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Karnonnos [TG]
Temple of Zeus Guardian
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2019
- Messages
- 1,424
Greetings, everyone. I will post all of the updated Gods and Daemons' section in this thread, including the older Gods' Rituals released prior to my assignment and updated articles with new information [such as the Tarot cards for Khnum, Asclepius, Forcas, etc.]. The title will be updated with each new addition.
MAAT
ANUBIS
-----
Maat is the Egyptian Goddess of order, law, harmony, balance, and truth. She was one of the most pivotal deities of the Egyptian pantheon and had far-reaching symbolism, evoked in every corner of the society of the great civilization of the Nile. She was considered a divine representative of the legal system as a whole, yet also the dispositor of the seasons, the movements of the stars, and other aspects etched into nature itself.
At the heart of Egyptian law was Maat, the multifaceted term encompassing justice, truth, order, and balance. Maat was not merely an ethical ideal but a divine principle that ensured the functioning of the universe. Pharaohs were said to “do Maat” and “live by Maat,” and the Goddess of this name appears in temple reliefs, tomb inscriptions, and legal contexts as a living symbol of all it encompassed.
According to Egyptian cosmology, the Goddess Maat existed from the beginning of time, established by the Creator God (Atum, or most often Re) to ensure the universe functioned harmoniously. She represented the natural order that kept chaos (izfet) at bay. In the Heliopolitan Ennead creation myth, Maat was implicitly present as the principle that structured the world after the primordial chaos of Nun.
Maat was closely linked to the Sun God Re, and she was often described as His daughter. She accompanied Re on His solar barque as it journeyed through the sky and underworld, protecting Him from the chaos serpent Apophis. Her function as a guardian of all moral order was highlighted in this role, and Ramesside depictions often show the Solar God holding the feather of His daughter.
The idea was evocative of cosmic order in a more abstract way. In Egyptian eyes, Maat controlled the mechanisms of seasonal change, the movement of the stars, and the conditions of the air. New Kingdom theology cast Maat as the ordering principle that accompanied the Sun, hence her tiny but essential figure on the underworld boats.
Maat was one of the most visible Goddesses in public ceremonies. Her iconography became prominent in the era following Horemheb and reached a peak in renown during the Ramesside Pharaohs, when Egypt was recovering from the impious policies of Akhenaten. Her image remained adaptable throughout the progression of Egyptian civilization.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the scenes in which she is depicted often occur in royal contexts, such as the Temple of Seti I and the court of Thutmose I. New Kingdom iconography using her symbolism to reinforce order is blatant and clearly intentional. Ramesses III’s extension of his Temple at Karnak showcases the Goddess in many front-facing scenes in the First Court. Furthermore, the tombs of Merneptah, Seti I, Twosret, Ramesses III, Ramesses IV, Ramesses VI, Ramesses VII, Ramesses IX, and Shoshenq III feature her iconography.
A subtle aspect of Maat was the relative passivity and reverence of the Goddess in regard to the order she presided over. Maat was represented in the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. She was also often depicted linking the Gods or the Pharaoh with the recipient of a ritual. In the Amduat and Book of Gates painted on royal tomb walls, a small standing or seated Maat rides at the prow or walks before Re’s boat, guaranteeing cosmic order even in the night voyage.
Maat, along with Thoth and Seshat, was appointed as one of the head Deities of scribes (sesh) in Egypt.
In day-to-day matters, Egypt was governed by legalistic customs. Scribes were pivotal. The minor aspects of law, beyond the capital law and the law of the Pharaoh, were not identical to modern legal systems. Disputes on a local level would be adjusted in arbitration based on the circumstances of the individuals involved. Higher courts, with central or capital law codes overseen by the Vizier, could be appealed to if the judgment of these minor arbitrations was not satisfactory to the plaintiff.
The law was meticulously transcribed in Egyptian bureaucracy long before the scribes of China and the early modern societies of Europe began to do so. Thousands of legal documents survive, many from the village of Deir el-Medina, where workmen kept detailed contracts and trial records; the Wilbour Papyrus, which inventories land and tax obligations; the Abbott and Amherst Papyri, detailing tomb robbery investigations; alongside manifold marriage, divorce, and adoption documents from the Late Period and Ptolemaic era.
Scribes also ensured abuses of power did not occur and became important intermediaries between classes who had communication with the central courts of justice. In a sense, the scribe and the written word became the ‘glue’ between the different classes of Egypt.
The equation of the Goddess of justice with the legal system was to such a degree that the highest secular judge of Egypt was the Vizier, named formally as the Priest of Maat.
Judges would also be adorned with the ostrich feather. The judge of the High Court was the Pharaoh himself, who also swore to uphold Maat but delegated the responsibility.
In his Library of History (Book I), Diodorus Siculus offered an elaborate description of Egyptian judicial practices as they existed in the Roman period. He wrote that before a court session began, the chief judge would put on a golden chain from which hung a small figure made of precious stone, called Truth. The trials would commence only once the judge donned this emblem of the Goddess, signifying that justice was only to be administered in the presence of Maat’s power.
