Zoroastrianism in Russia

The Galoba version of Zoroastrianism is actually far less astrological than was originally suspected. Partly because Russian Zoroastrianism also takes an influence for example from the discussions we are having here at Ushta. Partly because their neighbors for example in Scandinavia have a rather pragmatist and pantheistic take on Zoroastrianism very much in the Ushta taste. This is what I meant with "Mazdayasna Proper", a Zoroastrianism which is live and let live and not dogmatic and narrow-minded.
Ushta
Alexander

2010/7/1 Parviz Varjavand
Dear Alex,

You mention "Mazdayasna Proper", but we do not have a Pope or a Moobedan Moobed which can dictate what is Mazdayasna Proper and what is not. Every other day, some Zoroastrian pf some knowledge enters the discussions on Ushta and curses the rest of us and walks away mad telling us that we have got it all wrong and what they would like to dictate is the proper Mazdayasna.

Take these Russians for example, they showed interest in being Sedrepoosh and I saw to it that a friend of mine Moobedyar Kamran Lorian of Yazd went to Petersburg and Sedrepoosh them. So far he has gone on two trips and Sedrepoosh some fifty of them. They love him and he loves them, but neither side can talk the language of the other side and this is fortunate because if they did, they would get into fights. Two of them wanted to get married in a traditional Zartoshti wedding, so a group of twelve of them came to Yazd and I had a lovely traditional wedding for them in my ancestral house. I have a lovely video of this wedding and some day I may put it on Youtube or do something with it.

But these new Zoroastrians are all followers of a charismatic person named Pavel Galoba who is big in astrology. When you talk to them (via a translator, as I did) you realize that they are very heavily into Astrology and have a system developed by Galoba which he calls Zurvanist Astrology.

So, we are back to square one. All I know is that I have my definition of what "Mazdayasna Proper" is for me (ME), and that is "Philo-Sophia". Many show their anger towards me and think that I am a black sheep in the religion having this definitions coined for myself. In short, I do not know what I want to say, except to say that we can not act as if we have the yardstick of what the religion IS, we can only speak about what this religion is to US.

Parviz

--- On Thu, 7/1/10, Alexander Bard wrote:

From: Alexander Bard
Subject: Re: [Ushta] Fw: fire Peterburg
To: Ushta@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, July 1, 2010, 1:35 AM

Let's invite them to Ushta! Let me see what I can do. Providing me with more email addresses always helps.
Unfortunately only a small minority of Russian Zoroastrians speak English. But their religion is genuine and Mazdayasna proper indeed.
Ushta
Alexander