Saturday, May 02, 2020

YAZIDI TATTOO DESIGNS (drawn by Lady Drower)

Author: Drower, E. S. (Ethel Stefana), Lady, 1879-1972., cultural anthropologist

Title: Peacock angel; being some account of votaries of a secret cult and their sanctuaries Published: London, J. Murray [1941]

http://www.avesta.org/yezidi/peacock.htm

Chapter VIII: "SAIREY GAMP" AGAIN.

"When we returned, the inevitable Sairey had arrived. I had already warned A. and apologized for our constant visitor. This afternoon, however, she was not alone: she had brought two daughters, one a married woman, and the other a bride. We prepared tea for them and ourselves.

This afternoon Sairey had all excuse, one of her daughters was a tattooist and she knew I was interested in the art. But that was not all: she wheedled a little, she had seen the silk that I had given to Rashid's wife, and surely I had a roll for her — was not the feast approaching? Now Sairey had at various times received money, and I had already earmarked my limited store of gifts, some of which were reserved for the visit to Shaikh ‘Adi. Regretfully, I refused, but A. immediately lightened the situation; she had brought with [75] her some charms in Hebron glass against the Evil Eye, a whole string of them in blue, black, white, and yellow, each bead representing an Eye. These proved an immediate salve, and never failed to give delight whenever and wherever she bestowed them.

We talked of tattooing. The women never admit that tattooing has a magic purpose, and tell you that they submit to the process for zîna (decoration) or hilwa (beauty). Here and there, however, marks have been tattooed to keep off pain, and the floriated cross and cross with a dot in each arm, both common designs, are undoubtedly magical and health-preserving signs. The married daughter explained how she worked. The ingredients were sheep's gall, lamp-black (from an olive-oil lamp only) and milk fresh drawn from the breast of the mother of a girl-child. If the baby is a boy, she said, the punctures would fester. The consistency of this mixture must be that of dough. A pattern is traced on the skin with this paste and then pricked in with a needle or two needles tied together with thread. These must draw blood. At first the surface swells up, but later settles down and the design appears in a deep blue. Yazidi women rarely tattoo the entire body as do the women of southern ‘Iraq, but content themselves with adorning the back of the hand, the wrist, forearm, chest, ankle, and lower leg. The favourite designs are these:

(1) The misht, or "comb". By the way, there is no hesitation in pronouncing this word, although I had always heard that it is one of the words which Yazidis will not utter because it contains the consonants sh and t, and suggests the forbidden name Shaitan (Satan). The "comb" is often joined to a circle called the qamr (full moon), or finished by a cross, sometimes plain.

(2) The cross.

(3) The gazelle. This is a conventionalized representation of the animal and is a favourite design. Those [76] that I saw had above the back of the animal a spot, called daqqayeh.

(4) The rijl al-qatai, "sand-grouse foot". This resembles the print left by a bird's foot in the sand.

(5) The moon, either full or crescent.

(6) The lâ'ibi, or "doll", a primitive outline of a human figure with extended arms and legs apart.

(7) The dulab katân, or kiûkiûukh: the spool or spindle.

(8) The rés daqqa, an inverted "V".

(9) The dimlich, a figure which looks like a bag suspended by two strings."

http://look-into-my-face.blogspot.com/2014/09/yazidi-tattoo-designs-drawn-by-lady.html

PHOTOS YEZIDI TEMPLES

ENTRANCE TO THE SUN TEMPLE KURDISTAN
New Yazidi Temple under construction, Georgia

MODERN YEZIDI TEMPLE IN GEORGIA

THE ORIGINS OF MEGALITHIC ASTRONOMY

CLICK TO ENLARGE
https://archive.org/details/TheOriginsOfMegalithicAstronomyAsF/page/n1/mode/2up

The Gnostic Science of Alchemy
The Gnostic Science of Alchemy Part I - from its origins in Alexandria to the Black Death
https://archive.org/details/GnosticScienceOfAlchemy/page/n3/mode/2up

Book Of Alchemy
A MYSTICAL CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATION
Topics alchemy, merlin, wizards, pyramids, giza, bablyon, saturn, astrology
Collection folkscanomy_offcenter; folkscanomy; additional_collections
Language English
A superior introduction to the art, science, and faith of alchemy.
https://archive.org/details/BookOfAlchemy/mode/2up

MODERN YEZIDISM

http://kurdistanica.com/yezidism/

The followers of the Yezidi religion, who have variously referred to themselves also as the Yazidi, Yazdâni, Izadi, and Dasna’i, have often been pejoratively referred to by outsiders as “devil worshippers.” They constitute less than 5% of the Kurdish population. At present they live in fragmented pockets, primarily in northwest and northeast Syria, the Caucasus, southeast Turkey, in the Jabal Sanjâr highlands on the Iraqi-Syrian border, and regions north of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

As a branch of the Cult of Angels, Yezidism places a special emphasis on the angels. The name Yezidi is derived from the Old and Middle Iranic term yazata or yezad, for ,1 angel,” rendering it to mean “angelicans.” Among these angels, the Yezidis include also Lucifer, who is referred to as Malak Tâwus (“Peacock Angel”). Far from being the prince of darkness and evil, Lucifer is of the same nature as other archangels, albeit with far more authority and power over worldly affairs. In fact, it is Malak Tâwus who creates the material world using the dismembered pieces of the original cosmic egg, or pearl, in which the Spirit once resided.

