Beauty is truth, truth beauty
John Keats
Whatever may be said about other pantheons, no one can claim that any of the Egyptian deities are inappropriately sexed – psychologically or spiritually. Many pagan religions, as we have seen, became distorted by patriarchy, with essentially female roles being commandeered by male gods – even, in the case of Zeus, Metis and Athene, that of giving birth. But the Egyptian religion kept its balance to the end (if it can be said to have ended).
At first glance, Ma’at or Mayet, the Egyptian deity of law, truth, justice and the divine order, may seem an exception. Surely law-giving, and the discernment of factual truths, is a linear-logical function – in other words, a god function? In Cabalistic terms, it is the role of Chesed, the benevolent administrator?
But that would be to misunderstand the concept of ‘divine order’ which Ma’at represents. She stands for the natural, inevitable order of things, both macrocosmically and microcosmically. Her law is organic, not legislative.
The laws of the divine order, the justice of inevitability, the truths of cosmic reality – these are indeed Goddess functions. Cabalistically speaking again, Binah (the Supernal Mother) takes the raw directionless energy of Chokmah (the Supernal Father) and gives it form in keeping with the natural harmony of the cosmos. Chesed (the Father aspect on the next level of manifestation) takes the forms which Binah has given birth to, and ‘legislates’ for their activity. But the natural laws which determined those forms in the first place are a function of the Supernal Mother.
So the Egyptians were right to make Ma’at a goddess.
But Binah and Chesed must complement each other – ‘legislation’ must be in harmony with the natural order. The Egyptian pantheon stressed this by envisaging Ma’at as the wife of Thoth, god of wisdom, learning and measurement, and the inventor of speech, whose activities reflected her laws; he is recorded in the Papyrus of Nebseni as declaring, ‘I bring Ma’at to him that loveth her.’
Human law, to be healthy and effective, must be in tune with the higher law which Ma’at symbolizes. Recognizing this, Pharaohs always ritually invoked her blessing on their rule; they would present statuettes of Ma’at to the gods, this being ‘more acceptable than any sacrifice’.
All judges were regarded as priests of Ma’at, and royal princesses often wore her symbolic red feather as a headdress, to show that they were her priestesses. Even the monotheist Akhenaton, who abolished all deities except Aten, honoured Ma’at by name – though his record as a ruler (whatever one thinks of his religious views) hardly lived up to the gesture. His successors made much of the ‘restoration of Ma’at’ to correct the chaos of his reign.
In the Egyptian creation legend, Ma’at was the daughter of the Sun god Ra. She and Thoth were with him in his Boat of a Million Years when it first emerged from Nun, the primordial waters. She was the light which Ra brought to the world; creation began when he put her in the place of chaos. Yet Ra, too, was subject to his own daughter, as were all the gods; his daily course in the sky was determined by her laws.
It is hardly surprising that Ma’at played an important role in the judgement of the dead. The judgement itself took place in the Hall of the Double Ma’at, depictions of which show her standing at both ends; one could not evade the natural order, coming or going. In the scales of judgement, the deceased’s heart was weighed against the red feather which was her symbol – or, in some depictions, against a tiny figure of Ma’at herself; and often she was the scales as well. Her husband Thoth had the dual function of seeing that the deceased had a fair chance to justify himself and (as scribe of the gods) of recording the verdict.
Modern civilization has come dangerously close to divorcing Thoth and Ma’at – to rupturing the integration which should exist between cosmic truth and intellectual thinking, between natural law and human organization. The restoration, and honouring, of that divine marriage is an urgent need for mankind, and one to which Wicca is particularly dedicated.
Using the Egyptian forms of Ma’at and Thoth (or Tehuti, to give him his proper Egyptian name) for a modern ritual is not just being exotic for the fun of it. Ma’at and Tehuti symbolize this particular contemporary danger, and its solution, perhaps more clearly than any other deity-forms; so why not invoke them?
For the Isis ritual in Chapter XXIII, we will be using Egyptian temple symbols and ritual forms, because the Isis theme is timeless and universal, and it seems appropriate to use the forms traditionally associated with her.
