Читать книгу Edgar Cayce on the Mysterious Essenes - John Van Auken - Страница 10

Since the 500s BCE the term “Magi” signified a follower of Zoroaster, the Persian prophet who founded the religion called Zoroastrianism. He was originally known as Zarathustra (660-583 BCE) and the primary sacred text was and remains the Avesta, a word that may best correspond with the English word “Praise.” It’s often referred to as the Zend-Avesta, where Zend or Zand means “interpretation of,” thus, the name of the text may be “Interpreted-Praise.” There are two forms of manuscripts composing the whole Avesta or Zoroastrian Bible. One is the Zend-i-Avesta, in which the individual books are gathered together with their interpretation and commentary. The other manuscript is the Vendidād Sadeh, in which the Yasna (ritual), Visperad (festival recitations), and Vendidād (the laws or rules) are set in order and used in the ceremonies. The aim of a Zoroastrian ceremony is to preserve the integrity of the cosmic good of God’s creation—a tall order!

Zarathustra experienced a vision in which the “Wise Lord” or “God of Light” (Ahura Mazda) instructed him to learn, to live, and to teach specific concepts, ideals, and practices to the people. Fundamentally, the teaching is that the “bountiful mind and spirit” (spenta mainyu, where “mainyu” means both mind and spirit, and “spenta” means bounteous) is in a constant struggle with the “destructive mind and spirit” (angra mainyu, where “angora” means destructive, inhibitive, malign, and the like). Since human beings have been given the freewill power to live as their hearts move them, they must choose between these two states of being and thinking, and they will grow to personify one or the other of these dual states of being—and thereby becoming more constructive or more destructive. The former leads one to be more selfless and caring as well as a light and comfort to all, while the latter leads one to the point of being totally self-centered and selfish, taking life rather than giving life. See Deuteronomy 30:15 for the Hebrew version of this freewill gift in which the same options are set before us: good and evil, light and dark. Eventually the time of the opportunity to choose freely will come to a close and the Bountiful Mind and Spirit will dissolve the destructive mind and spirit, while all those who chose the constructive life will rejoice in their eternal life with the Bountiful Mind and Spirit, which was their original Creator. These two opposing forces are often spoken of and even personified in the Avesta texts as Light and Darkness, Good and Evil.

Zoroastrians hold these three principles to be their pillars of wisdom: “Good thoughts, good words, good deeds” (Avesta, Vendidād 21: “Humata, Hūkhta, hvarshta”). Here is another example of their fundamental principles:

Question: By what means can one make Bountiful Mind and Spirit, His Bountiful Immortals, and the fragrant and pleasant Heaven his own?

Answer: By Wisdom, Contentment, Truthfulness, Gratefulness, Devotedness, Generosity, Moderation, Endeavor, and Trust (in God). By these means, one reaches Heaven and is in sight of God. (Avesta: Mino--Kherad, 43:1-14)

You can see how these principles easily fit with Judeo-Christian principles. Consider as an example the writings of the Christian disciple Paul who also saw two forces struggling against one another, the spirit and the flesh, and listed the “fruits” of these:

I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one other, that you may not do the things that you desire. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit. Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another. (Galatians 5:17-26)

Edgar Cayce’s discourses saw the struggle to be between love and selfishness, seeing God as the spirit of love, and selfishness as misuse of the gift of free will for self-gratification, and self-exaltation: “The only sin is self . . .” He saw this as the reasoning behind the two great commandments: love God and love one another.

In addition to these examples, some of the Zoroastrian stories are also found in the stories of the Jews and Christians. For example, Zoroaster, like Jesus, is tempted by the personification of the Destructive Mind and Spirit, or Satan in the Christian story, to follow its ways with the promise that Zoroaster would become the sovereign of the whole world! But Zoroaster, also like Jesus, rejects the Destructive Mind and Spirit’s temptation, pushing it out of his personal mind and spirit. (Vendidād 19 and Matthew 4:1-12).

Where did Zoroastrianism and its Magi first connect with the Jews and thereby the Jewish sect of the Essenes? It can be traced all the way back to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews of the First Temple, when the First Temple was destroyed and the Jewish captives were carried off to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II (597-582 BCE)—even the prophet Daniel was among the captives. At this same time and after, Zoroastrianism was the religion of Persia (modern-day Iran) and Babylon was their next-door neighbor (a portion of modern-day Iraq). When the Persians finally invaded and conquered Babylon (539 BCE), they eventually liberated the captive Jews. But by the time they were allowed to return to Jerusalem, these Jews would have heard and recorded the religious beliefs of their liberators and perhaps possessed copies of the Zend-Avesta. They would have taken some of these wonderful ideas and texts back with them, and these would have become some of the documents of the Second Temple period that made their way into the caves in Qumran.

