The Philosophy : Basics

Angra Mainyu, also known by the name of Ahriman in Persian, is the primary antagonistic force in Zoroastrianism that is responsible for most of the evil in the world. Rather than being an evil deity directly scheming against Ahura Mazda, it is best understood as a primal force in existence made up of countless destructive and regressive ways of being. These wrongful ways of being are spread out across all of reality, providing pathways and potentialities for harm and regression to occur. Alongside Druj ‘the deception’, it is the ultimate source of evil that has brought about the destructive, wrongful aspects of existence in large part through its regression of the natural instinct for life to grow and flourish, Spenta Mainyu.

While it can be viewed as a cosmic force of regression, Anghra Mainyu is fundamentally an aspect of the mind, constituting a myriad of wrongful ways of thinking and feeling that are subconsciously adopted by a person throughout their life. While there are many different origins for these harmful ways of thinking, they can arise as a consequence of painful or traumatic experiences that drive the individual to live and respond to life events in self-destructive ways and harmful ways. In another sense, they can arise from societal or familial beliefs or systems of thought that directly and inadvertently cause one to act and think in backwards, wrongful, and dehumanizing ways. Most importantly is the tendency to selfishly use and harm others for one’s own gain, be it greed, lust, or rage; it is this final way of being that most potently displays the nature of Angra Mainyu.

All of these different causes, collated together, form webs of wrongness and deceit which branch across reality, stretching back to the dawn of time, ever ensnaring and trapping thinking beings and ultimately deceiving them into justifying the very wrongness they have been forced to adopt. In this way, Angra Mainyu can be seen as a force of mind made up of a countless amount of destructive impulses spread throughout existence, embedded in the mind of humans and all those aspects of reality which harm or mislead individuals.

Cosmologically, Angra Mainyu stands in opposition to its direct opponent, Spenta Mainyu, the potential for life to grow, which is the true creative force in reality. One constantly nurtures life, encouraging growth and progression and actualizing the good; the other regresses the potential for life to grow, consistently providing opportunities for twisted, manipulated regression, and ultimately, death and destruction. Together, they are seen as twin forces which literally fashioned the world by providing opposing pathways for the development of the material world. In another way of viewing this conflict, Spenta Mainyu enacts Ahura Mazda’s vision for a perfect, ideal reality (Asha) while Angra Mainyu works against this vision, destroying, harming, and corrupting the creations of Spenta Mainyu.

It should be noted that Angra Mainyu is neither a malignant creator of evil creatures nor the scheming, devil-esque adversary of Ahura Mazda, the latter of which is a common point of misunderstanding. It is instead directly opposed to Spenta Mainyu, as stated before. Moreover, it can be understood as a sort of nothingness or nonexistence, because it, and all the wrongful, disordered things which have arisen from it, only have existence as the regression and corruption of the good, real material things that do exist.

Ultimately, when Spenta Mainyu has fully actualized Asha, those perfect laws of existence, all potential for wrong and harm will cease to appear. Existence, then, will be made new, fresh, or ideal. At this point, during a process called Frasho-kereti, Angra Mainyu will cease to exist, no longer having any ‘fuel’ to continue its malignancy. Reality will then be without harm, destruction, or regression, and, therefore, life will finally be ideal, fresh, and full of life.