The Mazdean Esoteric Dimension between Ritual and Theology

Zoroastrianism, as one of the oldest living religions in the world, presents a number of strictly archaic and initiatory characters, which emphasized the foundational role of the priestly college, spe­ cialized in the performative exercise of sacred oral poetry and its ritual use, and contemporarily charged with the mental and technical means to interplay with the gods in the daily and solemn sacrifices. The liturgy was the actual means through which it was possible not only to enter in direct connection with the gods invited to take part in the ritual, but also to promote the human sacerdotal college up to a higher dimen- sion out of the mixed dimension of historical time. The power of the ritual thus elevated the priestly staff into an anticipation of the liberated time of the afterlife. The way through which the priests interplayed with the gods and on some occasions eventually represented and embodied them during the solemn lit- urgies, to which only strictly qualified members were admitted was, per se, hyper-esoteric. A number of Mazdean speculative categories created the theological framework for the philosophy of the liturgy. This was conceived as an uninterrupted chain of sacri­ ficial events underpinning the order and the structure of the world and the teleology of time, thus protecting the life and the pillars of the positive creation against the anti-cosmic disorder of Ahreman, the evil spirit. The Zoroastrian tradition in its millennial history inevitably went through various phases in which some of its theological doctrines changed or engaged in adaptations, and apart from the decay suffered after the collapse of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), it assumed new lines of development, which marked the history of a (now) minoritarian, sometimes even persecuted, com­ munity living within the framework of mainly Islamic- and Hindu-dominated societies. This socio-religious situation eventually produced some profound changes, but it did not destroy various basic elements of continuity underpinning its ancestral background. In modern times, mostly the Parsis and the Indian Zoroastrian community experienced new intellectual and spiritual trends in dialogue with modern western Esoteric movements in both the colonial and post-colonial eras.