Aûharmazd produced illumination between the sky and the earth, the constellation stars and those also not of the constellations, then the moon, and afterwards the sun, as I shall relate. First he produced the celestial sphere, and the constellation stars are assigned to it by him; especially these twelve whose names are Varak (the Lamb), Tôrâ (the Bull), Dô-patkar (the Two-figures or Gemini), Kalakang (the Crab), Sêr (the Lion), Khûsak (Virgo), Tarâzûk (the Balance), Gazdûm (the Scorpion), Nîmâsp (the Centaur or Sagittarius), Vahik (Capricornus), Dûl (the Water pot), and Mâhîk (the Fish); Which, from their original creation, were divided into the twenty-eight subdivisions of the astronomers, of which the names are Padêvar, Pêsh-Parviz, Parviz, Paha, Avêsar, Besn, Rakhvad, Taraha, Avra, Nahn, Miyân, Avdem, Mâshâha, Spûr, Husru, Srob, Nur, Gêl, Garafsa, Varant, Gau, Goî, Muru, Bunda, Kahtsar, Vaht, Miyân, Kaht.
And all his original creations, residing in the world, are committed to them; so that when the destroyer arrives they overcome the adversary and their own persecution, and the creatures are saved from those adversities. As a specimen of a warlike army, which is destined for battle, they have ordained every single constellation of those 6,480 thousand small stars as assistance; and among those constellations four chieftains, appointed on the four sides, are leaders. On the recommendation of those chieftains the many unnumbered stars are specially assigned to the various quarters and various places, as the united strength and appointed power of those constellations.
As it is said that Tîstar is the chieftain of the east, Satavês the chieftain of the west, Vanand the chieftain of the south, and Haptôk-ring the chieftain of the north. The great one which they call a Gâh (period of the day), which they say is the great one of the middle of the sky, till just before the destroyer came was the midday (or south) one of the five, that is, the Rapîtvîn. Aûharmazd performed the spiritual Yazisn ceremony with the archangels (ameshôspendân) in the Rapîtvîn Gâh, and in the Yazisn he supplied every means necessary for overcoming the adversary.
He deliberated with the consciousness (bôd) and guardian spirits (fravâhar) of men, and the omniscient wisdom, brought forward among men, spoke thus: ‘Which seems to you the more advantageous, when I shall present you to the world? that you shall contend in a bodily form with the fiend (drûg), and the fiend shall perish, and in the end I shall have you prepared again perfect and immortal, and in the end give you back to the world, and you will be wholly immortal, undecaying, and undisturbed; or that it be always necessary to provide you protection from the destroyer?
Thereupon, the guardian spirits of men became of the same opinion with the omniscient wisdom about going to the world, on account of the evil that comes upon them, in the world, from the fiend (drûg) Aharman, and their becoming, at last, again unpersecuted by the adversary, perfect, and immortal, in the future existence, for ever and everlasting.
Ancient Persians and Primal Creation
