The philosopher and teacher Zarathushtra crafted a complex and rational Monotheistic religion that was the first of its kind. It grew to be one of the largest religions for over a thousand years and heavily influenced the world.
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Further reading (or listening):
Interviews given by Dr. KD Irani. KD Irani was a professor of philosophy and a lifelong Zoroastrian. His own analysis of the Gathas have heavily inspired my own, and my attempts at understanding and presenting Zarathushtra's teachings are built off of his.
• Zarathushtrian Religio...
• Domains of Belief -- A...
Also:
zoroastrian.org/
gathasofzarathushtra.com/#
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Places to reach out (for more info or if you're interested in the religion)
www.czc.org/
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Translations of Zarathushtra:
( I only tacitly recommend these two translations, as I think both of them have some issues)
zoroastrian.org/GathaSongs/in...
This is the translation of Dr Jafarey. He was a strong figure in the Zoroastrian community and produced a fantastic translation for those wanting philosophical or spiritual enrichment from the texts. I think there are a couple keywords that have translations I am not exuberant about (Such as progressive for spenta when benevolent would be more appropriate), but overall its the translation I recommend for those that aren't intending on conducting expert level scholarly work.
The Gathas of Zarathustra by Dr Stanley Insler
This is a more scholarly oriented work that is extremely grammatically accurate. Dr Insler was also able to uncover and decode more of the language by comparing it to the earliest parts of the Rigveda. This translation has two problems. The first is that it is written in prose, while the Gathas were metrical poems. The second is that his translations of keywords is very lacking. They are lacking to the point that his translation resemble Judeo-Christian works far more than the actual Gathic Avestan texts does.
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Music choices:
Arietta by Edward Grieg (Lyric piece book 1, op. 12)
4 Impromptus No. 3 in G-Flat by Frank Schubert
Le Cygne (the swan) by Camille Saint Saens
The Nutcracker no. 14 ‘Pas de deux’ by Tchaikovsky (I apologize for this one only playing in one ear on headphones 😂)
The rest should be listed by KZfaq on the bottom.
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Further Academic reading (for scholars, philosophers, and the like):
This is in essence my bibliography. Like I mentioned this may require hunting down pdfs.
melc.berkeley.edu/Web_Schwart...
zoroastrians.net/wp-content/u...
zoroastrians.net/wp-content/u...
Irach Taraporewala The Divine Songs of Zarathushtra (Excellent resource for linguistic study, even if the translation is lacking)
lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/aveol (Introduction is a bit inaccurate and the translation isn't very good, but a great learning resource)
avesta.org/
Beekes grammar of Old Avestan
Skjaervo Old Avestan Primer (For everything that is holy ignore anything this guy says that isn't directly related to the grammar. His attempts at religious scholarship are highly biased and insufficient to say the least)
Humbach and Faiss "The Antagonists of Zarathushtra" (good book and translation if a bit awkward in English)
Inquiries: ashemvidam@gmail.com