Despite the publication of (reportedly) all major Yezidi religious scriptures, and the availability of their translations, the most basic questions regarding the Yezidi cosmogony are left to speculation. For example, it is left to deductive reasoning to figure out in which epoch of the universal life Lucifer belongs, or what his exact station is. He naturally cannot be the same as the Universal Spirit, as the Spirit does not enter into the act of creation. In Yârsânism and Alevism it is Khâwandagâr, the “Lord God,” who as the first avatar of the Spirit undertakes the task of Sâjnâri-world genesis. It is tempting to concluded that Lucifer replaces Khâwandagâr himself in the Yezidi cosmogony. Two Yezidi holy scriptures, Jilwa and Mes’haf, both discussed later, substantiate this conclusion. The following translations of these texts are adopted almost entirely from Guest (1987). Jilwa reads, “Malak Tâwus existed before all creatures,” and “1 (Malak Tâwus) was, and am now, and will continue unto eternity, ruling over all creatures …. Neither is there any place void of me where i am not present. Every Epoch has an Avatar, and this by my counsel. Every generation changes with the Chief of this world, so that each one of the chiefs in his turn and cycle fulfills his charge. The other angels may not interfere in my deeds and work: Whatsoever I determine, that is.” The implied attributes are all those of Khâwandagâr in Yârsânism and Alevism. Mes’haf asserts> “In the beginning God [which must mean the Universal Spirit] created the White Pearl out of his most precious Essence; and He created a bird named Anfar. And he placed the pearl upon its back, and dwelt thereon forty thousand years. On the first day [of Creation], Sunday, He created an angel named ‘Azâzil, which is Malak Tâwus, the chief of all….” Mes’haf goes on to name six other angels, each created in the following days of this first week of creation in the First Epoch. The names of these angels closely match those of Yârsânism and Alevism, as given in Table 6. The problem is that there are seven rather than six avatars, leaving out, therefore, the Spirit himself from the world affairs. This is, however, the result of the later corruption of the original cosmogony, perhaps under Judeo-Christian influence. The rest of the opening chapter of the Mes’haf provides a version of human origin close to the Judeo-Christian story of Adam and Eve, and their interaction with Satan, even though Satan, here Lucifer, serves them only as an honest councillor and educator. Thereafter, he is left in charge of all creatures of the world.

The real story of the First Epoch however surfaces rather inconspicuously, in a single sentence at the end of the Mes’hafs first chapter. As it turns out, the sentence is very much in agreement with the basic tenets of the Cult of Angels. It reads, “From his essence and light He created six Avatars, whose creation was as one lighten a lamp from another lamp.” It is then safe to assume that the original Yezidi belief was that Lucifer was the primary avatar of the Universal Spirit in the First Epoch, and the rest of the cosmogony of the Cult of Angels remains more or less intact. Lucifer himself, in the form of Malak Tawus, “Peacock Angel,” is represented by a sculptured bronze bird. This icon, called Anzal “the Ancient One,” is presented to worshippers annually at the major jam at Lâlish.

Lâlish and its environs are also the burial site of Shaykh Adi, the most important personage of the Yezidi religion. Adi’s role in Yezidism is similar to those played by Sahâk in Yârsânism and Ali in Alevism. To the Yezidis, Shaykh Adi is the most important avatar of the Universal Spirit of the epochs following the First Epoch. Adi being a primary avatar, he is therefore a reincarnation of Malak Tawus himself. In its modern, garbled form, Adi is assigned a founding role in Yezidism, and interestingly is believed to have lived at about the same time in history, as Sultan Sahâk is believed by the modern Yârsâns, i.e., sometime in the 12-13th centuries. (This is about the same time that Bektâsh of Alevism is believed to have lived and founded that branch of the Cult.) Both Adi and Sahâk are believed to have lived well in excess of a century.

In addition to the main sculptured bird icon Anzal, there are six other similar relics of the Peacock Angel. These are called the sanj’aqs, meaning “dioceses” (of the Yezidi community), and each is assigned to a different diocese of Yezidi concentration. Each year these are brought forth for worship to the dioceses of Syria, Zozan (i.e., Sasoon/Sasun or western and northern Kurdistan in Anatolia), Sanjâr, Shaykhân (of the Greater Zâb basin), Tabriz (Azerbaijan), and Musquf (Moscow, i.e., ex-Soviet Caucasus). The sanjaqs of Tabriz and Musquf no longer circulate, since there are not many Yezidis left in Azerbaijan, and the anti-religious Soviet government did not permit the icon to enter the bustling Yezidi community of the Caucasus.

Like other branches of the Cult of Angels’, Yezidism lacks a holy book of divine origin. There are however many sacred works that contain the body of their beliefs. There is a very short volume (about 500 words) of Arabic-language hymns, ascribed to Shaykh Adi himself and named lilwa, or “Revelation.” Another, more detailed book is the Mes’haf i Resh, “the Black Book” in Kurdish, which has been credited to Adi’s son, Shaykh Hasan ibn Adi (b. ca. AD II 95), a great-grandnephew of Adi.

Mes’haf is the most informative of the Yezidi scriptures, as it contains the body of the religion’s cosmogony, catechises, eschatology, and liturgy, despite many contradictions and vagaries (far more than in the works of the Yârsâns). The Mes’haf may in fact date back to the 13th century. Mes’haf was written in an old form of Kurmânji Kurdish. Kurmânji in the 13th century was primarily restricted to its stronghold in the ultra-rugged Hakkâri highlands (see Kurmânji) . But Hakkâri is in fact exactly were the most ardent followers of Adi and Hasan arose. Adi himself, despite the Yezidi’s belief that he was born in Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, came to be called Adi al-Hakkâri (“Adi of Hakkâri”).

