The Tail of the Faravahar

Dear Parviz

I totally get your point and of course I agree with you 100% (except that the Palm Island in Dubai is not withering away, that's probably just another urban legend, I was there the other week and it is very much in place). However, I must say that adding an asshole to the Faravahar makes him, shall we say, seem more human, more complete. Don't we all have assholes and they serve a very good function? At least as long as they are considers as assholes proper. ;-) It sounds like it makes our symbol different and more real than the symbols of other religions, which show no signs of any bodily activities or functions whatsoever. How dull!

Ushta
Alexander

2009/5/6 Parviz Varjavand

I agree with Alex and the way he looks at Zoroastrianism.

Yet the same Zoroastrianism is full of baseless and negative pronouncements that drag down its lofty points of view.
Some times back, a Moobed in Iran had made an analysis of what the meaning of the different parts of the Faravahar are. For example he has claimed that while the three segments of the wings of the Faravahar represent Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds, The three parts of the tail of the Faravahar represent Bad Thoughts, Bad Words, Bad Deeds!!??

This most stupid pronouncement is totally baseless and there is not a single historic statement that backs this ugly and tasteless claim. Yet all the Zoroastrian children are thought this in their religious class and when the same children grow up, they become staunch defenders of such world views that have their roots in the Manichean view that all that happens below the belt must be somehow evil and dirty.

There is a plan on the way to make a huge artificial island in the Iranian side of the Persian Gulf in the form of a Faravahar. This is similar to the Palm Island built on the Dubai side (I hear that island is sinking in the sea because of faulty foundations). The architect of the Faravahar Island (A Muslim) was asking the Zoroastrian community what to place on the tail side of this Faravahar Island, and the logical answer was that the sewer treatment plant and garbage dumps of the island should happen on the tail section.

Pondering Point ;-)
Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer, and when the stupid answer comes from some religious authority, the religion gets stuck with it for ever. Our Faravahar has ended up having an asshole whether we want it or not!

Ushta,
Parviz Varjavand

--- On Wed, 5/6/09, Alexander Bard wrote:

From: Alexander Bard
Subject: [Ushta] The Essence of Zoroastrianism and The Difference of Wills
To: Ushta@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009, 3:39 AM

The Mahayana philosophy is the consequence of the attempt of obtaining DETACHMENT from reality. It is not really concerned with seeing the world correctly, rater it is the consequence of a specific will and the nurturing of this will, the will towards detachment, towards accepting death as the ultimate outcome and possible "essence" of life. In Zoroastrianism, we actualy turn the whole issue around. Our starting point is the will towards INVOLVEMENT. While this will is based on pathology, this is then a conscious encouragement of pathology, we will the impossible, we will the utopian, we will the existence as one with the world (rather than the non-existence) . This explains why Zoroastrianism is against monastery lifestyles, against dualism, against the worship of the beyond in relation to the degradation of the here and now and why Zoroastrianism holds the elements of the material world as sacred.
Ushta
Alexander