In tenth grade, sometimes eleventh, students of the American public education system take a World History class. A large portion of that class is based around the world's ancient religions. We learn about the Greek and Roman myths, about the African dream maker, the Aztecs, Mesopotamia, Babylonian, and so on. However, in my studies I recently came across a religion that had an incredibly large following, but has never been mentioned in classes- at least none that I've taken. This religion is called Zoroastrianism.

Zoroastrianism is a mixture of Kemeticism (the ancient Egyptian religion) and Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Hebrew, and so on), however, Zoroastrianism is older than any of those. Founded around 1500 BCE, the Prophet Zoraster (also referred to as Zarathustra) raised in ancient Iran rejected the Bronze Age religion held by the Iranians. Even though he was raised in a culture and household engulfed in a polytheistic religion, he disagreed with having more than one god and didn't believe that the princes and priests (Karvis and Karapans) should control the lower citizens. Zoraster also opposed the use of hallucinogenic plants and animal sacrifices during rituals dedicated to a god.

According to Zoroastrianism history, when Zoraster was 30 years old he went down to a sacred river to draw water for a ceremony. When he emerged from the water he was given a vision of the Vohu Manah which became the basis of the Zoroastrian values and led him to a new view on the world. The Vohu Manah is "Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta" (Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds).

Zoraster taught that only one god was worthy of worship- all other gods were deemed to be evil spirits working for Angra Mainyu (the equivalent of the Abrahamic devil) because they enjoyed and represented war. This comparison created controversy between his beliefs and the main religion because not many were willing to consider their gods as evil or misleading.

Look for more information on Zoroastrianism and other unknown ancient religions in upcoming articles! I will definitely be doing my research, and I encourage all of you to do the same.