Significantly more common than the non-specific meaning of Amesha Spenta (see below) is a restrictive use of the term to refer to the great seven divine entities emanating from Ahura Mazda.
This fundamental doctrine is only alluded to in the Avesta, but is systematically described in later Middle Persian language texts, in particular in the Bundahishn,[2] an 11th or 12th century work that recounts Zoroastrian cosmology.
While Vohu Manah, Aša Vahišta, and Xšaθra Vairya are consistently of neuter gender in Avestan grammar; in tradition they are considered masculine.
Not evident in the Gathas and first appearing in the Younger Avesta[8] are the oppositions of haurvatāt- (wholeness) to taršna- (thirst), and amərətāt- (life) to šud- (hunger).
In particular, the relationship between Ahura Mazda and Spenta Mainyu is multifaceted and complex and "as hard to define as that of Yahweh and the Holy Spirit in Judaism and Christianity.
In addition, the first seven days of the month of the Zoroastrian calendar are dedicated to the great heptad and to creation, acknowledging the preeminence of the Amesha Spenta and so ensuring the inculcation of their doctrine.
[1] The reverence of the Amesha Spenta and the Yazatas has been frequently attacked by non-Zoroastrian sources for its polytheist nature, not only in modern times but also the Sassanid era.
While the "worship of the elements" was a repeated accusation during the 4th and 5th centuries, [16] Christian missionaries (such as John Wilson[17]) in 19th-century India specifically targeted the immanence of the Amesha Spenta as indicative of (in their view) a Zoroastrian polytheistic tradition worthy of attack.
[18][19] A frequent target for criticism was the Zoroastrian credo in which the adherent declares, "I profess to be a worshiper of Mazda, follower of the teachings of Zoroaster, ... one who praises and reveres the Amesha Spenta" (the Fravaraneh, Yasna 12.1).
Some modern Zoroastrian theologians, especially those identifying with the Reformist school of thought, believe that ethereal spirit and physical manifestation are not separable in any sense and that a reverence of Ahura Mazda's creations is ultimately a worship of the Creator.
[16] In the second half of the 19th century, Martin Haug proposed[20] that Zoroaster himself had viewed the Amesha Spenta as merely philosophical abstractions and that a personification of the heptad was really a later corruption.