But the reuniting of Ma’at and Tehuti is an immediate contemporary task – so in the ritual which follows, we invite them to a Wiccan Circle, confident that they are as much at home there as anywhere else.
We need the nourishment of Ma’at, the blossoming flower which is the true nature of our universe. As an Egyptian text vividly puts it: ‘Put Ma’at to your nose and inhale her perfume, so that your heart shall live; thus shall you feed on Ma’at.’
The Ma’at Ritual
The Preparation
A woman witch is chosen to enact Ma’at, and a man witch to enact Tehuti. Even if the coven is skyclad, these two should be robed, to adhere as closely as possible to their Egyptian images.
For Ma’at, the clothing is a simple calf-length or ankle-length skirt, tubular and close-fitting. Most depictions show her bare-breasted, with two thin shoulder-straps to the top of the skirt (the front ends converging towards her cleavage). The skirt is often red, her symbolic colour, but white will do. Her jewellery is normally a semicircular pectoral at the neck, with bracelets on both wrists and usually just under each armpit as well. She should be bare-footed. Her hair hangs free (unlike that of Isis, which is usually elaborately coiffed).
Whether robed or skyclad, she should wear the red feather which is her symbol, upright over her left ear, held in place by a red ribbon tied round her head and knotted at the back. Ideally, it should be an ostrich feather, dyed red, but, failing that, any long feather dyed red, such as a goose quill. (Ma’at’s ostrich feather seems to have been not the fluffy tail-feather of Victorian fashion but the neater wing-feather.)
Easier to follow than any description is a picture. See the design at the head of this chapter, and Figure 4.
Tehuti’s robe is much simpler: a white cloth wrapped around him from waist to knee. Again, see Figure 4.
Tehuti appears in two forms: as a seated baboon and as an ibis-headed man. For our purpose, the latter is obviously the practical one. The ibis head is not necessary – but if you care to experiment with mask-making, Tehuti would be an interesting subject.
For incense, we suggest a plain one such as frankincense to set the opening atmosphere, with rose oil ready for the appropriate moment in the ritual.
A single red flower (preferably a rose) is in the empty chalice, covered by a cloth.
The Ritual
To start with, Tehuti is standing beside the East candle, silently watching. Ma’at is in hiding outside the Circle; if the room has no suitable place to hide her, she simply stands outside the Circle, but at a distance from Tehuti, with a veil covering her face.
The Opening Ritual proceeds as usual, but without Drawing Down the Moon, the Charge or the ‘Great God Cernunnos’ invocation.
After the Witches’ Rune, the coven are seated in a ring facing inwards. The High Priestess goes and stands before the altar.
The High Priest takes the wand from the altar, goes to face Tehuti, salutes him with the wand and says: ‘Great Tehuti, god of wisdom, we have need of you in our Circle. Will you enter?’
Tehuti asks: ‘Are you sure that I am all that you need?’
The High Priest replies: ‘With the gift of wisdom, we shall know what else we need.’
Tehuti says: ‘So mote it be.’
The High Priest opens a gateway in the Circle with a leftward sweep of the wand, and Tehuti enters. The High Priest closes the gateway with a deosil sweep of the wand.
Tehuti goes and sits down in the centre of the Circle, and the coven huddle close around him, looking inwards at him. The High Priest replaces the wand on the altar and joins them. Only the High Priestess remains standing by the altar.
Tehuti asks: ‘Why do you not join us, Priestess?’
The High Priestess answers: ‘I honour you, Great Tehuti, and we need you in our Circle. But something is lacking.’
The coven all cry! ‘No! No!’
Tehuti smiles understandingly and bows towards her, still seated. She bows towards him, still standing.
The coven, ignoring the High Priestess, start firing impromptu questions at Tehuti, who answers them. All the questions are concerned with knowledge, logic, scientific facts or organization. Tehuti answers them precisely but deliberately avoids pointing out that the questions are one-sided. (To keep this going, the High Priest and Tehuti will do well to have prepared a few questions and answers beforehand, between themselves.)
