Zarathushtrians and Hinduism

This is an unofficial collection of ideas that throw light on the Avesta and broaden our knowledge using revelation from Oahspe. Many views are not my own, and may not appear be amenable to Oahspe.
Therefore I state that Faithists worship no Gods, Lords or Saviours, but only One, Great Spirit, Jehovih, Unbegotten Father of All, who can not be comprehended in His Entirety.
This research finds knowledge of Him in sources that once existed, or live on and remember Him even today. It is not intended to embrace the parts of corrupt and outdated scripture or religious practice where his name or nature might have been undermined by limited innovation, interpretation or deliberate deception. I encourage you to be cautious with what I have presented.
Also, it is often not possible to be accurate when given knowledge is vague or in conflict. There are bound to be errors. I invite you to join me in expanding, revising and updating it as contributions from discussion accumulate and we approach nearer the truth.

By searching out the roots of ceremony in Zoroastrian, Jewish, Chinese, Hindu and Native American tradition, we might progress with the changes we see happening around us as we enter Kosmon. The basic form of ritual (given in the start of the Vendidad and Yasna) can be better understood by first getting some background from information below.

I quote these lines from Oahspe to preserve Faithist values, and ensure the liberty and individuality for all readers:

From the Book of Inspiration Chapter X
To show thee that no two men see alike anything I created;
To make thee sceptical to others' versions of My words, and yet make thee try to discover My words and My Person, of thine own self, to see Me and hear Me.

Thou hast put Me away, and said: Natural law! Moral law! Divine law! Instinct! Reflection! Intuition! Second sight!
I say unto thee: I have abolished all these things. I will have them no more, forever!
I have no laws; I do by virtue of Mine own Presence.
I am not far away; behold, I am with thee.
I gave no instinct to any creature under the sun. By My Presence they do what they do.
I give no tuition by intuition; I am the Cause to all, and for all.
I am the most easily understood of all things.
My Hand is ready to whosoever will reach forth unto Me.
My Voice is ready and clear to whosoever will turn away from other things, and away from philosophies and ambiguous words, serving Me in good works.
My Light is present, and answereth unto all who follow their all highest knowledge.

I dedicate this study to George Riddle, peace be with him, who urged me to make my original letter to the Oahspe group, which has become this website, more presentable.

________________________________________________________________________________

Question to Oahspe group
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 12:44 PM
"does anyone know of a good comparison between Zarathustrian teachings and Hindu teachings.
Or even simply Hinduism considered by itself?"

Reply:
As the editor's comments at the end of the book of God's word point out, Zarathustra is to be found as the great quest at the heart of any religion. The nature and teachings of the pure incarnate personality, are the basis of any virtuous religion. This quest is taken up by folklore in the Puranas and lines of wisdom in the Upanishads and other Vedic texts. By around 1850 Scholars driven to uncover the eastern mysteries translated the sacred texts, leaving for us only to extract the relevant essence.

Question continues
"As I understand it, Hinduism essentially allows for any expression of the Almighty, that is, each Saint or God acts as an expression of the All Highest. Thus each God or Saint becomes as a sort of exemplar and by paying them respect and contemplating them, one can draw closer to the Creator. Each God or Saint thus presents a roadway to the world of the divine or spiritual realm. The Hindus have many sects, the Jains are one who practice a sort of vegetarianism."

Vindyu was to be preserved as an example in Kosmon as to how man was in past times (Is this right?).
Included in India and the broad term Hinduism is everything from idolism, sun worship and phallic cults to the topmost virtuous devotional religions and the heights of human attainment. All these twists and turns of humanity we have come across in Oahspe.
The simple unifying truth gets lost sight of in religious rivalry and fanatic element, to be pieced together by the great wisdom of the occasional pundit. As well as an exemplar, the Gods or aspects of the divine might be conceived of as something found within ourselves. The soul, while all the time bounded by its own inescapable Fate, emanates, projects, expands, begets states of being - descends, falls into plurality, separation, division - enters into a journey that plays out its dualism, its struggle between potencies, extremes of good and evil, light and dark, simultaneously through a myriad of selves interacting within re-occurring archetypal, mythical, heroic themes. As a response, the negative, denial of self, the Eastern sceptical side might perceive this as something to be set aside as a mere reflection, a distraction in the mirror of the mind, a mask to our true nature.
The Jains are as much Hindu as Buddhists can be considered to be Hindu. Only a short while ago most of India was vegetarian and mainly still is.
Zarathustra and Sakaya would never have finalised how the world should see the true reality, so the evolution of religious and philosophical thought is purposely left to be ongoing. And progress it did, even by the hand of "Krishna" (who is the light of the Vaishnavas or bakhti movement), Shankara (who changed the tide from Buddhism to Modern Hinduism, the originator of Advaita Vedanta and the original convener of the entire body of modern orthodox Hindu sects that meet at the Kumba Mela) and Caitanya and Ramanuja (who brought Hinduism out of the cold of impersonal Vedantic thinking). Pockets of obscure devotional communities persist, whose only desire is the love of God. Here you might find a comparison, though only in practice, not by the letter of the law or the name of their God.

Question continues
" Does Hinduism have any common ethics or teachings that reach across its many sects? If so, what are they?
And along the lines of George's question, any rules or guidelines for how to live in a brotherhood or community?"

One would think that the earthly decrees of Div are enshrined in the existing cast system as given by the Laws of Manu and the Brahmanas.
The emancipation of the soul is provided for by a resurrection/ascension process or code of conduct according to ones caste, to coordinate the social strata - a bit like the Zhou Li (rights of Zhou) that Confucius was said to have found essential for harmony, or the rights and ceremonies that were needed to be restored by Joshu, preparing and initiating one into a higher existence (though upon examination the detail must have gone astray, or become obsolete). This order gives India its cultural distinctiveness and runs through its entire social fabric.
Because it is still understood and holds respect, its normal for village life to take care of crops and business while renunciates go off to fulfil inner callings (similar to Buddhist monks), marriages to be arranged and the father honoured. Reformers have come and gone (one being "Buddha") leaving behind them a trail of practices. Priests of the Brahmin caste still adhere to rigid formula for ritual worship, performing their services to individuals by sacred bathing spots with a sequence of offerings of libations, malas of flowers and incense.
[Its of interest that both Brahmins and Zoroastrians wear the sacred thread-girdle]
The lengthy details of these are given in parts of 3 of the 4 Vedas, the Brahmanas, Âpastamba's aphorisms on the sacred law and the Laws of Manu. In the thousands of small and large temples and ancient sacred sites of deities daily practice of Puja takes place at certain times - a ritual (you may have seen the Hari Krishna version) involving the circling of fire or incense in graceful loops before the deity (of various folklore) while uttering holy words. There are ashrams that have a daily program of yoga, meditation and darshan (a spiritual talk) for renunciates or westerners; and recluses who have abandoned it all in the forests and caves.
The Vedic hymns to the Vedan Gods (some examples are given below) bring out a spirit more characteristic of Zoroastrianism than modern Hinduism, leading one to think of the Vedic period as a lost and forgotten civilisation, so much so that the Hari Krishnas never keep the "real" Vedas in their library, but mislead people to believe that Vedic authority comes from the much later Srimad Baghavatam, and its comparatively modern Gods.

Question continues
"These many Gods and many sects under the one unifying dome of the Creator brings to mind the Greek Pantheon, except Zeus (aka Anuhasaj) sat atop that".

Depending how far back you go De'yus also sat atop the Hindu Pantheon. The term Father is sometimes used to refer to Prajapati (Fragapatti?) (Manu [Man]- supporter of the world) and sometimes Dyaus. Dyaus or Dyauspitar is the earliest god in the Rgveda and represents the consort of Earth and progenitor or Father (pitar) of the gods (Dyaus-pita or God the Father in Sanskrit). His name is the greatest indicator of a "proto Indo-European " or Indo-Aryan culture spanning from Northern India to Europe.
His name is related to the word Deiwos (he is the god). Dyéus Patér is the protector of the Artus, the enforcer of natural law. As such, he is called "Artuspotis," "Lord of the Artus". [Artus is the pattern of the universe. Artus is the root of the Vedic rta/rita.]
He is a god of justice. His sacred animal is the ox, power under control.
Surya the sun-god is referred to as the eye of Varuna and the son of Dyaus and rides through the sky on his chariot led by his twin sons, the Asvins who represent his rays; Ushas, the dawn is his wife or daughter. Maruts are storm-gods shaped by Rudra.

The original meaning of the word Deity is shown in the Sanskrit word Dyaus meaning heaven, or Heaven personified, (just as sanctuary comes from Sanc-tu - Dyaus's heavenly capital.) not to be confused with 'divas' and 'deva', (bright, heavenly) -- hence devas, the bright beings, nor the Avestan "daeva" or "evil spirit".
The same 'Protector, Sky or Father God is found in the Roman language as Ju Pater or Jupiter or Jupiter Optimus Maximus (the Best and Greatest) and in Latin as deus and Jov-pater. From the same root we have the Latin names of deities: Diana, Janus, Juno.
Also he was known to the Greeks as the supreme god Zeus, Zeu-pater (father), Zeus Pater, theos or dios, Dyaus-pita and Die-patyros and the Thracian desa or desu.
In the Germanic or Teutonic languages he was known as Teut, tiu, Tiv, Tues (as in Tuesday, ie. Tiwesday), Tiwaz, Tiw in the north, Ziu in the south, Tuetates to the Kelts. Tig to Anglo-Saxons and the war god Tyr to Norse.
In Old Irish or Gaelic he is dia, Old Prussian he is deues, and Gaulish he is dusii, Dei, Dazh, Dassa, etc. in the Slavic languages he is Dievs, Dievas (Baltic), in Phrygia he is Tios, in Illyrian he is Dei-patyro/s, in Umbrian he is Iuve-patre. In Luvian he is Tatis, Tiwaizand in Palaic he is Tiyaz Papaz. Among the Scythians he was just Papaeus, "Father." In French he is dieu and Spanish he is Dios.

Here are some miscellaneous verses from the Rg Veda that mention Dyaus.

'Sing forth to lofty Dyaus a strength bestowing song'
[Here Dyaus is identified with Indra (originally a dragon slayer ), who seems in later times, to have succeeded to the functions assigned to the former god].
[In Oahspe, Indra was one of the forty-nine Saviours who preached the Triune doctrine of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost]

'High glory hath the Asura' [the divine one Indra, as the supreme Dyaus]

'Wise Asura, thou king of wide dominion, loosen the bonds of sins by us committed'.
[Asura: an incorporeal, spiritual divine being; the Zend Ahura.
Later Asura was taken to mean demon (as in the churning of the ocean of nectar of immortality by the Divas (gods) and Asuras. In "An introduction to Oahspe" by Martha H Jones she points to a reference where Asuras comes from the word Asu, which originally meant, "the living, he who lives and moves in the great phenomena of nature"].

'Our Father Heaven' [Zeus, Jupiter]

'Indra, to thee I sing, to Dyaus, to Rudra (later becomes Siva) glorious in himself'.

'Bringing sacrifice to bounteous Rudra, this juice for chink to you whose wrath is fleeting, with Dyaus, the Asura's heroes, I have lauded the Maruts as with prayer to Earth and heaven.
The offering of soma juice for drink to you whose wrath is fleeting'.
[The offering of soma juice is presented to Rudra and to his sons the fierce but easily appeased Muruts or storm gods, who are lauded as the heroes of Dyaus the immortal, and also supplicated the deities Heaven and Earth.]

'I praise him who with his heroic followers expelled the Asuras from heaven: and I praise the Maruts who abide between heaven and earth'.

'To Indra, Dyaus the Asura hath bowed down, to Indra the mighty earth. All gods of one accord have set Indra in the front, pre-eminent'.

'Thy (Indra's) Father Dyaus esteemed himself a hero; most noble was the work of Indra's maker'.

[I have met a Sanskrit scholar who indeed says that the pronunciation of Dyaus translated from the Rig-Veda is correct, since extreme accuracy of sound was needed for ritual purposes and so names were preserved with the utmost care.]

The Language of Ancient India
The language of the Vedas is a fully perfected literary language. The hymns of the Rig Veda are composed in the earliest stage of that literary language called "Vedic Sanskrit" as opposed to the later day Classical Sanskrit which was stereotyped at the end of the fourth century B.C and Prakrits (languages of the common people) . It differs from the latter about as much as Homeric from Attic Greek. It exhibits a much greater variety of forms than Sanskrit does. The language of the Rig Veda also differs from Sanskrit in its accent, which, like that of ancient Greek, is of a musical nature, depending on the pitch of the voice, and is marked throughout the hymns.

Avestan and Sanskrit have strong similarities, which can be seen in a comparison of the Vedas with the Avesta. Sanskrit has three branches, the Theravada Buddhist Pali, the Jain Prakrit, and the third comprised of the many languages of modern India, some including Hindi (northern India), Urdu (Pakistan, India), Bengali, the Romani related Gurgurati.

[The "Gujerati" are mentioned in Saphah. Apart from Bombay, the main area in India for Parsees is Gurjerat. Bombay Parsee temples will not allow outsiders to come in. I hear that the Zoroastrians in Iran, still dress in their white traditional clothing.]

In addition to ceremonies, the mythologies of both the Vedas and the Gathas believe that Yama (the Avestan Yima) is the ancestor of all humans (Aryans); that the demon Vrtra was slain by Vrtrahan (Verethraghna); that Thrita was the first physician; Mitra (the Persian Mithra) is the sun god; Aryaman (Airyman, or in Oahspe, Airyamaishya or Airyama) is the god presiding over marriage; and the drink Soma is the Avestan Haoma,

From Book of Saphah, Ahura'Mazda, Creator:

Its "doctrines", which are probably not the hymns of the 4 Vedas, must be the Brahmanas (~800-600 BC), Upanishads, the Laws of Manu [Man] (contemporary with the first spreading of Buddhism) etc.

The Vedas were also called the Sruti (or revealed literature, that which was heard by the rishis or seers) or Agamas, as opposed to Smriti, (or traditional literature). They were divided into Samhita (original text) and Brahmana (interpretation) .The Brahmanas (sacerdotal commentaries with often mythical and fanciful explanations of the sacrifices) had three main parts, namely the Brahmana (interpretation of rituals), Aranyaka (work on worship and contemplation) and the Upanishids (philosophical questions).
The Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva Samhitas and their Brahmanas make up the Karmakanda (meaning practice or sacrifice). The Âranyaka portions of the Brâhmanas and the Upanishads are the Jnana/gñânakanda (knowledge of Brahman).
The ancient Upanishads, ie. those which occupy a place in the Samhitâs, Brâhmanas, and Âranyakas may be older than 600 BC, ie. anterior to the rise of Buddhism. The age of the other numerous Upanishads is difficult to fix.
The Aranyakas are called the forest texts, because ascetics retreated into the forest to study the spiritual doctrines with their students, leading to less emphasis on the sacrificial rites that were still performed in the towns.
The term Upanishad means literally "those who sit near" Although there are over two hundred Upanishads, only fifteen are mentioned by the philosophic commentator Shankara (788-820 CE). These fifteen and the Maitri are considered Vedic and the principal Upanishads; the rest were written later and are related to the worship of Shiva, Shakti, and Vishnu. The oldest and longest of the Upanishads are the Brihad-Aranyaka and the Chandogya from about the seventh century BC.

Vedangas were later works, which were found to be necessary to understand Vedic texts. Swami Sivananda tells us they correspond to the twenty-one Nasks of the Avesta. They were works on Shiksha (phonetics), Kalpa (rituals), Vyakharana (grammar), Nirukta (etymology), Chhandas (metre) and Jyotisha (astronomy). Vedangas were necessary because by the time of the Brahmanas, spoken Sanskrit had drifted far from Vedic Sanskrit. In order to preserve the Srutis, Shiksha and Chhandas were necessary to interpret the external form and internal structure of the Srutis.

Rigveda consists of hymns written during different periods. The exact period of the writing/composing of the Rigveda is attributed to different times by the European and Indian scholars. European scholars believe the period to be between 1500-1000 BC whereas Indian scholars believe it to be 4500 BC, based on the astronomical evidence in the Rigveda. Some hymns themselves speak of old and new hymns. They were sung many years before they were put into writing.
A quarter of the Rigveda is dedicated to Indra, indicating his importance in that period. The identification of Indra ranges from being a purely human Aryan warrior who had a weakness for wine (Soma) and women to that of the supreme deity of the Indo-Aryans. He is considered the greatest enemy in the Avestan Gathas.
By the time of Yajurveda, the Rigvedic gods like Indra and Varuna lost their importance giving place to three gods; one each from the celestial (Vishnu), mid-regional (Rudra-Shiva) and the Terrestrial (Prajapati-Brahma) planes.
The Brahmanas contain Itihasa (history) and Purana (narrative prose of myths). In the Brahmanas, there is a complete transfer of power from Rigvedic gods Indra and Varuna to Vishnu and Rudra. "

In these times sacrifices were glorified and became more powerful than the Vedic gods. Japa or the practice of chanting a mantram like Aum practiced ascetically with the sacrifices was believed to produce all one's desires. Knowledge and truth was emphasised; through truth the right to heaven was retained and they prayed for intelligence and wisdom. Mental activity analysing the rites and their explanation, and abstractions were increasing in the religion.
[This is contemporary with the triune doctrine, "that knowledge, which implies general education, was the best preventative against crime and misery."]
A judgment after death using a scale to weigh good against evil is described in the Satapatha Brahmana.
The gods are described as being truthful and the demons as being false. The [supposedly] new god Prajapati practiced tapas to create cosmic fire and light, and warmth of the body and breath. He created and entered into things as form and name, giving them order. He made mind more important than the word. Eventually Prajapati was replaced by Brahma, who would become the Creator God in the trinity that would include Vishnu, a sun-god who became the Preserver, and Shiva, who was derived from the indigenous Rudra, the Destroyer [there is a distinction between Brahman and Brahma].
Hell was still feared, but by practicing austerity (tapas) to gain knowledge individuals hoped to be born into a better world after death or be liberated from the endless cycle of rebirth (reincarnation). Non-attachment (vairagya) purified the body and overcame death.

Brahman is present in all people in the form of the atman or soul. He is the spiritual essence underlying all reality. Only Brahman is real. He is one, limitless, impersonal, indefinable, without qualities, eternal, unchanging, inactive (complete in itself thus no need to act). We must realise, in our journey, that Brahman and atman are one, that our essential self transcends our individuality, our limitations, even our death; this realisation brings release (moksha) from illusion. Seeing the world as full of particulars, individuals with egos acting in competition, life as diversity and change -- all this is Maya (illusion). Release (moksha) from the endless cycles of illusion [not to be mistaken for reincarnation] does not mean "non-being".
All gods and the world are only aspects of Brahman, only an illusion in comparison to the one reality. This is the insight of the Upanishads, recognising an ultimate unity in the multiplicity of gods and all life. Whoever worships another divinity thinking it is other than oneself does not know.

________________________________________________________________________________

There are those of us who would reject such teachings as those of a false god, and others who would dabble with them precariously. Our little wisdom is challenged when we try to determine whether Jehovih or Es can be described in the way Brahman is - a qualityless, changeless or motionless being, yet the cause of quality, change and motion, into which all gets ultimately resolved. Is the joy of an eternal Brahman the ageless happiness of an attained soul?

From the First Book of God Ch.XIV, The first Bible of Vind'yu
Jehovih, who by the Brahmins was called Ormazd, sent His light to the earth world once for every hundred generations [3,300 years]. Of the times before the submersion of Pan, each cycle was called one man [Manu? In the 'Laws of Manu', the total period of a cycle was 24,000 years. The sum of the four ages comes to 12,000 years, one Maha Yuga], and the length of his life three thousand years.
Which were: Zarathustra from the races of Shone and This; and of Zarathustra, Haman; of Haman, Wonchakaka, who begat Zoar, who begat Theo, who begat Andassah, who begat Mur, who begat Romsat; these were tribes of the Zarathustrian order, who rejected idols, Lords, Gods, Saviours, rulers on the earth or in the heavens above the earth, save Ormazd, the Creator.
…..Anu, who begat the I'hins Maha, who begat with the I'hins Brah, who had both voice and power from the Father. And he was called Brahma because of his great wisdom.

This implies that the word Brahma may already have referred to wisdom before the man was born.

Kabalactes caused a warring sect who falsely called themselves Brahmins to cause destruction in Vind'yu, its inhabitants supposing they were under the God Brahma's influence. Later Kabalactes established himself in India as Buddha. Buddhism today is identified by Hindus to be a reinterpretation of Brahman doctrines. Only the wisdom of Sakaya validates it as an original religion. Soon after, Ennochissa assumed the name Brahma and became Budha's rival to possess the oracles in Vind'yu and Chine'ya. Today there is only one temple of Brahma in all India at Pushkar, Rajastan.

The 'Brahman' of the Upanishads is earlier than the false Brahma (Ennochissa), and the Trinity.
Oahspe shows from the discourse between the great philosopher king Tee-zee and the Brahman prophet Tseeing that the origins of Brahmanism go back before Chine (~1550 BC). The account given below can still be found, but is not the essential part (encapsulated in Vedanta) that has become a prime source for philosophers, and recently physicists.

Tseeing said: First was Brahma, which was round like an egg. Then Brahma broke open, and the shell was in two halves, and one-half was the sky and the other half was the earth. Then Brahma incarnated himself in the earth, but he came not up as one only, as he expected, but he came up in millions of parts, and every part was a living thing. And this is all there is or was or ever shall be.
Brahma saw that some men were good and some evil. That justice might be done he called all the nations and tribes of men before him and said:
Whoever delighteth in the earth, it shall be his forever. And though he die, his spirit shall have power to re-incarnate and shall have indulgence in the earth forever.
But whosoever delighteth in spirit shall dwell forever in heaven and have heavenly delights. But since heavenly delights are not after the manner of earthly delights, the spiritual chooser shall not live like earth-people but shall live secluded, and shall torment his flesh with fasting and castigations. Neither shall he marry or live with woman, nor beget children, nor have any indulgence on the earth whatever, save merely to live, for the earth is not his, nor is he of the earth. And the more he tortures the flesh, the higher shall be his bliss in heaven.
Nearly all mortals chose the earth. And Brahma repented of his former decree, for the people were sinful beyond bounds. He sent a flood of waters and destroyed them, then sent Zarathustra into the world to give new judgment. And Zarathustra opened the door of heaven anew, saying: Whoever after this chooseth Brahma, and will torture his flesh, and hate the earth, and live away from the world, him will I save from the earth and from hell also, for I am very efficient and influential with the Creator.
Some are born for the earth forever, and some are born for heaven. Nevertheless, the way is open unto all, to choose which they will, earth or heaven.

The magician priest Gwan Le offered Tee-zee an explanation similar to Hari Krishnas:
All things alive have two parts, the corporeal and the spiritual; all dead things are but one, which is the spirit. Thou were first a stone then thy soul went into silver, then gold; and animal life, then a low order of man, then into the high order of man. Thus came man from the beginning, re-incarnating over and over, higher and higher. And when he is perfected in spirit he never more returneth.

In the M'hak degree (Book of Saphah) the Brahman of this time holds to what he understands as the Zarathustrian law. His negative attitude, hating earthly things for fear becoming bound or inflicted by them (as in Gnosticism), results in his rejection of happiness and rejoicing in the Father.

Chine puts negativity and reincarnation aside, telling Tee-zee:
The Ever Present quickeneth him into life in his mother's womb; and he is then and there a new creation, his spirit from the Spirit Jehovih, and his body from the earth; a dual being the Father createth him. His destination is everlasting resurrection; in which matter, man can have delightful labor as he riseth upward forever and ever.
"he who hath attained to understand that all things are but one harmonious whole, hath also attained to know what is meant by the term, All Person, for He is All; and, consequently, Ever Present, filling all, extending everywhere.
In contradistinction from Him, two philosophies have run parallel, which are darkness and evil. One saith the All is not a person, being void, and less than even the parts thereof; the other saith the only All High is the great angel I worship, who is as a man, and separate from all things. These comprise the foundation of all the doctrines in the world, or that have ever been or ever will be. The latter is idolatry, which is evil; the second, unbelief, which is darkness; and the first is faith, truth, love, wisdom and peace.

Swedenborg points out that the heavenly oneness is not a characterless colourless, tasteless homogeneous substance as is water, nor is the purity qualityless , but more a perfection that becomes apparent in a gathering of its parts or an expression of its personality that makes that whole, a harmony of diversity. He attributes his 'alternative to impersonal Oneness' to 'The Lord'.

"Heaven's perfection arises out of the diversity of the good. A "oneness' which is complete is formed from differing elements. A "one" which is not from differing elements is not really anything. It has no form, and therefore no quality. A "one" that comes into being from differing perfectly formed elements, in proper turn joining another like a congenial friend, has a perfect quality. Heaven is a "one" made up of different elements arranged in the most perfect form, for the heavenly form is the most perfect.
We can see from all beauty, charm, and delight that move the senses and the passions that this is the source of all perfection. These do in fact come into being and flow only from the concord and harmony of many elements which agree and accord, whether manifesting themselves all at once in an orderly arrangement, or following each other in a sequence. This does not happen from a "one" without many elements. So it is said that variety is pleasing; and its attraction is known to be in proportion to its quality. This offers a kind of mirror-view of how perfection results from differing elements, even in heaven. For the things that happen in the material world offer a kind of mirror-view of things in the spiritual world."

The problem of unity versus plurality is solved in various ways.
Brahman and Maya, or Yin and Yang, can be understood as Plato's "Existence", consisting of the "Same" (visible, heaven, macrocosm) and "Different" (sensible, corpor, microcosm, finite), the two concentric spheres that comprise existence, permeated and bounded by the soul (the third invisible concentric sphere, which encompasses All and interpenetrates to the heart of corpor). Or in Gnostic terms, a transition from the noumenal to the sensible, brought about by a flaw, a passion, or a sin.

In the Book of Fragapatti Ch.X Fragapatti tells us:
For a basis to reason from, consider the etherean (nirvana), the atmospherean (heavenly) and the corporeal (material) worlds to constitute His body; and the motion therein and thereof, the manifestations of His Power and Wisdom. Since we ourselves have these things in part, we find we have another attribute embracing all the others, which is combination concentrated into one person. Then we give to Him, who embraces all things within Himself, combination concentrated into one person, otherwise, He is our inferior, which cannot be.

Oahspe tells us through the three in One (Father, Mother, and Son), Jehovih becomes the many (plurality).

"These three comprise all things; and all things are but one. Nevertheless, each of these has infinite parts. And every part is like unto the whole."

What really is the unutterable state of existence or 'high estate' of the higher Heavens?
Here are some sayings that warrant attention.

The eternal nature is that which does not invoke an opposite.
One perceives objects related to each other spatially and temporally, and experiences interpenetration of space and time in the infinite, timeless and yet dynamic present.
Undifferentiated consciousness of pure being is the heart.
Uncontaminated pure consciousness is equal to Brahman
You are the divine that is at the root of all existence.
Truth is all pervading consciousness, love is the binding force.
Being self conscious makes us different from the animal world but is not Cosmic consciousness

They say Buddha, maybe Sakaya, hesitated to answer questions about the ultimate nature and explanation of reality. Echoing the doctrine of Maya or illusion, science with the support of technology has rushed in to fill the void.
David Bohm's 'Implicate Order' and the discovery of the Hologram gives a new meaning to the ancient concept:

"the whole being is enfolded in each of its parts and each of its parts contains the whole."

The union of Atman with Brahman (Parama-Atman) are like Philo of Alexandria's union of human mind with the Divine Mind. Therefore knowledge of God is Man's supreme Bliss. God's existence (according to Stoics) is as a supremely transcendent being without quality, whose pervasive immanence rules and directs all. His omnipresent vitality, the all traversing Logos, has its highest terrestrial manifestation in the human intellect, identified (by Philo and the Stoics) as the inseparable portion of the Divine Voice. He creates the universe out of relatively non-existent, qualityless passive and lifeless primordial matter (in Samkhya, Purusha is the qualityless, static Self, the universe being evolved from Prakriti, his dynamic counterpart).

[Stoicism developed the idea of Pantheism - the doctrine that this material world is no different from God. The universe, and all its beings, is the real manifestation or transformation of God. Stoics asserted that the entire cosmos was made from one element, fire. As in Zoroastrianism, God was of the nature of subtle fire, which condensed into being physical fire, from which the elements formed. Thus the cosmos is the condensation of God, "in whom we live and move and have our being". Later, Paul of Tarsus was to take this Stoic saying out of context and apply it to his Christianity.
Spinoza argued that there is only one reality, one universal substance, "God", and that mind and matter (as elaborated in Descartes dualistic system), which appear distinct and opposed, are only two of the infinite modes or attributes that this one substance possesses
In pantheism reality is actually non-other than God. The universe is the body of God(dess). The ultimate reality is love and compassion. All things are interrelated holistically into a single unity. The polar opposites of mind and body, male and female, persona and shadow, ego and unity are reconciled in the immediate present
The universe is not so much rationally knowable but accessible to intuition. One exists in the present moment of here now, in a state of love, compassion, peace and centeredness. Reality is better known through meditation, chanting, music and dance than through the intellect, although intellectual knowledge still represents a valid aspect of understanding reality.]

[There are great dissimilarities between the conceptions of the author (said to be Philo) of the "De Vita Contemplativa" (in which he talks of Essenes) and those of Philo. The latter looks upon Greek culture and philosophy as allies, the former is hostile to Greek philosophy. He repudiates a science that numbered among its followers the sacred baud of the Pythagoreans, inspired men like Parmenides, Empedocles, Zeno, Cleanthes, Heraclitus, and Plato, whom Philo prized. He considers the symposium a detestable, common drinking-bout. This can not be explained as a Stoic diatribe; for in this case Philo would not have repeated it. And Philo would have been the last to interpret the Platonic Eros in the vulgar way in which it is explained in the "De Vita Contemplativa," 7 [ii. 480), as he repeatedly uses the myth of double man allegorically in his interpretation of Scripture. It must furthermore be remembered that Philo in none of his other works mentions these colonies of allegorising ascetics, in which he would have been highly interested had he known of them. But pupils of Philo may subsequently have founded near Alexandria similar colonies that endeavoured to realise his ideal of a pure life triumphing over the senses and passions; and they might also have been responsible for the one-sided development of certain of the master's principles. While Philo desired to renounce the lusts of this world, he held fast to the scientific culture of Hellenism, which the author of this book denounces. Although Philo liked to withdraw from the world in order to give himself up entirely to contemplation, and bitterly regretted the lack of such repose, he did not abandon the work that was required of him by the welfare of his people.]

In "Anacalypsis" Godfrey Higgins quotes Mr. Faber's work on the Origin of Heathen Idolatry:
"Among the Hindoos we have the triad the of Brama-Vistnou-Siva (Trimurti, or Trinity), springing from the monad Brahm: and it is acknowledged, that these personages appeared upon earth at the commencement of every new world, in the human form of Menu [Manu] and his three sons. Among the votaries of Buddha we find the self-triplicated Buddha declared to be the same as the Hindoo Trimurti. Among the Jainists, we have the triple Jina, in whom the Trimurti is incarnate.
A Siberian medal in the imperial collection at Petersburgh exhibits the figure of the triple God seated on the Lotus. The Jakuthi Tartars of the House of Japhet, (the most numerous people of Siberia) worshiped a triplicated deity under the three denominations of Artugon, and Schugo-tangon, and Tangara. This Tartar God is the same even in appellation with the Tanga Tanga of the Peruvian's: who, like the other tribes of America, seem plainly to have crossed over from the Northeastern extremity of Siberia.
Agreeably to the mystical motions so familiar to the Hindoos, that the self-triplicated great Father yet remained but one in essence, the Peruvian suppose their Tanga-tanga to be one in three, and three in one: and in consequence of the union of Hero worship with the astronomical and material systems of idolatry, they venerated the sun and the air, each under three images and three names. The Greeks and Romans had their Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto; three in number though one in essence, and all springing from Cronus. The Canaanites had their Baal-Spalisha or self-triplicated Baal. The Goths had their Odin, Vile, and Ve: who are described as the three sons of Bura, the offspring of the mysterious cow. And the Celts had their three bulls, venerated as the living symbols of the triple Hu or Menu. To the same class we must ascribe the triads of the Orphic and Pythagorean and Platonic schools: each of which must again be identified with the imperial triad of the old Chaldaic or Babylonian philosophy. This last was a triad shining throughout the whole world, over which presides a Monad."

________________________________________________________________________________

The priest chants one of the most famous verses from the Upanishads:
From the unreal lead me to the real!
From darkness lead me to light!
From death lead me to immortality!

Out of God (Brahman) came the Brahmin caste of priests and teachers and the Kshatriyas to rule, development through the Vaisyas and the Sudras. The highest principle was justice (dharma), which added meaning to equality among the weak and strong, poor and rich. Those who spoke the truth spoke justice, because they are the same. By meditating on the soul (atman) alone, one does not perish and can create whatever one wants. Whatever suffering occurs remains with the creatures; only the good goes to the soul, because evil does not go to the gods.
The concept of prana as the life energy of the breath is exalted as that which is identified with and establishes the entire soul. As the life force, prana, found in trees, animals, and people in ascending order, could not be impure or bad. Human immortality is identified with the soul (atman) not the body.
The soul is identified with goodness [as in the Hermetica], the real, the immortal, and the life-breath (prana), which is veiled by name and form (individuality). By restraining the senses and the mind, one may rest in the space within the heart and become a great Brahmin and like a king may move around within one's body as one pleases. The world of name and form is real, but the soul is the truth or reality of the real.
Immortality cannot be obtained through wealth. All persons and things in the world (husband, wife, sons, wealth, gods, etc.) are not dear for love of them, but for the love of the soul. The soul is the overlord of all things, as the spokes of the wheel are held together by the hub.
The principle of action (karma) is explained as "becoming good by good action, and bad by bad action."

How can one get beyond the duality of seeing, smelling, hearing, speaking to, thinking of, and understanding another? Can one see the seer, smell the smeller, hear the hearer, think the thinker, and understand the understander? It is the soul which is in all things; everything else is wretched. By passing beyond hunger and thirst, sorrow and delusion, old age and death, by overcoming desire for sons, wealth, and worlds, let a Brahmin become disgusted with learning and live as a child; disgusted with that, let one become an ascetic until one transcends both the non-ascetic and the ascetic states. Thus is indicated a spiritual path of learning and discipline that ultimately transcends even learning and discipline in the soul, the inner controller, the immortal, the one dwelling in the mind whom the mind does not know, who controls the mind from within.
The one departing this world without knowing the imperishable is pitiable, but the one knowing it is a Brahmin.

The following refrain is repeated often:
That soul is not this, not that.
It is incomprehensible, for it is not comprehended.
It is indestructible, for it is never destroyed.
It is unattached, for it does not attach itself.
It is unfettered; it does not suffer; it is not injured.

The soul is considered intelligent, dear, true, endless, blissful, and stable. The knowledge that is the light in the heart enables one to transcend this world and death while appearing asleep. The evils that are obtained with a body at birth are left behind upon departing at death. One dreams by projecting from oneself, not by sensing actual objects. In addition to being free from desire the ethical admonition of being without crookedness or sin is also indicated. At death the soul goes out first, then the life, and finally the breaths go out.
The soul is made of everything; as one acts, one becomes. The doer of good becomes good; the doer of evil becomes evil. As is one's desire, such is one's resolve; as is the resolve, such is the action, which one attains for oneself. When one's mind is attached, the inner self goes into the actions of one's actions. Whatever one does in this world is a consequence of the other world on this world of action (karma). By releasing the desires in one's heart, one may be liberated in immortality, reaching Brahman (God). One is the creator of all, one with the world. Whoever knows this becomes immortal, but others go only to sorrow. The knowing is sought through the spiritual practices of repeating the Vedas, sacrifices, offerings, penance, and fasting. Eventually one sees everything, as the soul overcomes both the thoughts of having done wrong and having done right. The evil does not burn one; rather one burns the evil. In the soul's being the world-all is known. The student should practice self-restraint, giving, and compassion.
The Chandogya Upanishad belongs to the Sama Veda and is the last eight chapters of the ten-chapter Chandogya Brahmana. The first two chapters of the Brahmana discuss sacrifices and other forms of worship. As part of the Sama Veda, which is the chants, the Chandogya Upanishad emphasises the importance of chanting the sacred Aum. The chanting of Aum is associated with the life breath (prana), which is so powerful that when the devils struck it they fell to pieces.
The religious life recommended in the Chandogya Upanishad has three parts. The first is sacrifice, study of the Vedas, and giving alms; the second is austerity; and the third is studying the sacred knowledge while living in the house of a teacher.
The soul in the heart is identified with Brahman (God), and it is the same as the light which shines higher than in heaven. Knowing and reverencing the sacrificial fire is believed to repel evil doing from oneself. To the one who knows the soul evil action does not adhere, just as water does not adhere to the leaf of the lotus flower. To know the soul as divine is called the "Loveliness-uniter" because all lovely things come to such [just as Hari Krishnas call Krishna 'All Attractive'].
The doctrine of reincarnation is clearly implied in the Chandogya Upanishad as it declares that those whose conduct is pleasant here will enter a pleasant womb of a Brahmin, Kshatriya, or Vaisya; but those of stinking conduct will enter a stinking womb of a dog, swine, or outcast.
At death the voice goes into the mind, the mind into the breath, the breath into heat, and heat into the highest divinity, the finest essence of truth and soul. If the life leaves one branch of a tree, it dries up; and if it leaves the whole of it, the whole dries up. The soul is the essence of life and does not die, therefore we ought to identify with the soul.

Truly, indeed, when the living soul leaves it,
this body dies; the living soul does not die.
That which is the subtle essence
this whole world has for its soul.
That is reality (truth). That is the soul.
That you are, Svetaketu.

Just as we cannot taste the different parts of water in which there is salt, just so is Being hidden in all of reality, but it is not always perceived.

The soul, which came to be identified with Brahman, is none other than the fire of the heart, that is worshipped by Brahmans and Zoroastrians. It is the fire that consumes evil, and burns with dedication to the voice of Jehovih.

Ramana Maharshi describes his own experience of self-realisation as follows: -
The self is the heart, self-luminous. Illumination arises from the heart and reaches the brain, which is the seat of the mind. The world is seen with the mind, so you see the world by the reflected light of the self. The world is perceived by an act of the mind. When the mind is illumined, it is aware of the world. If it is not so illumined, it is not aware of the world. If the mind is turned in towards the source of illumination, objective knowledge ceases, and self alone shines as the heart.
Also:
What is realised is that the source of self is the heart as undifferentiated light of pure consciousness into which reflected light of the mind is completely absorbed.

The Tree of Language
China, India, Europe and America, the four branches of the earth, languages from one root. What was the tree, and where grew it, that none can find it? Where lieth the submerged continent, the forgotten world? Whence escaped the struggling mortals, to float to far off continents, and tell the tale in all lands of a mighty flood?

And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

Genesis 2:19

First Book Of The First Lords Ch IV

The Lords' Forth Book Ch I

1. Pan, (of language) the first guttural sounds approximating words.
a) Poit, beginning of labial word-sounds.
b) Huit, first acquiesced language.
c) Fus, first written word-signs.
2. Chine, monosyllabic.
3. Yi'ha, combination words.
4. Vede
a) Sanscrit, mixture
b) Algonquin, after the sacred name E-Go-Quin.
5. Abram, first words; original text.
a) Fonece, following the sound, but not the signs. (writing)
b) Aham, amalgamation.
6. Araba (first Egyptian also) 'Teeth and thorax.'
7. Ebra, the old; the sacred
a) Helos
b) Greek
c) Latin
8. Hebrew

The Tree of Language

From One comes three
1) Chine - Chinese languages are Jaffethic
2) Araba - Semitic languages are Hamitic,
3) Yi'ha - Sanskrit and Algonquin are Shemitic. The two are alike, which is indicated by similarities between Tibetan, Hopi and Zuni languages.
4) Abram - Indo-European languages are from Yi'ha (Shemitic)

[The tree implies that Hebrew is more related to European languages than semitic]

Thus, Chinese, Indian, American and European can be thought of as four branches of languages from one root [Chine, Yi'ha (Indian/American) and Abram (Phoneacian, Araba) ].

The Phaistos Disc

Festos, Crete

Some symbols from the phaistos disc above

Rongorongo Tablets

Proto-World language
A proto-language is a language which was the common ancestor of related languages, or a system of communication during a stage in glottogony, that form a language family.
The ancestral proto-language is reconstructed by comparing members of the language family. Examples of unattested but (partially) reconstructed proto-languages include Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Uralic and Proto-Bantu - the ancestors of Indo-European, Uralic and Bantu languages, respectively. The Proto-Norse language is attested in the Elder Futhark runic inscriptions.

