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Zarathustra



or Zoroaster, the founder of Zorostrianism and author of the Yasna Haptanghaiti and the Gathas.  The name comes from the Avestan language, Zaraϑuštra composed of zarat which means golden, and uštra which means star, light, camel. זרתוסטרא Zarathustra in Hebrew comes from the word זרע tzara, "seed," לִזרוֹת le'zeroth, "scatter, disperse," indicating an intiate who "sows the seed" of spirituality (Matthew 13:18-32); זרת zereth, "pinkie," which in ancient palmistry or chiromancy was the finger associated with Mercury, Hermes; רא Ra at the end of the name signifies the Solar Diety of Egypt; זר Zer, "foreign," זרות zaruth, "strangeness," for any solar initiate, before complete purification and resurrection of the psyche, is a stranger to the land of God; can also indicate being a stranger to the "rabble" as taught by Friedrich Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, for as mentioned in that text, humanity views hermits of the Ninth Arcanum, specifically Zarathustra, as "thieves":

The saint laughed at Zarathustra and spoke thus: "Then see to it that they [humanity] accept your treasures.  They are suspicious of hermits and do not believe that we come with gifts.  Our steps sound too lonely through the streets.  And what if at night, in their beds, they hear a [solar] man walk by long before the sun [Christ] has [fully] risen [within the initiate]—they probably ask themselves, Where is the thief going?

The name זרתוסטרא Zarathustra also possesses interesting etymological meaning in the word לִסְטוֹר le'setor, "to slap," which was a Zen method for spiritual masters to reprimand their naive, spiritually-unconscious disciples, and expresses the strong, controversial and confrontational character of Nietzsche's fictional depiction of the Persian Prophet.