SYMBOLISM OF MAAT
Maat is typically depicted as an idealized young woman wearing a single ostrich feather affixed to a headband. Tomb portrayals show her with the feather in hand when acting as an emissary of justice. Other Goddesses such as Isis or Nephthys could also be depicted holding the feather.
One of the major symbolisms of the feather concerns astral projection and the levity of the Middle Chakra, along with the lightness of the soul after departing the physical body. The Goddess is one of the major rulers of this part of the soul; its powers are barely understood.
The feather is evocative of the lightness and grace of Truth. As it is so light, it can be pushed anywhere and everywhere. It also points towards the pelican feather of Thoth. Knowledge is one of the many arms of Truth. Both Maat and Shu were symbolized by the feather alone, and the name for it in Egyptian was shut.
Much like in the English language, where a curious convergence of the word for “light” emerged in both weight and the property of light, the two ideas also shared an overlapping symbolism in Egyptian mystery. Maat was seen as a Goddess of the prism of light who representatively dispelled all darkness and ignorance.
Often, she is portrayed with two wings, in a similar manner to Isis.
Scenes of the Pharaoh offering a small statuette of Maat to other Gods are extremely common, proliferating in sacral imagery up until the end of the Roman period. This type of symbolism was suggestive of the ruler of Egypt demonstrating that he kept Truth and the maintenance of the Laws alive in his realm.
Maat is often equated with Tefnut in aspect, who represents the creative principle in the fashioning of the world. She is depicted in this guise as the brother of Shu, a God closely related to Maat and Anubis. In her regular guise, she is considered to be the mother of Seshat. She is symbolically rendered as the wife of Thoth, although this is not true of the Goddess herself.
MAAT AS A CONCEPT
Maat as a concept was considered the mover of Egyptian civilization, and the reason for civilization to exist in the Egyptian texts was to promote a continually refined and evolving world of Maat that would propel individuals towards the Divine, compared with the brutality of lower nature.
Accordingly, the mechanism of Maat embodied increasing alignment with the Gods for those chosen to do so.
The Weighing of the Heart ceremony was the centerpiece of Maat’s role in Egyptian understanding. In the Ritual, the heart (ib) of the individual being judged was placed on one pan of a scale, with the feather of Maat occupying the other. Osiris was typically depicted as the ultimate arbiter of the process. Typical Gods involved in assessing the process were Maat herself, Anubis, and Thoth, but also Seshat, Meshqenet, and others. If the heart was heavier than the feather, it was thrown to the devouring beast Ammit.
Maat was often represented in a dual role, and the chamber of the Heart Weighing was often called “the Chamber of the Two Goddesses.” The reasons for this become more obvious when examining how Maat was viewed in Hellenic civilization. She was also accompanied by 42 Judges and lesser deities.
As is understood, one aspect of Maat as the feather and the law exemplified the lightness of an unadulterated soul versus the dirt, sins, and moral transgressions of an individual. The heaviness of the heart was bound up in testimony of certain truths relating to these areas of life, which the Gods could always hear. The dual pathway here was similar to Greek mores of the afterlife, like Tartarus and the Elysian Fields.
Abominable acts, unfathomable ignorance, self-rotting excesses, and evil-mindedness could make the heart heavy beyond redemption. A pathway of pure destruction without utilizing the principle of creation was the easiest method to end up in the maw of Ammit. In this is reflected Maat’s close association with Isis (Aphrodite), particularly the virtue of Balance.
Egyptian texts and instructional manuals associated with the Goddess repeatedly warn from the earliest point against using fear and excessive violence to control other believers. This is explicitly cited as an abuse of Maat, which will render those put under such a regimen as ignorant, imperiling one’s own soul but also that of others. The spread of fear and ignorance without due cause was another major transgression.
In an occult sense on the Zevist path, with spiritual cleansing, one becomes more and more light. Energy begins to hit the Crown when the Chakras are opened and flow unobstructed. The feeling of being pinned, tied, and weighed down dissipates altogether. Total ease of operating magic becomes attainable. The feeling of lightness is symbolic of being able to traverse everything with ease, and it can be considered the opposite of being bound or cursed.
However, one aspect of Maat that is poorly understood is a specific set of meanings relating to self-progression and apotheosis (making oneself a God). These meanings have been marred, as many Egyptologists cross-referenced the Weighing of the Heart with passages referencing similar symbolism in the Bible—distorted there to have a distinctly vulgar and lowbrow meaning. Maat is also equated with the butchered and blinkered understanding of karma from modern Hinduism, Buddhism, and the New Age movements.
The heart was not just indicative of its weight in relation to sins, but of the integrity of the organ in expressing proper selfhood and keeping the soul alive enough to desire proper incarnation. In modern culture, such a concept can be conveyed succinctly in stock phrases such as “following one’s heart.”
