YAZIDIS : YAZIDISM A BELIEF SYSTEM MIS-UNDERSTOOD FOR GENERATIONS ?

Everytime, you pick up a newspaper these days or try switching on to any news channel, the News would have a mention of Yazidis. It would depend on which media, Print or Electronic and which National or International broadcaster, you are putting your ears or your mind onto, depending on your location, varied stories would reach Home. But it is very imperative that before we conclude on our rationales, our dimensions of realisation, onto whether to ignore or believe in what needs to be understood and how.

We will try to explore, a plethora of episodes, while we try to better understand who these people called the Yazidis are, try to understand why the fundamental expect of the belief system of the Yazidis is the way it is, try to understand why other religions don’t understand the value system engrained in this specific faith and why Yazidism as a belief system needs to be re-looked from every angle of what is already spoken of. The First thing we need to do in order to value a belief system that we are not oriented to believe is to forget what our own value systems for a limited time while we study this topic and also what our own religions puts across in substance. To understand, any religious belief system, we need to be un-biased in the approach. So while we proceed into this topic, let’s agree that we will be an unbiased segment of human intelligence that would try to find a reason behind a belief system and focus only the greatest answer called “WHY?” So we are ready Now ?  Let’s Go and we will start from the very basics , because every note is important .

Yazidis ( Yezidis ) : Yazidis ( or Êzidî ) have been mostly considered as a Kurdish religious community and most of the literature available today mentioned them a Kurdish community as they mostly speak Kurdish, a northern Indo-European language, though many of them also speak Arabic. However, many sources believe that Yazidis regard themselves as distinct from the Kurds. Their ethnicity still remains obscure, as many Yazidis say that the Kurds are originally Yazidis who shifted culturally after they adopted Islam. The Yazidis adhere to the religion Yazidism, which will be the centre of all our discussion in this article. The total population of Yazidis or people following the religion Yazidism is figured as 860,000 to 1,020,000 while exact figures are not available. Primarily inhabiting in today’s Iraq (650,000 approximated), Yazidis are also residing in Syria ( 50,000 approx), Germany ( 100,000 -120,000 approx ) , Russia ( 40,586 ), Armenia ( 60,000 ,where they are considered a national group), Georgia (20,843) , Netherlands (5,000) and Sweden( 4,000 ). Communities in Armenia, Georgia and Syria have been in decline since 1990’s as a result of significant migration to Europe, especially to Germany.

Yazidism : The Yazidis are monotheists, believing in God as creator of the world, which he has placed under the care of seven holy beings or angels, the chief of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. The Peacock Angel, as world-ruler, causes both good and bad to befall individuals, and this ambivalent character is reflected in myths of his own temporary fall from God's favor, before his remorseful tears extinguished the fires of his hellish prison and he was reconciled with God.

This belief builds on Sufi mystical reflections on the angel Iblis who proudly refused to violate monotheism by worshipping Adam and Eve despite God's expressed command to do so. Because of this connection to the Sufi Iblis tradition, some followers of other monotheistic religions of the region equate the Peacock Angel with their own unredeemed evil spirit Satan or Shaitan ( as in Islam), which has incited centuries of persecution of the Yazidis as "devil worshippers." Persecution of Yazidis has continued in their home communities within the borders of modern Iraq, under fundamentalist Sunni Islamic revolutionaries.

Yazidism is said to have been influenced by Sufi influence and imagery can be seen in the religious vocabulary, especially in the terminology of the Yazidis' esoteric literature, but much of the theology is non-Islamic. Their cosmogonies apparently have many points in common with those of ancient Persian religions. Early writers attempted to describe Yazidi origins, broadly speaking, in terms of Islam, or Persian, or sometimes even Pagan religions; however, research published since the 1990s has shown such an approach to be simplistic and a deep understanding as we will reveal in this article will show much further evidence that, Yazidism was never influenced by any of the mentioned religions ever.

