"Maat, who links universal to terrestrial, the divine with the human, and is incomprehensible to the cerebral intelligence." [Ancient Egyptian Proverb] See bridge
"Maat is good and its worth is lasting.
It has not been disturbed since the day of its creator,
whereas he who transgresses its ordinances is punished.
It lies as a path in front even of him who knows nothing.
Wrongdoing has never yet brought its venture to port.
It is true that evil may gain wealth but the strength of truth is that it lasts a man can say: "It was the property of my father." [Frankfort, Henri. Ancient Egyptian Religion. p. 62.]
Many consider Maat as a goddess of justice , but she is much more then that. In the Egyptian pantheon, Maat is a emanation of balance, truth and harmony - the first emanation of Ra, the light of his eye, the sacred bee and garancy of cosmic order and immortality.
As a first creation and emanation of principles of divine will, light and truth - She appears as a primordial mother of all Egyptian's Goddesses. In "her omnipotent existence", she obedient all their manifestations, creations and characteristics. That's why, very usually, she doesn't appear in the pantheon of Egyptian gods - she is above them, right after her Father.
The many different names of Ma’at give an idea of her importance to Egyptian society. Egyptians referred to Ma’at as:
• Eye of Ra
• Mistress of the Underworld
• Queen of the Earth
• Lady of Heaven
• Lady of the Gods and Goddesses
Egyptians saw Ma’at as an everlasting goddess. By representing order, she became the most important goddess of ancient Egypt.
Ma'at's ability to view truth and justice was key in judging a soul.
Being beyond the force which kept the Egypt functioning as an orderly society, Ma’at held an important role in the afterlife. She not only kept order among the living, but served as the judge of the afterlife.
After death, Ma’at would judge the hearts of the dead in Osiris’s Judgment Halls of the Dead. Once the dead reached the halls, Ma’at would weigh the heart of each person against the weight of her ostrich feather. If the heart weighed the same or less than the feather, they were considered just and worthy of continuing into the Duat, or everlasting afterlife. [anon from FaceBook]
Maat is the ancient Egyptian goddess embodying truth, justice, harmony, and cosmic order. Her name symbolizes moral law and the ideal of balance, representing the equilibrium of the universe. In art, Maat is typically depicted as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head, a symbol of truth and righteousness, often shown standing or seated, sometimes holding symbols of authority and eternal life, such as a scepter and an ankh.
Maat played a central role in Egyptian life, shaping moral and social norms. Pharaohs were considered responsible for upholding her principles, and their rule was judged according to how faithfully they maintained Maat. Violating these laws was seen as a serious offense with potentially catastrophic consequences.
In the afterlife, Maat was crucial in the weighing of the heart. If the deceased’s heart was lighter than her feather, the soul was granted access to eternal life. If it was heavier, it was devoured by the demon Ammut, denying the individual entry into the afterlife. The heart was regarded as the center of intellect and memory, making this ritual a powerful symbol of ultimate justice and the alignment of one’s life with the principles of Maat. [anon from FaceBook]
Maat (Ma'at) - "The Mother of Thoth," was the goddess of mathematics, geometry, harmony, balance and justice. She was known as Meri, from which we get the Biblical Mary, mother of Jesus. Ma'at was considered the Mother of the Pharaohs, who embodied her principles and officiated for her.
Maat is a name deeply rooted in ancient Egyptian culture, representing the fundamental concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice. As a goddess, Maat was central to the Egyptian worldview, embodying the harmony of the universe and the principles by which it was governed. The etymology of Maat connects to the idea of something being straight or true, reflecting her role in maintaining cosmic and social equilibrium.
Maat is the goddess personifying physical and moral law, order, and truth, regarded as the feminine counterpart of Thoth (Tehuti). She is represented as standing with Thoth in the boat of Ra when the sun god first rose above the waters of the primeval spatial abyss of Nu. Maat is symbolized by the sign upon which Ptah's feet rest when standing upright, or upon which his throne rests when seated, representing truth, justice, and cosmic order, integral to Ptah's representation.
Maat was connected to the entire existence of the universe, and was not limited to ethics for human beings alone. Understanding how the world functioned and how it had been created, although variously presented within the different orientations of Ancient Egyptian religion, was vital to understanding Maat. Maat was the perfect order toward which humans should strive. A concept that stands for justice and rightfulness, borne aloft on a vessel by a spirit of the just man made perfect.
