In june, in the desert of the valley of the kings, on the western bank of the river Nile, the temperature will reach 49'c before noon. To avoid the heat, we rose early, dressed and ate breakfast in dark, and boarded a ferry bound for Thebes as the sun was rising. If only once in life, you must see the sun rise at Luxor. In one moment all time contracts, then expands. The past and present lie together. As rocks and hills fill with color,the palm fronds seem to stretch visibly to catch the first light of the day. You feel as if you have witnessed the dawn of creation. A certain peace descends .
Otherwise, the valley of the kings is a desolate place-all yellow rock, dust and sand, and a maze of tomb shafts dug deep into the bedrock. Here lie the pharaohs of ancient egypt's new kingdom; here is the final resting place of gods on earth beneath a high peaked hill, which resembles a natural pyramid thrust up against the depthless, blue sky. Myths tell us that this primeval hill rose from the watery abyss when the creator god, Atum (or ptah), spoke the word. Here being came from nothingness; and here the dead returned, waiting to turn again from death to life .
Along the walls of the valley of the kings, multitudinous tomb shaft plunge downward, passageway after passageway, corridor after corridor. Their stuccoed walls and ceilings are painted in brilliant green, reds, blues, and yellows. The eye feasts upon the faces of men and women, gods and goddess . Hieroglyphs proclaim spells for living and dying, prescriptions for transformation, maps of the underworld, texts for the dead.
To the right and lift of the entrance to the tomb of Rames iii kneel two angels with outstretched wings. They are Ma'at, the double goddess of the scales, a reminder that death is the moment of Truth. They hold their arms, spread wide their wings, as if waiting for the entombed soul to embrace her.
Halfway down the enormous tomb with its 27 passageways, rooms, and chambers, i see Ma'at again.. and i stand transfixed. Small, luminous, and birdlike, she sits in the cupped hand of the pharaoh. In her hair she wears a single, white ostrich feather-the balance which is placed on the scales during the weighing of the heart in the underworld.
GIFT OF THE GODS
I am witnessing the most poignant art in the world-delicate brushwork and color never meant for mortal eyes, but rather for the eyes of gods and spirits. Though nearly 3000 year old, the work seems freash from the painter's palette. Here is eternal Ma'at the greatest treasure anyone might own - goddess of the scales and ostrich feather, cosmic law and Truth.
She is not sprung from the thighs of another goddess. She is among the few eternal,divine beings who never are born, age, or die. Ma'at,in heaven, witnessed the dawn of creation. She balance the scales and created order from chaos. She regulated ebb and flow. Even the path of the might sun god Ra was determined by the divine, unalterable law of Ma'at. She nourished the gods as their food and drink. Once the primeval hill rose from the deep, she descended from heaven to earth, embodying the gods'gift to humankind: balance, harmony, equilibrium, and order. In many representations, the platform on which Ma'at stands is a hieroglyph which may represent either the primeval hill or the craftsman's level. The glypy alone indicate "that which is measured, steadfast, straight, upright , and true."
In the hand of a pharaoh, Ma'at represents the supreme mortal offering - the return of Ma'at to the gods. Lambs may be slaughtered; moly, saffron, and frankincense burned; gold, beer, and bread placed upon the alter. These are mere token, transitory sacrifices. The gods need little but human love and gratitude. They ask only to be experienced in the hearts of humans, for humans and gods to live in harmony, with Ma'at. Created by gods, dispensed by gods, and returned to gods, Ma'at is the essential ingredient for all life, whether human or divine.
Elsewhere throughout the tombs in the valley, she stands sometimes beside Ptah, the memphite creator god, receiving a seated representation of herself: Ma'at returned to Ma'at; order preserved, life cherished, creation returned to creation. At other times, she stands beside Osiris, god of death and resurrection, in her capacity as impartial judge of the human soul. Sometimes she stand alone, holding the ankh, as if it were a fragrant flower, to the dead pharaoh's nose, providing him with the breath of life, that in the other world as in this world he might breath truth and eternal life.
