Maat

Maat represents the personification of a cluster of concepts that introduce the world to abstract ideas of philosophy, such as order, truth, balance, harmony, justice, reciprocity, and propriety. Represented in ancient Egyptian literature as a goddess, Maat is unlike the familiar goddesses of Hathor, Nebhet, and Auset, in that she was more a concept than a goddess to be worshipped. It was believed by the ancient Egyptians that Maat existed as long as Ra existed and that when the universe was created it was only Maat with Ra. Without Maat, chaos would reign, evil would conquer, and injustice would be the state of the world; thus, it was necessary that Maat exist from the beginning of the universe and come into being as the food of Ra.

Because Maat was harmony and order, she was what was correct, and she represented the way things had to be done. Once humans understood the fundamental aspects of relationships, they also understood the essentiality of Maat because the only method for preventing chaos was to do Maat.

The early Africans accepted the fact that the universe was balanced, ordered, and right. However, this correctness could be maintained only by vigilance or else the rationality that existed would disappear. The aim, therefore, of all societies was the maintenance of Maat. When Maat was not maintained, then the universe became unpredictable, chaotic, and irrational. In the realm of morality, discipline, order, reciprocity, and propriety were to be honored and encouraged, but isfet, evil, and disorder were to be discouraged and confronted to bring Maat back to her rightful place at the center of human society.

Nothing came into place by chance with the ancient Egyptians, who understood that the pattern and plan of the universe was order. Africans would later find this concept emerging in Greek thought as logos, meaning essentially order, pattern, and rationality. However, it should be clear that the African concept of Maat antedated the Greek concept by thousands of years and was richly embedded with illustrations, examples, and anecdotes from the literature and language of the people.

For example, it was understood and believed that the most solid and authentic grounding of natural reality was Maat because it made the stars shine, the sun give life, the river overflow, and the king the great representative of the divine on Earth. In the mind of the African, the universe was neither moral nor immoral, but existed as transcendent of those human terms. The universe is, and because it is that is enough to call its existence the action of Maat.

In the Book of the Coming Forth by Day and Going Forth by Night, Maat was seen as a judge in the underworld in the halls of Ma'ati, where she was symbolized by a Feather of Maat. The heart of the dead person was placed on a scale, supervised by Maat, and weighed by Tehuti to see whether it was lighter than the Feather of Maat. If the heart was heavier than the symbolic ostrich feather usually worn on the head of Maat, the person's heart would be eaten by a demon called Ammut. She was also known as the devourer of the Dead. This would be when the person would die the second and final time. If the heart weighed the same as the Feather of Maat, the deceased was allowed to enter eternal life.

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