Of the Yezidis’ four major annual celebrations, two are of special interest here, the Jam and the feast of Yezid.

The most important Yezidi feast is the seven-day-long feast of lam, when the bird icon of Anzal is presented to the worshippers. It occurs between the 6th and 13th of October, which is obligatory to all believers to attend, and is held at Lâlish, north of Mosul, the burial site of Adi and other important Yezidi holy figures, including Hasan. It coincides with the great ancient Aryan feast of Mithrâkân (Zoroastrian Mihragân, Nusayri Mihrajân; see Alevism), held customarily around the middle of October. Ancient Mithrâkân celebrated the act of world creation by the sun god Mithras, who killing the bull of heaven, used its dismembered body to create the material world. On the occasion of the feast at Lâlish, riding men pretend to capture a bull, with which they then circumambulate the Lâlish shrine of Shams al-Din (the “Sun of the Faith”), before sacrificing the bull and distributing its flesh to the pilgrims.

Yezid, a puzzling personage, is venerated by the Yezidis in a somewhat confused fashion. Yezid is credited with founding Yezidism (the religion, obviously, shares his name), or to have been the most important avatar of the Spirit after Malak Tâwus (some even claiming he is the same as Malak Tâwus). He is occasionally identified by the Yezidis as the Umayyad caliph, Yazid ibn Mu’awiyya (r. AD 680-683), the arch-villain to Shi’ite Muslims. This faulty identification is encouraged by the Syrian and Iraqi governments (who hopc thus to detach the Yezidis from other Kurds, and to connect them instead with the Umayyads, hencc the Arabs). It has also prompted the leading Yezidi family, the chols, to adopt Arabic costumes and Umayyad caliphate names. Yet, far from being the ‘Umayyad caliph, the name is certainly derived from yezad, “angel,” and judging by its importance, he must be the angel of the Yezidis. This comical confusion, which permeates the Yezidi leadership to the extent that they doubt their own ethnic identity, is not unexpected, given the intensity of their persecution in the past, and the destruction of whatever religious and historical literature Yezidism may have had in the past, in addition to the little that remains today.

Is it possible that Malak Tâwus, who created the material world in Yezidi cosmogony by utilizing a piece of the original cosmic egg or pearl that he had dismembered earlier, originally represented Mithras in early Yezidism, and only later Lucifer? The second most important Yezidi celebration points toward this possibility. It is held between middle and late December and commemorates the birth of Yezid. His birthday at or near the winter solstice, links him to Mithras. (Mithraism did after all expand into the Roman Empire from this general geographical area in the course of the first century BC, and Mithras’ mythical birth was celebrated on December 25 as already has . been discussed.)

The celebration parallels in importance the major jam ceremony in October. It is commemorated with three days of fasting before the jubilees.

In the Yezidi version of world creation, birds play a central role in all major events too numerous in fact to permit summary here. The reverence of the Yezidis for divine manifestations in the form of a bird, the Peacock Angel, and the sacredness of roosters are just two better-known examples. What is fascinating, but less known, is that within 30 miles of the shrines of Lâlish are the Shanidar-Zawi Chami archaeological sites of central Kurdistan, where the archaeologist Solecki has unearthed the remains of shrines and large bird wings, particularly those of the great bustards, dated to 10,800±300 years ago. The remains are indicative of a religious ritual that involved birds and employed their wings, possibly as part of the priestly costume (Solecki 1977).

The representation of bird wings on gods was later to become common in Mesopotamian art, and particularly in the royal rock carvings of the Assyrians, whose capital Nineveh can literally be seen on the horizon from Lalish. The artistic combination of wings and non-flying beings like humans (to form gods), lions (to form sphinxes), bulls (to form royal symbols), and horses (to form the Pegasus), as well as wing-like adornments to priestly costumes, are common in many cultures, but the representation of the supreme deity as a full-fledged bird is peculiarly Yezidi. The evidence of sacrificial rites practised at ancient Zawi Chami may substantiate an indigenous precursor to modern Yezidi practice.

The bird icon of Lâlish has always been readily identified, as the name implies, as a peacock. However, there are no peacocks native to Kurdistan or this part of Asia. In light of the discoveries at Zawi Chami, the great bustard is a much more likely the bird of the Yezidi icon. The great bustard (Kurdish shawtlt) is native to Kurdistan. It too possesses a colorful tail, similar to that of a turkey (similar to, though much smaller than, that of a peacock, which is seen on the icon). The great bustard far more logically suits the archaic tradition of the Yezidis than does the peacock, a native bird of India.

The practice of bowing three times before the rising sun and chanting hymns for the occasion is practiced by the Yezidis, as among the traditional Alevis (Nikitine 1956). The Yezidis also practice the rite of embracing the “very body of the sun,” by kissing its beams as they first fall on the trunks of the trees at the dawn (Kamurân Ali Badir-Khân 1934).

Another Alevi hallmark, the representation of the deity in the shape of a sword or dagger stuck into the ground, is also found among the Yezidis, albeit not for worship but to take oaths upon it (Alexander 1928, Bellino 1816).