She is called the daughter of Ra, the eye of Ra, lady of heaven, queen of the earth, and mistress of the Underworld, who guides the course of the sun. The type and symbol of the goddess is the ostrich feather; the word Maat is represented by the hieroglyph of the feather and means primarily that which is orderly and direct, hence in a moral sense, right, truth, justice, including a reference to the fact that these supreme attributes weigh light as a feather in the scales of judgment, and yet are as weighty in importance as the universe itself.
Maat was regarded by the Egyptians, in connection with her moral power, as the greatest of goddesses, for she was the chief lady of the Judgment Hall, into which the deceased must enter (called the Hall of Maati, “double truth.”)
Noah was a just or righteous man, and perfect in his generations. This statement is put in the forefront of the Hebrew deluge legend.
In the Ritual it is granted to the Osiris Nu that he shall “carry Maat at the head of the great bark and hold up Maat among the associate gods.”
Maat stands for justice and rightfulness; and this is borne aloft upon the bark by the spirit of the just man made perfect, right up to the summit of the mount which is the landing-place for those who are in the ark.
Upon the solar mount of glory or Mount Sheni, the mount of the Sheniu, was the Egyptian Maat in which the law was given on the mount. This is the hall of justice.
Several meanings are connoted by the word Maat or Mati in Egyptian, such as law and justice, truth and right.
The equilibrium of the universe was expressed by Maat, which represented the natural immutable and eternal law. The balance is a symbol of Maat and its oneness in duality. It was erected as a figure of the equinox, or the two halves of night and day at equal poise. The tablets of Tum are records of the law or Maat. They are kept by Taht the divine scribe in the hall of judgment.
These tablets, we repeat, were the tables of the law (Ma, Maat, or Mati); they are produced at the trial before the judges when the heart (character) of the deceased is weighed in the balance of Mati and the goddess (of law or justice) is established on her throne.
Otherwise stated, when the law was given in the judgment hall upon Mount Sheni or the mountain of Amenta. The religion of Egypt was based on Maat, that is, on law, or more abstractly on truth and justice. And the law was impersonated in the goddess Mati, the Kamite original of the Greek Themis.
It is said in the Ritual:
“The gods and their symbols come into existence by virtue of law.” (Chapter 50)
This in one sense was by means of Ma or Ma-Shu, the intermediary betwixt the great god and the people; who is represented in Israel by Moses. It is said that the Ten Commandments were given by Ihuh, the Egyptian Huhi, to Moses on Mount Sinai.
The Jewish Commandments, however, are not limited to ten in number. The ten are followed by a series of judgments or laws (Exodus 21-23). And here it may be observed that the laws and judgments are identical in Hebrew, as in the duality of Maati for law and justice in Egyptian. Also in the book of Deuteronomy (27) twelve statutes are enacted under the form of commandments, enforced with twelve curses.
And in the Papyrus of Ani there is a company of twelve gods sitting on twelve thrones as judges in the Maat or judgment hall upon the mount — a picture that suggests “the House of the Lord” in the celestial Jerusalem, of which it is said, “there are set thrones for judgments, the thrones of the House of David.” (Psalm 122:5)
These, as described in Revelation, were likewise twelve in number.
The Maat is identified with the mount of God by Zechariah when he says:
“Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth (Maat) and the mountain of the Lord of Hosts the holy mountain.” (Revelation 8:3-4)
The law was given to Israel on Mount Sinai, where the sanctuary or divine dwelling answers to the Maat.
Also when Ihuh comes “to judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth” (Psalms 96:13), that is according to Maati in the Maat. “Thou shalt have no other god but Ihuh,” in the book assigned to Moses, was preceded ages earlier in the books of Ma-Shu and Taht at On by “Thou shalt have no other god but Huhi the eternal one,” besides whom there was none other in the cult of Atum-Ra. Thus the god Ihuh is one with Atum-Huhi the eternal.
Mount Sinai is one with Mount Sheni, whether as the mount of the lions or of turning in the solar orbit; and Moses is one with Anhur. The tabernacle or sanctuary of Ihuh is one with that of Atum-Huhi. The tables of the law that were given to Moses are identical with the tablets of the law in the hall of Mati. This is a principle by which the foundation of things was laid.
This taps once more the sealed-up source of “God’s Word,” which was derived from the Egyptian wisdom written in the books of Taht and Shu that were preserved in the great library of On (Annu), where Atum-Huhi was god the father, and Iu was the ever-coming son, the prince of peace in person, the Egyptian Jesus, Iusa, or Iu-Em-Hetep.
