Atar — Sacred Fire, Witness of Truth

Atar, the Sacred Fire, is the 'son of Ahura Mazda' (as invoked in the Atash Niyayesh) and the visible manifestation of Asha in the material world. Atar is not worshipped as a deity but revered as the supreme witness before whom all prayers are offered, because fire by its nature illuminates, purifies, and cannot be made to deceive. The Avesta (Yasna 36) addresses Atar directly, praising its role as intermediary between the getig and menog realms. In the hierarchy of sacred fires, the Atash Behram ('Fire of Victory') is the highest grade — consecrated from sixteen different source fires including lightning, a king's hearth, and a fire from cremation — and must be tended perpetually, its extinguishment considered a grave spiritual catastrophe.