Who is Daena?

Daena means “sight, insight”, “conscience”. Literally “to see”/“ability to see”. As a concept and divinity (yazata) she is representative of pure spiritual vision.

I mentioned previously that the term “Daena” has been seen as paralleled to the Hindu conception of “Dharma” (the Law), personally I don’t find any similarities. At best, Asha itself should be considered such.

We say that after death - occurring after the third night of death to be exact - the soul (Urvan) must finally cross the Chinvat Bridge, at the entrance it will meet with Daena, who reflects back the soul’s state as a vision, a state brought about by

itself concerning what it did on earth. Daena appears either as a fair and luminous maiden, or a withered, decrepit hag.

The Chinvat Bridge, by the way, is the gateway between the material/living world or reality and the spiritual/conscious one.

It is where divine revelations are made aware of and brought to light, whether the mirror-image by Daena or the judgement by Rashnu, Mithra, and Sraosha.

“Then comes the beautiful, well-shapen, strong and well-formed maid, with the dogs at her sides, one who can distinguish, who has many children, happy, and of high understanding. She makes the soul of the righteous one (follower of Asha) go up above high Hara; above the Chinwad

bridge she places it in the presence of the spiritual gods themselves.”

[Vendidad, Fragard 19.30]

The soul’s own conscious vision is met face to face to bring awareness, guiding the former to the other side. If all is well, the soul ascends into “garö demanæ” or “méṇ gairæ”, “the house of song”; highest paradise where it reunites with God.

In the Hadokht Nask (Denkard) this is expanded upon, noting this personification of Daena as the person’s own true, inner self.

Anyways, there are 4 steps the person takes. The first to Good Thought (the stars), the second to Good Word (the moon), the third to Good Deed (the sun), the fourth to the infinite and vibrant lights.

daēnā -> dēn -> dīn

Another translation for Daena is in fact, “religion”. I don’t mind this but I really do think “vision” plays a more accurate role since repeatedly Daena is equated to a.) intuitive understandings or b.) wisdom in general.

For example, Sroasha is the Yazad of “inspiration”, from he did Zarathustra receive the Gathas (divine songs) of God.

As such he is referred to as daenö-disö, teacher of SIGHT (revelation).

Dēn/Daena also appears as innate HUMAN WISDOM, all that is done in virtue of it are in conformity with it, because it itself is the essence of Ahura Mazda (God of Wisdom).

Other than that, it is also a formal spiritual aspect in human beings...

“[..] We give praise unto the spirit (ahü, life/life-essence) and conscience (daena, vision), the intelligence (baodh) and soul (urvan) and fravashi of those holy men and women...”

[Y 26.4]

Yeah, she is rather multi-faceted.