The Weighing Of The Heart Ceremony

Namaste: If Not Now, When? Chapter 3, Ma'at And The Golden Rule

Chapter 3

Ma’at And The Golden Rule

The Ancient Egyptians believed that the universe emerged out of chaos and they perceived an underlying beauty, harmony, balance, and order to the universe that they regarded as holy. They attributed these qualities to a goddess they called Ma’at, whom they worshipped and experienced in their lives as a vital living spiritual force. Isfet, goddess of chaos, was her opposing force and they viewed the universe as a battleground between them.

The Ancient Egyptians believed Ma’at manifested externally in their lives by regulating the weather and the changing seasons as well as the movements of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars. They believed she manifested internally in their consciousness as a code of moral and ethical conduct that required speaking the truth and treating others with honor and respect in the spirit of fairness and justice.

Ma’at is the earliest known version of the Golden Rule. As an expression of divine wisdom, Ma’at is reminiscent of St. Thomas Aquinas’s notion of natural or moral law. For example, he believed that the “standards of morality are in some sense derived from, or entailed by, the nature of the world and the nature of human beings.” The Ancient Egyptians believed Ma’at trumped manmade law and their emphasis on reaching conclusions that were consistent with Ma’at, or the spirit of the law, stands out in marked contrast to the rote application of the most relevant rule in a lengthy and detailed list of rules as is more typical of Jewish law.

Ma’at prevailed over Isfet for at least a thousand years beginning no later than the time that Menes unified the Two Lands of Upper and Lower Egypt in approximately 3,000 BCE until the fabled Old Kingdom passed into history at the end of the 6th Dynasty in approximately 2186 BCE with the death of Pepi II. He died at the age of 92 outliving all of his heirs. His death also marked the beginning of the First Intermediate Period, a time of declining central authority and civil war between the rulers of various powerful city states within the Egyptian empire. Eleventh Dynasty Pharaoh Mentuhotep II of Thebes eventually restored Ma’at when he reunited Egypt in 2025 BCE by seizing Herakleopolis, the capitol city of the rival 10th Dynasty. This marked the beginning of the Middle Kingdom and the shift of power from Memphis (modern day Cairo) to Thebes.

Ma’at was depicted on the walls of temples and tombs performing one of her most sacred duties at the Weighing of the Heart ceremony in the Hall of Two Truths in the Duat, or Egyptian underworld. She is depicted as a young woman holding a scepter with one hand, carrying an ankh with the other, and wearing an ostrich feather tucked into her headband. Known as the feather of truth, she would remove it from her headband and place it on one plate of a scale to counterbalance the weight of a recently departed person’s heart, symbolizing the soul. If the soul were lighter than the feather, it would achieve immortality and accompany Osiris to his home in the constellation of Orion and be reborn as a star. If the soul outweighed the feather, it would achieve eternal restlessness after dying a second time devoured by Amit, depicted as a female demon with a body part lion, hippopotamus, and crocodile.

SkyWalk with Stars: Weighing of the Heart Ceremony

I am not going to write about pyramids, how they were built or for what purpose. But have to say that these ancient Egyptians, who lived nearly 5,0000 years ago, were some of the best engineers the world has ever known, remarkable mastery of technical know-how, while working with the hardest of stones and more importantly without any metal tools. And when you look at the mummufication process, you can say they were brilliant scientists as well. A very complicated and lengthy process of mummification which lasts up to 70 days has two stages. First, the embalming of the body. Then, the wrapping and burial of the body. They are both very detailed stages. I don't want to go into the details,  just want to share something that affected me deeply while watching a national geographic documentary about mummies. The only part not taken out of the body was the heart that was believed to be the centre of intelligence,wisdom and feeling that the man would need it in the afterlife; if the deceased were ever reach the Beyond, it was essential that the body and heart were not seperated, because the heart was needed in the Weighing of the Heart ceremony . Weighing of the Heart was the most important task to achieve immortality but not actually seen by anyone. The soul's heart was taken to Osiris and weighed on a scale against a feather, feather of the Maat, the goddess of truth and justice. The Egyptians believed that the heart contained all the deeds a person has done, and that the heart grows heavier with each bad deed. The heart was weighed by Anubis, a god with a jackal head who is the god of embalming, and the weight is written down by Thor, the god of writing, with an ibis head. Here comes my conflict... It is said  that this detailed mummification was made only for rich and important people and some pets and worthy slaves for rich people. Sorry Egyptians, I don't think brain is useless but my brain is having trouble understanding why we people need to get an award in the end or need to fear to get this award. Is it too difficult to have a light heart !?!

Egyptian Mythology A to Z

Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure, Secrets of Ancient Egypt

Message from the Sphinx

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Book of Going Forth by Day

Ancient Egypt