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.