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After the conversion ceremonies I am exhausted — and yet I have never felt better in my life. I have just returned from San Jose, California where I officially joined the good religion of Zo­roastrianism on January 29, 2005. I was initiated by Dr Ali Akbar Jafarey at the beautiful Zoroastrian Dar-e-Mehr in San Jose. Apparently, this was the first conversion the temple has witnessed. I deeply appreciate that honor and will work to be worthy of their acceptance of me. 

Actually, my friend Rebecca Cann and I had been thinking of this idea of my joining for a couple of months. It got to a point of study where I felt ready to make the commitment to being a Zoroastrian. Jafarey was coming to San Jose to give a talk at the Dar-e-Mehr on the occasion of Sadeh (the Iranian Zarathushti holiday which is a symbolic celebration of fire and of driving the cold winter away with the new light of spring and truth) and also at a college. Rebecca and her wonderful family offered the use of their home as a place to perform the ceremony. It was originally planned to be a simple ceremony with just a few friends in attendance.

Once people learned that Jafarey was going to be performing the conversion ceremony, what was going to be a small group of six at Rebecca’s lovely home, grew to over 30 peo­ple! Rebecca asked the Dar-e-Mehr authorities if we could do it there. At first they said no. This was just before the 13th North American Zoroastrian Congress that was held in San Jose in December 2004 (http://zanc.org/congress/). She was very disappointed — but, I understood the Dar-e-Mehr’s position and did not want to be the cause of any discord over the volatile issue of converts inside fire-temples. We next thought of doing it in a large room at the beautiful Hyatt Hotel in downtown San Jose.

Meanwhile, my sudreh pushi (navjote) guest-list kept get­ting longer. Perhaps partly because of the controversy even more people wanted to attend. Many people were going to be at the temple anyway to celebrate Sadeh, and now at least 60 people wanted to attend my initiation, including Amy Makujina, the widow of Ervad Jimmy Makujina. He had recorded two excellent compact discs of Zoroast­rian prayers before he passed away, one of which was the navjote prayers. I have listened to his wise voice hundreds of times trying to learn the prayers in Avesta language.

By the grace of Ahura Mazda the temple reconsidered and finally allowed my ceremony to be performed in the meeting hall! I was scared half to death! Suppose I mess up, forget the pray­ers, or just do something really stupid? Jafarey and Rebecca kept assuring me that people would be under­standing if I mispronounced a word or fumbled whilst tying my kusti (which I did).

By the time of the ceremony, the hall easily had over 75 people. We performed the ceremony in the hall rather than the fire-temple itself because of the number of people who came. The hall was the place I felt most comfortable. Besides, I would have been far too nervous to do it inside the Dar-e-Mehr itself.

I will not go into details about the beautiful ceremony and table and gifts people made for me here. But suffice to say that, as I accepted the good religion, those good Zoroastrians at the Dar-e-Mehr welcomed me! Never in my life have I felt such love and joy from any group of people. Everyone hugged me and gave me very touching gifts. I was prepared for most people to be polite, but I was overwhelmed at how open and strong their acceptance of me was. I am so grateful to have been able to have had my ceremony performed by Jafarey. I had read much about him. I knew he was respected as an outstanding scholar of the Gathas — but I was all the time thinking, what sort of man was he? I work in mental health and sometimes I can see when people are dishonest or on a power trip. Plus, I grew up in the deep American South — the Bible Belt. I have seen religious hustlers all of my life.

I wish Jafarey’s critics could spend an afternoon with him. They would learn that behind the scholar is a man of great kindness and joy. Now in his eighties, he has a genuine spark for life. It was great to see how other people treated him — with respect and with the affection of an old friend. Some people on the Internet would have us believe that Jafarey does this just for his own ego and that his "followers” are brainwashed cultists. What rubbish! Jafarey does not want blind followers, he wants thinkers who do their homework and make their own choice.

Converting to Zoroastrianism was something I gave much thought and prayer to. I studied the Gathas and parts of the Zend Avesta for months. Being on this Zoroastrian Internet list has been a great help to me. I have carefully read all of the argu­ments for and against "outsiders” accepting Zoroastrianism and the Zoroastrian Assembly. Both in my heart and through much study I decided that Zarathushtra himself would have accepted any sin­cere person who chose to follow his teachings.

Our world has much sickness in it. If I were a doctor who had invented a vaccine for an illness but would only allow my family or one group of people to have it what kind of scientist would I be? Zoroastrianism offers help for a world that is ill. The world is not bad or evil, but it is overrun by people and events that are bad. Zoroastrianism offers the spiritual medicine for our hurting world. It is wrong to withhold it from people who sincerely ask for it.

That said, I am also a historian and I want to honor the righteous Parsis who have kept the message of Zarathushtra alive for many centuries. Their reasons against conver­sions are complex and deeply rooted in their experiences in India. It is not a simple case of just meanspiritedness or racism. I do not know what the long-term solution is, but I do promise the people of the temple where I was initiated that I will work for better respect between both groups and that I will always encourage young         Parsis and Iranians to follow the faith of their ancestors. I am deeply aware that I was the first to be accepted at a Zo­roastrian hall that serves many diverse people. It is a gift that I will endeavor to deserve.

Fowarded to Parsiana by Ardeshir Damania. Steve Williamson of Oregon, United States, may be contacted on Email: stevew@ uoregon.edu