Chapter 10

Ancient Ancestor's Encounter

An old-Persia god of light, contracts and friendship, also maintains the cosmic order. Sometimes mentioned as the son of Ahura Mazda, he assists him in his struggle against the forces of evil, represented by Angra Mainyu. Mithra was born from a rock of a shallow cave. He fought with the sun and managed to capture the divine bull and slayed it before he ascended to heaven. From the blood of the bull came forth all the plants and animals beneficial to humanity.

The Romans attributed their Mithraic mysteries to Persian Zoroastrian sources relating to Mithra. Thus, etymologically mitra means "that which causes binding", preserved in the Avestan word for Covenant, Contract and Oath. Like most other Divinities, Mithra is not mentioned by name in the Gathas, the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and traditionally attributed to Zoroaster himself, or by name in the Yasna Haptanghaiti, a seven-verse section of the Yasna liturgy that is linguistically as old as the Gathas. As a member of the Iranian ahuric triad, along with Ahura Mazda and Ahura Berezaiti (Apam Napat), Mithra is an exalted figure. Together with Rashnu "Justice" and Sraosha "Obedience", Mithra is one of the three judges at the Chinvat Bridge, the "Bridge of Separation" that all souls must cross. Unlike Sraosha, Mithra is not, however, a psychopomp, a guide of souls to the place of the dead. Should the Good Thoughts, Words, and Deeds outweigh the Bad, Sraosha alone conveys the Soul across the Bridge. As the Divinity of Contract, Mithra is not ever deceivable, infallible, eternally watchful, and never-resting. Mithra is additionally the protector of cattle, and his stock appellation is "of Wide Pastures." He is Guardian of the waters and ensures that those pastures receive enough of it.

The lack of Mithra's presence in the texts was once a cause of some dismay amongst Iranians. An often-repeated speculation of the first half of the 20th century was that the lack of any mention (e.g., Zoroaster's silence) of Mithra in these texts implied that Zoroaster had rejected Mithra. This ex-silentio speculation is no longer followed. Building on that speculation was another series of speculations, which postulated that the reason why Zoroaster did not mention Mithra was that the latter was the supreme God of a bloodthirsty group of daeva-worshipers that Zoroaster condemned. However, "no satisfactory evidence has yet been offered to show that, before Zoroaster, the concept of a supreme god existed among the Persians, or that among them Mithra – or any other divinity – ever enjoyed a separate cult of his or her own outside either their ancient or their Zoroastrian pantheons."

On the emerging of Zoroastrianism, he was reduced to the status of Yazata, worthy to be worship. In the Avesta he was portrayed as having ten thousand ears and eyes, and he rides in a chariot pulled by white horses. In the 4th century BCE his popularity rose and again he held a high position in the Persian pantheon. Eventually his cult spread beyond Persia and Asia Minor and gradually became a mystery cult. The ascetic religion of Mithraism (to which only men were allowed) became increasingly popular among the Roman soldiers around 100 CE and at that time Mithra was known in Rome as 'Deus sol invictus' ("the unconquered sun"). Even the Roman emperor Commodus was initiated into Mithra's cult. When Constantine the Great was converted to Christianity in 312 CE, Mithraism started to decline and after a temporary revival under Julius the Apostate (331-363) the cult disappeared for good.

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Mithra was worshipped in Mithraea, artificially constructed caves that represented his birth-cave. The ceiling looked like the starry sky and at the sides benches where placed for the ritual meals. In the center of the Mithraea was a niche which held a relief of the god, dressed in Phrygian clothing (short tunic and cloak, long trousers and a hat with a curled tip), who kills a bull. The Mithraea were spread all over the Roman empires and some 50 of these caves still exist in Rome today.

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Mithraism is the ancient Roman mystery cult of the god Mithras. Roman worship of Mithras began sometime during the early Roman empire during the late first century of the Common Era, and flourished from the second through the fourth centuries CE. While it is fairly certain that Romans encountered worship of the deity Mithras as part of Zoroastrianism in the eastern provinces of the empire, particularly in Asia Minor (now modern Turkey), the exact origins of cult practices in the Roman cult of Mithras remain controversial. The evidence for this cult is mostly archaeological, consisting of the remains of mithraic temples, dedicatory inscriptions, and iconographic representations of the god and other aspects of the cult in stone sculpture, sculpted stone relief, wall painting, and mosaic. There is very little literary evidence pertaining to the cult.

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Mithras is the Roman name for the Indo-Persian god Mitra, or Mithra, as he was called by the Persians. Mitra is part of the Hindu pantheon, and Mithra is one of several yazatas (minor deities) under Ahura-Mazda in the Zoroastrian pantheon. Mithra is the god of the airy light between heaven and earth, but he is also associated with the light of the sun, and with contracts and mediation. Neither in Hinduism nor in Zoroastrianism did Mitra/Mithra have his own cult. Mitra is mentioned in the Hindu Vedas, while Mithra is the subject of Yashts (hymns) in the Zoroastrian Avesta, a text compiled during the Sassanian period (224-640 CE) to preserve a much older oral tradition.

