In Zoroastrianism, Amesha Spentas are the Holy Immortals, the equivalent of Archangels in Christian theology. Some interpreters, however, think that Zarathustra originally saw them as more like aspects of God, a bit like the persons of the Christian Trinity. The Amesha Spentas are Khshathra (Vairya) or in English Desirable Power, Haurvatat or Wholeness, (Spenta) Armaiti or (Holy) Piety, Ameretat or Immortality, Vohu Manah or Good Purpose, Spenta Mainyu or Holy Spirit and Asha (Vahishta) or (Best) Truth. These are the names of the spirits in Avestan. In Pahlavi Khshathra is called Shahrevar, Haurvatat is called Hordad, Spenta Armaiti is called Spendarmad, Ameretat is called Amurdad, Vohu Manah is called Vahman, Spenta Mainyu is called Spenag Menog and Asha Vahistha is called Ashavahisht or Ardvahist. The names are naturally spelled in countless different ways in different English transcriptions, but this is one common way of writing them. Faravahar, The depiction of the human soul before birth and after death. ... Archangel can mean several things: 1. ... This article is about the religious people known as Christians. ...
Though Spenta Mainyu i. e. Spenag Menog is counted among the Amesha Spentas, he is often identified with Ahura Mazda i. e. Ohrmazd, the creator of the remaining six Amesha Spentas and essentially above them.
Each of the Amesha Spentas helped to create a particular part of creation and now presides over it or is represented by it. Khshathra Vairya helped to create the stony firmament and presides over it as well as stone tools such as the stone pestle and the flint knife. Haurvatat helped to create and presides over water. Spenta Armaiti helped to create and presides over earth. Ameretat helped to create and presides over plants. Vohu Manah helped to create and presides over cattle. Spenta Mainyu helped to create and presides over the just man and Asha helped to create and presides over fire.
All the heavenly entities, the AmeshaSpentas, instructed Zarathushtra in heaven, and he received perfect knowledge of past, present, and future.
He is surrounded by six or seven beings, or entities, which the later Avesta calls ameshaspentas, "beneficent immortals." The names of the ameshaspentas frequently recur throughout the Gathas and may be said to characterize Zoroaster's thought and his concept of god.
If the ameshaspentas show the working of the deity, while at the same time constituting the order binding the adherents of the Wise Lord, then the world of Ahura Mazda and the world of his followers (the ashavan) come close to each other.
AmeshaSpenta (Aməṣ̌a Spənta) is an Avestan language term for a class of divinity/divine concepts in Zoroastrianism, and literally means "Bounteous Immortal".
This general, non-specific, meaning of the term AmeshaSpenta also has an equivalent in the Vedic Sanskrit Vishve Amrtas, which is the collective term for all supernatural beings (lit: 'all immortals'), and thus includes both the daevas and asuras (ahuras in Avestan).
In particular, the relationship between Ahura Mazda and Spenta Mainyu is multifaceted and complex, and "as hard to define as that of Yahweh and the Holy Spirit in Judaism and Christianity" (Boyce, 2002b).
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