An individual whose whims are completely controlled by others, whose entire journey through life consists of cowardice in the face of malignancy, and who furthermore imperils the course of law altogether by doing nothing, could also be deemed an individual mired in izfet and apt to be devoured by Ammit—irrespective of how we may view this now.
Instructive texts associated with the Goddess, such as The Eloquent Peasant, demonstrated the correct way to act and not to allow insult or injustice to go unnoticed. Proper redress was seen as an important individual initiative.
A totally passive individual could be compared to a microcosm of a civilization that has gone seriously wrong and has become lawless by not using the arms of nature to protect what is valuable. Each person had a duty to uphold Maat, not only by attempting to refrain from doing injustice, but also by not submitting to it without challenge.
Here is a very important distinction to make between Egyptian religion and the endless martyrology of Christianity and other slave faiths.
Christianity preaches endless passivity and damnation. The botched and the natural losers in life always made for the perfect Christian, and the foremost representatives of our contemporary civilizations also compulsively preach self-appointed victimhood as the highest ideal, while the use of justice to protect the truly innocent is “nailed to the wall,” creating a situation in which genuine grievances can be mixed up with resentment and pettiness—to the point that many people are pulled apart by opposing forces. Chaos has appeared as a result.
Yet this did not refer only to this sort of individual, but even to those who lived charmed and pleasant lives full of distractions, such as a llfe lived harming no one else, yet in a sense doing nothing for the Gods, nor for themselves. Even this constituted a sort of erroneous existence if not subjected to philosophical and practical testing of life’s margins.
Most importantly—beyond the deluded and evil individuals of the enemy—this also applies to the ascetics of Hinduism, Taoism, and other religions that teach disengagement with life, pursuing only total adherence to slave-like spirituality with no mover to spur on development. The Gods themselves have smacked down the very few who managed to reach advanced levels while preaching total hatred of life. Egypt emphatically did not take the life-hating approach to spiritual development; the Black Land was a civilization of life.
In this is also a code relating to the Middle Chakra, plus the two signs of Venus and associated mundane Houses, particularly the 7th House. To allow just “anyone” in is to have the heart wrung by dozens of grasping and lustful hands; yet to allow nobody in is to fill the heart with regret and leave it to rot. Both hearts if beset with excess and deprivation could be devoured by Ammit or thrown to the Lake of the Fire.
In all these cases, the heart is rendered light. How could it be, when one is a free-falling and heavy anvil through life?
The truth is that making the heart fly involves hard labor activating aspects of the developing self. There are no easy shortcuts for such a process. Part of this emphasis on self-development to uphold the principle of Truth is why Maat has the ruling planet of Mars, which may seem unusual to those familiar with Astrology. The Gods directed me to passages of Thus Spake Zarathustra on this subject:
In here is also the code for Maat’s symbolism of the Three of Cups, a card which she shares with the litigant of the Heart Weighing, Anubis.
The card depicts three enrobed women lifting three cups to the sky in celebration, surrounded by abundant plants. This card typically conveys conclusions involving friendships, associations, and celebrations that can push an individual to the next level of their development. It tells individuals to be mindful of such festivities and not to allow themselves to be overwhelmed, but also not to turn away from them.
In the Three of Cups' visual symbolism from the Rider-Waite deck is an occult code for the three granthis, or knots of the soul, flowing unobstructed to allow the flowing of energy through the Chakras—an area of Maat’s powers that are touched upon above. This is one of the reasons the card was also known as "Relief" (Soumisement) from Etteilla’s day.
It is not shocking that Maat’s symbolic Major Arcana card is upright Justice. The scales and the sword are held by an enrobed, crowned woman sitting on a throne between two pillars. The blood-red color of her robes and the curtain between the pillars are representative of the ruling planet of Maat.
Her gaze is total and serene. The upright Justice card shows that all actions have consequences, and if wrongness has been perpetrated, either you or someone else who has done you wrong will be held to account. In a more nondescript way, it is typically concerned with a matter where speaking the truth is a necessity or where the truth is revealed. The Justice card sometimes indicates that the fairest decision will be made.
Justice can also appear in a general fashion to the querent to describe certain activations and challenges of their life mission. The scales and the sword indicate that you could be in a process of assessment or testing to reach the next level. It can also signify being made to choose between two pressing matters that could have consequences regardless of your intent.
Sometimes, Justice can simply appear to remind the querent not to be overly demanding if they have done little to warrant it.
MAAT IN THE ENEMY CONTEXT
It is also known that the interloper Akhenaten distorted the concept of Maat to punish his enemies and to formulate a slave ideology. This is why Horemheb and his successors doled out extreme penalties for distortion of the concept.
Numerous Hebrew conventions existed to rip off the idea of the scales from an early point, such as the Midrash literature like the Kohelet Rabbah. Jewish literature links the judgment of Maat with Rosh haShanah.
