Ahura Mazda

Ahura Mazda — the Wise Lord, the Wise One who is also Lord — is the supreme creator-deity of [[zoroastrianism|the Zoroastrian tradition]]. The compound name combines ahura (Old Iranian: lord, of the highest sort) with mazdā (wisdom, the wise one). In the Gathas — the seventeen hymns attributed to Zarathustra himself, the oldest layer of the Avestan corpus, composed in eastern Iran perhaps 3,000 years ago — Ahura Mazda is addressed as the one supreme creator from whom all the structuring elements of the cosmos derive.

What he is

The Zoroastrian theological articulation:

• Creator. Ahura Mazda creates the cosmos through Spenta Mainyu ([[spirituality|the holy]] spirit of his creative will). The created order is fundamentally good — the cosmos is not flawed, the world is not illusion. This is one of the structural distinctions between Zoroastrian thought and various dualistic and gnostic traditions.
• The wholly good. Ahura Mazda is the source of light, truth, order, life, joy, [[abundance|abundance]]. He is not the source of evil, falsehood, disorder, death, or suffering — those have their own opposing source, Angra Mainyu (later Ahriman), the destructive spirit. The cosmic struggle between truth (asha) and lie (druj) is the principal narrative of Zoroastrian theology.
• The intelligible. Unlike many religious traditions in which the supreme deity is principally beyond comprehension, Ahura Mazda is intelligible — addressable in poetry, knowable through right thought, alignable through practice. The Zoroastrian path is substantially one of bringing one’s own mind, words, and deeds into alignment with what Ahura Mazda is.
• The associated divine emanations. Ahura Mazda is surrounded by the seven Amesha Spentas (Beneficent Immortals) — Vohu Manah (Good Mind), Asha Vahishta (Best Truth), Khshathra Vairya (Desirable Dominion), Spenta Armaiti (Holy Devotion), Haurvatat (Wholeness), Ameretat (Immortality), and Ahura Mazda himself. The seven structure both the cosmology and the human ethical aspiration.

How he is worshipped

A non-exhaustive map of practice:

• Sacred fire. The principal symbol of Ahura Mazda’s presence is fire — the visible image of the divine light. Major Zoroastrian fire-temples maintain fires that have been kept burning continuously for centuries (the Atash Behram of Yazd, the Iranshah Atash Behram in Udvada, India, and others).
• The Yasna liturgy. The principal Zoroastrian ritual, conducted by a priest, involves recitation of Avestan hymns and the preparation of haoma (a ritual drink). The Yasna is offered principally to Ahura Mazda.
• Daily prayers. Zoroastrian practitioners recite daily prayers (the Kusti prayers) that address Ahura Mazda.
• Humata, hukhta, hvarshta. Good thoughts, good words, good deeds — the foundational ethical practice. The integration of one’s mental, verbal, and active life with asha (the cosmic-moral order Ahura Mazda creates) is the principal continuing devotional practice.

Substantial influence

Several lines of historical influence:

• On Judaism. The Achaemenid Persian Empire — under which [[zoroastrianism|Zoroastrianism]] was the principal religion of the elite — substantially overlapped with the late Babylonian and post-exilic Jewish communities. Several themes that emerge in post-exilic Jewish thought (cosmic dualism between good and evil, judgment of the dead, resurrection, eschatological renovation) have substantial Zoroastrian parallels and likely Zoroastrian influence.
• On Christianity. Through Jewish transmission and through direct contact in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Zoroastrian themes substantially shaped Christian eschatology — judgment, resurrection, the coming of a saviour figure (Saoshyant in Zoroastrian tradition; substantial parallels in Christian millennial expectation).
• On Islam. The Iranian region in which Islam took root after the 7th-century Arab conquest had been Zoroastrian for over a millennium; substantial cultural and theological transmission shaped subsequent Islamic thought.
• On Western philosophy. Through Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–85) — which uses Zarathustra as a literary mouthpiece for views the historical figure would not have recognized — Zoroastrian themes entered modern Western philosophical discourse in a partly-distorted form.

See also

Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.

• Subset of: [[zoroastrianism]]
• Member of: [[deity]]

Sources

1. The Gathas of Zarathushtra. Trans. Stanley Insler. Acta Iranica, 1975. Source class: primary text.
2. Mary Boyce. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge, 1979 (rev. 2001). Source class: book / standard scholarly survey.
3. Mary Boyce. Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism. Manchester University Press, 1984. Source class: book / sourcebook.
4. Almut Hintze. [[zoroastrianism|The Zoroastrian Tradition]]. Various publications. Source class: scholarly literature.

Lenses still to grow

• The Gathas as substantial primary text in detail.
• The Amesha Spentas as continuing theological structure.
• The Zoroastrian influence on Abrahamic eschatology in detail.
• Iranshah and the principal continuing fire-temples as structures.