Meanwhile the High Priestess picks up the wand from the altar and walks slowly deosil round the Circle, saying every now and then: ‘Something is lacking. I know that something is lacking.’
After a while she looks towards where Ma’at is hiding, hesitates for a moment and then goes to the spot, opening a gateway with the wand. She finds Ma’at and brings her out of her hiding-place (or removes her veil). They look at each other, and then the High Priestess bows. Ma’at raises her upright, smiling and saying: ‘Do not bow your head to Truth. Look her straight in the face.’
The High Priestess escorts Ma’at into the Circle, closing the gateway behind them. Then she goes and stands before the altar again, watching.
Ma’at walks deosil round the huddled coven, who ignore her. Every now and then she touches one of them on the shoulder, but they only huddle closer round Tehuti, still questioning him and ignoring her.
After a while, she goes to High Priestess, spreading her hands in a gesture of failure. High Priestess takes the rose oil from the altar and gives it to her. Ma’at sprinkles a few drops of it on the glowing charcoal and then stands with her back to the altar. The High Priestess stands to one side.
When the two women are in position, the High Priest holds up his hands for silence, and says: ‘I sense a perfume, that was not here before.’
Tehuti rises, facing Ma’at from the centre of the coven. The coven remain seated, but turn to look at Ma’at.
Tehuti says: ‘It is the perfume of Truth, which is greater than mere knowledge. It is the perfume of the Music of the Spheres, which is greater than the schemes of men. It is the perfume of my beloved, who is greater than I.’
Ma’at replies: ‘Say not so, my Tehuti; for we have need of each other.’
Tehuti says: ‘Without me, you would be unfulfilled; but without you, I would be nothing.’ He tells the coven: ‘Rise, Children of Men, and pay homage to Ma’at – she who was lacking from your Circle!’
All rise, and bow to Ma’at.
Tehuti goes to join Ma’at, and they both face the coven.
Ma’at takes Tehuti’s hand, and addresses the coven: ‘In the beginning, my father Ra, the burning Sun, arose in his Boat of a Million Years out of Nun, the primeval waters. With him were my husband Tehuti and I. Ra sent me to bring order to Chaos; to set in motion the machinery of the universe. The turning of the stars, the tides of the sea, the birth and growth of all creatures – even the journeying of Ra himself – all these follow my Law. It is the Law of Nature, the inexorable rhythm of being. It is all things which are so because they must be so.’
Tehuti says: ‘And from the beginning, the Law of Ma’at gave birth to creatures ever more complex and subtle. Last of all, it gave birth to men and women. It was then that my task began. I taught them to open their eyes, I taught them to speak, and to count, and to gather knowledge like the grain of harvest.’
Ma’at says: ‘My husband taught THEM to know ME.’
Tehuti says: ‘But as the ages passed, in their pride they believed only in what their eyes could see, only in the sound of their own words. They counted, without loving what they counted; they harvested, but forgot to re-plant. They valued knowledge above wisdom, so that I, too, was betrayed.’
Ma’at says: ‘Know and remember, O Children of Men: I am what I am. My Law continues because it must; it is the warp and weft of the Universe. You can live by it, or you can die by it. The choice is yours. Use the gifts which my partner Tehuti has brought to you, to understand me better, not to hide me from your sight.’
Tehuti says: ‘Then shall the Music of the Spheres become the song of you all, with the words that I have taught you.’
Tehuti turns and, taking the cloth from the chalice, brings out the rose and hands it to Ma’at. He says to the coven: ‘Put Ma’at to your faces, and inhale her perfume, so that your hearts shall live; thus shall you feed on Ma’at. I bring Ma’at to those that love her.’
The High Priestess and High Priest come forward together. She takes Tehuti’s hand, and he takes Ma’at’s, and they escort them to join hands with the coven.
All circle deosil, slowly at first and gradually faster, till the High Priestess cries ‘Down! and all sit on the ground.