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Zartian Agathism

Agathon means the 'Good'. Agathism is about consciously striving for the Good.

Zartian means 'looking to Zoroaster for inspiration'. Zartian Agathism is about striving for the Good with inspiration of the living Zoroaster and the developed Zoroastrian tradition providing us with guidance as to how to do so.

We all have an innate sense of what is Good and what is Bad. We have good experiences and bad experiences and we recognize there can be good actions and good behaviour and bad actions and bad behaviour.

Of course it is not always straightforward to distinguish the good and the bad. Some unpleasant experiences can have a beneficial outcome if they help us change for the better. Some actions which we think are good ones, leading to a good outcome, may in fact have a negative effect which we hadn't predicted. Also some actions we take may be good for us, but harmful for others, so the question arises were they really good or bad ultimately?

Despite these objections the belief of Zoroastrians, both traditional and modern, is that the categories of Good and Bad are not just something in the eye of the beholder, but have a real connection to the underlying reality of existence. We believe that it is not a hopeless task to strive for the Good, but that in fact it is very much worthwhile.

In Zoroaster's own time, as in many times since then, people have felt that their way of life was deteriorating. Just continuing their everyday lives as they were didn't seem a satisfactory response to the situation they faced. So they made a special effort to start thinking about what was happening to them and what they might do about it. Oftentimes there would be a call to revive old customs and old laws which had fallen into disuse. Sometimes this might work, but often those customs had been devised for different circumstances than the one the people were now in, and trying to restore them artificially didn't do what they hoped. So completely fresh thinking was needed.

When Zoroaster faced this situation he felt the old pagan religion of his time wasn't helping, and he set out to devise a new system, one that was more rational and philosophical and got to the heart of the matter of good and evil.

Modern Zartian Agathists seek to do the same thing. We reject the idea that matters of Good and Evil are the sole preserve of religions like Christianity. Instead we are trying to understand Good and Evil using our reason, without reliance on the apparently irrational teachings of specific religions.

Zartian Agathists tend to be intolerant of religion which makes no rational sense to them. Nevertheless we try to be open-minded and don't insist that things we don't understand couldn't be beneficial. We need to strive for the Good the best we can while having humility concerning our ability to know what we should be doing, or to do it.

As a practical path Zartian Agathism is about recognizing the value of Zoroaster, through his actual teachings and through the example he set, and then using that as a starting point for our own journey, as individuals and as a collective to strive for the Good.

Thaliotria

Most Zartian Agathists accept the Thaliotria ('Trinity of Flourishing') as a pointer to Agathon the Good:

This says that Thalia or 'Flourishing' , the good life as individuals and together , is a worthy end-point to aim for;

that Arta or 'Rightness' or good relationship between things is the condition that needs to be achieved to gain Thalia;

and that Auramazda or 'Active Wisdom' is the power that brings Rightness and Flourishing.

So we can explain our aim as Zartian Agathists is to become good agents or vehicles of the wise creative and sustaining power which brings the well-ordered existence and the flourishing of life.

Eusebia Trinity

But how do we do prepare ourselved to do this? Another three concepts gives us a starting point. This is Eunoia, Eudaena and Eusebia,

Eunoia is good thinking, good consciousness. It can also be explained as 'clear thinking'. It is about seeing things clearly as they actually are without delusion or misplaced emotion clouding things.

Eudaena is good moral vision, or good vision as to what is valuable or not valuable. This should lead naturally to:

Eusebia is 'good devotion'. A person with Eusebia will focus their attention and energies in the most valuable directions. They will do the things that are important and not ignore any of them nor waste too much time on the unimportant.or harmful.

Ad bonum tendimus et via artista est!
We strive towards the Good and our path is that of Best Order, Righteousness and Truth!

July 4026 ZHE