PAMPHLETS

No. 23

LO

The

Spirit

of

Zoroastrianism

15

COLONEL

S.

OLCOTT

Theosophical

O63
1913
i

II.

ROBA

Adyar,

Publishing

Madras,

House

India

Presented to the

LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by

Willard G. Oxtoby

ADYAR PAMPHLETS
No. 23

The

Spirit of Zoroastriaiiism
BY

COLONEL H.

S.

Lecture delivered at the

on

Uth

OLCOTT
Town

Hall,

Bombay,

February, 1882.

January 1913

THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE

ADYAR, MADBAS, IND.A
1913

f
WITH

great diffidence I have accepted your invitation

upon the theme of the present

to address the Parsis

discourse.

The subject

is

so noble, its literature so

numerous, that no living man

full justice in a single lecture.

rich, its ramifications so

could possibly do

Happy

it

indeeM, will I

Ife, if

I succeed

In communicat

one or two of the learned Pars! scholars, who

honour me with their presence, some of the deep in-

ing to

ter.est

which

meaning

of

have had for years in the esoteric

the

Mazdean

faith.

My

your attention to the

which can lead you towards the truth.

attract

hope

is

to

only line of research

That

line

was

traced by Zoroaster and followed by the Magi, the

Mobeds, and the Dasturs of old. Those gr^at men have
transmitted their thoughts to posterity under the safe
cover of an external ritual. They have masked them

under a symbolism and ceremonies th#t guard their

mighty secrets from the prying curiosity of the vulgar

crowd, but hide nothing from those

know all. Do not misunderstand me.

who desire to
I am not pre

tending that I know all, or a fraction of all ; at best I

have had but a glimpse of the reality. But even that

enough to convince me that, within the

husk of your modern religion, there is the shining
soul of the old faith that came to Zardusht in his

little

is

quite

Persian name, and once illuminated the whole transHimalayan world. You children of Iran, heirs of

you who so loved your religion

sword
of Omar, nor the delights of
that neither the

the Chaldean lore

home, nor the yearning of our common humanity to

live among the memories of our ancestors, could make

you deny that religion; you who, for the sake of con
science, fled from your native land and erected an
altar for the symbolical Sacred Fire in foreign countries,

more hospitable than yours Viad become; you men

of intelligence, of an ancient character for probity,
of

enterprise

lift

the

in

all

good works

you alone can

the dark veil of this modern Parsiism, and

hidden splendour

but the

office

again blaze forth.

of the friendly

Mine

.let

is

wayfarer who points

the mouth of the private road that leads

you
through your own domain. I am not, if you please,
a man
I need not even
only a VOICE.
appeal to
to

to strip away the foreign excrescences that,

during
twelve centuries, of residence among strangers, have

you

fastened themselves upon primitive Zoroastrianism ;

nor recite to you its simple yet all-sufficient code of

and ask you to live up to more closely. This

work has already been undertaken by the intelligent
ifc

morality,

and public-spirited members of your own community.

But I am to show you that your religion is in agree
ment with the most recent discoveries of modern
and that the freshost graduate from
science,
Elphinstone College has no cause to blush for the
1
And I am to prove to
ignorance of Zoroaster
!

you that your faith rests upon the rock of truth, the
living rock of occult science, upon which the initiated
progenitors of mankind built every one of the re
ligions that have since swayed the thoughts and

stimulated the aspirations of a hundred generations

Let others trace back the history
of worshippers.
to and beyond the time of the
Zoroastrianism
of

and reconcile the quarrels of

Aristotle, Hfirmippus, (Element, Alexander Polyhistor
and other ancient as well as modern critics, as
Bactrian King, Vistasp

to

when Zoroaster

place

these

lived

and where was

are non-essentials.

his birth

It is of far less

know where and of what parentage a

reformer
was born, than to be sure of
religious
what he taught and whether his teaching is cal
moment

to

mankind or not.
Plotinus, the
knew this that he would not tell,
even to Porphyry his pupil and literary biographer,
what was his native country, what his real name, or
his parentage.
As regards Zoroaster .two things a,re

culated

to

bless

philosopher, so well

affirmed, viz, f that about six centuries B. C. one

man

6
of that

name

lived

whether or not several others

preceded him, as several highly respectable author

the fact; and that the religion he
preached, whether old or new, was of so noble a
character that it indelibly stamped its impress upon

ities

affirm

is

then chief school of western philosophy, that of

the

Greece.

1
In the oldest Iranian book called the Desatira, collection of the
teachings of the oldest Iranian prophets (to make the number
Secander is a
fifteen and include among them Simkendesh, or
grave error, as may be proved on the authority of Zoroaster him
self in that book)
Zoroaster stands thirteenth in that list. The
fact is significant.
Respecting the period of Zoroaster the first, or
his personality, there is no trustworthy information given by any of
the western scholars their authorities conflict in the most per
plexing manner. Indeed among many discordant notices, I find the
earliest Greek classic writers who tell us that Zoroaster lived from
600 to 5,000 years before the Trojan war, or 6,000 years before Plato.
Again, it is declared by Berosus, the Chaldean priest, that Zoroaster
was a founder of an Indian dynasty in Babylon, 2,200 B.C.: while the
later native traditions inform us that he was the son of Purushaspa,
and a contemporary of Gustaspa, the father of Darius, which
h
would bring him within 600 B. C. Lastly it is mentioned by Bunsen
hat he was born at Bactria before the emigration of the
Bactrians to the Indus, which took place, as the learned Egypto
logist tells us, 3,784 B. C. Among this host of contradictions, what
conclusion can one come to ? Evidently, there is but one hypothesis
left
and that is that they are all wrong, the reason for it being tie
one I find in the secret traditions of the esoteric doctrine namely,
that there were several teachers of that name. Neither Plato nor
Aristotle, so accurate in their statements, is likely to have trans
formed 200 years into 6,000. As to the generally accepted native
tradition, which makes the great prophet a contemporary of Darius
father it is absurd and wrong on the
very face of it. Though the
error is too palpable to need anr- elaborate
confutation, I may say
a few words in regard to it. The latest researches show that the
Persian inscriptions point to Vistasp as the last of the line of
Kaianian princes who ruled in Bactria, while the Assyrian conquest
of that
country took place in 1,200 B. C. Now this alone would
prove that Zoroaster lived twelve or thirteen hundred years B. C.,
instead of the six hundred assigned to him and thus that he could
not hare been a
contemporary of Darius Hystaspes, whose father
was BO carelessly, and for such a length of time, confounded in this
;

It is

also,

as I believe, certain that this

Initiate in the sacred mysteries, or

to pat

man was an
it

differently

connection with Vistasp who flourished six centuries earlier. If we

add to this the historical discrepancy between the statement
Ommianus Marcellinus, which makes Darius crush the
of
Magi and introduce the worship of Ahuramazda, and the inscrip
tion on the tomb of that king which state* that he was teacher and
and that other no less significant and
heirophant of Magianism
very important fact that the Zoroastrian Avesta shows no signs of
the knowledge of its writer or writers of either the Medes, the
Persians or the Assyrians the ancient books of the Parsis remain
ing silent upon, and showing no acquaintance with, any of the
nations that have been known to have dwelt in or near the western
parts of Iran, the accepted figure 600 B. C. as the period in which
the prophet is alleged to have flourished becomes absolutely
:

improbable.
It is therefore safe to come to the following conclusions
(1)
there were several, in all seven, say the Secret Records,
Ohuru-asters or spiritual teachers of Ahuramazda, an office corrupted
later into Guru-asters and Zuru-asters from Zera-Ishtar, the title of
the Chaldean or Magian priests and (2) that the last of them was
Zoroaster of the Desatir, the thirteenth of the prophets, and the
seventh of that name. It was he who was the contemporary of
Vistasp, the last of the Kaianian princes, and the Compiler of
there remaining
Vendidad, the. Commentary upon which are
now but the dead letter. Some of the facts given in the Secret
Records, though to the exact scholar merely traditional, are very
interesting. They are to the effect that there exists a certain hollow
rock full of tablets in a gigantic cave bearing the name of the first
Zoroaster under his Magian appellation, and that the tablets n*ay
yet be rescued some day. This cave, with its rocks and tablets and
its many inscriptions on the walls, is situated at the summit of one
of tlje peaks of the Thian Shan Mountains, far beyond their junction
with the Belor Tagh, somewhere along their eastern course. One
of the half -pictorial and half-written prophecies and teachings at
tributed to Zoroaster himself relates to that deluge which has
transformed an inland sea into the dreary desert called Shamo or
Gobi Desert. The esoteric key to the mysterious creeds, flippantly
called at one time the Sabian or Planetary Religion, at another, the
Solar or Fire-Worship, hangs in that cave," says the legend. In
it the great Prophet is represented with a golden star on his heart
and as belonging to that race of antediluvian giants mentioned
in the sacred books of the Chaldeans and of the Jews. It matters
little whether this information is accepted or rejected.
Since the
rejection of it would not make the other hyp*othesis more trust
worthy, it may just as well be mentioned here.
:

That

V>st,

"

had, by a certain course of mystical

man s
study, penetrated all the hidden mysteries of
is by
Zoroaster
him.
world
about
the
and
of
nature
that he

the Greek writers often called the Assyrian Nazaret

This term comes from the word Nazar, or Nazir set
.

apart, separated.

