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

Awareness Of The Fravashi
Theories of Mazdan Magic

In chapter 4 there are some exercises for initiates to engage in to help them become increasingly aware of the presence of the individual fravashi in their beings. The individual becomes aware of the fravashi, learns about its individual characteristics as it relates to the life and essence of the individual, and strengthens those characteristics through magical exercise, progressively eliminating the characteristics and behaviors that might be at odds with the nature of the individual fravashi. One of the most important and lifelong areas of magical work is the articulation of one’s own fravashi, or, in more romantic terminology, “holy guardian angel.” It is important to realize that this should not be understood as some being from outside the essence of who you are. Rather it is the very core of your being, usually hidden from you. By gaining awareness of it and reforming yourself in accordance with its character, you are really becoming who you are. This individual being is perhaps not what you imagine yourself to be, or what your undeveloped self might wish it were, but rather the honest shape of the spark of the divine, which you embody and are meant to discover as the mystery of your life.

Other traditions might see this spark of the divine as a god or goddess in its own right, whereas the Mazdan tradition clearly sees it as a part of being truly human, or super-human.

In his treatise On the Mysteries, the Greek philosopher Iamblichus describes magic (or “theurgy,” as he calls it) as follows:

All theurgy has two aspects. On the one hand, it is a rite conducted by men which preserves our natural order in the universe, but on the other hand, it is empowered by divine symbols, and is raised up by them to be united with the gods on high, circling harmoniously with their divine order. This latter aspect is rightly called assuming the shape of the gods. According to his distinction [the theurgist] invokes, as his superiors, the powers of the universe since the one making the invocation is a man, yet in a sense he also commands them since by means of the ineffable symbols, he is clothed in the shape of the gods.⁵

Fig. 3.2. Diagram of the soul

This ideology was also one used in ancient Egypt and implemented in the occult revival in the West under the formula “the assumption of god-forms.” The Mazdan theory in this regard is similar, yet more profound and more pro-human. Individual magicians do not assume the form of gods and goddesses, but rather they rise up to the level of their own unique individual divine self: the indwelling fravashi. The fravashis are, collectively and individually, seen as being an actual part of the pantheon of Mazdan divinities. The Mazdan tradition is the only one that clearly recognizes the (potential) divinity of the individual and overtly places this quality in the company of the gods.