{"collection":"Oahspe","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_oah_div5_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_oah_div5_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_oah_div5_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/oah/div5.htm","summary":"This is an excerpt from the *Oahspe Bible* (1882), an American spiritualist/syncretic scripture written in the style of 19th-century biblical prose, presenting an elaborate cosmology of competing heavenly kingdoms and false gods. The passage follows Ahura'Mazda, a pretender deity who rules a vast spirit kingdom centered on the heavenly city of Ctusk, where he enslaves newly-dead souls by staging a carefully choreographed glimpse of his throne and convincing them they must serve hundreds of years before reaching true paradise. The central conflict is Ahura's accelerating loss of power: a cosmic phenomenon called \"a'ji\" \u2014 a period when the earth absorbs atmospheric matter \u2014 causes his subordinate spirits (\"drujas\") to become lazy, debauched, and disobedient, leading over six hundred sub-Gods to revolt against him. In a desperate bid to reclaim authority, Ahura assembles a fleet of 30,000 celestial ships carrying 400 million spirits in a pyramid formation, touring the heavens proclaiming himself Creator and sole judge of souls \u2014 but the campaign fails, met with mockery and hisses. Meanwhile, back in Ctusk, a con-artist spirit named Ootgowski exploits the absence of leadership through deception and flattery, ultimately seducing the stand-in ruler into abandoning his post and looting the throne's treasures. The text's distinctive perspective is its systematic demythologizing of Zoroastrian and other religious traditions, recasting their gods as corrupt, self-aggrandizing spirit politicians operating within a bureaucratic supernatural order ultimately governed by the true, ineffable \"Jehovih.\"","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Book of Divinity 5","tradition":"Oahspe","translated_text":null,"word_count":6390}