I was reading an article by Mark Amaru Pinkham about the Yezidis of
Iraq in Mysteries Magazine the other day. According to Pinkham, "the
Yezidis believe that God created Tawsi Melek, the Peacock Angel, and
six other archangels to help him create the universe. After the
creation of Earth God sent them to the Garden of Eden with the
specififc mission of creating and educating Adam and Eve. Tawsi Melek
created them and endowed them with a soul by blowing the breath of
life into them. His first lesson ensued when he turned them towards
the rising sun while informing them that they and their descendants
were to daily worship the flaming orb as symbolic of the supreme God.
To enhance their worship, Tawsi Melek gave Adam and Eve the special
prayers they were to repeat while meditating on God. And just so all
people would be able to eventually repeat the prayers, the Peacock
angel uttered them in all the 72 languages which were destined to
cover the Earth."

This ritual of reciting prayers while sungazing can also be found in
the Kushti ritual of Zoroastrians, the Surya Namaskar ritual of
Hindus, and the dawn chants of Native American. It would be
interesting to compare the translations of these prayers to see what
they have in common.

Wayne