Tawusi Melek: Peacock Angel

In the beginningThe Invisible One brought forth from its own precious soul a white pearl. And It created a bird upon whose back It placed the pearl, and there He dwelt for forty thousand years

Then on the first day, Sunday, It created an angel called Izrael. He is Archangel over all the Angels, he who is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. He is the first to be, and to know that He is; for the One can know nothing.

Each of the other Days of the week the One brought forth Angels to serve Melek Taus.

After this, the Invisible One retreated into Itself, and acted no more; but Melek Taus was left to act. Seeing the barrenness of the ether,

He created the form of the seven heavens, the earth, sun and moon.

He created mankind, animals, birds and beasts in the pockets of his cloak.

Each of the other Days of the week The One brought forth Angels to serve Melek Taus.

Melek Dardael

Melek Israfel

Melek Mihael

Melek Semnael

Melek Azrael

Melek Nurael

Then Melek Taus brought two pieces of the white pearl. He placed one below the earth and the other He placed at the door of heaven. Then he placed in both of them the sun and the moon.

He made water flow from its inside, and that water became the sea.

After that He created a ship in which He rode thirty thousand years. After which Melek Taus came and lived among men in the city of Llish. His temple remains to this day

He lifted up His voice and the sea became solid and became the earth.

Then Melek Taus brought two pieces of the white pearl.

He placed one below the earth and the other He placed at the door of heaven. Then he placed in both of them the sun and the moon.

And so goes the creation story of a race and culture that has been around for thousands of yearsbut Tawusi Melek is not who you may think him to be. In the creation story of the Yezidi, there are parallels to Abrahamic texts. In the Yezidi Creation Myth: The Peacock Angel creates the earth and man.

In the Abrahamic Creation Myth: God creates the Universe and Man are descendants of Adam and Eve. Eve is created from Adams rib while the Yezidi believe she came from his armpit.
While the traditions of the Abrahamic religious traditions state that all of man are descendants of Adam and Eve, the Yezidi believe that they are only descendants of Adam alone not of Adam and Eve. Could they be the children of Adam and Lilith?.. One extremely interesting difference in their origin of sin is to note that in the Yezidi tradition, Adam is the one who engages in sin by eating wheat, as opposed to Eve partaking of the forbidden fruit.

The Yezidi People of what is now Northern Iraq claim that they are the first humans on this earth and that their creator Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel is the father of mankind. Melek Taus can be seen as a liminal deity in the fact that he tricks Adam to eat the wheat, is an adversary to the Invisible One and the creator of the Yezidi peoples. The Yezidi belief system has some very strong parallels to Sufism and Gnosticism, a belief in the search for knowledge of Self or truth while rejecting physical realities as being imperfect.

Roots of the Tradition & its Connection to Others

The most ancient human ritual sites discovered thus far, Gobekli Tepi and Catal Huyuk in southern Turkey have been linked to Yezidi through bird-man worship. The Epic of Gilgamesh may chronicle a primordial Mesopotamian tradition. It describes a group of bird-men that were cast out or fallen from heaven as gods that preceded Anu, Enlil, and others in worship.

Similarity to Indian God Kartikeya

Mark Amaru Pinkham (a Prior of a Gnostic Knights Templar order) claims Yezidi mythos origins in Garden of Eden to be in Sri Lanka where there used to be a land-bridge between it and Southern India. Supposedly so do other Gnostic-like people in Iraq such as the Mandeans. Authentic Yezidi leader Mirza Ismail claims Eden was actually in Lalish, northern Iraq or Mesopotamia. (example of ethnographers influence here Pinkhams own agenda?) Long-standing Indian tradition of veneration of gods that ride atop peacocks - Kartikeya and Murugan, androgynous son of Shiva and Shakti Yezidi use sacred oil lamps called sanjaks in rituals that resemble South Indian lamps

 After Alexander the Great conquered northwest India there was a Greek expedition to Sri Lanka. The men that went there saw a statue of Kartikeya and claimed it was Dionysus (Bacchus) Dionysus and Kartikeya both carry a spear with a pine cone at the tip, respectively called a thyrsus and a vel Pinkham believes pine cone spear and serpent symbols are of kundalini or life force, the spear being the spinal cord & pine cone representing the pineal gland. In China dragons represent vitality (xing) also.

Adversaries and their Creators

Some Yezidi claim their Peacock Angel is Lucifer (Azazel) Similar also in some ways to Enki, Pazuzu, Sanat Kumara, Prometheus, al-Khadir the Green Man, Pan, Lycaeon, Ahriman, Tezcatlipoca and other trickster characters Adversarial figures to their (often merciless to humans) creator or father counterparts Yahweh/God, Enlil, Zeus, Jupiter, Demiurgos, Ahura Mazda, and so on

Archangels, Elohim and the Gnostics

The Biblical and Sumerian traditions, Zoroastrianism, certain sects of Hinduism and Mandeans all have things in common such as archangels and fallen angels, also to a lesser degree so do Sufis. The Yezidi tradition has Gnostic elements to it in its creation myth. Lucifer was not associated or identified with Satan till the Bible was edited in the form of the New Testament. It only appears once. Elohim is PLURAL, just as Nephelim, Seraphim and Cherubim are plural. God in singular form is El. Any Hebrewspeaking Jew can tell you this.

