Occult Theocracy Chapter IV - V

MAZDEISM

(Zoroastrianism)

While the origin of Mazdeism seems shrouded in

mystery, one may nevertheless recognize its antiquity,

probably the same as that of the Rig-Vedha, for it has

been proved by Eugene Bournouf and Spiegel that

certain parts of the Avesta are as old as the Rig, and

the many similarities of this religion with that of the

Vedhas proves that Mazdeism must have had its origin

at the time when the Aryans undertook the conquest

of India, that is to say seventeen to eighteen centuries

before our era.

From Le Mazdeisme, V avesta of G. de Lafont, we

extract the following facts : ' The historic role of Media

began with Ouwakshatara, a name written by the

Greeks Kyouxares, the founder of the Median empire.

After defeating the Scythians, Kyouxares went to

Assyria where he laid siege to Nineveh, after the de-

struction of which the Assyrian empire came to an end.

(612 B. C.)

Kyouxares left a son Astyage whose daughter Mandane married the Persian Cambyses

and from their union sprang the great Cyrus the

founder of the Persian empire.

1 . Passim.

65

The Parthian dynasty of the Arsacides, who reigned

from 256 B. C. until 226 A. D., marks a fatal period

for Mazdeism. It was only on the accession of Ardeschir

Babejan, the founder of the Sassanide dynasty, that

Mazdeism regained its strength. With Ardeshir, Mazdeism became the state religion

and Shapour II caused

all the Avesta texts treating of philosophy, medicine,

cosmogony and astronomy to be collected.

Under the last Sassanides appeared several heretical

sects, the most celebrated of which were those of Manes

and of Mazdeck. However, in the seventh century,

came the Arab conquest; with Yesdegirt the Persian

empire of the Sassanides disappeared and with it the

influence of Mazdeism.

Towards the tenth century, a few thousand Per-

sians, faithful to the old cult, went into exile taking

with them their laws and altars. Some of these took

refuge in the Kirman in the Yezd while the others fled

to India where they now constitute the well known

sect of the Parsees.

The Zend Avesta, the sacred book of Persia and of

the modern Parsees, contains the teaching of Zoroaster

(Zarathustra), a reformer, said to have lived some

7000 years before Christ. It was first translated into

French by Hyacinthe-Anquetil Duperron in 1761.

The Chevalier de Ramsay, giving Plutarch as his

authority, says : — " Zoroaster taught that there are

two Gods contrary to each other in their Operations,

the one the Author of all the Good, the other of all

the Evil in Nature. The good Principle he calls Oromazes, (Ahura-Mazda) the other

the Daemon Arimanius (Agra-Mainyus). He says that

the one resembles

Light and Truth, the other Darkness and Ignorance.

There is likewise a middle God between these two

named Mythras, whom the Persians call the Intercessor

or Mediator. Mythras is the Yazata (spirit) of light

and the guardian of justice and truth. "

For the benefit of the reader we compile the follow-

ing interesting information from the previously men-

tioned author, G. de Lafont :

Pure Zoroastrianism was monotheistic, for in the

beginning Ahura-Mazda was recognized as infinitely

more powerful than Agra-Mainyus, thus dualism, or

the potential equality of these two deities, was actually

the development of a later corruption of the Zoroas-

trian teaching.

The Avesta, the bible of Mazdeism, containing the

revelations of Ahura-Mazda to the Prophet Zoroaster,

is composed of two principal parts — the Avesta, containing the Vendidad, the Yacnca and the Vispered,

and the Khorda Avesta, or little Avesta, itself composed

of six parts.

Mazdeism taught the immortality of the soul, a

compensating justice in another world of Heaven or

Hell, the resurrection of the body, the last judgment

and the freedom of the soul to choose between right

and wrong as a free agent, as opposed to the Islamic

theory of fatalism.

Oromazes is the Universal Creator of all that is

good, eternal, he created the Good Genii, the spiritual

and material world ; man is his creature, and at the

end of time he will resurrect him to endow him with

eternal happiness and will cause the powers of evil

and evil itself to vanish from the earth. No cult is

rendered to Agra-Mainyus (Lucifer) who, with his

Devas (evil spirits) fights Ahura-Mazda (God) through

the ages.

Fire, in the Mazdean religion, was worshipped as

the luminous and pure element, the work of Ahura-

Mazda and for that reason always burns sheltered

from defilement. But it is not material fire that in this

case is to be considered as a Yazata. The Avesta dis-

tinguishes several kinds of fire :

1. Berezucavanha, or internal fire of the earth.

2. Vohufryana or fire of the human body and animals.

(Kundalini, Sex-force, Serpent Power).

3. Urvazista or fire of vegetation.

4. Vazista or fire of lightning.

5. Cpenista or fire of Ahura-Mazda, represented by the fire

on the Altar.

