Life After Death_ A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion - Alan Segal [118]
During this period, we find a new method for gaining religious surety in the ambiguous Sasanian world of religious competition. That was a heavenly journey, undertaken ritually and by means of psychotropic drugs to help the adept travel to the next world for the purpose of gaining firm faith. These were not undertaken casually but were well prepared ritual experiences in which visions were deliberately sought in a public context. For instance, the high priest Kartir (third century CE) left us a report concerning the existence of heaven and hell. Since this document was carved into monumental rocks on a public highway, we can be sure that it represents an official demonstration of the truth of Zoroastrianism. Unfortunately, the inscription is fragmentary, leaving us in doubt about many of its most important details. In the course of his ecstatic journey, Kartir was represented by his “likeness,” accompanied by a woman, who seems to represent his daena (Pahlavi: dēn). His spirit-self “likeness” journeyed up to the throne of judgment, undergoing adventures with “deadly ones” and helpers. Kartir invoked humata, hukhta, and hvarshta to ward off the dangers of the journey. There is in the “Zoroastrian book of common prayer” a text called the Vispa Humata, which concerns this triad and which is praised as having the power of salvation from hell.37 This ritual mantra resembles the prayers which the rabbis and hermetists used to protect themselves in their heavenly journeys. It seems likely that Persian religion influenced these Rabbinic traditions. There was apparently a cup in the throne of some of these rulers, a “pit” or “cave” in front of another one, and scales in front of a third ruler. The account was promulgated in a public place, obviously because it demonstrated the truth of the Zoroastrian religion though some of the details are very peculiar to this vision.
Arda Viraf Nama
EVEN MORE graphic is the Arda Viraf Nama (The Book of Arda Viraf or alternatively, his name can be figured Arda Wiraz), a ninth-century text, written after the Muslim invasion. It takes as its subject the arrival of Alexander the Great, the previous great crisis in Mazdayasnianism (based on the Pahlavi word for the religion of the followers of Ahura Mazda, essentially Zoroastrianism). After a great ceremony of lot-casting, Arda Viraf (“Truthful” Viraf) was elected to travel to heaven to find out how to resolve the crisis. He was given a special potion, evidently a dose of mang, the drug that the prophet legendarily gave to Vishtaspa to enable him to behold his future victory over the Hyaonas, probably hensbane. From this point onward in our study, the heavenly journey can in itself indicate that the subject has achieved a certain altered state of consciousness. That is not always important to the narrative but it is sometimes the most important aspect of the story, especially when prophetic authority is claimed for religious innovation. When the experience itself is emphasized in this way, we should look for explicit statements about the validity and composition of the self. In this case, as the Persian story of the soul’s journey develops, we see a more and more consistent view of the self emerging. The Zoroastrian notion of the transcendant self is the one that carries the moral deeds of the individual, the daena, the urvan, and the tan i pasen.
Furthermore, Arda Viraf’s travels through the hells and heavens of Ahura Mazda show that the heavenly journey is undertaken because that is where the righteous dead