By Al G Manning
It’s an accepted fact the 3 “wise men” who brought gifts to the baby Jesus were Zoroastrian Astrologers who had predicted his birth. And of course the GE Mazda electric light bulbs were named after Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian God of Light. Zoroastrianism was founded by Zoroaster somewhere in the 6th Century BC. Their basic scripture is Zend Avesta which depicts the war between the forces of Light and the forces of darkness. And to me it was this same Light that started me on my real spiritual quest in about 1951 It was a life changing experience – I was standing alone in total darkness in the middle of a huge arena. Suddenly a shaft of Light shined down on me and a voice spoke: “Let him whose eye is single lift himself up and reveal God.” It produced the power of levitation and my first thought was to fill the Hollywood Bowl with people and lecture them while floating happily above them. But that was not Spirit’s idea about its use – and thus began my quest.
The Devotees Were Called Parsees
Zoroaster was Persian and his followers were therefore called Parsees. Their handling of death was somewhat unique. The human carcasses were laid out on top of a tower for the buzzards to devour. Makes sense to me – I’ve willed my carcass to a medical center for research after I leave it. This indicates a pretty complete understanding of life after “death.” In modern slang we’d have to call ‘ ’em pretty sharp dudes. It’s a long way from Persia to Bethlehem and navigational instruments were not all that advanced, there must have been some excellent ESP to guide the “wise men” to their destination. And that works for us all today as it did for them on the first “Christmas”.