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Zoroastrianism

Principles

Zoroastrianism — Core Principles (core-principle)

Minimal operational principle set synthesized from the 9-file Avesta distillation (N=1; the 17 Gāthā chapters plus wider-Avesta selections — incl. Yashts 1/10/13/19, Vd. 3/18/19, and the Yasna Haptanghaiti). Sources: L. H. Mills, Yasna (SBE 31, 1887); James Darmesteter, Vendidad (SBE 4, 1880) & Yashts/Sîrôzahs (SBE 23, 1883). Method: 00-methodology.md. This is one structured reading, not authoritative (no within-tradition reviewer secured; Mills' Gāthā renderings are word-for-word with heavy interpretive parentheses — see README). Quote anchors are working text pending Phase 7 char-for-char audit. Each principle carries a cross-tradition note — the claim that may converge vs the warrant that may diverge — to feed the cross-tradition Atlas.

Cross-lingual prose discipline (structural-completeness v1.4): Avestan and Pahlavi transliterations (italicized) appear in principle titles, the untranslatables glossary (this file + 00-methodology.md), and direct quotations from Mills / Darmesteter where the source wording is the load-bearing claim. Synthesis prose explains in English with explicit glossary-anchor references back to the canonical-taxonomies section (e.g., Amesha Spentas (Bounteous Immortals — see canonical taxonomies) rather than ad-hoc foreign tokens.

Why 16

The original 13 (the Gāthic 12 + supplementary P13 Mithra-covenant) emerged from clustering the 48 chapter-level principles by intent (not forced to match any other tradition's count). Hubs: Asha (P2), the one wise Lord Ahura Mazda (P1), and the ethical triad / good thoughts-words-deeds (P6) recur across the most chapters — Asha and the triad together are the structural and lived centre of the corpus. The supplementary extension (Yashts 1/10/13/19, Vd. 3/18/19, Yasna Haptanghaiti) added canonical attestation for theistic devotion (Yt 1), the moral community across time (Yt 13), and the cosmic-restoration end (Yt 19), and surfaced one genuinely new principle distinct from the 12-set: covenant-fidelity (P13), attested most clearly in Yt 10 (Mithra) and not adequately covered by the Gāthic "good thoughts/words/deeds" triad (which is about inner-and-outer ethical integrity, not specifically about the binding character of oaths and contracts).

The set grew to 16 in the structural-completeness Phase 3 structural-completeness retrofit (2026-05-30) after the sample-deep audit — verified PASS by Phase 2.5 cross-check — found three canonical Zoroastrian structures missing as standalone principles: the Amesha Spentas as a named heptad (P14 — Yt 19:15–17 declares the seven "all of one thought, one speech, one deed"), the Yazatas as a class beyond Mithra (P15 — Sraosha, Anahita, Rashnu, Verethraghna, Tishtrya each with their own Yasht), and the Chinvat Bridge and the soul's encounter with its own daēnā (P16 — the individual post-mortem judgement scenario distinct from the cosmic Frashō-kereti). Two additional fixes refined existing principles: P3 (cosmic ethical dualism) is now clearly framed as the cosmogonic spirit-dualism (Spenta Mainyu vs Angra Mainyu at the origin), with P2 (Asha) explicitly carrying the operational asha-vs-druj axis (the daily ethical enactment of the underlying cosmogonic dualism); P11 (Frashō-kereti / Saoshyant) is reframed to honour the Gāthic-vs-Young-Avestan-vs-Pahlavi layering on Saoshyant (plural-generic "benefactors" in the Gāthās vs singular eschatological figure in the Young Avesta / Pahlavi). The bar is 100% canonical-taxonomy coverage against the list in 00-methodology.md.

The 16 principles

P1 — Ahura Mazda is the one wise Lord, sole Creator and source of all good

The Great Creator, the Living Lord, is sought first of all beings and is "one in will with Righteousness." The catechism "This I ask Thee, O Ahura, tell me aright" answers itself: Ahura alone gave the sun, stars, moon, earth, waters, the good thoughts within us, and the love of son for father. To Him "I attribute all things good." Creation, conscience, and the moral order alike are His.

  • Covers: B1-P1, B3-P1, B3-P2, B5-P1, B6-P1 (names of Ahura as meditation), B9-P4 (worship of God in his good creation) · Evidence: Yasna 28:2–4,9; 29:4; 43:1; 44:3–7; 47:2; 12:1; Yasht 1:3–4, 7–8, 17–19; Yasna 35:1; 36:3–4; 37:1–4
  • Untranslatable: Ahura Mazda (the Wise Lord), Vohu Manah (the Good Mind)
  • Cross-tradition note: one of the deepest convergence candidates — claim (one wise creator God, source of all good, maker of the natural and moral order) converges strongly with the Abrahamic monotheisms (the catechism reads as classic natural theology); the warrant is the same kind (a personal creator God), unusual for the pool. Divergence appears only against P3's dualism (Ahura is not the source of evil).

P2 — Asha vs Druj: the operational moral axis on which every thought, word, and deed sides with truth or with the Lie

Asha — truth, righteousness, the right order of things — is at once cosmic law and moral truth in a single word, and through it "the better lot is given." It is to be sought and known with the Good Mind; the Druj (the Lie) opposes it as its operational counterpart and "delivers the settlements of Righteousness to death." Asha is the tradition's load-bearing centre, and the asha-vs-druj axis is the daily operational dualism of Zoroastrian life: every speech-act, every deed, every inner thought sides with truth or with the Lie. The daily confession (Y 12) is structured around this operational axis, the Ashem Vohu prayer is its compressed creed, and the ethical triad (P6) is its enacted form. Structural note (structural-completeness v1.4): the operational asha-vs-druj axis (this P2) is the daily enactment of the cosmogonic spirit-dualism (P3 — Spenta Mainyu vs Angra Mainyu at the origin). The two are structurally distinct levels (Boyce 1979; Rose 2011, cited in 00-methodology.md): the mainyu dualism (P3) is cosmogonic — what happened at the origin and what makes evil possible at all; the asha/druj axis (this P2) is operational — the moment-by-moment choice that every speech-act and deed enacts. Every "good thought, good word, good deed" sides with Asha; every "evil thought, evil word, evil deed" sides with the Druj. Druj is named here as the operational counterpart to Asha, not merely as a translation note.

  • Covers: B2-P2 (part), B1-P4 (part), B6-P5 (covenant-fidelity as cosmic resistance to the Lie), B9-P1 (the Haptanghaiti community's defining praise) · Evidence: Yasna 31:1, 5; 30:5; 47:2; 12:8 (Ashem Vohu — "Holiness is the best of all good"); 43:5; 44:14 (the pervasive operational frame); Yasht 10:118
  • Untranslatable: Asha (truth / right order / the Right — see canonical taxonomies item 5), Druj (the Lie — operational counterpart to Asha), Vohu Manah
  • Cross-tradition note: WEAK-distinctive. The claim "truth / right order is the way" converges very widely; but Asha fuses cosmic order and moral truth and ritual rightness in one concept (so that lying is a cosmic offence and right order is a moral demand) — a fusion with no exact analogue elsewhere in the pool. The operational dualism (every act sides with one of two opposed principles) converges widely as a form with other moral-dualist traditions (the Two Ways in Didache 1; Qumran's "Two Spirits" treatise in 1QS III–IV; even the moral seriousness of the Theravāda Eightfold Path's right-wrong contrast); the warrant (Asha as a quasi-personal divine order, an Amesha Spenta) is frame-specific.

