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What do Emperor Xerxes Freddie Mercury and Ireland's richest citizen blondie mystery have in common.

All of them are Zoroastrians, the ancient religion of Iran.

This is one of the oldest ongoing religions and altered the course of human history.

But in influencing Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Greek philosophy, but today it only has a fraction of the millions of followers it once had.

So what is our Atrian is?

What do Z Atrian believe?

And where do others fit into all of this?

Well, let's find out Zoroastrianism was born in ancient Iran at least 3500 years ago.

It all began around 1500 BCE give or take a few centuries with the prophet Zarathustra or Zoroaster as the ancient Greeks called them.

And so English speakers do too while we call the religion.

Zoroastrianism, actual Zoroastrians tend to call it Mazda, Yasna, meaning worshiper of Mazda.

No, not that Mazda, but it actually was named after the Mazda that I'm to explain.

Shortly.

Zoroastrianism was the chief religion of Iran for around 1000 years between the sixth century BCE and the 10th century C.

It was the state religion of three huge Iranian empires.

The came in an empire of 300 fame along with the Parthian and Samian empires.

Back then, the priests of nationalism were known as Magi.

The ancient Greeks thought these Magi had secret magical knowledge since they understood complex astronomy.

This led to the English world, magic, mage and magician.

The Mai would even show up in the Bible.

According to the gospel of Matthew, three, Zor Tri and Mai came to visit the baby Jesus.

These three wise men as they are known in English are still celebrated by Christians around the world on January 6th.

Eventually the Sian Empire would fall to the Muslim Arabs during their invasion of Iran in the seventh century ce which started the decline and persecution of Zaro Asan in Iran following this in the 10th century.

Some I or Austrians fled to India forming the Parsi community named after where they came from which the Indians called Persia.

This one refugee community now forms the largest group of Zar Atrian anywhere on Earth.

And they've settled in quite well.

One of India's largest businesses tata group was founded by Zar Atrian and parties played a massive role in winning Indian independence from Britain.

Zoroastrians can now be found all over the world.

Historically, they've emigrated to areas such as Singapore, Hong Kong and parts of Africa, such as the island of Zanzibar where Freddie Mercury's parsi parents would later emigrate from to the UK.

In the last 100 years, small Zar Atrian populations have moved to the UK US, Australia and Canada.

Today, there are about 200,000 Zar tris left about 60,000 live in India.

While the second largest group of about 25,000 lives in Iran with a religion being called Zar Atrian is I think maybe it's about time we spoke about Zoroaster.

We don't know much about Zar Astra's life.

We can't even pinpoint when he lived.

The Greeks thought he lived 6000 years before the death of Plato.

So around 6347 BCE ish, while modern historians place him somewhere around 1700 to 1000 BCE.

During this time, the peoples of Iran believed in many different gods, some of which were similar to the gods of their ancient Hindu neighbors.

What we do know is that Zoroaster was the priest of the pre Zoroastrian religion of Iran and that he was outraged by his society, roving bands of drunken warriors would have ravaged the countryside, they pillaged, tortured and slaughtered at will.

The common people lived in constant fear and misery.

While priests obsessed over obscure rituals and sacrifices that offered little guidance or hope to the suffering.

So Ester couldn't stand this injustice.

So when he was 30 years old, so Ester went down to a river to fetch water for a ceremony.

There, he received a vision from a being of pure light and goodness a Mazda who revealed that they were the one true God.

The truth of how the universe worked was revealed to Zora.

And he knew that it was now his divine mission to spread this truth to his fellow humans.

So what are the core beliefs of Zar Ash is well, one aura Mazda and anger.

Manu Zoroastrians worship one uncreated eternal god known as a Mazda, which means wise.

Lord Zoroaster describes Ahura Mazda as the Lord of order, something completely good, loving, infinitely wise and the creator of the world and all good things.

Ahura Mazda is supported by six holy immortals known as the Emesa spent.

These six holy immortals are normally compared to arch angels in Christianity.

If that helps you kind of figure out what their position is.

Sometimes there is 1/7 spent called spent Manu, but maybe he's all.

So the Holy Spirit of Ahura Mazda, sometimes a Mazda also has a parent called Servan who is time itself, but that's considered heresy at this point.

