Zaratustra

Este cargo de la jerarquía lo ocupa actualmente alguien que estuvo encarnado como el fundador del zoroastrismo en la antigua Persia. Es el iniciado del fuego sagrado más alto en el planeta y la autoridad que gobierna las energías del fóhat. Está por encima de los sacerdotes del fuego sagrado y del sacerdocio de Melquisedec.

Zaratustra

Todos los miembros de la Gran Hermandad Blanca prestan servicio en la Orden de Melquisedec igual que sirven al fuego sagrado, pero sólo los que alcanzan cierto nivel iniciático pueden ser llamados Sacerdotes de la Orden de Melquisedec. Otros miembros contribuyen a los propósitos de la Orden pero no tienen el título de sacerdotes. Zaratustra tiene muchos discípulos que sirven debajo de él y cuando el más avanzado de ellos alcance cierto logro, estará cualificado para el cargo y el instructor avanzará hacia un servicio cósmico.

The historical record

El zoroastrismo es una de las religiones del mundo más antiguas. Zaratustra, su fundador, fue un profeta que hablaba con su Dios cara a cara. Zaratustra vivió en una sociedad analfabeta, cuyo pueblo no dejó nada escrito. Sus enseñanzas fueron transmitidas por tradición oral y mucho de lo que se escribió más tarde sobre su vida y sus enseñanzas se ha perdido o destruido. Aquello que los eruditos han podido reunir sobre él proviene de tres fuentes: el estudio del entorno histórico anterior y contemporáneo a la época en que se cree que vivió Zaratustra, la tradición y los diecisiete cantos sagrados «Gathas». Los eruditos están de acuerdo en que Zaratustra compuso estos cantos. Los Gathas están contenidos en el Avesta, las escrituras sagradas del zoroastrismo.

Mary Boyce, Emeritus Professor of Iranian Studies at the University of London, points out:

Zoroastrianism is the oldest of the revealed world-religions, and it has probably had more influence on mankind, directly and indirectly, than any other single faith.

According to R. C. Zaehner, former Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University, Zarathustra was

... one of the greatest religious geniuses of all time.... [He] was a prophet, or at least conceived himself to be such; he spoke to his God face to face.... [Yet] about the Prophet himself we know almost nothing that is authentic.

Zarathustra lived in a nonliterate society, whose people did not keep records. His teachings were passed down by oral tradition, and much of what was later written down about his life and teachings has been lost or destroyed. What scholars have been able to piece together about him comes from three sources: the study of the historical milieu prior to and during the time Zarathustra is believed to have lived, tradition, and seventeen sacred hymns called Gathas. Scholars concur that Zarathustra composed these hymns. The Gathas are recorded in the Avesta, the sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism.

Scenes from the life of Zarathustra

Se cree que Zaratustra nació en lo que hoy es el este de Irán central, pero no es seguro. La fecha de nacimiento de Zaratustra es aún más difícil de establecer. Los eruditos la sitúan entre 1700 a.C. y 600 a.C. El consenso es que vivió alrededor de 1000 a.C. o antes. Los Gathas dicen que Zaratustra era de la familia Spitama, una familia de caballeros. El nombre griego equivalente a Zaratustra es Zoroastro, que significa «estrella dorada » o «luz dorada». Fue alguien perteneciente a la clase sacerdotal que formuló mantras.

The Gathas are the key to determining Zarathustra’s approximate year of birth. They are linguistically similar to the Rigveda, one of the sacred texts of the Hindus. According to Boyce:

The language of the Gathas is archaic, and close to that of the Rigveda (whose composition has been assigned to about 1700 B.C. onwards); and the picture of the world to be gained from [the Gathas] is correspondingly ancient, that of a Stone Age society.... It is only possible therefore to hazard a reasoned conjecture that [Zarathustra] lived some time between 1700 and 1500 B.C.

Other scholars working with the same evidence place his birth between 1400 and 1200 B.C.

The Gathas say that Zarathustra was of the Spitama family, a family of knights. The Greek name for Zarathustra is Zoroaster, meaning “Golden Star,” or “Golden Light.” He was one of the priest class who formulated mantras.

