Asa Yazata

An Ason is a 'spirit-being' and Yazata means 'worthy of worship' (a god). They are partial aspects of the comprehensive creative and right-ordering being that is Ashura-Mazda the Wise Lord. Unlike Aramazda the yazads are imagined in human form for easier comprehension and because their spirits can be seen in the human personality.

Currently we recommend these twelve yazads for worship by Heathen Mazdeans:

Seven Senior Yazads

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.

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.

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.

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.

Five Junior Yazads

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.

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.

Aryama is the female yazad of community

Rashnu is the yazad of justice.

Asa Ayazata

Some Asa are too evil or at least too harmful to worship and so are not called Yazata. However they still exist and you need to be aware of them.

Azidus or Azideus is a demon of desire. He is inspired by an unbridled lust for power (and often 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 Mithras' main rival for control of the social order.

Notes:

Some of the yazads can be considered to be in male/female pairs :

We think Mithras is best paired with Hestia because of their shared love of order - Hestia working within the home, and Mithras in the wider world. However Mithras also has a relationship with Anhita who is both his mother and someone he protects as an adult. Also Hestia might sometimes be linked with Vatis who have opposite characters.

Percus is paired with Friya because of their shared tempestuousness. Percus is quick to anger and Friya filled with desire.

Tistar is paired with Harva because of their shared concern to aid the flourishing of those before them - through careful regulation of what they face - whether challenging or resting.

Faber is paired with Aryama because of their shared enjoyment at creating new things - Faber prefers to deal with material he can control, whereas Aryama prefers to work with people.

NB Both Aryama and Harva are goddesses in our pantheon and derive from a traditional Iranian god called Airyaman. This god was originally a god of community but became a god of healing at a later date.

Suggested Germanic deity correspondences:

Sarus : Hemdal
Anhita : Frigga
Mithras : Tiew
Vatis : Woden
Percus : Thunnor
Friya : Freya
Faber : Wayland
Hestia : Nanna
Tistar : Ingfrey
Harva : Eira
Aryama : Sibba
Rashnu : Forseti

Azideus : Loki
NB This is a somewhat new and experimental scheme so there is room for argument for instance as to whether the right yazads have been included in this list of 7+5+1 and whether the names given here are the best ones.

Semidii

Asa Yazata can also be called semidii....

Semidii are divine personalities or partial manifestations of the Pleroma - the fullness or powers - of Auramazda. Semidii are ideal forms of personality - including human personality. Semidii are spirit-beings - beings defined by the nature of their spirit or personality.

Semidii are a kind of demigod because of their intermediate position between that which is fully divine and that which is human. However Semidii are distinct from the Divi who are particular human beings who have been raised to a semi-divine status.

Updated Nov 4022 ME

Angeloi Tropikoi ("Angels of paths")

Tropoi are paths that we can take. They can be described as ways of doing things, or ways of approaching life. Variations in human character or personalities are also forms of tropoi.

Ideal tropoi are divine personalities or partial manifestations of the Pleroma - the fullness or powers - of Auramazda. Ideal Tropoi are paths that Auramazda can take. So tropoi can be ideal forms of personality - including human personality.

Ideal tropoi are ways that Auramazda can act, but not all tropoi are equally good. Following them can have negative consequences.

Each ideal tropus has an Angel or appearance which tells us the nature of the tropus - an Angelus Tropikus

Angelic Heptad


Sarus

Sarus is the divine Listener. He listens to the nature and needs of individual beings and responds accordingly. He is also called the Obedient, because he obeys the requirements of the situation as he hears it and not any separate personal will.

Sarus is the divine personality that desires to be of service to individual people. He is concerned to uphold the dignity of all, and is willing to sacrifice himself so that others can escape the full consequences of their actions. Sarus pays attention to individuals one at a time and seeks to save them from their sins.

Sarus is a teacher to us. Because of his empathy and knowledge of all beings and desire to help them he is a worthy teacher of morality.

Sarus is like a monk who serves the individuals he comes across.

Sarus the Listener. Sarus is a sensitive character and easily sees himself in the place of others. He feels the experience of each individual soul and desires that the best thing happens to them for their development and happiness. Compared to Mithras we consider that Sarus pays less attention to the holistic situation or overall picture but has greater involvement with the needs of the individuals before him.

Anhita

Anhita is the divine mother personality. She produces the processes that give birth to life and nurture and protect it. We see her acting as 'Mother Nature' and also acting through the human parent.

Anhita has a love of life and seeks to provide conditions for the best growing, protecting and healing of others. She is sometimes called Anhita the Pure as everything that comes from her is perfectly pure and good.

Anhita is like the mother who gives her pure love in care for her children.

Anhita the Mother. Anhita provides what is needed for the incipient and developing life to grow happily into a productive being who can shoulder the tasks of an adult existence. Anhita cares about her nurselings and cares for them. She provides a womb or shelter adapted to the needs of the dependent individual and protected from the harshness of the uncaring world outside. Anhita is known especially as a nurturer and protector and as a guardian of the purity of the conditions in which life grows.

Anhita is motivated by love of life and seeks to nurture, protect and heal.

Mithras

Mithras is the divine personality that desires good order. He is the power that connects people to each other in the right way and produces the good social order.

Mithras takes a holistic view of the world and human society and seeks to bring it into good order. Mithras is regarded as the righteous leader, crown prince or king.

Mithras is like a prince who considers the whole picture and seeks to create the good order that underlies the flourishing of life.

Mithras the Righteous Leader. Mithras has a strong desire for righteous order. He is a leader of society and a governor of the relationships between people. He is trusted to seek the common good of all and to see justice done. He upholds the social bonds that create the productive community and encourages the mutual flourishing.

Mithras is a champion of social order. Sarus attends to the needs of individuals regardless of other considerations. Mithras however is concerned for the whole picture. He is concerned for the good relations between people and that their mutual interaction should produce a happy result.

Percus

Percus is an angel of self-assertion. He gets angry when he is not treated with respect and will strike out at those who are abusing him.

Friya

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

Faber

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

Vatis

Vatis is a personality 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 the bringer of music and dance.

Vatis can use his power to break through obstacles or structures that restrict the best flourishing of life.

Vatis is the eccentric and energetic one who thinks new thoughts and creates new structures.

Vatis the Overcomer. Vatis has a high-energy personality. He is good at overcomings the mental channels of habitual thinking and creating new thought patterns. Fixed structures that regulate the flowing of life become liquid under his attention and he can shape new structures better suited to the needs of the world's souls.

Vatis is an angel of disruptive force. He pushes at 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.


We believe that all the Angeloi are needed to work together as joint saviours. They all work to the same ends but they have a different approach. Each tugs at the other to keep their joint work on the straight path. Sarus insists that the task of maintaining social order doesn't become an end in itself in disregard of its actual impact on individual human lives. Mithras insists that the common good is attended to and not overturned by the needs of a few privileged individuals. Anhita especially attends to the needs of the growing young. Vatis is critical to achieving new ways of doing things but needs to be kept in check by Sarus and the other Angeloi to keep him on the righteous path.

Demonic Angeloi

Azidus is a angel of desire. He is inspired by an unbridled lust for power (and often 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 Tropoi 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.