Dragon Oak Temple

 

 

"Maat" has two meanings in the ancient Egyptian language. Maat is first the goddess of justice and truth, who gave meaning to the world and bestowed order upon the chaos of creation in the First Times. She governs the movement of the stars, the rising and setting of the sun, the inundation and retreat of the Nile, and the laws underlying all of nature. In the Judgement Hall of the Tuat the heart of the deceased is weighed against Maat's feather, which represents truth. If the heart is found to be free from the weight of sin, the deceased joins the company of the gods; otherwise, the soul is devoured and destroyed. Thus Maat is the standard by which we are measured.

From this role in the Judgement Hall arose the interpretation of "maat" as a systemized spiritual ideal. The order she represents was apparent everywhere in the world around her faithful worshippers. It was observed in the orderly motion and interaction of the heavenly bodies and reflected in the natural laws at work on the earth. It was deemed necessary to act in accordance with universal law and to understand one's place in the natural order to ensure the soul's position among the stars above.

Maat is the underlying current that connects all things in an intricately woven network. Each nexus is the balance of the lines of force that pass through it. It was considered essential to live according to the principles of balance and justice so as not to disturb the very fabric of creation. The ultimate will of the gods is that order is to prevail.

Each pharaoh on his or her coronation day would proclaim that maat was restored by this ascension to the throne. The priests of every temple in Egypt would offer a representation of Maat to the presiding god in the temple's shrine each evening, to symbolize their conviction that the day's work of worship and guidance was in accord with the universal order. Maat is the reason that things are, and the means by which they continue to exist. It is the voice of divine imperative that at once reigns over this world and promises just reward in the next.

We hear echoes of this voice resounding through the philosophical and metaphysical constructs of all times and nations: the Christian prayer, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"; the Muslim concept of "shari'a", or submission to the will of god; the familiar edict of Western occultism, "as above, so below"; and scores of other observations on the interaction of the divine and the earthly.

What is most striking about the systemization of maat is that it found root in such ancient soil. The Egyptian culture was epochs ahead of its contemporaries, and its wisdom embodied concepts that the rest of the world would have to wait centuries to cultivate.

It is clear from archaeological evidence that the goddess Maat was worshipped in Egypt from the earliest dynasties to well beyond the Greek and Roman invasions. It is clear from the depth and sophistication of the Egyptian culture, and the richness of the dreams that it inspires in us, that the philosophical maat persisted and flourished as well.

She is depicted as a tall woman wearing a crown surmounted by a huge ostrich feather. Her totem symbol is a stone platform or foundation, representing the stable base on which order is built.

Also while depicted as a woman bearing the Feather of Truth she was also sometimes blindfolded, and universally worshipped and accepted by the people of Egypt, no matter what religious and political fad was about at the time. While other gods and goddesses enjoyed increased favor only when certain Pharoanic lines or powerful temples were in power, Ma'at was always recognized as one of the great and true powers of nature.

Maat has also been translated "that which is straight." it implies anything that is true, ordered, or balanced. She was the female counterpart of Thoth. We know she is a very ancient goddess because we find her in the boat of Ra as it rose above the waters of the abyss of Nu on the first day. Together with Thoth, they charted the daily course of the sun god Ra. She is sometimes called the 'Eye of Ra' or the 'Daughter of Ra'.

Maat plays an important part in the Book of the Dead.

It was in the, Duat, the Hall of Maat, that the judgement of the dead was performed. In Egyptian mythology, Duat, or Tuat, Akert or Amenthes is the underworld, where the sun traveled from west to east during the night and where dead souls were judged.

Those people with good, (and pure), hearts were sent on to Osiris in Aaru. The weighing of the heart, pictured on papyrus, in the Book of the Dead, typically, or in tomb scenes, shows Anubis overseeing the weighing, the "lion-like" Ammit seated awaiting the results and the eating of the heart, the vertical heart on one flat surface of the balance scale, and the vertical Shu-feather standing on the other balance scale surface.

Thoth stood to the right of the scales recording the results. Having passed this test the soul is lead by Horus to meet the King of the dead, Osiris. The throne of Osiris rests on a pool of water from which a lotus flower is growing, upon the lotus stand the four sons of Horus. Behind the throne of Osiris stands Isis and her sister Nephthys.

In the story of Maat, she was the wife of Thoth and had eight children with him. The most important of her children was Amun. These eight were the chief gods the Ennead - creating the Earth and all that is in it.

 

Her power is that of balance. Do not call upon her unless you are truely in the right. Maat is balcance and will see that everyone, including you, will get what is coming to him or her. 

 

 Humans are not, by definition, perfect creatures. What then makes the scales show our heart to be free of the burden of sin? Rather, what is the burden of sin? Our guilt is.

If we have committed a wrong, but knew not at the time the consequences, we have no doubt come to remember the event as an unfortunate mistake. If we have done what we thought best, and caused another grief in the process, we think of this as having done what was necessary. We judge ourselves in our hearts every day, and we know the depths of our own souls. No man should judge another, and it seems that no god will judge us, either: for in the weighing of the heart, the verdict only shows our own opinion of the sum of our lives.

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Below is my own invocation written to the Egyptian Gods or Goddess I relate to.
Each is a different aspect of the whole eternal source.