42 Laws of Maat Under Kemet Law

Maat was the rule of law and moral justice among the ancient Kemet people, and the divine cosmological order within their mythology, astronomy, and astrophysical studies.

Kemet is the name the native African people of the country now known as Egypt called themselves in their surviving writings. Many scholars refer to the people as "kmt" or Kemet. The surviving artifacts of the Kemet viziers and scribes evidence that Kemet rule of law was “Maat,” contained at least in part in observing the 42 Laws of Maat.

The Goddess Maat as the Cosmological Origin of Kemet Rule of Law

Heliopolis-era creation stories from the Kemet people report that in the beginning Atum emerged from the Isfet (chaos) of Nu (primordial waters). Atum created the god Shu (personification of air/cool dryness) and goddess Tefnut (personification of moisture) from Nu. Shu is depicted in the Kemet iconography as an ostrich feather.

Under Kemet cosmology, Maat is designed to avert chaos (Isfet) and maintain truth (Maat). The symbol for truth, justice, balance, and order is the Goddess Maat. The iconography for Maat in the hieroglyphs depict the single ostrich feather (Shu), worn atop Goddess Maat’s head.

During the reign of Pharaoh Menes, around 2925 B.C.E., after the unification of upper and lower Kemet, archaeological finds evidence administration of the 42 Laws of Maat among the Kemet people as deduced from Kemet coffin texts or funerary papyri dating from this period.

The Duat, the Hall of Two Truths, and the Weighing the Ka (Heart)

Photo: Plate 3 of the Papyrus of Ani. 42 Laws of Maat, or 42 Negative Confessions, or 42 Admonition to Goddess Maat

The duat (underworld as the place for judgment) is where the popular Kemet funerary scene of the Hall of Two Truths is depicted in the various versions of the “Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Ani,” edited by E.A. Wallis Budge. A closer interpretation of the title from the Kemet language is said to be “Book of Coming Forth by Day.” The Budge translation was a funerary text written for the "coming forth" of Kemet scribe Ani.

In Chapter 30B of The Papyrus of Ani entitled “Chapter for Not Letting Ani’s Heart Create Opposition Against Him, in the Gods’ Domain,” we see the deceased scribe standing before his own heart/soul (ka) on the scale of Maat. On the opposite scale is the Goddess Maat’s feather of truth (Shu). The head of the Goddess Maat is depicted atop the scales of justice. Thoth, also known by other names such as Tehuti, stands holding a tablet and a writing tool to record the results from the scales. The ibis-headed Thoth is the patron saint of Maat scribes and priests.

Petitioner Announces the 42 Divine Principles of the Maat

In Chapter 125 of The Papyrus of Ani, we find the petitioner led by Anubis into duat and pronouncing his/her 42 affirmative declarations, listed below from Budge’s public domain translation of the 42 Divine Principles of Maat:

1. I have not committed sin.
2. I have not committed robbery with violence.
3. I have not stolen.
4. I have not slain men or women.
5. I have not stolen food.
6. I have not swindled offerings.
7. I have not stolen from God/Goddess.
8. I have not told lies.
9. I have not carried away food.
10. I have not cursed.
11. I have not closed my ears to truth.
12. I have not committed adultery.
13. I have not made anyone cry.
14. I have not felt sorrow without reason.
15. I have not assaulted anyone.
16. I am not deceitful.
17. I have not stolen anyone’s land.
18. I have not been an eavesdropper.
19. I have not falsely accused anyone.
20. I have not been angry without reason.
21. I have not seduced anyone’s wife.
22. I have not polluted myself.
23. I have not terrorized anyone.
24. I have not disobeyed the Law.
25. I have not been exclusively angry.
26. I have not cursed God/Goddess.
27. I have not behaved with violence.
28. I have not caused disruption of peace.
29. I have not acted hastily or without thought.
30. I have not overstepped my boundaries of concern.
31. I have not exaggerated my words when speaking.
32. I have not worked evil.
33. I have not used evil thoughts, words or deeds.
34. I have not polluted the water.
35. I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly.
36. I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds.
37. I have not placed myself on a pedestal.
38. I have not stolen what belongs to God/Goddess.
39. I have not stolen from or disrespected the deceased.
40. I have not taken food from a child.
41. I have not acted with insolence.
42. I have not destroyed property belonging to God/Goddess.

After the petitioner’s testimony containing the 42 affirmative declarations, the weighing of the ka for truth, and the reading of the scales, it is said that the doer of Maat is administered Maat. If the petitioner is deemed by the Goddess Maat to be in substantial compliance with the 42 Laws of Maat the petitioner passes from duat to the Field of Reeds (Arus) where Osiris sits as the final gatekeeper.

- by Vanessa Cross

References:

• "Maat the Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt," by Maulana Karenga (Sankore Publisher, 2006).
• "The Book of the Dead," edited by E.A. Wallis Budge (Gramercy Publisher, 1995).
• “Maxims of Good Discourse” writings of the notable Kemet vizier and scribe Ptah-Hotep (accounting of some procedural laws under Maat).

Ancient Egypt Remembered in Photographs | Excursions Along the Nile

Photo: Street vendors, Cairo, Egypt 1870's, albumen print from glass negative.

I found myself at a library book sell during the weekend of May 8, 2012, rummaging through the left behind collection of a collector of books in San Fernando Valley, Edgar Hermann, who recently passed. First the book sale attendant handed me a box, noticing my arms weighed with books. Then two boxes...I knew it was going to be a great weekend for this armchair historian. 


