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The archangels. The Avestan designation Amesha Spenta, representing the highest celestial beings, now assumes the form Amshaspand or Amahraspand. With Ormazd as the president of the celestial council the Amshaspands are seven in number, though occasionally Goshurun and Neryosangh are also classed among the archangels.^[1] A late Pazend prayer called Shikasta-i Shaitan, or the Annihilation of Satan, augments the list of the Amshaspands and speaks of them as being thirty-three in number. Ormazd has created his colleagues.^[2] They are both males and females.^[3] The first seven days of each month bear their names.^[4] Every one of the group has a special flower dedicated to him or her.^[5] Their abode is in the all-glorious, all-delightful Best Existence.^[6] A later Pahlavi-Pazend work states that the seven Amshaspands have emanated one from the other, that is, the second from the first, the third from the second, and so on.^[7]

Their attributes. The Amshaspands are immortal, invisible,^[8] intangible,^[9] of great wisdom, friendly to the good creation, the forgiving ones,^[10] holy, wise, far-seeing, beneficent and intelligent.^[11] Inasmuch as they owe their existence to Ormazd they are finite,^[12] yet so great is their brilliance that Zaratusht does not see his own shadow on the ground when he approaches them in heavenly conference.^[13]

Their work. Various are the boons that the archangels give unto men.^[14] Just as in the Later Avestan descriptions, they