Proto-World language refers to the hypothetical, most recent common ancestor of all the world's languages - an ancient proto-language from which are derived all modern languages, all language families, and all dead languages known from the past 6,000 years of recorded history.
Proto-World is theorized to have been spoken roughly 500,000 to 100,000 years ago, the time speculated by archaeogenetics for the phylogenetic separation of the ancestors of all humans alive today. In such a scenario, Proto-World would spread from a small population out to other human populations long after they separated.

Borean tree diagram

In 1903 the pioneering Danish linguist Holger Pedersen proposed "Nostratian", a proto-language for the proto-languages of the Semitic (later broadened into Afro-Asiatic), Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic and Eskimo-Aleut language families.

A representative grouping of Nostratic includes:
1) Afro-Asiatic
2) Kartvelian
3) Indo-European
4) Uralic
5) Dravidian
6) Altaic
7) Eskimo-Aleut

Nostratic tree

The 3rd millennium BC (excluding the Anatolian branch) in Armenia according to the Armenian hypothesis (proposed in the context of Glottalic theory);
The 5th millennium BC (4th excluding the Anatolian branch) in the Pontic-Caspian steppe according to the mainstream Kurgan hypothesis;
The 6th millennium BC in India according to Koenraad Elst's Out of India model.
The 7th millennium BC in Anatolia (the 5th, in the Balkans, excluding the Anatolian branch) according to Colin Renfrew's Anatolian hypothesis;
The 7th millennium BC (6th excluding the Anatolian branch) according to a 2003 glottochronological study before the 10th millennium BC, in the Paleolithic Continuity Theory.

Proto-Indo-European as described in the early 1900s is still generally accepted today; subsequent work is largely refinement and systematization, as well as the incorporation of new information, notably the Anatolian and Tocharian branches unknown in the 19th century.
There is no direct evidence of Proto-Indo-European, because it was never written. All PIE sounds and words are reconstructed from later Indo-European languages using the comparative method and the method of internal reconstruction.
The proposal of a higher-level relationships encompassing PIE and Uralic. The evidence usually cited in favor of this is the proximity of the proposed Urheimaten of the two families, the typological similarity between the two languages, and a number of apparent shared morphemes.
Other proposals, further back in time (and correspondingly less accepted), model PIE as a branch of Indo-Uralic with a Caucasian substratum; link PIE and Uralic with Altaic and certain other families in Asia, such as Korean, Japanese, Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Eskimo-Aleut (representative proposals are Nostratic and Joseph Greenberg's Eurasiatic); or link some or all of these to Afro-Asiatic, Dravidian, etc., and ultimately to a single Proto-World family (nowadays mostly associated with Merritt Ruhlen). Various proposals, with varying levels of skepticism, also exist that join some subset of the putative Eurasiatic language families and/or some of the Caucasian language families, such as Uralo-Siberian, Ural-Altaic (once widely accepted but now largely discredited), Proto-Pontic, and so on.

Theories and History about Indo-Aryan Origins
Aryan is the archaic term for Indo-Iranian peoples (Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani peoples), that is, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages.
Arya is a Sanskrit and Avestan word used by Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. It is thought to have derived from the Aramaic and Syriac word for Arya meaning Lion. Arya is related to the Indo-European word "Aristocracy" and was used in the same context in Vedic tradition, as a designation for moral and spiritual heroes. Later this term came to signify anyone of good and noble character. Arya can be an adjective or a noun depending on pronunciation meaning kind, favorable, or devoted, master, respectable, honorable, noble, owner, a member of the three highest varnas (castes), particularly a Vaisya.
The Amarakosha (a thesaurus of Sanskrit ca. 450 AD) defines 'arya' thus: "An arya is one who hails from a noble family, of gentle behavior and demeanor, good-natured and of righteous conduct. Arya refers to one's standing in the varna system: an arya is a free man and not a member of a lower caste or a slave. This social standing was not, however, necessarily related to ethnic, linguistic, or racial identity. At an early period, the cultural area where the varna system was used, along with the linguistic area where Indic languages were spoken, would have been nearly the same. This region (northern and central India; the Indus and Ganges plains) was called Aryavarta, meaning "abode of the noble people". At present, these cultural and linguistic spheres overlap but are quite distinct from each other.
The Western interpretation of arya as the name of a particular race became known in India in the 19th century and was generally accepted by Hindus and Hindu nationalists, though combined with religious self-identification. Vivekananda remarked: "...it is the Hindus who have all along called themselves Aryas. Whether of pure or mixed blood, the Hindus are Aryas; there it rests."
The interpretation of the Sanskrit words in Europe was influenced by words in Avestan: airya and airyana meaning "nobly born" and "respectable", but also "Iranian". Iranian refers to all the speakers of the Iranian languages, at the time not yet differentiated from each other at the time of the composition of the Zoroastrian Yashts texts, where Zarathustra is described to have lived in Airyanem Vaejah meaning "Expansion of Aryans". The word "Iran" (Eran) itself comes from Proto-Iranian Aryanam "(land) of the Aryas (Iranian)". Airya was distinguished from anairya, non-Iranian, and is clearly to be understood as the name of a self-identified nation, ethnic group, or linguistic group. The word and concept of Airyanem Vaejah is present in the name of the country Iran (lit. Land of Aryans) which is a modern-Persian form of the word "Aryana" (lit. Country of Aryans). The word "arya" in the modern Persian language, also means "noble", "Aryan", or "Iranian"

The term Arya is often found in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain texts. In the Indian spiritual context it can be applied to Rishis or to someone who has mastered the four noble truths and entered upon the spiritual path. The religions of India are sometimes called collectively arya dharma, a term that includes the religions that originated in India (e.g. Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma), Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism).
The term Arya is used 36 times in 34 hymns in the Rig Veda. "The particular Vedic Aryans of the Rigveda were one section among these Purus, who called themselves Bharatas." Thus it is possible that at one point Arya did refer to a specific tribe.
In the Ramayana, the term Arya can also apply to Raksasas or to Ravana, if their behaviour was "Aryan". In several instances, the Vanaras and Raksasas called themselves Arya. The monkey king Surgriva is called an Arya.
The Ramayana describes Rama as "Arya, who worked for the equality of all and was dear to everyone." According to the Mahabharata, a person's behaviour (not wealth or learning) determines if he can be called an Arya. The terms Arya or Anarya are often applied to people according to their behaviour. Dushasana, who tried to disrobe Draupadi in the Kaurava court, is called an "Anarya". Vidura, the son of a Dasi born from Vyasa, was the only person in the assembly whose behaviour is called "Arya", because he was the only one who openly protested when Draupadi was being disrobed. The Pandavas called themselves "Anarya" when they killed Drona through deception.
According to Swami Vivekananda, "A child materially born is not an Aryan; the child born in spirituality is an Aryan." He further elaborated, referring to the Manu Smriti: "Says our great law-giver, Manu , giving the definition of an Aryan, "He is the Aryan, who is born through prayer". Every child not born through prayer is illegitimate, according to the great law-giver: "The child must be prayed for. Those children that come with curses, that slip into the world, just in a moment of inadvertence, because that could not be prevented - what can we expect of such progeny? The Pali word ariya (noble, exalted), is very frequently used in Buddhist texts to designate a spiritual warrior or hero, which use this term much more often than Hindu or Jain texts. Buddha's Dharma and Vinaya are the ariyassa dhammavinayo. The four noble truths are called the catvary aryasatyani (Sanskrit) or cattari ariyasaccani (Pali). The noble eightfold path is called the aryamarga. Buddhists themselves are called ariyapuggalas (Arya persons). In Buddhist texts, the aryas are those who have the Buddhist sila (Pali sila, meaning "virtue") and follow the Buddhist path. Those who despise Buddhism are often called "anaryas". In Buddhism, those who spiritually attain to "stream entry" and better are considered Arya Pudgala, or the Arya people.
In Chinese Buddhist texts, arya is translated as "sheng", while in Japanese texts the term is translated as "sei". The Mahavibhasa states that only the noble ones (aryas) realize all four of the four noble truths and that only a noble wisdom understands them fully. It also describes the aryas as the ones who "have understood and realized about the truth of suffering, (impermanence, emptiness, and no-self [Anatta])" and who "understand things as they are". In the Yogacarabhumi the aryas are described as being free from the viparyasas (misconceptions).
Several Buddhist texts show that the "arya path" was taught to everybody, including the aryas, Dasyus, Devas, Gandharvas and Asuras. Buddha taught his Dharma to the Four Heavenly Kings of the four directions. In this story, the guardians of the east and the south are aryajatiya (aryas) who speak Sanskrit, while the guardians of the west and the north are dasyujatiya (Dasyus) who speak Dasyu languages. In order to teach his Dharma, Buddha has to deliver his discourse in Aryan and Dasyu languages. Avalokitesvara taught the arya Dharma to the asuras, yakshas and rakshasas.

Asia has been regarded as the cradle of the Aryans, from where they spread over the whole surface of the inhabited earth. In 1808 Zend was believed to be the mother of Sanscrit and the other Aryan languages; and as it was spoken in Media it followed that the highlands of Media, Armenia, and Georgia were the original home of the Aryans. The resemblance found between Zend and Sanscrit was proof that the Iranians and Hindoos were in ancient times one people with a common country, and that union continued to exist long after the European Aryans had migrated westwards.
It was thought, in 1820, that an Avestan passage which spoke of sixteen countries seemed to refer to a migration from a more northerly and colder country. These sixteen regions were taken to be stations in the migration of the Indo-Iranian people from their original country, and it was thought that the track of the migration could be followed back through Persis, Baktria, and Sogdiana (see map) up to the first region created by Ormuzd, which, accordingly, must have been situated in the interior highlands of Asia, around the sources of the Jaxartes and Oxus. This part of Asia was supposed to have had originally a warmer temperature, but Ahriman destroyed it with frost and snow, and it became colder, wherefore the inhabitants found it necessary to seek new homes in the West and South.
The Tadchiks, remnants of a people who today speak Iranian dialects, were regarded as descendants of the original Aryan people who remained while other parts of the same people migrated to Baktria or Persia and became Iranians, or migrated down to Pendschab and became Hindus, or migrated to Europe and became Celts, Greco-Italians, Teutons, and Slays. The highlands of Central Asia were like a divider of Aryan folk-streams, which through Baktria sought their way to the plains of Persia, through the mountain passes of Hindukush to India, through the lands north of the Caspian Sea to the extensive plains of modern Russia, and to Western Europe.

Zarathustrians or Zoroastrians, who claim to be the original Indo-Europeans, believe that the writers of the Zend Avesta [and the Vedas known in both those scriptures as Aryas (Aryans)] originated in the mythical Airyana-vaejah [the Arctic, 20,000 years ago, according to one writer]. Ahura Mazda, in three subsequent periods, bade Yima to lead his overflowing tribes to migrate southwards and westwards, on the " way of the sun".
Angra Mainyu caused an evil winter to fall on Airyana-vaejah. The Arctic, formerly a Paradise, [the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions were once temperate as evidenced by the fossil record] became cold and inhabitable. Forewarned by Ahura Mazda, Yima led a further successful migration towards the hospitable south.

Max Muller believed that they came from central Asia. Indian scholars like B.G.Tilak think of the Arctic circle as the original home of Aryans since the descriptions of sunrise given in the Vedas are too detailed and beautiful to refer to the equatorial sunrise.
Some say for 20,000 years from the Upper Palaeolithic period to the beginning of the Bronze Age (c. 3000 BC), Europe had a seemingly matrifocal, pre-agrarian culture, sedentary and peaceful, extending from the eastern shores of the Black and Mediterranean seas to the Aegean and Adriatic seas. Then Indo-Europeans (6000-4000 BC.) spread both agriculture, technology, and language to the existing population. [This is the time that Ctusk inspired the Parsi'e'ans to emigrate to Heleste (~5500-4200 BC).]
An Indo-Iranian homeland is said to have existed on the south Russian steppes, east of the Volga around 5000-2000 BC. Gimbutas claims the domestication of the Horse (4500-4000 BC) in the south Russian Volga steppes and the first wave of Kurgans put an end to Old European culture between 4300 (first wave) -2800 BC. The Kurgan/Steppe theory depicted the Indo-Europeans as a chariot warrior aristocracy, with primarily a herding economy from the area between the Don and Volga Rivers, on the steppes of the Caucasus and the Carpathian Mountains.
In 3400 BC the second wave and in 3000 BC the third wave of Kurgan migration began [coinciding with the control of Dyaus (3080-2000 BC), the war of the Baghavad Gita at Kuruksetra (~3000 BC) under Sudga, development of Major urban centres such as Uruk, Nippur, Susa, and Ur in the time of the Sumerian ruler of Uruk, Gilgamesh, and Menes uniting Egypt].

The first Indo-European speakers entered central Europe about 2300 BC. In 2000 BC Indo-Aryans left the eastern Iranian steppes of ancient Sogdiana, Chorasmia/Khorezmia, and Bactria, crossed the Caucasus Mountains entered Armenia and spread southwards towards the Elburz [Alburz] range (near Tehran, on the south end of the Caspian sea).
[The highest peak in the Caucasus is Mount Elbrus (5,642 m) which, in the western Ciscaucasus (northern portion of the Caucasus) in Russia, is considered the highest point in Europe.
The concept of a "Caucasian race" was first proposed by the German scientist Johann Blumenbach (1752-1840). His studies based the classification of the Caucasian race primarily on skull features, which Blumenbach claimed were optimized by the Armenians and Georgians. The reason the Caucasus had such an attraction to Blumenbach was because of its proximity to Mount Ararat, which is the historical homeland of the Armenians where according to the Biblical account, Noah's Ark, eventually landed after the flood. Blumenbach believed that the original humans were light-skinned, that the Caucasians had retained this whiteness as a constant, and that darkness of skin was a sign of change from the original. The tribe of Japheth was supposed to have originated in the Caucasus, then spread north and westwards. The term Caucasoid (Caucasian-like) also came into use to encompass a larger grouping of populations with similar skull-shapes, including many North African, South Asian and Middle Eastern peoples. In the USA Caucasian is used for a group referred to as White Americans. In Europe, "Caucasian" refers exclusively to people who are from the Caucasus.]

In 1600-1000 BC waves of Aryans entered Greece. [This coincides with the wars of Baal and Astharoth]
The Kassites (1600-1160 BCE) [Elamites? of 3000 BC] designated Godhead by the Indo-European term bugash (the Avestan baga, Sanskrit bhaga, Slavic bogu and Phrygian bagaios). Surya was worshiped by the Aryan Kings of Babylon, by the Kassites under the name Suryash (the Sanskrit Surya) the sun, and in the Mitanni pantheon as Shuwardatta.
The Hurrians formed the kingdom of Mitanni in 1480 BC. Tuthmosis III defeated the Mitannis and conquered Syria in 1458 BC. In 1400 BC [after the Exodus] the Mitannis conquered Assyria and reconquered Syria. In1400 BC the Mitanni king Artatama and the Egyptian Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV [Akhnaton] signed a peace treaty.
In 1339 BC Hittite ruler Suppiluliuma conquered the Mitanni king Mattiwaza and in the treaty is listed among the divine witnesses are Mitra-ash (Mithra), Uruwana (Varuna), Indra, and the Nashatiyanu (Nasatya) gods.
A treatise that uses Sanskrit words was discovered in the Archives of the Hittite capital Boghaz-Keui/Boghazkoy/Boghaz Koi in the north of modern Turkey. Assyria destroyed the Mitanni empire in 1307 BC
Excavations in El-Amarna in Egypt have yielded the fact that about the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, Kings and Princes with typical Vedic names were ruling in the region of modern day Syria. Some of the names are Artamanya, Aryavirya, Yashodatta, Suttarna and Dushratta. Thutmose IV married a daughter of Artatma the King of the Mitanni Kingdom in the Upper Euphrates River area.
A letter addressed by Dushratta, Artatama's grandson, written to Akhnaton, says that it was not until Thutmose asked seven times that King Artatma agreed to his marriage proposal. [Tuthmosis IV 1419-1386, Amenhotep III 1386-1349, Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) 1350-1334]
Amenhotep III married Tiy, daughter of Yuaa (a foreigner "from North Syria") and of Tuau. During this time in Egyptian history, the ruling aristocracy of Egypt, were of mixed Egyptian and Mitanni ancestry.
According to Akhnaton, Aton was both the male and female. He says to Aton,
"Father and Mother of all that You have made."
This parallels with the Vedic terms for the Sun, Savita, (male) and Savitri (female) or the Sun and the Sun's energy [Soul and "World" or Purusha and Prakriti].

The Hittite kingdom was founded in 1650 BC. They installed the Kassite dynasty in Babylon in 1590 BC. Abraham supposedly appears in 1500 BC. The Elamites sacked Babylon and terminated the Kassite dynasty 1168 BC. Nebuchadnezzar I of Babylon defeated Elam in 1105 BC. Sargon II of Assyria destroyed the Hittites of Urartu in 717 BC.

Cimmerian invasions of Colchis, Urartu and Assyria during 715-713 BC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugarit

A Note about Conventional Chronology
Immanuel Velikovsky made the public aware that Egypt's ancient chronology is badly wrong. As a result, the pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty [1570-1293] are made too ancient by around 500 years. Egyptian artefacts, which were found in many places outside Egypt, were used to date the archaeology of other countries around the Mediterranean that had no ancient records of their own.
Herodotus's chronology implied that the great pyramids of Giza were built after Middle Kingdom [12th dynasty, 1991-1782].
In the early third century, Jewish history was brought to Egypt under the Ptolemys, and translated into Greek as the Septuagint. Manetho, a priest and scribe of Heliopolis at the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247), composed accounts (now lost) of the history (contradicting Herodotus in many places).
Josephus (c80AD) revealed many of Manetho's errors. Epitomes of Manetho's king lists by two Christian chronologists, Africanus c220AD and Eusebius c320AD, have also survived.
Syncellus from Constantinople c800AD is our main surviving source for Manetho's works, although he tells us nothing of his source materials. He is also the sole source of a work he attributes to Manetho called 'The Book of Sothis' which gives a list of Egyptian kings, with annotations linking Egyptian and Jewish historical events. It gives names in an order that is non-chronological. It would be wrong to assume that the early historians such as Manetho, Eusebius, Africanus, Josephus and Syncellus actually knew Egypt's true early history any better than the version told to Herodotus.
Sir Isaac Newton showed that ancient history had been made many centuries too ancient. A devout Christian, but a fearless Biblical critic, he uncovered many discrepancies in and between the King James, Masoretic, Samaritan, and Septuagint versions, and derived 'proofs' based on astronomy to fix a few key dates. From a synthesis of literary evidence, he then recast ancient history. He was the first revisionist to use the precession of the zodiac signs for retrocalculating dates.
By the end of the 19th century, many historians had suggested that the mono-idolistic cult of Akhenaten was a result of a Hebrew influence. Freud, a collector of Egyptian antiquities wrote in 1939 'Moses and Monotheism' in which he linked Moses and Akhenaten. Immanuel Velikovsky, a psychiatrist, was intrigued by Freud's book. In 1952 'Ages in Chaos', ignited a public debate on ancient chronology.
According to Revisionists, archaeologists artificially increased the age of lower strata in order to meet the expectations of excessive antiquity among historians. Using this elongated time frame, great empires of the past such as the Sumerians, Akkadians and Old Babylonians were invented by late 19th C and early 20th C scholars to fill the historical voids. The ancient Greek and Roman historians knew nothing of these ancient peoples.
Heinsohn showed that the Bronze Age started in China and Mesoamerica some 1500 years later than in the Near East. He cited the Indus Valley where the civilisations, dated from Mesopotamian seals of 2400BC, sit right underneath the Buddhist strata of 7-6th Century. Thus some sites only about 30km apart have chronologies some 1500 years apart. But in the same strata, supposedly 1500 years apart, they frequently find the same pottery.
Heinsohn set out many chronological problems and argued for equating the Mittani with the Medes and the Hittites with the Late Chaldeans. He said Sumerian is the language of the well known Kassite/Chaldeans

From "http://www.knowledge.co.uk/sis/ancient.htm"

A Note about the Westward Drive of Shem

From 'Teutonic Mythology' [1887]
"The race which was to found the European nations, has, like the sun, wended its way from east to west. A mystic harmony was found to exist between the apparent course of the sun and the migrations of people. The minds of the people dwelling in Central and Eastern Asia seemed to be imbued with a strange instinctive yearning.
The Aryan folk-streams into Europe, were the forerunners of the Teutonic migrations. The Europeans themselves are led by this same instinct to follow the course of the sun: they flow in great numbers to America, and these folk-billows break against each other on the coasts of the Pacific Ocean."

http://www.boudicca.de/teut.htm

From Of Hindoo Scriptures Chapter III:
The tribes of Ham were characterised by their westward migration.

From The Book of Wars, Chapter XXI:
In olden times the Gods had inspired the Parsi'e'ans to migrate toward the west and inhabit the lands of Heleste, [Balkans, Georgia, Armenia etc, becoming the Hittites and later the Philistines etc] and they carried with them three languages: the Panic, of Jaffeth; the Vedic, of Vind'yu, and the Parsi'e'an.

From The first Fonecean Bible in Oahspe:
Out of the hosts of Parsi'e, who were of the people of Shem, who were since the days of the flood, came Abram. God led Abram away from He-sa, his native place. These, then, are the generations of the line whence came Abram, that is to say:
Of Shem and the seventy tribes, first going forth beyond the mountains of Owatchab-habal, Tur who settled in Parsi'e, and his descendants Goe, and his descendants Wawa, and his descendants Sadr.

Genesis 15:7 says:
"I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee (Abraham) this land to inherit it."
In Genesis 28 Isaac gave the blessing of Abraham to Jacob and his seed, that he may inherit the land "which God gave unto Abraham".

From The first Fonecean Bible Ch.XII:
In the Book of Cpenta-armij, Ch. XI, the light that extended from the Father's throne down to the delivered hosts of Abram and moved westward as they migrated was as an inheritance of Jehovih's light.
When Abraham asked concerning lands. God said: "I led thee to that which was neglected and waste in the eyes of the kings' peoples, and I said: This is thy inheritance. Sufficient is it for thee and thy people to buy burying-places for the dead, which shall not be disturbed. But of all other lands, neither buy nor sell. And after thy people have improved a place, and a king cometh against thee, saying: Either by purchase or by battle, I will have this land; thou shalt say: Nay, neither by purchase nor by battle, shalt thou inherit that which is Jehovih's. But if thou desirest the land, then will I give it thee without money and without battle.
And it shall come to pass upon my chosen that they shall be driven from place to place, whither I will lead them; and they shall make the waste lands to bloom like gardens, and the deserts to yield ample harvests; for they shall dig wells, and till the soil, and prove unto the nations of the earth the glory of thy works."
[So the land of Israel was not given as a possession, but something that would be relinquished if circumstance demanded.
There is a majority of Jews today who would think otherwise. Nevertheless amongst this fanatical, zealot, military framework are those who "dig wells, and till the soil". Around them rages a forboding apocalypse that forever keeps them God-fearing. It's unclear to me if this is God's plan for the Jews, or an aberration of it.]

From the Book of Lika Ch.X:
The heirs of Moses were lead westward until they circumscribed the earth and completed it by the time of Kosmon.

From God's Book of Eskra Ch.L:
From the time of Joshu's death, in Jerusalem, the Faithists in Arabin'ya [Egypt and Palestine], Heleste [perhaps Greece and Turkey, Armenia, Syria and Crimea etc.] and Uropa [Eastern Europe] who called themselves Israelites and Jews, and many being apostates, eating flesh, and marrying with other peoples, began to migrate, mostly toward the west.
After the fall of the Egyptian empire her people migrated westward, hundreds of thousands of them, and they settled in western Uropa, where these people married with the aborigines. Their offspring were called Druids, Picts, Gales (Gaelic), Wales (Welsh), Galls (Gauls), and Yohans (Johns), all of which are Eguptian names, preserved to this day.
Now, when the Faithists were moved by the inspiration of God to have no more kings, and to flee away from the Kriste'yan warriors, they came amongst the people above mentioned. (The apostate Faithists married with them, and their offspring were the forefathers of those now called, French, German, Russian and English.)
God, Son of Jehovih, had said: Suffer the apostates to so marry, for here will I find a way to raise up disbelievers in the false Kriste; and they shall ultimately become believers in Jehovih only.
For, inasmuch as I have suffered them to become scattered, so will I appropriate them as seed to quicken all the races of men to comprehend the All One.

Celts may have inhabited northern France and western Germany in 1200 BC, though it is generally said that Celts emerged in South Central Europe and the British islands in about 500 BC and they settled in Ireland 300 BC. Clans of Britons, Angles, Celts, Picts, Scots, Saxons, Jutes existed in Britain after the fall of the Roman empire. (410 AD).

[The reference to the fall of the Egyptian empire may be:
1) the time of Exodus (~1500 BC)
2) when the Assyrians captured Memphis (671 BC)
3) when the Persians conquered Egypt (525 BC)
4) 332 BC, when Alexander conquered Egypt

The time when Egypt became a province of the Roman empire after Cleopatra's suicide (30 BC) is too late.
It's possible that a wave of migrants fled Egypt on any of these occasions.

From Book of God's Word Ch.VI:
The Lord said to Zarathustra: Behold the people who fly from the kings! I have made them kings over goats and over the beasts of the fields. And from this time forth the Listians styled themselves shepherd kings.

When Zarathustra was half grown, the Lord began to manifest through him, giving signs and miracles and prophecy before the Listians who lived in the Forest of Goats. This forest was of the width in every direction, save the east, of forty days' journey for a man, and in all that region there were no houses, the inhabitants living in tents made of bark and skins.
The Lord inspired Zarathustra to teach them to build houses, and tame the goats, and to live in cities, and otherwise subdue the earth through righteousness; the chief centre of their habitations being on the river Apherteon and its tributaries. And it was from these inhabitants that sprang in after years the migrants called Fonece'ans, signifying, out of the mountains.

The Listians or Shepherd Kings known as Hyksos in the Egyptian records were the Phoenicians, the Parsi'es (Sumerians, Persians, Medes etc) of the people of Shem, who through Abraham became associated with the tribe of Ham
[The Akkadians called their predecessors Shukmerians, and spoke of the Land of Shumer. Sitchin said it was the biblical Land of Shin'ar whose name - Shumer - meant the Land of the Watchers (Ta Neter) to the ancient Egyptians, the land from which the gods had come to Egypt.]

So the great westward journey, centering on the 35 degree north latitude, started in Northern Afghanistan/Pakistan/Kashmir with the Shepherd Kings and Parsi'e'ans united with Ham and continued to Spain, USA and now Japan, China and the focus is back on Afghanistan/Pakistan/Kashmir where a world crisis now looms.

Semitic looking figureheads, with beards (absent in the indigenous peoples) and floppy hats
typical of Phoenician sailors (Right) found in Mexico attributed to the Olmec culture.

The 17th century orientalist Edward Pococke wrote:
"the Cashmirians and the people of Balk sprang from Leda - or Ladakh"

Ashkenazi, a Scythian group gave the world Guatama Buddha.
The history of the Scythians began in the Khyber Mountain region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In 1904, Jogendra Mohon Gupta, wrote that the Phoenicians were the fathers of all world civilisations:

"The Phoenicians held their own civilisation to be the most ancient and declared it to be thirty thousand years old. There is however no doubt that they were one of the first civilised nations of the world, if not the first, and that Phoenicia was not their first home. The Panis or Panih of the Rig Veda were the same people as the ancient Phoenicians of Afghanistan."

Budha's heavenly kingdom "Celonia" over Egupt mentioned in Oahspe and the connection of Phœnician cosmogony with the Buddhic school makes the following less nonsensical, since a large population of Jews lived in Alexandria.

The Cabeiri are the Khyberi, or people of the Khyber. They are the Khebrew-i, or Hebrews. We have, in the Cabeiri, the representatives of a form of Bud-histic worship and Bud'histic chiefs, extending from the Logurh district (Locri) to Cashmir, the object of worship of the Hya (Yah), and the Phoenician race, for they are but one. They are the Khebrew-i, or Hebrews ... The tribe of Yudah/Yuddhi (Judah) is in fact the very Yadu (Yadava)

He alleges that the pious "Hyperboreans" of ancient Greek writers are the Hebrews, and the northern limits of Afghanistan is the starting point of these two great families of language, and consequently of nations. "The Afghans have claimed descent from the Jews, or Ioudaioi (Youdai-oi); the reverse is the case. The Haibrews or Khaibrews, are descended from the Yadoos. In that very land of the Yadoos, or Afghans - Dan and Gad, still remain of the feeble remnants of Jewish antiquity"

From "http://www.viewzone.com/phoenician.html"

Question continues
"As to Zarathustra (the first), he did indeed teach something similar to that taught by the Hindus as described. Check Ahura'Mazda in Oahspe's Saphah (p644 in Blue Oahspe and in little Green; p662 in big Green Oahspe): Descended by the Yi-ha light through mortals ... revealed from Zarathustra ... then by Buddha and Brahma ... || Also the remainder of the Segments in Saphah dealing with the subject including Ahura'Mazda and Earthly History of the Faithists of the East cast more light."

Of the line in "Earthly History of the Faithists of the East cast more light" (in Oahspe)

Mine have no Gods but Me.
Mine have no idols nor images of Me.
Mine bow down not before idols.
Mine covenant in My name secretly.
Mine remember the four sacred days of the moon.
Mine honor their parents.
Mine kill nothing I have made alive.
Mine commit not adultery.
Mine steal not, nor tell lies; nor covet anything.
Mine return good unto all men.

it's my opinion that although Brahman can be personal (when regarded as the Self) or impersonal, and the false Gods and idols (such as Krishna, Vishnu, Devi) can be conceived of or worded to satisfy Jehovih, only few individuals are unfettered by idolism. Bigotry, fanaticism, cruelty and hypocrisy lurk behind the mask of self-righteousness.

Gods and Goddesses of Dawn
After Fragapatti established Mouru , council chamber and capital of Haraiti, he appointed High Council of the first house of Mouru, among them:
Airyama, God of Kruse;
Gatha-Ahunavaiti, Goddess of Halonij;
Haptanhaiti, God of Samatras;
Yima, God of Aom;
Sudhga, God of Laka;
Dews, Goddess of Vaerethagna;
Ustavaiti, Goddess of Maha-Meru;
Cpentas, God of Butts; Vairyo, God of Nuga-gala;
D'Zoata and her brother, Zaota, God and Goddess of Atarevasksha;
Yatha, God of Ameshas,

Fragapatti proclaimed Yima, Lord God of the heavens of Shem, resting upon the earth. Because mortals discovered that prophecy could come from the spirits of the dead, they ceased to perfect themselves, and they grew up in idleness. Osiris walled them apart, so that there was no communion betwixt the two worlds. But mortals confounded judgments and perverted laws of Jehovih. Wisdom ran in a thousand roadways. There was no uniformity between any of them. Yima pursued a mean betwixt the two. He allowed certain spirits to return to mortals, and permitting certain mortals to attain su'is and sar'gis, and to see and commune with spirits. But provided them in judgment, making the process of inter-communion a secret amongst mortals. Through Zarathustra, Yima established temples where Lords communed with rab'bahs, who were called God-irs to whom alone, with their sub-priests, the communion betwixt spirits and mortals was known. Mortals were left to believe that they attained to spirit communion by great purity and wisdom. The manifestation of drujas to mortals became a mark of evil against truth.
Yima gave protection and miracles to Zarathustra, and became controller over mortals, to the end that they become Faithists in Jehovih and His dominion.

Yima appointed Lords unto Shem who became as the roots to the tree of heaven.
The Aoshoan Lords included:
Yaztas, Hom
The Thestasias Lords included: Amesh and Amesha; Armait.
The general Lords were called Ashem, with voice; that is to say, Ashem-vohu,
Yima made twenty-five Lords controllers of the Voice, with mortals, to take the place of Samati after the death and ascension of Zarathustra, for which reason they were called the Ashem-vohu.
Lords in chief, given for the kingdoms of the Sun, in the land of Shem included:
Shahkya, Thraetem, Hakdodt, Maidoyeshemo, Zartushta, and Cpitama.

[It is strange that the Zoroastrian name for Zarathustra seems to come from these last Lords ie. Zartosht Spitama. Similarly it is strange that {amesha, cpentas} [who are Gods of the United Hosts of Heaven] forms the word Amesha Spentas and {Zaothra and Barecma} are ritual objects, but in the Oahspe they appear next to each as names of Lords of the Hosts in Heaven, suggesting an alteration or mixup on someones part.

Zarathustra
And the child's mother's name was Too'che [the virgin mother], and the father's name Lo'ab. Too'che was su'is born herself, and was by Sa'moan, an angel, obsessed before she conceived, and during the time of maternity not suffered to wake from her unconscious trance. Thus, the child was born of All Light, and in that same day the obsession fled, and Too'che proclaimed within the city that no man was father to the child, but that she conceived from All Light, believing, because unconscious in gestation.

Book Of God's Word Ch II:4

Lords of farmers and herdsmen
The Lords of farmers and herdsmen under Yima were: Gaomah [Gaya Maretan/Gayo-maretan/Gayomard], Hoshag, Tamur, Jamshed [known as Yima in the Avestan literature], Freden, Minochihr-bani and Hus.

The Lords of time keeping, who had dominion of the change of watch, were:
Copurasastras, Vaitimohu and Howitchwak.
[In Saphah Gah is "the change of the watch of the Gods. In the Avestan texts the Gahs are prayers for each period of the day.]

From the AOGEMADAECA/Aogemaidê (meaning "we accept")
(Part of the Avesta Fragments)
85. For if there were or could be any escape from death, the first of the world, Gayomard, king of the Mountain, [would have escaped],
88. Or there was Hoshang, the Peshdadian,
89. Who destroyed two-thirds of all the evil creatures of Ahriman;
91. Or there was Tahmuraf, the well-armed, the son of Vivanghat,
94. Or there was Jim, the Shed, the good shepherd, the son of Vivanghat; (he was Shed, that is to say, shining; he was a good shepherd, that is to say, he kept in good condition troops of men and herds of animals);
95. Who, for 616 years, 6 months and 13 days, kept this world free from death and old age, and kept away greed and need from the creation of Ohrmazd;
96. Yet, when death came over him, he delivered up his body and could not struggle with death.
100. Or there was Fredun, the Athwyan. Who smote and bound Azi Dahak, that great evil-doer;

From The Bundahishn (Creation), or Knowledge from the Zand Ch 31.
On the race and offspring of the Kayans
Hooshang was son of Fravak, son of Siyamak, son of Mashye (Adam), son of Gayomard. Tahmurasp was son of Vivangha, son of Yanghad, son of Hooshang.
Yim [Jamshed], Tahmurasp, Spitur, and Narsih, whom they also call 'the Rashnu of Chino,' were all brothers.
From Yim [Jamshed] and Yimak, who was his sister, was born a pair, man and woman, and they became husband and wife together; Mirak the Aspiyan and Ziyanak Zardahim were their names and the lineage went on. 5. Spitur was he who, with Dahak [Zohak], cut up Yim [Jamshed].
Dahak [Zohak] was son of Khrutasp, son of Zainigav, son of Virafsang, son of Tazh, son of Fravak son of Siyamak; by his mother Dahak [Zohak] was of Udai, son of Bayak, son of Tambayak, son of Owokhm, son of Pairi-urvaesm, son of Gadhwithw, son of Drujaskan, son of the evil spirit.
Faridoon the Aspiyan was son of Pur-tora the Aspiyan, son of Sok-tora the Aspiyan, son of Bortora the Aspiyan, son of Siyak-tora- the Aspiyan, son of Sped-tora the Aspiyan, son of Gefar-tora the Aspiyan, son of Ramak-tora the Aspiyan, son of Vanfragheshn the Aspiyan, son of Yim [Jamshed], son of Vivangha; as these, apart from the Aspiyan Purtora, were ten generations, they every one lived a hundred years, which becomes one thousand years; those thousand years were the evil reign of Dahak [Zohak]. 8. By the Aspiyan Pur-tora was begotten Faridoon, who exacted vengeance for Yim [Jamshed]; together with him also were the sons Barmayun and Katayun, but Faridoon was fuller of glory than they.
By Faridoon three sons were begotten, Salm and Tuj and Airik; and by Airik one son and one pair were begotten; the names of the couple of sons were Vanidar and Anastokh, and the name of the daughter was Guzhak. 10. Salm and Tuj slew them all, Airik and his happy sons, but Faridoon kept the daughter in concealment, and from that daughter a daughter was born; they became aware of it, and the mother was slain by them. 11. Faridoon provided for the daughter, also in concealment, for ten generations, when Manush-i Khurshed-vinik was born from his mother, [so called because, as he was born, some of] the light of the sun (khwarshed) fell upon his nose (vinik).
From Manush-i Khurshed-vinik and his sister was Manush-khurnar, and from Manush-khurnar [and his sister] was Manuschihar [Minochihr-bani] born
..... By Kavad was Kay Apiveh begotten; by Kay Apiveh were Kay Arsh, Kay Vyarsh, Kay Pisan, and Kay Kaus begotten; by Kay Kaus was Siyavakhsh begotten; by Siyavakhsh was Kay Khosraw begotten. 26. Kersasp and Aurvakhsh were both brothers. 27. Athrat was son of Sahm, son of Turak, son of Spaenyasp, son of Duroshasp, son of Tuj, son of Faridoon. 28. Lohrasp was son of Auzav, son of Manush, son of Kay Pisin, son of Kay Apiveh, son of Kay Kobad. 29. By Kay Lohrasp were Vishtasp, Zarir, and other brothers begotten; by Vishtasp were Spend-dad and Peshotan begotten; and by Spend-dad were Vohuman, Ataro-tarsah, Mitro-tarsah, and others begotten.

From The Bundahishn Ch 34. On the reckoning of the years.
Time was for twelve thousand years; and it says in revelation, that three thousand years was the duration of the spiritual state, where the creatures were unthinking, unmoving, and intangible; and three thousand years was the duration of Gayomard, with the ox, in the world.
As this was six thousand years the series of millennium reigns of Cancer, Leo, and Virgo had elapsed, because it was six thousand years when the millennium reign came to Libra, the adversary rushed in, and Gayomard lived thirty years in tribulation. 3. After the thirty years Mashye and Mashyane (Adam and Eve) grew up; it was fifty years while they were not wife and husband, and they were ninety-three years together as wife and husband till the time when Hooshang came.
Hooshang was forty years, Tahmurasp thirty years, Yim [Jamshed] till his glory departed six hundred and sixteen years and six months, and after that he was a hundred years in concealment.
Then the millennium reign came to Scorpio, and Dahak [Azi Dahaka/Zohak the Serpent-King, Ctusk, or the false Ahura?] ruled a thousand years.
[The name of Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, the last king of Media (585 BCE-550 BCE), who was dethroned in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great, is Ishtovigu in Persian, is spelled as Astyages by Herodotos; as Astyigas by Ctesias , as Aspadas by Diodorus; is Ištumegu in Akkadian, Rishti Vega Azhi Dahâk in Median, Azhdahak in Armenian, and Azh Dahâk in Kurdish. This association with evil may be due to the practices of his time.]
After the millennium reign came to Sagittarius, Faridoon reigned five hundred years; in the same five hundred years of Faridoon were the twelve years of Airik, Manuschihar was a hundred and twenty years, and in the same reign of Manuschihar, when he was in the mountain fastness (dushkhvar-gar), were the twelve years of Frasiyav; Zob the Tuhmaspian was five years.
Kay Kobad was fifteen years; Kay Kaus, till he went to the sky, seventy-five years, and seventy-five years after that, altogether a hundred and fifty years; Kay Khosraw sixty years; Kay Lohrasp a hundred and twenty years; Kay Vishtasp, till the coming of the religion, thirty years, altogether a hundred and twenty years.
Vohuman son of Spend-dad a hundred and twelve years; Humai, who was daughter of Vohuman, thirty years; Darai [Darius I] son of Chihar-azhad, that is, of the daughter of Vohuman, twelve years; Darai son of Darai fourteen years; Alexander the Ruman fourteen years [Iskander the Rûmi or Alexander the Great].
The Ashkanians bore the title in an uninterrupted (a-arubak) sovereignty two hundred and eighty-four years, Ardashir son of Papak and the number of the Sasanians four hundred and sixty years, and then it went to the Arabs.

From the DENKARD
29. Exposition in the good religion regarding the origin of the formation of the peoples (living) on the outskirts of Iran.
Know that the formation also of the religion and customs of the people of the borders, whose original country was Iran, is (derived) from the original religion and faith of their Iranian ancestors. For, the power they have attained is owing to the Iranian religion; and those who have become lords of the world are (descended) from Hooshang, Tahmurasp, Jamshed, Faridoon; Erach, and other Iranians.
Again, a check should be given to the advancing strength and the attack of the "Yahud" [Jewish] religion of Rum and "the Masahiya" [Messiah, ie. Christian] religion of Khavar, and the "Mani" religion [Manichaeism] of Turkestan, lest their wickedness and degradation should enter into (our) co-religionist friends and the purity of our religion, which is older than that of Rum, should be dimmed.