The Zohar describes the “Chamber of Merit,” guarded by angels charged with “the scales of justice,” with merits pulling to the right pan, sinners to the left, and presided over by ‘Mozniya’—a badly formulated ripoff. The chief of the Hebrew scales also has two presidents in emulation of Maat. This passage also mentions the presence of Re, Thoth, and Maat on the “evil side,” who “seduce the world” and judge those who “come to be defiled.”
Such mechanisms attempt to prevent the Hebrew religionists from being judged in the same way as the “filth” of the earth—the non-Jewish peoples.
MAAT IN CHRISTIANITY
With the advent of Christianity, explicit references to Maat by name virtually disappear from surviving texts, as direct worship of the Goddess ended. Yet, an intriguing number of Coptic writings adapt or echo themes that were prominent in Maat’s cult, especially concerning the afterlife judgment, which also parallels the emerging concept in rabbinical literature.
One of the most illustrative is the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul (part of the Nag Hammadi library, 4th century CE), where the apostle Paul experiences a visionary ascent and, at one stage, encounters a weighing of souls. In this text, souls of the dead are weighed on scales by a divine figure to determine their righteousness—a clear parallel to the ancient “weighing of the heart” before Maat, placed in a Christian Gnostic framework.
Another example is found in a later Coptic saint’s legend, The Story of Butrus the Ascetic, preserved in an Arabic-Coptic synaxarium (medieval era). In this story, the miserly Butrus has a dream of his personal judgment, resembling the Jewish fear of “the other side”:
Boethius, a late Roman author and Christian apologist, wrote a work named The Consolation, which drew on certain themes explaining the nature of order and attempted to hybridize Platonic themes with the Catholic Church that he served. This work represented an imaginary dialogue where Philosophy, personified as a woman (known as Lady Wisdom), argues that despite the apparent inequality of the world, there is a higher power and everything else is secondary to that divine Providence.
Scene from Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, French School (15th Century)
It was typical to represent Lady Wisdom in medieval stylistic conventions as possessing two feathers or wings, taken from the stories of Boethius. Unfortunately, the popularity of this work triggered many of the major attempts by Christianity to co-opt Hellenic virtue and wisdom.
Through enemy demonology in medieval Europe, meanwhile, Maat was recast as the Demon named Morax, alternatively named Foraii or Marax, appearing to the conjurer as a bull who occasionally takes on the face of a man when giving advice to the wise:
Liberal sciences also represent a sort of code relating to Maat’s functions. Firstly, all liberal arts represent a desire for universal understanding predicated on the universal order. In medieval Europe, study of such matters signified the status of a free man who was expected to understand the virtues and codes of the society he lived in—hence the term liberalis, meaning “expected of a free man.”
Seven liberal arts—music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, rhetoric, grammar, and logic—existed, reflecting the primacy of the number seven as the vehicle of karma and its central tie to Maat herself. These arts, particularly the trivium of scribes, were central to the study of law. While Maat remained demonized in grimoires or referenced blithely as the “Lady Wisdom” in medieval conventions, such arts were accredited ridiculously as belonging to the virgin excrement:
The code of knowing astronomy by itself relates to the seasonal properties of Maat.
MAAT IN ISLAM
In Islam, the primary term for the “scales” used to weigh human deeds on the Day of Resurrection is al-Mizan, which was blatantly ripped off from Egyptian religion and not even veiled, unlike in Judaism or Christianity. This is explicitly mentioned several times in the Ǫur’an:
Muslim commentators were also strongly aware of Maat among the pagan Goddesses. They wrote:
The 9th-century historian Ibn Abd al-Hakam, in his Conquest of Egypt, recounts a possibly apocryphal tale: when the Caliph Umar was given the Pharaoh’s treasure, among it was found an idol or engraving of a woman with a sword in one hand and scales in the other, which Umar’s advisors interpreted as a representation of Justice.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Instruction of Pharaoh Amenemhat I
The Library of History, Diodorus Siculus
On Isis and Osiris, Plutarch
Hieroglyphica, Horapollo
Mariale in Evangelium, Albert of Cologne
Al‑Khitat, Al-Maqrizi
Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
Maat: The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt, Mowlana Karenga
Insinger Papyrus, from Late Egyptian Wisdom Literature in the International Context, M. Lichtheim
The story of Butrus, the Ascetic, Jacobite Arab Synaxarium
Ancient Records of Egypt: The Eighteenth Dynasty, James Henry Breasted
Ostrich Egg and its Symbolic Meaning in the Ancient Egyptian Monastery Churches, Dr. Sara El Sayed Kitat
"The ancient Egyptian concept of Maat: Reflections on social justice and natural order", R.J. Ferguson
CREDIT:
Karnonnos [TG] (text)
Power of Justice [TG] (editing style, grammar and syntax)
MAAT
ANUBIS
-----
Maat is the Egyptian Goddess of order, law, harmony, balance, and truth. She was one of the most pivotal deities of the Egyptian pantheon and had far-reaching symbolism, evoked in every corner of the society of the great civilization of the Nile. She was considered a divine representative of the legal system as a whole, yet also the dispositor of the seasons, the movements of the stars, and other aspects etched into nature itself.