Zarathustra was also an initiate. According to Boyce, “He ... describes himself [in the Gathas] as a ‘vaedemna’ or ‘one who knows,’ an initiate possessed of divinely inspired wisdom.” But first and foremost, Zarathustra was a prophet, and he is a prophet and he lives today among us as an ascended master.

The Gathas depict him as talking to God. They say:

He is “the Prophet who raises his voice in veneration, the friend of Truth,” God’s friend, a “true enemy to the followers of the Lie and a powerful support to the followers of the Truth.”

Calling as a prophet

La tradición sostiene que a la edad de veinte años Zaratustra dejó a su padre, su madre y su esposa para ir en busca de la Verdad. Diez años más tarde tuvo la primera de muchas visiones. «Vio en la orilla a un Ser radiante, que se reveló como Vohu Manah, «buen propósito»; y este Ser llevó a Zoroastro ante la presencia de Ahura Mazda y otras cinco figuras radiantes, ante las cuales “no veía su propia sombra en la tierra, debido a la gran luz que tenían”».

Boyce writes:

According to tradition Zoroaster was thirty, the time of ripe wisdom, when revelation finally came to him. This great happening is alluded to in one of the Gathas and is tersely described in a Pahlavi [Middle Persian] work. Here it is said that Zoroaster, being at a gathering [called] to celebrate a spring festival, went at dawn to a river to fetch water.

He waded in to draw [the water] from midstream; and when he returned to the bank ... he had a vision. He saw on the bank a shining Being, who revealed himself as Vohu Manah ‘Good [Mind]’; and this Being led Zoroaster into the presence of Ahura Mazda and five other radiant figures, before whom ‘he did not see his own shadow upon the earth, owing to their great light’. And it was then, from this great heptad [or group of seven beings], that he received his revelation.”

We can conjecture that the seven beings of this great heptad were none other than the Seven Holy Kumaras.

Ahura Mazda significa «Señor sabio». Zaratustra reconoció a Ahura Mazda como el único Dios verdadero, el Creador del universo. Poco después de su primera visión, Zaratustra se convirtió en el portavoz de Ahura Mazda y comenzó a proclamar su mensaje. Instituyó una reforma religiosa de largo alcance. Su principal objetivo era extirpar el mal, y predicó contra los «daevas» (demonios) de la antigua religión.

The significance of this cannot be overstated. Zarathustra may have been the first monotheist in recorded history. Zaehner points out, “The great achievement of the Iranian Prophet [was] that he eliminated all the ancient gods of the Iranian pantheon, leaving only Ahura Mazdah, the ‘Wise Lord’, as the One True God.”

Some scholars assert that Zarathustra was not a strict monotheist but a henotheist, that is, one who worships one God but does not deny the existence of others. This is a technical distinction. As David Bradley, author of A Guide to the World’s Religions, notes, “[Zarathustra] was a practicing monotheist in the same way that Moses was.” Bradley thinks that Moses knew of the existence of lesser gods but insisted on the necessity of siding with the true God against all other gods.

Shortly after his first vision, Zarathustra became a spokesman for Ahura Mazda and began to proclaim his message.

According to Simmons, Zarathustra instituted a religious reform that was more far-reaching and more radical than Martin Luther’s challenge of the Roman Catholic Church.

Zarathustra’s reform had a number of facets. His main objective was to stamp out Evil. He began to condemn the religious doctrines of his countrymen.

The old religion, as best we can tell, had two classes of deities—the ahuras, or “lords,” and the daevas, or “demons.” According to Zaehner:

It is ... the daevas specifically whom Zoroaster attacks, not the ahuras whom he prefers to ignore.... In all probability he considered them to be God’s creatures and as fighters on his side. In any case he concentrated the full weight of his attack on the daevas and their worshippers who practised a gory sacrificial ritual and were the enemies of the settled pastoral community to which the Prophet himself belonged.

Zarathustra and Vishtaspa

Spreading his message

Al principio Zaratustra tuvo poco éxito en la diseminación de su mensaje. Fue perseguido por los sacerdotes y seguidores de los daevas y, según la tradición, intentaron matarlo varias veces. Pasaron diez años antes de que Zaratustra obtuviera su primer converso, su primo. Entonces fue guiado divinamente a la corte del rey Vishtaspa y la reina Hutaosa.

