I saw an online friend of mine describe Ahura Mazda as “the deification of Sophía (wisdom) on a universal level”, it was an interesting perspective. I have a post abt the etymology of the name and it’s spiritual meanings. I will share it soon
Ahura Mazda also carries motifs of the “sky-father” concept... he is of the heavens, Armaiti (our “mother”) is the earth, the sun is his eye (exactly like dyēus and other mythological derivations), he is equated to Zeus amongst the Greeks, etc.
I should also do a post abt a “pre-zoroastrian” faith. I should just say that it’s not gonna be too different minus a) the philosophies concerning consciousness/spirit (like w/ our dualism) b) ethical emphasis on Asha c) Ahura Mazda... is argued to not be there 🙃 BUT it’s a debated topic (I personally think he is analogous w/ asura pitr, the primordial Father Asura in the Vedas, for example…)
Although Iranic peoples were certainly Asura worshippers, and I suspect that the semantics of daeva vs ahura (or deva vs asura) do not seem to change. I definitely know however that it was not Zarathustra who introduced it. And fun fact: contrary to racist 18th-19th century scholars, “dasyus” aren’t “aboriginal south asians,” they were asura-worshipping Iranic peoples and the avesta mentions them too (dahae, cog. is dahyu/dahya which means ‘nation, peoples’ and not ‘enemy’ like in the Vedas).
Boyce proposes that Apam Napat-Mithra (a possible equivalent to the Vedic Varuna-Mitra pairing?) could’ve been worshipped as “the head(s)” of this old pantheon of ahuras/asuras. For example, Apąm Napāt is once credited to be the creator of human beings in our texts... Which perhaps is an old remnant of the culture before Asho Zartosht’s revelation... (?) bc clearly afterwards and generally speaking, Ahura Mazda, as the uncreated Creator, Lord of Wisdom itself, is the source of the divinities (who fight in alliance w/ our god) and all of creation.
I also should also do a post abt “zurvanism.” I’ve read Saul Shaked’s works recently and other sources, Christian commentaries/polemics and histories from the Sassanid era, references made in the Dēnkard + some things Ancient Greeks said... I certainly do think there was an “unorthodox” sect associated with it at some point (Middle Persian sources seem to record it), at the same time, I think it is just another flavour of Zoroastrianism — perhaps even a foreign (mis-)understanding of the recorded account given in the bundahišn, where ohrmazd and ahriman, as unmanifested spirits, lay w/in the realm of zurvan akarana aka boundless time/space; “ohrmazd and ahriman in zurvan’s womb”.
Also, in post-Islamic texts our “genesis” or cosmological account(s) viz. ohrmazd, gayomard (primeval human or man), ahriman, etc are recorded with many variations, some monist, some dualist, and to divide or exclude one or the other from our tradition is nonsensical imo. The dēn is not a strict monolith.