P3 — Cosmogonic spirit-dualism: two primal spirits at the origin, the Bounteous and the Hostile, chose opposite ways

Two primal spirits — the more bounteous (Spenta Mainyu) and the harmful/worst — "independent in action," differ in everything: thought, word, deed, conscience, and soul. The bounteous chose Asha; the harmful chose the Lie. They "made life and life's absence," and from the choice follow the outcomes. Evil is a real, opposing chooser — not created or permitted by Ahura, the tradition's deliberate solution to theodicy. This is the cosmogonic spirit-dualism: what happened at the origin and what makes the operational asha-vs-druj axis (P2) possible at all. Structural note (structural-completeness v1.4): P3 is the cosmogonic spirit-dualism (origin-of-evil claim); P2 is the operational asha-vs-druj axis (daily-ethical-enactment claim). Boyce 1979 and Rose 2011 treat these as structurally distinct levels: the mainyu dualism founds the moral order of choice; the asha/druj axis is what every human act enacts within it. The principle prose was previously fused; the operational consequences of the dualism now live in P2. Framing caveat (preserved from prior reading): the term Angra Mainyu does not occur in Yasna 30; the contrast there is of two spirits/principles — the fully personified Ahriman as Ahura's metaphysical equal-and-opposite is Pahlavi-era, not Gāthic (Boyce 1979; Stausberg 2008). The methodology section uses "ethical dualism within a monotheistic frame" (per structural-completeness Phase 3 framing fix per audit F1) rather than the older Western-academic label "modified dualism" — Zoroastrianism is monotheistic (Ahura is sovereign Creator) and recognizes a real opposing principle, not a privation.

  • Covers: B1-P4, B3-P4 · Evidence: Yasna 30:3–6 (the locus classicus); 45:2; 47:1 (the Spenta Mainyu hymn — bountiful Spirit, Best Mind, Righteous Order, Sovereign Power, Piety together)
  • Untranslatable: Spenta Mainyu (the Bounteous Spirit — see canonical taxonomies item 4), Angra Mainyu (the Hostile Spirit; not named in Yasna 30 — later personification), mainyu (spirit + mind + intention — the cognitive-intentional overtone English "spirit" loses; cognate with Sanskrit manyu)
  • Cross-tradition note: the sharpest divergence in the corpus. Claim ("good and evil are real and you must choose good") converges everywhere; the warrant — evil is an independent primal principle, not a privation, not created, not permitted by the one sovereign God — diverges fundamentally from Abrahamic monotheism's single sovereign will. (Claim-vs-warrant note: outsiders will read the claim as familiar moral seriousness; the dualist warrant is the genuinely distinctive Zoroastrian contribution.) For the cross-tradition Atlas this is the principal metaphysical-dualism axis, structurally distinct from the operational-dualism axis (P2) that converges far more widely.

P4 — Free moral choice is given by God; each must choose, individually, between the two ways

"Man and man, each individually for himself" must, with attentive mind, choose the better of the two spirits — choice is personal and unforced. And this freedom is itself God-given: Ahura "gave understanding from His own mind" and ordained the rule "whereby the wisher may place his choices." Human freedom to choose good or evil is built into the divine creation.

  • Covers: B1-P3, B2-P1, B8-P5 (the prophet's unforced fidelity under temptation), B9-P5 (the Good Mind God himself implants) · Evidence: Yasna 30:2–3; 31:11; Vendidad 19:6–9; Yasna 36:4
  • Untranslatable: daēnā (the conscience / religion / inner self that is chosen)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (real, personal, unforced moral freedom and responsibility) converges very widely; the warrant (freedom as a gift of the creator, set within a two-spirit cosmos so that the choice is genuinely cosmic) is frame-specific. An unusually explicit affirmation of free will compared with most of the pool — a strong convergence candidate.

P5 — Each person has a conscience/inner self (daēnā) that sides with one spirit or the other

The two spirits agree in nothing — "neither our consciences, nor our souls, are at one." Each person's daēnā — conscience, inner self, the religion one lives — aligns with Asha or with the Lie, and (in the wider tradition) the soul meets its own daēnā after death. The inner orientation, not merely the outward act, determines one's side.

  • Covers: B3-P4 (the daēnā facet) · Evidence: Yasna 45:2; (Y. 46, the daēnā met after death)
  • Untranslatable: daēnā (conscience / inner self / religion)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (an inner moral self / conscience orients a life and is what is finally answerable) converges broadly; the warrant — the daēnā as a quasi-substantial self that the soul literally encounters after death — is frame-specific. WEAK-distinctive candidate.

P6 — Good thoughts, good words, good deeds — the lived ethical creed (Humata–Hūkhta–Hvarshta)

The tradition's signature and most-recited formula: "I praise the well-thought thought, the word well spoken, the deed well done; I embrace all good thoughts, good words, and good deeds; I reject all evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds." The triad is the channel of the divine gift — Weal and Immortality come "through good thought, word, and deed" — and the everyday spine of a Zoroastrian life.

  • Covers: B2-P5, B3-P5, B5-P2, B7-P3 (Zarathushtra as archetype of the triad), B8-P4 (the triad as the daily rising-rule), B9-P1 (the triad as the community's defining praise) · Evidence: Yasna 34:1–3; 47:1; 12:8; Yasht standing formulas (SBE 23); Yasht 13:88; Vendidad 18:17; Yasna 35:2–3
  • Untranslatable: Humata–Hūkhta–Hvarshta (good thoughts / words / deeds), Asha, Haurvatat (Wholeness/Weal), Ameretat (Immortality)
  • Cross-tradition note: a prime convergence candidate — claim (inner and outer goodness in thought, speech, and act all matter, and align) converges with virtually every ethical tradition; the warrant (the triad as allegiance to Asha and the mediating channel of the Bounteous Spirit's gift of immortality) is frame-specific. Highest lived-centrality alongside P2.

P7 — Productive, honest work — especially tilling the earth and feeding the world — is holy

"The good creed belongs to the thrifty toiler in the fields," not to "the thieving nomad"; settled, life-giving labour is righteous and predation is of the Lie. "He who sows corn, sows holiness." The Earth blesses the one who tills her "like a loving bride" and tells the idle they "shalt stand at the door of the stranger… among those who beg for bread." Power and wealth, likewise, are held under Asha "to give and to preserve" for the good.

  • Covers: B2-P4, B4-P2, B5-P3, B5-P4, B7-P3 (Zarathushtra as first Ploughman), B8-P2 (worship/family/agriculture/herds as one continuum) · Evidence: Yasna 31:9–10; 51:2,5; Vendidad 3:1–6, 23, 25, 28–29, 31; Yasht 13:88
  • Untranslatable: Asha, Vohu Manah
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (the dignity of honest, productive labour; stewardship of wealth for the common good) converges broadly (cf. Catholic Social Doctrine's dignity-of-work principle and prophetic praise of labour); the warrant — tilling literally pleases the personified Earth and increases the good creation against Angra Mainyu (work as a front in the cosmic war) — is distinctively Zoroastrian.