Ihe Nazars were a

sect of Adepts,

very ancient, existing ages before Christ. They are

described as
physicians, healers of the sick by the
"

imposition of the hands/

(see treatise

Mysteries

and

as initiated into the

Nazir in the Talmud).

The

Jews, returning from the Babylonian captivity, were

thoroughly imbued with Zoroastrian and Magian ideas
;

had agreed with the Sabians in the

the
adoration of the Sun, Moon, and
Bactric worship,
five Planets, the SABBAOTB and Realm of Light.
In
their forefathers

Babylon they had learned to worship the Seven-Rayed

*
God. And so we find miming throughout the
Christian as well as the Jewish Scriptures, the
septenary system, which culminates in the Book of
Revelation, the final pamphlet of the Bible, in the

Heptaktis and a prophecy of the corning of the

Persian Sosiosh under the symbol of the Christian
Messiah, riding, like the former, upon a white horse.
;

By the Jewish sect of the Pharisees, whose great

teacher was Hillel, the whole angelology and sym
bolism of the Zoroastrians were accepted, and infused
into Jewish thought

or secret bool^
of the

and

of occult

Chaldean Kabalah.

Hebrew

Kabalah
was
the
wisdom,
offspring
This deathless work is the
their

9
receptacle of

all

the ancient lore of Chaldea, Persia,

The
Media, Bactria, and of the pre-Iranian period.
name by which its students in the secret lodges of
the Jewish Pharisees, or Pharsis, were known was
from Kabiri, the Mystery Gods of Assyria.
Zoroastrianism and Magianisrn proper were, then,

Kabirim

the chief source of both esoteric Judaism and esoteric

But not only has this subtle spirit left

Christianity.
the latter religion, under the pressure of worldliness

and sceptical enquiry it also long ago left Judaism.

The modern Hebrews are not Kabalists but Talmudists,
:

holding to the latter interpretations of the Mosaic

;
only here and there can we now find a real

canon

Kabalist, who knows the true religion of his people

and whence it was derived.
The real history of Zoroaster and his religion has
never been written. The Parsis have lost the key,
as the Jews and Christians have lost that of their
respective faiths, and as I find the Southern
Buddhists have also. Not to the living pandits or

priests of either of those religions can the laity look

for light.
They can only quote the opinions
of ancient Greek and Roman, or modern German,
French or English writers. .To-day nearly all that

your most

enlightened scholars

know

afiout

your

sources,

what they have collated from European

and that is almost exclusively about its

literature

and external forms.

religion

is

And

see

what

ridicul

ous mistakes some of those authorities make at times

10

The Rev. Dr. Prideaux, treating

Zoroaster preached incest
this nature is unlawful, a man

that

his sister or

daughter,

of the Sad-dar, says

!

that

may

"

nothing of

not only

even his mother

but

marry

m He

quotes no Zend authority, nothing written by a Parsi,

but only Jewis h and Christian authorities, such
as

and

Tertullian,

Philo,

Clement

Alexandrinus.

Eutychius, a priest and archimandrite at Constanti

nople, writes, in the fifth century, on Zoroastrianism
as follows: "Nimrod beheld a fire rising out of the
earth and he worshipped

it,

and from that time the

a man named
Magi worshipped
Andeshan to be the priest and servant of the Fire.
The Devil, shortly after that, spoke out of the midst of
the fire, as did Jehovah to Moses, saying
No man
can serve the Fire or learn Truth in my Religion, un
less first he shall commit incest with his mother,

And he appointed

fire.

sister

and daughter

He

and from that time the

tised incest

that

priests of the

but Andeshan was the

doctrine."

wretched

did as he was commanded,

that

this

Magians prac
first

inventor of

as a sample of the

quote
has been written

against the
Zoroastrian religion by its enemies. The above words
are simply the dead-letter mistranslation of the secret
stuff

doctrine, *of

old rare

which portions are

MSS.

to

be found in certain

possessed by the Armenians at Btchmi-

adzine, the oldest monastery in the Russian Caucasus.

They are known as the Mesrobian MSS. Should the
1

Ancient Universal History,

iv,

206.

11

Parsis show

Bombay

any

real general

interest

in

the rehabilitation of their religion, I think I may

promise them the unpaid but, all the same,
friendly assistance of
friend of thirty-seven

Madame
years

Blavatsky, whose
standing, the Prince

Dondoukoff Korsakoff, has just notified her of his

appointment by His Majesty the Czar, as Viceroy of
the Caucasus.

In one of such old MSS., then,

Initiate, or

Magus:

secrets

(sacred)

said of the

who would

penetrate the
Fire and unite with it, as the

"He

unites himself with the Universal Soul

Yogi
first

of

it is

unite

mother,

himself, soul

to

Humanity

must

and body, to the Earth

sister, and to Science

his

his
his-

Quite a different thing, you perceive,

from the abhorrent precept ascribed to the Founder
daughter."

of your

Mazdean

serve as a

to

warning

And

example should
your so-called educated youth

faith.

this

against turning up his classical nose at his ancestral

(
religign as unscientific and nonsensical.

A curious

and sad thing, indeed,

completely the old

life

Originally a highly

it is

to see

how

has gone out of Zoroastrianisnu

spiritual

faith

know

of

none

more

so
and represented by . Sages and Adepts of
the highest rank among Initiates, it has shrunk intoa purely exoteric creed full of ritualistic practices not

understood, taught by a numerous bod^ of priests a&

a rule ignorant of the first elements of* spiritual
philosophy, and represented in prayers of which not

12

one has a meaning to those who recite them daily

shrivelled shell that once held a radiant soul.
that Zoroastrianisrn

all

The

ever was

it

the

Yet

might be made

shines, though in darkness,

light
again.
enclosed in the clay vessel of materialism. Whose shall
still

be the holy hand to break the jar of clay and let the
hidden glory be seen ? Where is the Mobed who shall
11

in

our day and generation rise to the ancient dignity

of his

profession,

and redeem

a degradation so great as

it

to oblige

from degradation /
even a Parsi author*

to say that they recite parrot-like all the chapters re

quiring to be repeated on occasions of religious cere

as these priests are,
"Ignorant and unlearned

monies?

they do not and cannot

laity

guides

some

the

has

position

fallen into

command
of the

the respect of the

so-called
"

contempt

spiritual

he adds,

also,

have given* up a profession which has

be honourable and
become contractors
"

priests

-ceased to

for constructing railroads in the

Some

of the present Dasturs

"

Bombay Presidency."

are intelligent and well-

informed men, possessing a considerable knowledge of

1
Not before he learns the true meaning of his own name, and strives
once more to become worthy of it, can he be found. How many

the modern priests kaow that their title of Mobed or Mogbed

Mag, a word used by the prophet Jeremiah to designate
a Babylonian Initiate, which, in its turn, is an abbreviation of
Maginsiah the great and wise ?
Maghistom was once the title
of Zoroaster s highest disciples, and the synonym of wisdom. Speaking of them Cicero says Sapientium et doctor um genus majorum
habebatur in Persis (The wise and learned class of the
Magians live
among the Persians).

among
comes

front

The Parsis,

p. 277.

Mr. Dosabhai Framji.

13
their religion

but the mass of the priesthood are pro

foundly ignorant of its first principles."

