The Ancient Egyptian Principle of Maat

The ancient Egyptian principle of Maat. Did the ancient Egyptians 'get it right' and we just forgot about it?
Or was the principle of Maat just another man made device to civilize and/or control people?
Or did they get part of it right ... their version of the basic part of 'love God and love neighbor'
I'll let you read more about Maat and decide for yourself. At any rate, it's rather interesting.

The Principle of Maat

The significance of Maat developed to the point that it embraced all aspects of existence, including the basic equilibrium of the universe, the relationship between constituent parts, the cycle of the seasons, heavenly movements, religious observations and fair dealings, honesty and truthfulness in social interactions.

The ancient Egyptians had a deep conviction of an underlying holiness and unity within the universe. Cosmic harmony was achieved by correct public and ritual life. Any disturbance in cosmic harmony could have consequences for the individual as well as the state. An impious King could bring about famine or blasphemy blindness to an individual. In opposition to the right order expressed in the concept of Maat is the concept of Isfet: chaos, lies and violence.

In one Middle Kingdom (2062 to c. 1664 BCE) text the Creator declares "I made every man like his fellow". Maat called the rich to help the less fortunate rather than exploit them, echoed in tomb declarations: "I have given bread to the hungry and clothed the naked" and "I was a husband to the widow and father to the orphan". To the Egyptian mind, Maat bound all things together in an indestructible unity: the universe, the natural world, the state, and the individual were all seen as parts of the wider order generated by Maat.

Sounds a little like 'collective karma' as well as individual karma consequences. Also like everyone is their own soul, but we are all connected. I see echos of this in Eastern religions and philosophies. Or should I say, I see evolution of this MAAT to the Eastern religions and/or philosophies. Either way ... it sounds familiar.

The 42 Laws of Maat
You can look at the link for all of them. But I'll post a few ...
(some sound rather familiar ... 10 commandments type familiar)

I have not stolen.
I have not slain men or women.
I have not told lies.
I have not committed adultery.
I have not made anyone cry.
I have not been an eavesdropper.
I have not falsely accused anyone.
I have not terrorized anyone.
I have not overstepped my boundaries of concern.
I have not exaggerated my words when speaking.
I have not used evil thoughts, words or deeds.
I have not polluted the water.
I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds.
I have not placed myself on a pedestal.
I have not stolen from or disrespected the deceased.
I have not taken food from a child.

That's not a full list, but you get the idea. (the rest of the list is at the above link).
The principle of MAAT ... acting in a 'civilized' manner.
I found the "I have not overstepped my boundaries of concern" to be interesting.
In other words ... don't be a busy body. The New Testament says the same thing.
I'm seeing A LOT of cross over from the Ancient Egyptian principle of MAAT into the bible
and with the Eastern religions & philosophies.
So either it all comes from the same metaphysical source ... truth is truth.
OR ... they all just borrowed off each other in a mundane way and not a metaphysical way.
Or a some of both.

Moses was schooled in MAAT .. so we know where he got the 10 Commandments from.
He got them from MAAT.

More MAAT -
MAAT - The Basis of Social Cement

(2) Deafness in Ma'at - According to Ma'at. - The greatest wisdom according to ancient Egypt, it is to know how to listen in the silence, to meditate the received word and to consequently act. It is not surprising when one knows the importance of language, of the uttered words which are a living substance, a true food. Social life is only possible by the exchange of harmonious speech, which only permits the integration of one and the other in dynamics based on the confidence of actions which will be achieved.

The deaf who do not listen to the other, are the insensible, the indifferent. Therefore, he has no friend and is not integrated into society. When one doesn't communicate anymore, at the level of the individual or society, it is violence and the law of the strongest which is installed. It is well illustrated in the "dialogue of the desperate man and his soul", another classic text of the Middle Kingdom.

(3) Greed - It is a property of the heart for the Egyptian on which there is no ascendancy; it is, say the sages, an incurable illness. It is doubly negative:

- for the individual: indeed, during his life, man accumulates a subtle "energy" notably at the time of the festivals, which seem to be in relation to the joy of living. He nourishes his ka, his intangible double. The one who cannot be happy carries harm to his own ka.

- for society: selfishness, the desire of possessions and jealousy, entail the destruction of social relations. The one who despoils those who worked for him, removes from them their means of subsistence, puts them in peril and this fact, is an inducer of violence. In addition, while trying to remove his dependence on the other, to individualise himself, the man breaks the dynamic system of interaction of society and there again will generate violence. Ma'at is honesty, charity, the absence of jealousy, the exactly remunerated work.

