Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Zoroastrianism

By: Annie Besant

A Convention Lecture at the 21 stAnniversary of the Theosophical Society

First printed in 1897 in the book Four Great Religions

Reprinted in booklet form in 1935, 1959

The Theosophical Publishing House 1959

Table of Contents

[Introduction] 3

[Main Section] 4

[End] 20

[Introduction]

ONE of the differences which are continually arising between occult knowledge and the oriental science which has of late years been growing up in the West, is the question of the age of the great religions. When we come to Buddhism and to Christianity the difference is limited to the question of a century or two. But with regard both to Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, there is an entire conflict between orientalism and occultism - a clash which does not seem likely to cease: for most certainly the occultists will not change their position, and the Orientalists, on the other hand, are likely only to be driven backward stage by stage with the unveiling of ancient cities, with the discovery of ancient monuments. And this is a slow process. Hinduism and Zoroastrianism go back into what history would call "the night of time", Hinduism being the more ancient, and Zoroastrianism the second religion in the evolution of the Ãryan race.

I propose to look at the changes of opinion through which Orientalists have passed, in order to show you how they are gradually being forced backwards, disputing, we may say, every inch of the ground, century after century, as the growing evidence points to an ever greater antiquity. Then I will take up the occult testimony and see where that places the religion of the Iranian Prophet.