It took ten years for Zarathustra to make his first convert, his cousin. He was then divinely led to the court of King Vishtaspa and Queen Hutaosa.

Vishtaspa era un monarca honesto y sencillo, pero estaba rodeado por los «karpan», un grupo de sacerdotes egoístas y manipuladores. Convocaron un consejo para desafiar las revelaciones del nuevo profeta y conspiraron exitosamente para que lo metieran en la cárcel. Como cuenta la historia, Zaratustra consiguió su libertad al curar milagrosamente el caballo negro favorito del rey. Vishtaspa le dio permiso para que enseñara la nueva fe a su consorte, la reina Hutaosa. La bella Hutaosa se convirtió en uno de sus mayores partidarios y le ayudó a convertir a Vishtaspa.

Tras dos largos años, el monarca finalmente fue convertido. Pero Vishtaspa exigió una última señal antes de aceptar completamente la fe. Pidió que se le mostrara qué papel jugaría en el mundo celestial. Como respuesta, Ahura Mazda envió tres arcángeles a la corte de Vishtaspa y Hutaosa. Aparecieron como caballeros resplandecientes vestidos con armadura completa, montados a caballo. Según un texto, llegaron con tal gloria que «su radiación en esa noble residencia parecía… un cielo de luz completa, debido a su gran poder y triunfo… cuando por tanto [los] miró, el exaltado rey Vishtaspa tembló, todos sus cortesanos temblaron, todos sus comandantes quedaron confundidos».

Irradiando una luz cegadora y el sonido del trueno, anunciaron que habían llegado en nombre de Ahura Mazda con el fin de que el rey pudiera recibir la totalidad del mensaje de Zaratustra. Prometieron a Vishtaspa una longevidad de 150 años y que él y Hutaosa tendrían un hijo inmortal. Los arcángeles advirtieron, sin embargo, que si Vishtaspa decidiera no aceptar la religión, su fin no estaría lejos. El rey aceptó la fe y toda la corte hizo lo mismo. Las escrituras dicen que los arcángeles hicieron entonces su morada con Vishtaspa.

Messenger of Sanat Kumara

En un dictado del 1 de enero de 1981 el maestro ascendido Zaratustra habló del rey Vishtaspa y la reina Hutaosa:

YO SOY el que ha venido para emitir el fuego sagrado del Sol detrás del sol para elevaros y establecer en vosotros la enseñanza original de Ahura Mazda, Sanat Kumara, entregada hace mucho tiempo en la tierra de la antigua Persia a mí y al rey y la reina, quienes recibieron la conversión de los arcángeles y del fuego sagrado y de los santos ángeles gracias al descenso de la luz. Así, debido a que sus corrientes de vida aceptaron mi profecía, tuvo lugar la multiplicación del pan de la vida desde el corazón de Sanat Kumara, cuyo mensajero fui, cuyo mensajero sigo siendo…

La enseñanza de las huestes del SEÑOR y la venida del gran avatar de luz, la enseñanza de la traición y la posterior guerra de sus huestes contra los malvados, fue comprendida y difundida. La ley del karma, la ley de la reencarnación e incluso la visión de los últimos días, cuando el mal y el Malvado serían conquistados, todo eso se produjo debido a la conversión del rey y la reina y porque la fe se extendió a todos los súbditos del país. Así, los arcángeles, a través de mi cargo, pusieron pruebas a estos dos elegidos. Al pasar las pruebas, fueron bendecidos como emisarios secundarios de Sanat Kumara. Y por tanto, yo como profeta y ellos manteniendo el equilibrio en la Tierra manifestamos una trinidad de luz y el flujo en forma de ocho.

Comprended los ingredientes necesarios para la propagación de la fe por la Tierra. Los arcángeles envían a su mensajero con un don de profecía que es la Palabra de Sanat Kumara para todas las culturas y todas las épocas. Así, el profeta llega con la visión, con la unción y con el fuego sagrado. Pero a menos que el profeta encuentre el campo fértil de corazones encendidos y receptivos, la autoridad de la Palabra no pasará a las personas.