I ask you, men of practical sense, what is the
certain fate of a religion that has descended so low, that
are regarded by the Behedin (laity) as fit
be employed in menial services, such as bring
ing things to you from the bazaar, and doing house
What is it ? I put it to you. Do
hold tasks ?

its

priests

only to

you suppose that such a dried corpse

long above ground by the fresh and
you are educating

at college

will

be

critical

left

minds

Nay, do you not

see-

how they abstain

are already treating it
from visiting your temples how sullenly they make
kusti/ and go through their other daily ceremonies
how they

how they

avoid, as

much

as possible, every attention

how they are gathering

to the prescribed ordinances

clubs to driife pegs anfl play cards

in

how they

are

defiling themselves

by evil associations, smoking in

some even openly, and prating glibly the
most ^ceptical sophistries they have read in European
secret,

books, written

by deluded modern

theorists

Yes,

the c*loud gathers over the fire-altar, the once fra

grant wood of truth is wet with the deadly dews of

doubt, a pestilential vapour

and unless some Regenerator

fills

the Atash-Behram,

raised up among you,

the name of Zoroaster may, before many generations,,
be known only as that of the Founde* of an extinct
Faith.
1

Ibid, p. 279.

is

14
his preface to the translation of the

In

Vendidad,

The Key to the

says
Avesta is not the Pahlavi, but the Veda. The Avesta
and the Veda are two echoes of one and the same
"

the learned Dr. Darmesteter

voice, the reflex of

one and the same thought

the

Vedas, therefore, are both the best lexicon and the

This he defines
best commentary to the Avesta
".*

as the extreme view of the Vedic scholars, and while,

personally, he does not subscribe to them entirely,

he yet holds that we cannot perfectly comprehend

the Avesta without utilising the discoveries of the
Vedic pandits. But neither Darmesteter, nor Anquetil
Duperron, nor Haug, nor Spiegel, nor Sir William
Jones, nor Rapp (whose work has been so perfectly
translated into English by your eminent Pars! scholar
Mr. K. R. Kama), nor Koth, nor any philological

whose works

critic

key

to

search

Zoroaster

among

haVe read, ha^ named the true

For it, we must not

doctrine.

the dry bones of words. No, it hangs

the Chaldean secret

within the door of the Kabalah

volume, where, under the mask of symbols and mis

leading phrases, it is kept for the use of the true
searcher after arcane knowledge. The entire system
of ceremonial purifications, which in itself is so perfect
that a modern Parsi, a friend of mine, has remarked
that Zoroaster was the best of Health

seems to

it

Vol.

oie,

typical of

Officers,

The Sacred Books of the East, edited by Professor F.

IV,

p. 26.

is,

the moral purification

Max

Muller,

15

required of him who would either, while living, attain

the Magian s knowledge of hidden laws of nature and
his

to wield

power

a well ordered
of

spiritual

and

Hindus
filements

are

by
warned

them

for

attain

life,

good purposes,

beatitude,

Nirvana by the
touch

of

against,

to the

by degrees
called

or, after

Moksha

Bu<idhists.

stage
by the

The de

various objects that you

not visible defilements,

are

person by contact with filth,

but psychic defilements, through the influence of
a subtle influence proceeding
their bad magnetic aura
from certain living organisms and inert substances
like

of the

that

which

is

If

will

you

antipathetic to development as an adept.

compare your books with the Toga Sutras

of the Hindus,

you

and the Tripitikas

will see that

practitioner

of

of the Buddhists,

each exact for the student and

occult science,

place,

an

at

mosphere,* and surroundings that are perfectly

Thus the Magus, or Yozdathraigar, the Yogi,
pure.
and the Arhat all retire, either to the innermost or

topmost chambers of a temple, where no stranger is

permitted to enter, bringing his impure magnetism
with him, or to the heart of a forest, a secluded cave, or
a mountain height.
virgin seeresses
lites,

In the tower of Belus at Babylon,

gazed into magical mirrors a*nd aero

to see their prophetic visions

the yogi retires

to his subterranean gupha, or to jungle fastnesses

and the Chinese books

tell

us that the

of their sacred doctrine dwell in the

greajb

Nachus

snowy range

of

16

The books alleged to have been in

delivered by His angels to man,
spired by God, or
the Himavat.

been delivered on mountains.

Zoroaster got the Avesta on Ushidarina, a mountain
1
the tables of the
by the river Daraga; Moses received

have always,

Law on

I believe,

MounttSinai

a
;

Koran on Mount Hara

3
;

Muhammmed was

given the

and the Hindu Rshis lived in

the Himalayas. Sakya Muni left no inspired books, but,

Buddhaalthough he received the illumination of the

under a Bo-tree, he had prepared

himself by years of austerities in the mountains near

hood

in the plains,

The obstructive power of foul human,

animal, vegetable, and even mineral auras, or magnet
Rajagriha.

isms, has always

been understood by occult students,

from the remotest times.

This

is

the true reason

why

none but initiated and consecrated priests have ever

been allowed to step within the precircts of the holiest
places.

The custom

is

not at

all

feeling of selfish exclusiveness,

known

the offspring of a.ny

but

is

based upon

psycho-physiological laws. Even the

Mesmerists

and

Spiritualists

know

this

modern
and the

avoid mixing magnetisms,

which always hurt a sensitive subject. All nature is a
compound of conflicting, hence counterbalancing and

latter, at least, carefully

equilibrating forces. Without this there could be no

such thing as stability. Is it not the contest of
1

Vendidad,

xlix.

Exodu8, xxxiv.
f

Am.

Oyc., Vol. xi, 612.

17
centrifugal and centripetal attractions that keeps our
earth and every other orb of heaven revolving in its
orbit ?
The law of the universe is a distinct dualism

while the creative energy

pound unism when at

is

at work,

and

of a

com

And

the personification
Zoroaster
of these opposing powers by
was but the
and
scientific
statement
of a
philosophical
perfectly

profound truth.

The

rest.

secret laws of this

war

of forces

are taught in the Chaldean Kabalah. Every neophyte

sets himself to study for Initiation is taught these

who

secrets,

and he

made

is

to

prove them by his own

experiments, step by step, as his powers and know

ledge increase. Zoroastrianism has two sides the

Born
open, or patent, and the concealed, or secret.
of the mind of a Bactriaa seer, it partakes of the
nature

and

of

of the

the primitive Iranian national religion

new spirituality that was ppured into it,

from the, Source of

all

Truth, through the superb lens

of Zoroaster s mind.

The Parsis have been charged with being worship

This is wholly false. They
pers* of the visible fire.
face the fire, as they also face the sun and the sea,
because in them they picture to themselves the hidden
Light of Lights, Source of
the

name

of Orrnazd.

which they give

and how beautifully
the writings of Robert Fludd,
all Life, to

How

well

is this expressed in
the English Mystic of the seventeenth century 1

See Hargrave Jennings.

2

The Rosicrucians, p. 69.*

18

then with other eyes than with

Fire,
which thou hast
soulless incurious ones with
looked upon it as the most ordinary thing. Thou

Regard

those

hast forgotten what it is or rather thou hast never known.

Chemists are silent about it ... Philosophers talk of it
as anatomists discourse of the constitution, or the parts,
It is made for man and this
of the human body. ...
world, and it is greatly like him that is mean, they
Is this the sum of that
Bift is this all ?
would add
casketed lamp of the human body ? thine own body, thou
unthinking world s machine thou man ? Or, in the
fabric of this clay lamp (What a beautiful simile) burneth
there not a Light ? Describe that, ye doctors of physics
Think that this thing
Note the goings of the Fire.
Think that He is outside
is bound up in matter chains.
and that thou and thy world are only the
of all things
thing -between and that outside and inside are both iden
tical, couldst thou understand the supernatural truths
Reverence Fire, for its meaning, and tremble at it
Avert the face from it, as the Magi turned, dreading, and,
Wonder no longer
as the symbol, bowed askance
then, if, rejected so long as an idolatry, the ancient Per
sians, and their Masters, the Magi
concluding that they
saw All in this supernaturaUy magnificent element fell
.

down and worshipped it making of it the^ physical

representation of the very truest, yet, in man s specula
tion, and in his philosophies
nay, in his commonest
reason impossible God.
:

And mind
Pars! or one
scholar

by

the

who

you,

this

is

the language, not of a

but

of

an English

followed the shining path

marked out

of

your

faith,

Chaldean Magi, and obtained, like them,

the true .meaning of $our mysteries.

is

the

vindicator

none other.

of

Zoroastrianism,

Modern physical

self to spiritual

science

Occult Science

and
is

there

is

blind her

laws and spiritual phenomena.

She

cannot guide, being herself in need of a helping

19

hand

hand

the

of the Occultist

and the Heirophant

Chaldean sage.

Have you thought why the

ing on your altars
priest suffer

ing

Ah

it

to

there

Why

Fire

is

kept ever burn

not the

Why may

is it ?

go out and re-kindle

is

it

each morn

And why

a great secret hidden.

must the flames of one thousand different fires be

from the smithy, the burning-kiln, the
funeral pyre, the goldsmith s furnace, and every

collected

other imaginable source ?

element of Fire pervades
soul, is

Why ? because this

all

nature,

the cause of the motion of

its

spiritual

its

is

life

and

molecules which

produces the phenomenon of physical heat. And the

from all these thousand hearths are collected,
like so many fragments of the universal life, into one

fires

which shall be as perfectly as possible

the complete and collective type of the Light of
Ormazd. See the precautions taken to gather only
the spirit or quintessence, as it were, of these separate

sacrificial blaze

flames.

