Amesa Spentas

The Amesa Spentas are the beneficent immortals or mortal saints (they also take human form by way of the qualities they represent) who, with Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord (see Ahura Mazda), or within the prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster) or other humans who adhere to divine truth (asha), form a spiritual pantheon of sorts in Zoroastrianism (see Asha, see Zoroastrian entries). These are the Yazata or “Venerables,” gods created by God (Ahura Mazda). However analyzed, they are crucial to Zoroastrian thought. Specifically, they are Vohu Manah (“Good Thought”), Asha Vahishta (“Best Truth”), Khshathra (“Desirable Dominion”), Armaïti (“Beneficent Devotion”), Haurvatat (“Wholeness”), and Ameretat (“Immortality”). Sometimes Ahura Mazda himself is seen as the first of seven Amesa Spentas. Other Iranian deities, which have equivalents in India, are Hoama, Anahita, Mithra, Vāyu, and Verethraghna, all representing moral values or natural phenomena (see the individual deity entries).