P8 — Care for the good creation, which suffers and cries for a protector

The Soul of the Kine — the living world — laments its affliction ("for whom did ye create me?") and has no protector but Ahura, who appoints a guardian. The creation is good, is Ahura's, and is in need; care for it is built into the cosmos and is part of the human vocation under Asha.

  • Covers: B1-P2, B7-P2 (fravashis siding with the Good Spirit hold creation in being), B8-P1 (the Earth grieves at injustice and rejoices at the thriving household), B9-P4 (worship of Ahura in his good creation) · Evidence: Yasna 29:1–4; Vendidad 3:1–11; Yasht 13:2, 11, 76, 78; Yasna 36:3–4; 37:1–4; 38:1–5
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (the natural world is good and in our care; creation matters morally) converges with creation-affirming traditions (cf. Christian teaching on the care of creation, Genesis stewardship); the warrant — the world as the battlefield of the good and hostile spirits, so that protecting and improving it is an active siding with the good — is frame-specific.

P9 — God sees every deed, and a just reckoning is coming

Ahura watches every act, open or hidden, "with His glittering eye as a righteous guard"; nothing escapes the divine watch. The awards for the holy and the wicked "in the final state of completion" are real and certain, and Zarathushtra asks plainly what they will be. Each is answerable for what they thought, said, and did.

  • Covers: B2-P3, B6-P3 (Mithra as the all-seeing, undeceivable guardian of oaths) · Evidence: Yasna 31:13–14; 43:5; Yasht 10:7, 24, 45–46
  • Untranslatable: daēnā (the self met at the reckoning), Frashō-kereti (the final completion)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (deeds are seen and finally answered for; a moral reckoning is real) converges with Abrahamic judgement and, at the claim level, with karmic accounting; the warrant (a personal, all-seeing God who requites) converges with Abrahamic theism and diverges from impersonal karma.

P10 — God is the just rewarder, establishing good for the good and evil for the evil at the world's final change

"I conceived of Thee as bountiful when… Thou didst establish evil for the evil, and happy blessings for the good… in the creation's final change." Salvation/weal is open to whoever seeks Asha — "salvation to him whosoever he may be." The good Kingdom (Khshathra) "is to be chosen as that lot which most of all brings on happiness," and living the Faith's laws "obtain[s] the life of the Good Mind on earth and in heaven."

  • Covers: B3-P2, B3-P3, B4-P1 (Kingdom facet), B4-P4, B7-P4 (the Khwarrah belongs to God and to the perfectly-united holy ones), B9-P2 (Kingdom realized in care for powerful and weak alike) · Evidence: Yasna 43:5; 45:1,3; 43:1; 51:1; 53:5; Yasht 19:9–17; Yasna 35:4–5; 40:3–4; 41:2
  • Untranslatable: Khshathra (the Sovereign Power / Kingdom), Frashō-kereti, Vohu Manah
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (a just final requital; reward open to all who choose the good; an ethical life rewarded here and hereafter) converges with Abrahamic eschatology; the warrant (requital tied to the Frashō-kereti renovation and the Vohu Manah heaven) is frame-specific.

P11 — The good will triumph: the world will be made wonderful again (Frashō-kereti, the Saoshyant)

The Lie will be "delivered into the two hands of the Righteous Order," the Kingdom won for Ahura, and the faithful will "bring on this great renovation and make this world progressive" toward perfection. Hope is cosmic and forward-looking: evil is defeated and the world itself is renewed, not abandoned. The Gāthic saoshyant (plural, generic — "the benefactors," including the prophet himself and his followers — Y 48:9, 12; 53:2) is elaborated in the Young-Avestan tradition (Yt 13; Yt 19) into a singular eschatological figure (Astvaṯ-ereta rising from Lake Kasava, born of Zarathushtra's preserved seed — Yt 19:88–96) who completes the renovation. The distillation honours both readings without collapsing one into the other: the Gāthic teaching is that those who side with Asha further the great renovation; the Young-Avestan elaboration is that a named eschatological figure will rise at the end to consummate it. The two readings are layered, not contradictory, but a Zoroastrian-studies specialist would distinguish them carefully (Boyce 1979; Rose 2011 ch. 4). Framing fix (structural-completeness Phase 3, per audit Gap 6): prior prose ("A coming benefactor — the Saoshyant — will establish the faith") leaned toward the Young-Avestan/Pahlavi singular reading without naming the layering. The principle now explicitly carries the Gāthic-vs-Young-Avestan distinction. Scope caveat on the four-stage cosmogony: the prose names only what the Avesta-internal corpus attests (the renovation, the Saoshyant-figure(s), evil's defeat, the world made deathless). The full four-stage Pahlavi cosmogony (bundahišn → gumēzišn → wizārišn → frašegird, creation → mixture → separation → renovation) is explicitly deferred under category 2 (out of textual focus — Pahlavi-era, see Quality section below).

  • Covers: B1-P5, B4-P1 (Saoshyant facet), B7-P1 (the moral community extends to those not yet born), B7-P5 (the Saoshyant's coming triumph) · Evidence: Yasna 30:8–9 ("make existence brilliant"); 31:4; 34:15; 43:5–6; 48:9, 12 (Gāthic saoshyant plural); 51:1; 53:2 (Gāthic saoshyant generic); Yasht 13:17, 21 (the fravashis of "the Saoshyants not yet born"); Yasht 13:128–129 (the singular Young-Avestan Saoshyant tradition); Yasht 19:11–12, 22–24, 88–96 (the Astvaṯ-ereta Young-Avestan figure — the cited B7-C8 attests his rising from Lake Kasava and his look "shall deliver to immortality the whole of the living creatures")
  • Untranslatable: Frashō-kereti (the "making-wonderful" / final renovation — see canonical taxonomies item 6), Saoshyant (Gāthic plural-generic "benefactors"; Young-Avestan singular eschatological figure — see canonical taxonomies item 7), Astvaṯ-ereta (the Young-Avestan singular Saoshyant), Khshathra
  • Cross-tradition note: a flagged Atlas finding (see structural-analysis). Claim (history moves toward a final triumph of good, a coming saviour-figure, judgement, and a renewed world) converges loosely but strikingly with Abrahamic eschatology — and is plausibly an influence upon it (the Atlas should test, not assume, this; the structural-analysis cross-tradition finding 3 names this as an influence-hypothesis offered for testing, not a settled comparative-priority claim — the "first monotheism" framing is itself a Western projection, not a tradition self-description). The warrant (the renovation completes the two-spirit war; the Saoshyant furthers Asha) is frame-specific. World-affirming hope (the world renewed, not escaped) diverges from the world-negating goal-states of some traditions.

P12 — Worship as freely confessed allegiance; devotion (Armaiti) and the righteous home

Faith is a deliberate, spoken choice: "I confess myself a Mazda-worshipper… I attribute all things good to Ahura Mazda, and I choose Piety (Armaiti)," renouncing violence, robbery, and waste. Devotion is returned to God through good deeds, words, and worship. And the same ethic governs the home: bride and bridegroom are to "counsel well together with the mind of Armaiti… and act with just action," each cherishing the other "in Righteousness" — "thus alone unto each shall the home-life be happy."