Sivananda tells us Mazdayasnism was first revealed by Homa to King Jamshid. Afterwards it was revealed to King Fiedoon. Then it was revealed to Thirta [Thrita? or Hirto?]. Lastly it was revealed to Zoroaster.

From the KHANDOGYA-UPANISHAD
Part 3, 5th PRAPATHAKA, 19th KHANDA
Therefore the first food which a man may take, is in the place of Homa. And he who offers that first oblation, should offer it to Prana (up-breathing), saying Svaha. Then Prana is satisfied,
If Prana is satisfied, the eye is satisfied, if the eye is satisfied, the sun is satisfied, if the sun is satisfied, heaven is satisfied, if heaven is satisfied, whatever is under heaven and under the sun is satisfied.. And through their satisfaction he (the sacrificer or eater) himself is satisfied with offspring, cattle, health, brightness, and Vedic splendour.

Yima/Jamshid
The legendary Shah Jamshed was the fourth and greatest of the early Shahs of mankind in Firdausi's Shahnama. The name has also been transliterated Jamshyd, e.g. in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam [a collection of poems attributed to the Persian mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyam (1048 - 1123). Rubaiyat means "quatrains": verses of four lines].
Shah Jamshed is based on the figure Yima Xsaeta of the Avesta. Yima Xsaeta is in turn is based on a proto-Indo-Iranian heroic figure Yamas, from whom Vedic Yama also derives. In the Avesta, Yima was the son of Vivashat, who in turn corresponds to the Vedic Vivasvat, "he who shines out", a divinity of the Sun.
The name Jamshid is originally a compound of two parts, Jam and shid, corresponding to the Avestan names Yima and Xsaeta, derived from the proto-Iranian Yamah Xšaitah. Yamah and the related Sanskrit Yama may be interpreted as "the twin". It became Persian Jam. In later Persian, the word jam means "pure".
Xšaitah meant "bright, shining" or "radiant". By regular sound changes xšaitah became Persian 'shed'. The suffix -shid is the same as that found in other names such as khorshid ("the Sun", originally "the radiant Sun", Avestan hvare-xsaeta). Over time, the Avestan hero Yima Xšaeta became the world-ruling Shah Jamshid of Persian legend and mythology.
Jamshid had command over all the angels and demons of the world, and was both king and high priest of Hormozd . He was responsible for a great many inventions that made life more secure for his people: the manufacture of armor and weapons, the weaving and dying of clothes of linen, silk and wool, the building of houses of brick, the mining of jewels and precious metals, the making of perfumes and wine, the navigation of the waters of the world in sailing ships. Jamshid also divided the people into four groups: the priests, warriors, farmers, artisans. Jamshid had now become the greatest monarch the world had ever known. He was endowed with the royal farr (Avestan hvar?na), a radiant splendor that burned about him by divine favor. One day he sat upon a jewel-studded throne and the divs/deevs [in this case demons] who served him raised his throne up into the air and he flew through the sky. His subjects, all the peoples of the world, marvelled and praised him. On this day, which was the first of the month of Farvardin, they first celebrated the holiday of Nawroz ("New Day"). Some Zoroastrians to this day call the day Jamshed-i Nawroz.
Jamshid was said to have had a magical seven-ringed cup, the Jam-e Jam which was filled with the elixir of immortality and allowed him to observe the universe. Jamshid's capital was erroneously believed to be at the site of the ruins of Persepolis, which for centuries (down to 1620 CE) was called Takht-i Jamshed, the "Throne of Jamshid". However, Persepolis was actually the capital of the Achaemenid kings and was destroyed by Alexander.

Thraetaona/Faridoon
In comparing the Avesta legends above with the Oahspe, Thraetem was a Lord of Shem serving Yima in the time of Zarathustra, and Freden/Fredon/Faridoon was one of the Lords of farmers and herdsmen under Yima. There is a distinction between Thraetem and Thraetaona, the latter seems to be a holy name, not a historical being. Thrita is distinct from the two. If this is so, the following is in error.

Fereydun, also pronounced Faridun, in medieval Persian Firedun, Middle Persian Fredon, and Avestan Thraetaona is the name of an Iranian mythical king and hero who is an emblem of victory, justice and generosity in the Persian literature. All of the forms of the name derive, by regular sound laws, from Proto-Iranian Thraitaunah and Proto-Indo-Iranian Traitaunas.
Traitaunas is a derivative of Tritas, the name of a deity or hero reflected in the Vedic Trita and the Avestan Thrita. Both names are identical to the adjective meaning "the third", a term used of a minor deity associated with two other deities to form a triad. In the Indian Vedas, Trita is associated with gods of thunder and wind. Trita is also called Aptya, a name that is probably cognate with Athwiya, the name of Thraetaona's father in the Avesta. Traitaunas may therefore be interpreted as "the great son of the deity Tritas".
The Avesta identifies the person who finally disposed of Aži Dahaka as Traetaona/Fredon. Originally he may have been recorded as the killer of the dragon Aži Dahaka. The Avesta has little to say about the nature of thraetaona's defeat of Aži Dahaka, other than that it enabled him to liberate the two most beautiful women in the world. Later sources, especially the Denkard, provide more detail. Fredon is said to have been endowed with the divine radiance of kings (xvarrah, modern Persian farr) from birth, and was able to defeat Dahag/Zahhak at the age of nine, striking him on shoulder, heart and skull with a mace and giving him three wounds with a sword. However, when he did so, vermin (snakes, insects and the like) emerged from the wounds, and Ormazd told him not to kill Dahag, lest the world become infested with these creatures. Instead, Fredon bound Zohak in a cave underneath the mythical Mt. Damavand (later identified with Damavand, one of the high mountains of the Alborz chain) with chains tied to great nails fixed into the walls of the cavern where he will remain until the end of the world.
[The Oahspe equivalent of Damavand seems to be the four evil corners of the VARENA, where Aži Dahaka/Zohak/serpent/evil is bound, over whom the name Thraetaono has power.]
Afterwards Fereydun became the king and according to the myth, ruled the country for about 500 years. At the end of his life he allocated his kingdom to his three sons; Salm, Tur, and Iraj. Iraj was Fereydun's youngest and favored son and inherited the best part of the kingdom namely Iran. Salm inherited Asia Minor ("Rum", more generally meaning the Roman Empire, the Greco-Roman world, or just "the West") and Tur inherited Central Asia ("Turan", all the lands north and east of the Oxus, as far as China), respectively. This aroused Iraj's brothers' envy and encouraged them to murder him. After Iraj's murder, Fereydun enthroned Iraj's grandson, Manuchehr, before his decease. Man?chehr's attempt to revenge his grand father's murder initiates the Iranian-Turanian wars.

Zahhak or Zohhak (in Persian) is a figure of Persian mythology, evident in ancient Iranian folklore as Aži Dahaka, the name by which he also appears in the texts of the Avesta. In Middle Persian he is called Dahag or Bevar-Asp, the latter meaning "he who has 10,000 horses". Aži is the Avestan word for "serpent" or "dragon". It is cognate to the Vedic Sanskrit word ahi, "snake", and without a sinister implication. In Persian mythology, Dahaka is treated as a proper name. Aži Dahaka is the source of the modern Persian word azhdaha or ezhdeha (Middle Persian azdahag) meaning "dragon", often used of a dragon depicted upon a banner of war. In Vedic tradition, the only dragon of importance is Vritra, but "there is no Iranian tradition of a dragon such as Indian Vrtra, who guards the cosmic waters and is defeated by the gods themselves." Vedic tradition has only one other dragon besides Vrtra - ahi budhnya, the benevolent 'dragon of the deep'.
Aži Dahaka is described as a monster with three mouths, six eyes, and three heads (presumably meaning three heads with one mouth and two eyes each), cunning, strong and demonic. But in other respects Aži Dahaka has human qualities, and is never a mere animal. In a post-Avestan Zoroastrian text, the Denkard, Aži Dahaka is identified as an Arab, and as the source of the writings of Judaism (in this context identified as a religion opposed to Zoroastrianism).

The Story of Zohak the Serpent King
The following is an extract from "The Epic of Kings" (the Shahnameh) by the poet Ferdowsi, written 1010 AD. There are parallels with the Book of Daniel, and the story of Zarathustra. In "The Ultiumate Encyclopedia of Mythology" it said:
Zohak had a terrifying dream ... He ordered all the children to be put to death (as did So-qi, king of Oas in Zarathustra's time, and Herod), but the baby Feridun (like Zarathustra) survived. I have not found this repeated anywhere else.

Kaiumers first sat upon the throne of Persia, and was master of the world. He took up his abode in the mountains, and clad himself and his people in tiger-skins, and from him sprang all kindly nurture and the arts of clothing, till then unknown. Men and beasts from all parts of the earth came to do him homage and receive laws at his hands, and his glory was like to the sun. Then Ahriman the Evil, when he saw how the Shah's honour was increased, waxed envious, and sought to usurp the diadem of the world. So he bade his son, a mighty Deev, gather together an army to go out against Kaiumers and his beloved son Saiamuk and destroy them utterly.
Now the Serosch, the angel who defendeth men from the snares of the Deevs, and who each night flieth seven times around the earth that he may watch over the children of Ormuzd, when he learned this, appeared like unto a Peri and warned Kaiumers. So when Saiamuk set forth at the head of his warriors to meet the army of Ahriman, he knew that he was contending against a Deev, and he put forth all his strength. But the Deev was mightier than he, and overcame him, and crushed him under his hands.
Kaiumers commanded Husheng, the son of Saiamuk, "Take the lead of the army, and march against the Deevs." And the King, by reason of his great age, went in the rear. Now there were in the host Peris; also tigers, lions, wolves, and other fierce creatures, and when the black Deev heard their roaring he trembled for very fear. Neither could he hold himself against them, and Husheng routed him utterly. Then when Kaiumers saw that his well-beloved son was revenged he laid him down to die, and the world was void of him, and Husheng reigned in his stead.
Now Husheng was a wise man and just, and the heavens revolved over his throne forty years. justice did he spread over the land, and the world was better for his reign. For he first gave to men fire, and showed them how to draw it from out the stone; and he taught them how they might lead the rivers, that they should water the land and make it fertile; and he bade them till and reap. And he divided the beasts and paired them and gave them names. And when he passed to a brighter life he left the world empty of a throne of power. But Tahumers, his son, was not unworthy of his sire. He too opened the eyes of men, and they learned to spin and to weave; and he reigned over the land long and mightily. But of him also were the Deevs right envious, and sought to destroy him. Yet Tahumers overcame them and cast them to earth. Then some craved mercy at his hands, and sware how they would show him an art if he would spare them, and Tahumers listened to their voice. And they taught him the art of writing, and thus from the evil Deevs came a boon upon mankind.
Howbeit when Tahumers had sat upon the golden throne for the space of thirty years he passed away, but his works endured; and Jemshid, his glorious son, whose heart was filled with the counsels of his father, came after him. Now Jemshid reigned over the land seven hundred years girt with might, and Deevs, birds, and Peris obeyed him. And the world was happier for his sake, and he too was glad, and death was unknown among men, neither did they wot of pain or sorrow.
Then it came about that the heart of Jemshid was uplifted in pride, and he forgot whence came his weal and the source of his blessings. He beheld only himself upon the earth, and he named himself God, and sent forth his image to be worshipped. But when he had spoken thus, the Mubids, which are astrologers and wise men, hung their heads in sorrow, and no man knew how he should answer the Shah. And God withdrew his hand from Jemshid, and the kings and the nobles rose up against him, and removed their warriors from his court, and Ahriman had power over the land.
Now there dwelt in the deserts of Arabia a king named Mirtas, generous and just, and he had a son, Zohak, whom he loved. And it came about that Ahriman visited the palace disguised as a noble, and tempted Zohak that he should depart from the paths of virtue. And he spake unto him and said - "If thou wilt listen to me, and enter into a covenant, I will raise thy head above the sun."
Now the young man was guileless and simple of heart, and he sware unto the Deev that he would obey him in all things. Then Ahriman bade him slay his father, "for this old man," he said, "cumbereth the ground, and while he liveth thou wilt remain unknown." When Zohak heard this he was filled with grief, and would have broken his oath, but Ahriman suffered him not, but made him set a trap for Mirtas. And Zohak and the evil Ahriman held their peace and Mirtas fell into the snare and was killed. Then Zohak placed the crown of Thasis upon his head, and Ahriman taught him the arts of magic, and he ruled over his people in good and evil, for he was not yet wholly given up to guile.
Then Ahriman imagined a device in his black heart. He took upon himself the form of a youth, and craved that he might serve the King as cook. And Zohak, who knew him not, received him well and granted his request, and the keys of the kitchen were given unto him. Now hitherto men had been nourished with herbs, but Ahriman prepared flesh for Zohak. New dishes did he put before him, and the royal favour was accorded to his savory meats. And the flesh gave the King courage and strength like to that of a lion, and he commanded that his cook should be brought before him and ask a boon at his hands. And the cook said - "If the King take pleasure in his servant, grant that he may kiss his shoulders."
Now Zohak, who feared no evil, granted the request, and Ahriman kissed him on his shoulders. And when he had done so, the ground opened beneath his feet and covered the cook, so that all men present were amazed thereat. But from his kiss sprang hissing serpents, venomous and black; and the King was afraid, and desired that they should be cut off from the root. But as often as the snakes were cut down did they grow again, and in vain the wise men and physicians cast about for a remedy. Then Ahriman came once again disguised as a learned man, and was led before Zohak, and he spake, saying - "This ill cannot be healed, neither can the serpents be uprooted. Prepare food for them, therefore, that they may be fed, and give unto them for nourishment the brains of men, for perchance this may destroy them."
But in his secret heart Ahriman desired that the world might thus be made desolate; and daily were the serpents fed, and the fear of the King was great in the land. The world withered in his thrall, the customs of good men were forgotten, and the desires of the wicked were accomplished.
Now it was spread abroad in Iran that in the land of Thasis there reigned a man who was mighty and terrible to his foes. Then the kings and nobles who had withdrawn from Jemshid because he had rebelled against God, turned to Zohak and besought him that he would be their ruler, and they proclaimed him Shah. And the armies of Arabia and Persia marched against Jemshid, and he fled before their face. For the space of twice fifty years no man knew whither he was gone, for he hid from the wrath of the Serpent-King. But in the fulness of time he could no longer escape the fury of Zohak, whose servants found him as he wandered on the sea-shore of Cathay, and they sawed him in twain, and sent tidings thereof to their lord. And thus perished the throne and power of Jemshid like unto the grass that withereth, because that he was grown proud, and would have lifted himself above his Maker.
So the beloved of Ahriman, Zohak the Serpent, sat upon the throne of Iran, the kingdom of Light. And he continued to pile evil upon evil till the measure thereof was full to overflowing, and all the land cried out against him. But Zohak and his councillors, the Deevs, shut ear unto this cry, and the Shah reigned thus for the space of a thousand years, and vice stalked in daylight, but virtue was hidden. And despair filled all hearts, for it was as though mankind must perish to still the appetite of those snakes sprung from Evil, for daily were two men slaughtered to satisfy their desire. Neither had Zohak mercy upon any man. And darkness was spread over the land because of his wickedness.
But Ormuzd saw it and was moved with compassion for his people, and he declared they should no longer suffer for the sin of Jemshid. And he caused a grandson to be born to Jemshid, and his parents called him Feridoun.
Now it befell that when he was born, Zohak dreamed he beheld a youth slender like to a cypress, and he came towards him bearing a cow-headed mace, and with it he struck Zohak to the ground. Then the tyrant awoke and trembled, and called for his Mubids, that they should interpret to him this dream. And they were troubled, for they foresaw danger, and he menaced them if they foretold him evil. And they were silent for fear three days, but on the fourth one who had courage spake and said - "There will arise one named Feridoun, who shall inherit thy throne and reverse thy fortunes, and strike thee down with a cow-headed mace."
When Zohak heard these words he swooned, and the Mubids fled before his wrath. But when he had recovered he bade the world be scoured for Feridoun. And henceforth Zohak was consumed for bitterness of spirit, and he knew neither rest nor joy.
Now it came about that the mother of Feridoun feared lest the Shah should destroy the child if he learned that he was sprung from Jemshid's race. So she hid him in the thick forest where dwelt the wondrous cow Purmaieh, whose hairs were like unto the plumes of a peacock for beauty. And she prayed the guardian of Purmaieh to have a care of her son, and for three years he was reared in the wood, and Purmaieh was his nurse. But when the time was accomplished the mother knew that news of Purmaieh had reached the ears of Zohak, and she feared he would find her son. Therefore she took him far into Ind, to a pious hermit who dwelt on the Mount Alberz. And she prayed the hermit to guard her boy, who was destined for mighty deeds. And the hermit granted her request. And it befell that while she sojourned with him Zohak had found the beauteous Purmaieh and learned of Feridoun, and when he heard that the boy was fled he was like unto a mad elephant in his fury. He slew the wondrous cow and all the living things round about, and made the forest a desert. Then he continued his search, but neither tidings nor sight could he get of Feridoun, and his heart was filled with anguish.
In this year Zohak caused his army to be strengthened, and he demanded of his people that they should certify that he had ever been to them a just and noble king. And they obeyed for very fear. But while they sware there arose without the doorway of the Shah the cry of one who demanded justice. And Zohak commanded that he should be brought in, and the man stood before the assembly of the nobles.
Then Zohak opened his mouth and said, "I charge thee give a name unto him who hath done thee wrong."
And the man, when he saw it was the Shah who questioned him, smote his head with his hands. But he answered and said - "I am Kawah, a blacksmith and a blameless man, and I sue for justice, and it is against thee, O King, that I cry out. Seventeen fair sons have I called mine, yet only one remaineth to me, for that his brethren were slain to still the hunger of thy serpents, and now they have taken from me this last child also. I pray thee spare him unto me, nor heap thy cruelties upon the land past bearing."
And the Shah feared Kawah's wrath, beholding that it was great, and he granted him the life of his son and sought to win him with soft words. Then he prayed him that he would also sign the testimony that Zohak was a just and noble king.
But Kawah cried, "Not so, thou wicked and ignoble man, ally of Deevs, I will not lend my hand unto this lie," and he seized the declaration and tore it into fragments and scattered them into the air. And when he had done so he strode forth from the palace, and all the nobles and people were astonished, so that none dared uplift a finger to restrain him. Then Kawah went to the market-place and related to the people all that which he had seen, and recalled to them the evil deeds of Zohak and the wrongs they had suffered at his hands. And he provoked them to shake off the yoke of Ahriman. And taking off the leathern apron wherewith blacksmiths cover their knees when they strike with the hammer, he raised it aloft upon the point of a lance and cried - "Be this our banner to march forth and seek out Feridoun and entreat him that he deliver us from out the hands of the Serpent-King." Then the people set up a shout of joy and gathered themselves round Kawah, and he led them out of the city bearing aloft his standard. And they marched thus for many days unto the palace of Feridoun.
Now these things came about in the land of Iran after twice eight years were passed over the head of Feridoun. And when that time was accomplished, he descended from the Mount Alberz and sought out his mother, questioning her of his lineage. And she told him how that he was sprung from the race of Jemshid, and also of Zohak and of his evil deeds.
Then said Feridoun, "I will uproot this monster from the earth, and his palace will I raze to the dust." But his mother spake, and said, "Not so, my son, let not thine youthful anger betray thee; for how canst thou stand against all the world?" Yet not long did she suffer the hard task to hinder him, for soon a mighty crowd came towards the palace led by one who bare an apron uplifted upon a lance. Then Feridoun knew that succour was come unto him. And when he had listened to Kawah, he came into the presence of his mother with the helmet of kings upon his head, and he said unto her - "Mother, I go to the wars, and it remaineth for thee to pray God for my safety."
Then he caused a mighty club to be made for him, and he traced the pattern thereof upon the ground, and the top thereof was the head of a cow, in memory of Purmaieh, his nurse. Then he cased the standard of Kawah in rich brocades of Roum, and hung jewels upon it. And when all was made ready, they set forth towards the West to seek out Zohak, for, they knew not that he was gone to Ind in search of Feridoun. Now when they were come to Bagdad, which is upon the banks of the Tigris, they halted, and Feridoun bade the guardians of the flood convey them across. But these refused, saying, the King bade that none should pass save only those who bore the royal seal. When Feridoun heard these words he was wroth, and he regarded not the rushing river nor the dangers hidden within its floods. He girded his loins and plunged with his steed into the waters, and all the army followed after him. Now they struggled sore with the rushing stream, and it seemed as though the waves would bear them down. But their brave horses overcame all dangers, and they stepped in safety upon the shore. Then they turned their faces towards the city which is now called Jerusalem, for here stood the glorious house that Zohak had builded. And when they had entered the city all the people rallied round Feridoun, for they hated Zohak and looked to Feridoun to deliver them. And he slew the Deevs that held the palace, and cast down the evil talisman that was graven upon the walls. Then he mounted the throne of the idolater and placed the crown of Iran upon his head, and all the people bowed down before him and called him Shah.
Now when Zohak returned from his search after Feridoun and learned that he was seated upon his throne, he encompassed the city with his host. But the army of Feridoun marched against him, and the desires of the people went with them. And all that day bricks fell from the walls and stones from the terraces, and it rained arrows and spears like to hail falling from a dark cloud, until Feridoun had overcome the might of Zohak. Then Feridoun raised his cow-headed mace to slay the Serpent-King. But the blessed Serosch swooped down, and cried - "Not so, strike not, for Zohak's hour is not yet come."
Then the Serosch bade the Shah bind the usurper and carry him far from the haunts of men, and there fasten him to a rock. And Feridoun did as he was bidden, and led forth Zohak to the Mount Demawend. And he bound him to the rock with mighty chains and nails driven into his hands, and left him to perish in agony. And the hot sun shone down upon the barren cliffs, and there was neither tree nor shrub to shelter him, and the chains entered into his flesh, and his tongue was consumed with thirst. Thus after a while the earth was delivered of Zohak the evil one, and Feridoun reigned in his stead.

http://classics.mit.edu/Ferdowsi/kings.1.shahsold.html

Zarathushtra's Place of Origin
All viewpoints on where or when Zarathustra was born are speculative. Some place his birth in western Iran and call him a Mede because of a late Iranian tradition linking him with Azerbaijan, and linguistic reasons based on the Avesta (which are discarded by scholars).
According to the Avesta (Yasna, 9, 17), Airyanem Vaejah, on the river Ditya, the old sacred country of the gods, was the home of Zoroaster, and the scene of his first appearance. There, on the river Darejya (Vend., 19. 4) stood the house of his father. The river Dhraja lay in Airan Vej (Bundahish 20, 32 and 24, 15), on its bank was the dwelling of his father, and that there Zoroaster was born. Airan Vej was situated in the direction of Atropatene (Bundahish 2, 12) [see map], and consequently Airyanem Vaejah or Iran-Veg is identified with the district of Arran on the river Aras (Araxes), close by the northwestern frontier of Media (border of Azerbaijan and Armenia today).
[In Oahspe Airyana-Vaja is the first best of places, so can not be a physical place.
(Highlighted names are explained below and some are referred to in Oahspe)]
Other traditions make him a native of ancient Ragha, outside the modern city of Ray (Rai) near Tehran, or belonging to the tribe of Magu. The supreme head of the Zoroastrian priesthood (zarathushtrotema) had his residence in Ragha at a later (Sassanian) time (Yasna, 59, 18).
Geographical boundaries of the Avesta are impossible to locate but are given an "Eastern Iranian" generalisation. These include all Afghanistan and some neighbouring regions. The "Eastern Iranian" language of the Gathas could cover the vast area stretching from the Hindu Cush mountain range to the southern reaches of Seistan/Sistan, Arachosia (modern Qandahar/Kandahar) and Drangiana (the area of the Helmand river and border regions of Iran) [see map]. The discovery of the 3rd century BC Hilmand civilisation uncovered a warrior aristocracy that ruled in an Aryan-like society of 3 classes - priests warriors and shepherds.

Oahspe tells us that Parsi'e, the land of Zarathustra, was in the midst of Jaffeth (China), Ham (Egypt) and Shem (Vindu).
[Parsua (Parsi'e in Oahspe) was later called Parsa "Persia" , hence Farsi, the native name for modern Persian.]
It would have stretched from Mesopotamia (Iraq), across the Zagros mountains into and Iran (Persia and Media), through Central Asia to China. The "city of the sun", Oas, the "centre of the world" could have been ancient Balkh. Paktra, named Bactria by classical writers, which came to be called Balkh after the conquests of Islam. It is a northern province of modern Afghanistan, which borders to the north the Oxus River and the former USSR. Bactria is now known as Afghan Turkistan. Balkh is also called Bakhdhi (the name in Oahspe for the third holy place in heaven). Legend says that Zarathustra appeared during the reign of Gushtaspa (Vishtaspa or Hystaspes) at Bactra/Bakhdi (Balkh) "the beautiful, of the high - streaming banner" [Balkh is near the city of Mazar- e Sharif and the silk road town of Konduz in the north, known in the news for the Taliban prisoner uprising].

Other legends name Balkh as the home of the three wise men. [see also Shambhala as Balkh]
The Mazzaroth says:
Hyde quotes from Abulfaragius, that Zeradusht (or Zoroaster) taught the Persians that in the latter times a virgin should bring forth a son, and that when he should be born, a star should appear, and should shine and be conspicuous in the midst of the figure of the virgin. It is then said that he commanded his disciples, the Magi, when they should see the star, that they should go forth where it directed them, and offer gifts to him that should be born.

Map showing Balkh in Bactria, Ragha (Rai) near Tehran (not shown) and Atropatene (below the Caucasus) [the river Oxus is labelled as Amu Darya]. Below Atropatene is Hamadan (the Ecbatana, or Achmetha of the Bible [Ezra 6:2] ), the ancient capital of the Medes. Note the areas of Persis/Fars/Pars? (the main region of Zoroastrians today), Merv (where the archaeologist Sarianidi is excavating the 7,000 year old ancient site of Margush) Herat, Sistan and Drangiana where the Helmand civilisation was found. The rivers Hari-rud, Helmand, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus (in blue), and places like Syria, Georgia, Egypt, Ispahan/Esfahan Sakastan/Sikistan/Sigistan/Sistan are mentioned in the Greater Bundahishn. Turan is where Turanians come from I suppose.

[Bactria was also the location of the temple of Anahita (an Avestan Goddess). It was so rich that it attracted Syrian kings to plunder it. Anaitis was a Scythian goddess, but she is identified also as Assyrian Mylitta, the Arabian Alytta and the Greek Venus Urania. In Armenia girls prostituted themselves in her name (maybe after she was assimilated as Ishtar by the Babylonians). Artaxerxes Mnemon, one of the rulers of Achaemenid dynasty was among her devotees.]

Map showing Atropatene (below Media). Albania is north of Greece today.)

The Avestan texts don't mention West Iran, Median or Persian regions, areas or places, nor do Archemenid inscriptions ever mention Zarathustra. Greek sources (~350 BC.) show that by their time Zarathustra was already a mythical figure. Therefore he could not have belonged to a period contemporary with or close to the Archemenids (559 BC).
The hypothesis that Zarathustra came from NE Iran in Chorasmia (Khorezm) or the regions near Merv and Herat at the eve of the establishment of Cyru Atropatene was the name of Iranian Azerbaijan frs II's empire (550-530 BC) is not plausible since the absence of Medes or Persians in the Avesta confirms that Zarathustra was earlier than the Archemenids of the 6th century and Medes of the 9th century BC.
Zarathustra's name is not mentioned by Herodotus (480-425 BC) who seems unaware of him in his sketch of the Mado-Persian religion. It occurs for the first time in a fragment of Xanthus of Lydia, and in the Alcibiades of Plato (~347 BC), who calls him the son of Oromazdes. Hermodorus and Hermippus of Smyrna place him 5000 years before the Trojan war.
Eratosthenes (c275-194), head of the great library of Alexandria some decades after Manetho studied the works of Homer, Manetho, and other early Greek historians, and derived a date for the Trojan War of c1193-1183. This he did by identifying 17 Spartan kings who reigned in succession from the return of the Heraclidae to Thermopylae. He then assumed that three generations lasted 100 or 120 years, and arrived at a total of 622 years for their combined reigns. This early date was strongly disputed at the time by others, including some Greek ruling families who could trace their genealogies back to ancestors who had fought at Troy. They said this date was over 300 years too early, and that the war had ended not more than three generations before the start of the first Olympic Games in 776. Pausanias reports that the argument was partially settled by allowing both views to co-exist, with the Olympic Games first starting in 12C, then starting again in 8C after a lapse of some 400 years. Today the genealogical evidence from several Greek rulers is again ignored, and the CC has embraced Eratosthenes' early 12C date for Troy. His use of those ridiculously long average reign lengths is conveniently ignored.

[History estimates the date of the Trojan war at 1200 BC. This would mean Zarathustra was 6,200 BC. The time when Zarathustra lived is about 7,000 BC. in Oahspe. If the Trojan War was part of the wars in Parsie as a result of Baal and Astharoth under Osiris, its date is about 1870 BC. That would give a date for Zarathustra at about 6,870 BC.]
Xanthus places him 6000 years before Xerxes (~484 BC) [6000 years before Xerxes is 6484 BC.]
Eudoxus of Cnidus and Aristotle (384-322 BC) place him 6000 years before the death of Plato (~347 BC), and Aristotle was not one to make a statement without a good reason for it. Agathias remarks it is no longer possible to determine with any certainty when he lived and legislated and adds, "The Persians say Zoroaster lived under Hystaspes, but do not make it clear whether by this name they mean the father of Darius or another Hystaspes. He was their teacher and instructor in the Magian religion, modified their former religious customs, and introduced a variegated and composite belief. Bunsen . . . finds that Zarathustra Spitama lived under the King Vistaspa about 3,000 years B.C., and describes him as 'one of the mightiest intellects and one of the greatest men of all time."

According to Zoroastrian tradition (or a Greek source?), he flourished 258 years before Alexander and was 40 years old when this event occurred, thus indicating that his birth date was 628 BC.

In "History of Zoroastrianism" M. N. Dhalla, High Priest of the Parsis, Karachi, India, 1938 writes:
Zarathustra received his prophetic calling in about his thirtieth year. He went into the forest where the earth and waters, birds and beasts, sun and moon, stars and planets became Zarathushtra's teachers, and read lessons written by the hand of the maker in every pebble, leaf, dewdrop and sunbeam, in every star and planet. Here he plunged into a reverie and communed with his inner self. Mind alone can understand and realise the supreme mind. Vohu Manah, who "impersonates" the divine mind, came to Zarathustra, who conceived Him as holy.
God called upon Zarathustra to proclaim His "Manthra" to humanity. He was The "Manthran" - the harbinger of God's thought-provoking message [Manthra corresponds to the Vedic word "Mantra" and means "the prophetic word of great moral significance". Mantra later became synonymous with 'spells of magical charms']. He speaks of his faith in terms of a universal religion.

King Vishtaspa
He won as a convert King Vishtaspa, who may have lived in eastern Iran or Bactria, and became the court prophet (in the Hebrew sense of a prophet ie. giving a revolutionary message of religious purity and social justice, speaking out against corrupt priests and potentates).

From Vendidad 17. Ashi Yasht
We sacrifice to Ashi Vanguhi, who is shining, high .... and powerful.
49. To her did the tall Kavi Vishtaspa offer up a sacrifice behind the waters of the river Daitya.

YASNA 53 Verse 2
"O Zarathushtra, what righteous man is thy friend for the great covenant? It is the Kava Vishtaspa at the consummation." "Then let them seek the pleasure of Mazda with thoughts, words, and actions, unto him praise gladly, and seek his worship, even Kava Vishtaspa, and Zarathushtra's son, the Spitamid, with Frashaoshtra, making straight the paths for the Religion of the future Deliverer which Ahura ordained."

The Zoroastrians translate the same verse thus:
So, let all strive with thought, word and deed to satisfy Mazda. Let each one choose to perform good deeds as his worship. Kavi Vishtaspa, the faithful devotee of Zoroaster together with Maidyo-Mah and Frashaoshtra are treading the path of Truth and have chosen the Faith inspired and revealed by the Saoshyant, or the Saviour of Mankind, taught by Ahura.

Among the grandees of the court of Vishtaspa mention is made of two brothers, Frashaoshtra and Jamaspa to whom Zoroaster was closely related. In legends Zarathustra had three wives of whom the last was Hvovi, the daughter of Frashaoshtra. The husband of his daughter, Pourucista, was Jamaspa. The role of intermediary was played by the pious queen Hutaosa. His, first disciple, Maidhyoimaongha, was his cousin.
Zarathustra is said to have had six children, but they may be only symbolic of the Amesha Spentas. The last Gatha is composed for the marriage of Zarathushtra's daughter Pouruchista (Full of Wisdom [as is the Gnostic Sophia]).

From YASNA 53 - The Vahishtoishti Gatha
1. (Zarathushtra) - The best possession known is of Zarathushtra Spitama, which is that Mazda Ahura will give him through Right the glories of blessed life unto all time, and likewise to them that practice and learn the words and actions of his Good Religion. 2. Then let them seek the pleasure of Mazda with thoughts, words, and actions, unto him praise gladly, and seek his worship, even Kava Vishtaspa, and Zarathushtra's son, the Spitamid, with Frashaoshtra, making straight the paths for the Religion of the future Deliverer which Ahura ordained. 3. Him, O Pouruchista, thou scion of Haechataspa and Spitama, youngest of Zarathushtra's daughters, hath (Zarathushtra) appointed as one to enjoin on them the fellowship with Good Thought, Right, and Mazda. So take counsel with thine own understanding, with good insight practice the holiest works of Piety. 4. (Jamaspa): Earnestly will I lead her to the Faith, that she may serve her father and her husband, the farmers and the nobles, as a righteous woman (serving) the righteous. The glorious heritage of Good Thought ... shall Mazda Ahura give to her for all time. 5. (Zarathushtra): Teachings address I to maidens marrying, and to you (bridegrooms) giving counsel. Lay them to heart and learn to get them within your Selves in earnest attention to the Life of Good Thought. Let each of you strive to excel the other in the Right, for it will be a prize for that one.

Vishtaspa stands at the meeting point between the Old World and the new era which begins with Zoroaster.
[Oahspe does not record such a change. Rather the Gathas seem to be part of the "old Aryan" or Haptan religion which was corrupt by this time. Iranians held the fire sacred and stopped burning their dead, exposing the dead to vultures instead. Dogs were held sacred and people were punished severely for harming them].
He is a historical figure in the Gathas and the prophet is indebted to him for his success. In Yasna, 53, 2. he is spoken of as a pioneer of the doctrine revealed by Ormazd. In the relation between Zoroaster and Vishtaspa lies the germ of the state church which afterwards became subservient to the interests of the dynasty and sought its protection.
Zarathushtra's death is nowhere mentioned in the Avesta; in the Shah-Na'ma he is said to have been murdered at the altar by the Turanians in the storming of Balkh. But there is no holiday commemorating the martyrdom of the Prophet, and scholars say that Zarathustra died peacefully.

Such a story about Zarathustra and King Vishtaspa does not occur in Oahspe. Rather it says:
"The Lords and Gods of the lower heavens were awarded by Mithra petty kingdoms in atmospherea belonging to Vind'yu. Usually, each mortal city was allotted to the keeping of one of these spirit Saviours, Lords or Gods who professed to give the revelations of Zarathustra, who had ceased in men's eyes to be a man, but a principle of Truth descended from Ahura'Mazda, Creator.

Oahspe gives us two possible origins for King Vishtaspa.
In Saphah (referring to the Haptan period, possibly 4,000 BC, long before 1500 BC, an early estimate of Zarathustra's time.) Kava-viscacpa is given as a council or and friend of Zarathustra, a high, Holy Lord and Giver of Truth.
Of course the man Zarathustra was not alive in Haptan times and so this is meant to be in keeping with Mithraic inspiration.
In Book of Wars Ch. XXXV it says:
After Sudga founded in his new heavenly place (after ~3000 BC) he set out to make himself ruler of heaven, with T-loyovogna, who had a small kingdom in the Valley of Hachchisatij, in Vind'yu, king of all the earth. T-loyovogna captured the city of Abtuib, ruled over by Azhis and appointed Vistaqpa to be governor, with right to bequeath it to his son after him.

M.N. Dhalla claims:
The second Iranian dynasty is known as the Kavi or Kianian [Kayanian].
[He must have been referring to a mythical dynasty]
Its renowned kings who [supposedly] lived before the coming of Zarathustra were Kavi Kavata, Kavi Usa, and Kavi Haosrava. Vishtaspa retains this title and Zarathushtra speaks of him as Kavi Vishtaspa. Vishtaspa is the last king who shares this epithet with his royal predecessors.
It is said Zarathushtra began his prophetic propaganda in the west of Iran and later in the extreme east. Bactria, which was the meeting place of travellers and merchants from distant lands, was the seat of the Kavi kings. The king, says Zarathushtra, has attained the knowledge of the sacred lore. Vishtaspa, Frashaoshtra, and others who have now turned Zoroastrian, invoke and adore Ahura Mazda and tread the straight paths of the Saviour ordained by him. The Turanian chieftain Fryana came over to the new faith and Zarathushtra immortalises his clan in his holy hymns.

From Book of Saphah
Franrava, God of the Turanians, the opposers of Faithists. He who inspired the Turanians to war and to deeds of cruelty.
Oan (Panic). Persons who have risen in intelligence, but not in Es. One who believes man is the highest of all things in the world. One who believes there is no person or thing of personality but man. Ho'an, that that leads to Ugh'sa, particularly lust. The impulse of the flesh they called the highest, M'oa (Gau). They fell from industry and decency, saying: We shall have no forms nor rites, being free. And they became the prey of spirits of idleness and lust, who feast on sinful mortals. Yo'anyi said: If I love meat I will eat meat; if I love strong drink I will have strong drink; if I love sexual indulgence then will I have sexual indulgence. Who can restrain me? Are not my desires well created? I should not deny them? (Vede.) And the druks came upon the Yo'anyi, for their philosophy had divided them amongst themselves, one against another, and their progeny became Tur'anyi (Turanian).

From Oahspe
God wrote in the sand the word Te-In, and it was as if a flame of fire pierced the ground.
Po said: From this time forth Te-In shall be the name of the tribes who have faith in the Creator only.
And the names Dyaus became paramount to all other Gods in Vind'yu and eastern Parsi'e; and the name Te-In, in Jaffeth (China), and the name Lord God, in Arabin'ya (Egypt). Te-In made Kan Kwan mortal king of Jaffeth, with the title, King of the World, and Sun, and Moon, and Stars! Te-in said to Kan Kwan when the earth is subdued unto himself the king shall show unto the people that there is but one High Ruler in heaven, whether he be called Ho-Joss or Joss, or Po-tein, or Te-in, and that I am the Person. But in no case shall the king suffer the worshippers of the Great Spirit to remain alive upon the earth.

Other Sources
Ti'an is the Chinese word for the supreme power that creates and operates everything in the universe
Chao Dynasty, 1121-255 BC, notable, the rulers were Hsiung-nu and Tung-i, Northern "barbarians" (Turanians) who defeated the Shang. They enforced their exogamic rules and clan/moiety set ups while the Chinese word for "bride" became the word for "enemy" and the Chinese began to treat women very badly. The name for Sky God, "Shang-ti," became "Ti'en" similar to "Tengri" (Turanian word) and the Chou Emperors spoke the language of the other Northern Turanians (which is wholly unrelated to Chinese).
[In the light of this, one wonders why, in contemporary Chines history, the Rites of Zhou/Chou are so important to Confucius. There is a possibility that his life has been misrepresented somewhere along the line. (The biographies of both Confucius and Laozi mention Confucius visiting the Zhou capital to meet Laozi the Zhou Kingdom's archivist, to get access to the documents, with Confucius expressing admiration for Laozi who gave the sage advice about prudent conduct and about traditional rituals.)]
In ancient Persia, the Turanians (called "Turia") were the ancient enemies of the Aryas (Aryans, Persians). Considering that previously, in India, these Turanians were called Chandravansa and known as NAGA, Serpents, it comes out that the Aryans believed that the "Serpents" cursed them.