The Fravashis (modern Ferouers) are supposed to

be the souls of the dead deified. Their cult also forms

the basis of the Ancestor worship, of the Pitris of

India and the Manes of Latin Countries.

According to Geiger, by " Fravashis " must be

understood the immortal, divine part in man, which

unites with a body for a limited time only. Consequently

there are Fravashis of those who are dead, of those

who are living, and of those who are still unborn.

Darmstater further explains that the Fravashis are

the spiritual form of a being, independent of its mate-

rial life and anterior to it. According to Mazdean

teaching, Oromazes offered to the Ferouers of men

the choice of remaining in the spiritual world or of

descending on earth to incarnate in human bodies.

At the advent of death, corpses were supposed

immediately to become the prey of the Demon Druge

Nacus, the demon of the impurity of corpses. Thus, it

being most essential never to allow the elements of

fire, water and earth to be sullied by contact with

anything unclean, the funeral rites and ceremonies of

the Mazdeans differ from those of other religions.

Their ancient customs persist today among the Parsees

of India where the bodies of the dead are carried to

" The Towers of Silence " there to be exposed and

devoured by the birds of prey.

Besides the many other parallels between Mazdeism

and Christianity, the deity of the Mazdeans, their per-

sonal God, Ahura-Mazda, was not a god of vengeance

as was the Jehovah of the Jews. He was the essence of

universal love, charity, justice and activity and the

ideal of Mazdean virtue in early times was similar

to that of the Christians of today.

JAINISM 

Jainism, which like Buddhism denies the authority 

of the Vedhas and is therefore regarded by the Brah- 

mins of India as heretical, may have been founded by 

Parsva whose death is placed at 250 years before that 

of Vardhamana Mahavira, the last of the prophets of 

the Jains and a contemporary of Buddha. 

Vardhamana Mahavira died at the age of 72 at Pava 

527 B. C. He had eleven disciples to whom he preached 

the law. Many authorities however believe the Jain 

Church to be as old as Brahminism itself. 

The following paragraph quoted from Hastings' 

Encyclopaedia of Religions and Ethics, article on 

Jainism, describes the Jain theory of the Transmi- 

gration of Souls as opposed to the orthodox theory 

of Reincarnation. It is here referred to as " a peculiarity 

of the Jains which had struck all observers more than 

any other, viz. their extreme carefulness not to destroy 

any living being, a principle which is carried out to 

its very last consequences in monastic life, and has 

shaped the conduct of the laity in a great measure. 

No layman will intentionally kill any living being, not 

even an insect, however troublesome : he will remove 

it carefully without hurting it. It goes without saying 

that the Jains are strict vegetarians. This principle of 

not hurting any living being bars them from some pro- 

fessions, e. g. agriculture, and has thrust them into 

commerce and especially into its least elevating 

branch of money-lending. Most of the money lending 

in Western India is in the hands of the Jains, and this 

accounts in a great measure both for their unpopula- 

rity and for their wealth. A remarkable institution 

of the Jains, due to their tender regard for animal life, 

is their asylums for old and diseased animals, the pan- 

jarapolas, where they are kept and fed till they die a 

natural death. " 

The reluctance on the part of an orthodox Jain to 

discourage vermin on the theory that a louse may 

actually be his reincarnated grandmother or a scor- 

pion some other reincarnated relative is only a logical 

development of his religious belief in the transmigra- 

tion of souls. 

The Jains are subdivided today into numerous schools 

each following the teachings of a certain master but 

united in certain fundamental beliefs. 

CHAPTER V 

CONFUCIANISM AND TAOISM 

Previous to the Christian era, China, judging from 

the available annals, presented the spectacle of a 

country whose social life was based almost solely on 

what might be called the family cult. The metaphysical tradition, overshadowing

the life of the people, 

leading to a monotheistic belief in a Supreme Being, 

was the knowledge and belief of a few. Vaguely, the 

people believed that the Monarch alone held commu- 

nication with the Sublime Sovereign or God. The rites 

had nothing of a religious character, they were purely 

social. Then in 1122 B. C, when the Chinese dynasty 

of Chang-Yin was overthrown by the Tcheou, there 

were introduced in China numerous innovations, most 

of them appertaining to magic and occultism, also 

brahminic and avestic dogmas and beliefs. The whole 

construction of social ideology in China had undergone 

a slow but radical change. The ground was prepared 

for the pantheistic teaching of the philosopher Lao-Tse 

whose doctrine was bitterly fought by Confucius (551- 

479) who opposed the dualist theory, and strove to 

regenerate the former state of Chinese social life, the 

cult of the family and ancestors. Moreover, the whole 

moral code of Confucius was contained in a few words : loyalty and good feeling to

wards one's neighbour. 

Only in about 65 A. D. was Buddhism introduced 

in China, followed in turn by Mazdeism, Manicheism 

and Mahomedanism.