Mithraism

Have you ever heard the name Mitra before? As Mitra is a popular name among us Iranians these days, the roots of the name goes back as far as 1735BC. In ancient Persia, before the time of the prophet Zarathushtra, the worshiping of the sun god Mithra and of the water goddess Anahita,was popular among not only persians but all around the world. This ancient religion was referred to as Mithraism, the life savior and guirdiance of the ppl of pre_christ era. The story of Mithraism somewhat reflects that of the christ. Iranian scholar Dr.Behrooz, in the course of his research has found evidance that supports the existance of a personality claiming to be the Messiah who called himself Mehr or Mithra. Legends about Mehr claim that he was conceived by a young virgin named Anahita or Nahid. It is claimed by the cult that Nahid became empregnated magically while bathing in the waters of Lake Hamun in Sistan. Mithra the god of love represents all the male energies. On the other hand Anahita represents all of the female energies and feminine forces of nature. Like the Yin and Yang of the Tao religion, Mehr and Nahid are depicted inevery fibre of the cosmos, dancing with one another and thereby moving the universe forward towards perfection and immortality. The era of Mithraism continued all the way to the time of Sasanian who strognly favoured Zorastrianism hence destroyed most belongings of the Mithraism in the Persian Empire. A similar fate destroyed Mithraism in the west when the birth of christianity took over Mithraism. The Romans feared being taken over by the Persians and tried to become independent. The Roman Empire was in constant conflict with the Persian Empire becaouse they regarded Iran as the birth place of Mithraism and feared the Persian influences on their idiologies. Consequently, they felt the need for an independent government and that was the base for growth of christianity.

Today we can get a glimce of the remainders of Mithraism in "Taghe Boostan" in a cave like cunstruction, or "fire-temple" in Bishapur in Iran and in Milan, Italy or Basilca of Trajan. Some reminders of Mithraism has even been depicted in the poetry of the famous Persian poet, Hafez.

Some Important Notes:

• the word "Metropolitan", means the city of Mitra or the city of the Sun and was known to mean the capital city!
• the name of the city Milan, Italy comes from the word Mehrayns or Mirans which were the centers of Mithraism in the ancient world.
• the names of the days of the week in English have their roots in the Mithraism and the Persian language, eg:

* Mahshid (god of moon), Monday

* Bahramshid (day of TeeVis), Tuesday

* Titshid (the Vedin day), Wednesday

* Berjisshid (Tour day), Thursday

* Nahidshid (god of firtility), Friday

* Keyvanshid (day of Saturn), Saturday

* Mehrshid (day of Sun), Sunday