Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/91

 which is implicit, and what is implicit then becomes a something Particular, a genius also. Just as universal light is personified, so particular lights come to be personified too. Thus the stars are personified as genii; in one aspect they are what appears, and then are personified as well; they are not differentiated, however, into light and into the Good; on the contrary, it is the collective unity which is personified: the stars are spirits of Ormazd, of the universal light, and of the inherently existing Good.

These stars are called the Amshaspands, and Ormazd, who is universal light, is also one of the Amshaspands. The realm of Ormazd is the realm of light, and there are seven Amshaspands in it. These might perhaps suggest the planets, but they are not further characterised in the Zend-Avesta, and in none of the prayers, not even in those directed to them individually, are they more particularly specified. The lights are the companions of Ormazd, and reign with him. The Persian State itself, too, similarly with this realm of light, is described as the kingdom of righteousness and of the Good. The king, too, was surrounded by seven magnates, who formed his council, and were thought of as representatives of the Amshaspands, in the same way as the king was conceived to be the representative of Ormazd. The Amshaspands govern, changing place day by day, in the realm of light with Ormazd; consequently what is posited here is merely a superficial distinction of time.

To the Good or the kingdom of light belongs all that has life; that which in all beings is good is Ormazd; he is the life-giving element through thought, word, and deed. Here we still have Pantheism in so far as the Good, light, substance, is in everything; all happiness, blessing, felicity meet together in it; whatever exists as loving, happy, strong, and the like, that is Ormazd. He bestows the light on all beings, upon trees as upon noble men, upon animals as upon the Amshaspands.