In addition to an entrenched aristocracy, the social class system of the Yezidis shows interesting similarities to the rigid social stratification of the Zoroastrian Sasanian Empire. Zoroastrian priests forbade anyone who did not belong to the priestly or princely class to gain literacy, and traditionally Yezidism barred such luxury altogether. (Some Yarsans also believe that this should be so, and also practice it.) In fact, it has been asserted that until the beginning of this century only one man among the Yezidis, the custodian of the Jilwa, knew how to read (Guest 1987, 33). This ban is largely gone now, although through force of habit the Yezidi commoners are still not keen on literacy.

Interestingly, the wealthier Yezidi shaykhs and mullahs wear Arab Bedouin clothes and headdress, speak both Arabic and Kurdish, and usually have Arabic names. The poorer Yezidi social and religious leaders, on the other hand, have Kurdish names, speak only Kurdish, and wear Kurdish traditional clothes and headgear (Lescot 1938).

Leadership of the Yezidi community has traditionally rested with one of the old Kurdish princely houses, the Chols, who took over in the 17th century. They replaced the line of rulers who claimed descent from Shaykh Hasan, the author of Mes’haf. They are supported financially and otherwise by every Yezidi. The priestly duties reside, as in Yârsânism, with the members of the seven hereditary priestly houses, which include the Chols.

The relative smallness of the current Yezidi community can be misleading. At the time of Saladin’s conquest of Antioch, the Yezidis were dominant in the neighboring valleys in the Amanus coastal mountains, and by the 13th and 14th centuries Yezidis had expanded their domains by converting many Muslims and Christians to their faith, from Antioch to Urmiâ, and from Sivâs to Kirkuk. They also mustered a good deal of political and military power. In this period, the emirs of the Jazira region (upper Mesopotamia) were Yezidis, as was one of the emirs of Damascus. A Yezidi preacher, Zayn al-Din Yusuf, established Yezidi communities of converts in Damascus and Cairo, where he died in 1297. His imposing tomb in Cairo remains to this day. Of 30 major tribal confederacies enumerated by the Kurdish historian Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi in Sharafntlma (1596), he contends seven were fully Yezidi in times past. Among these tribes was the historic and populous Buhtans (the Bokhtanoi of Herodotus).

An early Muslim encyclopedist, Shahâb al-Din Fadlullâh al-‘Umari, declares as Yezidi in AD 1338 also the Dunbuli/Dumbuli. This reference carries a very important piece of information, which can be the only known reference to the Cult of Angels before its fragmentation into its present state and the loss of its common name. Since the Dunbuli were a well-known branch of the Alevi Daylamites, and since the reporting by al-‘Umari is normally astute, the declaration of this tribe as Yezidi may indicate that at the time the appellation Yazidi (“angelicans’) was that of the Cult of Angels in general. (The historical designation Yazdtlni here for the Cult of Angels has been used to avoid confusion with the modern Yezidism.)

There have been persistent attempts by their Muslim and Christian neighbors to convert the Yezidis, peacefully or otherwise. The Ottoman government and military schools recruited many Yezidis, who were then converted to Sunni Islam, while in the mountains the Yezidis maintained their faith. A petition submitted in 1872 to the Ottoman authorities to exempt the Yezidis from military service has become the locus classicus on the subject of Yezidi religious codes and beliefs (for the English translation of the text, see Driver 1921-23).

Failing peaceful conversion, the Ottomans carried out massacres against the Yezidis in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries. The massacres recurred in Ottoman domains in the middle of the 19th century, resulting in a great migration of Ottoman Yezidis into the Russian territories in the Caucasus. Twenty major massacres between 1640 and 1910 were counted by Lescot (see Deportations & Forced Resettlements).

Many Yezidis escaped into the forbidding mountain areas, but others converted, at least nominally, to Sunni Islam. The Ottoman Land Registration Law of 1859 particularly pressed for conversion by refusing to honor ownership claims of Yezidis. Many Yezidi shaykhs, who were the primary property owners, maintained their lands and property by converting. The Yezidi leaders whose holdings were in the inaccessible higher mountains were spared the need for conversion, and so were the landless sharecroppers or herders. Before 1858, the Yezidis in the Antioch-Amanus region on the Mediterranean littoral numbered 200,000, constituting the majority of the inhabitants. In 1938, Lescot counted only 60,000-a small minority.

Even today the Yezidis are still subject to great pressure for conversion. There is now also a movement to strip the Yezidis of their Kurdish identity by either declaring them an independent ethnic group apart from the Kurds or by attaching them to the Arabs. Hence, the Yezidis are now called “Umayyad Arabs” by the governments of Iraq and Syria, capitalizing on the aforementioned confusion that exists among the Yezidis with respect to the irrelevant Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Mu’awiyya.

Most Yezidis are now in Syria, in the Jazira region and the Jabal Sanjar heights, and in the Afrin region Northwest of Aleppo. The next largest population of Yezidis is found in the Caucasus, where up to half the Kurds are followers of Yezidism. In Iraq, where the holiest Yezidi shrines of Lâlish are located, they are found in a band from eastern Jabal Sanjâr toward Dohuk and to Lâlish, northeast of Mosul. There used to be a large number of Yezidis in Anatolia, prior to the massacres of the last century. Those who now live within the borders of Turkey are thinly spread from Mardin to Siirt, and from Antioch and Antep to Urfâ. There are also a relatively small number of Yezidis in Iran, particularly between the towns of Quchdn and Dughâ’i in the Khurâsâni enclave, and in Azerbaijan province.

