Zoroastrianism: Symbols and Concepts
Second in a series on the TISS-PARZOR Academic Programme in Culture & Civilisations: A Zoroastrian Perspective.
Another jam-packed two hours. Professor Shernaz Cama began the Zoom class by defining a symbol versus an image. She went on to cover several concepts and rituals, the latter done both by priests and Zoroastrians in daily life.
First Monotheistic Religion
But first I want to get out of the way the Western misinformation that Zoroastrianism is dualist. It isn’t.
Zoroastrianism is the first monotheistic religion in the world. Zoroastrians worship one God. I’ve known this for as long as I can remember. In my more charitable moments, I assign simplistic thinking to the Westerners’ reason for so egregiously mischaracterizing Zoroastrianism.
Symbol vs. Image
Image
A mental picture that reflects the object.
A form or semblance of that which it wishes to convey.
An artificial imitation of an object.
Symbol
Represents the abstract.
Recalls something to mind by association in fact or idea.
A sign or a mark of something.
Before I continue, I’d like to note that I struggled to process in real time what Prof. Cama was teaching. It’s not that I don’t know many of these concepts already; but that I hadn’t learnt them from the perspective and in as much depth as she was teaching.
I believe life is both matter and spirit. Yet I feel like I don’t fully understand this concept in the way in which Prof. Cama presented it because of all that she wove into it. And so I may inadvertently introduce some errors into this post as I attempt to summarize a few of the concepts.
If you didn’t read the first post on this course, check it out now:
Matter and Spirit Interwoven
Why is defining a symbol important? It helps us see objects Zoroastrians use or wear not as literal but as symbols that point to an idea or concept in which Zoroastrians believe. In the way that too many misconstrue the snake in the garden of Eden as literal, so Westerners misconstrue fire as a literal target of worship. But understanding that objects are symbols reinforces the idea that fire is a symbol of matter and spirit. Understanding this basic concept puts paid to the errorneous idea that Zoroastrians worship fire. I wonder if Westerners misconstrue fire as a worship target in their zeal to mischaracterize Zoroastrianism as anything but what it is: the oldest monotheistic religion in human existence.
Matter: It is physical. It’s what our five senses can perceive.
Spirit: It is eternal and invisible. It underlies our daily lives, our community life, our religions, the trajectory of human existence.
Creation is the coming together of matter and spirit.
Matter and spirit are interconnected in truth and in symbols. The symbols of Zoroastrianism contain and point to both matter and spirit. I realize that this counters the prevailing North American view that life is material only. Frankly, I think that North American view is one-dimensional thinking and has led to some rather simplistic ways of looking at things.
God
Ahura Mazda is One Supreme Uncreated Force:
Formless
Genderless
Omniscient
Omnipresent
Not omnipotent
That last trait is why Ahura Mazda requires humans and all of Creation to help with Creation. (Actually, this doesn’t really differ from Christianity. God gave humans the responsibility to garden Creation, and Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount about being salt and light in Creation.)
That’s why human beings have free will, which means they have choice, and why the central tenet is Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds. Cultivating Good Thoughts leads to good choices that work hand in hand with Ahura Mazda in Creation towards the end game of all humans choosing only the good and purging the evil.
My father taught me that God gives us our talents; it’s up to us alone to apply ourselves and use those talents for the good of others. But I also learnt that we walk hand in hand with God.
So if God is omniscient and omnipresent and we’re walking hand in hand with our Creator, then how are we alone? Yes, we are required to choose Good Thoughts so as to speak Good Words and do Good Deeds — deeds don’t arise out of nothing — but walking hand in hand infers sharing the load, being given knowledge we need, and not being alone in controlling our thoughts. I mean, when we walk hand in hand with another human, do they stay silent, say nothing, provide none of their advice or wisdom, hog their energy and strength? And vice versa? Heck no!
Fire
Fire is a key symbol. Again, I repeat, no Zoroastrian worships it.
Fire is material. It burns things up. Burnt things become ash.
Fire is also a symbol. Imagine a flame. Inspect it. What does it remind you of? What associations of ideas or concepts come to mind? That’s where fire reveals its Zoroastrian symbolism.
Fire speaks of eternality and neverending. Of enlightenment. Fire’s brilliance or dimness brings to mind enlightenment growing into wisdom or shrinking into shadows. As fire grows brighter, in the same way, enlightenment increases in our minds. This symbolism is why Zoroastrians have fires in their temples that never go out and why they have elaborate consecration rituals to create a fire or reignite one.
The ash from fire, when put on a person’s forehead, reminds them that they are dust to dust. It slays arrogance and brings forth humility. Thus ash, too, is both material and symbolic.
When Prof. Cama talked about the ritual of placing ash on a person’s forehead, it reminded me of Ash Wednesday, a Christian ritual. I don’t know what it says about my upbringing that I have little experience of either.