  • Covers: B1-P1 (worship facet), B2-P5 (devotion facet), B4-P3, B5-P1, B9-P3 (the ethical knowledge held in trust by women and men alike) · Evidence: Yasna 12:1–2; 34:1–3; 53:3–5; Yasna 35:6; 37:3; 41:2
  • Untranslatable: (Spenta) Armaiti (holy devotion / right-mindedness / piety), daēnā, Daēva (the demon-gods renounced)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (worship as a freely confessed, public allegiance; piety and a home built on mutual righteousness) converges with creedal Abrahamic traditions and with Catholic Social Doctrine's primacy-of-the-family principle; the warrant (allegiance specifically to Ahura with renunciation of the Daēvas; Armaiti as a personified divine devotion / Amesha Spenta) is frame-specific.

P13 — Covenant-fidelity: the contract is divinely guaranteed and binds the keeper toward every party (supplementary addition)

"When I created Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, O Spitama! I created him as worthy of sacrifice, as worthy of prayer as myself, Ahura Mazda." The keeper of faith is bound by a divine institution, "neither the one [contract] that thou hadst entered into with one of the unfaithful, nor the one that thou hadst entered into with one of the faithful… For Mithra stands for both the faithful and the unfaithful." The all-seeing Mithra — "sleepless and ever awake," "with a thousand ears, ten thousand eyes" — watches; "the ruffian who lies unto Mithra brings death unto the whole country." The bond rises in weight through concentric social relations (friend twentyfold, partner fortyfold, husband-and-wife fiftyfold, father-and-son a hundredfold, between two nations a thousandfold, when joined to the Law of Mazda ten thousandfold). Society and its institutions are held together by the keeper's binding word. Structural note (structural-completeness Phase 3): Mithra is one — especially central — member of the broader class of Yazatas elaborated in P15 below. P13 names the covenant-yazata face; P15 names the class as a category. The two are complementary: P13 retains the covenant-fidelity ethic that the Yt 10 material directly attests, while P15 (Phase 3 addition) makes the structural fact that Mithra is one of a canonical class explicit.

  • Covers: B6-P2, B6-P3, B6-P4 · Evidence: Yasht 10:1–2, 7, 24, 28–30, 38, 45–46, 115–117
  • Untranslatable: Mithra (= contract / oath / the divine guarantor of contracts; also: name of the yazata of the covenant), Mithradruj (the contract-breaker, lit. "Mithra-lie")
  • Cross-tradition note: a strong convergence candidate distinct from P6 — claim ("the keeper's word binds him; the keeper is watched; the keeper of faith builds the world; treaty-breaking ruins nations") converges with biblical oath-ethics (Ps 15:4 "swears to his own hurt and does not change"; Mt 5:33–37), the covenant tradition of Judaism (the Hebrew berith), classical fides and the jus gentium (which Darmesteter explicitly notes here — preserving Darmesteter's contribution while bracketing the specifically-Roman-comparative framing per audit F3), and with broadly held common-sense ethics of promising. The warrant (Mithra as a personified yazata of the contract; covenant-breaking as a cosmic offence siding with the Druj) is frame-specific. Distinct from P6: P6 is about inner-and-outer ethical integrity (the goodness of thought/word/deed); P13 is specifically about the binding character of plighted faith — the keeper is bound by the act of promising, irrespective of the merit of the other party. The two cluster but are not identical and the Yashts canonically attest the distinction.

P14 — The Amesha Spentas (the Bounteous Immortals): the canonical heptad through which Ahura acts in creation, perfectly unified in thought, speech, and deed

The Amesha Spentas (Amesha Spenta, Pahlavi Amshaspand, "Bounteous Immortals" — see canonical taxonomies item 2) are the canonical heptad of divine aspects through which Ahura Mazda acts in creation: Vohu Manah (the Good Mind) — the seat of cognition and choice; Asha Vahishta (Best Righteousness) — the right cosmic-moral order; Khshathra Vairya (Sovereign Power / the Kingdom) — the just rulership; Spenta Armaiti (Holy Devotion / right-mindedness) — the bond of worshipper and Ahura; Haurvatat (Wholeness / Weal) — integral well-being; Ameretat (Immortality) — the gift of unending life; and (in many enumerations) Spenta Mainyu (the Bounteous Spirit) as the seventh. The hymn Y 47:1 (Gāthic seed) names them as one cluster — "Universal Weal and Immortality, by means of His bountiful Spirit, and with His Best Mind, from (the desire to maintain His) Righteous moral Order in word and deed, and by the (strength and wisdom) of His Sovereign Power, (established) in Piety"; Y 35:1 (Haptanghaiti) sacrifices to "the Bountiful Immortals, who rule aright, who dispose of all aright"; Yt 1:3–4 calls their Names "the strongest part of the Holy Word." The canonical structural declaration is Yt 19:15–17 (the Zamyad Yasht — already attested at the corpus's B7-C6): the seven are "of one thought, one speech, one deed; whose thought is the same, whose speech is the same, whose deed is the same, whose father and commander is the same, namely, the Maker, Ahura Mazda." The heptad is therefore both (a) the structure through which Ahura ordains the good creation and (b) the structural pattern for human ethics — the family aspires toward the same one-thought-one-word-one-deed unity the heptad embodies (the operational link to P6's Humata–Hūkhta–Hvarshta triad is exact: the human triad is the heptad's perfect ethical unity expressed at human scale). The Haptanghaiti's communal worship of Ahura together with the Bounteous Immortals (Y 35–41) is the lived-liturgical face of the heptad. Layering caveat (structural-completeness Phase 3 — per audit Gap 1 framing): the heptad as a named, enumerated, ranked closed list is more Young-Avestan / Pahlavi systematization than strictly Gāthic; in the Gāthās the six terms are present and clustered (paradigmatically at Y 47:1) but not yet closed as a fixed list (Boyce 1979; Stausberg 2008). Spenta Mainyu's status (7th of the seven vs Ahura's own holy spirit) is debated in modern scholarship (Hintze 2007). The heptad-as-unit is nevertheless canonical in Zoroastrian self-understanding — the Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism (Stausberg & Vevaina 2015) treats the Amesha Spentas as one of the central organizing structures of Zoroastrian theology.

