Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 15/06/2016
Decomposition of Zoroastrian mythology into Rasta ritual and cant
An historical narrative with novel conclusions
The field of comparative religion has been stymied by a reluctance to attribute any reality to supernatural experiences, thus forestalling hypotheses linking religious phenomenology not by direct transmission. The counter-position holds that since religious ritual manifests identifiable experiences, it is possible for religious traditions to discover homologous theologies by convergent evolution. Proving this highly contentious claim will form the crux of this essay, and this will be achieved (it is hoped) by dissection of two traditions hitherto never considered in parallel (viz. Zoroastrianism and Rastafarianism), showing that their theological epiphanies are analogous, yet not directly derived from each other. Yet, if the claims of this essay were merely that two groups had documented a similar psychology, this would not be enough to prove my point. Hence it is vital that I show that one tradition has built upon achievements of another, without the conductance of a literal dialogue!
paragraph2 to follow