Further Readings and Bibliography: R.H.W. Empson, The Cult of the Peacock Angel (London, 1928); E.S. Drower, Peacock Angel (London, 1941); G.R. Driver, “The Religion of the Kurds,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and Studies 11 (1921-23); John S. Guest, The Yezidis (New York: KPI, 1987); Isya Joseph, Devil Worship (Boston, 1919); Alphonse Mingana, “Devil-worshippers: Their Beliefs and their Sacred Books,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1916); R.C. Zaehner, Zurv4n: A Zoroastrian Dilemma (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955); R. Lescot, Enquete 5ur les Yezidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjar, Memoires de L’Institut Francais de Damas, vol. 5 (Beirut, 1938); Hugo Makas, Kurdische Studien, vol. 3, Jezidengebete (Heidelberg, 1900); Ralph Solecki, “Predatory Bird Rituals at Zawi Chemi Shanidar,” Sumer XXXIII.L (1977); Rose Solecki, “Zawi Chemi Shanidar, a Post-Pleistocene Village Site in Northern Iraq,” Report of the VI International Congress on Quaternary (1964); Sami Said Ahmed, The Yazidis: Their Life and Beliefs, cd. Henry Field (Nfiami: Field Research Projects, 1975); E.S. Drower, Peacock Angel: Being Some Account of Votaries of a Secret Cult and Their Sanctuaries. (London, 1941); Cecil 1. Edmonds, A Pikdmage to Lalish (London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1967); Thcodor Menzel, “Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der jeziden,” in Hugo Grother, cd., Meine Vorderasienexpedition 1906 und 1907. Vol. 1. (Leipzig, 191 1); Basile Nikitine, Le5 Kurde5, etude 5ociologique et hi5torique (Paris, 1956); KamurAn Ali Badir Khdn, “Les soleil chez les Kurdes,” Atlantis 54, vii-viii (Paris, 1934); Constance Alexander, Baghdad in Bygone Days, from the Journals of the Correspondence of Claudius Rich… 1808-1821 (London, 1928); Charles Bellino letter, 16 May 1816, to Hammer, included in Fundgruben des Orients 5 (1816).

Sources: The Kurds, A Concise Handbook, By Dr. Mehrdad R. Izady, Dep. of Near Easter Languages and Civilization Harvard University, USA, 1992

THE PEACOCK ANGEL AND THE TEMPLARS

What is the Peacock Angel?

THE PEACOCK ANGEL

Dee Finney's blog

start date July 20, 2011

Today's date October 29, 2011

TOPIC: THE PEACOCK ANGEL AND THE TEMPLARS

http://www.greatdreams.com/blog/dee-blog60.html

This topic came up because I listened to an interview of an Iraqiii man, now living in Canada. He was interviewed by an American Temp[lar who has a radio show on bbsradio.com The whole interview was about the religion based on the Peacock angel and how they are bringing this religion to America starting in 2012.

There is a lot of detailed information about the history below:

Tawsi Melek, the “Peacock Angel” and “Peacock King,” is the most import deity of the Yezidis. But he is not just the possession of the Yezidis, he belongs to the entire world. The Yezidis believe that they possess the oldest religion on Earth, the primeval faith that features Tawsi Melek, and that all other traditions are related to them through the Peacock Angel. They contend that Tawsi Melek is the true creator and ruler of the universe, and therefore a part of all religious traditions. He does not, however, always manifest within these diverse traditions as a peacock. Tawsi Melek has taken on many other forms throughout time.

The Yezidis do not believe that the Peacock Angel is the Supreme God. The Supreme God created him as an emanation at the beginning of time. He was brought into manifestation in order to give the invisible, transcendental Supreme God a vehicle with which to create and administer the universe. Tawsi Melek is thus a tangible, denser form of the infinite Supreme God. In order to assist Tawsi Melek in this important role, the Supreme Creator also created six other Great Angels, who were, like the Peacock Angel, emanations of the Supreme God and not separate from him. When recounting the creation of all Seven Great Angels, the Yezidis often summarize the emanation process as follows:

Tawsi Melek was the first to emerge from the Light of God in the form of a seven-rayed rainbow, which is a form he still today continues to manifest within to them (usually as a rainbow around the Sun). But the Yezidis also claim that Tawsi Melek and the six Great Angels are collectively the seven colors of the rainbow. Therefore, the six Great Angels were originally part of Tawsi Melek, the primal rainbow emanation, who bifurcated to become the rainbow’s seven colors, which are collectively the Seven Great Angels. Of the seven colors produced from the primal rainbow, Tawsi Melek became associated with the color blue, because this is the color of the sky and the heavens, which is the source of all colors.

