Prosopa

A Prosopon is a particular way of the soul, a kind of personality, a spirit-character. There are lots of Prosopa - lots of ways of being - that each tend to produce a different impact on the world.

Prosopa may be seen as angels in a Christian context, as gods or demigods in the pagan world-view and as personality-types in a secular context.

In traditional Mazdaism they are referred to as Yazata if they are deemed worthy of worship (though this term may also include the Agathoi).

Each of the Prosopa has a particular character, each has a different spirit at work in them. Thus each has tasks that they are better suited to perform than the others.

NB A Prosopon (a 'face') is a particular kind of Tropus - or way of doing things. Tropoi are all the ways that a person can behave, all the varieties of actions that they can perform.

Dodeka Prosopa

A list of twelve prosopa grouped in three ranks. They are all considered helpful to us, but unlike the Agathoi - or the Christian angels - they are not necessarily thought of as perfectly good.

First Rank

Sarus has a sensitive soul and a deep interest in individuals. He understand people and has respect for their innate dignity. He tries to help everybody and especially those in greatest need.

Anhita is fulfilled as a mother, she has a love of life and a desire to nurture others, especially the young and vulnerable and to help sustain them and see them grow and flourish, protected from the wider uncaring world.

Mithras has a mature rounded character. He has an inclination to look at things as a whole and with dispassion. He is motivated by a desire to see good order in human affairs and he has all the ability needed to influence others to come into line.

Second Rank

Percus has an impetuous character and is easily raised to anger. He has great strength and will strike out against that which is creating barriers to the good life.

Friya is motivated by fiery love.

Faber is a craftsman. He enjoys manipulating inanimate materials and crafting them into new designs. He likes to be in control and has little interest in relating to people as equals. However where the opportunity arises he will become a demiurge, treating others as biological machines that respond in a predictable way to the input they are given, and which can be manipulated to desired ends.

Vatis has high energy and a desire for novelty and excitement. Vatis tends to break out of conventional patterns of thought and behaviour and creates his own new patterns. Vatis is able to see the world more clearly than others who are trapped by mental walls put up by others. Vatis is thus a major source of new knowledge. Vatis is also useful in warfare where existing structures need to be demolished.


Third Rank

Hestia is a home-maker. She has a desire for good order in the home and has a calm and dependable personality that can be relied upon. She takes pride in maintaining everything that is needed to provide a place for people to live.

Tistar or Didascus is a coach and teacher. He enjoys seeing people grow and develop with the challenges and support that he provides them.

Harvator has a desire to heal the injured.

Aryama is the supporter and protector of community and tribe.

Rasnus is the dispenser of justice.

Other Prosopa

Azidus is a being of desire. He is inspired by an unbridled lust for power (and other delights as well). He has an anguinic character lacking usual human emotions and empathy for others. He is obsequious to those above him in the power-chain, but cold-heartedly manipulates those who can be instruments of his success and ruthlessly eliminates his rivals. He shares something with Faber who he may employ to help him in his work. He is a spiritual opposite to Sarus and Mithras' main rival for control of the social order. (NB Azidus can be categorized both as Prosopa and Kakoi)

Lucifer is the revealer of knowledge of cause and effect without revealing what is good and bad. Lucifer encourages a dispassionate, cold-hearted view of the world. Lucifer is useful to the technologist and the technocrat, but considered a dangerous being by Christians. Lucifer's cold-heartedness makes him a sympathetic ally of Azidus the cold-hearted lustful one.

DoDeka Prosopa

Alternative descriptions

Sarus is the yazad of listening and warning and the teaching of morality.

Anhita is the mother goddess of life. She represents the processes that give birth to life and nurture and protect it. She is embued with maternal love and desires that the life gestated in her should be safe and flourish. She provides the matrix or womb within which young life develops. We see her acting as a human mother, as the wider family and society that looks after its dependent members, and as 'Mother Nature'.

Mithras is the yazad of social order. He is the power that connects people to each other in the right way and produces the good social order. Mithras is regarded as the righteous leader of the asa yazata. He is like the crown prince of the Yazata family.

Vatis is a yazad of heightened energy who can rise above existing patterns and create new ones. He has especial sensitivity and ability to see the underlying workings of things. He is the seer , the priest and healer. He is also a frenzied fighter who can break through obstacles and restrictions set by others.

Hestia is the yazad of the hearth and home. She is the home-maker goddess. She is responsible for the happy functioning of the individual household and the wider 'homes' of the community , city and nation. She has a maiden daughter Vesta who has the role of tending the home-fire.

Percus is the yazad of disruptive force. He strikes the world, creating change, upsetting existing patterns and breaking through barriers. He can act for good, being an agent of challenge that stimulates life to grow, and dissolving structures that restrict or do harm. He can also act for bad, undermining good patterns and bringing death.

Friya is the yazad of love and desire. Like Percus she has a wild heart and represents the basic desires and drives that animate life.

Tistar is a gardener, teacher and coach. He regulates the growth of living beings. In nature he provides rainfall. He is the the bringer of intellectual, emotional and physical development. As a teacher he is called Didascus .

Harva is the female yazad of healing.

Faber is the yazad of manufacture. He is the maker-god. He is the craftsman who crafts the material of the world into new designs.

Aryama is the female yazad of community

Rasnus is the yazad of justice.

Notes:

Considered masculine: Sarus, Mithras, Vatis, Percus, Faber, Tistar, Rasnus, Azidus, Lucifer
Considered feminine: Anhita, Hestia, Aryama, Harva, Friya

In some contexts the first four of the Dodeka (Sarus, Anhita, Mithras and Vatis) have a special 'senior' status - similar to Archangels in Christianity.

In other contexts just Sarus, Anhita and Mithras are considered prosopa or personalities of Chrestus-Aristus.

Sometimes it may be useful to split the Dodeka into four groups of three, with an archangel heading each group:
SARUS, Tistar, Harva -- ANHITA, Hestia, Aryama -- MITHRAS, Rasnus, Faber -- VATIS, Percus, Friya

Tistar shares with Sarus a desire to see living things prosper. Harva shares his desire to see them healthy.
Hestia supports the task of Anhita as mother by her home-making. Aryama is the community-mother.
Rasnus's justice supports Mithras' desire for right-relationship. Faber shares Mithras' impulse to shape the world.
Like Vatis, Percus and Friya share states of high energy: Percus in anger, and Friya in love.
September 2022, amended Feb 23