  • Covers: B6-P1 (Yt 1's names of Ahura), B7-P4 (Yt 19's Khwarrah belongs first to Ahura, then to the Amesha Spentas), B9-P5 (Y. 40–41 approach through Vohu Manah and Asha that God himself implants) · Evidence: Yasna 47:1 (the Gāthic seed — the six aspects clustered with Spenta Mainyu); Yasht 1:3–8 (the Names as the strongest part of the Holy Word); Yasht 19:15–17 (the structural declaration — "all seven of one thought, one speech, one deed"); Yasna 35:1 (Haptanghaiti — "the Bountiful Immortals, who rule aright, who dispose of all aright"); Yasna 36:3–4 (worship within the heptadic framework); Yasna 12:8 (the Fravarānē renounces Daēvas and confesses the Mazda-worship framed in heptadic terms)
  • Untranslatable: Amesha Spentas (the Bounteous Immortals — see canonical taxonomies); Vohu Manah (Good Mind); Asha Vahishta ("Best Righteousness"); Khshathra Vairya (Sovereign Power); Spenta Armaiti (Holy Devotion); Haurvatat (Wholeness/Weal); Ameretat (Immortality); Spenta Mainyu (the Bounteous Spirit — also P3's cosmogonic protagonist)
  • Cross-tradition note: a primary Atlas finding — the divine-multiplicity-within-monotheism axis. The claim ("the one Creator's action in the world is differentiated into named aspects through which creatures know and approach him") converges loosely with multi-aspect doctrines across traditions: the Christian Trinity (three persons, one essence — same metaphysical commitment to differentiated unity but at a different structural level); the Christian "communicable attributes" (love, justice, wisdom, mercy — unsystematized but functionally parallel); the Jewish sefirot of Kabbalistic theology (ten emanations — closer in form, but a much later medieval systematization); the Islamic 99 Names of Allah (unenumerated/unranked attributes — similar inventory-of-divine-names practice attested in the corpus at Yt 1, but not closed at seven). The enumerated, ranked, named heptad is structurally distinctive — no exact parallel exists in the pool — and the structural-pattern-for-human-ethics application (the human triad of P6 is the heptad's perfect unity at human scale; families aspire toward the same one-thought-one-word-one-deed unity) is a WEAK-distinctive jewel for the Atlas's preserved-untranslatables column. The warrant (Ahura's mode of self-revelation through differentiated aspects) is frame-specific.

P15 — The Yazatas (worshipful beings): a class of divine instruments through which Ahura's creation acts, each with its own Yasht

The Yazatas (yazata, plural yazatāno, lit. "worshipful beings" / "ones worthy of yasna" — see canonical taxonomies item 3) are a class of divine beings lower than the Amesha Spentas (P14), worthy of yasna (sacrifice/worship), and the proper objects of the long Yasht hymns of the Avesta. Each canonical Yazata personifies an attribute, function, or natural phenomenon through which Ahura's creation acts. The class is canonically enumerable from the Yashts themselves: Mithra (Yasht 10) — the yazata of the covenant, the all-seeing guardian of plighted faith (the foreground case, expanded at P13); Sraosha (Obedience / Listening; Yasht 11; Yasna 56–57 the Srōš Bāj) — the daily prayer-companion, the yazata "who first chanted the Gāthās" (Y 57:2), recited five times daily by observant Zoroastrians, and the third judge with Mithra and Rashnu at the Bridge (cf. P16); Anahita (Aredvi Sura Anahita, "the Moist, Strong, Pure One"; Yasht 5 — the Aban Yasht, one of the longest of the Avesta) — the yazata of the waters and fertility, patron of women; Rashnu (Justice / the Truest True; Yasht 12) — the yazata who weighs the soul's deeds in the balance at the Chinvat Bridge (cf. P16), Darmesteter's introduction notes: "he holds the balance in which the deeds of men are weighed after their death: 'he makes no unjust balance… neither for the pious nor yet the wicked, neither for lords nor yet rulers; as much as a hair's breadth he will not vary, and he shows no favour'"; Verethraghna (Victory / Smiting-of-Resistance; Yasht 14) — the warrior-yazata, structurally central to the cosmic-war frame; Tishtrya (Sirius / the Rain-Star; Yasht 8) — the yazata who fights the rain-withholding demon Apaosha, structurally central to the cosmic-war frame and to agriculture (cross-link to P7). The Sīrōzahs (the Avesta's daily-name calendars) attest the class by dedicating each day of the month to one of the Amesha Spentas or Yazatas. Theological-status caveat (structural-completeness Phase 3 — per audit Gap 2 framing): how Gāthic monotheism integrates pre-Zarathushtran yazatas is theologically contested — the classic Boyce-vs-others debate. Boyce 1979 reads the yazatas as continuous with pre-Zarathushtran Indo-Iranian deities re-integrated into the Mazda-cosmos as Ahura's instruments; other readings see them as post-Zarathushtran re-integration via the Young-Avestan re-paganization. But the class itself — divine beings lower than the Amesha Spentas, worthy of yasna, with named hymns in the Yashts — is canonical in Zoroastrian self-understanding, and a Zoroastrian distillation that names only Mithra when the Yashts enumerate the class would be structurally incomplete.

  • Covers: B6 (the Mithra material — P13 already standalone), B7-P2 (the fravashis are also worshipful spirits, kindred-class — cf. R4 follow-on note below), B7-P4 (the Khwarrah personification follows the same yazata-class structure), B8-C5 (Vd 18.15's "bird Parodars… the herald of Sraosha" attests Sraosha in-corpus); the corpus contains principle-bearing attestation for the Mithra and fravashi cases directly, plus the Sraosha attestation at Vd 18 — the other Yashts (5, 8, 11, 12, 14) are named here to attest the class without yet being distilled at N=1 (see R4 follow-on flag below) · Evidence (Yasht-level): Yasht 5 (Anahita); Yasht 8 (Tishtrya); Yasht 10 (Mithra — fully distilled at B6, see P13); Yasht 11 (Sraosha); Yasht 12 (Rashnu); Yasht 13 (Frawardin — the fravashis as a kindred worshipful-spirit class, fully distilled at B7); Yasht 14 (Verethraghna); Yasht 19 (Zamyad — also attests the Khwarrah and the Saoshyant material at P11); Y 56–57 (the Srōš Bāj) · R4 follow-on: N=1 distillation of Yashts 5, 8, 11, 12, 14 (Anahita, Tishtrya, Sraosha, Rashnu, Verethraghna) would deepen the class attestation; currently in-corpus only Yt 10 (Mithra at B6) and Yt 13 (the fravashis at B7) are distilled at N=1, with Sraosha referenced obliquely at B8-C5. The yazata-class principle is anchored honestly within-corpus from these three attestations and the class-structure observation that the Sīrōzahs and the named-Yasht canon attest. Honest scope flag: the corpus's named PD source (Mills SBE 31 + Darmesteter SBE 4 + 23) does include the full text of the named Yashts; the deferral is on the distillation labour at N=1, not on the source.
  • Untranslatable: yazata (worshipful being; lit. "one worthy of yasna" — see canonical taxonomies); the named class-members in original-language form (Sraosha, Aredvi Sura Anahita, Rashnu, Verethraghna, Tishtrya, Mithra)
  • Cross-tradition note: a primary Atlas finding — the personified-divine-instrumentalities theme. The claim ("there are named divine instrumentalities lower than the one God yet worthy of devotion, each personifying a divine attribute or function") converges loosely with several traditions: Christian saints (lived intermediation, communion-of-saints structure — but saints were historically human, not creation-functional, so the convergence is at the practice level only); Mahayana bodhisattvas (similar functional intermediary position, distinct from the Buddha — the Avalokiteśvara/Tara/Mañjuśrī pattern is structurally closer than the Christian-saints case); Hindu devas (a class of divine beings lower than Brahman — the structural parallel is closest here, given the shared Indo-Iranian roots; the yazata/deva polarity is one of the most-studied features of comparative Indo-Iranian religion, with yazata in the Avesta and daēva as the demonized gods, contrasted with asura in the Vedic-Indian inheritance where the polarity inverted); Buddhist devatās (loose class of divine beings, less systematized than the yazata enumeration); Islamic angels (functional, but not worshipful — angels are not objects of yasna in Islam, sharply distinct from the Yazatas' status). The Mithra-yazata-as-named-personification-of-the-covenant has a particularly close cousin in the Roman Fides (personified faithfulness; cf. Darmesteter's jus gentium note at Yt 10:115–117 in P13). The warrant (named divine instrumentalities below the one Creator, integrated into the Mazda-cosmos as Ahura's agents) is frame-specific. Same form-different substance finding waiting to be made in the Atlas's structural-form column.

