DeConick A.D

27
THE MATRIX OF ANCIENT SPIRITUALITY
personal piety was rewarded. The aspect of the human being responsible
for moral behavior was the ib (heart), the seat of the intellect and emotions.
The good person was guided inwardly by the heart to be virtuous.
Virtue was understood to be knowledge of the rules of conduct that
brought about communal harmony, as well as obedience to the will of
the gods. The Egyptians viewed the wise person as the silent person who
submitted himself or herself to both maat and the will of the gods. The
gods were viewed as omniscient, constantly judging humans with favors
and disgrace, depending upon human compliance.
So it was in the afterlife, too. In order for the deceased to make the
transition to the otherworldly state when he or she is transformed into
an akh , the old body must be disintegrated and a new form created. To
this end, the priests performed elaborate embalming ceremonies. These
practices were not so much about preserving the body of the deceased as
they were about destroying the old body and transfiguring the deceased
into a new form that would live on after death.
Part of this transition to the akh form involved a terrifying journey
through the netherworld to the Hall of Twin Truths. At every underworld
portal were ferocious draconian guards who tested the deceased.
The deceased had to prove themselves knowledgeable and worthy to be
inhabitants of the akh sphere, to be deserving to live in Osiris’s field of
plenty, to board the sun god’s ship in the sky, or to become a star god in
the belly of the sky mother.
The final decision was made in the Hall of Twin Truths, where the deceased
had to pass strenuous examinations to be confirmed pure and worthy
of afterlife transfiguration. In order to gain admittance, the deceased
uttered precise scripted responses to questions about their identity and
competence. They also testified about their moral condition by listing the
forty-two sins that they never committed. To prove the veracity of these
claims, the ib of the deceased is placed on a scale and weighed against
the feather of maat . If the ib is heavier than the feather, the heart of the
deceased is considered heavy with sin. Immediately, the terrible crocodilefaced
monster Ammut devours the heavy heart and the deceased ceases
to exist.
If the scale is balanced, the great god of wisdom, Thoth, cross-examines
the deceased about the outcome of the trial. “Why have you come?” he
demands. “What is your moral condition? Who do you hope to see?” The
deceased is required to respond that he or she has been judged worthy,