Many scholars believe that Yazidism is not an offshoot of another religion, but shows influence from the many religions of the Middle East. Core Yazidi cosmology has a pre-Zoroastrian Iranian origin, but Yazidism also includes elements of ancient nature-worship, as well as influences from Christianity, Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, Islam and Judaism. We tend to disagree slightly here, as we believe Judaism ( which at the max could be 4000 years old with all the historical data available today) ,Christianity and Islam could never have had influenced the Yazidism belief system and why we consider this is because of one notable aspect in this regard. According to the Yezidi Calendar, April 2015 marked the beginning of their year 6,765, which would thereby state that their Year 1 would have been in 4,750 BC in the Gregorian calendar. So this belief system called Yazidism, predated much further before to the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And possibly that is the reason why the Yazidis account of Creation differs so significantly from that of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and that is known fact today. We are however keeping the Pagan, Zoroastrianism, Gnosticism in our mind as we proceed further in our study into Yazidism.

The Peacock Angel and Gnosticism : In the Gnostic tradition (which the Yezidi religion is closely aligned with), Tawsi Melek is analogous to the first son of the Goddess Sophia, who in the process of creating and governing the universe divided herself into seven rays or “sons.” Her seven sons were coeval with and governed one of the seven colors, tones, planets, etc. The first ray or son, who for the Yezidis was Tawsi Melek (the Ildabaoth of the Gnostics),became the leader of the other sons and the eventual ruler of the universe.

Through his manifestation as a snake, the Peacock Angel is also analogous with the Gnostics’ understanding of the Serpent on the Tree in the Garden of Eden. As opposed to the Christian viewpoint, the Gnostics recognize the Serpent of Eden to be their primal instructor and savior. They claim that the Serpent was specially sent down from Heaven to the Garden of Eden by Sophia in order to help awaken Adam and Eve to their divine nature. According to the perspective of the gnostic yogis of India, the Serpent on the Tree is a metaphor for the inner serpent (known in the East as Kundalini) that coils around the Tree of Life, the human spine, and brings a seeker knowledge of his or her divine nature as it climbs up the tree and awakens the inner centers of gnostic wisdom, the chakras.One reason why we belief Gnosticism could have seriously influenced Yazidism is because , even in the today’s date , the Temple Entry at Lalish, the Most holiest site for the Yazidis clearly indicates a Clear Carving of a Serpentine of the Wall of which we provide a picture below. But if we consider, that indeed Yazidism was influenced by Gnosticism then the religious belief system they incorporate today in their daily life would have roots somewhere in India or more pronouncedly in Ancient Hinduism. We will keep this in our mind while we further go deep understanding Yazidism as manifested  in other religions as well.

The Peacock Angel and The Sumerians : Any study into the religion of Yazidism, would be a complete waste if the study would not in-corporate the Sumerian Belief System. The reason why? It is because today’s Iraq and most of the Middle-Eastern countries, much prior to the arrival of Islam was Mesopotamia, the Place of the Great Sumerian Civilization. And because Yazidis, predominantly inhabited in Iraq since history about them has been scripted in words, it is imperative we study whether, there was the influence of the Sumerian belief system in the Yezidi belief of Yazidism.

And what we know is this:

In the Sumerian belief system, the Peacock Angel was manifested as Enki, the Lord of the Earth, who was also the Lord of Wisdom and the Serpent on the Tree of Dilman, the Sumerian Eden. The Sumerians may have adopted Enki from Yezidi emissaries from India who played a role in the fledgling Sumerian civilization. Or they may have received him from the gnostic sect of Mandeans who were also assimilated into Sumerian civilization after migrating from the East, specifically Sri Lanka, the island patronized by the Peacock Angel as the Hindu Murugan or Sanat Kumara.”

This time we find the pointers towards India and Srilanka . So, at one hand we have Hinduism from India and Buddhism from Srilanka, while we do acknowledge the Hindu believers in Srilanka and who are mostly the Tamil speaking population that reside there. But we have a serious pointer to Name here “Murugan”. We will keep this in mind.

