The Amesha Spentas and the Seven Master Spirits
The Urantia Book · 95:6.2
The Salem Teachings in Iran
Zoroaster taught that all things had been created by Ahura Mazda. Beneath this supreme God, who reigned with the seven Amesha Spentas, the divine archetypes of cosmic and moral order, existed the Yazatas, lesser beings worthy of worship. The seven Amesha Spentas were Zoroaster's elaboration of the truth, taught him by the Salem teachers, of the Seven Master Spirits.Read the full UB paper →
Ancient Source · Persian Zoroastrian
The Avesta on the Amesha Spentas (~1200 to 600 BCE)
Around Ahura Mazda stand the seven Amesha Spentas, the Bounteous Immortals: Vohu Manah (Good Mind), Asha Vahishta (Highest Truth), Khshathra Vairya (Desirable Dominion), Spenta Armaiti (Holy Devotion), Haurvatat (Wholeness), Ameretat (Immortality), and Spenta Mainyu (the Holy Spirit). These seven proceed from the One and through them the worlds are governed.
Yasna 47, Yasht 13.83, and the Bundahishn ch. 1, trans. James Darmesteter (Sacred Books of the East)
The Amesha Spentas are the seven highest divine beings in Zoroastrianism, each presiding over a domain of creation and ethics.
The Parallel
Zoroaster taught seven primary divine emanations from the supreme God, each presiding over a domain of cosmic and moral reality. The UB describes Seven Master Spirits, each a distinct expression of the Paradise Trinity, who collectively administer the seven superuniverses. The UB explicitly states that Zoroaster's seven were a Salem missionary teaching of the Master Spirits, adapted to the Iranian setting.
Why It Matters
The recurrence of "seven divine beings around the throne" in Zoroastrian, Jewish (the seven archangels, Tobit 12:15; Revelation 1:4), and Christian apocalyptic literature is not coincidence. It is the same revelation, fragmented and refracted across traditions. The UB does not borrow the motif; it discloses what the motif was always pointing toward.
Scholarship
- Boyce, Mary. A History of Zoroastrianism, vol. 1 (Brill, 1975), ch. 9.
- Hinnells, John R. Persian Mythology (Hamlyn, 1973).
- Skjaervo, Prods Oktor. The Spirit of Zoroastrianism (Yale, 2011).
- West, M.L. Indo Iranian Religion (Oxford, 2010).