Zoroaster
Zoroaster (a.k.a. Zarathustra) was priest, profit, and founder of the Zoroasterian faith.
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Notes
Not much is known about Zoroaster. "The only sure thing is that the prophet hated cruel aristocrats." [1]
"According to the tradition Zoroaster was thirty, the time of ripe wisdom, when revelation finally came to him....It is said that Zoroaster being at a gathering met to celebrate a spring festival, went at dawn to a river to fetch water for the haoma-ceremony. He waded in to draw fro midstream; and when he returned to the bank - himself in a state of ritual purity, emerging from the pure element, water, in the freshness of spring dawn - he had a vision."[2]
Zoroaster had several more Connection Experiences, in which he received truths from a Heptad of beings (Vohu Manah, Ahura Mazda and "five other radiant figures."). His revelations, recorded orally in 17 Gathas, became the foundation for the development of the globally influential Zoroasterian faith.[3]
Footnotes
- ↑ Messadie, Gerald. A History of the Devil. New York: Kodansha, 1996. p. 81.
- ↑ Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge, 2001. p. 19.
- ↑ For an overview of the belief system and just how influential it was, see Sosteric, Mike. “From Zoroaster to Star Wars, Jesus to Marx.” 2018. https://www.academia.edu/34504691.
