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Guessing LHP and Grey magic dudes go to astral plane, RHP to which ever holiness they worked with, atheists terminate and get no afterlife and the sheep go to the afterlife of their religion they bleated most of their life, where do animals go?
Yeah, Zoroastrians... Come to think of it, good animals that died in a pure state return to the primordial beast prototype. Bad ones like wolves and reptiles and scorpions go back to the Hostile Spirit and must be dispatched as cruelly as possible. I've only gotten as far as the pre-Achaemenid in terms of these details.
I think it depend on the type of atheist one is.Some believe in reincarnation, others in a spiritual world of sorts that isn't heaven not hell, just another dimension of existence.And of course, there's the ones that think that once you're dead, that's it, no more existence.
Yeah, Zoroastrians... Come to think of it, good animals that died in a pure state return to the primordial beast prototype. Bad ones like wolves and reptiles and scorpions go back to the Hostile Spirit and must be dispatched as cruelly as possible. I've only gotten as far as the pre-Achaemenid in terms of these details.
Yeah, Zoroastrians... Come to think of it, good animals that died in a pure state return to the primordial beast prototype. Bad ones like wolves and reptiles and scorpions go back to the Hostile Spirit and must be dispatched as cruelly as possible. I've only gotten as far as the pre-Achaemenid in terms of these details.
The Vendidad, which is where these insane ideas about animals are found, is largely a codification of pre-Zoroastrian, native Persian superstitions refracted through the lens of Zoroaster's theology. Most scholars maintain that it's exactly against these superstitions that Zoroaster struggled and surviving Zoroastrian groups in Iran and India (as well as the "Universalist" Zoroastrians) do not hold these attitudes towards animals.
Guessing LHP and Grey magic dudes go to astral plane, RHP to which ever holiness they worked with, atheists terminate and get no afterlife and the sheep go to the afterlife of their religion they bleated most of their life, where do animals go?
There is a presumption of wish fulfilment here. If a person wishes to experience their afterlife of choice I'd recommend creating a "total environment" in the here and now because it's as close as they're likely to come to it.
The only beings likely to survive death are those with a consciousness strong enough to withstand death. In the case of some animals I think this strength of consciousness could be the case. There are manifold stories around the world of cats, foxes, bears, etc. acting as masters and being revered by humans with the ability to perceive the quality of consciousness. I think one indication of that strength of consciousness could be the capacity to love.
I recall a story about a dog with very human eyes who was able to perform feats of intelligence which drew crowds - I have browsed to find that story but it slipped away. Still, I have come across various notions of metempsychosis where the reverse is also true in that humans can also reincarnate as animals resembling the traits of their transgressions in a prior life.
I have often looked at the Zodiac from a "shamanistic" angle - the bestial archetypes sort of representing deeper layers of the human mind.
"Bad" from the perspective of pastoralists who woke up one day (or over an evolving period) to find themselves in a "cosmic war".
For others, like you cited, or like Romans and Mongols, a different perspective.
I have sometimes wondered if the myth of Lycaon had ever been interpreted as a metempsychotic figure.
The Vendidad, which is where these insane ideas about animals are found, is largely a codification of pre-Zoroastrian, native Persian superstitions refracted through the lens of Zoroaster's theology. Most scholars maintain that it's exactly against these superstitions that Zoroaster struggled and surviving Zoroastrian groups in Iran and India (as well as the "Universalist" Zoroastrians) do not hold these attitudes towards animals.
It was an example that came to mind at the moment.
The best detailed source so far I could find was Mary Boyce's admittedly dated History of Zoroastrianism Vol I - I have yet to find the second volume. It covers the broad and complex evolution much as you say, though she does dive somewhat into the animal cruelty aspects which sounded more like a type of ritualized pest control mixed with penitential practices against the backdrop of the cosmic war. No other source I have found even mentions such practices such as carrying a thorn in one's pocket to stab bugs, which must then be affixed to a wall or something so its death does not pollute the earth. She did state that this covered only a certain period in the evolution of the faith.
I thought it was interesting how Boyce relates a late "nativity story" about baby Zoroaster being protected by a wolf in fear of the Ahura which she cites as an example of the notion of turning "evil into good." It might have also been a kind of "sticking it to the Romans" type myth.