The

priest takes not the crude coals

from the

but at each
various hearths and furnaces and pits
flame he lights a bit of sulphur, a ball of cotton, or
:

some other inflammable substance

from

quantity of fuel

this blaze

from

this a

taking

he ignites a second
from the third a fqurth, and so on
third
;

in some cases a

ninth, in others a twentieth flame,

of the fire
grossness of the defilement
in the base use to which it was put has been purged
and only the purest essence remains. Then only

until

away,

the

first

20
to be placed on the altar of Ormazd. And even
then the flame is not ready to be the type of that
Eternal Brightness it is as yet but a body of earth
is it fit

ly flame, a

body which lacks

its

When

noblest soul.

your forefathers gathered at Sanjan to light the fire

for the Indian exiles, the holy Dastur Nairyosang,

who had come with them from

Persia, gathered his

people and the strangers of the country about

in
the
him
Upon a stone block
jungle.
the dried sandal wood is laid. Four priests stand

The

at the four cardinal points.

the priests

bow

Grathas are intoned,

their faces in reverential awe.

The

Dastur raises his eyes to heaven, he recites the mysti

and lo from the upper world of
cal words of power
space, descend silvery tongues of flame which lap round
!

This is
the fragrant wood, and it bursts into a blaze.
the
the missing spirit evoked by
Adept Prometheus.

When

this

is

added

to the

thousand other dancing

flames the symbol is perfected, and the face of Ormazd

.shines before his
Lighted thus at
worshippers.
has
that
historic
fire
been kept alive
Sanjan,

more than seven hundred years, and, until another

Nairyosang appears among you to draw the flames of

for

the ambient

ether upon your altar, let

it

be

fed

continuously.

This ancient art of drawing fire from heaven was

taught in the Samothracian and Kabiric Mysteries.

Numa, who introduced

the Vestal

Rome, thus kindled a

which was under the care of

fire

Mysteries

into

21

consecrated Vestal Virgins, whose duty it was, under

penalty of death for neglect, to constantly maintain it.
It was,

Schweigger shows, the Hermes

as

Elmesfire of the ancient

Germans

fire,

the

the lightening of

Cybele ; the torch of Apollo; the re of Pan s altar,

the fire-flame of Pluto s helm the inextinguishable
.

fire

in the

temple of the Grecian Athene, on the

Acropolis of Athens

and the mystical

fires

of

many

worships and symbols. The occult science,

of which I spoke, was shared by the Initiates of the
The
Sacred Science all over the ancient world.
different

gained in Chaldea, and was

thence spread through Greece to more western and
northern countries. Even to-day the Fire-cult sur

knowledge was

vives

among

first

the rude Indian tribes of Arizona

a far

western portion of my native country, America. Major

Calhouif, of the U. S. Army, who commanded a

surveying party sent out by our government, told me

that, in that remote corner of the world, and among*
people, he found them keeping alight
their Sacred Fire in their teocalis, or holy enclosures.
their
go out, dressed in the

those rude

Every morning

priests

sacerdotal robes of their forefathers, to salute the

rising sun, in the

ised

hope that \Tontezuma,

Redeemer and Liberator,

of his

coming

is

prom
The time

tfieir

will appear.

not foretold, but from generation

to*

and pray, amd hope.

generation they wait,

In her Isis Unveiled,

Madame Blavatsky

us that this heavenly Fire,

has shown

however and whenever

22
manifested,

is

a correlation of the Akasha, and the

art of the magician

and attract

it

and

down.

priest enables

But

to

him

to develop

do this he must be

in body, in thought, in deed.

absolutely pure pure

these are the three pillars upon which Zoro
I
aster erected the stately edifice of his religion.

And

have always considered

it as a great test of the merit

that
its
essence can be compressed
any religion
into a few words that a child can understand. Buddh

of

ism, with its noble comprehensiveness,

by

its

distilled

Founder into seven words; Zoroastrianism,

reduced to three

was

is

Humata, HulMa, Hvarshta.

Parsi gentleman,

with

whom

conversed the

explained the fact of your having no

wonder-working priests at present by saying that

other day,

none living were pure enqugh. He was right, and

until you can find such a
pure celebrant, your religion
never be again ensouled. An impure man who
made
"attempts the magical ceremonies is liable to be
will

mad

a scientific necessity. The law

is,
you know, that action and reaction are
therefore, the operator in the Mysteries pro

or destroyed. This

is

of nature,

equal. If,

pels from him self a current of will-power directed again st

a certain qbject, and

either because of

feebleness

Occult sound as well as light emanate from Akasha

but the
Brahman and Puddhist Initiates make a great distinction be
tween Astral Fire and Astral Light. Occult sounds and lights are
heard and seen by the Yogi, and he knows that they proceed from
his own Muladharam
the first of the six centres of force taught in
The centre whose name means the chief
Yoga philosophy
foundation or basis is the seat of Astral Fire
they say.
:

true

"

"

23
of will or deviation caused by impure motives,
he misses his mark, his current rebounds from the
whole body of the Akasha, as the ball rebounds from

the wall against which

it is

thrown

hand, and reacts upon himself.

to the thrower s

Thus,

we

are

told

that they who did not know how to manage the

miraculous Fire in the Vestal and Kabiric Mysteries
"

were destroyed by
1

Gods".

it,

Pliny relates

and were punished by the

that Tullus Hostilius had

sought from the books of Numa, Jovem devocare a

coelo
but as he did not correctly follow the rules
"

"

of

Numa, he was struck by

rule applies equally

art unskilfully.
like chickens,

fco

the lightning.

The old English proverb

come home

The same

the attempt to use the black

to

roost."

says,

"Curses,

He who would

use

the powers of sorcery, or black magic, is sure to be

destroyed by them first or last. The old fables about
sorcerers being carried off
whom, for a time, they had

unlawful desires, are

all

Zoroa^strianism, the Pars!

by the mocking
employed

based upon
is

devils

to gratify their
fact.

And,

in

as carefully taught to

eschew and fight against the powers of Ahriman, or

Spirits of Darkness, as to cultivate in
with
and win the protecting favour of the
timacy
Ameshaspentas and Yazatas the personified good

the

evil

You will not find any of your

Principles of Nature.
authorities
European
speaking of .these personifications
1

Ennemoser, History of Magic,

Histor. Nat., xxviii.

2.

II. 32.

24
with

decent

any more than of the

To their minds these are

respect,

Nature-gods of the Aryans.

but the childish fancies of a

imagination, begotten
a good reason, too

florid

Persian or Aryan

in the infancy of our race, for

one of these spectacled

pandits has the least practical reason to believe that
there are such good and evil powers warring about
:

But

not

am

not afraid to say to them all in my

individual, not official, capacity that I do believe in
us.

them; nay, that I actually know they

And

exist.

why you hear me, a western man taught in a

western University and nursed on the traditions of
modern civilisation, say that Zoroaster knew more
this is

about nature than Tyndall does, more about the laws

of force than Balfour Stewart, more about the origin

Darwin or Haeckel, more about the

human mind and its potentialities than Ma/u$sley or
Bain
and so did Buddha and some other ancient
of species than

proficients

of the

Bombay

degree,

Pshaw Young man

when you have taken y our

in occult science.

University,

and learned

all

your professors can teach

r

you, go to the hermit and the recluse of the jungle

and ask him

to

prove to you where to begin your

which you have been

real study of the world- into

born

Your

professors can

make you learned but

not wise, can teach you about the shell of Nature ; but
those silent anct despised unravellers of the tangled
web of existence can evoke for you the soul that lurks
within that husk.

Three centuries before Christ the

25

United Kingdom of Persia and Media exercised a

dominion extending over an area of three or four
millions

several

of square miles

and had a population

hundred millions of people.

mean to tell me that

of

And do you

the Zoroastrian religion could have

dominated the minds of this enormous mass of people

nearly twice the present population of India and
could have also swayed the religious thought of the
cultured Greeks and Romans, if it had not had a

poor remnant of to-day

if you could put

spiritual life in it that its

completely lacks ? I tell you that

that ancient life back into it, and
holy

men

to

show

this ignorant

if

you had your

age the proof of the

Chaldean wisdom, you would spread

your religion all over the world. For the age is
spiritually dying for want of a religion tjiat can show
reality of the old

and for lack of them two crores of

western people have become Spiritualists and are
following the lead of mediums. And not only your*

just suck signs

religion

Judaisjn,

soulless.

is

and

Hinduism, Southern Buddhism,

Christianity

are

so

likewise.

We

signs
following the missionaries none of the
that Jesus said should follow those who were really
see

his disciples

they neither

rafise

the

dead^,

nor heal

the sick, nor give sight to the blind, nor cast out
devils, nor dare they drink any deadly thing in the.
Inhere are a few
faith that it will not harm them.
true wonder-workers in our time, but they are among
the Lamaists of Tibet, the Copts of Egypt, the Sufis

26

and Dervishes of Arabia and other Muhammadan

The great body of the people in all
countries.
has
become so sensual, so avaricious, so
countries,
materialistic
is

and

moral atmosphere

faithless, that the

like a pestilential

wind

to the Yozdathraigar (those

Adepts whom we have made known

the

name

to India

under

of BROTHERS).