At the heart of Egyptian law was Maat, the multifaceted term encompassing justice, truth, order, and balance. Maat was not merely an ethical ideal but a divine principle that ensured the functioning of the universe. Pharaohs were said to “do Maat” and “live by Maat,” and the Goddess of this name appears in temple reliefs, tomb inscriptions, and legal contexts as a living symbol of all it encompassed.
—M. Lichtheim
According to Egyptian cosmology, the Goddess Maat existed from the beginning of time, established by the Creator God (Atum, or most often Re) to ensure the universe functioned harmoniously. She represented the natural order that kept chaos (izfet) at bay. In the Heliopolitan Ennead creation myth, Maat was implicitly present as the principle that structured the world after the primordial chaos of Nun.
Maat was closely linked to the Sun God Re, and she was often described as His daughter. She accompanied Re on His solar barque as it journeyed through the sky and underworld, protecting Him from the chaos serpent Apophis. Her function as a guardian of all moral order was highlighted in this role, and Ramesside depictions often show the Solar God holding the feather of His daughter.
The idea was evocative of cosmic order in a more abstract way. In Egyptian eyes, Maat controlled the mechanisms of seasonal change, the movement of the stars, and the conditions of the air. New Kingdom theology cast Maat as the ordering principle that accompanied the Sun, hence her tiny but essential figure on the underworld boats.
Maat was one of the most visible Goddesses in public ceremonies. Her iconography became prominent in the era following Horemheb and reached a peak in renown during the Ramesside Pharaohs, when Egypt was recovering from the impious policies of Akhenaten. Her image remained adaptable throughout the progression of Egyptian civilization.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the scenes in which she is depicted often occur in royal contexts, such as the Temple of Seti I and the court of Thutmose I. New Kingdom iconography using her symbolism to reinforce order is blatant and clearly intentional. Ramesses III’s extension of his Temple at Karnak showcases the Goddess in many front-facing scenes in the First Court. Furthermore, the tombs of Merneptah, Seti I, Twosret, Ramesses III, Ramesses IV, Ramesses VI, Ramesses VII, Ramesses IX, and Shoshenq III feature her iconography.
A subtle aspect of Maat was the relative passivity and reverence of the Goddess in regard to the order she presided over. Maat was represented in the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. She was also often depicted linking the Gods or the Pharaoh with the recipient of a ritual. In the Amduat and Book of Gates painted on royal tomb walls, a small standing or seated Maat rides at the prow or walks before Re’s boat, guaranteeing cosmic order even in the night voyage.
Maat, along with Thoth and Seshat, was appointed as one of the head Deities of scribes (sesh) in Egypt.
In day-to-day matters, Egypt was governed by legalistic customs. Scribes were pivotal. The minor aspects of law, beyond the capital law and the law of the Pharaoh, were not identical to modern legal systems. Disputes on a local level would be adjusted in arbitration based on the circumstances of the individuals involved. Higher courts, with central or capital law codes overseen by the Vizier, could be appealed to if the judgment of these minor arbitrations was not satisfactory to the plaintiff.
The law was meticulously transcribed in Egyptian bureaucracy long before the scribes of China and the early modern societies of Europe began to do so. Thousands of legal documents survive, many from the village of Deir el-Medina, where workmen kept detailed contracts and trial records; the Wilbour Papyrus, which inventories land and tax obligations; the Abbott and Amherst Papyri, detailing tomb robbery investigations; alongside manifold marriage, divorce, and adoption documents from the Late Period and Ptolemaic era.
Scribes also ensured abuses of power did not occur and became important intermediaries between classes who had communication with the central courts of justice. In a sense, the scribe and the written word became the ‘glue’ between the different classes of Egypt.
The equation of the Goddess of justice with the legal system was to such a degree that the highest secular judge of Egypt was the Vizier, named formally as the Priest of Maat.
Judges would also be adorned with the ostrich feather. The judge of the High Court was the Pharaoh himself, who also swore to uphold Maat but delegated the responsibility.
In his Library of History (Book I), Diodorus Siculus offered an elaborate description of Egyptian judicial practices as they existed in the Roman period. He wrote that before a court session began, the chief judge would put on a golden chain from which hung a small figure made of precious stone, called Truth. The trials would commence only once the judge donned this emblem of the Goddess, signifying that justice was only to be administered in the presence of Maat’s power.
— Chapter 75, Book 1, The Library of History, Diodorus Siculus
SYMBOLISM OF MAAT
Maat is typically depicted as an idealized young woman wearing a single ostrich feather affixed to a headband. Tomb portrayals show her with the feather in hand when acting as an emissary of justice. Other Goddesses such as Isis or Nephthys could also be depicted holding the feather.
One of the major symbolisms of the feather concerns astral projection and the levity of the Middle Chakra, along with the lightness of the soul after departing the physical body. The Goddess is one of the major rulers of this part of the soul; its powers are barely understood.