The Vedic hymns use the word kavi in the sense of a sage, seers and Soma priests. The Karapan, belong to the class of the Kavi. Kavis and Karapans or seeingly blind and hearingly deaf are likened to Pharisees and Scribes of the Bible

From the Yasna:
"By their dominion the Karapans and the Kavis accustomed mankind to evil actions"

From The Bundahishn (Creation), or Knowledge from the Zand (Zend)
The Bundahishn forms one part of the "Zand-akasih," ["knowledge of the commentary (Zend)"]. It has been preserved in two recensions, known respectively as the Indian and the Greater or Iranian Bundahishn. The latter is the more complete and contains much matter that is unknown to the Indian recension. The text may have been prepared from a Pahlavi translation and commentary of some Avesta work, such as the Damdat Nask [Nask means great scripture or ancient canon. The twenty-one Nasks correspond to the Vedangas of Hinduism, dealing with all kinds of Sciences, viz., medicine, astronomy, agriculture, botany, etc.] which is not extant now.
The first translation of Bundahishn in Gujarati language was published in 1819. In 1880 Dr. E. W. West published his first English complete translation of the Bundahishn in the Sacred Books of the East Series.
The Bundahishn is the "Genesis" of Iranian literature and has three main themes:
1) The creation of Ohrmazd and the Counter creation of the Evil Spirit (Gannak Menok)
2) The nature of the earthly Creatures.
3) The Kayan dominion, their lineage and abodes, and the vicissitudes befalling their realm of Eranshahr/Iranshahr [meaning Iranian Empire. The name Iran and Aryan race comes from the "first of places and best created", Eranvej (Iran Vej) or Aryan Vaeja (Airyanem Vaejah), the Airyana Vaeja of Oahspe]
Kayanians (Kavi) and heroes were supposedly created in Khvaniras, the best of seven lands that arose after a flood. The evil spirit also produced most from Khvaniras on account of the superiority which he saw in it. The good religion of the Mazdayasnians was created in Khvaniras and afterwards conveyed to the other regions. Soshyans, who makes the evil spirit impotent and causes the resurrection and future existence, is born in Khvaniras. [see below]

From The Zand-i Vohuman Yasht
25. By Kavad was Kay Apiveh begotten; by Kay Apiveh were Kay Arsh, Kay Vyarsh, Kay Pisan, and Kay Kaus begotten; by Kay Kaus was Siyavakhsh begotten; by Siyavakhsh was Kay Khosraw begotten.
28. Lohrasp was son of Auzav, son of Manush, son of Kay Pisin, son of Kay Apiveh, son of Kay Kobad.
29. By Kay Lohrasp were Vishtasp, Zarir, and other brothers begotten; by Vishtasp were Spend-dad and Peshotan begotten; and by Spend-dad were Vohuman, Ataro-tarsah, Mitro-tarsah, and others begotten.

In Saphah
Hiac-kaus is Lord of the Seal of Heaven who bestowed the power of Ahura'Mazda on mortals, enabling the prayers of the living to redeem from torments the spirits of their forefathers.

The Frawardin Yasht
132. We worship the Fravashi of the holy king Kavata/Kavi Kavata/Kavad;
We worship the Fravashi of the holy king Aipivanghu/Kay Apiveh;
We worship the Fravashi of the holy king Usadhan/Kavi Usa;
We worship the Fravashi of the holy Arshan/Kay Arsh;
We worship the Fravashi of the holy Pisanah/Kay Pisan;
We worship the Fravashi of the holy king Byarshan;
We worship the Fravashi of the holy king Syavarshan/Siyavakhsh;
We worship the Fravashi of the holy king Husravah/Kavi Haosrava;

None of these kings play a part in known history (including the Median and Archemenid, Parthian and Sassanian empires)

[Another writer says:
Sovereignty over Iran, in every age, was restricted to a single family. Iranian history was perceived as the eras of these ruling families. These are:
The rule of Gayomard (Avestan: Gayo Maretan) idealised as "mortal life," the prototype of humanity, and the beginning of the human race
The Pishdadian dynasty and the rise of civilisation
The Kayanian era, which included the Achaemenian dynasty, Arsacids and Sasanian royal family.]

Cyrus the Great

Encyclopedias say:
Hystaspes or Hystaspis, Old Persian Vishtaspa, 6th cent. B.C., ruler of ancient Persia, father of Darius I. Under him Darius was governor of Parthia. The legendary patron of Zoroaster is also called Hystaspes or Vishtaspa; he may or may not be the same as Darius' father.

From the Behishtan Inscriptions Of Darius
(Trilingual inscription on face of a gorge beneath a panel of sculptures)
[note the words Vishtâspahyâ (Hystaspes), manâ (as in Vohumanu and speech) Haxâmanishiya (Achaemenian), and pitâ (father), an indo Aryan word, as in Jupiter (Father Ju or Zeus). Note also the similarity to Sanskrit. The word xshâyatha is similar to the Sanskrit Kshatriya, or men of the ruling and fighting class and the Amesha Spenta of desirable dominion, Khshathra Vairya.

I am Darius the Great King [Adam Dârayavaush xshâyathiya vazraka],
King of Kings, [xshâyatha xshâyathiyânâm]
King in Persia, [xshâyathiya Pârsaiy]
King of countries [xshâyathiya dahyûnâm]
son of Hystaspes [Vishtâspahyâ puça],
grandson of Arsames [Arshâmahyâ napâ],
an Achaemenian [Haxâmanishiya thâtiy].
Darius the King says [Dârayavaush xshâyathiya manâ]
My father was Hystaspes [pitâ Vishtâspa]
Hystaspes' father was Arsames [Vishtâspahyâ pitâ Arshâma]
Arsames' father was Ariaramnes [Arshâmahyâ pitâ Ariyâramna]
Ariaramnes' father was Teispes [Ariyâramnahyâ pitâ Cishpish]
Teispes' father was Achaemenes [Cishpâish pitâ Haxâmanish thâtiy].
Darius the King says [Dârayavaush xshâthiya]
For this reason we are called Achaemenians. [Avahyarâ diy vayam Haxâmanishiyâ]
From long ago we have been noble. [tha hy âma hy hacâ paruviyata
From long ago our family had been kings. [âmâtâ ama hy hacâ paruviyata hyâ amâxam taumâ xshâyathiyâ âha]
Darius the King says there were 8 of our family [thâtiy Dârayavaush xshâyathiya VIII manâ taumâyâ tyaiy paruvam who were kings before me [xshâyathiyâ âha]
I am the ninth [Adam navama]
9 in succession we have been kings [IX duvitâparanam vavam xshâyathiyâ amahy thâtiy]

Darius the King says By the favour of Ahuramazda [Dârayavaush xshâyathiya vashnâ Auramazd âha]
I am King [Adam xshâyathiya amiy]
Ahuramazda bestowed the kingdom upon me [Auzamazdâ xshaçam manâ frâbara thâtiy]
Darius the King says [Dârayavaush xshâyathiya imâ]
These are the countries which came to me [dahyâva tyâ manâ patiyâisha]
by the favour of Ahuramazda [vashn Auramazdâha]
I was king of them [adamshâm xshâyathiya âham]
Persia [Pârsa], Elam [Ûvja], Babylonia [Bâbirush], Assyria [Athurâ], Arabia [Arabâya], Egypt [Mudrâya], (those) who are beside the sea [tyaiy drayahyâ], Sardis [Sparda], Ionia [Yauna], Media [Mâda], Armenia [Armina], Cappadocia [Katpatuka], Parthia [Parthava], Drangiana [Zraka], Aria [Haraiva], Chorasmia [Uvârazmîy], Bactria [Bâxtrish], Sogdiana [Suguda], Gandara [Gadâra], Scythia [Saka], Sattagydia [Thatagush], Arachosia [Harauvatish], Maka [Maka] in all, 23 provinces [fraharavam dahyâva XXIII]

From "Old Persian Texts"

Darius writes of himself (in his inscriptions) as if fighting in an endless apocalypse against "followers of the Lie (angra-mainyus) " favoured by Ahura Mazda. Indeed with his successor Xerxes the world came closest it has ever been to an apocalypse. The above inscription goes on to talk of various pretenders:

Darius I - Darius the Great (521-486 BC)

One might think Darius too was himself a similar usurper. Darius does not come from the lineage of Cyrus, but names himself son of Vishtaspa (a mythical king). Xerxes I his son claims his mother to be Atossa (which is the same name as Hutaosa, Queen of Vishtaspa).
It would be possible that Xerxes I was the son of Atossa (daughter of Cyrus II), but then how could Darius be son of Vishtaspa? Then the daughter of Cyrus the Great, queen of Hystaspes/Vishtaspa, whose son was Darius I, would also be mother of Xerxes I, her own son's son. I doubt whether she would have had a child to her own son.
Darius I was the first to speak of Achaemenes, who he claimed was an ancestor of Cyrus the Great and therefore the progenitor of the entire line of Achaemenid rulers. However, some scholars hold that Achaemenes was a fictional character used to legitimize Darius' rule, and that Darius I usurped the Persian throne.
According to Herodotus, the native leadership debated the best form of government for the Empire. It was decided that oligarchy would divide them against one another, and democracy would bring about mob rule resulting in a charismatic leader resuming the monarchy. They decided a new monarch was in order, particularly since 'they' were in a position to choose him. Darius I was chosen monarch from amongst the leaders. He was cousin to Cambyses II and Smerdis, claiming Ariaramnes as his ancestor.
I would think that the historical Atossa and the mythical Hutaosa, Queen of Vishtaspa are not the same. The website below thinks otherwise.

..... Cyrus + Cassandane ........ Vishtaspa + Hutaosa
............ \ .......... / ...........................\ ......... /
.. Cambyses + Atossa ------ + ----- Darius I
.............................. \ ......................../
........................................ Xerxes

How Ashtaroth possibly recouped power over the eastern nations from Looeamong
Atossa's name has been intertwined with that of Anahita. Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus the Great, wife of Cambyses and Darius and mother of Xerxes witnessed the reign of the four first Achamenian kings. The first mythological-historical personality encountered with the same name, namely Hutossa or Hutos, is the wife (or according to some sources) the daughter of Garshasb (Vishtaspa), a Kiyani ruler.
In Iran's pre-Islamic era, marriage to close relatives, including daughters and sisters, was a common practice with the simple reason to keep up the blood and relation in the monarchial and aristocratic family. The mythological Hutossa Kiyani and the historical Achamenian Atossa might have been the first cases of getting married to their kin. Hutossa/Hutaosa (as mentioned in Avesta), was married to Goshtasb/Vishtaspa and gave birth to several babies. She was the first political figure to be converted to Zoroastrianism by Zoroaster. She called on Goshtasb to convert. Since then the Zoroastrian belief was officially accepted. Persian girls were called by the name Atossa as a sign of respect for her. The sister and wife of Ardeshir II and the wife of Ardeshir III were called Atossa. She was the second female personality (after Anahita) who was titled a "Lady" (a religious title). Since then such a title was gradually granted to some queens.
Atossa's mother, the Cassandane Queen, Pharnaspes's daughter and a Persian lady of noble birth was the favorite wife of Cyrus the Great. Cyrus's son and heir, Cambyses (522-525 BC) took reign concurrent to getting married to his sister Atossa. According to Herodotus, the Greek historian, before then marriage to the kin (sisters) was not practiced among the Persians. Nonetheless, owing to his falling deeply in love with his sister, Cambyses gathered all the Persian judges and made them to give such a marriage a legitimate and legal aspect, which authorized him to do so for the first time.
Darius, despite having a wife and numerous children, got married to Atossa. Given that Darius came from an origin of Achamenian dynasty which was not entitled to rule, he decided to get married to the daughter of Cyrus the Great and Cambyses' sister and wife in order to legitimize his rule. It is said that Atossa was an ambitious, power-seeking woman. As the spouse of Darius she could gain political and social status. That's how Atossa became "The Ladies Lady" at the climax of the Achamenian power and glory.
According to Herodotus, "Atossa was of great authority, and during the Greek war initially recommended by her, Darius made use of her advice. She was even interested in accompanying her husband in the process of war." Herodotus quoting Atossa says "It seems so strange that despite all your might and power you are sitting still without embarking on any war, conquering any land and enlarging Iran's territory and increasing its glory. A young monarch as rich as yourself deserves to embark on making some achievements and prove to the Iranians that a great man is ruling over them".
Four sons were born to Darius and Atossa, among whom the oldest was named Xerxes.
Xerxes was not the oldest son (since Darius had another wife before getting married to Atossa) and according to custom, a monarch had to be replaced by his first son, so arguments took place between them. Xerxes claimed that his mother was the "Savior of Persian Tribe". Eventually, the 35-year-old Xerxes was appointed as the crown prince, while the unprecedented measure reflected the high authority of "The Ladies Lady". That's how Xerxes, the grandson of Cyrus the Great took reign after his father (486-465 BC), while Darius' older son from his other wife was the best candidate deserving to replace his father and had already been trained for it.
Seems like Atossa didn't find Xerxes' war with Greece reasonable and she was apparently one of the opponents of entering into such a conflict. She had been quite upset while the monarch was on his way to Greece. Once she heard about the defeat of her son, she got really disturbed and exasperated. She had realized that there is no consequence to the war.

http://www.iranchamber.com/history/atossa/atossa.php

Another writer confuses it more:
In the time of the elder Cyrus, or Khai-Khosru the Persian conqueror of Media, the State system was the Median Magism of the first Zaradust of Bactria. This Cyrus was the father of Cyaxarus or Ahashuerus, of Cambyses, and of Bardes. Cyaxarus on his father's death succeeded to the moiety of East Persia, and married Esther, or Atossa, so named after Ishter, the goddess who descended into Hades. Cambyses (Lohrasp) was a half brother by the daughter of Astyages (Afrasaib) king of Media, and inherited the other moiety; he conquered Egypt about 520 B.C., and having first slain his brother Bardes (Bardiya/Smerdis/Guatama the Magian), and then destroyed Cyaxarus, married his widow Atossa, and so again united Media and Persia.
His son Cyrus II. favoured the Magi and liberated the Jews; he conquered Babylon 518 B.C., and died without issue 506 B.C. The way was thus paved for Darius Hystaspes, or the son of Gustasp, of the Achaemenion or Royal race of Persia, had been Viceroy of Egypt 520 B.C., and who, on the death of the crazy Cambyses 518 B.C., would seem to have married his widow, in which case she would have been the wife of three kings; and the pretensions of Darius might thus originate, as he was not, by birth, entitled to the throne. There is a legend which says that seven princes entered into a confederacy, and agreed, on their journey, that whosoever's horse first neighed, at sight of the rising sun, should be King, and the lot fell to Darius. This prince was everywhere successful, but the contest ended in the destruction of the Magi, whose growing power had long been offensive to the Persian Mazdeans. The destruction of the Magi was commemorated by a festival termed the Magaphonia.

The Achaemenid royal geneaology

Behishtan Inscriptions

Darius I describes himself as an Archaemenid Parsa, an Arya of Aryan (Iranian) descent.

From the Naqsh-I-Rustam inscription of Darius
(on south face of steep ridge north of Persepolis)
A great god [baga vazraka]
is Ahuramazda [Auramazdâ]
who created this earth [hya âm bumâm adâ]
who created yonder sky [hya avam asm, ânam adâ]
who created man [hya martiyam adâ]
who created happiness for man [hya shiyâtim adâ martiyahyâ]
who made Darius king, [hya Dârayavaum xshâyathiyam]
one king of many, [akunaush aivam parûvnâm xshâyath]
one lord of many [iyam aivam parûvnâm framâtâ ram]

I am Darius the Great King, [adam Dârayavaush xshâyathiya va zraka]
King of Kings, [xshâyathiya xshâyathiyânâm ]
King of countries containing all kinds of men, [xshâyathiya dahyûnâm vispazanâ nâm]
King in this great earth far and wide, [xshâyathiya ahyâyâ bûmi yâ vazrakâyâ dûraiapiy]
son of Hystaspes, [ Vishtâspahyâ puça]
an Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian [Haxâmanishiya Pârsa Pârsahyâ puça]
an Aryan, having Aryan lineage. [Ariya Ariya ciça]
Darius the King says [thâtiy Dârayavaush xshâyathiya]
By the favor of Ahuramazda [vashnâ Auramazdâhâ]
these are the countries [imâ dahyâva tyâ]
which I seized outside of Persia [adam agarbâyam apataram hacâ Pârsâ]
I ruled over them [adamshâm patiyaxshayaiy]
what was said to them by me, [manâ bâjim abara ha]
that they did; my law -- [tvashâm hacâma]
that held them firm; [athahya ava akunava dâtam]
they bore tribute to me [tya manâ avadish adâraiya]
Media [Mâda], Elam [Ûvja], Parthia [Parthava], Aria [Haraiva], Bactria [Bâxtrish], Sogdiana [Suguda (this is like the name of the false god Sudga)], Chorasmia [Uvârazmish], Drangiana [Zraka], Arachosia [Harauvatish], Sattagydia [Thatagush], Gandara [Gadâra], Sind [Hidush], Amyrgian Scythians [Sakâ], Scythians with pointed caps [tigraxaudâ], Babylonia [Bâbirush],, Assyria [Athurâ], Arabia [Arabâya], Egypt [Mudrâya], Armenia [Armina], Cappadocia [Katpatuka], Sardis [Sparda], Ionia [Yauna], Scythians who are across the sea [Sakâ tyaiy paradraya], Skudra, petasos-wearing Ionians [Skudra Yaunâ takabarâ], Libyans [Putâyâ], Ethiopians [Kûshiyâ], men of Maka [Maciyâ], Carians [Karkâ].
Darius the King says [thâtiy Dârayavaush xshâyathiya]
Ahuramazda, when he saw this earth in commotion, [Auramazdâ yathâ avaina imâm bûmim yaudatim]
thereafter bestowed it upon me, [pasâvadim manâ frâbara mâm]
made me king; [xshâyathiyam akunaush]
I am king. [adam xshâyathiya amiy]
By the favor of Ahuramazda [vashnâ Auramazdâhâ]
I put it down in its place; [adamshim gâthavâ niyashâdayam]

The Daiva Inscriptions Of Xerxes At Persepolis
Trilingual, on stone tablets.
Xerxes [Xshayârshâm] the King [xshâyathiyam] says:
……. And among these countries there was (a place) where previously false gods (Daevas) were worshipped.
Afterwards, I destroyed that sanctuary of the demons [âha yadâtya paruvam daivâ ayadiya pasâva]
and I made proclamation, "The demons shall not be worshipped!" [adam avam daivadânam viyakanam]
Where previously the demons were worshipped, [utâ patiyazbayam daivâmâ yadiyaisha yadâyâ paruvam daivâ ayadiya]
there I worshipped Ahuramazda and Arta (Asha) reverently [avadâ adam : Auramazdâm : ayada âtya paruvam]

By 620 the Babylonians had grown tired of Assyrian rule and were weary of internal struggle and were easily persuaded to submit to the order of the Chaldean kings. In about 630 BC Nabopolassar became king of the Chaldeans. In 626 he forced the Assyrians out of Uruk and crowned himself king of Babylonia.
Cyaxares/Hvakhshathra/Kayxosrew (625 - 585 BC) the most capable king of Media reorganized and modernized the Median Army, then joined with King Nabopolassar of Babylon. This alliance was formalized through the marriage of Cyaxares daughter, Amytis with Nabopolassar's son, Nebuchadnezzar II. These allies overthrew the Assyrian Empire and destroyed Nineveh and Nimrud [probably Ashtaroth's dominion] in 612 BC and split the Assyrian empire (Mesopotamia to Babylon and Elam to Media) while Egypt recovered control of Palestine and Syria. After this victory, the Medes conquered Northern Mesopotamia, Armenia and the parts of Asia Minor east of the Halys River, which was the border established with Lydia.

Nabopolassar fought against the Assyrian king Ashur-uballit II and then against Egypt, his successes alternating with misfortunes. In 605 he died in Babylon while Nebuchadrezzar/Nebuchadnezzar was with his army in Syria; he had just crushed the Egyptians near Carchemish. In 601 he tried to push forward into Egypt but was forced to pull back. He attacked Palestine at the end of 598. King Jehoiakim of Judah had rebelled, counting on help from Egypt. Jerusalem was taken on March 16, 597. Jehoiakim had died during the siege, and his son, King Johoiachin, together with at least 3,000 Jews, was led into exile in Babylonia where they were treated well. Zedekiah was appointed the new king.
According to the Old Testament, Judah rebelled again in 589, and Jerusalem was placed under siege. The city fell in 587/586 and was completely destroyed. Many thousands of Jews were forced into "Babylonian exile," and their country was reduced to a province of the Babylonian empire. The revolt had been caused by an Egyptian invasion. In 568/567 he attacked Egypt, again without much success, but from that time on the Egyptians refrained from further attacks on Palestine. Nebuchadrezzar lived at peace with Media throughout his reign and acted as a mediator after the Median-Lydian war of 590-585.
Awil-Marduk (called Evil-Merodach in the Old Testament; 561-560), the son of Nebuchadrezzar, was unable to win the support of the priests of Marduk [probably Bel (Enlil) or Baal]. His reign did not last long and was soon eliminated. His successor was Neriglissar 559-556.
The next king was the Aramaean Nabonidus (556-539). His mother was a priestess of the god Sin in Harran; she came to Babylon and managed to secure responsible offices for her son at court. The god of the moon rewarded her piety with a long life. The faction who supported Nabonidus was probably those opposing the priests of Marduk, who had become extremely powerful. Nabonidus raided Cilicia in 555 and secured the surrender of Harran, which had been ruled by the Medes. He concluded a treaty of defense with Astyages of Media against the Persians, who had become a growing threat since 559 under their king Cyrus II. He gave preference to his god Sin and had powerful enemies in the priesthood of the Marduk temple.

Astyages succeeded his father Cyaxares the Great in 585 BCE. He married Aryenis, the sister of King Croesus of Lydia to seal the treaty between the two empires. Astyages inherited a large empire, ruled in alliance with his two brothers-in-law, Croesus and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whose wife, Amytis, Astyages' sister, was the queen for whom Nebuchadnezzar was said to have built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The reign of Astyages was noted for its both its stability and for the growth of Zoroastrianism throughout his empire, at the same time that Croesus was overseeing an explosion of secular thought in the west (through the philosophers he patronized, Thales [Thules?], Solon, Aesop...), and Nebuchadnezzar was turning Babylon into the greatest metropololis the world had yet seen. After thirty-two years of relative stability, Astyages lost the support of his nobles during the war with Cyrus the Great, resulting in Astyages', Croesus' and Babylon's overthrow and the formation of the Persian empire.
Herodotus reported Astyages as a vain and superstious king who had a dream where his daughter, Mandane gave birth to a son who would destroy his empire. Fearing this to be true, Astyages arranged a marriage between Mandane and Cambyses I of Anshan (Iran). Astyages believed a union would produce a child incapable of taking his throne. When a second dream warned Astyages of the dangers of Mandane's offspring following her marriage to Cambyses I, Astyages sent his courtier to kill the child, Cyrus II, but, unwilling to spill royal blood, he gave the infant to a shepherd, Mitridates, who raised him as his own son. In 553 BCE, King Cyrus the Great made war on Astyages' Media. After three years of fighting, Astyages' troops mutinied and Astyages was handed over to the enemy. Cyrus then went on to pillage Astyages's capital of Ecbatana. Though Cyrus II is considered to be Astyages' grandson through Mandane it is not known whether Cyrus II made this claim in order to legitimize his overthrow of Astyages or if he really was Astyages' direct descendant. After Astyages' overthrow, Croesus marched on Cyrus II to avenge Astyages. Cyrus II defeated Croesus, and overthrew Lydia in 547 BCE. Cyrus II's conquests continued with Babylon a few years later, combining the three former empires into his new empire of Iran.

Nabonidus resided in northern Arabia in 552. His viceroy in Babylonia was his son Bel-shar-usur, the Belshazzar of the Book of Daniel. [Tradition has confused Nabonidus with his predecessor Nebuchadrezzar II. The Bible refers to him as Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel.] Cyrus turned this to his own advantage by annexing Media in 550. Nabonidus, in turn, allied himself with Croesus of Lydia in order to fight Cyrus. Yet, when Cyrus attacked Lydia and annexed it in 546, Nabonidus was not able to help Croesus. In 542 Nabonidus returned to Babylonia. He appointed his daughter to be high priestess of the god Sin in Ur, thus returning to the Sumerian-Old Babylonian religious tradition. The priests of Marduk looked to Cyrus, hoping to have better relations with him than with Nabonidus.
It appears that Ashtaroth's intrigue gained sway in the time of Evil-Merodach and Nabonidus after her loss of Assyria, until in 539 Cyrus attacked northern Babylonia with a large army, defeating Nabonidus, and entered the city of Babylon without a battle. It became a territory under the Persian crown but kept its cultural autonomy. Cyrus attributed his victories to YHVH and restored the temples of Marduk, and Bel (Enlil).

Cyrus Cylinder, the "First Charter of Human Rights"

http://www.iranchamber.com/history/cyrus/cyrus_charter.php

A chronicle drawn up just after the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus, gives the history of the reign of Nabonidus ('Nabuna'id'), the last king of Babylon, and of the fall of the Babylonian empire. In 538 BC there was a revolt in Southern Babylonia, while the army of Cyrus entered the country from the north.
Cyrus now assumed the title of "king of Babylon," claimed to be the descendant of the ancient kings, and made rich offerings to the temples. At the same time he allowed the foreign populations who had been deported to Babylonia to return to their old homes, carrying with them the images of their gods. Among these populations were the Jews, who, as they had no images, took with them the sacred vessels of the temple.
Christian exegetes regarded Cyrus as a prefiguration of the Messiah .
Cyrus the Great figures in the Old Testament as the patron and deliverer of the Jews from captivity. In the first year of his reign he was prompted by Jehovah to make a decree that the temple in Jerusalem should be rebuilt and that such Jews as cared to might return to their land for this purpose. He sent back with them the sacred vessels which had been taken from the temple and a considerable sum of money to buy building materials with. Herodotus and other non-biblical historians of the time made no mention of any of this.
Ashtaroth or Baal must have had some control during the time of Cambyses. After the work had been stopped by enemies of the Jews it was recommended under the exhortations of the prophets, and when the authorities asked the Jews what right they had to build a temple they referred to the decree of Cyrus.
Looeamong must have regained control in the time of Darius I.
Darius, who was then reigning, caused a search for this alleged decree to be made, and it was found in the archives at Ecbatana ('Achmetha.' Ezra 6:2), whereupon Darius reaffirmed the decree and the work proceeded to its triumphant close. Daniel was in the favor of Cyrus, and it was in that year of Cyrus that he had the vision recorded in his tenth chapter.
Cyrus issued the decree of liberation to the Jews (Ezra 1:1, 2), concerning which Daniel had prayed (Daniel 9:3) and prophesied (v. 25). The edict of Cyrus for the rebuilding of the Second Temple at Jerusalem marked a great epoch in the history of the Jewish people. However, some of the non-Jewish peoples of Samaria hired counselors to frustrate the Jews from completing the rebuilding throughout the reign of Cyrus, Xerxes ('Ahasuerus'), and Artaxerxes, until the reign of Darius. In 'Antiquities of the Jews' by Flavius Josephus, Josephus says, "After the slaughter of the Magi, who, upon the death of Cambyses, attained the government of the Persians for a year, those families which were called the seven families of the Persians appointed Darius, the son of Hystaspes, to be their king. Now he had made a vow to God that if he came to be king he would send all the vessels of God that were in Babylon to the temple at Jerusalem."
also
"the structure of the temple was brought to a conclusion by the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, according to God's commands, and by the injunctions of Cyrus and Darius the kings."
Darius discovered Cyrus' original decree "at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes" (Ezra 6:2), and recommissioned the building of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

It seems that Looeamong stepped aside during the reign of Xerxes for Ashtaroth to bring about her own end in the war with Baal. In 484 BC Xerxes (son of Darius I) took away the golden statue of Bel (Marduk, Merodach) [a possible indication of Ashtaroth's power becoming restored]. From 483 he prepared his expedition with great care. In 480 BC Xerxes set out from Sardis with a large fleet and a numerous army (some have claimed that there were over 2,000,000). At first Xerxes was victorious everywhere. The Greek fleet was beaten, Athens conquered, the Greeks driven back to their last line of defence at the Isthmus of Corinth and in the Bay of Salamis. The Battle of Salamis (September 28, 480) decided the war. Of the later years of Xerxes little is known.
The following story may reveal the machinations of Looeamong, Baal and Ashtaroth to influence apostate Jews.

The Debate over the historical accuracy of the Book of Esther
[Ahasuerus is a name used several times in the Hebrew Bible as well as related legends and apocrypha. The name is generally thought to be equivalent to Xerxes, both being derived from the original Persian Khashayar-sha.
Ahasuerus may refer to:
1) The name of the king of Persia in the Book of Esther. He is generally identified with Xerxes I or Artaxerxes II Mnemon. In 'The Book of Esther in the Light of History' (1923) it is posited that the events of the book occurred during the reign of Artaxerxes II Mnemon, in the context of a struggle between adherents of the monotheistic Zoroastrianism [presumably upheld by Looeamong] and those who wanted to bring back the Magian worship of Mithra and Anahita [this is an indication power that once Ashtoreth (now fallen) had over the apostate Zoroastrians]. Some Christian readers have tried to see the story as a Christian allegory, in the same vein as the Song of Solomon.
The Greek version of the Book of Esther refers to him as Artaxerxes and Josephus relates that this was the name by which he was known to the Greeks. Similarly the Midrash of Esther Rabba, I, 3 identifies him as Artaxerxes.
2) The name of a king of Persia in the Book of Ezra. Jewish tradition regards him as the same as the Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther. 19th century Bible scholars suggested that he might be Cambyses II.

[Book of Ezra 4:4-7:
Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. And in the days of Artaxerxes [this must be the time of Artaxerxes I Longimanus 465-424 B.C] wrote Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel ; and the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian tongue.]

3) The name of an ally of Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Tobit. He is identified with Cyaxares I of Media. Mordecai was carried away from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C.E. The view that it was Mordecai is consistent with the identification of Ahasuerus with Cyaxares. A traditional Catholic view is that he is identical to the Ahasuerus of the Book of Daniel.

[Book of Daniel 9.1-2:
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel perceived in the books the number of the years, which according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.]

4) The name of the father of Darius the Mede in the Book of Daniel.

Book of Daniel 10.1
In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision.

Book of Daniel 11.1-2
Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him.]

Josephus names Astyages as the father of Darius the Mede and the description of the latter as uncle and father-in-law of Cyrus by mediaeval Jewish commentators matches Cyaxares II said to be the son of Astyages by Xenophon. Thus this Ahasuerus is commonly identified with Astyages. He is alternatively identified, together with the Ahasuerus of the Book of Tobit, as Cyaxares I, said to be the father of Astyages. Views differ on how to reconcile the sources in this case. One view is that the description of Ahasuerus as the father of Darius the Mede should be understood in the broader sense of grandfather or ancestor. Another view notes that on the Behistun Inscription, "Cyaxares" is a family name, and thus considers the description as literal, viewing Astyages as an intermediate ruler wrongly placed in the family line in the Greek sources.

In the Book of Esther, Ahasuerus is married to Vashti, whom he puts aside after she rejects his offer to visit him during a feast. Mordecai's cousin Hadassah is selected from the candidates to be Ahasuerus's new wife. When she entered the royal harem she received the name Esther.Hadassah means "myrtle" in Hebrew and the name Esther is most likely related to the Median word for myrtle, astra, and the Persian word setareh meaning star - the myrtle blossom resembles a twinkling star.
His prime minister Haman (an Agagite) plots to have Ahasuerus kill all the Jews, without knowing that Esther is Jewish. At the risk of endangering her own safety, Esther warns Ahasuerus of Haman's plot to kill all the Jews. Haman and his sons are hanged on the stake he had had built for Mordecai, and Mordecai becomes prime minister in Haman's place. However, Ahasuerus's edict decreeing the murder of the Jews cannot be rescinded, so he issues another edict allowing the Jews to take up arms and kill their enemies, which they do.

Esther is (in the Hebrew version) one of only two books of the Bible that do not directly mention God (the other is Song of Songs). It is the only book of the Tanakh that is not represented among the Dead Sea scrolls. It has often been compared to the first half of the Book of Daniel and to the deuterocanonical Books of Tobit and Judith for its subject matter.
By the time Esther was written, the foreign power visible on the horizon as a future threat to Judah was the Macedonians of Alexander the Great, who defeated the Persian empire about 150 years after the time of the story of Esther; the Septuagint version noticeably calls Haman a Macedonian where the Hebrew text describes him as an Agagite.
Esther is usually dated to the 3rd or 4th century B.C.E. Jewish tradition regards it as a redaction by the Great Assembly of an original text written by Mordecai. The Greek additions to Esther are dated to the 2nd century B.C.E.
For the last hundred and fifty years, critical scholars have seen the Book of Esther as a work of fiction, while traditionalists argue in favour the story being historical.
The name Ahasuerus is seen to be based on Xerxes but the exploits of a real Persian king do not enter into the Book of Esther, which is a fictional tale of palace intrigue, attempted genocide and a brave Jewish queen. In support of the idea that the story is a fiction, scholars have pointed to the many improbabilities of the story (that Esther is taken from the house of the Jew Mordecai, but is not known to be a Jew; that the edicts of the Medes and Persians cannot be rescinded; that Ahasuerus would agree to kill an entire people without being told their name; that Ahasuerus would give the Jews leave to murder thousands of their enemies) as suggesting that it is a fictional story. They also note that none of the events depicted in Esther are attested from any other source.
As early as the eighteenth century, the lack of clear corroboration of any of the details of the story of the Book of Esther with what was known of Persian history from classical sources led some scholars to doubt that the book was historically accurate.
From the late nineteenth century onwards, several scholars explored the theory that the Book of Esther actually was a myth related to the spring festival of Purim which may have had a mixed West-Semitic/Akkadian/Canaanite origin. According to this interpretation, the tale is about the triumph of the Babylonian deities Marduk (Merodach) and Ishtar over the deities of Elam, or more likely, the renewal of life in the spring and the casting out of the scapegoat of the old year. Although this view is not widely held by the religious scholars today, it remains well known.
The fact that the events of the Book of Esther gave rise to the spring festival of Purim was a reason for scholars arguing that the story emerged from seasonal myth. As the 19th/early 20th century scholars did not have the benefit of the Ugaritic texts, they sought an origin in Akkadian tradition rather than the more local West Semitic cultures. In particular, these scholars drew comparisons between individuals in the Book of Esther and various real and alleged Babylonian and Elamite gods and goddesses.

Esther was equated with the similarly sounding Ishtar.
The custom of preparing hamantaschen at Purim is reminiscent of a description of Ishtar in Jeremiah 7:18
The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
Hamantaschen literally means "Haman's pockets". Haman, the villain of Purim, wore a triangular hat according to legend. A hamantasch is a cookie in Jewish cuisine recognizable for its 3-cornered shape, made by rolling the dough thin, cutting it into circles (of various sizes), placing filling in the center, and folding in three sides. I dont understand why the villain would be remembered in this way.
Mordecai was equated with Marduk (Merodach, Belos, Zeus, Bel-Merodach).
Vashti was said to be an Elamite goddess named Mashti.
Haman was said to be an Elamite god named Uman or Human (or other variations) or alternatively a Babylonian demon.
The festival of Purim was equated with various real and conjectural pagan festivals, including an alleged Elamite or Babylonian festival marking the victory of Ishtar and Marduk over Uman and Mashti similar to the triumph of Esther and Mordecai over their rivals Haman and Vashti. Other suggestions were: the Babylonian New Year festival (Sumerian Zagmuk, Akkadian Akitu, called Sacaea by Berosus) honouring Marduk -it was suggested that purim ("lots") originally referred to a belief that the gods chose one's fate for the year by lots.
These arguments were subsequently shown to be flawed:
Ishtar was well known to the Jews who officially opposed her worship. Her name in Hebrew scriptures is Ashtoreth which is phonetically unrelated to Esther despite the superficial similarity when transliterated into English.
The name Mordecai is indeed most commonly connected with that of the god Marduk but its meaning is understood to be "[servant] of Marduk". The name Marduka or Marduku (considered equivalent to Mordecai) has been found as the name of officials in the Persian court in thirty texts from the period of Xerxes I and his father Darius, and may refer to up to four individuals with the possibility that one of these is the Biblical Mordecai. Jewish tradition relates that it was a replacement of Mordecai's Hebrew name Bilshan. Similar accounts of Jews in exile being assigned names relating to Babylonian gods is seen in the Book of Daniel.
An Elamite goddess named Mashti is purely conjectural and unattested in sources, whereas "Vashti" can be understood as a genuine Persian name meaning "beautiful".
An Elamite or Babylonian festival marking a victory of Ishtar and Marduk over alleged Uman and Mashti is purely conjectural and unattested in sources. The Babylonian New Year occurs at a very different date to Purim (in the month of Nisan not Adar). A decision of fate by lots by the gods is not attested in any sources.
Elamite theophoric elements such as Khuban, Khumban or Khumma are known but are pronounced with an initial guttural consonant and not as Uman or Human, and are phonetically unrelated to the Persian name Haman meaning "magnificent".
Those arguing in favour of an historical reading of Esther, most commonly identify Ahasuerus with Xerxes I or occasionally with Artaxerxes II (ruled 405 - 359 B.C.E.
Herodotus wrote that Xerxes sought his harem after being defeated in the Greco-Persian Wars. He makes no reference to individual members of the harem with the exception of a domineering Queen consort Amestris, who has often been identified with Vashti by those arguing the historical reading. The identification is problematic however - Amestris remained a powerful figure well into the reign of her son, Artaxerxes I while Vashti is portrayed as dismissed in the early part of Xerxes's reign. (Alternative attempts have been made to identify her with Esther, although Esther's father is a Jew named Abihail and she is portrayed as merely one of numerous concubines in Ahasuerus' harem.)
Strangely, the tale serves to denigrate the name of Haman, a name in the lineage of the Zarathustrian order of the 'first Bible of Vind'yu. Also, the earliest accounts of Medes locate them in Hamadan, the word Achaemenian is translated from the Old Persian word Haxâmanishiya, and that the Persian name Haman means "magnificent".

The story hints of divine intervention in the remark of Mordecai to Esther when he said "who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" referring to Esther's destiny to become the kings wife due to the circumstance that contested Vashti's personal virtue and independence.
The defiance of Mordecai, whose strength of character refused to show subordination to any master, resulted in a grave test for the Jews. It is symbolic of the independence that the Israelites had enjoyed up until their captivity.
The Book of Esther seems to be an allegory that sends a message of retribution to evildoers, that their wicked plots shall come upon their own heads. It reminds us of the emancipation promised to those who live by the higher light from those who would seek "to get mastery over them". Yet, carnage wreaked upon the enemies of the Jews, the direct result of the heroin's (Esther) petition to the king, was inflicted by the hand of the Jews themselves.
The heavenly defender of the Jews then was Looeamong. Because he "pursued Ashtaroth in conjunction with Baal, and overthrew her and her kingdom, and cast them into hell, he became as a lion, savage at the taste of blood". Defying calls for restraint he said "Nay, till I have Baal also cast into hell, I will not cease the carnage of mortal blood". So, in this case the justice seems to be administered by the lower heavens.

This example became a major day of celebration, not to be forgotten by them.
Esther 9:26 Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. The Jews ordained, and took it upon themselves, and their descendants, and upon all such as joined them, that without fail, that they would keep these two days according to what was written, and at the appointed time every year; And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.

The Shrine of Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan, Iran, is a popular attraction for Iranian Jews.

A Sanhedrin or "council") is an assembly of 23 judges Biblically required in every city. The Great Sanhedrin is an assembly of 71 of the greatest Jewish judges who constituted the supreme court and legislative body of ancient Israel. The make-up of the Great Sanhedrin included a chief justice (Nasi), a vice chief justice, and sixty-nine general members who all sat in the form of a semi-circle when in session. When the Temple in Jerusalem was standing, (prior to its destruction in 70 CE), the Great Sanhedrin would meet in the Hall of Hewn Stones in the Temple during the day, except before festivals and Shabbat.
The Greek root for the name suggests that the institution may have developed during the Hellenistic period. Judaism. The Torah records God commanded Moses as follows:

"Assemble for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the people's elders and officers, and you shall take them to the Tent of Meeting, and they shall stand there with you."

Classical Rabbinic tradition holds that the Sanhedrin began with seventy elders, headed by Moses, for a total of seventy-one. As individuals within the Sanhedrin died, or otherwise became unfit for service, new members underwent ordination, or Semicha. These ordinations continued, in an unbroken line: from Moses to Joshua, the Israelite elders, the prophets (including Ezra, Nehemiah) on to all the sages of the Sanhedrin. It was not until sometime after the destruction of the Second Temple that this line was broken, and the Sanhedrin dissolved.
Jewish tradition proposes non-greek derivations of the term Sanhedrin.

The prayers for Purim, now used in the synagogue, as also the practice of springing rattles and other noisy demonstrations of anger, contempt, and scorn with which the name of Haman is greeted, are of much later date. The Jews kept these days holy in the time of Josephus, but today, though the synagogue has prescribed for them special prayers and portions of Scripture, they are chiefly marked by boisterous and uproarious merrymaking, even beyond the limits of decency.

