In Between

The waves lap quietly upon the rocky shore
Swirling among the carpet of mussel
Not often exposed at this depth
A pelican swoops before me
Gulls and fog horns call in the distance
Passing craft send the waves more hurriedly to my feet
It is quiet here
Mostly
It is that in-between-time
Summer but a memory
Winter still offshore
but growing closer with each passing day
It is the low Moon Tide
Somewhere between summer’s bustling heat
and winter’s biting chill
It is a time of preparation for the coming darkness
It is the time to collect and recollect seasons past and future
It is time to gather the fruits of our harvest
To store them until there is time and need to sort them
and chew them and refashion them for new uses
Soon it will be time to think and plan and do
the quiet work that prepares us for fresh new things
But that time is not yet here
Today we sit in-between
We act and gather and collect
To prepare for the resting time to come

c. 1995 Bansagart

Deep Time Ritual

The Temple of Isis/Los Angeles
and the local Iseums/Lyceums of
The Fellowship of Isis
are celebrating the 2006 visit to Southern California of
Olivia Robertson, FOI co-founder
Join us in a
Dance to the Music of Deep Time
on Saturday, September 30th, 11AM
at the
Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach
5450 Atherton, Long Beach 90815

DEEP TIME
The Past and the Future
Spiral around the Present
To go into the Future or the Past,
You must enter through the Present
and be totally present.
There is a fourth Time, Deep Time
which is only accessible
through being totally present
by bringing your heart and mind
back together

This event is co-sponsored by the Spiritual Practices Committe of UUCLB

Who is Ma'at?

Ma'at is a Goddess of ancient Egypt. She represents Truth, Justice, Balance and Order. More than a deity, Ma'at was the personification of Universal Order, underlying everything else. In hieroglyphs, She is represented by an ostrich feather, also known as the Shu feather. It is said that when a person died and entered duat, the underworld, their ka was weighed on a scale opposite the feather. If their ka weighed more than the feather, then the person had violated the Laws of Ma'at, had obstructed Balance, Order, Justice and Truth in the universe, and they were devoured by Ammit, dying forever. If their ka weighed equal to the ostrich feather, then their ka was mayet, in harmony with Ma'at, and was allowed to enter the afterlife.

Much of what we know of the ancient code of mayet is found in the "Negative Confessions", in Chapter 125 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. They are called the "Negative Confessions" because in them, the petitioner lists the things they have not done in their lives. The version of the Laws of Ma'at being explored in this blog are based on those Negative Confessions, but rewritten for people of the 20th and 21st centuries.