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Heptaruna

Seven fundamental concepts

ZURVAN - a period of time, the container of existence, the substrate . (Zurvan Akarana = Boundless Time = Universal Zurvan)

ANGHA - Existence, Being, Reality.

AGATHIA - Goodness (a quality of Angha)
Usually taken to imply the presence of Ushta (Joy), Eudemonia (Good spirit) or Thalia (flourishing) or the conditions for these to occur, or actions taken to create the conditions

LOGUS - the logic of existence, the way things work, the way things need to be done to produce good results

ARTA - the ordering of existence so that the parts are related to each other in a well-fitting manner for a beneficial result

ASHURA - the being that produces Arta or Agathia

MAZDA - the wise mind directing the Ashura

Persian-Greek equivalents

Zurvan (Akarana) = Aion (Apeiron) , Angha = Ousia, Arta = Kosmos, Ashura = Kosmocrat (?), Mazda = Sophia (or perhaps Metis)
From Oct 2021

ASHA (or ARTA) is order, rightness, truth, beauty. It is the desirable state of the activity of Zurvan - where its different parts come together in a harmonious way. Asha is contrasted by DREG which is deviation, disorder, falsehood, wrongfulness, clashing, chaos.

ASHURA is the Righteous Lord, the Lord of Asha, the Amorton who creates and sustains the well-ordered creation.

(DREGGOR is the opponent of Ashura. Dreggor is the devil who interferes in the good-workings off the world, thowing it off course and causing disharmony, disease, chaos and unhappiness.)

MAZDA is the wisdom-power. Mazda is the perfect mind at work. Mazda senses the state of the world and devises the best way forward to the Good state of things and the Best Existence.

In Zoroastrian teaching (and generally by Neomazdeans) Ashura and Mazda are considered an inseparable couple working seemlessly together to create Asha.

Mazda is the power of the ideal mind. It works through the living world (the GAETA) (or ANGHA - the real existence), which itself is submerged in Zurvan. For Neomazdeans there is no meaningful mind outside of time and space. Hence we believe that Zurvan comes first, and Mazda is a child of Zurvan.
From Oct 2017

Zurvan

Zurvan is the Lord of Time, He is ultimately responsible for everything that happens in time, everything that is process, everything that is alive, everything that really exists.

It is Zurvan who created what moderns call the space-time continuum - the substrate of existence - the realm of matter and mind in motion. And it is Zurvan who is continuously recreating the world - moment by moment - according to what came before and the choices of the world-mind.

Zurvan is known in the Anglophone West as Father Time. However Zurvan is not like a human father , for he has no concern for the individual life. Zurvan is like the Emperor driven by Real Politik. He seeks to balance the various political forces at work in his realm, without any independent moral purpose of his own.

In the Gospel of Zarathustra though we hear the Good News about Zurvan. Zurvan may be extremely cruel at times, but he is not an arbitrary despot. Rather he dispenses strictly according to the law of existence - and this is a law that we humans have the potential to understand and use to our advantage, and to the advantage of the whole world-soul.

From 2016

Zurvan

Zurvan is the ultimate foundation of our world of Space and Time.

Zurvan is the ultimate creator and sustainer of the world we live in. However Zurvan allows the life of the world a freedom to act and to take the consequences of their actions whether good or bad without interfering.

Zurvan is usually regarded as morally neutral as Zurvan enables both the joys and pleasures of life and its pain and distress.
Asha

Asha (also Artia,Artista or Artavista) is Rightness , Truth or Righteousness - the state of good relation between things.

Asha is conformity to the natural law (Artus) - the law of right connection which determines what relations are good and what are bad, and which comes out of the nature of things in themselves and is not something arbitrary.

Asha is Truth, the good relationship between Mind and Reality, so that Mind mirrors Reality.

Asha is Righteousness, the good relationship of our actions to the needs of the world.

Asha is Good Order, the general good relationship of multiple elements of the world so that they work together harmoniously to produce a reality which is a good reality for life.

Mazda

Mazda is Wisdom.

Mazda is the power in the world which seeks to shape the world in ways that produce good results. It is the power which creates something new out of smaller elements, the power which transforms one thing into another thing.

Mazda depends on the law of Asha, for every act of creation must accord with the law of right-connection. However Mazda is more than simple knowledge of the law, but encompasses the knowledge of techniques which can create.


Humanah

Humanah is Good Mind. It is the character of mind that wishes for what is Good and is by its nature the springboard of good action.

The concept of Humanah implies both an inclination to do what is right, and also the knowledge and mental ability to discern what is the right course of action in any situation.

MITRAVIAN RUNA - Asha and Dreg

ASHA means Rightness, Truth, Righteousness or Good Order. Where one thing relates to another thing in the most productive way we have a state of ASHA which we can also call ARTISTA ('best joined').

Sometimes ASHA is obvious to us as a happening which is the immediate cause of happiness - perhaps receiving a gift that has long been wished for, or a cheerful social gathering where everybody is getting on with everybody else.

Other times ASHA may be less visible - these are all the things that need to 'go right' in the background for a good life to be achieved. Perhaps for our happy social gathering it was necessary for the hosts to obtain food and drink - which depended on them being able to find a shopkeeper happy to provide it which depended ultimately on everything 'going right' when the food was grown and prepared.

DREG means Deviation, Lie, Wrongfulness, Bad Order. Where the connections between things or people deviate from what would be the best then we have DREG which is thus an absence or falling away from ASHA.

Now whether we get ASHA or DREG is not a random thing but is a result of particular causes. In our attempt to grasp these causes we use the word ASHURA to represent all the causes of ASHA and DREGGOR to represent all the causes of DREG.

ASHURA and DREGGOR are two processes, activities, movements or in a way 'beings'. As we believe that most of the causes of everything begin in the Mind, so also are ASHURA and DREGGOR largely (or perhaps entirely depending on definitions) creatures of Mind.

The ASHURA is associated with SPENTAMAN which is the mental spirit which is life-valuing and seeks to produce the the conditions for life to flourish. The DREGGOR or 'the Devil' is associated with ANGRAMAN - the mental spirit which tends to be hostile to life.

However in Mitravism we recognise that the issue of Good and Evil and the nature of ASHURA and DREGGOR is a complex matter which we can't fully explain here.

Marcus Zartianus
October 4016 ME