The original religion of Mithra was revealed to Yima Khshaeta (Parsi: Jamsheed), who was the first great King (Gathic word : Kai, Kavi) of the Airean people (whose promised land was Aireanem Vaejo), who descended from their communal primeval Mother: Ainyahita. Her teachings were preserved on golden plates.

   The original  religion of Mithra was completely different from the form into which it developed for the use of Roman soldiers (after Alexander had been on campaign in Persia) and Mithra was not at all the most important in it. To understand the original form, one must read the ancient Persian accounts of the creation like those in the Bundehesh (Bundahishn). Beware though: much of this kind of traditional account is written in a very allegorical, i.e.: not mathematical (modern western) style.

   In the "Genesis"-like (or should we not, for reason of anciennity, rather call Genesis Bundehesh-like?) Bundehesh, Ahura Mazda is the Heavenly Father, Mithra is the "Son of Ahura Mazda" (like Aredvi Sura Anahita is called the "Daughter of Ahura Mazda") and the primeval Bull is symbolic for the material Creation (like later Geush Urvaan, although this may be a bull as well as a cow) . To make a long story short: what happens next, is that Ahriman (compare with the Devil in Western Religion) tries to kill the entire Good Creation of Ahura Mazda by poisoning it. When the Bull (this primeval material creation) has nearly died, Mithra (whose name also means "friend", "contract" or "testament") rushes to the rescue. He saved the last un-poisoned drops of blood from the suffocating Bull, by cutting open the jugular vein and he then sows the seed for a New Creation into the Earth by letting the blood drip onto the new destination of this creation: Earth. It is very important to note that indeed the early depictions of Mithra, not slaughtering (as in the later Roman version of Mithraism) but rather carefully putting out of its misery, at the same time procuring the Seed for the New Creation by Mithra. Just look at his painful face, and how he turns it away because of his empathy for this Bull, an original Creation by his Father, Ahura Mazda ! Some of the newer, later versions made by the Romans often do not look like that any more, as they have lost the original conviction.

Mithra, painfully looking away from the already dying Bull, poisoned by Ahriman

    There are some theories (that is: they are theories amongst the un-initiated) that The Bull stands for Taurus, like the Dog stands for Canis Minor, the snake by Hydra, the raven by Corvus, and the scorpion by Scorpio. There are also such theories linking Ainyahita ("The Woman who came from the Sky") with Venus; all these kind of traditions would point towards a celestial origin (from Space) of mankind, or indeed the whole creation.

From a Roman Mithraïc Temple, unearthed and restored in the Hadrian Wall

   Anyway, it never was the intention that parts of God's own Creation should be sacrificed to Him by human beings killing and destroying them, to offer them to Him! But every time a pure religion with that conviction is revealed to mankind, after a while Priests, who often make themselves into (even worse !) Magicians, start running the scene, and because they want power and wealth and, having no Love for ALL of creation, want people to offer them free meat to eat. And by then it becomes necessary to send a new "prophet" or teacher to restore the Good Religion: this is why Zarathustra had to be sent on his mission. And after him, the next Saoshyant or Light-bringer, because the Original Religion started getting more and more corrupted since the death of the ORIGINAL Zarathustra: the One called "Zarathustra Spitama." Other Zarathustra's came after him, but the Zarathustrians who insisted remaining in the ORIGINAL religion of Zarathustra Spitama had to flee from their native country, after the Priest-run and State-run versions of Zarathustrianism started persecuting them. So they moved abroad, often into countries through which the Silk Route (Trade route between India and Egypt) was running. It was in that way, that followers of  Zarathustra Spitama's original religion were living in Egypt, near the Dead Sea and in the fertile lands near Mount Carmel, in the country of Galilee (the land of the Heathens as Jews would call it), while still expecting their Saviour or Saoshyant to be born there, safely out of reach of the Sassanid Priests. Later on, these "Children of the Light" (as they called themselves) would be called "Nazarenes" and "Essenes" even though they never used these names for themselves.

Even on this archaeological find of a bronze statuette, the painful look of Mithra can be seen !