A modern version of this allegory says:
"The Persian equinoctial ceremonies dedicated to Mithras (one of the forty-nine Saviours listed in Oahspe) seem to have involved crucifixion, when Haman the Wicked, standing for the winter sun, is crucified in Esther (Easter?) to arise as the summer sun who is the Saviour, Mithras".
Interesting that the Mazzaroth and modern 'pagan' revival all find a solar, astrological or seasonal explanations of ancient worship. Indeed some of the forty-nine Saviours (Ari or Aries, Mithra etc.) and even Jesus, once represented the start of the zodiacal year or spring Equinox]

M. N. Dhalla says that King Vishtaspa was succeeded by weak kings and Eastern Iran soon lost political importance. Zarathushtra, likewise, was not blessed with successors of commanding personalities to carry on missionary work. His religion could not penetrate into Western Iran, where the cult of the Indo-Iranian divinities had a strong hold over the minds and hearts of the people. Mithra occupied the pre-eminent position among them, with the non-Iranian Anahita as the close second in importance. Ahura Mazda outshone Mithra. Mithra, Anahita, and other bagas, as seen from the inscriptions of the successors of Darius, accepted to work under the new supreme God.

Timeline of the period
Second Temple Judaism: c. 538 BCE-135 CE, Persian Period: 538-333, Celts settle from Italy to Ireland: 500
Edict of Cyrus (first return from Exile): 538
525 Cambyses conquers Egypt, Cyprus, Samos
522 Darius I, Temple rebuilt: 520-515, Judean prophets Haggai and Zechariah: 520
518 Darius regains Egypt, 499 Ionian War (revolt from Persia)
496 Rome defeats the Latin tribes at Lake Regillus
496 Sophocles (tragedian) is born, 495 Alexander I rules over Macedonia
494 The first victory of the plebeian class over the patricians for more power
494 Tribunate established in Rome
493 Rome and Latin League make a treaty for protection against Etruscans
490 Darius I defeated by the Greeks at Marathon
486 Xerxes demands tribute from Greece but is refused
480 Xerxes invades Greece with 100,000 men, wins at Thermopylae
480 Persians suffer defeats by the Greeks at Salamis, Plataea and Mycale
480 Confucious dies, Warring States period begins in China
474 Carthaginians defeat the Etruscans in a naval battle at Cumae, 469 Birth of Socrates
465 Xerxes is murdered 465-425 Artaxerxes I (Longimanus)
460 Birth of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, Age of Pericles in Athens
460 Inaros revolt in Egypt (Athenian support)
458 Ezra? [7th year Artaxerxes], Torah (Pentateuch) given status as Scripture: ca. 450
457 First Pelopennesian war between Athens and Sparta
452 Wars over succession following the death of Alexander I in Macedonia
450 Laws of the Twelve Tables codified and published in Rome
449 Sacred War between Athens and Sparta over the Oracle of Delphi
448 Peace of Callius [Persia/Athens], 445 Nehemiah
447 The construction of the Parthenon begins
443 Office of the Censor is created in Rome
431 Second Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta
429 Birth of Plato (student of Socrates)
423-404 Darius II (Nothus), 404-359 Artaxerxes II (Mnemon), 404 Persia reclaims Greek Asia Minor
413 Athens attacks Sicily and fail, 409 Carthage invades Sicily
404 Athens surrenders to Sparta to end the Peloponnesian War 401 Sparta goes to war with Persia
398 Amyrtaios frees Egypt, 359-338 Artaxerxes III (Ochus), 343 Egypt reconquered, 336-330 Darius III
Hellenistic period: 333-63, Alexander the Great: 333/331, Ptolemaic rule of Palestine 312-200
Coming of Rome to the east Mediterranean: ca. 230-146
Ptolemy IV Philopator, 221-203, Prophets (2nd division of Jewish Scriptures) accepted as Scripture: c.200
Qumran community: ca. 200 BC-135 CE, Seleucid rule of Palestine 200-166 BCE
Death of Simon the Just: 198, Antiochus IV Epiphanes: 175-164, Maccabean rebellion: 168/167-165
Hasmonean era: 165-63, Simon (Hasmonean) acclaimed high priest and ethnarch: 140
John Hyrcanus I: 134-104, Rome (Pompey) annexes Palestine: 63
Roman period: 63 BCE - 140 CE, Herod, king of Judea: 40-4, Roman empire begins: 31
Jews expelled from Rome: 19 CE, Pilate, governor of Judea: 26-36
Said date of crucifixion: 30, Attempt to place statue in Jewish temple: 41
Judean war against Rome: 66-74, Fall of Jerusalem: 70, Fall of Masada: 73/74
"Council of Jamnia": 90, Bar-Kokhba revolt: 132-135

Ahura Mazda
From Oahspe
In the 1200th year after Fragapatti [5850 BC, in the time of the Deva], in the east colony of Haraiti, one Ctusk (possibly Zohak of the Bundahishn), a former Lord of Jehovih's host, renounced Jehovih, the Creator, and falsely proclaimed himself Ahura, the All Master [Mazda]. He taught that he had inspired Zarathustra and that he was Ahura'Mazda, the Personation of Ormazd, who was Void and was life, death and resurrection.
Ahura, founded a second heaven in the heavenly region above the lands of Heleste. In two hundred years Ahura's hosts inspired the Parsi'e'ans and the Arabin'yans to emigrate by tens of thousands to the land of Heleste, which was inhabited by druks and wanderers, full of wickedness. Ahura inspired his immigrants to destroy the native druks. He abolished circumcision and put no restriction on marriage, and so druks married with the worshippers of Ahura. A fourth race rose up which was mongrel, being dark, short and less noble.
The mongrels, the worshippers of Ahura'Mazda triumphed in India, China and Egypt. They built great cities and kingdoms, and ruled over the I'huans to great injury and enslaved the Zarathustrians. Heleste and Japan had become strongholds for Ahura, who had pursued the warfare till all the Faithists in those two divisions had been put to death.
Ahura's emissaries discovered that by pressing the forehead flat, which holds corporeal judgment, the judgment of the brain was driven up into light-perceiving regions at the top of the head.
After a'ji began to fall Zarathustrians gave up celibacy, and some married with the mongrels, and they with the druks, so the foundations of caste were broken up. Ahura took advantage of the age of darkness to sow disbelief in Jehovih.
In the land of Heleste and Japan the name of Jehovih or the Great Spirit was not taught, for none of these would be received. But the name Mazda, the Creator; the Voice that spake to Zarathustra, the all highest light in the soul was used. Hence it was known from that time forth that the origin of the word Master, as applied to the Creator, sprang from those two countries only.
Vishnu protected the mortals of Vindyu and Jaffeth and Arabin'ya, which were soon to be flooded by the hosts of Ahura being cast down on the earth and his kingdoms precipitated to the earth. When a comet fell on the earth darkness of twelve days followed and more than four score hells founded within Ahura's heavenly regions, and he himself was cast into one of them. Soon afterwards Abram, Po, Brahma, and Ea-Wah-Tah were born.

________________________________________________________________________________

Ahura Mazda itself is found in its Assyrian equivalent Assara Mazas in an inscription of Assurbanipal. Though the inscription bears the date of the reign of king Assurbanipal, it records the use of this Assyrian form of 'Ahura Maida' in the latter part of the second millennium.
Ahura [Lord (Indo-Iranian)] Mazda [Wise (Iranian)] sits at the apex among the celestial beings of Garonmana [Garothman, ie. Heaven]. He is not begotten, nor is there one like unto him. Beyond him, apart from him, and without him nothing exists. He is the supreme being, brighter than the brightest of creation, higher than the highest heavens, older than the oldest in the universe. There are non to struggle successfully with him for the mastery of the heavens. He is the first and foremost, most perfect, almighty absolute sovereign, beneficent, changeless, the same now and for ever, moving all, yet moved by none. He will decide victory between the rival hosts of good and evil. He is the first possessor of felicity and joy. Many are his attributes. They are not accidents of his being, but are his very essence.

[There is little to distinguish him from Jehovih in the above. He is unapproachable, not as follows]
He is also spoken of as distributing good and evil to men by his own hands, and as observing with his eyes all things hidden and open. He lives in the empyrean enthroned in his majesty. He is ever present in the straight paths that lead mankind to righteousness. In his resplendence he lives in the heavenly realms and wears the firmament as his garment.
Ahura Mazda [like Krishna] has his celestial mansions in the highest heavens, upon the vast expanse of the earth and in the hearts of the righteous persons. He is transcendent in as much as he is infinitely more sublime and greater than his creatures. Yet he is not so remote and ineffable as not to be approached and addressed and greeted by his ardent worshippers. He is immanent in the sense that man can enter into close and loving relations with him, and own him as his father and brother and friend. He befriends those who seek his friendship and loves those who long for his love. Zarathushtra addresses Ahura Mazda as his friend. He is life's safest anchorage. With his good understanding, man can imitate him and be like unto him by promoting the welfare of all around him through righteousness.

Ahura Mazda is spirit in his being. The cardinal attribute Most Beneficent Spirit is his very essence. Zarathushtra conceives of Ahura Mazda in thought and apprehends him with his eye. He asks him to teach by the word of his mouth and to tell him with the very tongue of his mouth.
The prophet prays for his vision and communion with him. He strives to approach him through Good Mind, and through his devoted supplications. With outstretched hands he aspires to reach him with songs of praise on his lips. Thus will he continue his praise, he says, as long as he has strength and vigour, and adds that the stars and the sun and the dawn all unite in singing praise unto him.
In the beginning when Ahura Mazda lived in his supreme self-sufficiency, he conceived the thought to clothe the heavenly realm with light. He created 1ight, and darkness was there, for darkness shadows light. He is the father and creator of the Ameshas Spentas and of Geush Tashan (see below).

Mithras as Atlas

He upholds the earth and firmament from falling. He made the moon wax and wane, and determined the path of the sun and stars. He yoked swiftness to wind and clouds. He clothed the heavenly realms with light. He it was who made morning and noon and night. He created kine, waters and plants. He created human beings and their spirits, breathed life in their bodies and endowed them with the freedom of will.
He has created the universe through his wisdom and rules it through wisdom. He is the most knowing one. He is the far-seeing and all-seeing one. He knows all that is done in the past and all that will be done in the future, and judges through his omniscience. Human beings have their masks drawn on their faces and none can see what is hidden within. But Ahura Mazda has an eye over them all and with penetrating eyes he sees their open and secret faults.

The great mission of the prophet is to lead all to see for themselves that their welfare depends on the faithful adherence his laws. He exhorts his hearers to give a careful hearing to his words, understand with clear discernment what he tells them, and, with the discreet exercise of the freedom of the will, with which Ahura Mazda has endowed them, make their own choice of conduct. The divine lawgiver has established the moral order in the beginning of the world.

M. N. Dhalla continues:
"With the return of the pre-Zoroastrian divinities also came the ancient rituals and sacrifices, offerings and libations. The beliefs and practices of the old faith were engrafted on the religion. The writers ascribe them to the authorship of Zarathushtra.
[Ironically it is here that Oahspeans will find a remnant of the original Zarathustrian religion (being careful to discriminate between this and the corrupt Babylonian culture)].
He is himself depicted as glorifying and worshipping the great Indo-Iranian divinities whom he did not recognise in his Gathas. He is shown begging them for various boons. The Indo-Iranian religion that Zarathushtra came to replace by his religion of reform thus lives as an indissoluble part of his religion. Zoroastrianism became a blend of the Indo-Iranian religion and Zarathushtra's religion of reform. And so it remains up to the present day."

[Unless a secret lineage exists beyond the reach of adventurers, the studies put forward by Zoroastrians themselves indicate that Zoroastrianism is, like the Essenes, Druids and Gnostics, a revived movement whose knowledge, and maybe even tradition, is interpreted from Scripture and history. Rather than speculating about many prophets with the name Zarathustra having existed at different times (as Martha Jones, quoting Higgins has said), the evidence suggests there is one only, whose time has been lost to us.

Page 87,91,591&649 Vol. 1 of "Anacalypsis" by Godfrey Higgins:
"Zoroaster.…was the founder of the Magi, who were priests of the religion of...whom the Sun was the visible form or emblem.…In Persia they had five Zoroasters [quoting "Nimrod" 231].…Seven Zoroasters are recorded by different historians.…How many Zoroasters there were, or whether more than one, it is difficult to determine; but one of them was thought by Hyde.…to have lived in the time of Darius Hystaspes.…There were probably as many Zoroasters as cycles."

The reason why Zoroastrians (and historical authorities) popularly believe him to be ~600 BC seems to be because of their nationalistic adherence to Iranian history, where the father of Darius I (522-486) is Hystaspes (Vishtaspa), the legendary patron of Zoroaster. The Zarathustra that Dhalla, a Zoroastrian representative, portrays and follows bears more likeness to Paul the Apostle ie. a reformer (not a lawgiver) of an already existing Aryan/Zarathustrian religion, with a missionary zeal that poses the question: - does this spirit has something in common with the Zarathushtra of Oahspe or does it get introduced with the efforts of the Pre-Christian Triunes to sway the Zadokite priests and convert apostate Jews, Levites and Zoroastrians to their cause.]

Assertions from the Spirit World
On July 1, 1881 the following spirit communication was then given:
[Note: I have chopped most out.]

I am Zarathustra, Zerdusht or Zoroaster, the Daniel of the Jewish Scriptures. I lived in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius Hydaspes and Cyrus. The Jewish book of Daniel, was stolen bodily from the books written by myself, or through me, concerning Ormuzd and Mithra.
[The latest time when Daniel could have served under Nebuchadnezzar II is 562 BC, when he died, and the earliest time he could have been under Cyrus is 539 BC when he conquered Babylon. Therefore the shortest time when Daniel could have served under those kings is well over:
562 - 539 = 23 years
the earliest time he could have been under Darius I is 522 BC. 562 - 522 = 40 years]
The Hebrew book, called the 'Book of Daniel,' contains the account of the actual earthly experiences of Zoroaster at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, and the other kings whom I have already named. All that is mentioned as having transpired in the 'Book of Daniel' occurred through myself as a medium, and has no relation whatever to a Jewish Daniel, but solely relates to Zarathustra of the Persians.
I was known as Aronamar at the court of Cyrus. I want you to understand that, at the court of that king, I was in the position of a philosopher, who, having reasoned upon the law of cause and effect, would stand at any court, or in any other condition of life. In the reign of Darius Hydaspes, I went through the ordeal of being cast into a lion's den (possibly 538 BC); but I was a medium, and was attended by a power that protected me from physical injury; but it was through what may be regarded as superior mesmeric and psychological power.
I received this from spirits; and through that power I was enabled to calm the fury of lions. It was I, Zarathustra, who read the handwriting on the wall, in the days of Belshazzar, and I did this through the power of spirits. I assure you that I was the original Daniel, and the Jews appropriated my works.
There was a religious teaching promulgated in the age in which I lived on earth, which was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, that a child should be born of a virgin. This was a common belief at that time. Back of me and behind me lies what is known as the Phallic religion. That religion taught that the forces of nature express themselves in an individual unit. Back of, and beyond that was the philosophical religion taught by Hermes Trismegistus.
This philosophical religion was derived from the planetary and stellar systems, and embodied the principle known to you moderns as the law of cause and effect. Back of and beyond that was a Hindoo-Chaldaic religion which took its rise at the base of the Himalaya mountains. There was also a very ancient Phoenician religion.
The latter religions had, as their chief idea, the relations of heat and cold, and their effects in nature upon men and crops on which they depended for sustenance. And here I want you to observe what I say particularly. The great Western Continent--by you called America--was progressing, at one time, side by side with the Eastern Continent; and a man named Bochica taught all the laws of cause and effect, in Bolivia and Peru, long before Manco Capao and his wife appeared there. And I want you to say, at the close of your book, that all the sciences, and all the knowledge of antiquity are concentrated in two books.
The nature of one of them (The Book of Revelation) has been explained to you by Apollonius of Tyana, and the other is the 'Book of Daniel.' Those two books open up to you the secrets of antiquity. By this I mean when properly understood and interpreted, but not when literally read.

________________________________________________________________________________

The medium comments: The spirit forces with which Zarathustra was working, were four-fold, the leaders or chiefs, of which were, first, Hermes Trismegistus, the Egyptian philosopher and sage, who lived 1150 BC; second, Gautama Sakyia Buddha, the Hindoo medium and sage, who lived about 950 BC; third, himself, Zarathustra, the Median or Persian medium and sage, who lived 650 BC; and fourth, Apollonius of Tyana, the Cappadocian medium and sage, who lived from the beginning to the end of the first century AD.
Another especially important statement made in reply to a question I asked was, that he was not the mythical Zoroaster, the founder of Magianism, or the religion of the Magian astrologers, who dated many centuries before himself, but that he was the author of the Zend-Avesta, and the founder of the theology in relation to Ormuzd and Mithra.
The spirit had only communicated with me once and that more than three years before, as Aronamar. When he announced himself as Zarathustra or Zoroaster, and not as Aronamar, as I had come to know him, I was especially on the alert, and when he announced himself as Daniel of the Jewish Scriptures, I settled down into that conviction. When he stated he lived in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius Hydaspes and Cyrus, I felt very sure he had betrayed his purpose to deceive.
It is true that in the Book of Daniel it is stated that that prophet and seer was at the courts of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius the Mede, and Cyrus, king of Persia; but the spirit seems to have designedly mentioned a circumstance that shows that the time that he lived could be fixed with the greatest certainty, while the Book of Daniel is strangely at fault in fixing the time of the reign of the third mentioned king [Darius the Mede of the bible is not historically identifiable].
The spirit of Zoroaster says that he not only lived at the courts of the first two named Babylonian kings, but that he subsequently lived at the court of Darius "Hydaspes," as the spirit gave the surname. There is not a question that this designation of the king Darius, to whom he referred, was the Darius Hystaspes of the books of Ezra, Haggai and Zechariah. Whether Hystaspes or Hydaspes is the correct rendering, I have no means of determining. The difference is between the d and st. That Zarathustra lived and wrote in the reign of Darius Hystaspes is certain [I would disagree], and that Daniel did not live in the reign of Darius the Mede, seems equally certain.

[I assume he refers to Darius I (522-486 BC), the son of Hystaspes/Vishtaspa. He became King after Cyrus II, Cambyses and the false Bardiya/Pseudo-Smerdis/Guatama the Magian [magush] reigned. Most think Darius the Mede was Gubaru, the governor of Gutium (Assyria) under Belshazzar, who went over to the Persian side when they conquered Babylon in 539 BC. He became the first governor of Babylon.

The time of Daruis's father Hystaspes/Vishtaspa is avoided. From the following information:

Arsames 615-? B.C. Arshaam in Persian, son of Ariaramn
Hystaspe (Vishtaasp in Persian) son of Arsames
522-486B.C Darius I son of Hystaspes

it can be seen why Zoroastra, being contemporary with Vishtaspa, is thought to have existed about 600 BC.]

The medium continues: Now as Zoroaster the magian seer knew under what king's reign he lived and wrote, and the Jewish prophet Daniel did not, we conclude that justice requires us to believe the spirit of Zoroaster, and to disbelieve the Book of Daniel, so far as that very essential point is concerned. Nothing has more puzzled theologians and historical critics, than to find a place in history for the king Darius of the Book of Daniel. [since the time of Darius the Mede is after 539 BC, and the time of Darius I is even after him (522-486 BC), I would have thought Darius the Mede was closer to Zoroastra's time.]

From " Zarathustra or Zerdusht"

Also This Link

Some modern scholars believe that the four visions of Daniel 7, 8, 9, and 10-12 were intended to reassure Jewish martyrs persecuted between 176 and 164 BC by the Syrian monarch Antiochus IV Epiphanes that the Syrian onslaught would swiftly pass as did Babylonian, Persian, and Greek. Verse 12:2-3 in the book of Daniel, credited to a legendary Daniel (who never wrote it), was an expression of hope for Resurrection and eternal life for saints and sinners impelled by this historical crisis.
"The earliest copy of the book of Daniel is dated around 125-100 B.C.E. The Old Testament apocryphal book 'Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach', written in Hebrew around 200-180 B.C.E., lists the (Jewish) 'famous men' in chapters 44-51: Joseph (the counterpart of Daniel at the Pharaoh's court) and the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) are named, but not Daniel. Furthermore, the book of Daniel was not originally included in 'the prophets'.
In Daniel 7 the expression 'son of man' appears, which is important for Christian understanding of Jesus. The heavenly Son of Man appears in a vision in Daniel 7:13 in which an Ancient of Days appoints 'one like a son of man' to execute justice in the destruction of the evil ones. [Micah described six hundred years earlier a descendent of David "whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.] This human figure is best understood as an angel. Later on in Daniel, resurrection is promised both for the faithful dead and for villains, who will be resurrected so that they may be sentenced to eternal perdition. Hammaskilim ('those who are wise'), apparently the elite of the apocalyptic group, will then shine as the stars in heaven (Dan 12:3).
The Son of Man "first appears as pre-existent in the apocryphal First Book of Enoch , which was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic about 150 B.C.E. From that period on, the concept of the Messiah who was created in the six days of Creation, or even prior to them or who was born at variously stated subsequent dates and was then hidden to await his time, became a standard feature of Jewish Messianic eschatology."

According to Bernard Muller, ("The Prophesies of Daniel"), the beasts can be defined as:
7:4 "The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings." - Belshazzar (Neo Babylonian empire). Daniel's vision supposedly occurred during Belshazzar's reign.
7:5 "And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth" - Cyrus the Great (Persian empire). The three ribs are Media, Lydia and Babylon.
7:6"After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it." - Alexander the Great (Greek/Macedonian empire). The four heads are the Hellenist kingdoms which resulted from the division of Alexander's empire.
7.7 "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong" with "huge iron teeth" and " ten horns" - Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Seleucid kingdom). The ten horns are the ten kings who preceded Antiochus.

The Prophesies of Daniel
Book of Daniel 1.1-7:
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.
And the king spake unto Ashpenaz that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed; Children in whom was no blemish, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:

Book of Daniel 2.1
And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.
2.31 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, "Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

Book of Daniel 4.5
Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. Therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream.
4:18-27 This dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Then Belteshazzar said: The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth; Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation: It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth. And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him; This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king: That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule.

Book of Daniel 5:1-5
Belshazzar the king made a great feast. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king might drink therein. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
5:17-31 Then Daniel said before the king, And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Mede (or Median) took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.

Book of Daniel 6:1-24
It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty satraps, which should be over the whole kingdom; And over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was first. Then the presidents and princes (satraps) sought to find grounds for complaint against Daniel but they could find none. Then these satraps assembled together and said to King Darius: All the governors have consulted together to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions; that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house and kneeled three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. Then they came near, and spake before the king concerning the king's decree.
Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun. Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Then the king arose and went unto the den of lions and said to Daniel, "is thy God able to deliver thee from the lions"? Daniel said, My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me. And the king commanded those men which had accused Daniel to be cast into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them.
[This lesson is reminiscent of the lesson learnt in the book of Esther.]

Book of Daniel 7.1-8
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. Daniel said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
7:9-12 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
7:13-15 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.
7:17-21 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
7:22-27 Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

Book of Daniel 8:1-10
In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, Daniel. I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam. I saw there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great. And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.
8:11-17 Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days [2300/365 = 6.3 years]; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. And it came to pass, when I had seen the vision and sought for the meaning, then there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice say, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. So he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.
8:18 Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright. And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.

Book of Daniel 9.1
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes , was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
9:25 Whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Book of Daniel 5:1-5
10.1 In the third year of Cyrus was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and had understanding of the vision.
10:5 I looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.
10:11 And he said unto me, O Daniel, I am come for thy words. But the prince of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.
10:20 Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia : and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. 10:21 But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.

Book of Daniel 11.1-5
In the first year of Darius the Mede I stood to confirm and to strengthen him. And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those. And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.
11.6-8 And in the end of years they shall join themselves together; for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm: but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times. But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail: And shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the north.
11:9-13 So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land. But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: then shall he return, and be stirred up, even to his fortress. And the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his hand. And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down many ten thousands: but he shall not be strengthened by it. For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches.
11:14-20 And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall. So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand. But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed. He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her: but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him. Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found. Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.
11:21-30 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant. And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people. He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time. And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him. Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down slain. And both of these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed. Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land. At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.
11:31-37 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed. And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
11:38-45 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a foreign god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain. And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

Michael and the Last Judgement, Book of Daniel 12:1-4
And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
12:5-13 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days [1290/365 = 3.5 years]. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days [1335/365 = 3.66 years]. But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

________________________________________________________________________________

Hermes
Thoth (or Tehuti), Mercurius or Mercury, "the first Hermes" "the great one" to whom ancient writers attribute the origin of human science and the invention of astrology and the zodiac, the great scribe who first composed books of astronomy, "the second Hermes", "the Greek Logos" and Hermes Trismegistus meaning the "thrice greatest Hermes" by some believed to be Adam, Seth, and Enoch who according to legend carried an emerald, upon which was recorded all of philosophy, - are all sometimes understood to be the same.
Newton said: "Mercurius is called thrice greatest, having three parts of the philosophy of the whole world, since he signifies the Mercury of the philosophers.... and has dominion in the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, and the animal kingdom".
The hermetic maxim "As above, so below" is attributed to the Egyptian god Thoth (Hermes Trismegistus).
Thoth's depiction in the Egyptian Judgment scenes as the Ibis headed Scribe recording the destiny of the weighing-in of the spirit's heart against the feather of truth, and the tradition that Thoth invented the earliest writing, Hieroglyphics, lead Rev. C. Th. Odhner to conclude that Thoth represented the ancients' concept of the Ancient Word.
[In Fragapatti Ch 28.25 the editor notes that the origin of Ibis worship comes from Oibe, when mortals made images of birds (oibe or ibis), and dedicate them to Oibe. Later Oibe turned false and assumed the title "Thor, the Only Begotten Son of All Light, All Light Personated, Personal Son of Mi, the Virgin Universe". Spirits persuaded mortals to worship Thor and Ibis.
Elsewhere the editor notes that Ibis, Iboi is a Phoenician word. Book of Wars Ch 23.3 says Baal was bestow the Sign of the Sacred Bird, Iboi, and Ashtaroth was bestowed with the fete by De‘yus. So Baal, and not Thothma was the Ibis scribe. Moreso, Ashtaroth could be Ananke, the the personification of "Fate", or Themis the Goddess of "Necessity"]
Thoth as the Greek Hermes (or his Roman equivalent Mercury) was shown with birds' wings on his cap and sandals and caduceus to indicate him as the messenger between gods and man. Caesar stated that the Norse Odin "is our Mercury". Odin shared attributes of Thoth. He surrendered his eye to the well for wisdom and invented the original sacred language, the Runes. Like Mercury he had wings on his cap. The birds 'thought and memory' who circle the world daily to gather truths sat on his shoulders.
Some separate Thoth as one who governed over mystical wisdom, magic, writing and other disciplines and was associated with healing, while Hermes was the personification of universal wisdom and the patron of magic.
The combined myths of these gods report that both Thoth and Hermes revealed to humankind the healing arts, magic, writing, astrology, science, and philosophy. Thoth wrote the record of the weighing of the souls in the Judgment Hall of Osiris . Hermes led the souls of the dead to Hades.
Classical writers who had visited Egypt such as Herodotus, Diodorus, Siculus and Proclus extolled the wisdom of Egyptian priests, especially their revered knowledge of the heavens and motions of the stars. Yet it remained out of reach to renaissance scholars such as Cosimo de' Medici because it was written in hieroglyphic. Then in 1460 Cosimo announced he had a collection of the lost fabled books of Hermes Trismegistus. The learned circles of Florence believed that the 'divine' Plato had himself been taught philosophy by the priests of Egypt. Cosimo's adopted son Marsilio Ficino made a Latin translation of the 14 tracts (books) of the Hermetica.
Ficino had given his translation the title Pimander, the name of the mysterious 'universal mind' that had revealed to Hermes the divine wisdom. Pimander, derived from the original Greek Poimadres is said to be derived from Peime-n-Re, meaning the knowledge of Re (Ra).
Logos Teleios, 'the Perfect Discourse', known as Asclepius had previously been translated into Latin earlier, but it became customary to attach the Asclepius to the Hermetica, the whole forming one corpus known as the Corpus Hermeticum (the philosophical Hermetica).
A further booklet is sometimes added known as the Definitions of Asclepius. Ludovico Lazzarelli narrated how his master Don Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio helped him find these lost writing of Hermes Trismegistus (called Mercurio by the Italians) in an obscure tract titled 'The Letter of Enoch'.
On Palm Sunday April 1484 Giovanni Mercurio, then 33 (the supposed age of Christ at his crucifixion) rode into Rome on a black stallion dressed in black and wearing a golden belt and purple shoes, a crown of thorns and on his brow a silver lunar crescent on which were written the words:
"This is my son Pimander, whom I personally chose …. to install my truth and justice upon all nations…"
Lazzarelli, who adopted the name Enoch and was Giovanni's most ardent disciple, found the Definitions of Asclepius while:
"scrutinising old books, and over a cup of nectar which flowed from the crater (bowl) of Hermes Trismegistus by which is meant the book titled the Definitions of Asclepius" [this is like the bowl of Pythagoras which Proclus gives to drink from].
Marsilio Ficino and the renaissance philosophers believed Hermes Trismegistus was a historical person, a view shared by the Christian Hermetic-Cabalist Pico della Mirandola. Ficino said Trismegistus (thrice great) was the greatest of philosophers, priests and kings. His successors were Orpheus, Aglaophemus, Pythagoras and Philolaus, teacher of Plato. His works were the true source of ancient wisdom. According to tradition (Iamblichus, c.245-c.325), both Pythagoras and Plato viewed the pillars from which the Hermetic texts were transcribed. In 1544 the theologian Vergerius said:
"many chronographi, among who is Cicero, suppose that Hermes Trismegistus is the person who the Egyptians call Thoth. He must have lived before Moses."
The doctrine of Hermes Trismegistus was thought to be the same as that of Plato, who passed it on to his pupil Aristotle, tutor of Alexander. The 'magia naturalis' (natural 'sympathetic' magic of Hermes), supplemented by Cabalistic magic was seen by many to have the potential to establish a benevolent link between heaven and earth.
The renowned Renaissance hermeticist Pico della Mirandola (1463-94) was first to marry together Hermetism with Cabalism (literally 'tradition'). Florentines believed they had discovered in Kabbalah a lost divine revelation that could give the key to understanding both the teachings of Pythagoras, Plato, and the Orphics, and the inner secrets of Catholic Christianity. He presented 900 theses for public debate in Rome and believed he could prove the dogmas of the Trinity and the Incarnation through Kabbalistic axioms. Pico argued that Jesus (Iesu in Hebrew) by cabalistic interpretation could mean God, the Son of God and the wisdom (spirit) of God, ie., the Trinity.
All this caused a sensation in the intellectual Christian world, and the writings of Pico and his follower Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522) led to great interest in the doctrine of Divine Names and in practical (magical) Kabbalah (culminating in Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim's De Occult Philosophia (1531) and to further attempts at a synthesis between Kabbalah and Christian theology. Pico had to seek refuge from the inquisition in France and returned to the protection of Lorenzo the magnificent (Medici ruler of Florence 1469-1492).
In 1493 the infamous, corrupt Pope Alexander VI revoked Pico's charges. Alexander's interest in Christian Hermetic-Cabalism might be explained by his secretary's theory that the Pope was a descendant of Osiris, based on self forged ancient texts. The Pope commissioned Pinturicchio to decorate the ceiling of his apartment in the Vatican with farcical scenes of Hermes Trismegistus, Isis and the Apis bull (Serapis).
The Picatrix (1004-1007), though not normally associated with the Corpus Hermetica canon, has much reference to Hermes Trismegistus and draws ideology from the Sabean Arabs of Harran. The Sabeans performed yearly pilgrimages to the Giza pyramids from time immemorial to 11th cent., to conduct astronomical observations and rituals. The Egyptologist Hassan (1930) proposed that the name Sabean (Saba'ia in Arabic) comes from the ancient Egyptian word Saba'a (star). He believed the Sabeans (the star people) recognised the pyramids to be monuments dedicated to the stars. Their magic seems to have passed on to Arab scholars in Spain and Southern France, and surviving in the Picatrix . The Picatrix says:
"The Chaldeans affirm that Hermes was the first … he constructed a city with 4 gates. On the eastern gate he placed the form of an eagle, on the western gate he placed a bull, on the southern gate the form of a lion ), and the southern gate the form of a dog. Into these images he introduced spirits which spoke, nor could any enter without permission."
Casaubon (1559-1614) argued that none of the texts could have been written by an ancient Egyptian named Hermes Trismegistus (as was believed since their discovery in 1460). By analysis he attributed them to the early Christian period in the first three centuries AD.

The dating of the Corpus Hermetica (attributed to Hermes Trismegistus) is somewhere between the third century BC and the first century AD. According to one legend Hermes Trismegistus, who was a grandson of Adam and a builder of the Egyptian pyramids, authored the books. But, more probably the books were written by several succeeding persons.
Thoth (Hermes) was credited with all the sacred books. He was said to have succeeded in understanding the mysteries of the heavens and to have revealed them by inscribing them in sacred books which he then hid here on Earth, intending that they should be searched for by future generations but found only by the fully worthy." These sacred books are often referred to as the 42 Books of Instructions or the 42 Books of Thoth which describes the instructions for achieving immortality.
Clement of Alexandria stated thirty-six of the Hermetic books contained the entire Egyptian philosophy; four books on astrology; ten books called the Hieratic on law, ten books on sacred rites and observances, two on hymns in honor of the gods, and the rest on writing, cosmography, geography, mathematics and measures and training of priests. Six remaining books concerned medicine and the body discussing diseases, instruments, the eyes and women.
Most of the Hermetic books along with others were lost during the burning of the royal libraries in Alexandria. The surviving books were secretly buried in the desert where they are presently located. A few initiates of the mystery schools, ancient secret cults, supposedly know their location.
Manetho the High Priest of Heliopolis, under Ptolemy Philadelphus, 304 BC wrote a history preserved by Eusebius and Josephus. The subject-mater he asserts to have been extracted from the sacred pillars of the first Hermes Trismegistus, from inscriptions made in the sacred language of Thoth, translated after the Flood, written in the sacred character, and deposited in the sacred recesses of Egypt. His first book was history of heroes and demigods, his second of eight dynasties, and his third of twelve.

From information given in Oahspe Thoth can be either Thothma of the time of Osiris, or Pherna, alias Hermes, one of the Chine'ya and Vind'yu rebel Gods that fled from the Triune kingdoms in the east.
But more likely, it is Thoth who was captain of Looeamong's hosts that gave to mortals forty-nine Saviours. Thoth was his chief warrior angel, fighting against Baal who rallied the Israelites and Ezra and later warriors to call themselves Christians and made Constantine victorious in Roma. Thoth, alias Gabriel inspired the Council of Nicea and after upward of a thousand years of service to Looeamong, formed a heaven of his own called Kalla-Hored, the place of seven steps, in hada and raised up Mohammed.
He also managed Budha's heavenly kingdom "Celonia" over Egupt when Looeamong was obliged to cede Egupt to him.
In Oahspe Book of Wars 48.14 it says, in honor of the prophet of De‘yus whose name was Thoth, Hojax named himself, Thothma, which is to say, God-Thoth. Osiris told Hojax: You are the very Thoth reincarnated and you shall be God of the earth. This implies that the god Thoth and Thothma are the same.

Thoth or Hermes was called the scribe of truth, the twice-great; and that they held Set to be the name of the god of Asiatic people.
In the "Book of the Dead," it is said, "Tet, which is Set," thus confirming the identification of Seth and Thoth ).
[Early Gnostics (Christians) are sometimes called Sethians, named after Seth, Adam's son in Genesis 4:25, and Luke 3:38. Hojax named himself Thothma in honour of De'yus's prophet Thoth who gave us Genesis. Did Thoth name himself (Seth) in Genesis? One could think Sethians passed on the hidden spiritual knowledge of Thothma which eventually became mere Christian theology.]

In ANACALYPSIS Godfrey Higgins writes:
"The Egyptian cosmogony, like the Phœnician, is professedly of the Buddhic school: for the fullest account which we have of it is contained in a book ascribed to Hermes or Thoth: but Hermes or Thoth is the same person as Taut, who is said to have drawn up the Phœnician system: and Taut again is the same as the Oriental Tat or Buddha."

"Colonel Franklin says, The learned Maurice entertains no doubt that the elder Boodh of India is no other that the elder Hermes Trismegistus of Egypt, and that that original character is of antidiluvian race; ….
Buddha in Egypt, was called Hermes Trismegistus; Lycophron calls him Tricephalus. This speaks for itself, as we have seen that Buddha is identified with Brahman, Vishnu, and Siva."

Here Higgins speculates that "thrice greatest Hermes" is to be identified with the Trimurti: - Divine Wisdom (the first emanation), the logos, and, the solar fire, the sacred, never-to-be-spoken OM [this might correspond to Father, Son and Holy Spirit], (which he sees being the same as Brahman, Vishnu, and Siva), united in one person of Buddha.

One extreme website claims "Pythagoras founded the Cult of Hermes, based on the Order of Thoth in 530 B.C.

It says in Oahspe, Book of Wars 50.39, "Nevertheless, with all Thothma‘s wisdom, and the wisdom of his Gods, he fell on a stone and died suddenly on the day he was one hundred years old".
Pepi II (reigned c. 2278 BC–c. 2184 BC) was a pharaoh of the 6^th dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom. His throne name, Neferkare (Nefer-ka-Re), means "Beautiful is the Ka of Re". He succeeded to the throne at age six, and is credited with having the longest reign of any monarch in history at 94 years (which would make him 100 years old). His reign marked a sharp decline of the Old Kingdom. While the power of the nomarchs grew, the power of pharaoh dissolved. With no dominant central power, local nobles began raiding each other's territories and the Old Kingdom came to an end within mere decades after the close of his reign.
Pepi II's pyramid complex is located in Saqqara, close to many other Old Kingdom pharaohs. His pyramid is a modest affair compared to the great pyramid builders of the Fourth Dynasty, but was comparable to earlier pharaohs from his own dynasty. It was originally 78.5 metres high. The pyramid was the center of a sizable funerary complex, complete with a separate mortuary complex, a small, eastern satellite pyramid. The ceiling of the burial chamber is decorated with stars, and the walls are lined with passages from the Pyramid texts. An empty black sarcophagus bearing the names and titles of Pepi II was discovered inside. Following in the tradition of the final pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, Unas, the interior of Pepi II's pyramid is decorated with pyramid texts, magical spells designed to protect the dead. Well over 800 "utterances" are known to exist, and Pepi II's contains 675 such utterances, the most in any one place. Only two statues identified as representing Pepi II exist, both of these portraits depict Pepi II as a young child. There are few official contemporary records or inscriptions of Pepi's immediate successors, and for this reason in many books Pepi II is typically credited as being the last verifiable pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty and of the Old Kingdom.

________________________________________________________________________________

The DENKARD,
It is a ninth century encyclopedia of Zoroastrian religion, but with quotes from materials thousands of years older, including lost Avestan texts. It is the single most valuable source of information on this religion aside from the Avesta.

Book 8: Contents of the Nasks (Ancient Canon of Zoroastrianism)
Sudgar/Sudkar/Studgar/Istudgar/Sooghda/Sughdhas/Sudga Nask (book).
Fargard 7. The four periods in the millennium of Zartosht

First, the golden, that in which Ohrmazd displayed the religion to Zartosht.
Second, the silver, that in which Vishtasp received the religion from Zartosht.
Third, the steel, the period within which the Organizer of righteousness, Adarbad Mahraspandan, was born.
Fourth, the period mingled with iron is this, in which is much propagation of the authority of the apostate and other villains, as regards the destruction of the reign of religion, the weakening of every kind of goodness and virtue, and the disappearance of honour and wisdom from the countries of Iran.
In the same period is an account of the many perplexities and torments of the period.

Zand-i Vohuman Yasht, Ch 1.1
Zartosht asked for immortality, then Ohrmazd displayed the omniscient wisdom to Zartosht, and through it he beheld the root of a tree, on which were four branches, one golden, silver, steel, and one mixed up with iron.
He arose from sleep and reflected that this was a dream.

[Christian evangelists might gain some meaning from Ohrmazd's interpretation:]

Ohrmazd spoke to Zartosht thus: 'That root of a tree, and those four branches, are the four periods which will come.
That of gold is when I and thou converse, and King Vishtasp shall accept the religion, and shall demolish the figures of the demons, but they themselves remain in a concealed spirit state, for evil proceedings.
And that of silver is the reign of Ardashir the Kayanian king (Kai shah) [whom they call Vohuman son of Spend-dad], who separates the demons from men, scatters them about, and makes the religion current in the whole world.
And that of steel is the reign of the glorified Khosraw Noshirvan, son of Kobad/Kovad/Kavad/Qubad [531-579 AD], when he keeps away from this religion the accursed Mazdak, son of Bamdad, who remains opposed to the religion along with the heterodox.
And that which was mixed with iron is the evil sovereignty of the demons with disheveled/dressed?/uncovered? hair of the race of Wrath [the progeny of Aeshma/Eshm the demon], when it is the end of the tenth hundredth winter (sato zim) of thy millennium, O Zartosht the Spitaman

[A variation of this theme further in the Nask gives:
And I saw a tree on which were seven branches, one golden, one of silver, one brazen, one of copper, [one of tin], one of steel, and one was mixed up with iron etc.]