DUALITY OF MA'AT
Sometimes she appears as two goddesses, two feathers, two birds, or twin principle, the double Ma'aty. in her twin form, ma'at is represented by the magical, nurturing Isis and her sister in sorrow, Nephthys - the principle of light and dark, action and reception. Ma'at is the perfect balance of opposition, of positive and negative energies, of the law of cause and effect.
The duality of Ma'at remains at the core of Egyptian mysticism. Out of the ultimate one arises the principle of two, the first step towards the diversification of unity. Light is distinguished from darkness, man is distinguished from woman. Through the delicate dance of the two with each other, a multiplicity of forms arise. Creation begets creation. Life sustains itself, transforms, lives, dies, is born again .
TRUTH
One of the interesting linguistic principles behind the Egyptian hieroglyph for "truth," which is also ma'at, is that the word is always written in its plural form . The hieroglyph provides as one of its symbols that sign for multiple grains of sand, indicating that the truth is usually more than one thing.
With diversification comes the notion of discernment. If things can vary, then one may perceive their variety . Thus choice follows and, as a manifestation of choice, free will and morality. In turn, the unified, eternal soul is affected by these perceptions and judgments. Therefore,at death, the heart may be weighed in the balance.
Most often of the tomb walls and in the Books of the Dead, ma'at appears seated before the scales during the weighing of the heart. The heart, not the mind, is weighed,because the ancients believed it was the heart where moral judgments were made. Thoughts sometimes played trickery upon people, but one's feeling always represented the truth.
Led by the felcon god, Horus, and/or by the jackal, Anubis, the deceased witnesses the weighing of their own heart. What is being measured is the effect their life has had upon the balance of the cosmos, ma'at is unflinching and unwavering. Justice awaits those whose lives ever, after with the gods; but if their heart is impure, it is thrown to Ammit, the eater of hearts, a vile composite creature - part lion, part hippopotamus, and part crocodile. The souls devoured by Ammit exit no more .
ROLE OF THOTH
In the Greek tradition, ma'at is equated with Themis, the goddess of divine justice who hold the scales, amd with Metis, the goddess of prudence. In Egyptian terms, she is often perceived as the anima of thoth , the god of wisdom, intellect, and of scribes. To completely understand Ma'at, we must look at Thoth as the lord of Time, chronicler of the Aeons, keeper of the Akashic Records, and Administrator of Karma.
He was also a god of healing, magic, and medicine, bearing the emblem of the caduceus . Upon the caduceus two snake intertwine. Once again, we find the active and passive dual principle of life - opposing forces which balance each other to create stable and enduring life. The outstretched wings of the caduceus remind us of the outstretched wings of ma'at, offering divine protection and ultimate harmony. The snake, too, are awe-inspiring emblems of the power of change and transformation, of creation and destruction. Like ma'at. thoth presided over the world's creation; and although it is well known that Atum uttered the word from which the world sprang,it was believed that Thoth gave him the idea.
Thoth played a major role in the administration of divine justice. He oversaw the battle between Horus , the falcon god of day, and Set, the serpent of darkness. The divine eye of Ra was injured during this fight between animals and divine natures. Such equilibrium is difficult to maintain and must be the focus of daily attention.
Ma'at is a viable way to live in the world - to accept the gift of gods and to return that gift to the gods as the divine offering and honouring of life. Wherever she appears, ma'at represents the partnership of humanity and gods in the maintenance of a balanced world. In the cupped hand of a pharaoh, she represent an offering of the essential self, proof that we have taken care of that with which we were provided in the beginning . This is the moral precept of the return of the divine nature to the divine .
For ma'at to function, one must first accept completely the gift of life, learn to dance with the scales, to use the balance. Then ma'at must be integrated. Ma'at must appear in action and in love, whether we are working on the protection of the environment, raising children, planting gardens, writing laws, writing books, or managing others.
What i see in the cupped hand of the pharaoh is the cup of truth, the holy grail, from which we drink, and which sustains us,and which sustains even God.
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