The feather is evocative of the lightness and grace of Truth. As it is so light, it can be pushed anywhere and everywhere. It also points towards the pelican feather of Thoth. Knowledge is one of the many arms of Truth. Both Maat and Shu were symbolized by the feather alone, and the name for it in Egyptian was shut.
—Hieroglyphica, Horapollo
Much like in the English language, where a curious convergence of the word for “light” emerged in both weight and the property of light, the two ideas also shared an overlapping symbolism in Egyptian mystery. Maat was seen as a Goddess of the prism of light who representatively dispelled all darkness and ignorance.
Ostrich Egg and its Symbolic Meaning in the Ancient Egyptian Monastery Churches, Dr. Sara El Sayed Kitat
Often, she is portrayed with two wings, in a similar manner to Isis.
Scenes of the Pharaoh offering a small statuette of Maat to other Gods are extremely common, proliferating in sacral imagery up until the end of the Roman period. This type of symbolism was suggestive of the ruler of Egypt demonstrating that he kept Truth and the maintenance of the Laws alive in his realm.
Maat is often equated with Tefnut in aspect, who represents the creative principle in the fashioning of the world. She is depicted in this guise as the brother of Shu, a God closely related to Maat and Anubis. In her regular guise, she is considered to be the mother of Seshat. She is symbolically rendered as the wife of Thoth, although this is not true of the Goddess herself.
MAAT AS A CONCEPT
Maat as a concept was considered the mover of Egyptian civilization, and the reason for civilization to exist in the Egyptian texts was to promote a continually refined and evolving world of Maat that would propel individuals towards the Divine, compared with the brutality of lower nature.
Accordingly, the mechanism of Maat embodied increasing alignment with the Gods for those chosen to do so.
The Weighing of the Heart ceremony was the centerpiece of Maat’s role in Egyptian understanding. In the Ritual, the heart (ib) of the individual being judged was placed on one pan of a scale, with the feather of Maat occupying the other. Osiris was typically depicted as the ultimate arbiter of the process. Typical Gods involved in assessing the process were Maat herself, Anubis, and Thoth, but also Seshat, Meshqenet, and others. If the heart was heavier than the feather, it was thrown to the devouring beast Ammit.
Maat was often represented in a dual role, and the chamber of the Heart Weighing was often called “the Chamber of the Two Goddesses.” The reasons for this become more obvious when examining how Maat was viewed in Hellenic civilization. She was also accompanied by 42 Judges and lesser deities.
As is understood, one aspect of Maat as the feather and the law exemplified the lightness of an unadulterated soul versus the dirt, sins, and moral transgressions of an individual. The heaviness of the heart was bound up in testimony of certain truths relating to these areas of life, which the Gods could always hear. The dual pathway here was similar to Greek mores of the afterlife, like Tartarus and the Elysian Fields.
Abominable acts, unfathomable ignorance, self-rotting excesses, and evil-mindedness could make the heart heavy beyond redemption. A pathway of pure destruction without utilizing the principle of creation was the easiest method to end up in the maw of Ammit. In this is reflected Maat’s close association with Isis (Aphrodite), particularly the virtue of Balance.
Egyptian texts and instructional manuals associated with the Goddess repeatedly warn from the earliest point against using fear and excessive violence to control other believers. This is explicitly cited as an abuse of Maat, which will render those put under such a regimen as ignorant, imperiling one’s own soul but also that of others. The spread of fear and ignorance without due cause was another major transgression.
In an occult sense on the Zevist path, with spiritual cleansing, one becomes more and more light. Energy begins to hit the Crown when the Chakras are opened and flow unobstructed. The feeling of being pinned, tied, and weighed down dissipates altogether. Total ease of operating magic becomes attainable. The feeling of lightness is symbolic of being able to traverse everything with ease, and it can be considered the opposite of being bound or cursed.
—The Tarot and Spiritual Transformation, High Priestess Maxine Dietrich
However, one aspect of Maat that is poorly understood is a specific set of meanings relating to self-progression and apotheosis (making oneself a God). These meanings have been marred, as many Egyptologists cross-referenced the Weighing of the Heart with passages referencing similar symbolism in the Bible—distorted there to have a distinctly vulgar and lowbrow meaning. Maat is also equated with the butchered and blinkered understanding of karma from modern Hinduism, Buddhism, and the New Age movements.
The heart was not just indicative of its weight in relation to sins, but of the integrity of the organ in expressing proper selfhood and keeping the soul alive enough to desire proper incarnation. In modern culture, such a concept can be conveyed succinctly in stock phrases such as “following one’s heart.”
An individual whose whims are completely controlled by others, whose entire journey through life consists of cowardice in the face of malignancy, and who furthermore imperils the course of law altogether by doing nothing, could also be deemed an individual mired in izfet and apt to be devoured by Ammit—irrespective of how we may view this now.