The Peacock Angel In Greece and Egypt : Today’s mankind knows about the technological advancement that the Ancient Egyptians and The Ancient Greeks possessed. As for the Egyptians, the Great Pyramid at Giza stands out as a testimony to their Technological advancements and  today we know it was built sometime around 2500 BC and as for the Greeks , the Antikythera mechanism , which was nothing but what modern scholars believe was an anolog computer designed to predict astronomical positions and possibly even  the future of an individual belonging to between 150 BC – 100 BC is again a testimony. So we understand that both the Ancient Egyptian and the Ancient Greek civilizations were a much advanced society. Could Yazidism be influenced by these civilisations? We tried to explore if there was a Peacock Angel anywhere in ancient Egytian or Greek belief system.

And this is what we know :

The Peacock Angel was known in Greece and Egypt as Dionysus and Osiris respectively. According to the early Greek historians like Diodorus these figures were manifestations of the same entity in different civilizations.

Osiris, meaning the “Many-eyed,” was a legendary Egyptian king who reflected many of the attributes of the Peacock Angel. After encircling the globe astride a bull he ostensibly became, like Tawsi Melek, King of the World. Like the Peacock Angel, Osiris was also omniscient, or “Many-eyed,” and his eyes multiplied throughout the universe. The symbol of both Tawsi Melek and Osiris is the many-eyed Flower of Life. Osiris was also known in Egypt as the “green man,” and his green image could often be found in the Egyptian temples. Because of this association, Osiris was annually prayed to for the renewal of Egypt’s green vegetation.

The association between Dionysus and Tawsi Melek became conclusive during the conquest of Alexander the Great, when members of the conquerors’ army visited the temples of Murugan in Sri Lanka while exclaiming “We know this deity, he’s our Dionysus.” So sure were they of this truth that when the Greek Ptolemy created the first world map he labeled Murugan’s region in Sri Lanka the “Place of Bacchus,” or “Place of Dionysus.” Like his Hindu counterpart Murugan, Dionysus was the union of the universal male/female polarity (Zeus and Semele) and the chosen King of the World. Also reflecting both Murugan and Tawsi Melek, Dionysus was in some cosmologies designated the creator of the universe, and wherever his cult flourished he was represented as a snake or serpent, symbol of the life force that condensed to become the physical cosmos. Every year it was believed by the Greeks that Green Man Dionysus as the primal serpent power or life force would awaken from his slumber and their lands would become abundant again.

Once again we have pointers towards Srilanka and more importantly, this time more specifically towards the Tamils of Srilanka, who pray to a Hindu diety called Murugan. We are keeping the pointers in our mind.

Peacock Angel and Persian Zoroastrian : We already said that we would keep Zoroastrian on our mind while we study the belief system of the Yazidis and History knows of the influence that the Persian Empire had , so we will try to study whether the Persian Zoroastrian belief system spoke of a Peacock Angel and if it did then in what light  was it highlighted .

And this is what we know :

The Persian Zoroastrian tradition is a close cousin to that of the Yezidis’ and it is probable that they have a common origin in the East. Links between the Yezidis and Persians are manifold. They share many rites, including daily Sun worship, and the premier savior-deity of both traditions (Mithra and Tawsi Melek) is a solar god possessing the cock as a sacred animal and Sunday as his sacred day of the week. There is no question Tawsi Melek is a counterpart of the Persian Mithra, whose name denotes “middle” and “harmony,” thus denoting the balance and union of the universal polarity. While we should also note that the Hindu deity, Murugan also seems to fit exactly here, and brings Mithra, Tawsi Melek (or Melek Taus) and Murugan and finally the Peacock Angel into one single manifestation. Mithra’s common name in Persia was Mihr, a title currently assumed by Tawsi Melek’s premier representative on Earth, the Mir or Yezidi Prince, and an additional link between Mithra and Murugan can be gleened from the name of Mithra’s most sacred annual celebration, the Mihragan.

Now we are definitely getting closer. Two things are for sure falling in place : 1) Murugan and 2) Hinduism . But, we still need to explore Buddhism, because when we were trying to understand the Sumerian connection, we did get a pointer towards the Srilankan Buddhist belief system.