Look, we don't have a lot of time to get into it.

Honestly, it's a very old religion.

There have been many different interpretations over the last 3000 years.

I'm really just simplifying and providing the most commonly accepted current beliefs.

So keep that in mind.

And as always, there's more information in the description opposed to her.

ASDA is anger Manu, the destructive spirit and his evil minions known as Davis.

Anger Manu is the complete polar opposite of Ahura Mazda.

He is darkness, deceit, death and decay.

He is a corrupting parasite seeking to destroy Ahura Mazda's creation and is responsible for all negative things in the world.

Ahura Mazda is light and Grau is darkness.

Ahura Mazda is the creator and Grau the destroyer.

Ahura Mazda created light fire, compact Japanese vehicles, joy, humanity puppies probably.

And Graman gave the world disease rust and mold darkness and that little piece of skin that pops up around your fingernail that hurts so much.

Why?

And Grau why Zor Astri think everything is a battle between these two opposites or Mazda represents the truth.

And Gra Manu, the lie for humans, life is a constant choice between the truth and the lie, which may be difficult because Angra Manu can be very deceiving.

Before time began.

Ahura Mazda and Manu were separated by an infinite void.

They respectively lived in infinite light and infinite darkness.

Then Ahura Mazda created the physical or gig world.

Manu crawled into this new world and polluted it.

They made the ocean salty, they turned the good earth into desert, killed the first human made plants wither and polluted fire with smoke.

We now live in a time.

Zor Ash referred to as the Gomez or the mixture, good and evil truth and the lie both exist together in our world.

But anger Mannus presence is temporary.

They are a stain on the world rather than a permanent fixture.

So Tris see the physical world as a trap that a Mazda lured anger Manu into now trapped in the physical world.

Anger manu can be defeated slowly by the good thoughts, good words and good deeds of humans.

Working with a Mazda two heaven and hell.

Zoroastrians believe that when a person dies, their soul leaves their body, their soul is then led to the bridge of judgment.

Above this bridge lies heaven below hell.

Here, the soul's good and bad deeds are weighed on a scale depending on the balance of good to evil deeds.

The soul ascends to heaven, a paradise of infinite bliss called the abode of song or falls down to hell to suffer.

Quote long age of my, the darkness, bad food and the crying of woe.

This is called England.

I mean, sorry, sorry.

This is called Du Zach.

There is also a medium place for people who are neither good nor evil where they kind of just float and experience nothing servants as well as masters can reach paradise.

People will be judged according to how they chose to live their lives rather than wealth or prestige.

For as our Atrian death represents the highest form of pollution.

Death only exists because of Reagan upon the death of a czar.

Atrian, a priest will be called to perform a ceremony after which the soul of the person will no longer be considered connected to the body.

The family then says their goodbyes without touching the body and the body will be placed on a stone slab and carried away by special corpse bearers.

Since dead bodies are so polluting Zor Asians would never think to pollute any of the sacred elements with them.

Those being fire water, earth, et cetera.

So the traditional method to dispose of bodies used for thousands of years has been the tower of silence.

Within these open roofed stone towers located on the top of barren hills, bodies will be laid to rest on stone slabs as to not pollute the earth and then eaten by vultures.

Normally within a few hours, the bones are bleached in the sun and quickly disintegrate into dust by feeding the birds to the sea offers up one final good deed of charity before crossing over the bridge.

However, in the 19 thirties, the Iranian government banned the use of the towers and currently towers in India are suffering from a shortage of birds due to increased urbanization and pollution.

Today, many Atrian communities use special burial grounds or have turned to electrical cremation or even using solar reflectors to harness the power of the sun to break down the bodies rather than polluting fire.

Three, the apocalypse, the battle between a Mazda and anger Manu will continue for thousands of years.

But eventually a savior or so, Shan will be born to a virgin mother who will lead people against the forces of evil.

And bring about the end times, the earth will be swallowed by fire.

Molten metal will cover everything.

The good people will pass through this molten river while the bad people will burn and be purified.

The gates of hell would open the souls of the damned will be released and redeemed and everyone will live together in eternal bliss.