The meaning of your Haoma you doubtless know.

In the ninth Ya9na of the Avesta, Haoma is spoken
of both as a God
Yazata and as the plant or juice
of the plant,

which

and

Soma

so

is

the

under his especial protection

is

of the Aitareya

At the time

Haoma

of morning-dawn
to Zoroaster,

Brahmana.

came

As he was purifying the fire and reciting the Grathas.

Zoroaster asked him Who,
man, art thou ?
:

wh o

Thou,
appearest to me as the most beautiful in
the whole corporeal world, endued with thine 1)wn life r
majestic and immortal ?
t

Then answered me Haoma, the

pure,

who

is

far

from

death.

Ask me, thou Pure

one,

make me ready

for food.

same line, is Haoma spoken of in his

form
and as a plant to be prepared for
personified
food.
Farther on he is .described as

Thus

in the

Victorious, golden, with moist stalks.

This

is

the

sacred

also elevated into

Soma

a deity.

of the

This

Aryans
is

by them

that wondrous

mind of him who quaffed it tothe splendours of the highest heavens, and made him

juice which* lifted the

27

commune with

the Gods. It was not stupefying like

not maddening like the Indian hemp, but

opium,

exhilarating,
visions. It

the begetter of divine

illuminating,

was given

to the candidate in the Mysteries,

and drunk with solemn ceremonies

the Hierophant.
Its ancient use is still kept in your memories by the
Mobeds drinking in the Yana ceremony, a decoction
of

dried

Haoma

stalks, that

fry

have been pounded with

a mortar and afterwards

pomegranate root in
had water thrice poured over them.

bits of

The Beresma twigs among you represented by a

bunch of brass wires are a reminiscence of the
of
divining-rods anciently used by all practitioners
also
was
or
staff
rod
ceremonial magic. The
given to

the fabled gods of Mythology. In the fifth book of the

of the G-ods, bids
Odyssey, Jupiter, in the t Council

Hermes* to go upon
says

a certain mission, and the verse

Forth sped he

Then taking

....

his staff, with

which he the eyelids of

mortals
Closes at will, and the sleeper, at will, re-awakens.
staff; so was that
rod of Hermes was a

The

magic

had power over

The Bible has many* references tQ the magic
of the contest of Moses with
in the

of JEsculapius, the healing

disease.

rod, notably

wand

that

story

Pharaoh ;
the Egyptian Magicians in the presence of
and
s rod
in that of the magical budding of Aaron
the
of
face
the
on
in the laying of Elisha s staff
our
of
day
dead Shunamite boy. The Hindu Gossain
;

28

him a bamboo rod having seven knots or

that has been given to him by his Guru and

carries with
joints,

contains the concentrated magnetic will-power of the

Guru. All magic-rods should be hollow, that the

may be

magnetic power

stored

them.

in

In the

Yana

II., note that the priest, holding the Baresma

rods in his hand repeats constantly the words, I wish

properly, I will

so

and

so.

By

the ceremony of

concentration of the sacred twigs a

magical power
has been imparted to them, and with the help of this

own

to fortify his

will-force, the celebrant seeks the

attainment of his several good desires

Fire, the

several

good

Spirits, all

kingdoms

the heavenly

influences throughout

good
and the Law or WORD.

of Nature,

In the middle ages of Europe, divining-rods were in

general use, not only to disQOver subterranean waters

and

springs, and veins of metal, but also fugitive

thieves and murderers.
I could devote an entire

lecture

to

this

phenomenon
Gould

is

subject and prove to you that this

a strictly scientific one.
In Baring-

Curious Myths of the Middle Ages will be

found highly interesting accounts of these trials of
the

mystical power of the rods which time forbids

To this day the rods are employed

quoting.
discover springs, and the Cornish miners carry
or other wood in their caps.
The
sprigs of

my
to

hazel^

author

of

the

work

named, while ascribing the

strange results he is obliged to record principally

to the imagination, is
yet constrained to add that,

29

powers of Nature are so mysterious and in

we must be cautious in limiting them,

"The

scrutable that

under abnormal conditions, to the ordinary laws of

experience." And in this he is backed up by the
experience of
different

We
Word

many

generations of witnesses, in

have mentioned the invocation

or

Name

in the

which

Ya9na.
is a certain

One

Rabbi

Word

of

Power by

the Adept subjugates

pronouncing
forces of Nature to his
authors.

of the divine

All the ancient author

affirm that there

ities

many

countries.

all

the

mentioned by many
the author of a book

It is

will.

of the latest

is

who, speaking of Jesus, says,

He had perhaps endeavoured to employ magic arts,
and to bewitch the Council by invocation of the Name
effect
through which all incantations were rendered
called

Jeshiia,

"

ive.

m Among

the

used to prepare the

Aryans,

the

sacrificial

Agnihotra

priest

wood and, upon

re

the heavenly fire of

citing the appropriate Mantra,
In the Avesta,.
it.
kindle
and
would descend

Agni

Zoroaster smites the fiends with the spiritual power

2
It represents him as a saint- militant,
of the Word.
In Fargard xi, Zoroaster
force.
force
repelling

asks

by

Ahura-Mazda how he

shall

purge the house, the

faith
the water, the earth, the.cow, the tree, the
the
the
sun,
moon,
the
stars,
ful man and woman,

fire,

the boundless light, and

1

p. 143.

Darmesteter, Ixxvii.

all

good things.

30

Ahura Mazda answers

Thou, shalt chant the cleansing words, and the house

shall be clean, clean shall be the fire, etc.

So thou shalt say these fiend-smiting and most healing

words thou shalt chant the Ahunavairya five times, etc.
;

Then are given various words to employ for dif

But the WORD the one most
ferent acts of cleajising.
potent

the

Name which

Proclus

upon the Chaldean Oracles

"

infinite

worlds,

be written, nor

is

is

breath, nor, indeed,

charms and

says,

not written there.

it

is

spells lies

his

treatise

rushes into the

1

Nor can

it

ever pronounced above the

its nature known except to the

The

highest Initiates.

in
"

of all words used as

what the Aryans call the

efficacy

in

Vach, a certain latent power resident in Akasha.

Physically we may describe it as the power to set up
certain measured vibrations, not in the grosser atmo
light,
particles, whose ^undulations beget
and electricity, but in the latent ^Spiritual
heat
sound,
Principle or Force about the nature of which modern

spheric

science

knows scarcely anything.

No words whatever

have the slightest efficacy unless uttered by one who

is perfectly free from all weakening doubt or hesi
tancy

who

is

for the

moment wholly absorbed

in the

them and has a cultivated power

thought
of will which makes h im send out from himself a
conquering impulse. Spoken prayer is in fact an
and when spoken by the heart as
incantation,
of uttering

Though properly

the

WORD

a name in the sense we give

it.

or the

NAME

is

neither a

word nor

31

by the lips, lias a power to attract good and

But to patter off prayers so
repel bad influences.

well as

times a day while your thoughts are roving

over your landed estates, fumbling your money-bags,
or straying away among any other worldly things, is
The
but mere waste of breath. The Bible says

many

"

prayer of the righteous availeth much

There

is

land,

who

"

and

so

it

does.

the case of George Muller, of Bristol, Eng

for thirty years has supported the entire

expenses of his orphanage now a very large institu

tion of charity
by the voluntary gifts of unknown
the
at
door, who drop into his charity boxes
passers-by
the exact sum he prays for to meet the day s neces
sities.
History does not contain a more curious or
striking example than this.

This

man

prays with

such faith and fervency, his motives are so pure, his

labours so beneficent, that he attracts^ to him all the
he knows neither
good influence s of Nature, although
nor the
the
Ahunavairya/ nor Aryan mantras,
Buddhistic Pirit. Use what words you may, if tha
heart is clean, the thought intense, and the will concen
of Nature will come at your bid
trated, the

powers
ding and be your slaves.

The Dabistan

says.

in the body full of Thy remem

as $ie Adept, in contemplation
well
as
the
brance,
novice,
Becomes a supreme king of beatitude, and the throne
of the kingdom of gladness.
Whatever road I took, it joined the street which leads.

Having the heart

to

Thee
P2:

32

The

desire to

meditators

know Thy being

is

also the life of

the

He who found that there

found the final knowledge

is

nothing but Thee has

The Mobed

is

the teacher of

Thy

truth,

and the

world a school.