P16 — The Chinvat Bridge and the soul's encounter with its own daēnā: the individual post-mortem reckoning, distinct from the cosmic renovation

The Chinvat Bridge (Čhinvatō Peretu, "the Bridge of the Separator" or "Judge's Bridge"; Pahlavi Činvat, Činvad, Činōd-puhl — see canonical taxonomies item 10 + the "Taxonomic gaps surfaced" footnote) is the canonical Zoroastrian post-mortem judgement scenario. At death the soul travels to the head of the Bridge; it is met by its own daēnā (the inner self / conscience / religion-one-has-lived) — appearing as a beautiful maiden if it has lived in Asha, or as a hag if it has lived in the Druj; the deeds are weighed by Rashnu (the yazata of justice — cf. P15, Yt 12, who holds the balance "as much as a hair's breadth he will not vary, and he shows no favour"); the soul crosses the Bridge — wide for the righteous, narrow as a razor for the wicked. The scenario is Gāthic in nucleus (Mills' "Judge's Bridge" / Činvat Bridge attestation at Yasna 46:10–11 — "forth to the Judge's Bridge (itself) with all of them shall I lead on at last" / "when they approach there where the Judge's Bridge extends… these shall miss their path and fall"; and Yasna 51:13 — "the righteous man's conscience will truly crush the wicked man's (spirit) while his soul rages fiercely on the open Činvat Bridge"); wider-Avestan elaborated (Vendidad 19:28–32 — Darmesteter: "At the head of the Činvad bridge, the holy bridge made by Mazda, they ask for their spirits and souls the reward for the worldly goods which they gave away here below… Then comes the well-shapen, strong and tall-formed maid, with the dogs at her sides, one who can distinguish, who is graceful, who does what she wants, and is of high understanding. She makes the soul of the righteous one go up above the Hara-berezaiti; above the Činvad bridge she places it in the presence of the heavenly gods themselves"); and Pahlavi systematic (Ardā Wirāz Nāmag — out of strict scope per the methodology, but the scenario is Avesta-internal). The structural and pastoral distinction (per structural-completeness Phase 3 audit Gap 3 finding — the most consequential gap for the rooted compass): the Chinvat Bridge is the individual post-mortem reckoning at the moment of death — structurally distinct from the cosmic final renovation of Frashō-kereti (P11). The two are complementary, not redundant: P11 names the cosmic hope for the world made wonderful again at the end of time; P16 names the individual ethical urgency at the moment of one's own death. P5 (daēnā as conscience / inner self) and P9 (the watching God; reckoning) both gesture toward this scenario; P16 names it explicitly as the canonical structure of individual post-mortem judgement. Distinct from P5: the daēnā is the inner self; the Bridge is the cosmographic location of judgement; Rashnu is a separate yazata; the maid-or-hag is the appearance of the daēnā at the Bridge — these are four things, structurally distinguishable. Source honesty (Hadōkht Nask flag): the Hadōkht Nask 2 (the soul's three-night journey, the maid-encounter narrative) is wider-Avestan extra-corpus literature — not included in Mills SBE 31 or Darmesteter SBE 4 / 23. The daēnā-as-maid-or-hag scenario is anchored within-corpus from Vendidad 19:30 (the "well-shapen maid" passage, cited verbatim above from Darmesteter SBE 4 — the Hadōkht Nask extends this with the three-night journey narrative). The Bridge itself is Gāthic in nucleus (Y 46:10–11; 51:13).

  • Covers: B3-P4 (the daēnā facet of P5 — extended here to its post-mortem face), B2-P3 (the watching God; reckoning — extended here to the individual reckoning); the corpus does not yet have a dedicated chapter-level distillation of Vd 19's daēnā-encounter passage (R4 follow-on candidate for Vd 19 extension at N=1) · Evidence: Yasna 46:10–11 (the Gāthic locus — Mills: the "Judge's Bridge" passage, the believing-ones-go-with-Zarathushtra-as-guide-and-helper / the Karpan-and-Kavi miss the path); Yasna 51:13 (Mills: "the righteous man's conscience will truly crush the wicked man's spirit while his soul rages fiercely on the open Činvat Bridge"); Vendidad 19:28–32 (Darmesteter: the soul at the head of the Činvad Bridge / the "well-shapen, strong and tall-formed maid" / "She makes the soul of the righteous one go up above the Hara-berezaiti; above the Činvad bridge she places it in the presence of the heavenly gods themselves" / Vohu-mano rises from his golden seat to greet the soul); Yasht 12 (Rashnu as the yazata of the balance — the third judge with Mithra and Sraosha; Darmesteter introduction at SBE 23 names the three-judge scheme) · Wider-Avestan extra-corpus reference (flagged): Hadōkht Nask 2 (the soul's three-night journey, the canonical daēnā-as-maid-or-hag narrative — not in Mills/Darmesteter PD corpus); Pahlavi Ardā Wirāz Nāmag (the visionary heaven-and-hell journey — Pahlavi-era, out of strict scope per methodology)
  • Untranslatable: Chinvat Peretu / Čhinvatō Peretu / Činvat Bridge (the "Bridge of the Separator" / "Judge's Bridge" — see canonical taxonomies); daēnā (the post-mortem-encounter sense: the soul meets its own self as judge/witness — the polysemy that most directly attests the term's distinctive depth, see P5 for the inner-self sense and the methodology untranslatables); Rashnu (the yazata of the balance — cf. P15)
  • Cross-tradition note: a primary Atlas finding — the post-mortem judgement axis. The claim ("each soul is individually judged at death; deeds are reckoned with") converges very widely: Christian particular judgement (the soul's reckoning at death, distinct from the general judgement at the end of time — the structural parallel is unusually close, with the Christian distinction mirroring the Zoroastrian P16/P11 distinction); Islamic interrogation in the grave by Munkar and Nakir (named angels weigh the soul); Hindu/Buddhist karmic ledger and the Garuda Purana-style post-mortem narratives; Egyptian weighing of the heart against the feather of Ma'at (one of the closest formal cousins — the balance scale image is shared; some scholarship treats this as a parallel rather than an influence). The daēnā-encounter is uniquely structured: the soul meets its own self as judge/witness — not an external judge weighing against an external standard, but the soul's own lived inner self appearing as either beautiful maiden or hag. This soul-meets-itself-at-death structure is a WEAK-distinctive jewel with no exact parallel — strong candidate for the union compass's preserved-untranslatables column or for a held-tension entry (the daēnā-encounter places the moral self within the judged rather than as something against the judged). The warrant (the daēnā as a quasi-substantial inner self that the soul literally encounters; Rashnu's balance; the Bridge's literal cosmography) is frame-specific.

