Introduction

Zartian Mazdaism is the philosophical variety of Zartianism or neo-Zoroastrianism, which seeks to encourage people to be good servants of the living world, inspired especially by the teachings of Zarathustra.

While grounded in Zoroastrian ideas, Zartian Mazdaism is also influenced by Greek philosophy.

Zartian Mazdaism could be described as a new variety of religion grounded in the ancient tradition of Zoroastrianism. At its heart is a system of moral philosophy which encourages people to look at the world in a particular way, and then to act beneficially to help themselves and others.

Characteristic of our Zartian philosophy is a concern for the world we live in, and a desire to make it a better place. Fundamental is a belief in a distinction between Good and Bad, Good and Evil, and that this distinction is built into the nature of reality and is not purely a human construct.

We believe there is real distinction between the Good Existence and the Bad Existence and that we should strive to gain the Good Existence. We believe that our actions can make a difference as to whether we can attain the Good Existence, and so we strive to take the necessary good actions. We believe that our mental understanding of reality impacts our values and goals and hence the actions that we take. Therefore we strive to attain a good mind, one which naturally wishes to take good actions, which are the ones which lead to good results.

We believe that the well-being of all human beings is something of ultimate importance and that truly moral behaviour would take into account the impact it has on all other human beings in so far as this can be known..

We recognise that the impact of our individual actions often depends very much on the actions taken by those around us. Thus we pay attention to collective action as well as individual action.

Yazda

Yazda is God. We can perhaps define God as what we should worship to benefit ourselves and others. We recognize that God has many aspects and that while in some cases God must be treated as Singular, as One, in other cases that it is not so important, and God maybe seen as a 'basket of things worshipped'.

Triads

Triads are runes or concepts in groups of three. They are a starting point to help us make sense of existence and how we should relate to it.

Anghotria

The Anghotria are Zurvan, Atmanus and Agathia. (Ground of being, Living Spirit and Goodness)

Spentatria

The Spentatria are Auramazda, Chrestus and Spentaman. (Wise Agency, Good Human Servant and Good Spirit)

Thaliotria

The Thaliotria are Auramazda, Arta and Thalia. (Active Wisdom, Rightness and Flourishing)

Amerta Spenta

The Amerta Spenta are divine or abstract beings which tend to encourage the flourishing of life. The first three are the same as the Spentatria but they also include other beings such as Eunoia (Good Thinking) and Eudaena (Good Moral Vision).

Tetramagi

The Tetramagi are Zartus (Zoroaster), Gotama (Buddha), Socrates and Jesus.

Heptasophoi

The Heptasophoi are Zartus (Zoroaster), Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Nietzsche and Jung.

Chrestores

A Chrestor is a good or useful person. A chrestor is the human agent of Auramazda, the wise creative and sustaining power. Zartian Mazdaism is primarily concerned to encourage and educate people into being good chrestors who can make a positive difference to the world at large.

Runes

Runes are abstract concepts which are considered useful mental tools. The Triads above are made up of runes, but there are many others.

Praxis

Praxis is what we actually do as Zartians. This is something still being developed, but in principle Zartian Praxis includes:
  • orientating ourselves to Reality and the Good
  • becoming mightier and more righteous servants of the Good as individuals
  • strengthening our ties to others and our ability to work with them to create a stronger and better combined force for Good.
  • using our ability to be a force for Good to actually do Good

Why Zartian Mazdaism?

We believe that modern people need a good philosophy or religion to help them navigate the times they live in. Many are not satisfied by the well-known offerings and are open to considering alternatives. We believe that Zartian Mazdaism and its sister ideas such as Zartian Mithraism and Christomazdaism will provide some people something a little different and a little better than they can get elsewhere.

updated Aug 4026 ZHE