[The tale continues in similar description to how Hindus convey their Kali Yuga.]

Ohrmazd spoke thus: 'Righteous Zartosht! I will make it clear: the token that it is the end of thy millennium, and the most evil period is coming, is that a thousand kinds, a myriad of kinds of demons of the race of Wrath, rush into the country of Iran (Airan shatro) from the direction of the east, which has an inferior race and race of Wrath. They have uplifted banners, they slay those living in the world, they have their hair disheveled on the back, and they are mostly a small and inferior (nitum) race, forward in destroying the strong doer; O Zartosht the Spitaman! The race of Wrath is miscreated and its origin is not manifest. 26. Through witchcraft they rush into these countries of Iran which I, Ohrmazd, created.
O Zartosht the Spitaman! They will lead these Iranian countries of Ohrmazd into a desire for evil, into tyranny and misgovernment, those demons who are deceivers, so that what they say they do not do, and they are of a vile religion, so that what they do not say they do. And their assistance and promise have no sincerity, there is no law, they preserve no security, and on the support they provide no one relies; with deceit, rapacity, and misgovernment they will devastate these my Iranian countries.
And at that time, O Zartosht the Spitaman! all men will become deceivers, great friends will become of different parties, and respect, affection, hope, and regard for the soul will depart from the world; the affection of the father will depart from the son; and that of the brother from his brother; the son-in-law will become a beggar from his father-in-law, and the mother will be parted and estranged from the daughter.
'When it is the end of thy tenth hundredth winter, O Zartosht the Spitaman! the sun is more unseen and more spotted [sunspots?]; the year, month, and day are shorter; and the earth of Spandarmad is more barren, and fuller of highwaymen; and the crop will not yield the seed, so that of the crop of the corn-fields in ten cases seven will diminish and three will increase, and that which increases does not become ripe; and vegetation, trees, and shrubs will diminish; when one shall take a hundred, ninety will diminish and ten will increase, and that which increases gives no pleasure and flavour. And men are born smaller, and their skill and strength are less; they become more deceitful and more given to vile practices; they have no gratitude and respect for bread and salt, and they have no affection for their country
'And in that most evil time a boundary has most disrespect where it is the property of a suffering man of religion; gifts are few among their deeds, and duties and good works proceed but little from their hands; and sectarians of all kinds are seeking mischief for them. And all the world will be burying and clothing the dead, and burying the dead and washing the dead will be by law; the burning, bringing to water and fire, and eating of dead matter they practice by law and do not abstain from. They recount largely about duties and good works, and pursue wickedness and the road to hell; and through the iniquity, cajolery, and craving of wrath and avarice they rush to hell.
'And in that perplexing time, O Zartosht the Spitaman! -- the reign of Wrath with infuriate spear and the demon with disheveled hair, of the race of Wrath, --- the meanest slaves walk forth with the authority of nobles of the land; and the religious, who wear sacred thread-girdles]
on the waist, are then not able to perform their ablution, there will be only one a thousand, in a myriad, who believe in this religion, and even he does nothing of it though it be a duty; and the fire of Warharan, which will come to nothing and collapse, the care-taker does not supply it properly with firewood and incense;
'Honorable wealth will all proceed to those of perverted faith; it comes to the transgressors, and virtuous doers of good works, from the families of noblemen even unto the priests, remain running about uncovered; the lower orders take in marriage the daughters of nobles, grandees, and priests; and the nobles, grandees, and priests come to destitution and bondage.
The misfortunes of the ignoble will overtake greatness and authority, and the helpless and ignoble will come to the foremost place and advancement; the words of the upholders of religion, and the seal and decision of a just judge will become the words of random speakers among the just and even the righteous; and the words of the ignoble and slanderers, of the disreputable and mockers, and of those of divers opinions they consider true and credible, about which they take an oath, although with falsehood, and thereby give false evidence, and speak falsely and irreverently about me, Ohrmazd.
They who bear the title of priest and disciples wish evil concerning one another; he speaks vice and they look upon vice; and the antagonism of Ahriman and the demons is much brought on by them; of the sin which men commit, out of five sins the priests and disciples commit three sins, and they become enemies of the good, so that they may thereby speak of bad faults relating to one another; the ceremonies they undertake they do not perform, and they have no fear of hell.
And in that tenth hundredth winter, which is the end of thy millennium, O righteous Zartosht! all mankind will bind torn hair, disregarding revelation, so that a willingly-disposed cloud and a righteous wind are not able to produce rain in its proper time and season. And a dark cloud makes the whole sky night, and the hot wind and the cold wind arrive, and bring along fruit and seed of corn, even the rain in its proper time; and it does not rain, and that which rains also rains more noxious creatures than water; and the water of rivers and springs will diminish, and there will be no increase. And the beast of burden and ox and sheep bring forth more painfully and awkwardly, and acquire less fruitfulness; and their hair is coarser and skin thinner; the milk does not increase and has less cream; the strength of the laboring ox is less, and the agility of the swift horse is less, and it carries less in a race.
And on the men in that perplexing time, O Zartosht the Spitaman! who wear the sacred thread-girdle on the waist, the evil-seeking of mis-government and much of its false judgment have come as a wind in which their living is not possible, and they seek death as a boon; and youths and children will be apprehensive, and gossiping chitchat and gladness of heart do not arise among them. And they practice the appointed feasts of their ancestors, the propitiation of angels, and the prayers and ceremonies of the season festivals and guardian spirits, in various places, yet that which they practice they do not believe in unhesitatingly; they do not give rewards lawfully, and bestow no gifts and alms, and even those [they bestow] they repent of again.
And even those men of the good religion, who have reverenced the good religion of the Mazdayasnians, proceed in conformity with those ways and customs, and do not believe their own religion. And the noble, great, and charitable, who are the virtuous of their own country and locality, will depart from their own original place and family as idolatrous; through want they beg something from the ignoble and vile, and come to poverty and helplessness; through them nine in ten of these men will perish in the northern quarter.
And rule and sovereignty come to slaves, and their will and pleasure will become current in the world. That wicked evil spirit, when it shall be necessary for him to perish, becomes more oppressive and more tyrannical.' So Ohrmazd thus: Tell it then to those who are not aware of the hundred winters so that for the preservation of their souls, they may remove the trouble, evil, and oppression which those of other religions cause in the ceremonies of religion. And, moreover, I tell thee this, O Zartosht, that whoever, in that time, appeals for the body is not able to save the soul, for he is as it were fat, and his soul is hungry and lean in hell; whoever appeals for the soul, his body is hungry and lean through the misery of the world, and destitute, and his soul is fat in heaven.
Zartosht inquired: 'O creator! in that perplexing time are there righteous, and religious people who wear the sacred thread-girdle (kusti) on the waist, and celebrate religious rites with the sacred twigs (Barsom)?
Ohrmazd said to Zartosht thus: 'Of the best men is he who wears the sacred thread-girdle and remains in the good religion of the Mazdayasnians.

This prophecy further on mentions the 'archangels' Mihr, Srosh, Rashn who correspond to the Hyan period (probably about 800-600 BC).

In the ideal of a perfect State in Plato's Republic (corresponding to the Hyan period), wives and children are to be in common; and all education and the pursuits of war and peace were also to be common. The governors were to place their soldiers in houses which were common to all, and to contain nothing private, or individual; and no one was to have any of the ordinary possessions of mankind. They were to be warrior athletes and guardians, receiving from the other citizens, in lieu of annual payment [lieutenant], only their maintenance, and they were to take care of themselves and of the whole State.
A man who dies gloriously in war becomes honoured as being of the golden race.
The patriotism of the best and bravest elite philosopher guardians is tried in critical moments by "the test of pleasures and pains", hardships and dangers. He who came forth pure, like gold tried in the refiner's fire, was made a ruler, a philosopher/warrior king, and received honours and rewards in life and after death. Rulers call themselves fellow-guardians and citizens, but the people call them saviours and helpers.

Homer prayed to the Muses to tell him how discord first arose among rulers and their supporters. They said when guardians are ignorant of the law of births, and unite bride and bridegroom out of season, the children will not be goodly or fortunate. They will be found to fall in taking care of all, first by under-valuing music; which neglect will soon extend to gymnastic; and hence the young men will be less cultivated. In the succeeding generation rulers will be appointed who have lost the guardian power of testing the metal of the different races [castes?], which, like Hesiod's [725 BC], are of gold and silver and brass and iron. And so iron will be mingled with silver, and brass with gold, and hence there will arise dissimilarity and inequality and irregularity, which always and in all places are causes of hatred and war. This the Muses affirm to be the stock from which discord has sprung.
When discord arose the two races were drawn different ways: the iron and brass fell to acquiring money and land and houses; but the gold and silver races, not wanting money but having the true riches in their own nature, inclined towards virtue and the ancient order of things. There was a battle between them, and at last they agreed to distribute their land and houses among individual owners; and they enslaved their friends and maintainers, whom they had formerly protected in the condition of freemen, and made of them subjects and servants; and they themselves were engaged in war and in keeping a watch against them.

Plato's Republic might originate from the time of Taenas [Plato's Timaeus?] (who gave us the original concept of the Holy Ghost). This is the earliest Classical Greek period (~900 BC [Homeric poems] - 500 BC) which would also correspond to the earliest the Hyan period. Probably the start of the Hellenistic Period of Alexander (300 BC) and the era of Saviours marks the end of the Hyan period. Plato's Republic throws light on three Zoroastrian concepts:

1) The vision of Zarathustra/Daniel, and why the spirit would associate Daniel with Zarathustra.

2) The word xshâyatha (King), and Khshathra (dominion) has an equivalent Sanskrit word, Kshatriya that refers to the ruling and fighting caste of the Hindus.
Khshathra Vairya/Vohu Khshathra/Sheherevar is the Amesha Spenta of desirable/ideal dominion, the Kingdom & Holy Sovereignty of Virtue, equivalent to Ksha-thra-vairya [given in Saphah]. One of the Mithraic Lords of the Hyan period was Kshathra, who, like the Fate Lachesis (who measures life) Gatha-Vohu-Khsha-thra is the Lord of Measure [the more one approaches to benevolence of the "Above" the greater is one's measure (dominion) and increase.]
Royal glory, divine grace or khvarenah, implies shining and "the sun". Mythical heroes came from Khvaniras

3) Each Amesha Spenta/Ameshaspand presides over an element. Khshathra-vairya or Shehrewar Ameshaspand presides over metal. Some have suggested a connection with the test of molten metal.

The Muses
The word muse is used figuratively to denote someone who inspires an artist.
In Greek mythology the Muses (Mousai, meaning song or poem) are nine Greek goddesses of the arts and sciences associated with the Roman Camenae. According to Hesiod's Theogony, they are the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne [Latin Minerva], goddess of memory.
The Muses were both the embodiments and sponsors of performed musical speech [maybe similar to Vede, Yiha or Gathic recitations]. mousike (music) was the art of the Muses. In the archaic period, before the widespread availability of books, philosophy was a sub-species of mousike. Herodotus named the nine books of his Histories after a different Muse.
They brought both prosperity and friendship.
The three original Muses were: Aoide ("song", "voice"), Melete ("practice" or "occasion") and Mneme ("memory").
The canonical nine Muses are Euterpe (music), Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), Terpsichore (dancing), Thalia (comedy) and Urania (astronomy).
Pythagorus built a shrine of the Muses at the center of a city, to promote civic harmony and learning. Local cults of the Muses were associated with springs or fountains. The Muses were also occasionally referred to as Corycian nymphs after the Corycian Cave .
They were venerated in Delphi. Apollo became known as Mousagetes (Muse-leader). The Library of Alexandria and its circle of scholars were formed around a mousaion ("museum" or shrine of the Muses)
A popular Masonic lodge in pre-Revolutionary Paris was called Neuf Seurs ("nine sisters", ie. nine Muses), and was attended by Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin. A museum, originally a cult place of the Muses, is now a place for the public display of knowledge.

They are not to be confused with The Fates, the divine daughters of Zeus and Themis, the Goddess of Necessity.
[In stark contrast, physics has ascribed Necessity to determinism implicit in Newtonian world view. The universe has no choice. It has to happen according to fixed dynamic laws.]
All living things must eventually submit to them. Their names are: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Life is woven by Clotho, measured by Lachesis and finally, in a very literal sense, the thread of life is cut by Atropos. They laugh at our feeble attempts to cheat them because they always prevail. The fates are simply "the spirits" in Oahspe.

Music
Music reflects the harmonies and the moral order of the universe and therefore, has a divine origin. It can embody objective realities and manifest intrinsic values and is not just about subjective personal taste or the passing fads of a culture. music formulated according a higher order suggests to the listener that the heavens, the earth and nature embody orderly forms, and manifest a divine beauty and harmony which reflects the Creator.
"Amusement" meant to be charmed by the Muses. Music comes from Greek mousike, the art of the Muses . The music of the Greeks did not signify merely the harmony of sounds , but actually imbodied the idea of inner harmony of the spirit , the becoming at one with the spirit of the Muses , so that the soul responded in harmonic rhythm to the beat of universal harmony . Music is a striving for harmony in life combined with aesthetic , in contrast with intellectual and physical branches of study and development. It was culture of the essential person, the ego or soul , whereas the other two divisions care for and supply the needs of the mind and of the body.
Music, considered as the essential harmony not only in cosmic but in human life , has fallen from that high estate to being little more than the harmony of sounds : one may be an expert instrumentalist without having much harmony in one's soul . In this modern, limited sense music combines and appeals to the aesthetic and the mathematical . While we have the power to be enraptured by harmony and melody , we can also learn how these are related to numbers, ratios , vibrations , and all those physical facts studied in acoustics and the laws of modern musical harmony and counterpoint .
Harmony and rhythm underlie the cosmos , as is expressed in the phrase, "the music of the spheres "; and number and proportion underlie the whole process of evolution . Apollo , uniting the attributes of the sun, bears in his hand a heptachord or seven-stringed lyre (corresponding to septenates such as seven musical tones , seven prismatic colors, seven human or cosmic principles, etc). From it the god evoked the harmony that governs the worlds in their motions. One of its correspondences is the seven sacred planets , Apollo being the sun. As the ancients all regarded the sun, under whatever name, as a seven- or twelve-rayed one (the logoi proceeding from the sun's heart , finding their respective individual habitations in the planets ) the heptachord is thus the actual or organic structure of the solar system ; and in reality Apollo's heptachord (septachord) is Apollo's own self flowing forth in seven logoic powers (similar to Amesha Spentas). The sacred number seven is characteristic of divisions of the octave ,
Music is represented as having been taught to man by Apollo, Isis -Osiris , Thoth , Edris (in the Koran ), Confucius etc. Music was represented as one of four divisions of mathematics , the others being arithmetic , astronomy , and geometry . The music of sound arouses in us a power which needs to be controlled, as it can carry us to heights from which we may fall. If regarded as a sensual indulgence , even though a refined one, its true import is not realized. If carried into our lives, so as to aid in harmonizing our relationships to other lives, then it is the unfolding influence of the real music of the spheres of cosmic harmony . For music is "the most divine and spiritual of arts".

________________________________________________________________________________

In the Mazzaroth it says:
The great Persian poet Ferdusi, who was born in the year 916, studied the works of the Guebres, or fire-worshippers, whose lawgiver Zerdusht, or Zoroaster, was by some supposed to be the prophet Daniel, or at least to have been one of his disciples. From Ferdusi's chief work, the Shah-nameh, or hero-book of Iran, a history in verse, collected from the ancient chronicles of Persia, this passage is given. "At this time," the reign of Gushtasp, or Darius Hystaspes, "sprang up in Iran a tree, of which the leaves were counsel, and the fruit was wisdom. An old man appeared on the earth, in his hand the staff of Aud (the same as Hud), and blessed was his footstep. His name was Zerdusht, and his arm smote the ill-working Ariman.
To the shah of the world he spake thus: 'I am a messenger of heaven, and will show thee the way of the Lord. In Paradise I have kindled my fire offering, and the Creator said to me, take this flame with thee: behold the heaven above and the world beneath; I produced them without water and without earth. See man, whom I have made, and know that no one is like me, who am the preserver of all. Now that thou knowest all this to have come from me, honour me as the Creator of all. From him who speaketh with thee receive faith, and teach his ways and his laws, as the great Architect teaches thee. Choose wisdom, use all things earthly as trifling; and learn that faith is the true life, and without it majesty is worthless.'
Gushtasp and Serir (Serir, Cyrus) listened to his words, also Zohrasp at Balk. The great and wise of all places came to the shah to seek conversion, the idol-worship was suppressed, and the worship of fire founded in its stead. The fire-temple at Bersin was erected, and worship and holy rites were there established. A holy cypress of Paradise he planted before the door of the fire-temple; and it was written on its high-sprouting branches how Gushtasp had declared for the true faith, and placed this tree in testimony that his soul was growing up in the right way."
"According to the Dabistan, Zerdusht, or Zoroaster, appeared as a religious reformer in the reign of Gushtasp V, by most historians ancient and modern identified with Darius Hystaspes. This makes him cotemporary with Haggai and Zechariah, and a few years later than Ezekiel and Daniel."
It was said by the translator of the Zend Avesta, M. Anquetil Du Perron, that the Zend was the old language of Media, and that the books preserved in that very ancient language were the genuine works of Zerdusht, or Zoroaster, and written in the fifth or sixth century before Christ.
In the sixth chapter of Ezra, Darius acknowledges "the true faith," ordering sacrifices to be offered to the God of heaven, and prayers to be made for the life of the king and of his sons.
Hyde, quoting from Abulfaragius, says that Zoroaster the Persian, in the time of Daniel the prophet, predicted to the Magi, or Astrologers of Persia, the future appearance of a star which would notify the birth of a mysterious child, the Almighty Word which created the heavens, whom He commands them to adore.
The doctrines of belief in an evil principle, the promise of an incarnation of the Deity, the destruction of the world by fire, and a general resurrection, the second Zoroaster would hear from the prophet Daniel, while the first of the name, said to be cotemporary with Nimrod, would know them by immediate tradition from Noah, Daniel 7 and 12.

From " The Mazzaroth (or The Constellations)

H. Shapero writes:
In much later Zoroastrian traditions, some of which were not recorded until centuries after the Arab conquest, the life of the Prophet abounds with miracles and divine interventions. His mother glowed with the divine Glory usually reserved for kings; the soul of the prophet was placed by God in the sacred Haoma plant (which Zarathushtra condemned in the Gathas) and the prophet was conceived through the essence of Haoma in milk (though the birth is not a virgin birth.). The child glowed brightly. He was cared for by a mother wolf in the wilderness (as is Romulus).
Tradition-minded Zoroastrians do accept these legends as truth. Modern Zoroastrians discount the legends as pious fantasies, noting that there are no miracles or supernatural interventions in the Gathas.
The Gathas are regarded as the inspired composition of a poet-prophet rather than a text dictated by a heavenly being. Zarathushtra was inspired by God, through the Bounteous Immortals of Vohu Manah, Asha, and the others - but he was not a passive recipient of the divine wisdom. In accordance with Zoroastrian philosophy, he reached God through his own effort simultaneously with God's communication to him.
Zarathushtra was never divine, not even in the most extravagant legends. He remained a man like all others, though divinely gifted with inspiration and closeness to Ahura Mazda. His life is an inspiration for Zoroastrians. After his death. Zarathushtra's great soul attains almost the level of a Bounteous Immortal, but still is not merged in the divinity.
The humanistic, monotheistic, moral philosophy found in the Gathas caused enlightenment philosophers such as Kant and Diderot to mentioned him as a model; the playwright Voltaire wrote a play called "Zoroaster." The French composer Rameau wrote an opera called "Zoroastre" and the free-thinking Mozart used a variant of the name for his character Sarastro in "The Magic Flute". Sarastro is the priest of the Sun and Light who defeats the Queen of the Night. In the 20th century Nietszche was inspired by Zarathushtra's example when expounding his philosophy in 'Thus Spake Zarathustra', though there is no identifiable Zoroastrian teaching in the Nietszche work.

Sacred Books of the East
Oahspe tells us that contemporary with the wars of Looeamong [about the time of Cyrus the Great (559-528 BC)] the terrible conflicts in the heavens of Kabalactes caused India to become a land of ruins. Then he began to clear away the ruins and remodel the sacred books.
The sacred books Kabalactes had rewritten were: the Avesta, Vendidad, Vispered (in content almost the same as the Yasna, but serving a different function), Yacna [or Yasna, from which is extracted the Gathas] and the Khordavesta. Then (in the order of the Oahspe account) Sakaya was born [history says Prince Siddhartha Gautama achieved enlightenment at about 528 BC] and we are told 'there had been bloody times in Vind'yu for four hundred years'. Therefore they were being written around the time of Sakaya and Mahaviru (Jains), in the time of the shramanas [wandering ascetic teachers of heterodox belief, including so-called Buddha], contemporary with the Achaemenian empire, or even later.
Kabalactes also commanded all languages to be hereafter made out of Vedic, Yi'ha and Zend, from which Sanskrit descended, as it is to this day.

History says the following:

Approximate extent of Parthia, Scythia and Sarmatia in the 1st century BC.

The Avesta (said to be incorrectly called the Zend-Avesta) is a library containing different sacred texts which were written during a very long period in different languages. It resembles a prayer book and has few narratives.
The exact time of the Avesta's creation is not known. However, its roots are considered to go back to the second millennium BC. The bulk of the Avesta was probably written before the Parthian period, the period when it is said that the Avesta was written down, though some scholars have denied this, while others maintain it was even earlier in the Achaemenian period. It is likely that the Parthian Younger word Avesta (âbâsta) meaning 'the law' comes from the Parthian age.

It is claimed that as Zoroastrian religion spread, Iranians began collecting and compiling ancient history, philosophy, science, tradition, laws and beliefs of their ancestors. The Arabic historians Tabari and Masudi state that the Zoroastrian texts were copied in gold on 12,000 cowhides. Parsi tradition speaks of twenty-one Nasks or volumes written by Zarathushtra.
The twenty-one Nasks were divided into three equal parts of seven each. These three divisions are classified under the headings: Gasanik, pertaining to the Gathas, the Hadha Mansarik - mandatory prayers, rituals, and regulations, and the Datik, which is that pertaining to law.
Some of the lost Nasks are preserved in part in the Yasna, Yashts, and Nirangistan.
After the downfall of the Achaemenian empire, the Avestan language began to decay. When it grew unintelligible to the people, the learned priests undertook translations and explanations of the Avestan texts into Pahlavi. These commentaries on the original Avestan texts are called âzainti in Avesta, and zand in Pahlavi. The explanatory texts now came to be known as Avastak-u Zand (Avesta and the commentaries).
Extensive Pahlavi literature that came into existence under the Sasanians (200 AD. - 8/900 A.D) [named after its initiator, a Zoroastrian Priest by the name of Sassan] has mostly perished. The works that have reached us were written after the downfall of the Sasanian empire. The compilation of the most important work of the period, the Dinkard/Denkard, commenced in the ninth century. The Denkard, Vijirkard-i Dinik, and the Persian Rivayets give us summaries of the lost Nasks.
Eventually the Pahlavi texts themselves needed further explanation and the added commentary is called Pazand/Pazend.
The Pazend texts were written in Avestan script.

Apocalyptic Middle Persian texts composed at the end of the fourth century BCE (when Alexander conquered Persia) supposed the existence of other texts. It can be deduced from a remark by the Roman author Plinius the Elder (23-79 CE), who writes about the Alexandrine scholar Hermippus of Smyrna (third century BCE) that a large religious literature existed:
"Hermippus, who wrote most painstakingly about the whole art of magic and interpreted two million verses by Zarathustra, also added lists of contents and handed down the name of Agonaces as the teacher who instructed him, placing him [Zarathustra] five thousand years before the Trojan War."

The passage below is from "http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sassanids/sassanids.htm"

It is said that the Avesta was revealed by Ormazd to Zoroaster and by Zoroaster to Vistâsp, king of Bactria. King Vishtaspa ordered two archetype copies of these sacred texts. One of these copies perished in the flames when Iskander the Rûmi (Alexander the Great) burned the royal palace at Persepolis. The other, tradition maintains, was taken by the conquering hordes to their own country, and rendered into Greek.
After Alexander's death the priests of the Zoroastrian religion met together, and by collecting the various fragments that had escaped the ravages of the war and others that they knew by heart, they formed the present collection, which is a very small part of the original book, as out of the twenty-one Nosks there was only one that was preserved in its entirety, the Vendîdâd.
This tradition assumes that the Avesta is the remnant of the sacred literature of Persia under the last Achæmenian kings.

In the Dînkart, a Pahlavi book of great authority with the Parsis, according to a proclamation ascribed to Khosrav Anôsharvân (531-579), the collection of the Avesta fragments was begun in the reign of the last Arsacides, and was finished under Shapûr II (309-380). King Valkash (Vologeses), it is said, first ordered all the fragments of the Avesta which might have escaped the ravages of Iskander, or been preserved by oral tradition, to be searched for and collected together. The first Sassanian king, Ardeshîr Bâbagân, made the Avesta the sacred book of Iran, and Mazdeism the state religion: at last, Âdarbâd under Shapûr II, purified the Avesta and fixed the number of the Nasks, and Shapûr proclaimed to the heterodox: 'Now that we have recognised the law of the world here below, they shall not allow the infidelity of any one whatever, as I shall strive that it may be so.'
The authenticity of this record has been questioned, chiefly on account of the part that it ascribes to an Arsacide prince, which seems hardly to agree with the ideas generally entertained about the character of the Sassanian revolution. Most Parsi and Muhammedan writers agree that it was the Sassanian dynasty which raised the Zoroastrian religion from the state of humiliation into which the Greek invasion had made it sink. Therefore it seems strange to hear that the first step taken to make Mazdeism a state religion was taken by one of those very Philhellenic Parthian princes, who were so imbued with Greek ideas and manners. Yet no Parsi would ever have thought of making them share what was in his eyes their first and best title of honour with any of the despised princes of the Parthian dynasty.

From Oahspe:
In olden times the Gods had inspired the Parsi'e'ans to migrate toward the west and inhabit the lands of Heleste, [Balkans, Georgia etc,] and they carried with them three languages: the Panic, of Jaffeth; the Vedic, of Vind'yu, and the Parsi'e'an; and because they used the same sounds, mostly, but different written characters, a confused language sprang out of these, and was called Fonece, and the people thus speaking were called Foneceans [Shemites, *Semites or Proto-Persians], that is to say: We will use the same sounds, but take to our judgment to use whatsoever written characters we choose.
[*We know today that Phoenician is a Semitic language. Are then Parsi'e'ans or Foneceans Semites or Indo-Aryans? (Sumerian is not a Semitic tongue.) Also if Panic, Vedic and Parsi'e'an languages use mostly the same sounds, these would be the hypothetical Proto-Language being sought after.]
Hence, Fonece is the first and oldest of mortal-made languages; and this was styled in heaven the period of the emancipation of mortals from the dictatorship of angels in regard to written signs and characters and words. Jehovih had said: In that respect man on earth hath advanced enough to stand alone; and it was so, for, from that time to this, neither Jehovih nor his angels have given any new language or written characters to mortals. And all languages that have come from that time onward, are but combinations and branches, and amalgamations and malformations of what existed then on the earth.

When Lot escaped out of Sodom, he halted in a small city called Ben-ab, and tarried there whilst Sodom and Gomorrah were being consumed with fire; and because he was saved, he called the place Zoar, because he was a worshipper of the doctrines of Zarathustra, who was called in the Fonecean language Zoa-raastra. And the place was called Zoar for more than a thousand years.
When Lot departed out of Zoar, there went with him two tribes, and there were born of the house of Lot, offspring to the two tribes who accompanied him, and these became the nations in after years known as Moabites and Ammonites, who were of the Foneceans, as their names show, and they followed the doctrines of Zarathustra. [The existence of a Moabite language is known from a single inscription in that language dating from about the 9th cent. B.C., from proper names that occur in the Old Testament, and from the inscriptions of other peoples.]

The Bible distinguishes between Amorites and Ammonites
The Book of Deuteronomy (in the Bible) says:
1:38 But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
1:44 And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.
2:8 we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession.
2:18 Thou art to pass over through Ar, the coast of Moab, this day:
2:19 And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession.
23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever:

Another source says: The Chaldeans of Beth Nahreen (Mesopotamia which is current days Iraq, east Syria, and south east Turkey) are a live continuation of all the indigenous people of Mesopotamia whether their tribal names were Sumerians, Akkadians, Amorites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Aramaeans. The language of the Chaldean people is Aramaic, a different dialect than that spoken by Jesus.

Hamito-Semitic Tongues:
These include Arabic, Hebrew, Coptic, and Syriac.
The Hamitic subfamily includes ancient Egyptian and its descendant Coptic, Berber languages, Cushitic and Chad languages.
The descendants Ham, the second son of the biblical Noah, supposedly were the original speakers of the Hamitic languages. The name Cushitic is derived from Cush, a son of Ham.
The Semitic languages are named after Shem or Sem, the oldest son of Noah.

The Semitic subfamily includes:
Northeast Semitic: - Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian)
Northwest Semitic: - Canaanite (Hebrew , Phoenician [which has the Punic variant from Carthage], and Moabite), Ugaritic [variously regarded as an early form of Hebrew, or Phoenician, a dialect of Canaanite or an independent dialect of Northwest Semitic. The writings are important in the study of Hebrew and early biblical literature], and Aramaic (which embraced Syriac )
Southwest Semitic: - Arabic
Southeast Semitic: - South Arabic (preserved in inscriptions), Sabaean (inscriptions were also discovered in Ethiopia) and Minaean (8th cent. BC or earlier).
A Semitic language/s was brought from S Arabia to Ethiopia during the first millennium B.C. At that time the native languages of Ethiopia were Cushitic.
Semitic Ethiopian: - North Ethiopic (Geez or classical Ethiopic, Tigre, and Tigrinya), South Ethiopic (Amharic , Harari, Gurage, and others).
[Looeamong falsely called himself Christ, which is the Ahamic word for knowledge. Neither understood any man in those days that the word Christ had any reference to a man or person.]

These languages are believed to have evolved from a hypothetical parent tongue, proto-Semitic. The place of origin of proto-Semitic is still disputed: Africa, Arabia, and Mesopotamia are the most probable locations.

The oldest known writing system employed by Semitic-speaking peoples is Sumerian cuneiform (4000 B.C), though Sumerian was not a Semitic tongue.
The source of the proto-Semitic alphabetic script has been variously conjectured to be Egyptian hieroglyphics , Babylonian cuneiform, or other writing systems.
North Semitic script consists of a Canaanite branch (which gave rise to Early Hebrew and Phoenician, and the Greek alphabet, the parent of all modern European alphabets, including the Roman and the Cyrillic) and an Aramaic branch.

According to a Greek tradition the Phoenicians passed on their alphabet to the Greeks. The oldest extant Early Hebrew text [the Gezer calendar] is dated at about the 11th or 10th cent. BC. Old Hebrew writing (barely discernible from Phoenician from where it originated) was the alphabet of the Jews until they adopted Aramaic instead of Hebrew (now confined to religious use) as their spoken language sometime before the Christian era, when they also began to use the Square Hebrew letters [ketab merubba] derived from Aramaic writing (another Phoenician-derived script). The only descendant of the Old Hebrew alphabet still in use is the Samaritan writing. Records of the Aramaic script go back to the 9th cent. BC. After about 500 BC the Aramaic alphabet was used throughout the Middle East.
In addition to being the parent of Square Hebrew letters, from which evolved modern Hebrew writing, the Aramaic alphabet is the ancestor of Arabic writing, the Syriac scripts, and other Semitic alphabets. Aramaic writing probably also gave rise to the significant alphabetic writing systems of Asia, such as the Devanagari alphabet so widely used in India.
As Islam spread to various nations in Africa and Asia, it was accompanied by the Arabic alphabet. For example, Arabic writing was adapted for Persian, Pushtu, Urdu, Malay, the Berber languages, Swahili, Hausa, and Turkish. (Since 1928, however, the Roman alphabet has been used for Turkish.)

Tocharians of Jaffeth, or Zarathustrians of Oas?
A group of naturally mummified remains has been discovered in the Tarim Basin, China. The remains are Caucasoid. Many are blondes and redheads, with blue eyes.
They probably represent an Indo-European group, though we cannot determine their language from the remains. However, their clothing is clearly related to the Tocharians from written and pictorial remains. As the Tocharians were located south of these burials, a linguistic affinity is possible.
The weave of their clothes is identical to that of "clo mor", the tweed and tartan weave used by the Gaels. One of the females is wearing a tartan dress.
One of the older females is wearing an extremely tall conical hat, reminiscent of a "witch's hat" of yore. Tall, conical caps and helmets were worn in historic times by the Celtic aristocracy, and in Gaelic Ireland, tall conical hats were worn by the high chiefs and nobility until at least 1719, as witnessed by portraits of that date.
They appear to have been warriors, herdsmen, and traders, and been highly skilled in medicine. The few clues to their language are in the form of words that appear to be copied in the Chinese manuscripts. Their physical appearance, clothing and belongings strongly resemble those in extant paintings of the Tocharians further south. They appear to have died out or left the region in antiquity.

Loulan, capital of the Loulan (Kroraina) Kingdom, was a small, prosperous commercial city on the famous Silk Road about 2,000 years ago. It was described as the "cradle of civilisation in the Middle Ages". The city suddenly disappeared from the area in the third century, until 100 years ago when ruins were discovered. Archaeologists found the ruins of government offices, homes, Buddhist pagodas and temples, and also dried rivers, dead poplar trees, farmland and ancient tombs around the ancient city, which covered approximately 100,000 square meters.
In 1980, archaeologists unearthed the perfectly preserved body of a woman in an ancient tomb, who died more than 3,800 years ago. In 1998, the well-preserved body of an infant, who died about 4,000 years ago and the remains of an old man, who died more than 1,500 years ago were also unearthed in the area. Other findings in the area include a host of precious relics like coloured coffins, carpets, inscribed wooden slips, coins, lacquer ware, carved wooden utensils and pottery.

In the early 1990's, a French anthropological team working in Afghanistan in the area of the Khyber Pass found a Caucasoid tribal group, matrilineal, speaking a seemingly archaic I-E dialect. The tribe might possibly be a remnant group of Indo-Europeans.

Map of Xinjiang, the Uygur Autonomous Region of northwest China, showing Lop Nur Lake (where Loulan was located on the west bank) [right], Turfan (Turpan) in the eastern part of the Tarim basin and Kucha (Kuqa), further to the west where Turfanian or East Tocharian and Kuchean or West Tocharian manuscripts were found. The Pamir Mountains (bottom, left) are said to be Mount Meru, at the junction of the Hindu Kush, Karakoram (which extend from the Himalayas), Kunlun (below Pamirs), and Tian Shan ranges (center, top).

Sir William Jones (1746-1794) proposed that Sanskrit word resemblance to Greek and Latin could be explained by a common, earlier source. These early people and their language were originally referred to as Aryan, but that term was perverted by the Nazis to the extent that most scholars no longer use it, referring the term Indo-European, due to the extremely wide geographical dissemination. 19th century German linguists called the language "Ur-Sprache" or original speech.

The Nostratic Proto-Language hypothesis, defined as a hypothetical macro-family of languages, embracing Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, Kartvelian, Uralic, Altaic and Dravidian, looks to a single common origin and a world proto-culture. It suggests that the last glacial melt and drowning of the Black Sea Shelf caused Indo-Europeans to migrate from central Eurasia into the Fertile Crescent and elsewhere, where their remnant cultures are the Sumerians, Akkadians, Kurgans, Shang, Tocharians, Hittites, the Sanskrit speakers, the Indus Valley culture, Minoans, the megalith cultures (e.g. Stonehenge), Mycenae, Malta, Canary Islands, Easter Island, and the Hebrews.

Evidence for European languages at the end of the prehistoric period finds that, with exceptions (such as Basque or Etruscan), they belonged to a root language (Indo-European language) which branched into Indo-Iranian, Germanic (English), Italo-Latinic (Latin), Balto-Slavic (Polish), Hellenic (Greek), Celtic, Albanian, Armenian, Tocharian (Chinese Turkestan) and Anatolian (Hittite, now extinct). All have sub-groups and branches. (ie., Germanic > English)

Refer to Indo-European Family of Languages

The "Indo-Iranian" branch became Old Persian, Parhlavi and Persian in Iran, Avestan in central Asia, and in India the early form of the Sanskrit of the Vedas.

Left: Old Persian written in the wedge-shaped cuneiform script.

Indo-Iranian languages

The Avestan language belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages.

Group	Languages & Major Dialects			Province
	Ancient	Medieval	Modern
East Iranian	Avestan			ancient Persia
		Sogdian		central Asia
		Khotanese
		Khwarezmian (Chorasmian/Khorezmian)		central Asia
		Bactrian	Pashto	Afghanistan,West Pakistan
		Old Ossetic	Ossetic	Caucusus
West Iranian	Old Persian	Parthian	Persian	Iran (Persia)
		Middle Persian	Kurdish	Iran, Iraq, Turkey
			Baluchi	Iran,West Pakistan
			Tajiki	central Asia

The Persian or Iranian language divides into 3 time periods:
1. A prehistoric Persian language known as the Old Persian and sometimes as Zend, now extinct and no longer understood. It is the language of literally writing, beginning long before 1000 BC. and lasting until 300 BC.

2. Middle Persian [3rd century BCE (the fall of the Achaemenids) to 8th-10th century CE]. It is a continuation of the Old Persian, and includes Parthian, Sogdian and Pahlavi [the language of the courts in Baghdad until the 900's A.D]. It is claimed that Arabic really comes from the Persian Pahlavi, not from Arabs.

Pahlavi

3. Modern Iranian languages - New Persian, Kordi (Kurdish) and Pashto (Persian-Pashto), an official language of Afghanistan; and Tajik (Persian-Tajik), spoken in Tajikistan.

Above: Avestan Script

Zend
The chapter called Ahura'Mazda, Creator in the Book of Saphah begins:
"Descended by the Yi-ha light through mortals, and in the Vedan Gods revealed from Zarathustra in Juian, Zend, and Haizariyi, and thence into Vede, and thence into Sanskrit, and by Brahma and by Buddha."

In this order of languages Zend is older than Sanskrit.

Also:
Kabalactes caused India to be "but a land of ruins", remodelled the sacred books (the Avesta, Vendidad, Vispered, Yacna and the Khordavesta) and commanded all languages to be hereafter made out of Vedic, Yi'ha and Zend, from which Sanskrit descended, as it is to this day (Book of Eskra Ch 22).

It is not clear when Oahspe mentions " Vedic, Yi'ha and Zend, from which Sanskrit descended as it is to this day", whether Zend could be the 'Old Persian' (Avestan) language or its special Gâthic dialect. It's tempting to say Yi'ha is Gâthic (which is thought to be older) and Zend is classical Avestan, since we know Yi'ha was around even after Sakaya's time (528 BC) because after Kabalactes remodelled the sacred books he commanded all languages to be hereafter made out of Vedic, Yi'ha and Zend. The two Indo-European dialects of Tocharian should also be considered. But whichever it is Oahspe reveals that it is the source of Sanskrit!
[This makes sense if the"Vedic Sanskrit" of the Rig Veda is the 'Vedic' mentioned here, and Sanskrit as it is to this day is Classical Sanskrit (discussed above after the section about the Rg Veda and Dyaus).]

Indeed this very point sparked the following language debate.
In 1808 John Leyden regarded Zend as a Prakrit dialect, parallel to Pali.
To Erskine Zend was a Sanskrit dialect, imported from India by the founders of Mazdeism, but never spoken in Persia. His main argument was that Zend is not mentioned among the seven dialects which were current in ancient Persia [according to the Farhang-i Jehangiri (A large Persian dictionary compiled in India in the reign of Jehangir)], and that Pahlavi and Persian exhibit no close relationship with Zend.
Emmanuel Rask showed that the list of the Jehangiri referred to an epoch later than that to which Zend must have belonged, and to parts of Persia different from those where it must have been spoken; he showed further that modern Persian is not derived from Zend, but from a dialect closely connected with it; and he showed that Zend was not derived from Sanskrit. As to the system of its sounds, Zend approaches Persian rather than Sanskrit.
The origin of many gods and heroes, whom the Parsi worship and epical history of Iran were derived from and revealed by the same source as the myths of Vedic India. Burnouf gave the first notions of a comparative mythology of the Avesta and the Veda, by showing the identity of the Vedic Yama Yama with the Avesta Yima, and of Traitâna with Thraêtaona and Ferîdûn. At the same time the ancient Persian inscriptions at Persepolis and Behistun were deciphered by Burnouf in Paris, by Lassen in Bonn, and by Sir Henry Rawlinson in Persia. Thus was revealed the existence of a twin language heard from the mouth of Darius bearing a striking likeness to that of the Avesta in nearly every feature. Since then it is agreed that Zend is not an artificial language, or of foreign importation, or without root in the land where it was written.