Mobed was

not a mere errand-runner, or

droner of Gathas perfunctorily without understanding

But

this

a word he was saying, but a real Mobed.

an

ideal of

that

human
is

Cambyses

tion of a priest

and had

had ha

So high

to live

up to,
perfectibility
said to have commanded the execu

who had allowed

himself to be bribed

his skin stretched over the chair in

which

his

Mobed
son and successor sat in his judicial capacity.
from the Persian Mog, and
is derived from Mogbed
means a true priest. Ennernoser truly says that the
renowned wisdom

of the

in Persia, Media, and

contained also the secret

Magi

the neighbouring countries,

"

teachings of philosophy and the sciences, which were

only communicated to priests, who were regarded as
mediators between God and man, and as such, and
on account of their knowledge, were highly respectecj. a
"

what the people

to
them
be.
Remember
that, friends, and
require
blame yourselves only for the state of religion among
you. You have just what you are entitled to. If
you yourselves were more pure, more spiritual and
more religious, your priesthood would be so. You

The

priests of a people are exactly

^Hist

Magic",

I.,

2.

33
are merchants, not idolaters, but

as Professor

Monier

William pithily remarks

(March 1881)

in the Nineteenth Century

worshippers of the solid rupee. The

genuine Parsi, he says, turns with disgust from the

hideous idolatry practiced by his Hindu fellow-sub
"

He

no homage to blocks of wood and

stone, to monstrous many-headed images, grotesque

jects.

offers

symbols of good luck, or four-armed deities of fortune.

But he bows down before the silver image which
Victoria the Empress of India, has set up in her

Indian dominions.

And

this,

"

according to Zoroastrianism,

a crime as

is

In his ecstatic vision of the symbolical scenes

great.

shown him by the angel Serosh-Yazata for the warning

and encouragement of his people, Ardai Viraf the purest
,

of Magician Priests at the court of Ardeshir Babiigan,

saw the pitiable state to, which the soul of a covetous

miser

The

reduced after death.

is

penniless

he

since

could

take

poor wretch,
not

dime

with him

his heart buried with his savagely-loved

treasures,

his

and
pure nature corrupted
I
the Seer to profoundest pity.
along in fear and trembling,

once

"

deforcedmoved
saw

"

it

says he,

"creep

and presently a wind came sweeping along, loaded

with the most pestilential Vapours, even as it were
from the boundaries of hell .... In the midst of
demoniacal
this wind appeared a form of the most
soul

to

attempts
appearance .... The
the awful vengeful shape by
in
but
vain;
escape
terrified

34
voice and power roots

"I

am

your

him

who

in trembling accents

(that

genius"

to the spot.

He

may be, and

is

it

enquires

answered:

his spiritual counterpart

is,

and now his mastering destiny) and have become

thus deformed by your crimes whilst you were in
You have laid in no
nocent I was hamisome.
provisions for this long journey you were rich but
did no good with your riches ... and not only did
"

no good yourself, but prevented, by your evil example,

those whose inclinations led them to do good ; and

you have often mentally

judgment

To me

it

will

said,

When

never arrive

is

."

the day of

Say

it is

a vision, if you will, yet neverthless it mirrors an

awful truth. The worship of the silver image of
Victoria on the

the

Hindu

Rupee

is

even more degrading than

Hari ; for he, at

of Granesha or

worship
animated by a pious though^,, whereas the
greedy money-getter is but defiling himself with the

least,

is

filth of selfishness.

The Pars! community is already half-way along the

Gone is the fiery enthusiasm t hat

road to apostacy.

made your

forefathers give

up everything they prized

rather than repudiate their faith ; that supported them
during a whole century in the sterile mountains of

Khurasan pr the outlying deserts that comforted

them in their exile at Sanjan, and gave them hope
;

&fter the battle with their hereditary

Khan.
1

Formerly,

it.

was

religion

Ardai Virdf Nameh, by Captain

J.

first

A. Pope,

enemy Aluf

and Rupee
p. 56.

last;

35

now

it is Rupee first and

everything else after it. See
a stranger, point with one finger to your palatial

I,

your gorgeous equipages, and your

ostentatious annual squandering of twelve lakhs of

bungalows,
at

money

festivals

with the other to the wretched

16,000 towards the support of

Mazdiyasna Sabha a good society for the

subscription of Rs.

Rahanumai

promotion of your religion among your own children,

and of Rs. 10,000 to the orthodox Pars! Society

Khetwadi
and in

of

The proverb

"

says,

Figures cannot
did

instance

If I
not.
they
to
to
test
the
best
wanted
your religious zeal, I
apply
should look at the sum of your expenditures for vain
show and sensual enjoyment, as compared with what
lie,"

you do

this

for the

maintenance

of

your religion in

and to the sort of conduct you tolerate

That* is the mirror that impartial
priests.

purity;

in

its

your

justice

before you ; behold your own image, and

converse with your conscience in your private mo
What but conscience is personified in the
ments
holds

u>

beauty or fiendish ugliness," accord

the Chinvad bridge was
ing asthe soul that approaches

"

maid

of divine

*
She the well-shapen, strong
good or bad in life ?
the dogs at her sides, one
with
and tall-formed maid,
and is of high understanding."
who can distinguish
"

You have asked me to tell you about the spirit

the
I have only the trjith to tell
of your religion.
1

Yasht

Vendidad, Fargard xix.

xxii.

36

And I repeat,
towards
are
religious repudia
already half-way
you
You have already set money in the niche of
tion.
exact truth, without fear or favour.

faith

it

of doors.

only remains for you to throw the latter out

For hypocrisy will not last for ever. Men

paying even lip-service to a religion they no

longer respect. You can deceive yourselves, you can
not deceive that maiden at the bridge. Let three or

weary

four

the

of

more generations of sceptics be passed through

educational mint of the college ; and let the

teaching of your religion be neglected as it now is ;

and the time will have come when it will be only the
occasional brave heart that will dare call himself a

Let

TMazdean.

choose
of the

it is

one,

human

stand

that

and

race.

as a

prophecy

if

you

based upon the experience

black page will it be indeed,

it is

human

when

the last vestiges

once splendid faith of Zoroaster s^hall be
of the
blotted from it, the last spark of the heavenly fire

in the record of

events,

that shone from the Chaldean watch-towers of the

Sages be extinguished. And the more so, when that last

extinction shall be caused, not by the sword of tyranny
nor by the crafty scheming of civil administrators,
but by the worldliness of its own hereditary

whom

the lighted torch had

been handed down through the ages, and who dropped
it into the quenching black waters of Materialism.
custodians

those to

Time fails me to enter into detailed explanation of

the Zoroastrian symbols as perhaps I might though

37

am

not able to do the subject full

justice.
kusti with which you invest
your child
ren at the age of six years and three months have of

I certainly

The sudra and

a magical significance.

course

They pass through

we have seen was
formerly an Initiate, and he imparted to them
magnetic properties which converted them into
the hands of the .Dastur

who

as

talismans against evil influences.

formula

of

prayers

After that a set

and incantations

prescribed for the whole

is

The wearer

life.

regularly
s

thoughts

are directed towards the talismanic objects constant

ly and, when the faith is present, his or her will-power,
or magnetic aura,

This

is

is

the secret of

at such time infused into them.

all

talismans

the object worn,

may be, need have no innate protective

that can be given to any rag, or stone,
for
property,
or bit of pape?, by an Adept. Those of you who have
whatever

it

read the Christian Bible will remember that from the

were brought unto the
of Paul the Apostle,
"

body
sick

handkerchiefs

or

aprons,

and the

diseases

went out of
departed from them, and the evil spirits
Khordehthe
of
them V In the Ahuramazda-Yasht
A vesta, it is written by day and night, standing
"

or sitting, sitting, or standing, girt with the Aiwyaonhana (kusti) or drawing off the AiwyaonhtJna.

forwards out,
Going forwards out of the house, going
the confederacy, going forwards out of the region,
coming into a region.
of

Acts xix, 12.

38

Such a man the points of the Drukhs-souled, proceed

ing from Aeshma, will not injure in that day or that
night, not the slings, not the arrows, not knives, not
1
clubs the missiles will not penetrate and he be injured.
;

Similar protective talismans are given

new

to each

Adept
The use

by every

pupil.

Nir&ng for libations and ablutions

of

survival of very ancient

There

thic conceptions.

my

probably pre-Iranian
is

nothing

is

in the fluid itself of

a disinfectant or purificatory character, but a magical

property is given to
as a glass of

it

his

left

into a

by a mesmeriser, holding it
hand and making circular passes over

with his right.

The storm
"

the

dark

class

of

animal

by ceremonial magical formulas,

medicine

valuable
in

it

common water may be converted

floods

fiends

in

heavens.

the

the

cleanse

were

the* urine

as

myths
in

that
it

As

sky of

described

the

in

gigantic

floods

from

above drive away the fiend from the

.the
god, so they do from man here below ; they njake
him
free from the death-demon
(franasu), and
bull

away hell-wards, pursued ky the

Perish
Thou,
Drug
fiend-smiting
spell
never more to give over to Death the living world of
2
the good Spirit
It may be that there is a more
the death fiend

flies

"

valid reason for the use of Nirang, but I have not yet

discovered
*
.

it.

