Balance Vs. Perfection; The Feather of Ma’at
As I continue to develop my spirituality, the lessons I learn are usually centered around the topic of balance. I’m forever looking to improve balancing my time, relationships, and emotions. I’ve come to accept this skill takes consistent self awareness and analysis.
Today, I will be focusing on using ‘self judgement’ as a constructive tool. In the past I let my inner critic take over… I was overly perfectionistic. Now, I use the Egyptian judgement day myth as a my own mental template.
The Egyptian Myth
The ancient Egyptians believed that the heart recorded all of the good and bad deeds of a person’s life. After a person died, the heart was needed for judgment in the afterlife. The heart was weighed against the feather of Ma’at . Ma’at was the goddess of truth and justice. If a person’s heart balanced with the feather the person was deemed worthy to live forever. If a person’s heart was heavier than the feather, it was thrown to the crocodile goddess Ammut and that soul ceased to exist.
This is a myth which I interpret in an allegorical sense. In my interpretation, this story warns that the cost of a ‘heavy heart’ is the loss of the soul itself.
The way we choose to treat ourselves. How we perceive and handle our ‘weaknesses’, can weigh heavily on our hearts. This is where I feel doing our shadow work is incredibly important.
I find the ‘heaviest’ shadow elements are the parts of ourselves and our past we do not wish to bring up. For a good while, I decided to constantly raise my vibration and spirituality bypass all my shadow elements. On the surface everything looked sunny… but underneath the shadow was spreading rapidly. The eventual result was the dark night of the soul. The experience made me realise… to really remain ‘light’ we must equally embrace the darkness.
As we handle the weight of our shadows, we act as our own judge. In reality, we constantly find ourselves at the scales in this lifetime.
I ultimately decided to use artwork to express my feelings about how I handle the things which weigh me down. In my own painting I used Ma’at’s feather as a symbol.
The heart is not yet on the scales, it has instead been pierced by the sword and set ablaze by fish (these fish are from the Thoth two of cups reversed). This heart is currently experiencing all the very turbulent and difficult energies one inevitably encounters in this lifetime. The two of cups reversed can be interpreted is inner disharmony. While the heart is experiencing the difficulties of this mortal plane, the feather of Ma’at takes its place in my chest.
This symbol gives me a center and grounds me during heavy experiences. It reminds me that even though I will encounter very hard things, it will not rob me of levity. I do this by quelling my inner critic. And whenever I am I’m the wrong… I strive to rectify the situation and not repeat my mistakes. I try my best to accept myself at all my vibrational frequencies. I try to act as a ‘fair’ judge.
For anyone who currently feels heavy in the heart. I honour you and where you are at in your journey, I’ve been there… and will return there time and time again. This is life. My hope is you will treat yourself kindly as well until the weight lifts.
