[ladyinred]

Once again, I had never heard of this in my life, and I just read this again, and I still don't understand it. But thanks for the ping. You obviously know about this?

[Cronos]

What exactly are you interested in knowing about?

[Cronos]

In any case, Zoroastrianism is derived from the old Irani religion. Please do permit me to go off on a tangent

To understand Zoroastrianism you must understand the ancient Aryan religion.

This was essentially worship of nature and of heroes.  The most basic Gods can still be found in Hinduism -- VAruna, the God of the Wind, Agni, the God of Fire and Surya, the Sun God.

Beyond these, there seem to have been two families who were very powerful (nobility?) -- and in the most primitive form of the Aryan religion (that practised by the Nordics and the Germans), these were the Aesir and the Vanir.

In India these were the Asuras and the Daevas.  In early parts of the Vedas, the term Asura seems to have been a title, so Varuna and Surya are called Asuras.  It seems to have meant Sir God!

Then, in the later tracts of the Vedas, the asuras are reviled but VAruna and Surya are no longer called Asuras but Daevas.  And the Devas are led by the god Indra -- the god of war and of Thunder and lightning (Thor seems derived from Indra -- IndThra, Thra, Thor)

The Asuras were placed lower and lower.  Then, when Christianity reached India in the 1st century after Christ (through the Apostle Thomas, it reached India before Peter reached Rome and later on Nestorians and Syrians preached in India), the Asuras took on the Christian aspects of being demons. 

Amongst the related Aryan peoples of the Nordic races, the primitive Aesir and Vanir are treated as having nearly equal status.

Meanwhile, amongst the related Aryan peoples of Iran the Ahuras (in Iranic, the Indic sound "s" becomes "h", so the indic word Sindhu for the river Indus became the word Hindu amongst the Persians) were given prominence over the Daevas and the daevas became common household gods.

Under Zoroaster, ONE Ahura was given pre-eminence -- Ahura Mazda, the God of light.

[Cronos]

One more reference:

The fact is that the Rigveda represents a very pristine state of Indo-European language and religion. Griffith describes it as follows in his preface to his translation: “As in its original language we see the roots and shoots of the languages of Greek and Latin, of Kelt, Teuton and Slavonian, so the deities, the myths and the religious beliefs and practices of the Veda throw a flood of light upon the religions of all European countries before the introduction of Christianity.