” Compare Avestan paiti with Greek potíand/or protí, Old Vedic práti, Old Church Slavonic protivūand Latvian preti “towards.”
The second part hahya “grain, fruit, crops” comes from the same root as Welsh haidd, Briton heiz, “rye, barley,” Vedic sasya “seed-field, crop,” Hittite sesa(na) “fruit.”
Hahya appears in the poetic gathas in the form of hang.hûš “abundance, plenty, bountifulness.” (See Yasna 53.4, 3rd rhymed verse line.) This thanksgiving holiday is about the celebration of fertility in nature and ourselves, a time to honor harvest, crops, love, and the power of productiveness.
My Journey to Zoroastrianism, Part I:
Hello followers! My aim with this blog is to introduce Zoroastrianism to all those who are interested with a unique twist- my own journey, step by step, into the faith of my ancestors in the context of a post-COVID modernity. In this blog I share my insights, translate events into a Zoroastrian framework, discuss the faith and philosophy of Zoroastrianism, and my own personal journey and struggles in adopting this faith and allowing me to understand the world around me. It is my hope that followers can find themselves in my experiences and hopefully derive some benefit from learning about the world through the Mazdayasna lens.
In a world largely dominated by Abrahamic traditions, Greco-Roman philosophy, existentialism and continental philosophy, and of course secular ideologies like liberalism and Marxism, it can be difficult to view phenomena outside of these lenses. For many, the realities of modernity had led to a loss of meaning and purpose, and an unfulfilling life. In helping you all understand the Mazdaean philosophy, it is my hope to help people find this meaning and order. It is not meant for everyone, but for those who find this journey worthwhile, I offer my respect and share my joy. And while many see no validity to the metaphysical and spiritual in the age of machines and code, there is still something to be learned from Zoroastrian as a way of life and a philosophy- even if one does not want to believe in the cosmological. For me, I found this most helpful.
My journey to Zoroastrianism has imbued my life with a sense of purpose and an ethical basis by which to understand the problems of humankind and today's confusion as well as my own inner struggles. As they say in the Zoroastrian tradition, the cosmic battle between Asha and Druj occur not only in the world of Getig, our material reality- they also occur in our inner psyche. The cosmic battle between order and chaos, truth and the lie, righteousness and evil, is just ass much in our hearts and minds as it is all around us. And we are tasked to make meaning of this and partake on both fronts. Throughout this journey I will refer to Zoroastrian phenomena and concepts in both symbolic form, tying them to real-world phenomena, and in lore-form, respecting the faith as-is.
A turning point in my life was in the years of 2020-2024. Much happened here that made me reach a limit of sorts. The best way I can describe it is that my soul and mind were worn out. I was raised a Christian, but had a falling out with the faith in my late teens and into my twenties. I became an atheist in the era of the New Atheist movement, voraciously reading Dawkins, Hitchens and Sam Harris. I found that divorcing myself of my juvenile understanding of God and the Cosmos was liberating, and though surrendering to an unknown void was terrifying at the time, I slowly felt less of a need for faith, belief in an afterlife, or deity in my life. I still, during that time, was not acutely acquainted with mortality, and I was surrounded by negative influences that imbued me with a sense of despair and pessimism. I saw that without this guiding light, I could continue to live on an ethical basis of humanism, but as I got to know humans more- our psyches, our systems, our motivations, and the true nature of history- I realized humanity as a species is deeply flawed and in many ways not redeemable. I found myself seeing the point in Christianity's concept of sin and repentance. My foundation of humanism was challenged when I learned to challenge my inner narratives that I was a good person, I learned that much evil occurs when people believe they are right and others are wrong. I realized our minds lie to us, they protect us with defense mechanisms designed to justify our selfish interests while convincing us we are inherently good and those that are antithetical to us are wrong.
I believed in naive notions of progress, fostered by Enlightenment thinking. Deep down I believed in progress not just historically, but personally. I believed as long as I kept trying to perfect myself, rid myself of trauma and flaws, process emotions and develop a sense of worldly maturity, that the world will accept me, that I'll finally fit in. I had this wrong-headed belief in experts and authorities, believing that the world was just, had an order and expectation to it, a rhythm of propriety, and if I just brought myself up to par, the world would be easier. I was dead wrong in this as events of the past several years taught me our world is anything but just and ordered in its current form, that experts are often pushing angles and just as imperfect as we are, that the true nature of the human application of justice and law is deeply biased and imperfectible, and that blind belief in progress makes us unthinking followers. I also saw society going in many directions that I felt were puzzling, and ultimately saw that society as a whole had no answer to global injustice, and that we are all partaking in it. This stirred something in me. I could no longer use humanism as an ethical basis to live my life. It placed too much faith and hope in our imperfect species and world, and it masked raw self-interest, political motivations and prejudices. I realized then that what I needed was to find something rooted in an ideal we ought to aspire to.
(25th March- 1738 b.c)
Glory to ahura mazda and Zarathustra 🍀🔥