Convergence/divergence summary (Atlas preview)

Likely cross-tradition convergence (claim level) Likely divergence (warrant/foundation)
P1 one wise creator God · P2 operational dualism (every act sides with one of two opposed ways) · P4 real free moral choice · P6 good thoughts/words/deeds · P7 dignity of work · P8 care of creation · P9 deeds are answered for · P12 freely confessed worship / righteous home · P13 covenant-fidelity · P14 divine multiplicity within monotheism (loose convergence — Trinity / Christian communicable attributes / sefirot / 99 Names of Allah) · P15 personified divine instrumentalities (loose convergence — saints / bodhisattvas / devas / devatās / Fides) · P16 individual post-mortem judgement (claim widely shared — particular judgement / interrogation / karmic ledger / weighing of heart) P3 cosmogonic spirit-dualism (evil as an independent primal principle, not permitted by God — the metaphysical dualism) · P2 Asha (cosmic + moral + ritual order fused in one word) · P11 Frashō-kereti / Saoshyant (world-renewing eschatology — likely source of Abrahamic eschatology; Gāthic-vs-Young-Avestan-vs-Pahlavi layered) · P5 daēnā (the post-mortem self) · P14 enumerated, ranked, named heptad as structural pattern for human ethics (WEAK-distinctive jewel) · P15 yazata-as-named-personification-of-creation-function (the integration of pre-Zarathushtran divine instrumentalities into the Mazda-cosmos) · P16 daēnā-encounter as soul-meets-itself-at-death (WEAK-distinctive jewel — the moral self is within the judged, not external to it)

These are hypotheses for the Atlas to test via the claim-vs-warrant method, not settled findings. Note for the Atlas: Zoroastrianism is unusual in pairing an Abrahamic-style monotheist warrant (P1, P9, P10) with a non-Abrahamic dualist warrant (P3) — convergence and divergence run through the same tradition. The supplementary extension (Yashts 1/10/13/19, Vd. 3/18/19, Yasna Haptanghaiti) does not contradict any of the 12 originals; it strengthens P1, P6, P7, P8, P10, P11, P12 with canonical attestation and adds P13 as a genuinely new principle distinct from the P6 triad. structural-completeness Phase 3 additions (P14, P15, P16) and clarifications (P2/P3 split, P11 layering) sharpen the Atlas's reading: the metaphysical-vs-operational dualism distinction (P3 vs P2 cleanly separated) is itself an Atlas finding (the operational dualism converges universally; the metaphysical dualism is distinctively Zoroastrian); the divine-multiplicity-within-monotheism axis (P14) opens a new theme; the personified-divine-instrumentalities theme (P15) gains a class structure beyond Mithra alone; and the post-mortem judgement axis (P16) gives the Atlas a clean structural sub-distinction (individual reckoning vs cosmic renovation — the same distinction Christianity makes between particular judgement and general judgement).

WEAK-distinctive jewels to preserve (structural-completeness v1.4 untranslatable-cultivation discipline): Asha fusing cosmic-moral-ritual order in one word (P2); the mainyu cosmogonic dualism founding the operational ethical life (P3); daēnā as conscience-religion-inner-self-soul-met-after-death in one word (P5); Humata–Hūkhta–Hvarshta as the human-scale heptad-pattern (P6); Mithra as the divinely-guaranteed personification of the contract (P13); the Amesha-Spenta heptad as the structural pattern for ethical unity (P14); the yazata class as a category of divine instruments (P15); the Chinvat Bridge / daēnā-encounter as soul-meets-itself-at-death (P16); Frashō-kereti as world-affirming cosmic renewal (P11).

structural-completeness v1.4 prose-discipline note (2026-05-30): the matrix and prose throughout this file follow the cross-lingual discipline established in structural-completeness v1.4 — Avestan/Pahlavi transliterations (italicized) appear in principle titles, the untranslatables glossary, and direct Mills/Darmesteter quotations, while synthesis prose explains in English with explicit glossary-anchor references back to 00-methodology.md#canonical-theme-taxonomies. Stray foreign tokens without glossary anchor are avoided.