Tawsi Melek was, therefore, both the first form of the Supreme God and one of the Seven Great Angels, which is a cosmic heptad mentioned within many religious traditions. The Jews, Christians, Persian, Egyptians all have their seven angels and creators. In the Meshefê Re, the Yezidis “Black Book,” there is one passage that describes the Seven Great Angels and associates their creation with the seven days of Creation. The text first states that the Supreme God first created a pearl containing the substance or substratum of the soon-to-be physical universe, ostensibly referring to the molten mass preceding the “Big Bang” championed by modern physics. The Yezidi text then maintains that for forty thousand years this pearl sat upon a primal bird, which is quite possibly an incipient form of Tawsi Melek before he divided into the Seven Great Angels. This pearl then exploded (or became dismantled) to become the physical universe. Then, states the Meshefê Re, came the seven days of creation:

“The first day which He (the Supreme God) created was Sunday. On that day He created an angel whose name was 'Azra'il. This is Melekê Taus, who is the greatest of all.
On Monday He created the Angel Darda'il, who is Shaikh Hasan.
On Tuesday He created the Angel Israfil, who is Shaikh Shams.
On Wednesday He created the Angel Mika'il, who is Shaikh Abu Bakr.
On Thursday He created the Angel Gibra'il, who is Sagad ad-Din.
On Friday He created the Angel Shimna'il, who is Nasir ad-Din.
On Saturday He created the Angel Nura'il, who is Yadin [Fakhr ad-Din].
And God made Melekê Taus the greatest of them.”

Ever since their primal creation the Seven Great Angels have been associated with the day of the week they were created. Tawsi Melek’s day is Sunday, etc.

Once the Seven Great Angels were created the Earth was produced by them out of the substratum of the original pearl. It remained barren and then suddenly entered a phase of intense continual shaking, perhaps coinciding with the violent earthquake and volcanic activity that was ubiquitous around the young Earth. In order to calm the planetary quaking, the Supreme God sent the Peacock Angel to Earth with orders to both sedate the Earth and endow it with multi-colored flora and fauna. As Tawsi Melek descended into the physical dimension his seven-colored rainbow self became manifest as a magnificent bird of seven colors, the peacock. He then flew around the globe in order to bless every part of it, finally landing in the area of what is now Lalish, the Yezidis most sacred part of Earth located in northern Iraq. Here Tawsi Melek was able to calm the Earth while simultaneously covering it with his peacock colors.

With the Earth in a more placid phase of its evolution the Great Angels proceeded to their next creation, Adam. The first human was created by all the Seven Great Angels, each of whom endowed him with a physical sense to experience life. One gave him an ear, one a nose, one a mouth, etc. But the first human was a lifeless heap without a soul, so Tawsi Melek transmitted the breath of life into him. When Adam then rose to his feet, Tawsi Melek quickly swung him around so that he was facing the Sun while informing him that there was something much greater than he and that praying daily to the Sun as a form of the Supreme God would help him to remember this truth. Tawsi Melek then verbalized the prayers that Adam and his descendants around the globe were to repeat during their worship, and he spoke them in 72 languages since Adam and Eve were destined to have 72 sons and 72 daughters who would populate the 72 regions or countries of the Earth. The Peacock Angel then informed Adam that if he and his descendants remained steadfast in righteousness they would eventually see and know the Supreme God personally. In the meantime, Tawsi Melek would be their protector and teacher even while residing in another dimension.

Future Prophecy of the Peacock Angel

Yezidi prophecy maintains that Tawsi Melek will come back to Earth as a peacock or rainbow during a time of intense conflict, poverty, famine and distress on the Earth. He will then transmit some prayers to a holy man, probably a Faqir, who will then take them around the Earth and give them to representatives of all religions.

The Peacock Angel Today

The Yezidis believe that Tawsi Melek is every place in the universe at every moment. He is, therefore, always available for support and protection to anyone who sincerely calls upon him. His greatest worshippers, the Yezidis, call upon his assistance to help meet all their needs.

To those who call upon him with great devotion, Tawsi Melek may manifest in a variety forms, including a bright light, a rainbow, a boy, a young man, a snake, and, of course, a peacock. He also will appear on occasion so his worshippers can remain secure regarding his existence. One of his most recent appearances of this sort occurred following a skirmish between the Yezidis and Turkish Moslems, when Tawsi Melek decided to appear to not to a Yezidi, but to one of the Moslem Turks so that all people would believe in his existence. During his appearance, Tawsi Melek “bid the bewildered man to go and tell the people that a big war was brewing, but that no harm would come on the heads of his people, the Yezidis, who would emerge from the conflagration unscathed.”

Although he is the eternal ruler of Earth, during the Yezidis New Year Tawsi Melek designates one of the six Great Angels to represent him as ruler for the coming year, so there is always guidance and protection coming from all the Seven Great Angels.

Is the Peacock Angel the Devil?

The Peacock Angel has been falsely accused of being Satan or the Devil for hundreds of years by censuring Moslems. But their distortion of his true nature was not made popular until the 18th century, so it appears that during earlier times Moslems may have had an entirely different view of the Peacock Angel. Unfortunately, Tawsi Melek is currently stuck in today’s world with the Devil banner.

It appears that the initial distortion regarding Tawsi Melek may have been generated by an Islamic defamation crusade against the Yezidis, initiated by the Moslem view that the Yezidis are not “People of the Book,” meaning that there is no revealed scripture at the center of their religion. In truth, Meshefê Re, the Yezidis “Black Book,” was written when Tawsi Melek first came to Earth and existed down to the time of a series of wars with the Turkish Moslems, when most of it was lost. The book was very thick with a black color, and embossed with red and gold.

The Moslems’ slanderous misunderstanding of Tawsi Melek appears to have gained momentum when certain Moslem leaders took some small aspect or characteristic of the Peacock Angel and related it to their conception of Satan. For example, Tawsi Melek is recognized by the Yesidis to be king of the entire universe, including Earth, but over the centuries both Moslems and Christians have ascribed Luciferian connotations to the “King of the World.” Moreover, the Yezidis belief that Tawsi Melek was the co-creator of the universe with the Supreme God could have inspired a dualistic Islamic philosopher to misconstrue him as an eternally separate and opposite spirit from God. Since God is eternally good, according to Islamic philosophy, this would automatically make Tawsi Melek the Evil One.