The Peacock Angel and Buddhism : In-order to better understand the connection between Yazidism and Buddhism, we will have to try to understand whether the Buddhist texts ever said of a Peacock Angel. And here we will try to explore, what ancient texts of Tibet, One of the Holiest places for Buddhist and the centre of Buddhism today for the modern world who follow Buddhism as religion speaks of.

And This is What we know :

In Tibet the Peacock Angel appears to be manifest as Amitabha, the peacock-riding dhyani buddha who sits upon his Peacock Throne in the heaven of Sukhavati and occasionally takes a physical incarnation as the King of the World in legendary Shambhala, the land of immortals that flies the Peacock Flag. Shambhala, meaning the “Place of happiness,” is a place designed as eight territories or “petals” and recognized to be the heart chakra of planet Earth. In the center of the planetary heart chakra is the palace of the King of Shambhala, who thus functions as not only planetary monarch but soul of the world (just as the human soul resides within the human heart chakra). According to one legend, the Peacock Angel not only spread his colors around the globe but additionally merged his spirit with that of the Earth and became the world soul. Thus, his physical body is the Earth and his will is reflected in the actions of all creatures that live upon the face of the Earth.

This time around, we found just one pointer, Amitabha . But so far, throughout our study we were getting connected to three Complete Pointers 1) Murugan 2) Hinduism 3) The Tamilians of India and Srilanka and now the fourth 4) Amitabha as mentioned in Buddhism. So we keep in mind all the 4 pointers, as we proceed further in our understanding of Yazidism.

While we have tried to study all the ancient religions and its connections with the Peacock Angel, With, all the hints giving us pointers at Murugan and Hinduism all this while, we will try to explore what Hinduism speaks of regarding this Peacock Angel. But before moving into Hinduism, we should not forget that One among the Most Ancient and Advanced Civilizations that existed on this planet were the Mayans of the South Americas, just exactly at the time when on another part of the World  The Ancient Chinese and the Ancient Hindus, were at its fullest in terms of knowledge, military art and weapon structure. So we will be exploring if the Mayan Culture ever spoke of a Peacock Angel first before moving into Hinduism. And here we state that the reason we won’t include Judaism, Christianity and Islamic views of the Peacock Angel in our study in this article is because we consider that a Belief System that originated later and much later in time ,when centuries already had passed could not influence a Belief System that evolved earlier. So, we are keeping, our Basics centred at Theory of Evolution with Time.  And we are definitely keeping, our pointers in our minds as we proceed further.

The Peacock Angel among the Mayan Culture : In the Mayan tradition the Peacock Angel is known as the spirit of Quetzlcoatl, the “Plumed Serpent.” In the Quiche Maya cosmology found in the Popul Vuh there is a passage very similar to that found in Genesis (and no doubt has the same origin) which states that the Creator moved upon the face of the waters. In Genesis this creator is recognized to be the synthesis of a group of creator spirits (usually counted as seven) known as the Elohim. Similarly, in the Popul Voh the creator is a blue-green plumed serpent, or “Quetzlcoatl,” comprised of seven creator spirits. The plumed or feathered serpent of the Quiche Maya denotes the Son of God who was the union of the primal male (feathers) and female (serpent body) principles which united to produce the middle color of blue-green. This blue-green dragon is, in other cultures, a peacock rather than a dragon. Thus, the blue-green plumed serpent is the Quiche Maya representation of the Yezidis Peacock Angel.

In Maya tradition many enlightened teachers were historically known as Quetzlcoatl because they had evolved themselves to such an extent spiritually that they had become one with the Divine Mind, which the primal serpent was an embodiment of. In fact, the primal serpent was the first form assumed by Spirit during the process of creating the universe and embodied not only his Divine Mind but his infinite power. Then as he precipitated the universe from out of his own power he encoded it with the blueprints contained within his Divine Mind. Today, those enlightened masters in the Quetzlcoatl tradition often reveal their office by wearing a headdress of peacock feathers.

