Maat is an Egyptian Goddess considered the embodiment of "Integrity" or "Fairness". The original name had it’s beginning in the widespread Indo-European mother-syllable that meant in basic terms "Mother." Maat's logo was the feather beside which she weighed each man's heart-soul (ab
) in her Hall of Judgment. As a result the Plume of Maat grew to become a hieroglyph for "truth." 1
The selfsame feathers of Truth were worn by additional aspects of the Goddess, for example Isis, who was the similar lawgiving Mother. The gods themselves were forced to "live by Maat." Her law presided over the three worlds ruled by her trinity as "Lady of heaven, queen of the earth, and mistress of the underworld."
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As the lawgiver of ancient Egypt, Maat was equivalent to Babylonian Tiamat who bestowed the sacred tablets to the first king of the gods. Maat's laws were remarkably compassionate, compared to the unsympathetic guiding principle of subsequent patriarchal gods, supported by vicious bullying such as that of Deuteronomy 28: 15-68. An Egyptian was encouraged to deliver the renowned Negative Confession in the company of Maat and Thoth (or Anubis) to prove he had complied with Maat's behavioral rules:
I have not been a man of anger. I have done no evil to mankind. I have not inflicted pain. I have made none to weep. I have done violence to no man. I have not done harm unto animals. I have not robbed the poor. I have not fouled water. I have not trampled fields. I have not behaved with insolence. I have not judged hastily. I have not stirred up strife. I have not made any man to commit murder for me. I have not insisted that excessive work be done for me daily. I have not borne false witness. I have not stolen land. I have not cheated in measuring the bushel. I have allowed no man to suffer hunger. I have not increased my wealth except with such things as are my own possessions. I have not seized wrongfully the property of others. I have not taken milk from the mouths of babes.
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Those who lived within the laws of Maat received a sacramental drink, comparable to the Hindus' Soma or its Persian complement Haoma, which bestowed ritual purity in the same meaning as the Christian "washing in the blood of the Lamb." Egyptian scribes of the 3rd millennium B.C.E. wrote: "My inward parts have been washed in the liquor of Maat." Like the baptismal water of life, Maat's brew conveyed life-after-death to the nonviolent, but death struck sadistic and vicious persons.
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Egyptian moral teachings were of a high order, many of them ending up centuries later in the Bible:
Take heed not to rob the poor, and be not cruel to the destitute. ... If thou canst answer the man who attacks thee, do him no injury. Let the evildoer alone; he will destroy himself We must help the sinner, for may we not become like him? ...Crusts of bread and a loving heart are better than rich food and contention. ... Learn to be content with what thou hast. Treasure obtained by fraud will not stay with thee; thou hast it today, tomorrow it has departed. ... The approval of man is better than riches.
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Under the feudal chaos of the 12th dynasty, old rules and the matrilineal clan system that supported them began to break down, and learned Egyptians abhored the disruptions of society. A Heliopolitan priest wrote: "Maat is cast out, iniquity is in the midst of the council hall. ...[T]he poor man has no strength to save himself from him that is stronger than he."
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At times Egyptian slayed Egyptian, in disobedience of the people"s most hallowed canon. One critic harshly linked his countrymen to the tribes of Nubia who revered Maat: "The Matoi, who are friendly towards Egypt, say: 'How could there be a man that would slay his brother?'"
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Maat was not only a judge of the dead. She was an alternate for all Egyptian Goddesses, consisting of Hathor, Mut, Isis, Neith, Nekhbet, etc. The sun god was advised: "The goddess Maat embraceth thee both at mom and at eve." As a birth-giver, she was at times Metet, the Morning Boat of the Sun, translated "becoming strong" and corresponding to the Greco-Roman mother of dawn, Mater Matuta.
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She was venerated in countries other than Egypt. Northern Syria was called by the Hittites, Mat Hatti: that is, Mother of Hatti.
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Egyptian priests drew the Feather of Maat on their tongues in green dye, to give their words a Logos-like power of Truth so their verbal magic could create reality.
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In the same way in northern Europe the great bard Bragi had this power because of the runes engraved on his tongue by the Goddess Idun.
African Pygmies still know Maat by the name she bore in Sumeria as "womb" and "underworld": Matu. She was the first woman, and the mother of God. Like her Egyptian equivalent she was sometimes cat-headed.
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