Ahura Mazda in the winged disk, from the Hall of 100 Columns, Persepolis, Achaemenid Persia, 486–460 B.C.

Ahura Mazda

Zarathustra recognized Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord, as the creator of all, but he did not see him as a solitary figure. In Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda is the father of Spenta Mainyu, the Holy Spirit. Spenta means “holy” or “bountiful.” Mainyu means “spirit” or “mentality.” The Holy Spirit is one with, yet distinct from, Ahura Mazda. Ahura Mazda expresses his will through Spenta Mainyu.

Boyce explains:

For Zarathushtra God was Ahura Mazda, who ... had created the world and all that is good in it through his Holy Spirit, Spenta Mainyu, who is both his active agent and yet one with him, indivisible and yet distinct.

Simply put, the Spirit is always the Spirit of the Lord. When we speak of the Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit of God.

Ahura Mazda is also the father of the Amesha Spentas, or six “Holy” or “Bountiful Immortals.” Boyce says that the term spenta is one of the most important in Zarathustra’s theology. To him, it meant “possessing power.” When used in connection with the beneficent deities, it meant “possessing power to aid” and hence “furthering, supporting, benefiting.”

Zarathustra taught that Ahura Mazda created the world in seven stages. He did so with the help of the six great Holy Immortals and his Holy Spirit. The term Amesha Spenta can refer to any one of the divinities created by Ahura Mazda but refers especially to the six who helped create the world. According to Boyce:

These divinities formed a heptad with Ahura Mazda himself.... Ahura Mazda is said either to be their “father”, or to have “mingled” himself with them, and in one ... text his creation of them is compared with the lighting of torches from a torch.

The six great Beings then in their turn, Zoroaster taught, evoked other beneficent divinities, who are in fact the beneficent gods of the pagan Iranian pantheon.... All these divine beings, who are...either directly or indirectly the emanations of Ahura Mazda, strive under him, according to their various appointed tasks, to further good and to defeat evil.

The six Holy or Bountiful Immortals also represent attributes of Ahura Mazda. The Holy Immortals are as follows:

Vohu Manah, whose name means “Good Mind,” “Good Thought” or “Good Purpose.” According to Boyce, “For every individual, as for the prophet himself,” Vohu Manah is “the Immortal who leads the way to all the rest.” Asha Vahishta, whose name means “Best Righteousness,” “Truth” or “Order,” is the closest confederate of Vohu Manah.

Spenta Armaiti, “Right-mindedness” or “Holy Devotion,” Boyce says, embodies the dedication to what is good and just. Khshathra Vairya, “Desirable Dominion,” represents the power that each person should exert for righteousness as well as the power and the kingdom of God.

The final two are a pair. They are Haurvatat, whose name means “Wholeness” or “Health,” and Ameretat, whose name means “Long Life” or “Immortality.” Boyce says these two enhance earthly existence and confer eternal well-being and life, which may be obtained by the righteous in the presence of Ahura Mazda. She says:

The doctrine of the Heptad is at the heart of Zoroastrian theology. Together with [the concept of Good and Evil] it provides the basis for Zoroastrian spirituality and ethics, and shapes the characteristic Zoroastrian attitude of responsible stewardship for this world.

In later tradition, the six Holy Immortals were considered to be Archangels.

The nature of good and evil

When it came to Good and Evil, Zarathustra tended to see things in terms of black and white. According to Zaehner:

The Prophet knew no spirit of compromise.... On the one hand stood Asha—Truth and Righteousness—[and] on the other the Druj—the Lie, Wickedness, and Disorder. This was not a matter on which compromise was possible [as far as Zarathustra was concerned].... The Prophet [forbade] his followers to have any contact with the “followers of the Lie.”

The origin of the conflict between Truth and the Lie is described in the Gathas. It is presented as a myth about two Spirits, called twins, who must make a choice between Good and Evil at the beginning of time. One of the two is the Holy Spirit, the son of Ahura Mazda. The other is the Evil Mind or the Evil Spirit, Angra Mainyu.