The Maat was a double law court, first erected for Anup at the pole; but in the solar myth the place of equipoise was changed, and the Maat was represented where the annual or periodical assize was held. This was at the point of equinox, which was at one time imaged in the sign of the Scales. Maat or Mati in Egyptian is the law. The Maat was the hall of justice or of law.
In one of the pictures to a Ritual Horus stands upon the Mount in presence of his father as the calf, which was a type of sacrifice in the Osirian religion earlier than the lamb (Naville, Todt, Kap. 108).
“I come,” says the speaker, “so that I may see the process of Maat, and the lion-forms.” These are the Kherefu = Cherubs (Chapter 136B) stationed at the seat of judgment on the Mount.
“Let the fathers and their apes (the spirits of fire) make way for me, that I may enter the Mount of Glory and pass through where the great ones are.” “Here is the cycle of the gods.” “I poise for him,” the Judge, “the balance, which is Maat.” “Come! come! for the Father is uttering the judgment of Maat.”
This was the final judgment on the Mount, where the spirits of the just were passed as perfected.
The invitation to “Come, come,” and hear the judgments delivered on the day of doom, is equivalent to the words in Revelation:
“Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter. Straightway I was in the Spirit: and behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting upon the throne.” (Revelation 4:1)
“And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back, close sealed with seven seals.” (Revelation 5:1)
It is said in the Ritual Chapter 133:
“Rā maketh his appearance at the Mount of Glory with the cycle of his gods about him. The strong one issueth from his hidden dwelling.”
“Be thou lift up, O Rā, who art in thy shrine, on the day when thou discernest the land of Maat.”
That is, where the hall of judgment stands upon the Mount of Glory.
The ancient of days in the Semitic version is Ra, the solar god, who typifies the eternal in the Ritual.
He is called: “The aged one at the confines of the Mount of Glory.” (Chapter 131)
He is the aged one upon his throne, as in the books of Enoch, Daniel, and John the Divine. The ancient of days together with the Son of Man preparing for the judgment is described by Enoch.
“At that time I beheld the ancient of days, while he sat upon the throne of his glory, while the book of the living was opened in his presence, and while all the powers which were above the heavens stood around and before him.” (Chapter 47)
Another was present whose countenance “resembled that of man,” and who accompanied the ancient of days. This is the Son of Man to whom Righteousness (or Maati) belongs.
Lastly, Horus was the highest in the solar mythos as the lord of resurrections, and as eighth one to the seven, he whose symbol was the eight-rayed star of the Egypto-gnostic Pleroma, which was first made historical when it was called the star of Bethlehem.
As the Egypto-gnostics said:
“Seven powers glorify the Word.”
These powers were the contributions of the seven spirits which out of gratitude to the Propator had contributed whatsoever each one had attained in himself of the greatest beauty and preciousness; they skillfully blended the whole in producing a most perfect being, and the very star of the Pleroma (namely, the gnostic Jesus, the Christ, the Savior, Logos — everything), because he was formed from the contributions of all the powers that preceded him who was the Horus or Jesus of the Resurrection, the outcome and first fruit of all. (Iren. - Book 1 - Chapters 2-6)
The faithful and true witness, as Egyptian, is Horus-Maat-Kheru, the word made truth; he who made the word truth by his resurrection, in the likeness of the Living God. The first Horus, or Horus in his first advent, was the Word; and the promise made by him as founder was fulfilled by Horus at his second coming as the “faithful witness,” the first-born from the dead.
The sum and substance of the doctrine of Maati is to make the word of Osiris truth against his enemies. Horus was that word in person.
The power of his Christ is that of the risen Horus; it is the power of the resurrection to eternal life; and both are the same, because both represented one meaning, namely the soul of man that rose again from death, and was personalized in Horus or in Iusa.
“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way” (Matthew 7:14) is a direct reference to initiation.
The narrow upward passage leading to the King's chamber had a "narrow gate" indeed; the same "strait gate" which "leadeth unto life," or the new spiritual re-birth alluded to by Jesus, and that it is this gate in the Initiation temple.
The word Ma for justice also signifies the law. And he who reveals and makes justice visible is the Horus who not only fulfils the word by making it truth, but who also comes to fulfil the law, or Maat.
This is the character assigned to the Jesus of the Gospels, who says:
“Think not I came to destroy the law. I came not to destroy but to fulfil. Verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law till all things be accomplished.” [Matthew 5:17-18]
See Also