In the 18th century it was customary to call the language of the Avesta 'Zend' (referring to the Zend Avesta). Zend is now not thought of as a language since the translation of the word Zend means 'a commentary or explanation'. The expression 'Avesta and Zend' was used in Pahlavi commentary to designate 'the law with its traditional and revealed explanation.' To Theosophists Zend (dyan) Avesta (vidya) is the study (dyan) of knowledge (vidya).

Avesta means 'the law' (from the old Persian âbastâ), and is the proper name of the original texts, so the language of the Avesta is now simply called 'Avestan'.

It remains strange how Zend came to be thought of as a language in the first place.

Saphah says, of the Lords of the Hosts in Heaven:
Heads of spiritual societies in atmospherea, of those days.
Maideashenea, Patishahaya, Ayathrema, Maidyarrah, Hamachapathmada, Yemehataman, Aunviti, Haptanaihaiti, Ustavaiti, Cpenta'Mainyus, Kshathra, Vahistoisa, Airyamaishya, Fshushamanthra, Hadhaokhta, Cpenta-armaiti, Zaothra and Barecma, Mithra, Kamaqactra, Havanana, Aarevahsha, Roethwiskare, Vohu-Kasha, Aiwyoonhana, Nairayo-canha, Asha-vahista, Haome, Lord of Haoma rites, Frava-daiti, Lord of Fravishes, Pailvish-hahin and Ustav, Beryejaga, Avathrema, Tistrya and Yima, Son of the Sun, the All Light.
Of the second rank above these were:
The Gods of the United Hosts of Heaven.
The Creator, Chief over all, Yima and Mithra, Amesha, Cpentas, Havanyi, Cavaghi and Vicya, Rapithurna. Fradotfshu and Zantuma, Fradatvira and Dagyevma, Aiwicruthrema-Aibigaza, Fradat-vicpanum-hujyaiti, Vishaptatha, Ish-Fravashi, Athwya and Kerecacpa, promoted by special decree.
In addition to the above, the oagas (Gathas) of Zinebabait (afterward Lower India) the Zend, The Lord Gods, that is, officers of kingdoms in heaven and ruler over nations on earth. [Among a list of 11 are included the following]
3. Rashnu, a Fragapattician of the Yi-ha period.
4. Haha-Naepta (Goddess) of the host of Fragapatti, of the Theantiyi period.
By the Ayustrians, Gathas meant Gods.
5. Iaya-Haptanhaiti, special to Haptan, of the Hi-ga period.
7. Naotara, who gave many sciences to mortals
8. Thrita, God of healing
9. Hiac-kaus, Lord of the Seal of Heaven who bestowed the power of Ahura'Mazda on mortals, enabling the prayers of the living to redeem from torments the spirits of their forefathers.
11. Ashi-vanuhi, Goddess of dress.

I'm not sure if the numbered list of Gods above are meant to be members of the "Zend".

Oahspe refers to Zend as the name of a language. From the above it seems the word Zend also became used for the name of a collective of high Lord Gods during the Hyan period (~900-300 BC). (probably most active around 300 BC, though maybe anytime up to 1000 BC, the beginning of Triune control, though many of the gods are much older). The Zend seem to also be the oagas or Gathas, who are Gods according to the additional comment "By the Ayustrians, Gathas meant Gods".
Further on in the Saphah chapter where "Lords of atmospherea ministering through the temples and oracles to mortals of the Hyan period, embraced in Mithra inspiration" are listed, some of their names confirm them to be Gathas.
They are:
The Gatha-Ahunavaiti, Yacna-Haptan-haiti, the Goddess Mother, Gatha-Ustavaiti, her Holy Sister, Goddess Gatha-Cpenta-Mainyu, her Holy Daughter, Goddess Gatha-Vohu-Khsha-thra, the Lord of Measure, Airyama, Fshnsha-manthea, Hadhaokhta, Creator, Ever Present Spirit in all places, Ruler over all else and Dispenser.
[Many of Fragapatti's High Council of the first house of Mouru have the same name as the Mithraic Lords, but I cant believe they are the same, but only assumed their names, or perhaps initially served under Mithra independently for Jehovih's sake. Some also had a title of Gatha. ie. Gatha-Ahunavaiti, Goddess of Halonij, and Haptanhaiti, God of Samatras; Ustavaiti, Goddess of Maha-Meru. These, or the Mithraic Lords of the same name, have the "Five Gathas" named after them]

There are also many equivalent Avestan Gods to substantiate this.

From the VISPERAD, Ch.1
5. And I announce and complete (my Yasna) to the Gatha Ahunavaiti, the holy, ruling in the ritual order, and to those women who bring forth many sons of many talents, Mazda-given, and holy lords of the ritual order, and to that (chant) which has its Ahu and its Ratu (before it in the Yasna).
And I celebrate, and will complete (my sacrifice) to the Yasna Haptanghaiti, holy, and ruling in the ritual order, [and to the water Ardvi Anahita].
6. And I announce, and I (will) complete (my Yasna) to the Gatha Ushtavaiti, the holy, ruling in the ritual order, and to the mountains which shine with holiness, the abundantly brilliant and Mazda-made, the holy lords of the ritual order.
And I announce, and (will) complete (my Yasna) to the Gatha Spenta-mainyu , the holy, ruling in the ritual order; and I celebrate and will complete (my Yasna) to Verethraghna (the blow of victory) Ahura-given, the holy lord of the ritual order.
7. And I announce, and (will) complete (my Yasna) to the Gatha Vohu-khshathra , holy, ruling in the ritual order, and to Mithra of the wide pastures, and to Raman Hvastra, the holy lords of the ritual order. And I celebrate and will complete my Yasna to the Gatha Vahishtoishti , the holy, ruling in the ritual order. And I celebrate and will complete my Yasna to the good and pious Prayer for blessings, the benediction of the pious, and to that Yazad, the redoubted and swift Curse of the wise, the holy lord of the ritual order.
8. And I announce, and (will) complete (my Yasna) to the Airyema-ishyo, the holy lord of the ritual order, and to the Fshusho-mathra, and to that lofty lord Hadhaokhdha, the holy lord of the ritual order.
9. And I announce, and (will) complete (my Yasna) to the questions asked of Ahura, and to the lore of Ahura, to the Ahurian Dahvyuma (Dahyuma), and to the Ahurian Zarathushtrotema [according to Zoroastrians a Zarathushtrotema is the supreme head of the Zoroastrian priesthood], holy lords of the ritual order, and to the farm-house with its pastures which give pasture to the Kine of blessed gift, and to the holy cattle-breeding man.

It would make sense then that Zend Avesta meant 'Law of the Gods', and possibly did indeed originally get called that. Other possibilities are that Zend might have been thought of as a language given of the Gods or a Godly language. In these senses it would have still been called 'Zend Avesta', or Law given in the language or speech of Gods.

From YASNA 58 - The Fshusho Mathra (Mantra or Sacred Word)
8. We sacrifice to the entire collection of the Praises of the Yasna, with the careful structure of their language which has reached the most its object. And we offer (our homage) in our celebrations to Thy body, O Ahura Mazda! the most beautiful of forms, these stars, and to that one, the highest of the high (Pazand) such as the sun was called. Yea, we worship the Praises of the Yasna which were the production of the world of old.

The Gâthâ's

The Gathic parts comprise of
A) The Five Gathas:
1) Ahunavaiti Gatha (Yasna Chapters 28-34 also here and here)
The Yasna Haptanghaiti (Yasna Chapters 35-42)
2) Ushtavaiti Gatha (Chapters 43-46)
3) Spentamainyush Gatha (Chapters 47-50)
4) Vohukhshathra Gatha (Chapter 51)
5) Vahishtoishti Gatha (Chapter 53)

[Yasna Haptanghaiti is not one of the 5 Gathas. Notice that I inserted it in its proper numerical order of Yasna chapters to show that the order of Gathas is the same as the order of the Lords of the Hosts in Heaven given in Saphah. Moreover, this Gathic chapter called Yasna Haptanghaiti has the same name as the Mithraic Lord given in Saphah ie Yacna-Haptan-haiti.]

B) The three fundamental prayers of Zoroastrians:
1) Yenhe hatam [All those beings of whom Ahura Mazda knows the goodness…]
2) Ashem Vohu [Holiness is the best of all good (See below)]
3) Yatha ahu vairyo [The will of the Lord is the law of holiness…]

C) The Airyema Ishyo formula (Yasna Chapter 54)
[Notice that Airyamaishya, or Airyama is listed above in the "Heads of spiritual societies in atmospherea".]

The so-called "Five Gathas" of the Yasna are named after the "Heads of spiritual societies in atmospherea" (highlighted above) who were Mithraic Lords of the Hyan period [Aunviti, Haptanaihaiti, Ustavaiti, Cpenta'Mainyus, Kshathra, Vahistoisa].

In Summary

The Gathas	Hyan Mithraic Lords	Lords of Hosts	Vispered Gods
Ahunavaiti	Gatha-Ahunavaiti	Aunviti	Gatha Ahunavaiti
Yasna Haptanghaiti	Yacna-Haptan-haiti	Haptanaihaiti	Yasna Haptanghaiti
Ushtavaiti	Gatha-Ustavaiti	Ustavaiti	Gatha Ushtavaiti
Spentamainyush	Gatha-Cpenta-Mainyu	Cpenta'Mainyus	Gatha Spenta-mainyu
Vohukhshathra	Gatha-Vohu-Khsha-thra	Kshathra	Gatha Vohu-khshathra
Vahishtoishti		Vahistoisa	Gatha Vahishtoishti
Airyema Ishyo	Airyema	Airyamaishya	Airyema-ishyo
Non Gathic
Fshusho Mathra	Fshnsha-manthea	Fshushamanthra	Fshusho-mathra
Hadhokht Nask	Hadhaokhta	Hadhaokhta	Hadhaokhdha

[see below]

The many instances of orders of names being duplicated in Oahspe and the Avesta can have a positive or a negative explanation. They can act as proof that both were taken from heavenly library records, or be a source of suspicion for sceptics that ideas were taken from existing sources. My opinion is that the information given in Oahspe is just enough to make sense out of the corrupted, superstitious and distorted understanding we have of what the Avesta depicts today in the eastern traditions or western innovations.

It appears from all this that Zoroastrians only speculate over the names and meanings in the Avesta. Just as Gnostics have perhaps resorted to finding the hidden meaning or Gnosis in ancient texts that became senseless as a factual record, but meaningful as an allegory, parable or symbol, the meaning of the Avesta must be sought after by such means.

From YASNA 54 - The Airyema-Ishyo
Let the Airyaman, the desired friend and peer, draw near for grace to the men and to the women who are taught of Zarathushtra, for the joyful grace of the Good Mind, whereby the conscience may attain its wished-for recompense. I pray for the sacred reward of the ritual order which is (likewise so much) to be desired; and may Ahura Mazda grant it, (or cause it to increase).

As the linguists of both Europe and India worked on the Gathas it became clear that the language of the Gathas was far older than the language spoken in Iran at the time of King Darius' father. The language of these hymns (Gathic Avestan) resembles the Sanskrit of the Indian Rigveda, hymns that were probably composed in the Punjab between 1500 and 1200 BC.

One could find a Sanskrit equivalent for almost any Avestan word.
An example (left) of Avestan text from Yasna 10.6 is rendered word for word in Sanskrit on the right.
Translated it means: `Mithra that strong mighty angel, most beneficent to all creatures, I will worship with libations'

Persian often uses an h where Sanskrit uses an s, such as haoma for soma. The Gathic word Ahura, meant 'divine lord' (as in Ahura Mazda), while in Hindu writings asuras were demons (though in the early writings asuras were respected gods). The reverse occurs with the Hindu term for divinities, devas. In Gathic Daeva means 'demons'.
[It might also be the case that Deva and daeva have separate meanings.]

In Osiris, Son of Jehovih Ch. V
Osire came to a place in the lower heaven called Vibrahj, signifying resplendent, where ruled with treacherous tyranny the false God, Daveas. Because he had "spurned his own name" angels and mortals were afterwards made to "curse and shun the name, Daveas".

In the history given in Oahspe the false Ahura opposed the Devas, so the devas would have been portrayed in mortal history of the period as the evil ones and Ahura (Ashura) as good. The Vedas still maintain the original sense of to represent a celestial God-like being, and recall Ahura's rebellion against the Deva in these words.

The Old Persian language and its Gathic dialect are no longer understood, therefore the Avestan texts needed to be translated using their accompanying Pahlavi versions. The language of the Avesta, particularly the Gathas is extremely difficult and interpretation can be uncertain. They were transcribed in a late alphabet (Pahlavi) derived from Aramaic.
The collection of Zend fragments, known as the Zend-Avesta, is divided into two parts in its usual form.
The first part contains the Yasna, the Vispêrad, and the Vendîdâd.
These three books are found in manuscripts in two different forms: either each by itself, in which case they are generally accompanied by a Pahlavi translation; or the three mingled together according to the requirements of the liturgy, as they are not each recited separately in their entirety, but the chapters of the different books are intermingled; and in this case the collection is called the Vendîdâd Sâdah or 'Vendîdâd pure,' as it exhibits the original text alone, without a translation.
The second part, known as the Khorda Avesta or 'Small/Short Avesta,' is composed of short prayers which are recited not only by the priests, but could be used by all the faithful, at certain moments of the day, month, or year, and in presence of the different elements; these prayers are the five Gâh, the thirty formulas of the Sîrôzah, the three Âfrigân, and the six Nyâyis.
But it is also usual to include in the Khorda Avesta, although forming no real part of it, the Yasts (Yashts) or hymns of praise and glorification to the several deities (also said to be written by Zarathustra but transmitted in Younger Avestan) and a number of fragments, the most important of which is the Hadhôkht Nosk. Some say, because the Yasts were not so important as the hymns to Ahuramazda (Gathas), they were memorised less carefully than the Gâthâ's. These hymns survive in the 'Younger (classical) Avestan' language.

The Yasna is divided into the older and younger Yasna according to the period of its language.
The older Yasna was also written in Gathic; at least some of them seem to be older than the Gâthâ's, and appear to have been reworked in the light of the teachings of Zarathustra. The younger Yasna is written in Younger (classical) Avestan.
The Yasna contains litanies for sacrifice and all kinds of rituals, eg., the use of the trance-inducing beverage Haoma, and offerings to water and fire. Over the centuries, new liturgic texts were written in Younger Avestan.

The Vispêrad (meaning "worship of all the Masters or Chiefs) is a long liturgy made up from Yasna and Vendidad texts with many additional invocations.
The Vendidad is a compilation of religious laws and of mythical tales codified in the Parthian age (141 BC - 224 AD). Its name is a corruption of Vidaevadata, 'against the demons'. Its language is a type of Younger Avestan different to cuneiform texts of the Persian empire, so it was probably written later, during the Parthian period.

One writer says:
"The Vendidad or Book Of Law against the Daevas (Dataam vi-daevaam) is in contrast to Zarathushtrian Law (Daataam Zarathushtrim). Asho Zarathushtra did not make laws for his followers during his lifetime.
[Asho is a Persian name meaning pure of heart, Osho is a term derived from the ancient Japanese, said to be first used by Eka to address his master Bodhidharma]
No one approached Asho Zarathushtra to know what should be done to a thief or a murderer. Had some one asked him, he would have replied: "I have not come to create a government within a government. I have come to teach people how to lead a good life. Had he been asked: "What law should we follow?" The reply would have been: "Follow the existing laws."
[My understanding is that Oahspe answers this by advising to follow the existing laws and governments for Jehovih's sake, implying, I assume, that there are times when the powers that be are not for Jehovih, when we should rather follow our conscience.]
He would have advised the people to consider those laws with their wisdom and knowledge because social laws change in every era and place, and people do not remain the same. Every law which was prepared and enforced by the wise men of a people in the past was good and useful for its own day.
The Magi were the religious leaders of the Median people. Median, Azerbaijanian, and Babylonian religious leaders are not the same as the Zarathushtrian Mobeds although all of them carry the same title of "Magi". They had the monopoly of performing religious rituals. Their profession was hereditary. They gradually introduced all their beliefs, rituals and customs under the garb of Zarathustra's teachings. Their strategy saved them their former position in the new religion. They forced the Dakhmeh-nashini [disposal of the dead], upon Zarathustrians. They forbade Zarathustrians from burying or cremating their dead. The composers of the story of the Aryan countries were non-Zarathushtrian, and that it belongs to a period much older than the Zarathushtrian era. Zurvanistic creed goes to pre-Zarathushtrian times.
[Much of the Vendidad is like the book of Leviticus is to the bible, that is, not suitable for these times. Like this writer, some Zoroastrians only accept the Gathas, believing the Vendidad to have been corrupted by Magi. But for Oahspeans, it's opening chapters remarkably follow word for word verses from the Book of God's Word Chapter VIII, in its opening Chapters, as demonstrated below.]
The Zarathushtrian Doctrine was against magic and superstitions. Zarathushtra replaced hypocrisy and deceit with virtue and excellence. He advocated freedom of will and intellect. The Zarathushtrian religion was greatly harmed by the Median Magi. They controlled one's life from birth to death."
Therefore the laws of the pre-Zarathushtrian Vendidad should not be considered today as proper and practical. The laws were prepared and enforced during different periods in places. Law scriptures are of lesser importance in that they change. They could never be equal with the Gathas, prayers, rituals, and regulations.
One cannot accept the present version of the Vendidad to be the copy of the old origin.

From "Is The Vandidad a Zarathushtrian Scripture"

Yasna 25.5
5. And we worship the holy wind which works on high, placed higher than the other creatures in the creation; and we worship this which is thine, O Vayu! and which appertains to the Spenta Mainyu within thee; and we worship the most true religious Knowledge, Mazda-made and holy, and the good Mazdayasnian law.
6. And we worship the Mathra Spenta [mãthra/manthra means Sacred Word] verily glorious (as it is), even the law pronounced against the Daevas, the Zarathushtrian law, and its long descent; yea, we worship the good Mazdayasnian Religion, and the Mathra which is heart-devoted and bounteous; yea, we worship the Mazdayasnian Religion maintained in the understanding of the saint; and we honour that science which is the Mathra Spenta, and the innate understanding Mazda-made, and the derived understanding, heard with ear, and Mazda-made.

In 224 CE, the Parthian rulers of Iran were replaced by a new Persian dynasty, the Sassanids. New texts were added to the already existing corpus, the most important being [supposedly] the Visperad, Vendidad and the Khorda Avesta. The language of this period is Pahlavi.
The Sassanids were devout Zoroastrians and did much to improve the understanding of the ancient texts. There were already several commentaries on the Avesta, but they imposed a new version, the Zand. It became an integral part of the books.
Under the Sassanid king Chosroes II Parvêz (591-628), a Zoroastrian high priest named Tansar established the canon of Avestan texts. It contained all the texts that we have already seen, but also some books on cosmogony and law, a biography of Zarathustra, apocalypses and several expositions of doctrine. This library was certainly written down; it is called the Great Avesta.
In 642, the Arabs invaded Iran. They were tolerant towards Zoroastrianism, but Islam became the dominant religion and some Avestan works were translated into Arabian, the originals being lost. In the eighth century, relations between Muslims and Zoroastrians became hostile and the Zoroastrians started to redefine themselves; their ancient religion and old language were important aspects of their new self-image. The antagonism between the two groups continued to grow in the ninth century, when caliph Mutawakkil ordered the holy cypress at Kâshmar, which was very important to the Zoroastrians, to be cut down (in 846). Many Zoroastrians decided to migrate to India. Several texts from the Avesta are therefore known from Indian translations.

Fire-temple of Yazd

The Pahlavi translation of the Vendîdâd, which was not finished before the latter end of the Sassanian dynasty, contains many Zend quotations from books which are no longer in existence; other quotations, as remarkable in their importance as in their contents, are to be found in Pahlavi and Parsi tracts, like the Nîrangistân (precepts or rules of conduct for the organisation of the cult) and the Aogemaidê (meaning "we accept").

From the Aogemaidê (Part of the Avesta Fragments)
6. May the immortal soul have its share in Paradise!
7. And may the pleasure and comfort that will dissipate the pain of the immortal soul come to us!
8. At the fourth dawn, may the holy, strong Sraosha, and Rashn Rast, and the good Vae, and Ashtad the victorious, and Mihr of the rolling country-side, and the Fravashis of the righteous, and the other virtuous spirits come to meet the soul of the blessed one,
9. And make the immortal soul pass over the Chinvad bridge (see below) easily, happily, and fearlessly!
10. And may Vahman, the Amshaspand, intercede for the soul of the blessed one,
11. And introduce it to Ohrmazd and the Amshaspands!

The Bundahis (Bundahishn) contains much matter which is not spoken of in the existing Avesta, but which is very likely to have been taken from Zend books which were still in the hands of its compiler. It is a tradition with the Parsis, that the Yasts were originally thirty in number, there having been one for each of the thirty Izads (Yazads) who preside over the thirty days of the month; yet there are only eighteen still extant.
We have a fair specimen of what these lost texts may have been in the few non-liturgical fragments which we still possess, such as the Vistâsp Yast and the blessing of Zoroaster upon King Vistâsp, which belong to, the old epic cycle of Iran, and the Hadhôkht Nosk (book of scriptures), which treats of the fate of the soul after death.

From the Vistâsp Yast

(Part of the Avesta Fragments)
21. The young king Vishtaspa asked Zarathushtra: 'With what manner of sacrifice shall I worship and forward this creation of Ahura Mazda?'
Zarathushtra answered: 'Go towards that tree that is beautiful, high-growing, and mighty amongst the high-growing trees, and say thou these words: "Hail to thee! O good, holy tree, made by Mazda! Ashem Vohu!"
'Let the faithful man cut off twigs of baresma, either one, or two, or three: let him bind them and tie them up according to the rites, being bound and unbound according to the rites.
'The smallest twig of Haoma, pounded according to the rules, the smallest twig prepared for sacrifice, gives royalty to the man (who does it).' Ashem Vohu: Holiness is the best of all good.

From the Hadhôkht Nosk (Also part of the Avesta Fragments)
1. Zarathushtra asked Ahura Mazda: 'When one of the faithful departs this life, where does his soul abide on that night?'
Ahura Mazda answered: 'It takes its seat near the head, singing the Ushtavaiti Gatha and proclaiming happiness: "Happy is he, happy the man, whoever he be, to whom Ahura Mazda gives the full accomplishment of his wishes!" On that night his soul tastes as much of pleasure as the whole of the living world can taste.'
At the end of the third night, when the dawn appears, it seems to the soul of the faithful, one as if it were brought amidst plants and scents; it seems as if a wind were blowing from the region of the south, from the regions of the south, a sweet-scented wind, sweeter-scented than any other wind in the world.
And it seems to the soul of the faithful one as if he were inhaling that wind with the nostrils, and he thinks: 'Whence does that wind blow, the sweetest-scented wind I ever inhaled with my nostrils?'
And it seems to him as if his own conscience were advancing to him in that wind, in the shape of a maiden fair, bright, white-armed, strong, tall-formed, high-standing, thick-breasted, beautiful of body, noble, of a glorious seed, of the size of a maid in her fifteenth year, as fair as the fairest things in the world.
And the soul of the faithful one addressed her, asking: 'What maid art thou, who art the fairest maid I have ever seen?'
And she, being his own conscience, answers him: 'O thou youth of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, of good religion, I am thy own conscience!
'Everybody did love thee for that greatness, goodness, fairness, sweet-scentedness, victorious strength and freedom from sorrow, in which thou dost appear to me;
'And so thou, O youth of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, of good religion! didst love me for that greatness, goodness, fairness, sweet-scentedness, victorious strength, and freedom from sorrow, in which I appear to thee.
'When thou wouldst see a man making derision and deeds of idolatry, or rejecting (the poor) and shutting his door, then thou wouldst sit singing the Gathas and worshipping the good waters and Atar, the son of Ahura Mazda, and rejoicing the faithful that would come from near or from afar.
'I was lovely and thou madest me still lovelier; I was fair and thou madest me still fairer; I was desirable and thou madest me still more desirable; I was sitting in a forward place and thou madest me sit in the foremost place, through this good thought, through this good speech, through this good deed of thine; and so henceforth men worship me for my having long sacrificed unto and conversed with Ahura Mazda.
'The first step that the soul of the faithful man made, placed him in the Good-Thought Paradise;
'The second step that the soul of the faithful man made, placed him in the Good-Word Paradise;
'The third step that the soul of the faithful man made, placed him in the Good-Deed Paradise;
'The fourth step that the soul of the faithful man made, placed him in the Endless Lights.'
Then one of the faithful, who had departed before him, asked him, saying: 'How didst thou depart this life, thou holy man? How didst thou come, thou holy man! from the abodes full of cattle and full of the wishes and enjoyments of love? From the material world into the world of the spirit? From the decaying world into the undecaying one? How long did thy felicity last?'
And Ahura Mazda answered: 'Ask him not what thou askest him, who has just gone the dreary way, full of fear and distress, where the body and the soul part from one another.
'[Let him eat] of the food brought to him, of the oil of Zaremaya: this is the food for the youth of good thoughts, of good words, of good deeds, of good religion, after he has departed this life; this is the food for the holy woman, rich in good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, well-principled and obedient to her husband, after she has departed this life.'

Zarathushtra asked Ahura Mazda: ' O Ahura Mazda, most beneficent Spirit, Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!
When one of the wicked perishes, where does his soul abide on that night?'
Ahura Mazda answered: 'It rushes and sits near the skull, singing the Kima Gatha (Y46), O holy Zarathushtra!
'"To what land shall I turn, O Ahura Mazda? To whom shall I go with praying?"
'On that night his soul tastes as much of suffering as the whole of the living world can taste.'
At the end of the third night, O holy Zarathushtra! when the dawn appears, it seems to the soul of the faithful one as if it were brought amidst snow and stench, and as if a wind were blowing from the region of the north, from the regions of the north, a foul-scented wind, the foulest-scented of all the winds in the world.
And it seems to the soul of the wicked man as if he were inhaling that wind with the nostrils, and he thinks: 'Whence does that wind blow, the foulest-scented wind that I ever inhaled with my nostrils?'
The first second third step that the soul of the wicked man made laid him in the Evil-Thought Hell;
The second step laid him in the Evil-Word Hell; The third step laid him in the Evil-Deed Hell;
The fourth step that the soul of the wicked man made laid him in the Endless Darkness.
Then one of the wicked who departed before him addressed him, saying: 'How didst thou perish, O wicked man? How didst thou come, O fiend! from the abodes full of cattle and full of the wishes and enjoyments of love? From the material world into the world of the Spirit?
From the decaying world into the undecaying one? How long did thy suffering last?'
Angra Mainyu, the lying one, said 'Ask him not what thou askest him, who has just gone the dreary way, full of fear and distress, where the body and the soul part from one another.
'Let him eat of the food brought unto him, of poison and poisonous stench: this is the food, after he has perished, for the youth of evil thoughts, evil words, evil deeds, evil religion after he has perished; this is the food for the fiendish woman, rich in evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds, evil religion, ill-principled, and disobedient to her husband.

'O Maker! how do the souls of the dead, the Fravashis of the holy Ones, manifest themselves?'
Ahura Mazda answered: 'They manifest themselves from goodness of spirit and excellence of mind.'
Then towards the dawning of the dawn, that bird Parodarsh, that bird Kareto-dasu hears the voice of the Fire.
Here the fiendish Bushyasta, the long-handed, rushes from the region of the north, from the regions of the north, speaking thus, lying thus: 'Sleep on, O men! Sleep on, O sinners! Sleep on and live in sin.'

A similar vision of heaven and hell in 'The Book Of Arda Viraf' in which Viraf gives an account much like Dante [yet it is at least several centuries older than "The Inferno".

Assyrian winged genius (1350-612 BC) Aleppo museum, Syria

[Notice that the place where his soul remains for three days is reversed for the evil man. Ie. in the Hadhôkht Nosk the soul sits near the skull, not the feet]

Also First Book of God Chapter XIV - The first Bible of Vind'yu. says:
Brahma said: Seest thou a star? Now I say unto thee, there is an old legend that the pure in heart, looking upward, oft see their own paroda, and think it belongeth to another. Yu-tiv reassured Brahma that she saw the star,

The following comparison of the important Book of God's Word Chapter VIII, with the opening passages of the Vendidad (in italics) will unfold and put into context the phenomenal/historical/mythical world of Avesta with the help of Oahspe. I've also included additional verses from Saphah and elsewhere in the Avesta.
(Note: words in pink are the ones of interest found in the Avesta and explained in Saphah)

Book of God's Word
First, Ormazd was, and He created all created things. He was All; He is All. He was All Round, and put forth hands and wings. Then began the beginning of things seen, and of things unseen.

[Hands and wings here seem to represent the potential of corpor and spirit (or realm of the mind) respectively, opposites that come into being. This is the basis of Zoroastrian symbolism (see Symbol of the Farohar)]

The first best highest place He created was the All Possibility [Being and Non-being]. And the second best highest place He created was the All Good. With Him are all things Possible. With Him are all things Good.

Vendidad
Ahura Mazda spake unto Spitama Zarathushtra, saying: I have made every land dear (to its people), even though it had no charms whatever in it: had I not made every land dear (to its people), even though it had no charms whatever in it, then the whole living world would have invaded the AIRYANA-VAJA

Book of God's Word
Ormazd then created the first best of places, the longest enduring, the AIRYANA-VAJA (etherea), the highest of good creation.
[Also in the Book of Saphah Airyana is "the good, created things"
Airyana seems to be a feminine intonation of the word Iran

Vendidad (Book Of Law)
Fargard 1.
Sixteen perfect lands created by Ahura Mazda, and as many plagues created by Angra Mainyu.
2. The first of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the AIRYANA VAEJA, by the Vanguhi Daitya (by the good river Daitya). Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the serpent in the river and winter, a work of the Daevas. There are ten winter months there, two summer months; and those are cold for the waters, cold for the earth, cold for the trees. Winter falls there, the worst of all plagues.

Fargard 2. 20. "The Maker, Ahura Mazda, called together a meeting of the celestial Yazatas, in the Airyana Vaejo, of high renown, by the Vanguhi Dairya. The fair Yima, the good shepherd, called together a meeting of the best of the mortals, in the Airyana Vaejo of high renown, by the Vanguhi Daitya."

Ohrmazd Yasht (Hymn to Ahura Mazda)
21. Hail to the Glory of the Kavis! Hail to the Airyanem Vaejah!
Hail to Ardvi, the undefiled well! Hail to the whole world of the holy Spirit!

The Greater Bundahishn
The first of places the best created was Eranvej The name Iran and Aryan race comes from the "first of places and best created", Eranvej (Iran Vej or Aryan Vaeja).

[Airyanem Vaejah is the Avestan name of the original homeland of the Iranian peoples. The meaning of vaejah is uncertain; it has been interpreted as "seed" or "germ", but it is more likely to have meant "stretch" or "expanse". The term Airyanem Vaejah or Eranwez is echoed in the name of the country Eran (Modern Persian Iran), from proto-Iranian aryanam" (land) of Aryas/Iranians", and also in the name Eranshahr (Realm of Aryas/Iranians). These names first appear in the reign of Ardashir I, at the beginning of the Sasanid Empire. The term Vaejah can possibly be derived from the Vedic "vij" and would thus suggest the region of a fast-flowing river.
In the Yashts, Airyanem Vaejah is the land where Zarathustra sacrificed to the yazatas. It is considered the best of places, but on the other hand the Vendidad claims that there are two months of summer there and ten of winter. It suffers from flooding at the end of winter. Yima was taught by Ahura Mazda how to build a shelter to protect the inhabitants of the land from the dreadful winter. Areas to which these tribes finally relocated include Iran, Afghanistan and northern India.
Airyanem Vaejah is reckoned to have been located somewhere between the Caucasus and south Asia. In the Avesta, Zoroaster states that he lived in Airyanem Vaejah also called Eranvej, the Iranian expanse. In the listing of sixteen countries of the Vedidad, Airyanem Vaejah seems to lie to the north of all of these. Some experts suggest that Airyanem Vaejah was probably centered around Khwarazm (see Chorasmia/Khorezmia on map), a region that is now split between several Central Asian republics. Some researchers believe that Iran vig was located in what is now Afghanistan, the northern areas of which were a part of Ancient Khwarezm and Greater Khorasan. The book "Arctic home of the Aryans" combines indications from the Rigveda and the Avesta to conclude that "Airyanem Vaejah," the homeland of the Aryans, lies within or very proximate to the Arctic circle. It has also been suggested that Airyanem Vaejah could refer to Kashmir.]

Book of Saphah
Airyana, a protector. (See Tablet Se'moin.) In Tablet Biene he is made in the form of a lion, with man's face.
Maori (Mouru?), the second holy heaven.

Book of God's Word
Out of MOURU, of the regions of Haraiti, came the Voice, created by the Creator Ormazd; came to I'hua-Mazda; and now cometh to thee, Zarathustra, thou All Pure.
[House of Mouru was the council chamber and capital of Haraiti, the place of the throne of Fragapatti, in the lower heavens. The mythical Mount Meru is most likely reminiscent of Mouru . In Middle Persian, the mythical mountain Hara Berezaiti became Harborz, in Modern Persian Harborz became Alborz. This has the secondary name of Haraiti ]

Vendidad
The third of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the strong, holy MOURU. Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created plunder and sin

The Greater Bundahishn
8. The third best created was the valiant Merv (see map of Bactria above), that is, it performs works and organisations of great fame.

Book of God's Word
The third best created places created Ormazd, which was HARAITI, a high heavenly good place, a Home of Fragapatti, a Creator Son of the heavenly Airyana-vaja, a rescuer of men and spirits from Anra'mainyus, the evil of blood and bone.

Vendidad
And we sacrifice to both earth and heaven, and to the stormy wind that Mazda made, and to the peak of high HARAITI, and to the land, and all things good.

We worship Sraosha (Obedience) the blessed, whose house stands with its thousand pillars, as victorious, on the highest height of high HARAITI, self-lighted from within, star-studded from without,

Book of God's Word
The fourth best created places created Ormazd, the Creator, which was Gau, the dwelling-place of SOOGHDA, of heavenly shape and straight limbs and arms, and ample chest, full of music.

Vendidad

[Though Yima is spoken of as a man, his activity is like a secondary God to Ahura Mazda who conducts meetings in the Highest heaven and creates the world.]

Then I, Ahura Mazda, brought two implements unto him: a golden seal [or ring] and a poniard [dagger] inlaid with gold. Behold, here Yima bears the royal sway!
Thus, under the sway of Yima, three hundred winters passed away, and the earth was replenished with flocks and herds, with men and dogs and birds and with red blazing fires, and there was room no more for flocks, herds, and men.
Then I warned the fair Yima, saying: O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat, the earth has become full and there is room no more for flocks, herds, and men.
Then Yima stepped forward, in light, southwards, on the way of the sun, and (afterwards) he pressed the earth with the golden seal, and bored it with the poniard, speaking thus: O Spenta Armaiti, kindly open asunder and stretch thyself afar, to bear flocks and herds and men.
And Yima made the earth grow larger by one-third than it was before.
Thus, under the sway of Yima, six hundred winters passed away, and the earth was replenished and there was room no more for flocks, herds, and men.
Then Yima stepped forward, in light, southwards, on the way of the sun, and (afterwards) he pressed the earth with the golden seal, and bored it with the poniard, speaking thus: O Spenta Armaiti, kindly open asunder and stretch thyself afar, to bear flocks and herds and men.
And Yima made the earth grow larger by two-thirds than it was before.
Thus, under the sway of Yima, nine hundred winters passed away, and the earth was replenished and there was room no more for flocks, herds, and men.
The Maker, Ahura Mazda, called together a meeting of the celestial Yazatas in the Airyana Vaejo of high renown, by the Vanguhi Dairya. The fair Yima the good shepherd, called together a meeting of the best of the mortals, in the Airyana Vaejo of high renown, by the Vanguhi Daitya.
To that meeting came Ahura Mazda; he came together with the celestial Yazatas. To that meeting came the fair Yima, the good shepherd; he came together with the best of the mortals.
And Ahura Mazda spake unto Yima, saying: O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat! Upon the material world the evil winters are about to fall, that shall bring the fierce, deadly frost; upon the material world the evil winters are about to fall, that shall make snow-flakes fall thick.
And the beasts that live in the wilderness, and those that live on the tops of the mountains and those that live in the bosom of the dale shall take shelter in underground abodes.
Before that winter, the country would bear plenty of grass for cattle, before the waters had flooded it. Now after the melting of the snow, O Yima, a place wherein the footprint of a sheep may be seen will be a wonder in the world.
Therefore make thee a Vara (possibly a Varena) as long as a horse riding ground, two hathras long on every side of the square [a hathra is about one mile], and thither bring the seeds of sheep and oxen, of men, of dogs, of birds, and of red blazing fires. Make it to be an abode for man.
There thou shalt make waters flow in a bed a hathra long; there thou shalt settle birds, on the green that never fades, with food that never fails.
Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of men and women, and of every kind of cattle of the greatest, best, and finest on this earth; the seeds of every kind of tree, of the highest of size and sweetest of odour on this earth, the seeds of every kind of fruit, the best of savour and sweetest of odour. All those seeds shalt thou bring, two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there, so long as those men shall stay in the Vara.
In the largest part thou shalt make nine streets. Thou shalt bring a thousand nine hundred men and women. That Vara thou shalt seal up with thy golden ring, and thou shalt make a door, and a window self-shining within.
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! What are the lights that give light in the Vara which Yima made?
Ahura Mazda answered: There are uncreated lights and created lights.
[The uncreated light shines from above; all the created lights shine from below. The sight of the stars, the moon, and the sun are missed, and a year seems only as a day.]
Every fortieth year, a male and a female are born to every couple, and for every sort of cattle. And the men in the Vara live the happiest life. [They live there for 150 years; some say, they never die.]

The Zarathustrians, later known as Brahmins became mingled with the mongrel race due to the fall of Aji, and under the influence of Ctusk (Ahura) became like tyrants by the time of Brahma (~4000 BC). In summary Yima's race grew seventy times seven, and thrice Yima enlarged the earth by the aid of the golden ring and poniard [dagger] inlaid with gold. All this took 1,000 winters which coincides with the rule of Zohak/Dahak/Azi Dahaka, or if added together 1,900 winters, which coincides with the rule of Ctusk (Ahura).

Historians say the ice age broke on the ancient home and the Aryans were forced to migrate southwards, to the southeast and the southwest. Geologists say ice sheets and glaciers retreated to their present position about 8,000 BC.

The "divine Yama, the son of Vivasvat" is also found in "The Laws of Manu" and the Bhagavad Gita ch. 4, where Krishna claims to Arjuna that he "instructed this imperishable science (what they call transcendental knowledge) to the Sun God of Vivasvan, and Vivasvan to Manu". Arjuna answers that "the Sun God Vivasvan is senior by birth to Krishna, and is suspicious. Krishna's alluring speech then persuades him.
In the Katha-Upanishad there is a profound tale narrated by Yama, the God of Death. In the Avesta, Yima was the son of Vivashat, who in turn corresponds to the Vedic Vivasvat, "he who shines out", a divinity of the Sun.

Book of God's Word
The Light of all light is Ormazd; He the Soul of all souls. These are the things seen and things unseen, created by Ormazd, thy Creator: Mi, the Mother Almighty: Then is Voice, the Expression of things, the All Speech, the All Communion, created by Ormazd, thy Creator, and by Mi, the Almighty Mother, a virgin never before conceived, and this was Vivanho, the Son.
I'hua'Mazda said to Zarathustra, the All Pure: Behold me, O thou, Zarathustra!

Here I make one straight line; and now I make another straight line, and now another, all joined.
Then Zarathustra answered, saying: Thou hast made a triangle: What is the meaning, O I'hua'Mazda?
Then answered I'hua'Mazda, saying: Three in one, O Zarathustra: Father, Mother, and Son; Ormazd, the ghost of all things; Mi, the seen and unseen, and Vivanho, the expression of things.

And later, from the declaration of Asha, then King of Oas

First, that there is an Ormazd, Creator, Person! Whose Soul is in all the world, and in all things in the firmament above; Who is Father; Who is the Light of light, Creator of darkness and men, Who is forever The Going Forth; Who is Cause of causes; larger than all things seen and unseen; the Power of all power.
Second, I'hua'Mazda, His Only Begotten Son, born of the Virgin Mi (the Substance Seen). Pure and All Holy; Master of Men; Person of Word; Essence of Ormazd revealed in Word; Saviour of men; Holder of the keys of heaven; through Whose Good Grace only the souls of men can rise to Nirvana, the High Heaven:
Third, Zarathustra, A man, All Pure, conceived by a Virgin, and born wise, being one with I'hua'Mazda, who is one with Ormazd.

