Fravashi
aka: fravard, fravahr, fravash, fravaksh

Faravashis Or Arda Fravash (Guardian Angels) are personal guardian angels. Every person is accompanied by a guardian angel, who acts as his or her guide through life. Ahura Mazda ordered Zarathushtra to call upon Faravashis for help as needed. Faravashis ultimately become one with people's souls in after life. They are the manifestation of Ahura's
will. Faravashis are often represented as bird-like angel creatures. Faravashis' shapes are originated from Faravahar, the winged symbol of Zoroastrianism which itself represents a Dual Creature of half man (Ahura Mazda) and half beast (Ahreeman). In original Zoroastrian doctrine, Ahura Mazda and Ahreeman were two faces (sides) of one being. The concept of the fravashi as guardian spirit does not occur in the Gathas of Zarathushtra. But in later Zoroastrianism, it becomes a most important idea.

Although there is no physical description of a fravashi in the Avesta, the faravahar, one of the best known symbols of Zoroastrianism, is commonly believed to be the depiction of one. The attribution of the name (which derives from the Middle Iranian word for fravashi) to the symbol is probably a later development. In Avestan language grammar, the fravashi are unmistakably "female", while the faravahar symbol is unmistakably male.

According to the Avesta every human being has Tanu, Urvan and Fravashi.

1- Tanu is the body or physical self made of flesh, blood and bones.
2- Urvan is the soul, the nature of every human. It is the decision maker for it controls the body and is responsible for all the decisions and actions done by the humans in this world.
3- Fravashi is the spiritual guide, the active presence of Ahura Mazda in every human being. It guides and helps the soul but does not interfere in the decision making. The soul is free to choose what it wants to do with its life on this earth and the Fravashi is that inner voice that warns the soul of evil and guides it away from spiritual danger.

Ahura Mazda advises Zarathushtra to invoke them for help whenever he finds himself in danger. If not for their guardianship, animals and people could not have continued to exist, because the wicked Druj would have destroyed them all. The Fravashi also serves as an ideal which the soul has to strive for and emulate, and ultimately becomes one with after death. They manifest the energy of God, and preserve order in the creation. They are said to fly like winged birds, and are represented by a winged disk, often with a person superimposed.

The term Fravashi is made up of two parts, Fra which has been interpreted as "to go forward" and, vashi which comes from the root vaksh, meaning "to grow". So Fravashi is that power in a substance which enables it to move forward i.e. to progress. The Avesta tells us that the Fravashi is inherent in every animate and inanimate object of Nature and helps in its development. The Fravashis constitute the internal essence of things as opposed to the contingent and, work as spiritual entities for all of Ahura Mazda’s creations. The Fravadin Yasht, the longest of the twenty-two yashts (hymns), is dedicated to the Fravashis and mentions that Ahura Mazda created the Fravashis before he created the universe. This implies that Ahura Mazda had conceived a complete and perfect Universe from the very beginning by forming the spiritual essence of all objects before their creation. The earth, sun, moon stars, trees and human beings, all have their Fravashis and the duty of the Fravashis is to watch over the orderly growth of the world and to make it prosper.

artwork by: A. Andrew Gonzalez