Light and Wisdom
White light is both matter and a symbol. White light literally lights up our surroundings, but it can also cast a shadow. In addition, white light contains within it seven colours. Photons, both particle and waves of different lengths, is the material aspect of white light.
But white light is also a symbol.
Light is pure. It brings life to the world. White light represents Ahura Mazda.
Yet light casts a shadow. The shadow represents darkness and points to the spiritual force of Angra Mainyu. Since shadows depend on light being present, they are not equal to light. (Explains why Zoroastrianism ain’t dualist, eh?) Shadows also disappear when the light is strong and present at a certain angle or when light emits from every angle. Again, light’s symbolic representation of Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu reinforces Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic religion, whose ultimate trajectory is one of eliminating the shadow aka Angra Mainyu. The light remains.
The Seven
Within the light are seven colours. Similarly, Ahura Mazda, represented as white light, contains seven Amesha Spentas, represented by seven inherent colours of white light.
When you don your mind’s prism spectacles to really see Ahura Mazda, then you will perceive the seven holy immortals within that white light. In other words, you’ll perceive the seven Amesha Spentas.
Each Spenta symbolizes an aspect of Creation, the invisible essences behind the light of Ahura Mazda. They are the holy immortals and aspects of Ahura Mazda.
Prof. Cama litters her lectures with how understanding comes to life in traditions. She talked about parents telling their children to pick up their feet when they walk. Mine did. But I had no idea that this is because one of the Spentas represents the Earth, and picking up our feet recognizes the sacredness of the ground we walk on. This tradition expresses that Spenta. (I’m not writing here about the associated symbols of each Spenta as it’s more knowledge than I can process right now.)
The Mental Picture of Light
This mental picture of white light and its inherent seven colours helps us see how Ahura Mazda is One Supreme Uncreated Formless Force and how Ahura Mazda created Creation. That mental picture shows us through its associated symbols how we work hand in hand with Ahura Mazda (within Creation?) as we journey towards the End Time.
“We Zoroastrians love to fight and make a mess of our lives.”
When Prof. Cama said that, I smiled with relief. To know mess is part of our heritage and not some quirk of my family makes me feel less alone.
With each choice we make, we grow in experience and understanding of the thoughts that drove the resulting words and deeds of our choices. This progression of choices over time leads to wisdom. Or at least one hopes it does!
Prof. Cama emphasized Zoroastrianism is a religion and culture of choice.
We choose.
All problems in the world stem from the choices humans make.
They don’t arise from God, that is, Ahura Mazda.
Christianity says the same; but secular society insists that bad things prove that there is no God. Also, a subset of Christians insist bad things express God’s judgement on peoples they disapprove of. I’m astounded at the illogic of expecting we all have free will yet expecting that if a god exists, then that god can and should override our free will to choose bad thoughts, words, and deeds. And Jesus clearly taught judgement isn’t for now — just as Zarathushtra did.
When we focus on Good Thoughts and look to the Amesha Spentas — look to those aspects of Ahura Mazda — to shape our thoughts, words, and deeds, we will veer towards making good choices and away from bad ones. In this way, we not only grow in wisdom, but also solve problems humans create when making bad choices.
Creation, Judgement, Heaven and Hell
Creation
All of Creation is one. No element opposes another. There’s no such concept in the Zoroastrian mind that fire and water are enemies. Rather they are parts of a united whole. Isn’t that what Christianity also teaches? It’s only the human propensity to find division, I think, that leads to the idea of Creation opposing itself.
I’m not sure but I think Creation arrived because Ahura Mazda wanted a follower. Ahriman was born out of doubt. Ahriman is another name for Angra Mainyu, the evil spirit, who Christians think of as Satan. Who first doubted, I’m unclear on. But doubt begatting darkness is why when we pray, we mustn’t doubt, for then we invite in Ahriman.
Prof. Cama talked about how the Bible doesn’t speak of Satan or the devil until after the Babylonian exile at the time of Cyrus the Great, a Zoroastrian king. As was discussed during the orientation session and in the first Foundation lecture, Zoroastrianism being the first monotheistic religion influenced all other religions. The similarities we see originated in Zoroastrianism. The erasure of this historical knowledge may be found in the arrogance of other religions’ followers not wanting to admit that.
Hell
The well-known Christian idea of hell being a fire while Zoroastrians see fire as symbolizing enlightenment, shows how one object can symbolize opposing ideas in two belief systems (Christianity and Zoroastrianism).
However, fire doesn’t represent hell for all Christians.