"The precise relationship between the Roman cult of Mithras as it developed during the empire and the Mitra and Mithra of the Hindu and Zoroastrian pantheons, respectively, is unquestionable as noted on the foot note of the great, great, great ancestors."

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It was already passed midnight above the green sceneries of western Persia and the outside temperature dropped as coolness slightly oozing inside the craft. Val was exhausted and about to succumb on fatigue reviewing the ancient records of Mithra, switched the machine into sleep mode and went back to bed where Izra is still enjoying her much needed sleep. He slide on the side and went to sleep.

Val was already sound asleep as he saw a dot of whirling nimbus becoming bigger and bigger, moving towards him slowly opening on the epicenter with an intensity of light so intense that the only recourse was to close his eyes. He felt that the tunnel of light sucked him and drifted to the unknown until it hit something with a soft bang.

As he open his eyes, three beings at their senior ages were sitting on a timber bench with a backdrop of emptiness that only faraway stars provides twilight and reflection from afar.

" I am Darex, and this is Epslon and the other is Farex" as they rub elbows with Val. " We were the great, great ancestors of Izra and belong to the ancient squadron of the Federation who were assigned to take care of your Solar System. At first, we were based in the planet you called Mars for it is strategically located almost in the center of your solar system and the weather was nearly similar to our planet that not so much resource in maintaining our base. The space explorations were routine and expanding and as capable civilizations of other planets meet and if the consensus were feasible for allegiance shall be absorb by the Federation.

The Outer Space is so huge and seems boundless that unlimited resources are available in accordance to any civilization's capability to exploit it, however in the vastness some civilizations were hostile to each other that is why the Federation was formed to iron out resentments into a rationale level. Treaty was established and foiled hostility for time being, but there were misunderstanding when the Federation admitted more new members from faraway Constellations. The détente did not take long enough and the Federation disintegrated and chaos was inevitable. Space war broke out and our based in planet Mars suffered most and had to be vacated. Civilization of planet Mars were shattered except for the few who had prepared underground shelters and manage for safety. Only seven planets left to be united until your time for most likely their populations are similar to each other, like you from your planet, while five planets maintain their individual existence plundering around the vast emptiness of space especially the young planets like yours.

There was some sequence of time that these plunderers tried to control the civilizations of your Solar System, to enslave the populace and some species though like us but the sizes are more than double in height and some slimy body shifters of our size has a good appetite for your kinds. The plunderers hostile, well-armed and dangerous attempted to over run our cantonment in Mars but our base was well-equip and always ready for any invaders. Flying battle occurs and nuclear energy were the common armaments until the planet was devastated and shambles

We selected your planet for new settlement as everything are similar to ours, however huge carnivorous animals dominated the surface almost all around except in the lower pole that was newly uncovered by ice. It was so timely for your planet had just reach the peak of its nutation and vast areas down under are uncovered by ice for at least a very long sequence of time.

The Federation, now numbering only of seven members decided to established camp and latter settlement in what is now you called Antarctica. The new settlement flourished and one of our old self-contain mother ship was brought-in to boost the new colony. It was landed near the center end of the valley not far from the body of water for good. Now the commune has everything and workers were needed to augment our technicians.

Those were the ancient period when your planet's land mass were adjoined and the Federation had to anticipates those huge carnivorous predators in invading our settlement decided to sanitized the planet surface and at the same time transferred the indigenous human in our area of protection. The process was programmed for two generations of indigenous human before the planet surface can recover from sanitation. Space drones were mobilized and started bombing with fires all surfaces until those huge menace were eliminated to zero counting. Indeed it took two indigenous human generations for the planet surfaces to recover where small faunas were introduced and greeneries flourished. We named that particular period New World and the hub was in Antarctica.

The New World Hub was flourishing and the indigenous human's intelligence were upgraded and the programmed of upgrading was in tone with the planet natural evolution. In order to maintain the progress of the planet, the Federation decided to disperse indigenous humans around the New World armed with their new genes of intelligence in order to expand their initiatives and innovations. Selected few were retained in cantonment as helpers in building infrastructures needed to expand and strengthened the hub camp. Some ancient Indigenous humans had breakthrough in the early utilization of their new genes but most of them were half-bred from our crews.

Arrivals of logistics loaded on all sizes of space crafts are routine, some materials were being quarried on every surface of the planet and processed in New World Hub factories, all for the supplies of construction materials for the huge protective dome. The Dome was designed to withstand the projected load of three miles thick of ice in preparation to the incoming peak of freezing period as the permanent cantonment of the New World Hub. The Hub Dome, dome as it was built to transfer the weight of snow from the center toward the side abutment that served as the protective cover of the grounded old mother ship which is self-contain structure plus the additional space craft hangar and agricultural support areas. Residential cubicles were also extended both sides together with the fuel depot. Water system generation area was reduced and utilized for sewer system network and effluent pipe line toward the sea. These will be the general profile of the Hub Protective Dome ready to meet the requirements of the Freezing Season and shall serve as the Main Base in this particular Star System.

Two Federation member-allies also established outpost as secondary base in your planet satellite you called Moon and another outpost in planet you called Mars. It was a rehabilitation of the old base but was extended underground. That is how the Federation operates to protect young planets from those hostile space plunderers and guided Zoroaster on his Mission of Righteous.