Masters with the insight and power and called dragons or serpent were not just found among the Maya, they were universal. In fact, during what could be called Earth’s  “Dragon Age” most great civilizations were governed both spiritually and temporally by priests and priest kings calling themselves dragons or serpents. Lung Dragons ruled China, Serpent Nagas ruled India, Quetzlcoatls ruled Central America, Druid Adders ruled the British Isles, etc. These rulers had awakened the evolutionary serpent force at the base of the spine, which then climbed the inner Tree of Life (the spine) and united their minds with the Divine Mind. When this occurred, these masters also inherited an abundance of supernatural “serpent” power with which to govern their kingdoms.

So we have more pointers now and including The Chinese Dragon to add to our list of earlier established list of 1) Murugan 2) Hinduism 3) The Tamils speaking people of Srilanka 4) Amitabha and now 5) The Chinese Lung Dragons. But when we further extend our study, we would not incorporate the Chinese connection as it speaks of the Dragon, because we already have evidence that there is a serpentine connection with Yazidism. So we are left with 1) Murugan 2) Hinduism 3) The Tamil speaking people of India and Srilanka and 4) Amitabha as mentioned in Buddhism.

 

The Peacock Angel And Hinduism : The Hindus know Tawsi Melek as Murugan, the legendary son of Shiva and Shakti. Among his numerous alternate titles are Skanda, Sanat Kumara, Karttikeya, and Subramaniya Swami. Like the Yezidis Tawsi Melek, the Hindu Murugan is the king of the universe and moves through his domain as a young boy astride a peacock, or simply as a peacock. Similar to the Peacock Angel, Murugan’s sacred animals include not only the peacock but also the snake and the cock. The snake denotes that the essence of Murugan is pure energy (energy moves as a serpent spiral) and the cock denotes his affiliation as a solar deity. Murugan or Tawsi Melek are names for the cosmic energy that created the universe out of itself, as well as the savior who, like the cock, heralds the end of humanity’s darkness.

Murugan’s identity as one of seven angelic beings is manifest within some Hindu scriptures that refer to him as Sanat Kumara, the leader of the Seven Kumaras. These Kumaras are portrayed as brothers who assisted Sanat Kumara in the creation of the Earth and the enlightenment of humankind. According to the Puranas, the ancient legends of India, the Kumaras were the first to teach humanity the path to enlightenment.

Another heptad association with Murugan is the asterism of the Pleiades.  One of Murugan’s names is Karttikeya, which is derived from Krittika, a Hindu name for the Pleiades.  According to legend, when Karttikeya was first born on Earth he possessed seven heads, one for each star of the Pleiades, but he lost one of them and so now he has six.  Thus, more than simply reflecting the Pleiades, Murugan is the Pleiades.

In metaphysics it is believed that our Solar System rotates around the Pleiades, and that the asterism is a special point of creation for our local galaxy. High frequency energy from a more refined universe is channeled through the Pleiades, specifically the star Alcyone, which then encodes it with a specific shape and destiny it will assume in our three dimensional universe. Because of its unique function of feeding and nurturing our galaxy, the Maya referred to the Pleiades as the “teats of the rattlesnake.” In agreement with many ancient cultures, the Maya maintained that the creator of the universe was a serpent, snake, or dragon which possessed a septenary nature. They therefore portrayed it with seven heads, tails, twists to its body, or teats (or all of the above). It was also represented as a rainbow (as it is among the Yezidis) or as a rainbow serpent (as it is among the Australian Aborigines) that encoded all energy with the seven colors, tones, etc. The Maya and others often referred to this septenary serpent as the Son of God who was born at the beginning of time from the union of the primal male/female principles manifesting as spiraling energy. From a geometrical perspective, this primal union created not only a spiral but a vesica pisces, the “eye” and “seed of life,” which became the “flower of life” and then kept multiplying to become eyes manifest all throughout the universe. These vesica pisces eyes represent the omniscience of the primal creator, such as Tawsi Melek. They were colored either green, or blue-green, the middle color that reflected the union of the male/female principles. Thus, the combination of the blue-green color produced a Son of God in the form of an all-seeing blue-green dragon (the word dragon is derived from all-seeing), a dragon-peacock, or simply a many-eyed peacock. He was the blue-green dragon creator of the Chinese and Quiche Maya, or he was the blue-green peacock of the Yezidis. But whatever his form, one of his principle homes was the seven stars Pleiades.

