The Practices and History of Zoroastrianism

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For centuries, Zoroastrianism was the leading religion of Persia (now Iran) before the modern Islamic religions came to be. Zoroastrianism is thought to be founded in 6th century BC by Zarathustra. Zoroastrians follow the sacred text called the Avesta; it is their "Book of the Law."

Zarathustra was a Persian prophet, when at age 30 claimed to have had visions of God. Zarathustra called God Ahura Mazda. Zoroastrianism quickly became the "official" religion of Persia, but came to an abrupt end in 637 AD at the time of the Muslim invasion. There are an estimated 2.6 million practicing Zoroastrians in the world today.

In Zarathustra's visions, he was taken up to heaven, where God, Ahura Mazda, revealed his opponent. Where Ahura Mazda stood for good, his opponent Aura Mainyu stood for evil. After revealing his opposite, Ahura Mazda told Zarathustra to return to earth and tell all humans to choose between him (Ahura Mazda) and Aura Mainyu.

Zarathustra preached to the people that they must take part in this decision to exercise their proper use of free will and choice. Zarathustra taught the people that they were free to choose between right and wrong, honesty and dishonesty, good and bad, etc. This causes Zoroastrianism to be a very ethical religion: Those who do more good than evil, go to heaven. Those who do more evil than good, go to hell. "Hell" according to Zoroastrianism, has several levels, corresponding to the level of wickedness one does in the course of their lifetime. In addition to heaven and hell, there is an "intermediate stage" (comparable to Purgatory) for those who have equal good and bad deeds.

We can see that a lot of these ideas and ideals seem to have carried themselves down to Judaism, Christianit...

... middle of paper ...

...day; for this is the day the soul is thought to reach the next world, and appear before deities who weigh their judgment to determine the fate of the soul.

When first researching Zoroastrianism, it came off as a fairly western-ish religion, believing in heaven and hell, encouraging ethics as a form of eternal savior, and other major similarities. Yet, the deeper into the rituals and practices I looked, the more differences and oddities I found. In my research, I found their fascination with fire quite amusing, and their burial practices to be a bit strange. All that said, I would still like to learn more about the religion; more than the internet can teach me. I would like to find a practicing Zoroastrian, and learn about their rituals, traditions, practices and beliefs in context and in reality.

Works Cited
http://www.religionfacts.com/zoroastrianism/index.htm

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