Notes

ZOROASTRIANISM

--Born in ancient Iran at least 3,500 years ago. it all began around 1500 BCE.
--While we call the religion Zoroastrianism, actual Zoroastrians tend to call it Mazdayasna, meaning Worshipper of Mazda.
--Zoroastrianism was the chief religion of Iran for over 1000 years. Between the 6th century BCE and the 10th century CE, it was the state religion of 3 huge Iranian Empires, The Achaemenid Empire, along with the Parthian and Sasanian Empires.
--Back then, the priest of Zoroastrianism was known as Magi. The ancient greek thought the Magi had secret magical knowledge because they understood complex astronomy. Because of this, this led to the English word "magic", "mage", and "magician". The Magi would even show up in the Bible, according to the gospel of Matthew, 3 Zoroastrian Magi came to visit the baby Jesus. These 3 wise men as they are known in English are still celebrated by Christians worldwide on January 6. Eventually, the Sassanian Empire would fall to the Muslim Arabs during their invasion of Iran in the seventh century CE, which started the decline and persecution of Zoroastrianism in Iran.
--Following this in the tenth century, some Iranian Zoroastrians fled to India, forming the Parsi community, named after where they came from, the Indians called Parsis. This once refugee community now forms the largest group of Zoroastrians anywhere on Earth and they settled in quite well. One of India's largest businesses, Tata Group was founded by Zoroastrians and Parsis played a massive role in winning Indian independence from Britain.

--Zoroastrians can now be found all over the world. Historically they emigrated to areas such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and parts of Africa such as the island of Zanzibar, where Freddie Mercury’s Parsi parents would later emigrate from to the UK. In the last 100 years, small Zoroastrian populations have moved to the UK, the US, Australia, and Canada. Today there are about 200,000 Zoroastrians left. About 60,000 live in India while the second largest group of about 25,000 live in Iran.

--it’s time we talked about Zoroaster. We don't know much about Zoroaster's life. We can't even pinpoint when he lived. The Greeks thought he lived 6000 years before the death of Plato, so 6347BCEish. While modern historians place him somewhere around 1700-1000BCE. During this time the peoples of Iran believed in many different gods, some of which were similar to the gods of their ancient Hindu neighbours.

Script: (What we do know is that Zoroaster was a priest of the pre-Zoroastrian religion of Iran and that he was outraged with his society. Roving bands of drunken warriors would ravage the countryside. They pillaged, tortured, and slaughtered at will.)

-The common people lived in constant fear and misery while the priests obsessed over obscure rituals and sacrifices that offered little guidance or hope to the suffering. Zoroaster couldn’t stand these injustices.

- When he was 30 years old, Zoroaster went down to a river to fetch water for a ceremony. There he received a vision from a being of pure light and goodness, Ahura Mazda, who revealed that they were the one true God. The Truth of how the universe worked was revealed to Zoroaster and he knew that it was his divine mission to teach his fellow humans about Ahura Mazda.



WHAT ARE THE CORE BELIEFS OF ZOROASTRIANISM?
1) Ahura Mazda & Angra Mainyu
-Zoroastrians worship one uncreated, and eternal God, known as Ahura Mazda, which means Wise Lord. Zoroaster describes Ahura Mazda as the lord of order, something completely good, loving, infinitely wise and the creator of the world and all good things. Ahura Mazda is supported by six Holy Immortals known as the Amesha Spentas. These six Holy Immortals are normally compared to Arch-Angels in Christanity.