So we have definitely found a strong connection with Murugan and the Peacock Angel and but we are just slightly convinced that there could possibly be a Yazidism connect to Ancient Hinduism. And we need much more evidence before we can deduce that any theory to prove that Yazidism in the Middle East across the Arabian Sea and Hindus on the other side were having a connection. So, until that clue is available we would have to explore more.

And when we went back in time , in search of more evidence. We found some that connected, including this One. The fact is even the Yazidis don’t remember exactly when this was built, but ironically, They consider it to be a Temple. And we have a question, why was it called a Templebut “Temple” was always associated with Hinduism and Buddism and the very architecture of this monument and for any researcher in the World would agree, it is in the form exactly how any Hindu temple would have been erected in the first place.

And we find more evidence and  Even in the most sacred and holiest place of the Yazidis at Lalish , and according to the Yazidis , Its a Temple. Why would the present descendants of the earliest Yazidis still call their holy place of worship as a Temple? Inspite of the fact, that they speak Kurdish and Arabic and have been following more or less the same Arabic style of living, whether it was their dress code to be factored in. But We find evidence from their Cultural and Societal norms that unlike the Arabic or the Pagan cultures or even Persian style of livelihood,

The Yazidis are very conservative in What they viewed is acceptable to their belief system and what on other occasions was a Taboo.

So we still have our 4 Pointers. 1) Murugan 2) Hinduism 3) The Tamil Speaking people of India and 4) Amitabha from Buddhism. And now we will try to study what are the similarities and dis-similarities we have when we verify the Cultural Code of Conduct of the Yazidis, against Hinduism and Buddhism.

So we still have our 4 Pointers. 1) Murugan 2) Hinduism 3) The Tamil Speaking people of India and 4) Amitabha from Buddhism. And now we will try to study what are the similarities and dis-similarities we have when we verify the Cultural Code of Conduct of the Yazidis, against Hinduism and Buddhism.

From our study above , it has become clear that Yazidi belief system has more affinity to Hinduism and not Buddhism.

So, is the Hindu God known as Murugan to the Tamils of India and Srilanka, the Peacock Angel of the Yazidis. We found great evidence that it is indeed. Sharing you some of the pictures to show how close the two belief systems are.

And we have even more connections : 

And now what we found when studying through out the length and breadth of India , in search of Murugan and his numerous other Manifestations.

So we have found the hidden connection between the Yazidis and Hinduism . But , Hinduism which have close to 330,000,000 Gods and Goddesses ( all deities aligned ) why would the Yazidis only concentrate on following Murugan ? And we Find the answer, the moment we lifted our understanding of what looked practical and has been documented as always in the scriptures : Hinduism flowing out from India via Afghanistan to the Middle East. We realized, There was always to connect via Sea-Ways and We provide more evidence of that here, from another researcher who pointed out everything we were finding it difficult to connect with the Our Final connection of the Tamils of India and Srilanka . Sharing this Youtube 16 minutes Video Uploaded by Tamil Chinthanaiyalar Peravai, 7 angels,7 Angles , 7 reasons for a Rainbow. We found a story that History wanted to share, all these years to the people who had the patience to listen . 

The YouTube Link :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX-g587ral0

And before we end our article here , we want to ask a few questions: 

1) Is branding Yazidis as Devil Worshipers justified in any way ?

2) Has Yazidis of today fallen a victim in the present world because of our lack of ignorance about ancient religions and ancient customs ?

3) Do we have any right to question how somebody prays to God ?

And before we adieu , we promise to continue our quest for Lumeria in our episodes later. 

Disclaimer : The author of this article wants to mention that this entire article is a work of Research and has been done from a Scholarly angle. The author does not intend to offend the religious sentiments of any Religion or Belief System. The author maintains that every Religion has a common purpose and that is to keep Humanity Connected to the Creator of this World , whom in any religion people refer to as God , though different religions and people across geographies might have their own name for their version of the almighty.