Zarathustra introduced the myth with the following words, which underscore the all-important concept of free will and that every man must choose the Truth or the Lie: “Hear with your ears, behold with mind all clear the two choices between which you must decide, each man [deciding] for his own self, [each man] knowing how it will appear to us at the [time of] great crisis.” Then he proceeded to recount the myth:

In the beginning those two Spirits who are the well-endowed twins were known as the one good and the other evil, in thought, word, and deed. Between them the wise chose rightly, not so the fools. And when these Spirits met they established in the beginning life and death that in the end the followers of the Lie should meet with the worst existence, but the followers of Truth with the Best Mind.

Of these two Spirits he who was of the Lie chose to do the worst things; but the Most Holy Spirit, clothed in rugged heaven, [chose] Truth as did [all] who sought with zeal to do the pleasure of the Wise Lord by [doing] good works.

Between the two the daevas [the demons] did not choose rightly; for, as they deliberated, delusion overcame them so that they chose the most Evil Mind. Then did they, with one accord, rush headlong unto Fury that they might thereby extinguish the existence of mortal men.

The Holy Spirit and the Evil Spirit are, as Zaehner puts it, “irreconcilably opposed to each other.” Zarathustra said:

I will speak out concerning the two Spirits of whom, at the beginning of existence, the Holier thus spoke to him who is Evil: “Neither our thoughts, nor our teachings, nor our wills, nor our choices, nor our words, nor our deeds, nor our consciences, nor yet our souls agree.”

Zaehner notes that this state of conflict affected every sphere of activity human or divine. In the social sphere, the conflict took place between the pastoral communities of peaceful cattle breeders, who were “followers of Truth or Righteousness,” and the bands of predatory nomads, who raided the cattle breeders. Zarathustra called these predatory nomads the “followers of the Lie.”

On the religious plane, the conflict took place between Zarathustra and his followers and those who were followers of the traditional Iranian religion and worshiped the daevas. The adherents of this ancient religion said it was founded by Yima, the child of the Sun. Zarathustra attacked Yima and the ritual of animal sacrifice he had introduced.

He also condemned the rite associated with drinking haoma, the fermented juice of a plant that caused “filthy drunkenness.” Scholars are not sure what haoma was, but they conclude from the description of the effects it had on those who drank it that it probably contained a hallucinogen. Zaehner writes: “For Zoroaster the whole cult with its bloody sacrifice and ritual drunkenness is anathema—a rite offered to false gods and therefore a ‘lie’.”

Zarathustra said “the followers of the Lie” destroyed life and strove to “sever the followers of Truth from the Good Mind.” The followers of the Lie knew who Zarathustra was, recognized the danger he represented and did everything they could to destroy him. To this end, they continued to sacrifice bulls and participate in the haoma rite. According to Zaehner:

There would seem to be little doubt that an actual state of war existed between the two parties, Zoroaster and his patron Vishtaspa standing on the one side and the so-called followers of the Lie, many of whom he mentions by name, on the other.

Finally, the battle went on right within man. John Noss, author of Man’s Religions, observes that “it was perhaps Zoroaster’s cardinal moral principle, that each man's soul is the seat of a war between good and evil.”

One of the principal weapons used to attack demons and evil men was the prayer written by Zarathustra, the Ahuna Vairya. This short prayer is the most sacred of Zoroastrian prayers:

As the Master, so is the Judge to be chosen in accord with Truth. Establish the power of acts arising from a life lived with good purpose, for Mazda and for the lord whom they made pastor for the poor.

The lord in the last line of this prayer is thought to be Zarathustra himself. The prayer is ancient. It is written in the style of the Rigveda. According to Simmons, this prayer is a mantra. Simmons says that Zoroastrians believe that “pronouncing words in Zoroastrian ritual has an effect on the external world.” They believe that if a particular mantra is pronounced correctly, it will affect outer circumstances.

Zaehner sums up:

For Zoroaster there is only one God, Creator of heaven and earth and of all things. In his relations with the world God acts through his main “faculties” which are sometimes spoken of as being engendered by him—his Holy Spirit, [his] Righteousness, [his] Good Mind, and Right-mindedness. Further he is master of the Kingdom, Wholeness, and Immortality, which also form aspects of himself.