FlyersFan
The New Testament says the same thing.
I'm seeing A LOT of cross over from the Ancient Egyptian principle of MAAT into the bible
and with the Eastern religions & philosophies.

Seeing has how Jesus was Egyptian and was possibly exposed to the philosophy either informally or in what was left of the texts from Library of Alexandria, that's not quite so surprising.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Matt or living in a life of truth is what I am about.

I think the principle is sound the varied translations, obscured...

Universal truth, such a thing exists, I'm more than sure of this. I personally don't think viewpoint matters in universal truth, and I strive to make my life reflect this.

Incidentally I think quite a few people come to a similar view with age, Jesus, Budda, etc ad noseum , and a lot of common folks probably yourself included.

When you know truth you just know it....and it's universal. The law is written on our hearts I'm told.

Cheers to you!

Ma'at said to read my threads since that's all I talk about in a thousand ways.
She also informs me there is a 99% chance you won't.

That 1% chance was the only reason I bothered to try.

Because I wrote a book (threads) of secrets about it over the last 6 months.....
Anyway.

Ma'at is the 'Serpent from the Garden of Eden'.
She(He) can transform into anything of any sort.
"It's" everywhere, including inside of us.

It is "Energy" in a abstract sense, that somehow effects RL in bizarre ways.
It appears to be part of the fabric of the cosmos itself (or even the Cosmos itself).
And somewhat seemingly "Aware" to a degree difficult to discern exactly.

Anyhow:

Secret of Ma'at = God of all Religions

People also wrongly call it "Satan" but that is a misunderstanding of God's Wisdom.

That all ended about the time they discovered how to make beer and wine and pyramids....

rickymouse
That all ended about the time they discovered how to make beer and wine and pyramids....

After a hard day building pyramids, you need time to chill out.

muzzleflash
Ma'at said to read my threads since that's all I talk about in a thousand ways.
She also informs me there is a 99% chance you won't.

Okay ... I went to your profile and took a look. The only thing I saw was this thread - Art of the Shadow Ash and the Shade of the Sha . I gave it a try ... reading and reading ... I can't follow it.

FlyersFan

muzzleflash
Ma'at said to read my threads since that's all I talk about in a thousand ways.
She also informs me there is a 99% chance you won't.

Okay ... I went to your profile and took a look. The only thing I saw was this thread - Art of the Shadow Ash and the Shade of the Sha . I gave it a try ... reading and reading ... I can't follow it.

Wow today is a 1% kinda day I guess.
Awesome! Thanks for giving me a good surprise there FlyersFan.

reply to post by FlyersFan


I will go ahead and reply to your thread again with a thought, and hopefully it will keep the thread in circulation and gain a few more readers to chime in.

I think it's very possible that the issue we are dealing with is "Lost in Translation", rather than being different, most of these deities are essentially the same even in their own textual descriptions/myths/real life connotations.

The only reason it "seems different" is because the world is full of tons of different stuff. Earth's languages are diverse and very numerous.
So once we start translating things it becomes a lot easier to understand each other's points of view.

For example the way "Shen" translates to "God" directly in some Asian Bibles.
It's all a matter of perspective and the more we learn the more refined and positive that can become.

Shen (Chinese religion) (神), a central word in Chinese philosophy, religion, terms for God, and Traditional Chinese medicine
Shen (clam-monster) (蜃), a shapeshifting Chinese dragon believed to create mirages

Shen-Chen

In Chinese mythology, the shen or chen (Chinese: 蜃; pinyin: shèn or chèn; Wade–Giles: shen or ch'en; literally "large clam") is a shapeshifting dragon or sea monster believed to create mirages.

Ok so God creates Mirages to Test Us?
See how it all merges so well once we translate directly?
"Large Clam" = God - Goddess description

While early Chinese dictionaries treat shen as a general term for "mollusca", the Erya defines it as a large yao (珧) which means shellfish, clam, scallop, or mother-of-pearl.

It's the Mother of the Pearl, who Scallops and Scalds with a Gallup?
Shellfish ? or Hel - Fish ?
She'll Fish?

This is an extensive wiki so please take some time to explore through it, extremely fascinating.