Honestly, it all sounds pretty meadow and manu finally defeated by a Mazda and humanity's good thoughts, words and deeds will we tossed back into the black abyss they crawled out of and defeated forever.

This last judgment slash apocalypse is called the fra OK, meaning renewal as in the renewal of a Asda's originally perfect creation or the three Gs.

The most important concept in Zoras after Hura Mazda is ASHA.

This is an ancient ave in word and is difficult to translate is truth, wisdom, goodness, justice, perfection, order and progress.

All rolled into one word.

ASHA is the path of Ahura Mazda.

Zor Tris.

Try their best to follow the path of ASHA to help humanity follow ASHA.

Mazda gave them vou mana or good mind.

This allowed humans to recognize right from wrong.

Good mind lets us see injustice and feel that it is unjust through good mind who Mazda gave humans free will.

This means a lot to Zoroastrians because choice is extremely important to their belief.

From our good mind.

We can have good thoughts and from good thoughts, follow good words and then good deeds, doing good thoughts, good words and good deeds is the core of Zoroastrian belief, good deeds such as taking part in your community, supporting others through tough times, standing up against injustice, fighting poverty, nursing, the sick, and subscribing to education on youtube channels.

all help in the battle against Angra manu.

This is why in India, Zor Astri ins are known for the support of orphanages, shelters and many different charities.

It was or as that said, happiness comes to them who bring happiness to others.

Five fire, Zoroastrians see fire as the sacred symbol of Ahura Mazda.

It is considered to be pure and represents the truth inside Zoroastrian fire temples.

Their priests conduct all rituals in front of fire because it shows the presence of a Mazda but the fire is never actually worshiped itself.

This is very important.

Z Atrian do not worship fire.

Z Tri is also isn't a con of religion.

Most worship is done at home and so Tris tend to only go to fire temples during the seven holy days or festivals they have each year.

The most sacred fires in Zar tri is need to be made up of fire from 16 different sources.

One of which needs to be ignited by lightning.

Six, the Avesta, the Avesta is the holy book of the Czar Atrian and one of the oldest scriptures, it is written in an ancient language known as AVA and which was the language spoken by Zara roughly 3500 years ago.

The vase that contains hymns from Zara himself known as gas.

These 17 gas are deeply important to Zar Atrian and most Zar Atrian belief is based on them due to the violence, Zar Atrian have suffered throughout history.

Only a fraction of the Eva to survive today.

For example, Zar Atrian believe that when Alexander the great conquered the ACA Empire, he burned the royal path at Persepolis and its library to the ground, destroying a complete copy of the Avesta written in gold on 12,000 gold skins.

This might be why he isn't called Alexander the great in Iran, but rather Alexander the accursed even more of the eve that was lost during the Arab turkic Mongol invasions of Iran.

Yeah.

So Tris really couldn't catch a break there for a while.

You can read the Vesta online for free and a lot of it is extremely beautiful and thought provoking.

But if you're Dunce like me, you'll love this section about how hedgehogs known as the dog with the prickly back serve A H A Mazda and turtles have sided with anger manu or the following chapter atoning for the murder of a water dog, which is about how you'll be punished if you kill an otter.

So you should be like the prickly boy and the water dog and help fight against evil.

When the founder of the Aam Empire, Cyrus, the great freed the Jews from Babylon.

He not only showed the world the religious tolerance that Zar tri rulers have become known for, but he changed world history at the same time for freeing the Jews.

Cyrus was praised as a Messiah in the book of Isaiah.

This meant that Jewish thinkers were obviously quite receptive to Czar Atrian and Zan ideas.

It is in that book of Isaiah that Yahweh is for the first time, spoken of as a single creator, God, like Ahura Mazda, neighbor, comic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam owe a lot to Zoras is because while Zora's teachings don't sound too revolutionary today.

Ideas like one all powerful God, a cosmic battle between a loving God and their satanic nemesis angels and Archangels, a heavenly judgment that place the person in heaven or hell and a final cataclysmic judgment that would purify the world and bring about the kingdom of God where the good will live in eternal paradise, which is a person word were all brand new ideas at that time.

This means that while small today, Zar Asian is, has influenced the most sacred beliefs of billions of people.

Even George RR Martin borrowed some Zar Asan thought to make his religions in a song of ice and fire.