Tradition of the Magi

Tradition of the Magi

Perhaps few people today are aware that the word “magic” comes from the name “Magi” of the ancient Persian priestly cast. The Magi are reported by Herodotus as clergymen of the Pre-Zoroastrian religion of Achaemenid Persia (it is also a name of one of the Median tribes, but whether they were related is not clear). They oversaw the sacrifices to the seven deities (Sky, Sun, Moon and the Four Elements) made on the summits of the mountains and other high places. The Magi are mentioned in the gospel of Mathew as “sages from the East” (Gr. magoi apo anatolōn) and also in “Mahābhārata” as a cast of priests of the solar cult (Skt. magāḥ)  in Śākadvīpa (the “Scythian continent” north-west of ancient India).

The ancient Iranian philosophy considered the universal process as interplay of two dialectical opposites of Light (raocaŋh) and Dark (təmaŋh) overseen by the regulating principle of Time (Zrwān) – an abstraction of becoming. From this primordial duality evolved all beings -gods, elements, plants, animals and humans - with their spiritual (mainyu) and material (gaētha) dimensions.

The Magian discipline has influenced the common Persian education which according to Herodotus consisted of three parts – horse-riding (Gr. hippeuein), arrow-shooting (Gr. toxeuein) and truth-saying (Gr. alēthizesthai). The first one refers to the art of controlling the breath or life-energy symbolized by horse (cf. Tib. lung-ta, Mong. hiimori – “wind-horse” meaning vital breath), from where the metaphor “to rein in” (کردن افسار = to master or control) derives. The second is the mental concentration (= Skt. samādhi) – bow and string usually symbolize life (var. will) and soul respectively, while the arrow represents the one-pointedness of mind (= Skt. ekāgraha). The third means saying the “true word” or mantra (manthra-spənta or “sacred word”) and we know that even today the “spell-casting” is considered essential part of every magic. This included a special technique of chanting the mantras which allowed the mage to produce sounds not only through the throat but also from the abdomen, chest and top of the head thus activating his subtle energy centers (the chakras). Even now in Central Asia can be found persons who can sing at least in two voices - coming from the abdomen and from the head. Thus the major parts of the magic were considered: (1) self-control, (2) concentration and (3) mantra-practice. Herodotus wrote that those disciplines were taught to boys from 5 to 20 years old, so it took 15 years to master them.

This tradition was carried through the centuries and integrated in many other religions – Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, Bon (Pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet and Mongolia), Gnosticism, Manicheism, Bogomilism, Catharism, Illuminism etc. The name of the Magi became a byword meaning sorcerers, astrologers, fire-worshippers or dualists and give rise to words like “magic”, “magician”, “magical” etc. Echoes from their essential philosophy can be found amongst the Ishrāqi (Illuminist) and Sufi tradition, and even in the works of philosophers like Goethe and Hegel. At his time the great scholar Omar Khayyam wrote a rubayi:

If I am drunk from the wine of the Magi – I am,

and if I am infatuated, lax and idolater – I am.

Everybody judges by his own notion,

but I myself know: whatever I am – that I am!