Haug s Ave&a,

fhat an occult property

p. 24,

is

imparted to

Khordeh-Avesta, Eng. Ed. of 1864.

Nineteenth Century, January, 1881, p. 176.

39
the fluid by the ceremonial

is

clear, since if it

be ex

posed to certain influences not in themselves putre

factive it will speedily become putrid ; while, on the
other

hand

it

may be kept

for years in a fresh condi

tion without the admixture of antiseptic substances,

and notwithstanding
if

its

occasional ^exposure to the

certain ceremonial rules be followed.

air,

(Of course I

from Pars! friends and not from my own

observation. I would not express an unqualified

have

this

I recom
opinion before investigating the subject.)
mend some Pars! chemist to analyse specimens of dif

ferent ages, especially to determine the relative quanti

ties of nitrogenous constituents.

The subject

is

treated in Darmesteter

Introduc

to the Vendidad.

tion

When

Professor Monier Williams vents his Oxonian

scorn upon

only

than

tile

ceremoifies of the Parsis he thereby

provokes the pity of such as have looked deeper

he into the meaning of ancient symbolism.

"

H,ere

and there

"

"

says he,

the
lofty conceptions of

Deity, deep philosophical thoughts arid a pure morality

vesta like green spots in the
are discoverable in the

but they are more than neutralised by the silly

desert
ideas which crop
puerilities and degrading superstitious
;

up

as plentifully in its pages as thorns

1

anti.

thistles in

Mr. Joseph Cook, the other

a wilderness of sand."
of
day in this hall, said the same. The* good portions
the Yedas were, he said, so few as compared with the
1

Ixxxviii.

40
trashy residuum, that he likened them to the fabled
jewel in the head of a filthy toad. It is really very

kind of these white Pandits to admit that there

anything whatever except rottennes and

the old religions. Give each a statue

is

puerility in

In what has be5ii said

have, you must remember,

been speaking from the standpoint of a Parsi. I have
tried to sink my personality and my personal religious
I

preferences for the moment and put myself in your

That is the cardinal policy of the Theosophical
place.
Society.
is

It

has

itself

no sectarian

basis,

the Universal Brotherhood of man.

It

but

its

motto

was organised

to bring to light the long buried truths of not one, but

of all the world s archaic religions.

Its

members are of

respectable castes, all faiths and races. It has many

For the sake of them
intelligent Parsis among them.
all

and
I

lecture has been given.

have tried most earnestly to induce one of them or
their co-religionists,

thils

.some other Parsi to come forward and show you that

no religion has profounder truths, deeper spiritual

under its familiar mask, than yours.

the incompetent though willing spokesman
ancient Yozdathraigar is your fault, not

truths, concealed

That

am

the

for

have spoken truth, if I have suggested

thoughts, if I have given any encouragement
the pious or pleasure to the learned, my reward

mine.

If I

new
^to
is

ample.

<

Yatha Ahu Vairyo

The Riches of Yohumano
shall be given to him who works in this world for
"

"

"

4L

Mazda

is

the promise of the Avesta \

Bear it in
mind, ye Mazdeans, and remember the maiden and her
..."

dogs by the Chinvad Bridge.

I say this
especially to
Pars!
Brothers
in
our
for
I have the
my
Society,
right
to speak to them as an elder to his
As
Parsls
junior.

they have a paramount duty to their co-religionists,

are retrograding morally for want of the
pure

who

As Theosophists

light.

their fellowmen of

their interest embraces all

whatever creed.

one of the most valuable of

all

For we read

in

the books for the

thoughtful Pars! the Ddbistan or School of Manners :

The world is a book full of knowledge and of justice,
The binder of which book is destiny, and the binding
the beginning and the end
The future of it is the law, and the leaves are the
;

religious persuasions

For three years we have been preaching

this idea

of mutual toleration and* Universal Bro therhood here

in

Some have

Bombay.

ed a deaf
to

appear

now

sunrise.

you in a false light.

and public sympathy

to

turning at last,
in our favour.
is

more have turn

Nay, they have done worse they

and calumnies about us, until we were

ear.

hav.e spread lies

made

listened, but

But the
is

tide is

slowly rising

has been a dark night for us ; it

If you can see a good motive be

It

hind us and an honest purpose

to

do good1 by spread

ing truth will you not join us, as you have other so
cieties, and help to make us strong : We can perhaps

be of service in aiding
1

Fargard

xxi.

you

to

lear.n

something

42

more than you know about the

ism.

As

said before, there

spirit of Zoroastrian-

are

secrets to be extracted from ancient

many important
MSS. in Armenia.

Perhaps they may be got at if you will join together and

send some thoroughly competent Pars! scholars to make
the search in co-opevation with the Tiflis Archasological
Society. See how the Christians have organised a Pales
tine Exploration Society to search for

anything in the

shape of proof that can be found to corroborate their

For years they

Bible.

archaeologists at work.

Is

have kept
your

engineers

religion less

and

important

Or do you mean to sit on your guineas until

the last old MSS. has been burnt to kindle Armenian
fires or torn to
wrap medicines and sweets in, as I
have seen Bibles utilised in India and Ceylon by

to

you

One

members went over the

most important ground a fw months &go. At the
monastery of Soorb Ovanness in Armenia there were in
1877 three superannuated priests now there remains
but one. The
library of books and old manuscripts
heathen Borahs

of our

"

heaped up as waste paper in every corner of the

pillar-cells, tempting no Kurd, are scattered* over
the rooms,
he says and,
For the consideration
of a dagger and a few silver abazes I got several
"

"

Now
precious manuscripts from him
(the old priest)
does not this suggest to you that thro ugh the friendly
"

intermediation of our Society, and the help of Madame

Blavatsky, you may be a.ble to secure exceptional
1

See The Theonophist^uly, 1881.

43
advantages in the matter of archaeological and philo
sophical research connected with Zoroastrianism ? We
do not ask you to join us for our benefit, but for
yonr
own. 1 have thrown out the idea ; act
upon it or not
as

you choose.

Beaten with ParsI children

shoes

ought the ParsT to be who next gives a gaudy nautch

or wedding tamasha unless he has
previously sub
scribed as liberally as his means allow to a fund for
the promotion of his religion.
I told
spirit

you

in

commencing

of Zoroastrianism

that this subject of the

is limitless.

In consulting

my authorities I have been perplexed to choose from

the abundance of material, rather than troubled by
any lack of it. There are a few more
would like to mention before closing.
Abul Pharaj, in the Book of Dynasties

facts that I

states that

Zoroaster taught the Persians the manifestation of

the Wisdom (the Lord s Anointed Son, or Logos,
the Persian Honovar ). This is the living manifested

Word of deific Wisdom. He predicted that a Virgin

should conceive immaculately, and that at the birth
of that future messenger a six-pointed star would
appear and shine at noon-day.

In

its

centre would

appear the figure of a Virgin. This six pointed star

you see engraved on the seal of the Theosophical
In the Kabalah the Virgin is the Astral
Akasha and the six pointed istar the emblem
the macrocosm. The Logos or Sosios,h to be born

Society.

Light or
of
1
ii,

p. 54.

44

means the

Wisdom

the

knowledge or science which reveals

Into the hand of the Prophet
God

secret
of

Messenger, Zoroaster, were delivered

many gifts. The

act of filling the censer with fire from the sacred altar,
as the Mobed did in ancient days, was symbolical
of imparting to

&h,e

worshippers, the knowledge of

In the GUa, Krshna informs Arjuna

divine truth.
I am the Fire
that God is in the fire of the altar.
"

am

the

Sacrifice."

The Flamens,

or Etruscan priests,

were so called because they were supposed

to

be

illuminated by the tongues of Fire (Holy Ghost) and

1
The scarlet robe of
the Christians took the hint.
the

Roman

ly Fire.

Catholic cardinal symbolises the heaven

an ancient Irish MSS., Zoroaster is

In

Airgiod-Lamh or he of the Golden Hand

hand which received and scattered celestial fire. 2

the

of the

new

called

also called*

is

Mogh

Naudhit, the

Magus

He

Zoroaster was one of the

ordinance, or dispensation.

reformers who taught the people a portion of that

which he had learned at his initiation, namely, the

first

six

periods or gdhambars in the successive evolution

The first is Maedyozarem, that in which

of the world.

the heavenly canopy was formed ; the second, Maedyoshahem, in which the collected moisture formed the

steamy clouds from which the waters were finally

the third, Paetishahem when the earth
precipitated
;

became consolidated out

1

Acts

of

primeval cosmic atoms,

ii.

Ousley

s Oriental Collections, I. 303.

45
the fourth, lyathrem in ^^lnch earth gave birth to
vegetation ; the fifth, Maediyarem when the latter
the sixth, Hamesslowly evolved into animal life
pithamaedem, when the lower animals culminated in
;

man.

