Y.
XLIX, 12 1 .
What aids of grace hast Thou for Thine invoking Zarathu s tra, (O Ahura Mazda!) to grant him through Thy Righteous Order?
Yea, what (aids of 2 grace hast thou for me as) through Thy Good Mind given (within my soul), for me who will (still) pray to Thee with praises, O Great Creator!
beseeching what in accordance with Your wished-for aim is best?
Y.
L, 1.
Aye, doth my soul indeed obtain assisting p.
171 grace, and which of Thy blessings is that gift to me, O Lord?
What saving champion is found to save both flocks and herds?
And who for myself other than Thy Righteous Order, and Thyself, Ahura?
Tell me 1 , O (ye) invoked ones!
Or what of grace is there for me save Thy Best Mind (itself)?
2.
(And if Thy guardian is verily to save our wealth) how shall he (obtain, and by what means shall he) seek after 2 that joy-creating Kine (who is the living symbol of our peace 3 )?
(How shall that man obtain his wish) who shall desire to see her provided with pastures for (the welfare of) this land?
(That only way is righteousness.) Do Thou then grant me lands (so would I ask of Thee) which live in justice in the many 4 splendours of the sun, and lands which openly 5 thus live, and which are to be p.
172 sought and gained by me (as conquests for the cause).
Give Thou this gift!
3.
(Yea, let that joy-creating one) be his possession through the Righteous Order (which he helps to bring, that living sign) which (the most valiant citizen) may give to him (at once reward and charge), and in accordance with Thy Sovereign Authority.
(May that heroic settler grant him this gift) he who may make the (last imperilled) farm to flourish in the vigour of Thy blest prosperity, the tract which lies the nearest (to the fields) which our foeman holds as his 1 .
4.
(And therefore both in thankfulness and hope) will I give sacrifice to You with praises, O Ahura Mazda!
together with Thine Order and Thy Best Mind (in Thy saints), and in accordance with Thy sacred Sovereign Power, by whose help the wisher (heaven-bound) may stand upon the (certain) pathway 2 , and in Thine Home-of-song shall I (by means of these my Yasnas offered here) there hear the praises of Thine offering saints who see Thy face 3 .
5.
And we 4 are in readiness as well (to fulfil Your praises and declare your words), O Ahura Mazda!
through Your (grace, and) in accordance with Your Holy Order, since Ye advance with friendliness 5 to cheer the speaker of Your Mãthra-word with open acts of visible relief, as if with hand sent forth, p.
173 whereby that Mãthra-speaker of Your truth may bring us on, and settle us, in weal and bliss 1 .
6.
(Therefore will I incite him to his task the more.
Let him indeed proclaim the righteous way 2 ) he who already lifts his voice in Mãthras, O Ahura Mazda!
he, Zarathu s tra 3 , the faithful friend in accordance with the Holy Order, and with self-abasing worship, giver of understanding for this land, voice-guider (of the way to glory 4 ), let him indeed proclaim and teach my regulations, and in accordance with Thy Good Mind (as his law).
7.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The 'Mãthra-word' is described as having the power to bring people on and settle them in weal.