Garothman

Also Known As: the Parsi form; Middle Persian Garodman; Younger Avestan Garo-nmana; Gathic Avestan Garo Demana, “House of Song”
Region/Culture: West Asia/Middle East
Mythos: Persian Mythology, Zoroastrian Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Mythological Places
Mythical Attributes: Garothman is the highest heaven of Zoroastrian belief, a place of unending light and sweet scent where the dead no longer age, fear or grieve.
Role in Mythos: It is the seat of Ahura Mazda and the Amesha Spentas and the last station on the road of the righteous soul, set above the heavens of the stars, the moon and the sun.
Relation to Humans: A soul reaches it only after death, by crossing the Chinvat Bridge with more good thoughts, words and deeds to its name than bad ones. One living man, the priest Arda Viraf, is said to have been sent there in a seven-day trance and brought back to report.

On the fourth morning after a death, the soul wakes to a smell. For three nights it has sat near the head of the body it used to live in. Now a wind comes up from the south, the direction of God, carrying the scent of trees, sweeter than anything the nose ever met in life. That wind is the first breath of the place the old Iranian hymns call the House of Song, and everything a good life earns lies upwind.

The name is very old. In the Gathas, the hymns that tradition gives to Zarathushtra himself, it is Garo Demana, and it turns up only three times. One hymn hopes to offer praise there. Another speaks of the path that leads to it. The third calls it the reward promised to the prophet’s followers, and adds that Ahura Mazda was the first to enter. That is all the hymns say. They give it no gates, no rivers and no walls. They give it a name that means a house where singing is done, and they set against it another house, the House of the Lie, where the wicked end up.

Later priests filled in the map. The younger scriptures call the place Garo-nmana, the Middle Persian books write Garodman, and the Parsis of India say Garothman. By then heaven had floors. A soul that passes its judgment climbs first to the station of the stars, which is the place of good thoughts. Above that is the station of the moon, the place of good words. Above that is the station of the sun, the place of good deeds. Garothman is the fourth step and the last, and one Middle Persian book of wisdom says plainly that this is where the creator sits. In some texts the name is used loosely for heaven as a whole. In the careful ones it means the top of it, and the Endless Light is another name for the same height.

The road there is described in the Vendidad, the old book of purity law. A maiden, who is the soul’s own conscience given a body, meets the dead at the Chinvat Bridge with dogs at her sides and leads the righteous across and up over the great mountain at the edge of the world. At the far end Vohu Manah, Good Thought, gets up from a golden seat and asks the newcomer how the trip was from the world that decays to the one that does not. Then the soul goes gladly on to the golden seats of Ahura Mazda and the Amesha Spentas, in the house that belongs to them and to every other holy being. The demons, the same passage says, shake at the perfume of such a soul the way a sheep shakes under a wolf.

The fullest tour belongs to a priest named Viraf. His story was set down in Middle Persian and took its final shape around the ninth or tenth century. In a time of doubt, the priests chose the most blameless man among them, gave him wine and a narcotic, and sent his soul out for seven days to see whether the faith was true. Two guides took his hands: Sraosha, and Adar, the spirit of the sacred fire. He walked the star track, where the souls glitter like stars, then the moon track, then the sun track, where good kings sit on gold. With the fourth step he came into the light of Garothman, and the dead came out to meet him and told him to taste immortality.

What happens next is the most human moment in the whole vision. The fire spirit greets Viraf by teasing him as a great supplier of green wood. Viraf, standing in the highest heaven, protests that he only ever fed the fire wood seasoned for seven years. Adar walks him to a wide tank of blue water and tells him this is what his firewood sweated out. It seems even paradise keeps the receipts.

Then Vohu Manah rises from his golden throne, takes the priest by the hand, and leads him in among the archangels and the guardian spirits of Zarathushtra, King Vishtaspa and the first teachers of the faith. Viraf says he never saw anything brighter. He is shown the generous, who walk above all the other souls, and those who chanted the hymns in life, now dressed in cloth worked with gold and silver. The wisdom books add the weather: the blessed never age, never fear, and a breeze scented like sweet basil comes to meet them at all hours.

Ahura Mazda is at the centre of it, and nobody describes him. When Viraf is brought back at the end of his journey to receive his message for the living, he hears a voice and sees a light. He sees no body. He understands who is speaking anyway.

What Garothman grants follows from what it is. It is the opposite of the mixed world, where good and evil are tangled together, so its people are beyond decay, sickness, fear and death. It is the creator’s own house, so to arrive is to live in his company. The dead do more than rest there. In a house named for song, praise is the daily work.

Its limits are just as plain. Nobody is born into it and nobody buys a way in. Entry is by the weighing of a life, and the scales are fine: Viraf’s guides tell him that a soul with only a little more good than bad goes to heaven, a soul with more bad goes to hell, and a soul with the two in balance waits in a grey middle place called Hamistagan, troubled by nothing worse than heat and cold. Many of the good never reach the top either. The star and moon stations are full of decent people who simply never prayed. And the place has no hold on the wicked at all, who go to the other house until the world is made new.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Garothman?

Garothman is the highest heaven in Zoroastrian belief. It is the home of Ahura Mazda and the Amesha Spentas, and the final destination of the souls of the righteous. The name comes from the Avestan Garo Demana, which means House of Song.

How does a soul reach Garothman?

A soul reaches Garothman after death by crossing the Chinvat Bridge, which only those with more good than bad to their name can pass. It then climbs through three lower heavens, the stations of the stars, the moon and the sun, which stand for good thoughts, good words and good deeds. Garothman is the fourth and last step.

Who lives in Garothman?

Ahura Mazda, the Amesha Spentas and the other holy beings live in Garothman, along with the souls of the righteous. The Book of Arda Viraf also places the guardian spirits of Zarathushtra, King Vishtaspa and the early leaders of the faith there. Vohu Manah, Good Thought, rises from a golden throne to welcome each new arrival.

What does Ahura Mazda look like in Garothman?

The texts do not give Ahura Mazda a body in Garothman. When the priest Arda Viraf is brought before him, he sees a light and hears a voice, and he sees no figure. He recognises the creator from the voice alone.

What is the difference between Garothman and the House of the Lie?

Garothman, the House of Song, is where the righteous go, and the House of the Lie is where the wicked go. The oldest Zoroastrian hymns, the Gathas, already set the two houses against each other. Souls whose good and bad deeds are equal go to neither and wait in a middle place called Hamistagan.