Original Magic: The Rituals and Initiations of the Persian Magi - Stephen E. Flowers Ph.D. 2017

The Structure of The Individual
Theories of Mazdan Magic

Most ancient and traditional peoples knew a very complex form of psychology and physiology. The Magians of old looked inward, into the cores of their beings. In so doing they came to know and understand the inner worlds far better than most modern people do. There is no reason why we cannot today combine the ancient wisdom with modern technology. But to do so in a healthy way requires the soul to be the master of technology—not to allow technology to become the master of our minds. Even the casual observer of today’s society can see that the machine is the master of the mind. Mazdan magic resists this trend to become the master of the environment.

Because the ancients looked so deeply into their own beings and experienced many nuances of the inner worlds, they developed many terms for the various constituent parts that make up the whole human being. Today the average person only vaguely understands what is really meant by terms such as soul, mind, and spirit. But our own ancestors, as well as those of our cousins, the Iranians, had many words for the aspects or dimensions of the human essence. They had words for these various aspects because they experienced them and were familiar with them. Now, as a part of our magical work, we must again become aware of, and conversant with, these aspects.

ahu: This is the vital existence of the human being. It is the very essence of life itself—a life force. Ahu is the energy that holds all of the various constituent parts of the individual together as a whole. In most humans most of the time, this can be a rather disharmonious and fractured whole. But with magical work and initiation it can become an ever more harmonious whole.

manah: This is the mind or the faculty of pure intellect. This faculty is subject to both negative and positive influences; that is, both harmful or beneficial input. It is a matter of the individual making the right choice every moment of life. This is why the mind must be ever vigilant and wakeful.

urvan: Here we find the soul proper. It is the central spiritual essence of the human being and is endowed with the faculties of wisdom, reason, intellect, will, knowledge, and conscience. It cannot be located anywhere in the body itself; instead, it is diffused throughout the entire physical and nonphysical being. It reunites with its fravashi after death.

daêna: The word daêna most basically means “insight.” This concept underlies the religion founded by Zarathustra. Mythologically, it is visualized as a beautiful fifteen-year-old female. She will meet the soul of the individual at the foot of the Chinvat Bridge accompanied by a group of dogs. Her dogs help drive away any evil, while she, as an embodiment of all of your deeds, good and bad, will help the other yazatas “judge” your soul. She is with the individual always but may only become visible after death or during the process of dying.

badah: Here we have the part of the soul that constitutes perception, through and by which we gain knowledge. This is considered to be an innate, inborn wisdom, which unfolds during the course of life, as we learn to access it from within.

ushi: The word ushi originally had to do with the idea of “hearing.” That which is heard is acquired tradition and knowledge. This faculty of the soul is the seat of this acquired knowledge, which generates the power to conceive of things, to construct new things within by means of the capacity of imagination. This is the seat of understanding and the power to conceptualize.

The final two components form the individual person with the unique personality incarnated in one’s present life.

kehrp: Here we see the body as a shape and image. This is not actually physical in the way we normally understand it. Rather it is the passageway between the spiritual and physical components of the individual.

tanu: This is the actual physical body of the individual, which is the vehicle of the present incarnation of the soul from the realm of menog. It is necessary to the life and physical presence of the individual self or person in the realm of getig. The physical being is seen as a garment and weapon of the soul.

Appended to this body of material is that surrounding the fravashi. The term is derived from a root meaning either “protection” (*fra-varti) or “to choose” (var-). This entity shares many aspects with the Germanic valkyrja and fylgja. The fravashi is an ancestral protective spirit or angel and also the “higher, spiritual self ” of an individual. Fravashis actually receive cultic sacrifice” (Yt. 26 and 13). But the fravashis are not just ancestral spirits but also the preexisting heavenly entities, which act as protective angels for all individuals. As such, they have a warrior function. Fravashis are visualized as spear-carrying riders who protect and defend heaven. They are often referred to as “guardian angels,” and indeed this Mazdan lore is the origin of that idea in Western religions.

Also appended to every individual is a khvarenah. This is the inborn glory or grace, visible on occasion to some as a nimbus around the head and shoulders. The khvarenah is a storehouse of innate talents and abilities in latent form. It is up to the individual to develop these. Concerning the khvarenah and the urvan and how they work together, Khojeste P. Mistree writes, “The soul is the motivating force and the prime mover within man while the khvarenah has within it potential talents which are to be realized by man who must endeavor to nurture and cultivate the khvarenah to its full capacity, because ’growth, fulfillment and prosperity’ are integral parts of Zoroastrian doctrine.”³ R. C. Zaehner called the Good Religion one of “creative evolution.” He went on to say that “Man distinguishes himself from the beasts in that he is not merely a product of nature (chihr), he has also a moral dimension in that he is possessed of intellect and will (akhw).”⁴