Where does Zoroastrianism connect with early Christianity? Many of the Essenes considered themselves to be “Messianic,” preparing for the birth of the Messiah, and many of them considered Jesus to be that Messiah. They, therefore, became followers of “The Way” of Jesus’ teachings, still considering themselves to be Jews, but “Jews of The Way.” What helped them believe that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah? The answer is the legendary Magi coming from the East to honor the birth of Jesus as the “King of the Jews,” claiming that the stars indicated this! Some of the Magi were known to be sacred Zoroastrian priests trained in astrology as well as other esoteric wisdom and practices. They even lent their name to the word “magic.” In the Gospel of Matthew, 2:1-2, they are called “wise men from the east,” but many of the early church leaders referred to them as “magicians.” (Drum, W.; 1910; “Magi,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York: Robert Appleton Company) These Magi were of such an enlightened consciousness that they, too, had a dream from God in which God instructed them not to return to King Herod, but to travel a different way back to their country. (Matthew 2:12) And they obeyed the instruction. Herod, angry that he had lost the confidence of the Magi and their knowledge of which newly born male child was to become the “King of the Jews,” chose to kill every baby boy two years of age and under—a horrific act that caused the spirit of Rachel to weep inconsolably for her children. (Matthew 2:18) But Joseph and Mary had already fled to Egypt with the baby Jesus, obeying the instruction of an angel in a dream instructing Joseph to flee with the mother and child. (Matthew 2:1-15)

In his masterpiece, The Histories (i. 131 et seq.), Herodotus, considered to be the “Father of History,” recorded that the Persians from the earliest times considered the sun, moon, stars, earth, the waters, and the wind to be sacred, and everyone should cooperate with them and never abuse, misuse, or contaminate them. Herodotus recorded that the Magi believed in the propitiation of the powers of evil (ib. iii. 35, vii. 114), which is considered today to be a basic Christian concept! In other words, through new actions old sins are absolved, as the apostle Peter noted in his epistle: “Above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves; for love covers a multitude of sins.” (I Peter 4:8, my italics) Herodotus also wrote that Zoroaster strongly spoke and wrote against demoniacal rites and practices that continued to be practiced. Herodotus described how Zoroastrian priests conducted magical ceremonies to evoke the power and presence of the Bountiful Spirit and Mind, corresponding closely to the Christian practice of evoking the presence and power of the Holy Spirit—which was for a time conducted in secret so as not to be labeled divination by the Inquisitor. Even Nostradamus recorded how he used a method for evoking the divine presence to generate his visions, writing that he was “seated alone in secret study . . . fear arising and trembling . . . for in divine splendor a god sits nearby.” (Century 1, clips from Quatrains 1 and 2) Nostradamus had to cloak his writings in obscure language in order to avoid the wrath of the Inquisitor, especially since Nostradamus’ parents were Jews who converted to Catholicism, making them suspect of being under Satan’s influence.

As in Kabbalah and Christianity, the Magi had legends and lore of angels as well as heavenly beings akin to archangels, called “Immortal Holy Ones” (Amesha Spentas). These archangels personified virtues and ideals: Good Mind, Perfect Righteousness, the “wished-for” Kingdom, Harmony, Health, Salvation, and Immortality (or Eternal Life with God).

The Zoroastrians also had the concept of an incarnation of God’s Light! They called it the “incarnation of light and truth,” known as Mithra (not to be confused with Roman Mithraism). Mithra is derived from -tra, meaning “causing to,” and mi-, meaning “to bind,” thus Mithra is he who “causes one to hold to” the covenant, the oath. This is where the Essenes, who referred to themselves as “the Keepers of the Covenant,” met with the ancient Mithra and his mission of “binding to the covenant.”

Amazingly, Mithra has many titles similar to Jesus (John 14:6), Mithra is called “the Truth,” “the Way,” “the Light,” and more. (Avesta: Yasna 1-3) In Old Persian Mithra is called Mica and is often connected with Baga, the Old Persian word for God; thus Mica-Baga, indicates that Mithra was as the Gospel writer John described the Logos, an incarnation of God: “In the beginning was the Word (Greek: Logos), and the Logos was with God and the Logos was God . . . and all things were created through this One.” (John 1:1-3) John later wrote that the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Curiously, Mica/Mithra was also described as being an incarnation of the Light, the Truth (found on the Elamite tablets of Darius’ time).

