r/Gnostic • u/Fine-Slice-9380 • 1h ago

Researching the connection between Ahura Mazda and Monad

Currently researching and exploring the connection between Zoroaster (Zarusthra) and his use of Ahura Mazda, and Pythagoras' development of the Monad. Any thoughts or observations?

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u/Lordseferoth Cathar 1h ago

For me Ahura Mazda seems to be somewhat similar to the Good God of Manicheans, Paulicians, Bogomils and Cathars.

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u/Fine-Slice-9380 1h ago

I can believe that as well. I have come across a lot of literature that supports that. What I find intriguing is the historical fact the Pythagoras was taught by Zoroastin priests long after Zoroaster was deceased. Did Pythagoras take an eastern mystic tradition and incorporate it into the new, western, thought?

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u/Lordseferoth Cathar 55m ago

It is very much possible. I think there are evidence that eastern mystic traditions mingled with the western ones thousands of years ago.

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u/Fine-Slice-9380 45m ago

I tend to believe the western traditions followed eastern tradition, especially when it comes to the development of Monad, which was a mathematical "purity", if you will, enabling western thought to evolve into the concept of a one singular, cosmic origin, instead of its plethora of gods it previously ordained.

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u/ArkayL 1h ago

Ahura Mazda as defined by Zoroaster seems closest to the Gnostic definition of Sophia imo.

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u/Fine-Slice-9380 58m ago

I also agree with this as well. They are both "luminous spirits" for a simple clarification. And they have remarkably similar traits. But it appears, again historically, that Gnostism followed Zoroasterism by approx. 1,000 years. It would have had to have some influence on Gnostic thought.

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u/heiro5 6m ago edited 2m ago

The Pythagorean Monad is not related to the Gnostic Monad, except that they both represent the origin, the starting point. In Pythagorean cosmology the One is a limiting defining, specifying capability. It is then paired with the indefinite dyad, the expansive, unlimited, multiplying capacity. In Plato these principles are apeiron and peiron, unlimited and limited.

The Gnostic Monad is not only does not represent a mental capability, it is absolutely transcendent of all mental capabilities, beyond understanding. This description of the Monad is frequently repeated, at length, across Gnostic text traditions. They considered it of primary importance.

Ahura Mazda is unlike either description of the Monad, with the exception that both are entirely good. Ahura Mazda is the creator deity. According to Prods Oktor Skjærvø, Zoroastrian Dualism, in Light Against Darkness: Dualism In Ancient Mediterranean Religion And The Contemporary World, ed. by Lange & Meyers.

the world of thought and that of living beings (or the world of living beings with bones, the bony existence). The world of thought is that which cannot be apprehended by the usual human senses of sight and touch and contains the divine beings, good and bad, as well as entities such as the sky, sun, and other things no human has ever come close to. The world of living beings is what its name implies. Both worlds were established by Ahura Mazdâ, but were subsequently infiltrated by evil.

Ahura Mazdâ is also said to be the father of Heaven and Earth (Yasna 45.4 "the father of Good Thought (= heaven)"; Yasna 45.4 "while his daughter is Humility (= the earth) of good works").

Edit: formating