Instructive texts associated with the Goddess, such as The Eloquent Peasant, demonstrated the correct way to act and not to allow insult or injustice to go unnoticed. Proper redress was seen as an important individual initiative.
A totally passive individual could be compared to a microcosm of a civilization that has gone seriously wrong and has become lawless by not using the arms of nature to protect what is valuable. Each person had a duty to uphold Maat, not only by attempting to refrain from doing injustice, but also by not submitting to it without challenge.
Here is a very important distinction to make between Egyptian religion and the endless martyrology of Christianity and other slave faiths.
Christianity preaches endless passivity and damnation. The botched and the natural losers in life always made for the perfect Christian, and the foremost representatives of our contemporary civilizations also compulsively preach self-appointed victimhood as the highest ideal, while the use of justice to protect the truly innocent is “nailed to the wall,” creating a situation in which genuine grievances can be mixed up with resentment and pettiness—to the point that many people are pulled apart by opposing forces. Chaos has appeared as a result.
—Instruction of Pharaoh Amenemhat I
—Insinger Papyrus, from Late Egyptian Wisdom Literature in the International Context, M. Lichtheim
Yet this did not refer only to this sort of individual, but even to those who lived charmed and pleasant lives full of distractions, such as a llfe lived harming no one else, yet in a sense doing nothing for the Gods, nor for themselves. Even this constituted a sort of erroneous existence if not subjected to philosophical and practical testing of life’s margins.
Most importantly—beyond the deluded and evil individuals of the enemy—this also applies to the ascetics of Hinduism, Taoism, and other religions that teach disengagement with life, pursuing only total adherence to slave-like spirituality with no mover to spur on development. The Gods themselves have smacked down the very few who managed to reach advanced levels while preaching total hatred of life. Egypt emphatically did not take the life-hating approach to spiritual development; the Black Land was a civilization of life.
In this is also a code relating to the Middle Chakra, plus the two signs of Venus and associated mundane Houses, particularly the 7th House. To allow just “anyone” in is to have the heart wrung by dozens of grasping and lustful hands; yet to allow nobody in is to fill the heart with regret and leave it to rot. Both hearts if beset with excess and deprivation could be devoured by Ammit or thrown to the Lake of the Fire.
—Insinger Papyrus, from Late Egyptian Wisdom Literature in the International Context, M. Lichtheim
In all these cases, the heart is rendered light. How could it be, when one is a free-falling and heavy anvil through life?
The truth is that making the heart fly involves hard labor activating aspects of the developing self. There are no easy shortcuts for such a process. Part of this emphasis on self-development to uphold the principle of Truth is why Maat has the ruling planet of Mars, which may seem unusual to those familiar with Astrology. The Gods directed me to passages of Thus Spake Zarathustra on this subject:
—Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche
In here is also the code for Maat’s symbolism of the Three of Cups, a card which she shares with the litigant of the Heart Weighing, Anubis.
The card depicts three enrobed women lifting three cups to the sky in celebration, surrounded by abundant plants. This card typically conveys conclusions involving friendships, associations, and celebrations that can push an individual to the next level of their development. It tells individuals to be mindful of such festivities and not to allow themselves to be overwhelmed, but also not to turn away from them.
In the Three of Cups' visual symbolism from the Rider-Waite deck is an occult code for the three granthis, or knots of the soul, flowing unobstructed to allow the flowing of energy through the Chakras—an area of Maat’s powers that are touched upon above. This is one of the reasons the card was also known as "Relief" (Soumisement) from Etteilla’s day.
It is not shocking that Maat’s symbolic Major Arcana card is upright Justice. The scales and the sword are held by an enrobed, crowned woman sitting on a throne between two pillars. The blood-red color of her robes and the curtain between the pillars are representative of the ruling planet of Maat.
Her gaze is total and serene. The upright Justice card shows that all actions have consequences, and if wrongness has been perpetrated, either you or someone else who has done you wrong will be held to account. In a more nondescript way, it is typically concerned with a matter where speaking the truth is a necessity or where the truth is revealed. The Justice card sometimes indicates that the fairest decision will be made.
Justice can also appear in a general fashion to the querent to describe certain activations and challenges of their life mission. The scales and the sword indicate that you could be in a process of assessment or testing to reach the next level. It can also signify being made to choose between two pressing matters that could have consequences regardless of your intent.
Sometimes, Justice can simply appear to remind the querent not to be overly demanding if they have done little to warrant it.
MAAT IN THE ENEMY CONTEXT
It is also known that the interloper Akhenaten distorted the concept of Maat to punish his enemies and to formulate a slave ideology. This is why Horemheb and his successors doled out extreme penalties for distortion of the concept.
Numerous Hebrew conventions existed to rip off the idea of the scales from an early point, such as the Midrash literature like the Kohelet Rabbah. Jewish literature links the judgment of Maat with Rosh haShanah.
