A Gift from My Aunt Resurfaces and Is Reappreciated
Ma'at or Mayet, Egyptian Goddess of truth, balance, order and justice.
Several years ago my Aunt Cyndi returned from a trip to Egypt and presented me with a beautiful painting of the Egyptian Goddess Ma’at. I had just moved and told myself I would get it framed and hung as soon as I was settled. So I rolled up the papyrus and put it in a closet for safe keeping. Here it is, at least four years later, and as I was cleaning out the closet in my newly set up home office, I found the gift my aunt was thoughtful enough to give me. This time I didn’t stow it away. I bought a frame for it and put it on top of a bookcase in my office.
At first, I couldn’t remember which goddess my aunt told me it was, so I started pouring through my mythology books and searching the web. I found she is Ma’at or Mayet, the Egyptian Goddess of truth, balance, world order and justice. She’s easy to recognize because she wears an ostrich feather in her headband. It’s the feather she uses to weigh the hearts of the deceased. (“Maat” means ostrich feather.) Both the ostriches and the feathers are depicted several times in my painting.
I found several variations of exactly how the soul-weighing rite is conducted, but basically the heart of the deceased (believed to be the soul) is placed on one side of the balance scale and an ostrich feather on the other. Ma’at sits on her heels at one end of the scales. If the scales balance, the soul is not heavy with wrong doing and the departed is on the way to paradise. This seated Ma’at is pictured in the upper right of my painting with an ankh (a symbol of immortal life) atop her knees.
If the scale doesn’t balance and the deceased soul is found guilty, the heart is thrown to Ammut “the Devourer,” who sits on the other side of the scales. Ammut is evidently a nasty combination of lion, hippo and crocodile.
Ma’at’s role in Egyptian mythology also includes instilling order out of the chaos of creation by regulating the stars and seasons. Her far reaching responsibilities are probably why she is often depicted as having outstretched wings, as she does in the painting my aunt gave me.
Thank you for such a meaningful gift Aunt Cyndi.
– Writeye
Posted on February 22nd, 2009 under Art • Tags: ancient Egyptian afterlife rite, ankh symbolism, Ma'at or Mayet symbolism. • 
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