Jesus didn’t teach that hell is eternal fire that burns yet doesn’t consume humans forever and ever. I can’t recall which Pope, because I’m not a Catholic, wrote that hell is separation from God not an eternal non-consuming fire. I’ve learnt that the hell Jesus talked about was literally a garbage dump in which a neverending fire burned in the way layers and layers of trash can smoulder deep within its depths. Jesus referred to that as a symbol not a literal description of hell. I used that symbolism in The Soul’s Awakening, novel one of The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy, as one part of my Hell Track setting. I also created another setting in which I depict hell not as a fire but separation from God created by human beings.
In Zoroastrianism, hell is eternal loneliness. Being alone. No one around. It is worse than any punishment. I think many of us here on Earth are already living that hell because of the choices society and too many “healthy” humans make. I conveyed that idea as well in The Soul’s Awakening when my protagonist enters the first stage of the afterlife, right after having used euthanasia to cut short her Soul Track.
Heaven
The opposite of Hell is Heaven.
In Zoroastrianism, Heaven is a garden where all family members reunite.
A garden. A paradise. Pleasant surroundings. Gentle breezes. Colourful, fragrant flowers. We’re probably all familiar with this depiction.
Judgement
Time is linear and ultimately leads to Judgement. I don’t fully understand this aspect. There’s a bridge. For the good, passing along this bridge will feel like floating through warm milk. (Milk seems to be a common motif in Zoroastrian oral stories and traditions.) But for the bad, it will be like walking on a razor’s edge.
I’d like to write more about Creation and the End Times, but I couldn’t keep up with Prof. Cama’s teachings on it. Although I’m familiar with the former to some extent, she introduced so much I hadn’t heard before plus I’m not familiar at all with the end of time (a linear concept in Zoroastrianism) that I feel that I both grasp it and don’t grasp it. So I’ve requested a tutorial session and may write on that later. And I should probably read The Bundahishn.
Fravashi
The Fravashi is the well-known Zoroastrian symbol you see carved on buildings and worn around necklaces. (See photo at top.) Prof. Cama said that it isn’t only for Zoroastrians to wear. She tells non-Zoroastrians it is for them as well since the Fravashi:
Is a guardian spirit.
Is a protector.
Helps you reach perfection.
The Fravashi combines matter and spirit. Three wings for Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds. The circle for divine perfection. The man’s head for humans.
The Fravashi isn’t to be worshipped; it’s a symbol of the basic Zoroastrian concepts that matter and spirit are interwoven, of good thoughts, of choice, of reaching perfection. When we look at it, we are reminded of these principles and thus we make better choices.
The Dead
I read the first assigned reading this past week, Anton Zykov’s paper “Zoroastrian Funeral Practices: Transition In Conduct” about the history and traditions since the fifteenth century. There isn’t much recorded prior to that. Although I was sent three readings, I wasn’t sure when and which to read. So I began with this one since I’m quite familiar with funeral practices as done in the modern world. Zykov’s paper focused on the practicalities. Prof. Cama talked about The Dead. What’s significant is that the body is laid out for vultures and other predator birds to eat as an ecological way to recyle them. Once the soul departs, the body no longer matters to the departed person. But burning it up would waste our planet’s resources. Zoroastrianism is an ecological religion. Being good husbands of our planet matters. Predators rely on carrion to live. And so when Zoroastrians lay out the dead for the predators, they’re feeding animals and returning the body’s matter to the Earth.
Prayers and The Soul
We say prayers annually (well, my family doesn’t since my grandparents’ sons paid the priests in Bombay/Mumbai to say them, and I have always felt the loss of that practice). What I hadn’t remembered was that this was when the soul returns to be with the family.
If you’ve ever watched a K-Drama, you’ll have seen them hold an annual remembrance of their departed family members (parents, grandparents) as a regular part of life with the belief that the dead person’s soul is with them during their prayers and memorial. Since Zoroastrianism predates all other religions, perhaps this practice arose out of our own annual remembrance tradition.
Annual prayers are conducted for 30 years, the length of time we remember our grandparents and the length of a generation.
We are the soul, the urvan, and the diyena. The soul is immortal. The urvan is the chooser and is responsible for our actions. It goes to the bridge after death where it is judged and when we learn we must live with the consequences of the choices we make1. The diyena is our conscience and accompanies the soul to the next world. It communicates with the holy spirit; if the urvan has made bad choices, it drags the soul to the place of sorrow.
Since the soul is eternal, The Dead are always with us. The end times will see the family — all its generations — reunited.
The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy follows my protagonist’s journey as she lives with the consequences of her decisions during life on Earth and how she must finish her Soul Track in order to rectify those consequences and make better and wiser choices. Who knew that these concepts I’ve always believed — that we can’t lead consequence-free lives — was born as much out of Zoroastrianism as Christianity. I believe when we make decisions, we must think about their consequences and not whine when they’re not what we thought would happen because we chose to believe they wouldn’t.