[Tidbits] Meet Maat

Maat. these are my Readers of Tidbits. Readers of Tidbits. meet Maat.
Maat is a lovely creature. She is the ancient Egyptian concept of
truth and balance and order and law and morality and justice. Not
only that. but she is also an amulet made of Gold and Lapis Lazuli.

Oh. what a beauteous creature she is with her golden feather of truth
used to ultimately determine whether one’s soul was pure of heart and
would thusly trek on successfully to paradise. I shudder to think
what happened to those souls that were darkened by the contrary quirks
of human nature.

As to the snake emanating from her forehead–I know you all know this
but just in case you don’t–this is the uraeus snake guarding Maat
and protecting her while guaranteeing the endurance of her monarchy.
This snake is a defensive cobra, rearing up to strike with lethal
force any enemy of Pharaoh. Maat was a loyalist of the first degree.
Yes she was.

She regulated the stars and the seasons and the actions of both
mortals and gods. She was the one who set order to the universe from
the chaos that existed at the moment of its creation. She was a
powerhouse. And it is therefore no wonder that the great Egyptian
jeweler Benja-tat-en-kuh created this image of her in that precious
blue stone. Look at the engraving. Look at that profile. Look at that
physiognomy emblematically depicting a perfection which could only be
achieved by the goddesses of yesteryear.

Maat was almost biblical–before biblical times–in her beliefs. She
called upon the rich to help those less fortunate. She may never have
uttered “you are your brother’s keeper” but I do believe that was her
underlying credo.

So revered was she that kings incorporated her name with theirs.
There were the Lords of Maat. And there were the Meri-Maat. This of
course evolved to modern times where the downtrodden often used her
name to describe their plights. They were commonly known as the
Door-Maats. And there were the huge shopping centers called the
Super-Maats.

But this is about jewelry. And gold. And a semi-translucent to opaque
rock composed of luzurite and hauynite plus a few other minerals
which was called Uknu. the Assyrian name for Lapis-Lazuli. As a quick
aside. Uknu was used as a cure for melancholy. Feeling blue. get a
Lapis. Use blues to cure blues I always say.

So there is it. Maat. Lapis. Uknu. Gold. Amulets. Feathers. Snakes.
And lore galore. Happiness. thy state of grace is but a Tidbits away.

And now we’re at that point. The image of this diatribe is about to
show itself. For those of you who are new to this thing called
Tidbits. may I direct you to my home page at
http://www.tyler-adam.com where you will scroll down the left side
menu till you get to the area that says Current Tidbits. Click on it
and you will see represented on our pages an image of a Maat in all
her Uknu glory

And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch
you all next week. Benjamin Mark