Zoroastrianism In Western Religions

George Harrison, the famous British Musician and ex-Beatles member, wrote in the introduction to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which he helped publish, “All religions are branches of one big tree.”1 There are and have been many religions founded and recognized over the time, with the total, not considering how different they may be from each other, reaching over 4,200.2 These religions often like to mingle and exchange ideologies, which can be seen with the presence of ancient Hindu teachings in western religions. As such, the older a religion is, the more it has had an effect on others. One of these very old religions is Zoroastrianism, a Persian religion. Believed to be founded in between 600 and 500 BCE3, Zoroastrianism left
The first great ruler Cyrus the Great, alongside later ruler Darius I as well as his successors, wrote about how they were devoted to Ahura Mazda in their recollections. These rulers went on several great conquests, spreading their empire from their home in Persia to western India as well as Armenia and all the way to Egypt. Darius spread the empire all the way to Greece, only having to withdraw upon their approach to Athens. Zoroastrianism spread alongside these conquests, although when Alexander the Great went on his conquest of the Middle East the great works in Persepolis were burned and many of the monks were killed, resulting in the loss of many of the ancient texts and leading to Alexander being labeled “the Accursed” by the Persians.5
a new empire rose up in the Parthians, a peoples from northern Iran. The Parthians were heavy practitioners of Zoroastrianism. They managed to spread their control to the same regions that the Achaemenids did, and practiced the same religious acceptance of the previous rulers by allowing other religions to be practiced in the regions they controlled. The Parthians butted heads with the Romans in the west, where one of the first major differing branches of Zoroastrianism was recognized: Mithraism. Practiced by the Romans near the Parthian empire, it worshiped Mithras instead of Ahura Mazda. The Parthian empire lasted for 500 years, and Zoroastrian practice had no regulation during this time, so teachings heavily varied and many of the branches off of it began during this