Righteousness or Truth is the objective standard of right behaviour which God chooses.... Wickedness or disorder ... is the objective standard of all that strives against God, the standard which the Evil Spirit chooses at the beginning of existence. Evil imitates the good creation: and so we find the Evil Spirit operating against the Holy Spirit, the Evil Mind against the Good Mind, the Lie or wickedness against Truth or Righteousness, and Pride against Right-mindedness.

Evil derives from the wrong choice of a free being who must in some sense derive from God, but for whose wickedness God cannot be held responsible. Angra Mainyu or Ahriman, [names for] the Devil, is not yet co-eternal with God as he was to become in the later system: he is the Adversary of the Holy Spirit only, not of God himself.

But in the end, according to Zoroastrian doctrine, Good will triumph over Evil. These concepts about the birth of Evil very closely parallel the concept of the birth of Evil found in the Kabbalah.

Morality

Zarathustra’s concept of morality can be summed up with the words “good thoughts, good words, good deeds.” This is the threefold ethic of Zoroastrianism. Boyce writes:

All Zoroastrians, men and women alike, wear [a] cord as a girdle, passed three times round the waist and knotted at back and front. Initiation took place at the age of fifteen; and thereafter, every day for the rest of his life, the believer must himself untie and retie the cord repeatedly when praying. The symbolism of the girdle (called in Persian the “kusti”) was elaborated down the centuries; but it is likely that from the beginning the three coils were intended to symbolize the threefold ethic of Zoroastrianism, and so to concentrate the wearer's thoughts on the practice of his faith.

Further, the kusti is tied over an inner shirt of pure white, the “sudra,” which has a little purse sewn into the throat; and this is to remind the believer that he should be continually filling its emptiness with the merit of good thoughts, words and deeds, and so be laying up treasure for himself in heaven.

A Zoroastrian priest reads from a book while performing a sacrifice, Bernard Picart (1673–1733)

Fire in Zoroastrianism

Fire also plays a central role in Zarathustra’s religion. Fire was a symbol of Ahura Mazda. It was also a symbol of Truth because of its power to destroy darkness. Bernard Springett writes in his book Zoroaster, the Great Teacher:

Fire, the great object of reverence of Zoroaster’s disciples,... has ever been looked upon as a symbol of Spirit, and of Deity, representing the ever-living and ever-active light—essence of the Supreme Being. The perpetual preservation of fire is the first of the five things consecrated by Zoroaster.... The perpetual preservation of fire typifies the essential truth that every man should in like manner make it his constant object to preserve the divine principle in himself which it symbolises.

Legacy

Según la tradición, cuando Zaratustra tenía setenta y siete años, fue asesinado por un sacerdote de la antigua religión iraní. Algunos relatos cuentan que pereció por un rayo o una llama del cielo. Mucho de lo que ocurrió tras la muerte de Zaratustra está envuelto en el misterio. Los eruditos dicen que sus sucesores introdujeron de nuevo en el sistema los antiguos dioses que él había destronado.

Much of what happened after Zarathustra’s death is shrouded in mystery. Scholars say that his successors reintroduced back into the system the old gods that he had dethroned.

Para cuando Medes llegó al poder, en el siglo VII a.C., el zoroastrismo era una fuerza principal en Persia. Cuando Alejandro Magno conquistó Persia, en 331 a.C., mató a los sacerdotes y quemó el palacio real, destruyendo todo lo que podía haber dejado escrito la tradición zoroástrica.

As Boyce describes it:

The Zoroastrians sustained irreparable loss through the death of so many of their priests. In those days, when all religious works were handed down orally, the priests were the living books of the faith, and with mass slaughters many ancient works (the tradition holds) were lost, or only haltingly preserved.

Alrededor de 225 d.C. el zoroastrismo emergió de nuevo en Persia y fue la religión del Estado hasta aproximadamente 651, cuando los musulmanes conquistaron Persia. Aunque el zoroastrismo era tolerado oficialmente, los conquistadores árabes fomentaban la conversión al Islam mediante presión social, incentivos económicos o por la fuerza. Muchas personas pertenecientes a la doctrina del zoroastrismo se convirtieron o marcharon al exilio. Los que siguieron fieles al zoroastrismo y permanecieron en Persia se vieron obligados a pagar un impuesto por poder practicar su fe. En siglos posteriores la persecución a los seguidores del zoroastrismo aumentó. En 1976 sólo quedaban 129 000 seguidores de esa religión en el mundo. Sin embargo, mucho de lo que Zaratustra enseñó aún sigue vivo en el judaísmo, el cristianismo y el islamismo.