Here is a list of allegations against Tawsi Melek that have been part of the Moslems’ attempt to convince the world of his Satanic nature:

The Moslems maintain that one of Tawsi Melek’s names is Azazel, a name of Satan.

Truth: The alternate name for Tawsi Melek they refer to is not Azazel, but Aziz, a name meaning “something precious.”

The Yezidis honor the goat because it is Satan’s (Tawsi Melek’s) sacred animal.

Truth: The Yezidis honor the goat because, like the Hindus’ cow, it sacrifices itself and supplies many of their needs. It gives them milk, wool, etc.

The Peacock Angel was in the Garden of Eden and because of his pride he refused God’s order to bow to Adam. This show of pride caused the fall of Lucifer and established an eternal enmity between God and the Peacock Angel.

Truth: In the Yezidi tradition it is indeed stated that the Peacock Angel was present in the Garden of Eden. He failed to bow down to Adam because he was obeying God. The Yezidis claim that previous to the creation of Adam the Supreme God had informed all Seven Great Angels never bow down to any other entity other than Him.

The peacock is an evil bird.

Truth: In the East the peacock is the symbol of the Son of God, the savior of humanity. The peacock reflects the beneficent, immortal nature of the Son of God by devouring snakes, the enemies of humanity. Through its innumerable “eyes,” the peacock also symbolizes the omniscient nature of the Son of God. Apparently the misunderstanding of the bird’s evil nature arose because it naturally reflects the androgyny of the Son of God, who was born from the universal male/female polarity, i.e., Spirit and matter, dark and light, etc. It is for this reason that the “androgynous” peacock is said to possess the beauty of an angel but the demonic cry of the Devil.

The Yezidis are the People of the Caliph Yezid whose unpopular reign made him an enemy of both Shiite and Sunni Moslems.

Truth: The Caliph Yezid was a Moslem who later became disenchanted with the Islamic teachings and converted to Yezidism. The name Yezidi has existed since the Yezidi people were first created.

In addition to the above, Moslems could have easily been mislead by the inaccurate anecdotes and propaganda regarding the Peacock Angel, some of which have been fabricated by other Moslems. A rumored Yezidi “Origin Myth,” for example, that alludes to a Yezidi shepherd finding an injured Peacock Angel in the form of a physical peacock and calling itself “the Spirit of Evil thrown out of heaven” is completely spurious and not associated with any authentic Yezidi texts or teachings.

THE DOCTRINES OF SATAN AND MODERN YEZIDI'S

https://www.wattpad.com/321313398-about-the-doctrines-of-satan-and-the-yezidis

E. S. Drower - Haran Gawaita. The Baptism Of Hibil Ziwa

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
~ The Haran Gawaita, on account of its fragmentary character,
has suffered more than any other Mandaean text at the hands of
late copyists who emended and edited parts which were faulty or
misunderstood. Their grammatical solecisms and misspellings have
added to the difficulty of translating an already obscure text. The
most sanguine of translators could hardly claim with a clear conscience
that the more difficult and involved passages had been adequately
rendered into English. The present translator is‘aware that
some renderings are too free and others too literal, and can only
most dimcult of all the Mandaean books, the Kabbalistic portions
of the AZf l’risar Awialia excepted. It abounds in ambiguous words
and phrases and its predictions concerning the future are often veiled
by a dark vagueness of language a& to that employed by Nostradamus
and others who have peered into the future. The prophecy concerning
the return of the Messiah, although it calls Jesus a “ false ” messiah, paints
a picture unexpectedly fair of His reign on earth. One is inclined
to wonder if a Christian text has been inserted or whether a passage
recounting His downfall has disappeared from the original.

https://archive.org/details/e.-s.-drower-haran-gawaita.-the-baptism-of-hibil-ziwa/mode/2up

My Sudan Year
by Drower, E. S. (Ethel Stefana), Lady, 1879-1972;
Russell E. Train Africana Collection (Smithsonian Libraries) DSI
Publication date 1912
Publisher London : Mills & Boon
Collection smithsonian
Digitizing sponsor Smithsonian Libraries
Contributor Smithsonian Libraries
Language English

NON FICTION WRITTEN UNDER HER PSEUDONYM E. S. STEVENS

YEZIDIS NEW YEAR 6756

by Edward C. Corrigan, April 7, 2006 London Ontario

It is indeed an honour to be invited to celebrate the Yezidis New Year with you. This is year
6756 in the Yezidis calender. The Yezidis are an ancient and proud people from the heart of
Mesopotamia, the birth place of civilization and the birth place of many of the world=s religions.

For comparative purposes the Yezidis calender is 4,750 years older than the Christian or Western calender. Their calender is 990 years older than the Jewish religious calender. The Yezidis is 5329 years older than the Muslim Calender, currently the year 1427.

There are about 10 Yezidis families in London, Ontario. They are a most interesting minority
community. I thank Mirza Ismail for the invitation to this celebration. I have had the privilege of representing Yezidis refugees in the past. Yezidis are largely based in Iraq but are also found in Syria, Turkey and Iran. There are Yezidisalso in Armenia and many have been forced to flee their homeland and many now reside in Germany.