The seventh

certain cycle

is

come

to

period

prefigured in ths

of the Persian Messiah, seated on a

at

the end of a

promised coming
horse

when the

sun of our solar system will be extinguished and the

pralaya will begin. In the Christian Apocalypse
1

of

St.

John you

will find the Persian symbolical pro

phecy closely copied and the Aryan Hindu awaits

the coming of his Kalaki Avatar, when the celestial
;

White Horse will come in the heavens, bestridden by

The horses of the Sun figure in all other

Vishnu.

religions.

There exists among the Persian Par sis a volume

Its title
older than the-present Zoroastrian writings.
is a work
It
Wisdom.
Eternal
or
is Javidan Khirad,
on the practical philosophy of Magic, with natural
Hyde mentions it in his preface to the
explanations.
Eeligo

Veterum Persarum.

Ages are the four races

the yellow, the white.

of

The

four

Zoroastrian

men

the black, the russet,

four castes of Maim are

The
show the
this, and the Chinese

alleged to have typified

in
same idea in their four orders of priests, clothed
these
white robes. St. John sees
black, red, yellow and
Revelations
same colours in the symbolic horses of his

whom he admits as having poss

Speaking of Zoroaster,
then
essed knowledge of all the sciences and philosophy

46
world, the Rev. Oliver gives an account of the
cave temple of which so much is said in Zoroastrian
in the

literature.

he writes, "retired to a circular

the mountains of Bokhara which he

"Zoroaster,"

cave or grotto in
ornamented with a profusion of symbolical and astro
nomical decoration, consecrating it to Methr-Az.
.

Here the sun was represented by a splendid gem

and the four
a conspicuous parfc of the roof
.

in

ages of the world were

represented by so

globes of gold, silver, brass and iron.

And now gentlemen

leaders

among

many

orthodox and heterodox

the Pars!

community

a word with

you on practical matters before we part. In three

days more I shall leave Bombay on a long journey

and the accidents

liable,

of

may prevent my

which we are

all

ever addressing you again.

to

travel,

theVefore, to listen to

pray you
has to say, a friend who

is

what

none the

<*

sincere friend

less one* in that

he never asked you for a pice of your money for

himself, and never will.
I

this

have lived among you for three years. During

time I have been associating on terms tff con

some

your most intelli

gent young men. I have admitted them and, in some
Thus
cases, theii*, wives with them, into our Society.
1 have perhaps had exceptional
opportunities to learn
fidential intimacy

with

of

the real state of your people and religion.

in sore
1

I find both
need of an organised, unselfish and persistent

History of Initiation,

p. 9.

47
effort

among

yourselves.

as their best advisers, the

Your people look up to you

Mobeds respect your influ

ence and court your favour.

power to do a world of good.

You have

it

in

your
Will you do it ? You
now spend annually from twelve to fifteen lakhs of
rupees upon stupid tamashas that ^io not belong to

your own religion at all that give you no real pleasure ;

that crush many poorer than you to the very ground
with debt ; that defile your own natures with dis
;

gusting pride and conceit ; that encourage intemperate

habits in the young and that weaken pious inclinations.

The burden of these upon the community is so sore,

and the common-sense of your best men so revolts at
them, that years ago you would have returned to the
simpler pleasure of your forefathers, had you not lack
ed the moral courage to combine.
is never to be effected individually

A
;

reform like this

the leaders must

Take two of the fifteen lakhs you now

worse than waste and put it aside as a Fund for the
promotion of the Mazdean Religion and see what
you might do for your children and children s

combine.

Do

children.

not

tell

me you cannot

afford to create

such a Fund, when the whole world knows that you

are ready to give thousands to every object suggested
one
by a European for the benefit or flattery of^ some
of his race

and even

to rear

statues to those

not the friends of your religion.

home

"

give, then, first

to your

"

who

are

Charity begins at

own

people,

your remaining surplus to outside objects.

and

of

48

There
you.

a fatal inactivity growing apace among

Not only are you not the religionists you were;
is

you are not the old-time merchants. You are being

elbowed out of commerce, and it is not very uncommon
to see your sons going from door to door in search of

employment

at salaries

of

from

fifty to

seventy-five

rupees per month, with their pockets full of Matri

culation papers or F.E.A. and B.A.. diplomas. And in
stead of your being as in the olden time, the kings of
Indian trade and commerce, you are jostled by suc

Maimans, and Kkojahs who

have accumulated fortunes. You are making no proper
cessful Bhattias, Borahs,

impart a practical knowledge of your re

ligious principles and tenets to the educated rising
generation ; hence very naturally they are largely be
effort to

coming sceptics and

infidels.

They do not

ly despise their religion en TI^LSSB

not quite arrived

show them

its

as yet actual
the tjme for that has

but, on account of your neglect to

sublimity and

make them deeply respect

they have reached the stage of indifference. One

necessary step would be to have your prayer-tooks
it,

translated into the Vernacular and English, wkh foot

notes to explain the text and especially commentaries
to

show the reconciliation

with modern science.

It is

highly injurious to one

in an

of

Mazdean philosophy

worse than useless

faith

it is

to patter off prayers

unknown tongue, encouraging

the hypocrisy of
pretending to be pious while one has not the food at
hand for a single pious thought. I have watched

49
both Priests and Behedin at their prayers, morning"
and evening and seen more that were not attending*
to the business in
If

hand than that were.

you wish to revive your religion, you should, be

sides organising the exploring expeditions

logical surveys I previously spoke

of Pars! preachers
it

<af,

who would be

thoroughly and maintain

it

and archaeo

also rear a class

able

against

to

expound
and

all critics

These men should be highly educated and

enemies.
versed in Samskrt, Zend, Pahalvi, Persian and English.
Some should know German and French like my

honoured friend Mr. Kama.

they should be

familiar.

"With

western literature

Some should be taught

oratory so as to expound in a popular style the sacred

It might also be well to found travelling
theme.
scholarships, as the Europeans have, to be given to
especially mervtorious students.

stricter

your youth,

many

your

set

by you

to

have, as I said above, fallen in too

cases into evil ways.

nor show as

As

moral example should be

who

They do not regard

truth/

much

respect to elders., as formerly.

understanding of the Spirit of your

you have been growing more

and more superstitious essentials are neglected, and
non-essentials given an exaggerated consequence.
the priestly class needs a
Finally, and chiefly,
There are ,more than you
thorough reformation.
of religion, and the
the
offices,
to
need
perform
their influence is
profession being over-crowded,

religion has decreased,

50
continually decreasing and they have come, as a Pars!

gentleman once remarked

to

me, to be looked upon

a state of things which must

certainly grieve your really learned Dasturs more than
as

licensed beggars

any one else.

The foregoing ihoughts

are submitted to you with

great deference and in the hope that they will be

pardoned in view of the kindly interest which

them.

prompts

Before

embodying them

discourse I have taken the counsel of one of

respected Pars! friends, so that you

as in fact the views of one of your

And now

in

this

my

most

may regard them

own community.

ask you, as a final word, if the crisis has

when each of you is called upon, for
the sake of all he holds sacred, to be up and doing.

not

arrived

Shall the voice of Chaldean Fathers, which whispers

to you across the ages, be h^ard in vayi ?
Shall the
of Zoroaster

example
the

and others be forgotten *

Must

memory your hero-forefathers be dishonoured ?

i^hall there never more arise among you a Dastur
of

Nairyosang Dhaval to draw down the celestial flame

from the azure vault upon your Temple-altar ? Is the
favour of Ahura-Mazda no longer a boon precious

enough

to strive for

and

to deserve

The Hindu

pil

the Temple-slirine of the Jotir Math at

grims
Badrinath affirm that some, more favoured than the
to

*est,

ice

have sometimes seen far up amid the snow and

of

Mount

Davalagiri,

a Himalayan peak, the

perhaps of Rshis

venerable figures of Mahatmas

51

who keep their ward and watch

faith and wait the time for

over the fallen Aryan

So too

its resusciation.

"there is
our Brother travelling in Armenia writes
1
each
a cave up near the crest of Allah-Dag, where at
a
of the sun, appears at the cave s mouth
:

setting

a book of recprds in his hands/

stately figure holding
last of the great
The
say that this is Mathan,

people

diedsome
Magian priests; whose body

sixteen centuries

shade watches from thence the

ugo. His anxious
he stand in vain ?
fate of Zoroaster s faith. And shall
of spiritual
he to see that faith die out for want
of
and
Rustam,
Ye sons of Sohrab
refreshment ?
is here ;
hour
Awake ere it is too late The

Is

rouse!

where are the

MEN

mountain chain

of Great

Armenia

For

particulars
see The Theosophist,?o\. II,p.213.
legend here described

The Vasaiita

Press, Adyar,

Madras

of

the*

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