Fire Temple of Yazd, Iran. This Zoroastrian temple was built in 1934. The sacred fire of the temple is stated to have been burning since about A.D. 470.

According to Zaehner:

Zoroastrianism has practically vanished from the world today, but much of what the Iranian Prophet taught lives on in no less than three great religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It seems fairly certain that the main teachings of Zoroaster were known to the Jews in the Babylonian captivity, and so it was that in those vital but obscure centuries that preceded the coming of Jesus Christ Judaism had absorbed into its bloodstream more of the Iranian Prophet’s teaching than it could well admit.

It seems probable that it was from him and from his immediate followers that the Jews derived the idea of the immortality of the soul, of the resurrection of the body, of a Devil who works not as a servant of God but as his Adversary, and perhaps too of an eschatological Saviour who was to appear at the end of time. All these ideas, in one form or another, have passed into both Christianity and Islam.

The mystical path of Zoroastrianism

Some modern-day Zoroastrians say that Zarathustra taught a path of mystical union with God. Dr. Farhang Mehr, a founder of the World Zoroastrian Organization, says that the Zoroastrian mystic seeks union with God but retains his identity. In his book The Zoroastrian Tradition, he writes: “In uniting with God, man does not vanish as a drop in the ocean.”

Mehr says that Zarathustra was “the greatest mystic” and that the path of mysticism is rooted in the Gathas. According to Mehr, the path of mysticism in Zoroastrianism is called the path of Asha, or the path of Truth or Righteousness.

Mehr delineates six stages in this path, which he correlates to the attributes of the six Holy Immortals. In the first stage the mystic strengthens the good mind and discards the evil mind. In the second stage he embodies righteousness. In the third he acquires divine courage and power. This enables him to selflessly serve his fellowman.

In the fourth stage the mystic acquires universal love. This allows him to replace self-love with a universal love—God’s love for all. In the fifth stage he achieves perfection, which is synonymous with self-realization. And in the sixth and final stage, he achieves immortality, communion (or union) with God.

His service as an ascended master

Hoy Zaratustra es un maestro ascendido cuya conciencia tiene una emanación áurica de fuego que es un amor omniconsumidor, una luz perforante que llega hasta el núcleo de todo lo que es irreal. Nosotros lo llamamos Buda porque ha logrado la expansión de la llama trina y de la mente Crística hasta el nivel iniciático que denominamos el nivel búdico.

Estar ante la presencia de Zaratustra es como estar ante la presencia del mismísimo sol físico. La maestría que tiene sobre el fuego espiritual y el físico es, si no la más grande, se encuentra entre las más grandes entre cualquier adepto ascendido desde este planeta. Si usted quiere guardar la llama de Zaratustra, visualícelo guardando la llama, la chispa divina, en su propio corazón. Él es el mayor «cuidador del fuego» de todos, por así decirlo. Y cuando usted lo llame, recuerde que, al estar involucrado en la batalla de la Luz contra la Oscuridad y haga el llamado para atar las fuerzas anti-Cristo, no existe un devorador más grande de las fuerzas oscuras que el propio Zaratustra. Es un maestro ascendido de logro búdico, cuya emanación áurica es de un amor omniconsumidor.

Retiro

► Artículo principal: Retiro de Zaratustra

El retiro de Zaratustra está formado según la cámara secreta del corazón, que es el lugar donde arde la llama trina en el altar del ser. Nuestro Sumo Sacerdote, que es nuestro Santo Ser Crístico, se retira a esa cámara para guardar esa llama. Él y otros maestros ascendidos pueden visitarnos en este lugar e instruir a nuestra alma, y así lo hacen. Zaratustra ha dicho que seremos bienvenidos en su retiro cuando tengamos el necesario desarrollo del corazón. Zaratustra no ha revelado su ubicación.

Notas

Mark L. Prophet y Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Los Maestros y sus Retiros, Volumen 2, “Zaratustra”.