The Yezidi religion is the third largest religion in Iraq after Islam and Christianity. The Yezidis
religion was pioneered in Mesopotamia during the Sumerian period four thousand years before BC. It must be regarded as one of the oldest religions in the world, and consequently has greatly influenced mankind's history. The Yezidis is the historical fore bearer of Judaism and Christianity and Islam. It is contemporaneous to Zoroastrianism and Mithraism.

The Yezidi ancient language is close to the Assyrian and Aramaic languages. But, afterwards and due to the Islamic expansion the Yezidis were exposed to the Arabic influences. Throughout history the Yezidis have been subjected too much destruction and oppression. Their holy books AJalwa and Musaf Rash@ were stolen. Their Holy Places destroyed.

Because, the Yezidis were different in religion, and had their own separate unique culture,
language and political structures they become as victims of various forces that transverse the Middle East over the past 6,000 years. Yet they survive to this day.

The Yezidis were exposed to a policy of expulsion and assimilation and that is why they fled to the mountains and then many migrated to the European countries especially, Germany in the last century from Turkey. They were then followed by Yezidis from Syria and finally from Iraq. As a of the Iraqi Ba-ath government policy which aimed to replace Yezidis with Muslims of Arabic nationality on Yezidis agriculture lands and driving the Yezidis from their own lands with the aid of an embargo. This campaign severely affected the Yezidi social and economic situation. Their plight has unfortunately been largely ignored by mankind and in particular by the West in recent years.

In the recent years, the Kurdish Question has over shadowed the Yezidis issue. It appears that the Kurds were trying to assimilate the Yezidis and trying to obscure the Yezidi identity as a separate culture.

History shows that the Yezidis religion was pioneered and developed in Mesopotamia, and we knew also that many other religions were born in same area, like for example, Mithraism and Zoroastrianism. That means, when those religions first came into existence, there were no nations only religious social and political structures that made up the ancient societies that existed in the birth place of human civilization. All Middle Eastern societies and Western
civilization owe a profound debt to the religions that sprang from the fertile soils of
Mesopotamia.

In terms of human history the concept of nationality is only recent innovation of the last few
hundred years. It followed the religious political and social organization that governed most of human kind. Yezidis are from that socio-religious tradition.

It is said that Yezidis religion may be the original Kurdish religion. However, today the Kurds
which comprise a nationality are not the same as the Yezidis, although they speak the same
language. Yezidis believe in one God without any companion, and the seven Angels. Most of Kurds have become Moslems and were deprived from their Yezidi religion, many by force.

READ THE REST HERE: http://www.edcorrigan.ca/articles/yezidis-new-year-6756.pdf

FICTION BY E S DROWER
UNDER THE PSEUDONYM OF E. S. STEVENS

The Lure

https://archive.org/details/lure00drow/page/n5/mode/2up

by Drower, E. S. (Ethel Stefana), Lady, 1879-1972
Publication date 1912

Publisher New York, John Lane company

Collection library_of_congress; americana

Digitizing sponsor Kahle/Austin Foundation

Contributor The Library of Congress

Language English

Allward;

by Drower, E. S. (Ethel Stefana), Lady, 1879-1972

https://archive.org/details/allward00drow/page/n3/mode/2up

Publication date 1915

Publisher New York, Dodd, Mead and company

Collection library_of_congress; americana

Digitizing sponsor Kahle/Austin Foundation

Contributor The Library of Congress

Language English

The Yazidis
Christine Allison
https://tinyurl.com/y97q7n2m

Subject: Islamic Studies
DOI:10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.254

Summary

One of the world’s most endangered religious minorities, the Yazidis are a predominantly Kurdish-speaking group numbering some 500,000 souls, who once inhabited a wide area stretching across eastern Turkey, northern Syria, northern Iraq, and western Iran. Of these territories, only the community in Iraq still numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Most come from two areas: Sheikhan, a collection of villages and towns to the northeast of Mosul, and Sinjar, a mountain to the northwest close to the border with Syria. Until recently these areas seemed stable; however, in August 2014, the so-called Islamic State (Da‘esh) attacked the ancient community of Yazidis of Mount Sinjar, massacring hundreds of men, enslaving thousands of women and children, and driving the population of some 350,000 Yazidis into camps for internally displaced persons in the Kurdistan region. They are targeted because of their non-Abrahamic religion; for many years they have been erroneously known as “devilworshippers.” In fact, their belief system incorporates visible elements from the three “religions of the Book” (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and traces of lesser-known religions, upon a substratum that may derive from Iranian religions (Zoroastrianism or similar). It is not a proselytizing faith, and religious relationships within the community are determined by birth. Marrying out is traditionally forbidden. Yazidis are relative newcomers to urban life and are often socially, economically, and educationally disadvantaged. Internal pressures, especially from the youth, to “modernize” the religion have existed at least since the 1990s. However, the main drive toward change comes now from the Yazidis’ loss of confidence in their safety in Iraq and their consequent migration toward Europe and the stresses of diaspora life. At the same time, an increasingly activist younger generation is demanding justice. The future of Yazidism is unclear, but it will certainly never be the same again.

E S DROWER ONLINE YEZIDI PHOTO EXHIBIT
Organized by her granddaughter and Christine Allison author of this essay]
E. S. Drower - Yezidi Photo Archive

https://www.yezidiphotoarchive.com › e-s-drower
The Yezidis lend colour to this by forbidding the word Shaitan to be spoken, but when I talked with a qawwal he was emphatic that the Peacock Angel was not the ...