Further on from the book of Divinity

Afterward, Div decreed [Book of Divinity, Ch 11]:
Whatsoever is worshipped, having comprehensible form or figure, is an idol. He that worshippeth an idol, whether of stone or wood, or whether it be a man or an angel, sinneth against the Creator.

The emissaries of Ahura, the false, had been most active in extending the kingdom of their idol. Ahura was most cunning with the last Divan act: Instead of interdicting it, he altered it, so it read as followeth, to wit: Whatsoever is worshipped, having comprehensible form or figure, is an idol. He that worshippeth an idol, whether of stone or wood, or whether it be a man or an angel, sinneth against the All Highest, who is personated in Ahura'Mazda, the Holy Begotten Son of all created creations!

And
Ahura'Mazda, the Creator! The Only Begotten Son of the Unknowable! Behold, I come; I, the Creator! I have come to judge heaven

Also
Osiris made his Godhead to consist of three persons: first, himself, as The Fountain of the Universe, whose name was Unspeakable; second, Baal, His Only Begotten Son, into whose keeping he had assigned the earth and all mortals thereon; and, third, Ashtaroth, His Virgin Daughter, into whose keeping he had assigned life and death, or rather the power of begetting and the power to cause death with mortals.

And from Saphah
I am in the keeping of Hong-she, Saviour of man. Who was Hong-she?
The only begotten Son of the Unseen. He was the incarnate and spiritual Son of the All Light of heaven and earth, born of the Virgin Mi, who was descended from the far-off star, Tristya.

Yima, a Saviour; self-assumed Lord of the earth. He said he was the Son of Ahura'Mazda, doing His will. He claimed to have been born of Mi, Mother of the Creator, and he was the only begotten Son; that he lived on earth and worked miracles. Through him and his spirit emissaries, mortals were inspired to construct the written doctrines of the Vedas as they now are.

________________________________________________________________________________

Right: Old Irish cross at Tuam (Ireland), erected before Christian times.
[Prophet wearing a brimless Zarathustrian scarlet hat (sign of Hi-rom),
being tested on the wheel?]

The passage above given again here:
"These are the things seen and things unseen, created by Ormazd, thy Creator: Mi, the Mother Almighty: Then is Voice, the Expression of things, the All Speech, the All Communion, created by Ormazd, thy Creator, and by Mi, the Almighty Mother, a virgin never before conceived, and this was Vivanho, the Son. "

implies that Jehovih is not Mi Himself, but of Himself creates Mi, who in turn conceives the Son.

Is there an existence that can be separate from Self such that creation comes after a period of unembodied inexistence? Can there be an observer without the observed?
Can Jehovih ever be without a body?
It is said that Jehovih's entire body is composed of etherean, atmospherean and corporeal realms, the motion in and of these are manifestations of His Power and Wisdom and an attribute of combination concentrated into one Person embraces All within Himself.
Through our own seeming 'finite, microcosm' of three interdependent parts, our body, mind and Spirit, we have the means to understand His Macrocosmic Infinite Person that is three in one, - the house, the body, and All-Dweller, within.
Songs sing of God as Love, Lover and Beloved.
We hear of the soul being the witness, that which underlies one's persona, revealing, but is never revealed, the pre-existent Spirit that walks every road.

"He said, I am the soul of all; and the all that is seen is of my person and my body."

What is the vanguard of the Breath of Life? What is at the line between light and dark, or the link between extremes of infernal and divine? If there is no beginning, then there was not a time when planets, suns, even advanced civilisations and Gods were not. As the All speaks, His universe simultaneously and incessantly comes into, or goes out of existence according to His majesty and order.

Though worlds come into being and go out of being (as such), yet Ormazd remaineth; He is the Forever; and within Him are all creations created.

From Se'moin Plate 62:
50. Sed, the sign of wisdom; of gentleness, a lamb, A sheep with a woman's face; symbol of love. A symbol of stars and zodiac. And Sed rose up on the third day after the creation of the world and stood above the sun. The Great Spirit, E-O-Ih, said: This is My Son. The corporeal sun ye can behold at high noon, but My Son Sed standeth above this. All that are gentle and good draweth he to My kingdom, Nirvana. Do not unto another what ye would not desire done unto you, or ye shall not behold My Son Sed, who standeth on My right hand. The earth is Mine, saith Sed; by love will I redeem it.

The passage from Apollo Ch. XIII:
Proclaim ye Apollo in heaven and on earth. He is risen! Higher than the sun is the Holy Begotten of Jehovih! Out of the Virgin Mi is he come, Holy; in symmetry and music, there is none like Apollo.
She was My betrothed from the foundation of the world; Spouse of your Creator.
Her name was Mi, Mother of Mine Holy Begotten Son.

can mean that She was not there before the world's foundation, but comes into being upon [self begotten] creation (if it is possible, since this would involve existence/creation to be separable from Self, that is, creation comes after a period of non formed non existent Beingness), becoming His counterpart, His Lover embodying Her Lover's love in all created things. Both substance and ideation come to the seat of one's experience through the senses and the mind. If 'The foundation of the world' is taken to mean 'that which is perceived', 'the external extremity of state' or even 'the innermost, subtlest essence of beauty', it becomes harder to make a distinction between the two united in one. One wonders Who lies behind the foundation of the world.

From Se'moin Plate 62:
55.Mi, spirit, My'ra, spirit of earth (English). Mary, lamb (spirit). Mi'ra, a virgin, was before man a dweller on the earth, nor was there any man for her. The All Unseen conceived her. Her son was Osiris (Aribania). Mi, mother of all men; spouse of the Unseen (Tau). The earth was Mi, and Mi was the earth. The Great Spirit moved on the earth and the earth conceived and brought forth man. Mother of Gods (king spirits). The sons of Mi were all I'su, free from sin.

Porphyry (c. 232-304), disciple of Plotinus, quotes:
The world is said to be self-born, in perfect symphony with itself, and thus the cause of its own qualities. Matter (like Prakriti, the conjectured One primordial substance) is considered infinite on account of its formless nature and of itself destitute of the attributes by which it is formed and becomes visible, but it receives impression of ornamenting form. Being sluggish and inert the ancients gave to it the symbol of a stone or rock. They considered a cave as the symbol of this generated and sensible world. Through the dark union of matter, the world is obscure and dark, but from the presence and supervening ornaments of form [the Ever-Present Spirit by which the world subsists] it is beautiful and pleasant.
The gods partake of the highest and purest part (nectar) of the substance of the world adorned with the impressions of form, but mortal souls drink of its more inferior and turbid part..
The soul of the world has no division, if the simplicity of a divine nature is considered; and in another respect has considerable division if we regard the diffusion of the former through the world, and of the latter through the members of the body.
The `nous hylikos', or material intellect, is Bacchus who, in the Orphic mysteries, proceeds from an indivisible part and divides into particulars. Hence he is torn in pieces by Titanic fury, and then the fragments are collected into the indivisible one. The unity of the worlds nature is not forsaken by its manifestation and involution since it is apparent in the entire cycle. The first and truest seat of the soul is in the intelligible world, where she lives entirely divested of body, and enjoys the ultimate felicity of her nature.

The All, Primordial One encompasses not only what is, but also all potentialities, all possibilities . He comprehends all that might be, and out of that totality manifests what is. The Whole is simultaneously mind and matter, one and many, stability and change. He is and is not, for He unifies Being and Not-being. The One is the source and origin of the order and beauty, the goal towards which everything strives [like the Pole of attraction, the 'Strange Attractor' of Terence McKenna, or the 'Universal Attractor' of Teilhard, the inclusive Center in which everything is gathered together], the end of all becoming, the Good.
Pythagoreans tell us the Primordial One unites all dualities by joining the opposites. By uniting them it must in some sense be a Unity. The One becomes Two (Monad and Dyad). Monad is limited and finite, as opposed to unlimited and infinite, since He is One (finite), as opposed to many (Dyad).
The changeless, static Essence (Monad) is the Male Pole (Father) yet it has the Power (Shakti) or dynamic of Becoming (Potential, Change), to move toward more substantial embodiment, greater Multiplicity; this is the Female Pole (Mother, Dyad). This would cause it to lose its definition of identity, so it turns back toward its origin to mirror its Essence. This is the 'Expression of things', the Offspring, the Actualisation of the potential emanating from the Essence, which constitutes the third Pole (Son). Thus emanation is a continuous cyclic flux (a triangle in a circle). By the Dyads Power to Change and by this cyclic alternation does Time come into being. In terms of process, change (Becoming) is the mean between finite, One (Beginning) and the Infinite End (Son), but that in terms of Character, the Offspring is the Mean between the Extremes or Opposites (Father and Mother, Many).
The Primal Elements are the passions of God's Will desiring Himself. It is Himself as Mother or Spouse desiring Himself as Father. In Trismegistic tractates the "Feminine Aspect" of Deity is called Wisdom, Nature, Generation, or Isis. He is Wisdom as desiring Himself - that Desire being the Primal Cause as Mother of the whole world-process, which is consummated by His Fullness uniting with His Desire or Wisdom, and so perfecting it. This is the whole burden of the Gnostic Sophia-mythus.

The All, Primordial One in Mahayana Buddhism is the 'primordial Mind', or 'the Voidness'. The phenomenal universe of appearances (the whole Sangsara) and the unmanifest Noumenal State (Nirvana) as an inseparable unity, are one's mind (in its natural, unmodified, primordial state of the Voidness). Realisation of the undifferentiated Oneness of Sangsara and Nirvana (the ultimate duality) leads to deliverance, and is the aim and end of Dharma.
The primordial Mind itself is the mirror. This pure mirror-like true essence behind all Sangsaric things alone is real, permanent and non-transitory, whereas the phenomenal is transient and unreal. Just as a mirror reflects images, so the true essence embraces all phenomena and all beings, and things exist in and by it.

The Meaning of Kosmon
The earliest of the Hermetic writings (possibly 510 B.C.,) is the Kore Kosmou or Virgin of the World, wherein an account is given of the foundation of the world.
The expression "before the foundation of the world" (pro kataboles kosmou) or its equivalent "from the foundation of the world" (apo kataboles) is found in nine places in the New Testament: Matthew 13:35; 25:34; Luke 11:50; John 17:24; Ephesians 1:4; Hebrews 4:3; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 17:8.

Matthew 13:35 says "I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world (apo kataboles kosmou)."
Matthew 26:13 and Mark 14:9 says "Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world [kosmon], this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial to her [the woman with the alabaster jar]."
Luke 11:50-51 says "That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation"
John 17:24 says "for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world"
Ephesians 1:4 says "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love"
Hebrews 9:26 says "For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
Peter 1:20 says "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you"
Revelation 17:8 says "and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."

Katabolhs "creation," is a compound word: kata, "down," and bolhs , "to throw." It describes God throwing down the world. The Vulgate [Latin translation] uses the translation "a constitutione mundi". But kataboles really implies the foundation of the world results from a violent crisis; order that comes out of disorder; the attack that provokes a resolution.
The word Kosmon/kosmos (world-order) means either "world" or "order, arrangement, ornament, adornment "; and in the original there is frequently a play upon the two meanings, as in the case of logos. Ton aisthêton kosmon means the sensible or manifested world, our present universe, as distinguished from the ideal eternal universe, the type of all universes.

The word Ecumenism is derived from the Greek 'oikoumene' meaning the habitable earth. When in Matthew 24:14 it says: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world [oikoumene] for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" the word oikoumene is used, meaning all the nations under control of the Roman Empire. That is how the word oikoumene was used in those days. It did not mean the whole earth. One can think the end spoken of here was the end of that age, and of Jerusalem as a nation, with its inhabitants, not the end of the whole world.
Kosmon, another form of the word kosmos (cosmos, or universe) is used to mean 'the whole world'. Since oikoumene is used for the known world, wheras kosmon is used for whole world, I conclude that the word 'kosmon' or 'kosmou' in the New Testament refers to a future time when the known world of old is exended to include all continents, races, customs and languages, and the whole world will be united. Kosmon has its cause in the completeness of heaven towards which, and in whose image, the world moves.

Perhaps the phrase 'foundation of the world' as given in the passage from Apollo was meant to be taken in some sense of the New Testament use of the term instead.

The Myth of Hyperborean Apollo
[Apollo (Greek) Also called Phoebus is primarily the god of light, and is also associated with the sun, hence a giver of life, light, and wisdom to the earth and humanity . Apollo and Artemis are the mystic sun and the higher occult moon . Apollo stands for order, justice, law, and purification by penance . He is the healer , father of Aesculapius
His lyre is the sacred or septenary , seen in the sevenfold manifestations of the Logos in the universe and man; he is also the sun with its seven planets .]

Apollo bursts forth out of the deep night at Delos; all the goddesses greet his birth. He walks, he seizes his bow and lyre, his arrows whirr through the air, his quiver rattles on his shoulder. The sea throbs, and all the island shines in a flood of flame and gold. He is the epiphany of divine light, who by his august presence creates order, splendor and harmony of which poetry is the marvelous echo.
Apollo, teacher of men, likes to sojourn among them; he enjoys himself in their cities among male youth, in the contests of poetry and the palestra, but he lives there only temporarily. In Autumn he returns to his homeland, to the country of the Hyperboreans. The latter are the mysterious people of luminous, transparent souls who live in an eternal aurora of perfect happiness.
Apollo returns to Delphi every Spring when peans and hymns are sung. He arrives, visible only to the initiates, in his Hyperborean brightness, drawn in a chariot by melodious swans. He returns to live in the sanctuary where Pythia transmits his oracles, where the wise men and poets listen. Then the nightingales sing, the Fountain of Castalia bubbles with silver wavelets, the living echoes of a blinding light and celestial music penetrate the heart of men and women, even moving through the veins of nature.
The country of the Hyperboreans is the afterlife, the empyrean of victorious souls whose astral auroras lighten the multicolored regions. Apollo himself personifies immaterial and intelligible light, of which the Sun is but the physical reflection, and whence flows all truth. Hyperborean Apollo therefore personifies the descent from heaven to earth, the incarnation of spiritual beauty in flesh and blood, the afflux of transcendent truth through inspiration and divination.

________________________________________________________________________________

The abstract thought of a time before which Mi ever existed is not new.
[that is, if one allows a concept, such as the Unbegotten, to be abstracted from something Existent]
Genesis and the Rig Veda's Hymn of Creation attempt to deal with this. Also Vedanta (and a Buddhist version) has always needed to account for the perfection of a changeless, eternal Brahman being compromised by the existence of evil in our perishable corporeality by hypothesising that our perception of it is only Maya (illusion), or samsara, adding that the 'Unmanifest Brahman' was not exhausted after creation (being infinite), but lies dormant as a residual part of Himself within us and can be attained as the highest realisation of yoga, or by adhering to Dharma.
This is paralleled in Tantra by the latent potential of Kundalini that can be fully awakened.

The Rgveda hymn 'Song of Creation', that speaks of a time when there was:

" not non-existence nor existence, no realm of air, no sky beyond it, no death nor immortality, no days and nights.
Of a mysterious One Thing, this All, void and formless, breathless that breathed by its own nature,
apart from which there is nothing,
at first concealed in darkness, from whose night arose the billowy flood of sea
by warmth arose desire, the primeval seed and germ of spirit that Sages searched for with their heart's thought
to discover a kinship in the non-existent."

seems to look further than this world and its heavens, steering us between the extremes of non-existence nor existence, the state of union of ' that' with I, the indifferent, undifferetiated experiece yogis speak of.

[Oahspe shows us that the origin of this passage could be from De‘yus' misguided philosphy (given in Book of Wars Ch 23.20), given by "before my time both heaven and earth were void as to a Godhead". And because heaven and earth were void, seers were persuaded to "know I created them from voidance to my own glory". In response to these ideas mortals asked "you cut off the heavens of the ancients, the Nirvanian regions beyond Chinvat. You teach us that De‘yus is the All High Ruler. What, then, is the all highest for man? How did the worlds come about? Where did man come from? How was the creation created?"]

Where there is duality, there one sees another, but where everything has just become ones own self, then whereby and whom would one see, smell and taste.

"On the Origin of the World" of "The Nag Hammadi Library" explains that contrary to Genesis and the Babylonian myth of Marduk who vanquishes Ti'amat, the primordial goddess of marine water etc., that begin with a type of watery darkness, the 'chaos' was a shadow projected by that which preceded it.
"On the Origin of the World" serves to expand the limited concept of heaven and earth (Mi?), endowing us with an early concept of Nirvana/Etheria which it calls Eighth (sometimes ninth) Heaven

From On the Origin of the World
After the natural structure of the Immortal beings had developed out of infinite time, a likeness then emanated from Pistis (faith) called Sophia (wisdom). It exercised volition, and became a product resembling the primeval light. Immediately her will manifested itself as a likeness of heaven, having an unimaginable magnitude. It was between the Immortals and those things that came into being after them. She (Sophia) functioned as a veil dividing mankind from the things above.
Now the eternal realm (aeon) of truth has no shadow outside it, for the limitless light is everywhere within it. But its exterior is shadow. From it, there appeared a force, presiding over the darkness. And the forces that came into being subsequent to them called the shadow 'the limitless chaos'. From it, every kind of divinity sprouted up together with the entire place, so that also, shadow is posterior to the first product. It was in the abyss that the shadow appeared, deriving from Pistis. Then shadow perceived there was something mightier than it, and felt envy; and when it had become pregnant of its own accord, suddenly it engendered jealousy.
[Jealousies rose in the first resurrection and overspread the earth as a result of Apollo beautifying the inhabitants of the earth]
Since that day, the principle of jealousy amongst all the eternal realms and their worlds has been apparent. Now as for that jealousy, it was found to be an abortion without any spirit in it.
[Oahspe talks of spirits of abortions (fetals)]
Like a shadow, it came into existence in a vast watery substance. Then the bile that had come into being out of the shadow was thrown into a part of chaos. Since that day, a watery substance has been apparent. And what sank within it flowed away, being visible in chaos: as with a woman giving birth to a child - all her superfluities flow out; just so, matter came into being out of shadow, and was projected apart. And it did not depart from chaos; rather, matter was in chaos, being in a part of it.
And when these things had come to pass, then Pistis came and appeared over the matter of chaos, which had been expelled like an aborted fetus - since there was no spirit in it. For all of it (chaos) was limitless darkness and bottomless water. Now when Pistis saw what had resulted from her defect, she became disturbed. And the disturbance appeared, as a fearful product; it rushed to her in the chaos. She turned to it and blew into its face in the abyss, which is below all the heavens.
And when Pistis Sophia desired to cause the thing that had no spirit to be formed into a likeness and to rule over matter and over all her forces, there appeared for the first time a ruler, out of the waters, lion-like in appearance, androgynous, having great authority within him, and ignorant of whence he had come into being. Now when Pistis Sophia saw him moving about in the depth of the waters, she said to him, "Child, pass through to here," whose equivalent is 'Yaldabaoth' [the craftsman or The Demiurge] .
Since that day, there appeared the principle of verbal expression, which reached the gods and the angels and mankind. And what came into being as a result of verbal expression, the gods and the angels and mankind finished. Now as for the ruler Yaldabaoth, he is ignorant of the force of Pistis: he did not see her face, rather he saw in the water the likeness that spoke with him. And because of that voice, he called himself 'Yaldabaoth'. But 'Ariael' is what the perfect call him, for he was like a lion). Now when he had come to have authority over matter, Pistis Sophia withdrew up to her light.
When the ruler saw his magnitude - and it was only himself that he saw: he saw nothing else, except for water and darkness - then he supposed that it was he alone who existed. His [...] was completed by verbal expression: it appeared as a spirit moving to and fro upon the waters. And when that spirit appeared, the ruler set apart the watery substance. And what was dry was divided into another place. And from matter, he made for himself an abode, and he called it 'heaven'. And from matter, the ruler made a footstool, and he called it 'earth'.
Next, the ruler had a thought and by means of verbal expression he created an androgyne. He opened his mouth and cooed to him. When his eyes had been opened, he looked at his father, and he said to him, "Eee!" Then his father called him Eee-a-o ('Yao'). Next he created the second son. He cooed to him. And he opened his eyes and said to his father, "Eh!" His father called him 'Eloai'. Next, he created the third son. He cooed to him. And he opened his eyes and said to his father, "Asss!" His father called him 'Astaphaios'. These are the three sons of their father.
Seven appeared in chaos, androgynous. They have their masculine names and their feminine names. The feminine name is Pronoia (Forethought) Sambathas, which is 'week'.
And his son is called Yao: his feminine name is Lordship.
Sabaoth: his feminine name is Deity.
Adonaios: his feminine name is Kingship.
Elaios: his feminine name is Jealousy.
Oraios: his feminine name is Wealth.
And Astaphaios: his feminine name is Sophia (Wisdom).
These are the seven forces of the seven heavens of chaos. And they were born androgynous, consistent with the immortal pattern that existed before them, according to the wish of Pistis: so that the likeness of what had existed since the beginning might reign to the end.
Now the prime parent Yaldabaoth, since he possessed great authorities, created heavens for each of his offspring through verbal expression - created them beautiful, as dwelling places - and in each heaven he created great glories, seven times excellent. Thrones and mansions and temples, and also chariots and virgin spirits up to an invisible one and their glories, each one has these in his heaven; mighty armies of gods and lords and angels and archangels - countless myriads - so that they might serve.
And they were completed from this heaven to as far up as the sixth heaven, namely that of Sophia. The heaven and his earth were destroyed by the troublemaker that was below them all. And the six heavens shook violently; for the forces of chaos knew who it was that had destroyed the heaven that was below them. And when Pistis knew about the breakage resulting from the disturbance, she sent forth her breath and bound him and cast him down into Tartaros. Since that day, the heaven, along with its earth, has consolidated itself through Sophia the daughter of Yaldabaoth, she who is below them all.
Now when the heavens had consolidated themselves along with their forces and all their administration, the prime parent became insolent. And he was honored by all the army of angels. And all the gods and their angels gave blessing and honor to him. And for his part, he was delighted and continually boasted, saying to them, "I have no need of anyone." He said, "It is I who am God, and there is no other one that exists apart from me." And when he said this, he sinned against all the immortal beings who give answer. And they laid it to his charge.
Then when Pistis saw the impiety of the chief ruler, she was filled with anger. She was invisible. She said, "You are mistaken, Samael," (that is, "blind god").

[In "The Martyrdom Of Isaiah", Beliar and Sammael (Satan) sawed Isaiah in halves by the hand of Manassah. When Isaiah went up into the firmament, he saw Sammael and his host. There was great struggle in it, and the words of Satan, and envying of one another. And just as it is above so also it is on earth, for the likeness of what is in the firmament is here on earth.]

http://www.earth-history.com/Judaism/origin-world.htm

Watchers and the Book of Enoch
Genesis Ch 6:1-8 (King James Version of the Bible)
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Genesis Ch 6 (Jewish translation of the Torah)
When men began to increase on earth and daughters were born to them, the divine beings saw how beautiful the daughters of men were and they took wives from among those that pleased them....It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth - when the divine beings cohabited with the daughters of men, who bore them offspring. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown."

Zecharia Sitchin in 'Stairway to Heaven' claims:
"The Akkadians called their predecessors Shukmerians, and spoke of the Land of Shumer. It was, in fact, the biblical Land of Shin'ar. It was the land whose name - Shumer - literally meant the Land of the Watchers to the ancient Egyptians. It was indeed the Egyptian Ta Neter - Land of the Watchers, the land from which the gods had come to Egypt."

The Book of Enoch Ch 6-10 talks of the angels, the children of the heaven, the Watchers in a way that comes across as severe, saying:
And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.'
And and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants.
The 'worlds people' become established:
And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, 'Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal (taught) astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon.
There is a sense of jealousy towards mortals having knowlege.
The following context (for the time of Noah) is interwoven with the times of Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel.
Thou seest what Azazel hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were (preserved) in heaven. And now the souls of those who have died are crying and making their suit to the gates of heaven, and their lamentations have ascended: and cannot cease because of the lawless deeds which are wrought on the earth.
Then said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spake, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, and said to him: Go to Noah and tell him in my name "Hide thyself!" and reveal to him the end that is approaching: that the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge is about to come upon the whole earth, and will destroy all that is on it. And now instruct him that he may escape and his seed may be preserved for all the generations of the world.
And again the Lord said to Raphael:
Bind Azazel, place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness. And on the day of the great judgement he shall be cast into the fire. And heal the earth which the angels have corrupted, and proclaim the healing of the earth, that they may heal the plague.
And to Gabriel said the Lord:
... destroy the children of the Watchers from amongst men: send them one against the other that they may destroy each other in battle
And the Lord said unto Michael:
Go, bind Semjaza and his associates for seventy generations till the day of their judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever.
Destroy all wrong from the face of the earth and let every evil work come to an end: and let the plant of righteousness and truth appear: and it shall prove a blessing; the works of righteousness and truth shall be planted in truth and joy for evermore. And then shall all the righteous escape, And shall live till they beget thousands of children, And all the days of their youth and their old age Shall they complete in peace.
Enoch explains:
But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling. And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called.
You have been in heaven, but all the mysteries had not yet been revealed to you, and you knew worthless ones, and these in the hardness of your hearts you have made known to the women, and through these mysteries women and men work much evil on earth. Say to them therefore: You have no peace.

It is claimed The "sons of God" is taken to mean "angels" by some and "Sons of Seth" by others. Lucifer's rebellion is thought to be a different case. It is also claimed that the Annunaki had children that became known as the Nephilim, Rephaim, Emim, Gibborim, Zamzummim, Anakim, Ivvim, and a few other names; that Demons are the spirits of the dead Nephilim.

The Anunnaki, the Sumero-Mesopotamian divine council

Cities of Sumer, showing Arrapha, an ancient Assyrian city (modern Kirkuk) founded around 2000 BC.

The apsû (also known as abzu or engur) was the name for the mythological underground freshwater ocean in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the apsû.
The Sumerian god Enki (Ea in Akkadian) was believed to have lived in the apsû since before human beings were created. His wife Damgalnuna, and mother Nammu also lived in the apsû.
[Enki seems to correspond to the soul (Goshorun), of the primeval ox (apsû) that came out from the body of the ox even as the soul from the body of the dead.]
Eridu appears to be the earliest of Sumerian urban settlements. In the Sumerian king list, Eridu is named as the city of the first kings. The king list gave particularly long rules to the kings who came before the "flood", and shows how the centre of power progressively moved from the south to the north of the country. Adapa U-an (Oannes), elsewhere called the first man was a half-god half-man, culture hero, called by the title Abgallu (Ab=water, Gal=Great, Lu=Man) of Eridu. He was considered to have brought civilisation to the city, and served Alulim. Enki was the Sumerian counterpart of the Akkadian water-god Ea. Like all the Sumerian and Babylonian gods, Enki/Ea began as a local god, who came to share, according to the later cosmology, with Anu and Enlil, the rule of the cosmos. In the city Eridu, Enki's temple was known as "the abzu temple" and was located at the edge of a swamp, an apsû.Certain tanks of holy water in Babylonian and Assyrian temple courtyards were also called apsû or abzu. These may be regarded as precursors to the washing pools of Islamic mosques, or the baptismal font in Christian churches.
Apsu is a sanskrit word that means "in water(s)." This term predates the use of Apsu in the Sumerian myth that places Babylon as the center of religion.
Apsû is depicted as a deity only in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Elish (8th Century B.C). In this story, he was a primal monster made of fresh water and a lover to another primal deity, Tiamat, who was a creature of salt water.

The epic names three primeval gods: Apsu, the fresh water, Tiamat, the salt water, and their son Mummu, apparently the mist. Several other gods are created, and raise such a clamor of noise that Apsu is provoked (with Mummu's connivance) to destroy them. Ea (Nudimmud), at the time the most powerful of the gods, intercepts the plan, puts Apsu to sleep and kills him, and shuts Mummu out. Ea then begets Marduk, greater still than himself. Tiamat is then persuaded to take revenge for the death of her husband. Her power grows, and some of the gods join her. She elevates Kingu as her new husband and gives him "supreme dominion." Marduk defeats and killed Tiamat, and forms the world from her corpse.
The gods who sided with Tiamat are initially forced to labor in the service of the other gods. They are freed from their servitude when Marduk decides to slay Kingu and create mankind from his blood. Babylon is established as the residence of the chief gods. Finally, the gods confer kingship on Marduk, hailing him with fifty names. Most noteworthy is Marduk's symbolic elevation over Enlil, who was seen by earlier Mesopotamian civilizations as the king of the gods.
Many scholars have noted striking similarities between the creation story in the Enûma Elish and the first creation story in the Book of Genesis. For example, Genesis 1 describes six days of creation, followed by a day of rest; the Enûma Elish describes six generations of gods, whose creations parallel the days in Genesis, followed by a divine rest. In both stories, creation begins with light and ends with humankind, created for "the service of the gods" from the blood and bone of Kingu according to the Enûma Elish. Also, the goddess Tiamat parallels the primordial ocean in Genesis; the Hebrew word used in Genesis for the primordial ocean has the same etymological root as "Tiamat".

After Ea killed Apsû, he began to dwell inside of the dead god. This is considered as the origin of the 'apsû where Ea lives', in myths set during later time periods. Marduk, though called "firstborn son of the apsû," is actually Ea's son, not Apsû's; the title is meant to be taken metaphorically, as Marduk was the first "child" born in the apsû. It would suggest that Abzu may have been the original name by which the divinity of Enki later became known.

Enlil was the name of a chief deity in Babylonian religion. The name is of Sumerian origin and has been believed to mean 'Lord Wind' though a more literal interpretation is 'Lord of the Command'. Enlil was formerly incorrectly read as Bel by scholars, but Enlil was not given the title Bel 'Lord' more than many other gods. The Babylonian god Marduk is mostly the god called Bel (or Baal) in late Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions and it is Marduk that mostly appears in Greek and Latin texts as Belos or Belus.
Enlil was the god of wind, or the sky between earth and heaven. One story has him originate as the exhausted breath of An (God of the heavens) and Ki (goddess of the Earth) after sexual union. Another is that he and his sister Ninhursag/Ninmah/Aruru were children of an obscure god known as Enki 'Lord Earth' (not the famous Enki) borne by Ninki 'Lady Earth'.
When Enlil was a young god, he was banished from Dilmun, home of the gods, to Kur, the underworld for raping a young girl named Ninlil. Ninlil followed him to the underworld where she bore his first child, the moon god Sin. After fathering three more underworld deities, Enlil was allowed to return to Dilmun.
Enlil was also known as the inventor of the pickaxe/hoe (favorite tool of the Sumerians) and caused plants to grow. He was in possession of the holy Me, until he gave them to Enki for safe keeping, who summarily lost them to Inanna in a drunken stupor.
Enlil's relation to An 'Sky', in theory the supreme god of the Sumerian pantheon, was somewhat like that of a prime minister in a constitutional monarchy compared to the supposed monarch. While An was in name ruler in the highest heavens, it was Enlil who mostly did the actual ruling over the world.
By his wife Ninlil or Sud, Enlil was father of the moon god Nanna (in Akkadian Sin) and of Ninurta (also called Ningirsu). Enlil is sometimes father of Nergal, of Nisaba the goddess of grain and others.
Enlil is associated with the ancient city of Nippur. At a very early period prior to 3000 BC Nippur had become the centre of a political district of considerable extent. Inscriptions show that Enlil was the head of an extensive pantheon. Among the titles accorded to him are "king of lands," "king of heaven and earth" and "father of the gods".
His chief temple at Nippur was known as Ekur, signifying 'House of the mountain', and such was the sanctity acquired by this edifice that Babylonian and Assyrian rulers, down to the latest days, vied with one another in embellishing and restoring Enlil's seat of worship. Grouped around the main sanctuary, there arose temples and chapels to the gods and goddesses who formed his court, so that Ekur became the name for an entire sacred precinct in the city of Nippur.

Marduk

Nippur yielded its prerogatives to Marduk's Babylon when it became the centre of the empire, and the attributes and the titles of Enlil were transferred to Marduk. But in the doctrine of a triad of gods symbolizing heaven, earth and water, Enlil retained the earth as his province. Enlil's position as the second figure of the triad made his sanctuary a place of pilgrimage to which Assyrian kings down to the days of Assur-bani-pal paid their homage equally with Babylonian rulers.
Since the time of Dyaus was between 3080 - 2000, and Baal 1,720 BC - 320 AD
Nibiru, to the Babylonians, was the celestial body or region sometimes associated with the god Marduk.
Marduk's original character is obscure, but whatever special traits Marduk may have had were overshadowed by the reflex of the political development through which the Euphrates valley passed and which led to imbuing him with traits belonging to gods who at an earlier period were recognized as the heads of the pantheon. There are more particularly two gods - Ea and Enlil's powers and attributes passed over to Marduk. Marduk beomes viewed as the son of Ea. The father voluntarily recognizes the superiority of the son and hands over to him the control of humanity. After Hammurabi, the cult of Marduk eclipsed that of Enlil, although the cult of Enlil enjoyed a period of renaissance during the four centuries of Kassite control in Babylonia (c. 1570 BC - 1157 BC). The only rival to Marduk came after 1000 BC with Anshar of Assyria. In the south, Marduk reigned supreme.
The Enûma Elish tells the story of Marduk's birth, heroic deeds and becoming the ruler of the gods. It includes the fifty names of Marduk. In Enûma Elish, a civil war between the gods was growing to a climactic battle. The Anunnaki gods gathered together to find one god who could defeat the gods rising against them. Marduk answered the call and was promised the position of head god. When he killed his enemy, he "wrested from him the Tablets of Destiny, wrongfully his" and assumed his new position. Under his reign humans were created to bear the burdens of life so the gods could be at leisure.
In late Babylonian astrology, Marduk was connected to the planet Jupiter. As the ruler of the late Babylonian pantheon, he was equated with the Greek god Zeus (Latin Jupiter), hence the name of the planet. Marduk was associated with the sun, similarly to Ra. Marduk rose to power starting circa 2200 BC, and the Egyptian god Amun-Ra which the Thebans Egyptian rulers worshipped also rose to power at around this time. This coincides with the fact that the Era of Aries started at around 2200 BC and might have some relationship. Nabu, god of wisdom, is a son of Marduk. Nibiru, to the Babylonians, was the celestial body or region sometimes associated with the god Marduk.
[The time of Dyaus was between 3080 - 2000, and Baal 1,720 BC - 320 AD]

The Baal cycle was a Canaanite cycle of stories regarding Baal. They were found written in a kind of cuneiform alphabet on a series of clay tablets found in the Tell of Ugarit. There are several tales about Baal fighting Evil and Chaos, or building his palace. Baal is a Semitic title and honorific meaning lord that is used for various gods, spirits and demons particularly of the Levant.
"Baal" can refer to any god and even to human officials; in some mythological texts it is used as a substitute for Hadad, a god of the sun, rain, thunder, fertility and agriculture, and the lord of Heaven. Since only priests were allowed to utter his divine name Hadad, Baal was used commonly. Nevertheless, few if any Biblical uses of "Baal" refer to Hadad, the lord over the assembly of gods on the holy mount of Heaven, but rather refer to any number of local spirit-deities worshipped as cult images, each called baal and regarded as an "idol".
Because more than one god bore the title "Ba'al" and more than one goddess bore the title "Ba'alat" or "Ba'alah," only the context of a text can indicate which Ba'al 'Lord' or Ba'alath 'Lady' a particular inscription or text is speaking of.
Though the god Hadad (or Adad) was especially likely to be called Ba'al, Hadad was far from the only god to have that title. The Baal cycle place the dwelling of Ba'al/Hadad on Mount Zephon, so one can probably take as evident that references to Ba'al Zephon in the Tanach and in inscriptions and tablets refer to Hadad. It is said that Ba'al Pe'or, the Lord of Mount Pe'or, whom Israelites were forbidden from worshipping (Numbers 1-25) was also Hadad. In the Canaanite pantheon, Hadad was the son of El, who had once been the primary god of the Canaanite pantheon, and whose name was also used interchangeably with that of the Hebrew god, Yahweh.
1 Kings 16.31 relates that Ahab, king of Israel, married Jezebel, daughter of Ethba'al, king of the Sidonians, and then served habba'al ('the Ba'al'.) The cult of this god was prominent in Israel until the reign of Jehu, who put an end to it (2 Kings 10.26).
It is uncertain whether "the Ba'al" 'the Lord' refers to Melqart, to Hadad, who was also worshipped in Tyre, or Ba'al Shamîm 'Lord of Heaven' who was also worshipped in Tyre and often distinguished from Hadad. King Ahab, despite supporting the cult of this Ba'al, remained at the same time also a follower of Yahweh. Ahab still consulted Yahweh's prophets and cherished Yahweh's protection.
The worship of Ba`al Hammon flourished in the Phoenician colony of Carthage. Ba'al Hammon was the supreme god of the Carthaginians and is generally identified by modern scholars either with the northwest Semitic god El or with Dagon, and generally identified by the Greeks with Cronus and by the Romans with Saturn.
Classical sources relate how the Carthaginians burned their children as offerings to Ba'al Hammon. Such a devouring of children fits well with the Greek traditions of Cronus.
Ba'al Hammon's female cult partner was Tanit. Ba'alat Gebal ("Lady of Byblos") appears to have been generally identified with 'Ashtart. At first the name Baal was used by the Jews for their God without discrimination, but as the struggle between the two religions developed, the name Baal was given up in Judaism as a thing of shame, and even names like Jerubbaal were changed to Jerubbesheth.
Since Ba'al simply means 'Lord', there is no obvious reason why it could not be applied to Yahweh as well as other gods. Perhaps it was. The judge Gideon was also called Jerubaal, a name which seems to mean 'Ba'al strives' though Judges 6.32 makes the claim that the name was given to mock the god Ba'al, whose shrine Gideon had destroyed, the intention being to imply: "Let Ba'al strive as much as he can ... it will come to nothing."
After Gideon's death, according to Judges 8.33, the Israelites went astray and started to worship the Ba'alîm (the Ba'als) especially Ba'al Berith ("Lord of the Covenant.")
House of El Berith', that is, 'the House of God of the Covenant'. Was Ba'al then here just a title for El? at some period Ba'al and El were used interchangeably. 1 Chronicles 9.40. 1 Chronicles 12:5 mentions the name Bealiah meaning "Yahweh is Ba'al."
Certainly some of the Ugaritic texts report hostility between El and Hadad, perhaps representing a cultic and religious differences reflected in Hebrew tradition also, in which Yahweh in the Tanach is firmly identified with El and might be expected to be somewhat hostile to Ba'al/Hadad and the deities of his circle. But for Jeremiah and the Deuteronomist it also appears to be monotheism against polytheism (Jeremiah 11.12): according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to burn incense to the Ba'al. One finds in the Tanach the plural forms 'Ba'als' and ''Ashtarts', though such plurals do not appear in Phoenician or Canaanite or independent Aramaic sources.
Sexuality might characterize part of the cult of the Ba'als and 'Ashtarts.
Another theory is that the references to Ba'als and 'Ashtarts (and Asherahs) are to images or other standard symbols of these deities, that is statues and icons of Ba'al Hadad, 'Ashtart, and Asherah set up in various high places.
Because the word Baal is used as a common substitute for the sacred name Hadad, confusion often arises when the same word is used for other deities, physical representations of gods and even people. Historically, this confusion was resolved the nineteenth century as new archaeological evidence indicated multiple gods bearing the title Ba'al and little about them that connected them to the sun. In 1899 an article states:
That Baal was primarily a sun-god was for a long time almost a dogma among scholars and is still often repeated. This doctrine is connected with theories of the origin of religion which are now almost universally abandoned. The worship of the heavenly bodies is not the beginning of religion. Moreover, there was not, as this theory assumes, one god Baal, worshipped under different forms and names by the Semitic peoples, but a multitude of local Baals, each the inhabitant of his own place, the protector and benefactor of those who worshipped him there.
In the astro-theology of the Babylonians the star of Bel was not the sun : it was the planet Jupiter. Until archaeological digs at Ras Shamra explaining the Syrian pantheon, the demon Ba'al Zebûb was frequently confused with various Semitic spirits and deities entitled ba'al.
Beelzebub, or more accurately Ba'al Zebûb was originally the name of a deity worshipped in the Philistine city of Ekron.
Baal is a northwest Semitic word signifying 'The Lord, master, owner (male), husband' cognate with Akkadian Bel of the same meanings. In medieval Judaism, a rabbi who appeared to have supernatural powers was called a Ba'al Shem 'Master of the Name' with no perception of any connection with Ba'al as a title for a pagan god.

Complete listing of the word "nibiru" in astronomical contexts

The Anunnaki consist of;

1) Enlil
2) Enki En-Ki (Ea)
3) Inanna
4) Ninhursag
5) Ninlil
6) Nannar
7) Utu

The Mesopotamian divine council had 12 members (at times 8 gods are considered the council), but 12 is the more prevalent number). In Sumero-Mesopotamian religion the head of the Anunnaki council was not Shamash the su