ORMUZD (Ahurmazd, Auramazda. Hormazd, Ormazd), corrupted from Ahurfl-Mazdao, i.e., that Ahura (Vedic Asura). or "spiritual being," who is called Mazdao Vedic Medhils) = "creator of all things;" the name of the supreme deity of the ancient Per sians, and of their descendants the Guebres and Parsees. It was at first emphatically employed in this sense by Zoroaster, or Zarathustra Spitama. Ormuzd is, according to Zoroaster's original doctrine, the creator of the earthly and spiritual life, the lord of the whole universe, in whose hands are all creatures. He is the light and the source of light,' the wisdom and the intellect, and is in the possession of all good things, such as " the good mind," " immortality," "wholesomeness," " the best truth," " abundance," etc.; which gifts he bestows upon the pure in thoughts, deeds, and words, while the wicked are punished by him according to their wickedness. ("For thou art through purity, the holy over the wicked, the ruler over all, the heavenly, the friend of both worlds, Mazda! Father of the pure creatures at the beginning, who hath created the way of the sun, of the stars, who causeth the moon to wax and to wane .. .. lie bolded] the earth and the unsupported [heavenly bodies?], the waters and the trees, and giveth swiftness to the wind and the clouds .. . . The creator of the good mind, the working good, bath made light as well as darkness, sleep and waking, the morning dawns. the noons, the nights," etc,—Yazna. 43:) Sprung from Zarvan-Akarana (the boundless time), i.e., being from eternity, self-existing, neither born nor created, he unites within himself—as does man and everything else existing,—the two primeval principles of good and evil, the Qpento•ainyus, i.e., the white, holy spirit and the Angro mainyus (corrupted into Ahriman, = the dark spirit. This Zoroastrian conception of the two sides of the divine being—itself one and indivisible—has, however, in the course of time, partly through misunderstandings and willfully false interpretations, undergone important changes. While the Zervan•Akarana was transformed by the Magi—in oppo
sition to the Zendiks—into the Supreme Being itself, the philosophical notion of a duality in Ormuzd became the theological dogma of god and devil, jealous of each other's power, bent upon the destruction of each other's works, and consequently in constant war with each other, they and their armies. Both are—according to this corrupted view of later times. by means of which the genuine one has been forgotten up to our day—supreme rulers; both have their fixed number of councilors (sprung from an egg, But. Isis and Osiris), who are the actual governors of the whole universe, each in his special province; which councilors, however, are neither more .nor less than certain abstract ideas of Zoroaster. One personal archangel alone is assumed by the latter, viz., Sraosha.(Serosh, cf Sansr. Shruti), i.e., hearing, tradition. He is vested with very high powers, and stands between Ormuzd and man; he is the teacher of good religion; he shows the way to heaven, and monounces judgment over human actions after death. Ile is the per sonification of the whole divine worship and its outward manifestations, the symbols. prayers, sacrifices, rites, etc., and the chief combatant of the influence of the Deltas; who stand symbolically for the Brahmanic religion. Ormuzd is represented as sitting upon a throne of light, as a venerable man, or seated upon a bull, etc.—For further par ticulars about the seasons and the manner of his worship, as well as the general relations between his and the Brahmanic religion (both the result of a prehistoric conflict between the Iranians and those Aryan brother-tribes who immigrated into Hindustan proper), we must refer to PARSERS, PERSIA, and ZOROASTER.