Here’s a Zoroastrian passage from the Khorda Avesta (known as the “Little Avesta” and the “Book of Common Prayer”), referring to Mithra as follows:

Whose word is true, who is of the assembly, Who has a thousand ears, the well-shaped one, Who has ten thousand eyes, the exalted one, Who has wide knowledge, the helpful one, Who sleeps not, the ever wakeful. We sacrifice to Mithra, The lord of all countries, Whom the Creator (Ahura Mazda) created the most glorious, Of the supernatural, venerable, divine beings. So may there come to us for aid, Both Mithra and the Creator (Ahura), the two exalted ones . . . [Khorda Avesta: Khwarshed Niyayesh 5-7; based on an edition by Karl F. Geldner: Avesta, The Sacred Books of the Parsis; Stuttgart, 1896; and my edited version of the 2002 digital edition by Joseph H. Peterson, which can be found at: avesta.org/ka/niyayesh.htm]

In the 200s CE, Manicheans wrote that Mithra was an original Savior who rescued “First Man” from the Darkness into which he had plunged. (Widengren, Geo Mesopotamian elements in Manichaeism (King and Saviour II): Studies in Manichaean, Mandaean, and Syrian-gnostic religion, Lundequistska bokhandeln, 1946, p. 10) The disciple Paul refers to a “First Adam” and a “Last Adam”: “The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (I Corinthians 15:45) Christian saint Augustine was once a Manichean but converted to Christianity when the Roman Emperor Theodosius I issued a decree of death for Manichaeans in 382 CE and shortly before the emperor declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion for the Roman Empire in 391. (Foltz, Richard, Religions of the Silk Road; Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edition, 2010, p. 71)

As in Judaism and Christianity, Zoroastrianism also has the concept of a prophesied Messiah-Savior who will come to make all things right. It is Saoshyant (pronounced soush-yant), literally meaning “one who brings benefit” and is often referred to as “The Beneficent One.” Saoshyant is considered to be the final savior of the world. (Avesta: Farvardin Yast 13:129) Jesus also spoke of such a final world-ending, heavenly being, but not so much as a benefactor as a gatherer of those who have used free will well:

The lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man . . . Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:27-31)

As an aside here, let me share that the ancient Egyptians also had the concept and legend of a Messiah, and it was an immaculately conceived Messiah too, as in Mary and Jesus. In the Egyptian legend Isis immaculately conceives Horus, who overthrows the evil Set, who, out the same motivations as Cain, killed his brother Osiris, as Cain killed Abel. Eventually Set’s evil is overcome as Horus reigns in wisdom and goodness. Speaking of immaculate conceptions, there is a legend that Zoroaster’s mother, Dughdova, was a virgin when she conceived Zoroaster by a shaft of light from Heaven. Even Mithra was born of a virgin and on December 25th! Throughout the legends of world religions and theologies there are tales of virgin births. In Judaism, Sarah was in her nineties and had long ago experienced menopause (the cessation of a woman’s biological reproductive ability), yet she conceive, gestated, and birth the Lord-promised Isaac. Virgin births can be found most everywhere: Buddha was born of the virgin Maya after the Holy Ghost descended upon her; in Phrygia, Attis was born of the virgin Nama; the Roman savior Quirrnus was born of a virgin; in Tibet, Indra was born of a virgin; the Greek deity Adonis was born of the virgin Myrrha; in India, the god Krishna was born of the virgin Devaki; even Alexander the Great of Greece was supposedly born of a virgin mother. The idea that heavenly forces can affect earthly, physical outcomes is a concept found throughout spiritual literature. In Genesis chapter 6 we find that the celestial Sons of God could actually conceive physical babies with human women! These babies became known as the Nephilim, legendary giants.

Let’s get back to prophecies of coming or returning prophets and messiahs. In Judaism we also find prophets and prophesied prophets to come: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you [the Lord is speaking to Moses] from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.” (Deuteronomy 18:18) And later in the book of Daniel: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13-14) And in Malachi 4:5-6: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” And in Matthew 17:10-13: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist.”

We also find this passage in the Jewish Bible or Christian Old Testament: “Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman’u-el,” which means “God is with us” (Isaiah 7:14), which was later Romanized as Emmanuel. In the New Testament we find: “All this happened to fulfill what had been declared by the Lord through the prophet, who said, ‘Look, the virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will give him the name Immanuel’—which is translated, ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:22-23)

Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy in Isaiah but then in the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives the prophecy of the worldwide coming of the “Son of man” on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, quoted earlier. Many of these prophecies appear to have two types of messianic occurrences: one is an incarnation of the Light of God that teaches and guides humanity but the other is a final, world-ending coming of a heavenly being that removes all darkness, evil, and temptation, and all return to the original light and love of the Creator or Creative Energies.