The Sky Father and Earth Mother: the Basis of All Indo-European Religions, Part Fourteen, the Iranian Earth Mother

 As in the case of my previous essay, I intend to discuss the pre-Zoroastrian reflex of the Earth Mother, who is Zam, the Iranian continuation of the Proto-Indo-Iranian Earth Mother, *Dhghom‑ / *Zəm‑, derived from the PIE *Dʰéǵʰōm. She is cognate with:

. Sanskrit Pṛthivī / Kṣam

. Greek Chthōn / Gaia

. Latin Humus

. Norse Jörð

. Old Irish Domun

. Lithuanian Žemė

. Slavic Zemlja

. Hittite Tekan

She is the earth and a cosmic element, and is invoked for protection of the land, prosperity and crops. The pre‑Zoroastrian Iranian Earth Mother, Zam was honoured through elemental, agrarian, and domestic rituals rather than temple‑based worship. The evidence is indirect but consistent across Indo‑Iranian religion and early Iranian practice. She was not anthropomorphic, but the living earth itself. With the religious reforms introduced by Zoroaster, Zam simply became the physical earth, while the invented being, Spenta Armaiti became the theological earth.

Known or Securely Reconstructed Rites

Libations

Milk, ghee/butterfat, water and haoma juice were poured onto bare soil to nourish the earth. These rites are preserved in Vedic ritual and indirectly in Iranian practice.

Fire

Fire was placed on earthen mounds, in pits dug in the ground and on packed-earth hearths.

Ploughing Rites

Before ploughing or breaking the ground, rites were performed to the goddess through spoken invocations, appeasement offerings and ritual first cuts of the plough. Permission was thus sought from the Earth Mother before being cut or opened. 

Offerings of first-fruits

The earliest harvest of barley, wheat and dairy products were offered back to the earth. This practice descends from Indo-Iranian times and survives in rural Iranian customs right into the Islamic period.

Taboos

People were forbidden from burying corpses in the ground, dumping waste and spilling blood without ritual justifications. All of these activities were considered to be a pollution of the earth.

Sacred landscape veneration

As previously stated, the Earth Mother required no temples for Her worship: instead She was worshipped through the land itself. The following places were considered to be sacred to Her:

. mountains

. springs

. fertile plains

. boundary stones

. clan hearths

Household hearth rites

The hearth was considered to be the centre of Indo-Iranian religion, and the following are considered to be examples of household rites:

.  feeding the fire with butterfat

. sweeping and smoothing the hearth floor

. placing offerings at the threshold

As can be seen from the aforementioned rites, the elements played a crucial role in the worship of the Iranian Earth Mother, and in Iranian religion generally, even after the introduction of Zoroastrianism. By the use of fire, an offering was sanctified to Her and it feeds the earth with fragrant offerings. These rites honoured both fire and the earth as paired cosmic elements.