At this early review of my finds, I am most excited about acquiring the book "Excursions Along the Nile: The Photographic Discovery of Ancient Egypt," a 1993 art exhibition catalog of photographs of the Nile published by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California. The 100+ year old photographs of Cairo from the exhibition catalog are astonishing. I could not help but share a few of my favorites here with BHH readers. 

~ V. Cross

Photo: Great Pyramid and Sphinx, Egypt, 1873.

Photo: Scottish soldiers visit Sphinx in Egypt, 1880

Photo: Crocodile on sand bank of the Nile River, 1858.

Photo: Mosque at Cairo, Egypt 1857, albumen print from glass negative.

Photo: Street in Cairo, Egypt 1850's, salt print from paper negative

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Photo: Street of the Citadel, Cairo, c. 1858, stereo albumen print from glass negative.

Photo: boys swimming in the Nile River, 1873, albumen print from glass negative.

Photo: Cairo, Egypt from the Citadel, 1858.

Photo: view from the Summit of Mount Serbal, Egypt looking northeast, 1868, albumen print from glass negative.

THE DOGON: From the Nile Valley of East Africa to the Kingdom of Mali in West Africa

The Dogon of Africa

The Dogon, an ancient people in Africa, are mainly populated in the modern nations of Mali and Burkino Faso in West Africa, the epicenter of the historical medieval Mali Empire. When western anthropologists first began to study Dogon culture they were baffled at the group's advanced knowledge of the universe. They were specifically astonished at their intricate understanding of the Sirius planetary system (Alpha Canis Majoris).

Historical commentators believe that the Dogon's cosmological lore goes back thousands of years to at least 3200 BC, during the pre-dynastic age of ancient Egypt, of the Kemet-Nubian family group of the Nile Valley region. Is it only a coincident that the Dogon's oral history includes an eastern migration story prior to their settling in the Bandiagara Plateau region, near the Southern edge of the Sahara desert between the 13th and 16th centuries?

Dogon Astronomy and Cosmology

Sirius B circles Sirius A like the
Earth circles the Sun.

According to French anthropologist Marcel Graiule, author of Conversations With Ogotemmeli, Dogon priests have kept a precise reading of the ebbs and flow of Canis Major planetary bodies. Sigi Tolo is the name the Dogon give to the distant star Sirius, also referred to as Sirius A. Po Tolo is the name given to its smaller companion star, Sirius B. Keeping and tracking cosmological and astronomical knowledge is part of every aspect of the Dogon's communal lives. In the 1960s, when Graiule studied the Dogon, he found a social order void of murder and theft. It included an elder mediation process that resolved the disputes that arose within Dogon communities -- addressing such issues as who has liability for damages when a man's goat destroys property belonging to his neighbor.

For thousands of years, Dogon social and cultural systems were designed to recall and trek planetary bodies that have been subsequently verified as correct mapping. The Dogon gained this knowledge without the use of physical telescopes. From documentary footage about the Dogon, it appears that they dwell among the cliffs and use the peaks of mountain and hill tops to anchor and measure planetary movements, aided by our pattern of rotation around the sun.

Youth viewing Dogon rock drawings.

For the Dogon, patterns and symbols related to planetary knowledge is embedded in rituals, architecture, sand drawings, etc. The Dogon are aware that Po Tolo (Sirius B) has a 50-year elliptical orbit around the super dense Sigi Tolo (Sirius A).  Knowledge of Sirius B was not discovered by western astronomers until 1970 when photographed by Irving Lindenblad of the U.S. Naval Observatory.

The Nile Valley and the Sirius Connection

Seen clearly in Africa, the Canis Major
is one of Orion's great hunting dogs
(See also Canis Minor). 

The Kemet story of Osiris and Isis were developed and recalled by other Nile valley civilizations such as Nubia and Kush -- all of which identify the Sirius constellation system as the dog star (Canis Major), a manifestation of Anubu (aka Upuaut or "Opener of the Ways"; Greek: Anubis). In Nile valley creation stories, Anubu is a central actor. He is probably best known for his role in the battle between the brothers Set and Osiris.

When Set disassembles the body of his brother Osiris, Isis reassembles the body pieces and delivers them to Anubu who performs embalming rites that bring Osiris back to life. Anubu is also associated with Osiris as his son -- making him the brother of Horus (hour/time).

Anubu is also known among Nile valley civilizations as the one who protects and guides the spirits of the dead across the waters (Nun) of the underworld (Duat or the Hall of Two Truths). Anubu reigned over the process of mummification and embalming, leading the souls of the dead to the Hall of Two Truths for the declaration of the 42 Laws of Maat and the weighing of the heart by the goddess of law and justice, Ma'at.

Ancient image representing Anubu (greek: Anubis / Canis Major).

Image: Ancient Kmt image representing Anubu / Anubis / Dog Star (right).

Nommo Cosmology and the Dogon Creation Story

An unusual graffiti photographed by Scotch Mist in 
Edinburgh, Scotland (Creative Commons/Flickr).

The Dogon's creation story has its origin on Po Tolo (Sirius B). According to the Dogon, Nommo came from the Sirius star system, which is some 8.7 light years away but still bright in our night sky. According to the creation story, the Nommo traveled to Earth by ark and, upon arrival, morphed into the eight mythical human ancestors -- 4 male and 4 female (See also Tehuti (aka Thoth), Ogdoad, Rebirth, Golden Age). Over time, the first human ancestors mated and birthed all of humanity. Even today, the Dogon pray to Nommo for rain, a prayer they say was taught to them by the Nommo. The Dogon rain dance is similar to that of the Native American and involves raising of hands, chanting and making offerings.