The Zohar describes the “Chamber of Merit,” guarded by angels charged with “the scales of justice,” with merits pulling to the right pan, sinners to the left, and presided over by ‘Mozniya’—a badly formulated ripoff. The chief of the Hebrew scales also has two presidents in emulation of Maat. This passage also mentions the presence of Re, Thoth, and Maat on the “evil side,” who “seduce the world” and judge those who “come to be defiled.”
Such mechanisms attempt to prevent the Hebrew religionists from being judged in the same way as the “filth” of the earth—the non-Jewish peoples.
MAAT IN CHRISTIANITY
With the advent of Christianity, explicit references to Maat by name virtually disappear from surviving texts, as direct worship of the Goddess ended. Yet, an intriguing number of Coptic writings adapt or echo themes that were prominent in Maat’s cult, especially concerning the afterlife judgment, which also parallels the emerging concept in rabbinical literature.
One of the most illustrative is the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul (part of the Nag Hammadi library, 4th century CE), where the apostle Paul experiences a visionary ascent and, at one stage, encounters a weighing of souls. In this text, souls of the dead are weighed on scales by a divine figure to determine their righteousness—a clear parallel to the ancient “weighing of the heart” before Maat, placed in a Christian Gnostic framework.
Another example is found in a later Coptic saint’s legend, The Story of Butrus the Ascetic, preserved in an Arabic-Coptic synaxarium (medieval era). In this story, the miserly Butrus has a dream of his personal judgment, resembling the Jewish fear of “the other side”:
—The Story of Butrus the Ascetic, Jacobite Arab Synaxarium
Boethius, a late Roman author and Christian apologist, wrote a work named The Consolation, which drew on certain themes explaining the nature of order and attempted to hybridize Platonic themes with the Catholic Church that he served. This work represented an imaginary dialogue where Philosophy, personified as a woman (known as Lady Wisdom), argues that despite the apparent inequality of the world, there is a higher power and everything else is secondary to that divine Providence.
Scene from Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, French School (15th Century)
It was typical to represent Lady Wisdom in medieval stylistic conventions as possessing two feathers or wings, taken from the stories of Boethius. Unfortunately, the popularity of this work triggered many of the major attempts by Christianity to co-opt Hellenic virtue and wisdom.
Through enemy demonology in medieval Europe, meanwhile, Maat was recast as the Demon named Morax, alternatively named Foraii or Marax, appearing to the conjurer as a bull who occasionally takes on the face of a man when giving advice to the wise:
—Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, Johann Weyer
Liberal sciences also represent a sort of code relating to Maat’s functions. Firstly, all liberal arts represent a desire for universal understanding predicated on the universal order. In medieval Europe, study of such matters signified the status of a free man who was expected to understand the virtues and codes of the society he lived in—hence the term liberalis, meaning “expected of a free man.”
Seven liberal arts—music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, rhetoric, grammar, and logic—existed, reflecting the primacy of the number seven as the vehicle of karma and its central tie to Maat herself. These arts, particularly the trivium of scribes, were central to the study of law. While Maat remained demonized in grimoires or referenced blithely as the “Lady Wisdom” in medieval conventions, such arts were accredited ridiculously as belonging to the virgin excrement:
—Mariale in Evangelium, Albert of Cologne
The code of knowing astronomy by itself relates to the seasonal properties of Maat.
MAAT IN ISLAM
In Islam, the primary term for the “scales” used to weigh human deeds on the Day of Resurrection is al-Mizan, which was blatantly ripped off from Egyptian religion and not even veiled, unlike in Judaism or Christianity. This is explicitly mentioned several times in the Ǫur’an:
—Ǫur’an 21:47
—Ǫur’an 55:7–9
Muslim commentators were also strongly aware of Maat among the pagan Goddesses. They wrote:
—al-Khitat, Al-Maqrizi
The 9th-century historian Ibn Abd al-Hakam, in his Conquest of Egypt, recounts a possibly apocryphal tale: when the Caliph Umar was given the Pharaoh’s treasure, among it was found an idol or engraving of a woman with a sword in one hand and scales in the other, which Umar’s advisors interpreted as a representation of Justice.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Instruction of Pharaoh Amenemhat I
The Library of History, Diodorus Siculus
On Isis and Osiris, Plutarch
Hieroglyphica, Horapollo
Mariale in Evangelium, Albert of Cologne
Al‑Khitat, Al-Maqrizi
Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
Maat: The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt, Mowlana Karenga
Insinger Papyrus, from Late Egyptian Wisdom Literature in the International Context, M. Lichtheim
The story of Butrus, the Ascetic, Jacobite Arab Synaxarium
Ancient Records of Egypt: The Eighteenth Dynasty, James Henry Breasted
Ostrich Egg and its Symbolic Meaning in the Ancient Egyptian Monastery Churches, Dr. Sara El Sayed Kitat
"The ancient Egyptian concept of Maat: Reflections on social justice and natural order", R.J. Ferguson
CREDIT:
Karnonnos [TG] (text)
Power of Justice [TG] (editing style, grammar and syntax)
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