Chinese classics variously record that shen was salted as a food (in Zuozhuan), named a "lacquered wine barrel" used in sacrifices to earth spirits (in Zhouli), and its shells were used to make hoes (in Huainanzi) and receptacles (in Zhuangzi). They also record two shen-compounds related with funerals: shenche (蜃車, with cart or carriage) "hearse" (Zhouli, Guo Pu's commentary notes shen means large shell-like wheel rims) and shentan 蜃炭 (with "charcoal") "oyster-lime; white clay", which was especially used as mortar for mausoleum walls (Zuozhuan, Zhouli).

Lacquered wine barrel? Lack her'd wine bare El ?
(Crying about needing God)

Hearse? I hear it's Her's.
Also compare "Shenche (cart) - Singe" with "Shentan - Charcoal"
See what I'm sayin?

So many possibilities here.

FlyersFan
The ancient Egyptian principle of Maat. Did the ancient Egyptians 'get it right' and we just forgot about it?

They did get it right, but the reason why they had it right and We Have It Wrong is because at this current time the world is full of liars with a much larger ratio, people with a passion not only to lie, but to write the history books in a (I forgot the word but it's taking an opinion based on one ethnic group). They have a passion to mislead people. All I have heard about is the ancient many gods, I have not heard of this, which makes the ten commandments a narrowed down version taken from a past source.

That is what they don't tell us - that all of those stories were taken from a past source.

So it is truly a realization that other cultures had it right, and modern day Americans have it absolutely wrong.

ATS Thread - 10 Commandments Doctrine of Men
I thought I'd reference this thread. Perhaps Moses got the 10 commandments from having lived the Ancient Egyptian Principle of Ma'at and from being taught it since childhood. 9/10 of the 10 Commandments mirror the Ancient Egyptian Principle of Ma'at.

A new thread has popped up and it is along this same subject matter so I'm going to post a link ...
ATS Thread - The Egyptian Tree of Life

There is an Egyptian Demoness that goes by Maat




If I recall she teaches morals, how to use herbs and other practices.

originally posted by: kodasaufa
There is an Egyptian Demoness that goes by Maat.

Is that the same Maat as the goddess Maat?
Or are there two opposing forces named Maat?
I'm thinking those are two different entities?

a reply to: FlyersFan

Iirc she is the Egyptian Goddess Maat.

And what you have posted about here is inline from my understanding of her.

Also we get caught up on the word Demon. Remember demon use to mean benevolent intermediaries for humans.
en.wikipedia.org...(classical_mythology)

Daemons are benevolent or benign nature spirits, beings of the same nature as both mortals and gods, similar to ghosts, chthonic heroes, spirit guides, forces of nature or the gods themselves (see Plato's Symposium). Walter Burkert suggests that unlike the Christian use of demon in a strictly malignant sense, “[a] general belief in spirits is not expressed by the term daimon until the 5th century when a doctor asserts that neurotic women and girls can be driven to suicide by imaginary apparitions, ‘evil daimones’. How far this is an expression of widespread popular superstition is not easy to judge… On the basis of Hesiod's myth, however, what did gain currency was for great and powerful figures to be honoured after death as a daimon…” [3] Daimon is not so much a type of quasi-divine being, according to Burkert, but rather a non-personified “peculiar mode” of their activity.

In Hesiod's Theogony, Phaëton becomes an incorporeal daimon or a divine spirit[4] but, for example, the ills released by Pandora are deadly gods, keres, not daimones.[3] From Hesiod also, the people of the Golden Age were transformed into daimones by the will of Zeus, to serve mortals benevolently as their guardian spirits; “good beings who dispense riches…[nevertheless], they remain invisible, known only by their acts”.[5] The daimon of venerated heroes, were localized by the construction of shrines, so as not to restlessly wander, and were believed to confer protection and good fortune on those offering their respects.

Characterizations of the daemon as a dangerous, if not evil, lesser spirit were developed by Plato and his pupil Xenocrates,[3][dubious – discuss] and later absorbed in Christian patristic writings along with Neo-Platonic elements.

In the Old Testament, evil spirits appear in the book of Judges and in Kings. In the Greek translation of the Septuagint, made for the Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria, the Greek ángelos (ἄγγελος "messenger") translates the Hebrew word mal'ak, while daimon (or neuter daimonion (δαιμόνιον)) carries the meaning of a natural spirit that is less than divine (see supernatural) and translates the Hebrew words for idols, foreign gods, certain beasts, and natural evils.[6] The usage of daimōn in the New Testament's original Greek text, caused the Greek word to be applied to the Judeo-Christian concept of an evil spirit by the early 2nd century AD.

Satanists have used the word demon to define a knowledge that has been banned by the Church

The Catholic church distorted the word and its meaning in the 1700s