Rituals and Stars of Various Cultures

The ancient Egyptians, Taoist Chinese and Sumerians all had rites that invoked the energies of the Big Dipper or Ursa Major (ursa meaning bear), a 7-star constellation that points to the Pole Star Kartikeya comes from the word Kritika, Sanksrit for the Pleiades, a constellation with several stars, 7 of which are visible to the naked eye. The Mayans were also very interested in this constellation. Babylonian priests re-enacted the journey of mother goddess Inanna/Ishtar by ascending 7-tiered ziggurats or stepped pyramids, which represented her passing through the 7 gates of the underworld and her confrontation with queen of the \ underworld, Ereshkigal. Each gate had a planet and star. Egyptians had a sacred ritual tool called the Adze which mimicked Ursa Major Taoists have vitality exercises that channel energy from these stars through the body in a loop called the microcosmic orbit

Ancients and the Number 7

The Gnostics had 7 rays for each of the 7 archangels They had many initiatory rituals and practices. Some of these involved lucid dreaming and astral projection to have conversations with angels to learn how to avoid the influence of the archons (planetary spirits with malintent towards humans) .They were also attempting to trancend the influence of the zodiac to become free. 7 main spectrums in light, 7 major tones within the musical octave, 7 stages of alchemy, 7 days of the week, 7 known planets to ancient world, 7 major chakras, 7 deadly sins. All are believed to be manifestations or emanations of \ the one thing and are archetypes within us waiting to be consciously utilized. We can effect change in our reality by understanding these concepts and putting them into action, some call this magic, but really it's our natural state of being, according to them.

Yezidi People, Sacred Sites, Customs, Holidays

 Yezidi (or Ezdi as they call themselves) are primarily located in northern Iraq, Syria, Georgia, Turkey. They are in diaspora in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, USA and Germany but also covertly in Algeria, Morocco and Sudan and other countries. Interesting tidbit: Another Indo-European people that relocated from India - the Roma (aka gypsies) Yezidi people have a xenophobic, homogenous society because they have been victim to genocide for millennia and generally do not accept outsiders They claim to have the most ancient religion in the world. Again, Some of them claim Tawusi Melek is Lucifer and that the outcome of his authentic story is omitted from the Abrahamic traditions. Lalish, Iraq and Chermera near Syrian border Chermera means Burial of 40 Men

Sheihk Adi
Sufi mystic saved them from genocide by making trappings of their religion appear more Islamic They have adopted certain Sufi or Islamic aspects

 They have dietary restrictions concerning lettuce and other vegetables and meats. they wear similar dress to Kurdish Christians and Muslims and can have multiple wives like Muslims. They are not Semitic like their Arab neighbors but are an Indo-european Kurdish people. Their tradition is likely the original Kurdish religion (most Kurds are now Muslim however). Kurdistan is an ethnic nation across northern Iraq, Iran and Turkey, syria and armenia trying to create sovereignty. They also are possibly descendants of the Mitanni people.

Yezidi Holidays and Festivals

Yezidi religious year includes four holy festivals:

The New Year The Feast of Sacrifice The Feast of Seven Days, Sept 23-30 The first Friday of December feast following three days of fasting.

The Yezidi New Year

The Yezidi New Year, known as Sere Sal, meaning "Head of the Year", is celebrated on a particular Wednesday of April, known as Red Wednesday. This day commemorates the Wednesday that Tawusi Melek first came to Earth millions of years ago in order to calm the planets quaking and spread his peacock colors throughout the world. Part of the New Year celebration is the coloring of eggs, which collectively represent Tawusi Meleks rainbow colors that he blessed the world with and displays in his form of the Peacock Angel. The eggs are principally colored red, blue, green and yellow. Women also place blood-red flowers and shells of the colored eggs above the doors of the Yezidis so that Tawsi Melek can recognize their abodes. -yeziditruth.org

The Order of the Peacock Angel is a Yezidi-influenced secret society which is described by a pseudonymous author Arkon Daraul in a 1961 book called Secret Societies Yesterday and Today. Daraul writes about meeting members of the organization in the suburbs of London and also attending their rituals.

The group believes in a power governing human affairs symbolized by a Peacock. Newcomers are put through a series of mental and physical exercises to place the experience of emotion under the control of the will.

Peacock Angel is the translation of Melek Taus. According to Daraul the English version of the cult came to Britain in 1913 by a Syrian whose is only know by initiates.

Daraul talks about a ceremony where robed members engage in an ecstatic circular dance in the presence of a large statue of a peacock

Ever since the 1960s, NBC has adopted the Peacock logo (interestingly a year after Darauls book saw publication) and it is still used today. The logo was created by John J. Graham to indicate richness in color. The Peacock was created due to increase in color programming.

It is unknown whether the Yezidi people or the related Westernized secret society had any say or influence in the creation of this symbol, but there is good food for thought here as the 6 rays can be thought of as the other 6 subordinate angels.

Pazuzu appears as a statue and demon in the movie Exorcist:The Beginning in a secret Catholic Church that the Vatican would not admit the existence of and buried underground.

The Peacock Angel also appears in a comic book called Witchblade, and in the DC universe as King Peacock

In 2007 a group of radical Muslims set off a car bomb that killed over 500 Yezidis. It was aimed at killing their priests or fakirs, who have the most knowledge about their culture. Millions of Yezidis have died over millennia from genocide.

These people are in a diaspora across the globe, including Europe and other parts of the Middle East.

If the US leaves Iraq next year, the Yezidis plight will become much more dire. Muslims and Christian Kurds will continue to try to wipe them out, as they believe they are worshipping Satan.

Yezidism could be the oldest religion in history and presents some inconvenient religious truths that are worth examining... Their tradition provides an alternate understanding of the adversary than the Judeo-Christian mythos. Rather than dualistic demon opposed to an angelic figure, the Peacock Angel is the androgynous Planetary Logos and Oversoul of Earth, King of the World, creator and destroyer.

The myth of the Yezidi People has been written

Their future however is yet to be decided. Is it warranted or sustainable to continue to engage each other in cultural conflict and religious differences or is it more valuable to embrace our similarities?

by Soman and friends