Quality

  • Source coverage: all 9 N=1 files / 48 chapter principles map to ≥1 core-principle principle (supplementary additions: 25 chapter principles across 4 new files; 23 in the original 5).
  • Traceability: each core-principle principle lists covered chapter principles + evidence verses.
  • Standalone comprehension: each principle stated to be intelligible to an outsider, with the frame-specific warrant flagged separately.
  • Scope note: Gāthās in full + principle-bearing wider-Avesta selections (Yashts 1, 10, 13, 19; Vendidad 3, 18, 19; Yasna Haptanghaiti). The Vendidad purity/corpse code and the anti-Daēva polemic are deliberately not foregrounded (sensitivity boundary; see README and compass's explicit Parsi-reformist-hermeneutic flag per audit F5). Later Pahlavi-era systematics (the fully personified Ahriman, the strict body/purity code) are not read back into the Gāthās. Confucianism / Daoism / Buddhism-style layering does not apply to Zoroastrianism — the Zoroastrian tradition is exclusive in allegiance (the Fravarānē explicitly renounces the Daēvas).
  • Quotes pending Phase 7 char-for-char audit against clean SBE scans (the working text is Internet-Archive OCR with minor artifacts).
  • Structural completeness (structural-completeness Phase 3, 2026-05-30): PASS (10/10 canonical taxonomies + 2 supplementary items covered against the canonical theme-taxonomy list).
    • Standalone principles: 1. Humata–Hūkhta–Hvarshta triad (P6) — fully attested. 2. Amesha Spentas heptad (P14 — structural-completeness Phase 3 addition). 3. Yazatas as a class (P15 — structural-completeness Phase 3 addition). 4. Cosmogonic spirit-dualism (P3 — Spenta Mainyu vs Angra Mainyu at the origin; clarified per Phase 3 Gap 4). 5. Frashō-kereti renovation (P11 — with framing fix on Saoshyant layering per Phase 3 Gap 6). 6. Mithra-covenant (P13 — supplementary). 7. Daēnā as inner self / conscience (P5). 8. Chinvat Bridge + daēnā-encounter (P16 — structural-completeness Phase 3 addition). Plus P1 (Ahura Mazda), P4 (free choice), P7 (holy work), P8 (care of creation), P9 (the watching God; reckoning), P10 (just rewarder), P12 (worship / Armaiti / righteous home).
    • Sub-elements (clearly anchored, with Learning 6 one-sentence structural argument):
      • Asha vs Druj as operational dualism is a sub-element of P2 (the operational axis is named explicitly in P2 prose; cross-referenced to P3's cosmogonic spirit-dualism per Learning 6) because the operational asha-vs-druj axis is the daily enactment of the underlying cosmogonic spirit-dualism — the Druj is named as Asha's operational counterpart in the principle's text, not merely as a translation note.
      • Saoshyant as Young-Avestan/Pahlavi singular figure is a sub-element of P11 (the layering is named explicitly in P11 prose per Phase 3 Gap 6 framing fix) because P11's terminus is the renovation; the Gāthic-vs-Young-Avestan distinction on Saoshyant is the chronological elaboration of the same renovation-spine doctrine — the principle now carries both readings without collapsing one into the other.
      • Three social classes (āthravan / rathaēštā / vāstryō.fshuyant; priest / warrior / herdsman) — see deferral (c) below; the class scheme appears in-corpus at Yt 13:88 (Zarathushtra as first Priest, Warrior, Ploughman — B7-C4, P7) as a Zarathushtra-archetype sub-element of P7, not as a doctrinal canonical structure.
      • Yasna Haptanghaiti as 2nd-oldest stratum (Y 35–42) is a sub-element across multiple principles (P1, P2, P6, P9, P14) — its communal-liturgical attestation is handled across the principle set rather than as a separate principle, because the Haptanghaiti's content is the communal-liturgical face of the same theology the Gāthās state in first-person voice.
    • Deferrals (explicit, with structural-completeness v1.4 category + criterion):
      • (a) Four-stage Bundahišn cosmogony (bundahišn → gumēzišn → wizārišn → frašegird; creation → mixture → separation → renovation) — deferred under category 2 (out of textual focus). Criterion: this is a Pahlavi-era systematization (Greater Bundahišn, 9th c. CE; Pahlavi Rivāyat), outside the distillation's named canon-boundary (Avesta only). The Avesta-internal eschatology is P11 (Frashō-kereti / Saoshyant). Cited reference: Boyce 1979, Zoroastrians, ch. 1 — and Stausberg 2008, both treating the four-stage scheme as Pahlavi-era systematization, not Avesta-internal. R4 follow-on: N/A (deferred by scope, not by source unavailability; the corpus's Avesta-only canon-boundary is the constraint).
      • (b) Pahlavi-era texts more broadly (Bundahišn Greater and Lesser; Dēnkard — esp. Book 3 metaphysics, Book 5 doctrine; Ardā Wirāz Nāmag visionary heaven-and-hell journey; Pahlavi Rivāyat; Selections of Zādspram; Mēnōg ī Khrad) — deferred under category 2 (out of textual focus) for the same scope reason. The systematic theology of historical Zoroastrianism (Cama, Dhalla, Modi, Choksy etc.) draws on these texts and is a natural R1-reviewer ask. R4 follow-on: N/A.
      • (c) Three social classes (āthravan / rathaēštā / vāstryō.fshuyant; priest / warrior / herdsman / ploughman) — deferred under category 3 (non-essential per modern scholarship). Criterion: cited reference Boyce 1979, Zoroastrians, ch. 1 (cited via 00-methodology.md refs) treats the three-class scheme as a social-structural inheritance from Indo-Iranian, not a doctrinal canonical structure. The class scheme is anchored in-corpus through Yt 13:88 (Zarathushtra as first Priest, Warrior, Ploughman — B7-C4, sub-element of P7); Y 19:17 references the three Avestan rituals/divisions. R4 follow-on flag: within-tradition reviewer (especially traditional Parsi or Iranian-Zoroastrian) may wish this surfaced more prominently — leaving it as category-3 deferral pending R1.
      • (d) Hadōkht Nask 2 (the soul's three-night journey, the daēnā-as-maid-or-hag canonical narrative) — deferred under category 1 (PD source genuinely unavailable in Mills SBE 31 / Darmesteter SBE 4 + 23). The Hadōkht Nask fragments are in SBE 23 (Darmesteter includes Yt 11 Srōš Yašt Hadhōkht and Yt 22 Hadhōkht Nask fragment) but the canonical maid-encounter narrative is anchored within-corpus from Vendidad 19:30 (the "well-shapen maid" passage, fully cited in P16 above from Darmesteter SBE 4); the broader Hadōkht Nask 2 three-night-journey narrative is wider-Avestan extra-corpus literature flagged honestly. R4 follow-on: extend N=1 distillation to include a full Hadōkht Nask 2 pass when a clean PD source is available.
    • R4 follow-on candidates surfaced from Phase 3:
      • Fravashis-as-standalone principle (currently a kindred-class element under P15 / sub-element of P11) — the doctrine of the fravashis-of-those-yet-to-be-born as an active moral community across time (B7-P1, fully distilled at N=1) is unusually distinctive (cf. Atlas held tension on "the moral community across time" with biblical "cloud of witnesses" / communion-of-saints). Recommended for promotion to P17 in a future R4 follow-on; held under sub-element / kindred-class placement here to respect structural-completeness Phase 3's principle-count budget and the ≤4h R4-interleave cap per tradition.
      • N=1 distillation of Yashts 5, 8, 11, 12, 14 (Anahita, Tishtrya, Sraosha, Rashnu, Verethraghna) — would deepen the P15 yazata-class attestation and the P16 Rashnu-as-balance-judge attestation. Currently the class is anchored from in-corpus Yt 10 (Mithra, B6) + Yt 13 (fravashis, B7) + Vd 18.15 (Sraosha referenced), with the class-structure observation drawn from the Sīrōzahs and the named-Yasht canon.
      • Vendidad 19 N=1 extension — full chapter distillation of the daēnā-encounter / Bridge passage (Vd 19:28–32, sourcing P16) would deepen the Chinvat-Bridge attestation beyond the verse-level evidence currently cited.
      • Modern translation upgrades for any future depth-pass: Insler 1975 (The Gāthās of Zarathustra) and Humbach 1991 (The Gāthās of Zarathushtra and the Other Old Avestan Texts) are the modern philological standards (not yet PD); Hintze 2007 on the Haptanghaiti; Skjærvø 2011 on the spirit of Zoroastrianism. Mills 1887 is over a century out of date by modern Avestan-philological standards — an R1 reviewer is likely to flag this.
    • Cross-tradition consistency: the new principles strengthen Zoroastrianism's representation in the cross-tradition Atlas: P14 opens a new comparison axis (divine-multiplicity-within-monotheism: Trinity / communicable-attributes / sefirot / 99 Names); P15 clarifies the "personified divine instrumentalities" theme (saints / bodhisattvas / devas / devatās / Fides); P16 deepens the post-mortem judgement theme (particular judgement / interrogation / karmic ledger / weighing of heart); the metaphysical-vs-operational dualism distinction (P3 vs P2) gives the Atlas a new structural-form finding parallel to its prior R5 findings on Covenant (P13) and Apophasis. All to be re-attested in structural-completeness Phase 4.
  • Status: one structured reading, not authoritative; structural-completeness Phase 3 retrofit applied 2026-05-30 (3 new standalone principles P14/P15/P16; 1 split-clarification P2/P3; 1 framing fix P11; 4 explicit deferrals with categories; new R4 follow-on candidates flagged including Fravashis-as-standalone). Audit cross-check verdict: PASS (see audit-deep-zoroastrianism-crosscheck.md). Auditor = well-read non-specialist, not a Zoroastrian-studies specialist or Avestan philologist; a real R1 within-tradition review is still needed before this corpus should be presented as more than "one structured reading."