While the Greeks probably have the most famous pantheon, one of the earliest, and one from which the Greeks tended to borrow heavily, was that of the Egyptians.
Egypt had one of the largest and most complex pantheons of gods of any civilization in the ancient world.
The Egyptian pantheon was an ever-evolving menagerie of beings where the head god changed semi-regularly, deities came in and out of style. There were over 2,000 deities in the Egyptian pantheon. Some of these deities' names are well known: Isis, Osiris, Horus, Amun, Ra, Hathor, Bastet, Thoth, Anubis, and Ptah. A number of these gods date as far back as 6000 BC and most to at least several thousand years BC.
The more famous gods became statewide deities while others were associated with a specific region or, in some cases, a ritual or role. Ancient Egyptian culture grew out of an understanding of these deities and the role they played in the immortal journey of every human being. The gods evolved from an animistic belief system (one in which everything is inhabited by spirit and has a soul), to one which was highly anthropomorphic (having human characteristics) and imbued with magic (unknown forces).
Heka is the Egyptian word for magic (mysterious power). But heka was also the primordial force that enabled the act of creation and sustained both mortal and divine life. Some of the pantheon served as means of explaining the things that they observed in nature. In other words, it CAN be said that this pantheon was humanity’s early attempt at science–observing and explaining (theorizing) what was observed. The god Heka was the manifestation of heka (magic) which should be understood to be natural laws of how the world and the universe functioned.
Some of these gods and goddesses explained not natural, material things, but rather immaterial value actions, and the central value of the Egyptian culture was ma'at - harmony and balance - represented by the goddess of the same name and her white ostrich feather. It was heka who empowered Ma'at just as he did all the other deities.
The most famous major deities were a group of nine Egyptian Gods whose cult was based at Heliopolis, or in Hebrew – On; which was believed to be the point of creation and the was the birthplace of these famous deities who were called the Divine Family.
These major Egyptian deities were:
Atum, the Sun God, Ra
Shu, God of Wind
Tefnut, Goddess of Rain
Geb, God of the Earth
Nut, Goddess of Sky
Isis, Goddess of Love
Nephthys, Goddess of Divine Assistance
Osiris, God of Death
Set, God of Disharmony
The pharaoh, gods, and deities were responsible for the well-being of the people. The pharaoh deities were all powerful. During the reign of the Pharaoh Akhenaten (the father of Tutankhamen) the world of Ancient Egypt was turned upside when he determined that there was only one god – the sun god Aten. He also determined that HE was the akh, or the spiritual incarnation, of Aten (akh-en-Aten). The Egyptian people were forbidden to worship the old, ancient deities of Egypt. The priests of the old deities were furious and following the death of Akhenaten, the old deities were re-established and all traces of the reign of Akhenaten were destroyed and he became known as the Heretic Pharaoh. This was the only period of monotheism in the 3000 year history of ancient Egypt.
Let’s return to heka for a moment. We learned that heka is the Egyptian word for magic, meaning mysterious power. But heka was also the primordial force that enabled the act of creation and sustained both mortal and divine life. Heka was thought to have been present at creation and was the generative power the gods drew upon in order to create life. His personification of this energy is among the oldest of Egypt, recognized as early as c. 6000 BC. His name was the hieroglyph for power and "he was viewed as a god of inestimable power" who was feared by the other gods. To Heka is attributed the statement: "To me belonged the universe before you gods came into being. You have come afterwards because I am Heka". Heka, therefore, had no parents, no origin; he had always existed.
Heka, with a capital H is the personification of magic itself; heka with a lower case h is the “mysterious force that executes magic.” Stated another way, heka is the primordial energy created at the creation of the cosmos and Heka is the personification of that primordial energy.
Since magic was a significant aspect of medical practice, a physician would invoke Heka. Heka is also the god of medicine. Originally, Heka may have meant he who consecrates the ka for he is also called Lord of the Kas. What’s a ka?
The Ancient Egyptians believed the soul had three parts, the ka, the ba, and the akh (remember akh-en-Aten).
The ka and ba were spiritual entities that everyone possessed. The ka was essentially the life force that at death was separated from the body. The reason for extensive and elaborate preparation of the dead body for the afterlife was to ensure the ka had a home.
The ba, another spiritual aspect, was seen in the hieroglyphics as a human-headed bird hovering over the deceased or exiting the tomb, and was the part of the soul that could travel between the worlds of the living and the dead. The ba also required food to move and survive in the afterworld.
The akh, another spiritual aspect “was the transfigured spirit that survived death and mingled with the gods.” The akh was an entity reserved for only the select few whose souls were worthy and were deserving of being declared ma’at kheru. “An akh is the blessed or ‘transfigured’ soul of a person who died and whose soul had been judged by Osiris and found ma’at kheru – justified. An akh could still influence events in this world.” The akh and ka were believed to need a preserved body and tomb in order to exist.
Heka (both upper and lower case) was therefore originally the power who 1) watched over one's soul, 2) gave one's soul power or energy, and 3) allowed it to be elevated in death to the afterlife.
To human beings, heka finds expression in the heart and the tongue, represented by two other gods, Sia and Hu. Heka, Sia, and Hu were responsible for creation as well as for maintenance of the world and the regulation of human birth, life, and death. The heart was considered the seat of one's individual personality, thought, and feeling, while the tongue gave expression to these aspects. Sia was a personification of the heart and the power of perception or insight, which allowed the creator to visualize other forms; Hu of the tongue indicating authoritative speech; and Heka the power by which the thoughts and commands of the creator became reality.
In the same way that Heka, Sia, and Hu enabled the gods to first create the world, they allowed human beings to think, feel, and express themselves through the use of magic. Magic enabled a personal relationship with the gods which linked the individual to the divine. In this way, Heka can be seen as the underlying form of spirituality in ancient Egypt.
But what was Ma’at kheru, the declaration that permitted certain people into the afterlife?
Ma’at was the goddess of truth, justice and balance. The term Ma’at Kheru is identified with the prevailing party at the end of a civil trial in ancient Egypt. That party would be declared innocent and true, or ‘true of voice’ or ‘justified’. We might think of it as similar to our “not guilty” in a criminal trial.
The Egyptians believed that the final trial of the deceased was to have the heart weighed against the feather of Ma’at. If the person had led a good and decent life, his heart would be just and in balance and he would pass into the afterlife. But if the weight of his heart was not in balance with Ma’at, a monster named the The Devourer consumed his heart.
One of the earliest abstract terms in human speech is Ma’at, which on a cosmic level governed the proper functioning of the universe and kept the world’s elements fixed in their proper places.
The ancient Egyptians believed that the creator established a balanced and harmoniously functioning universe. Imbalance in the world came, not through the existence of some evil force personification, but from human choices and human behavior.
The ancient Egyptians held to the concepts of “justice” (which they named ma‛at) and “law” (hpw). There is archaeological evidence that they were much more interested in justice than in law. Justice was a factor of daily life, discussed in connection with not only earthly life, but also the afterlife. Laws were the written rules intended to point to ma’at.
Ma‛at summed up for them all that was highest in human life. It was behavior that promoted balanced, harmonious relationships between people. It was behavior that was “right, correct, just, orderly, true.”
The opposite of ma‛at was jzft – wrong, incorrect, or antisocial behavior, disorder, falsehood, and injustice. Today humans attempt to control these unjust actions by religious commandments and codes of civil law. The ancient Egyptians did not have such legal codes, rules or regulations. Ma‛at governed human affairs and served as a yardstick against which the Egyptians measured most of their important experiences. Man “did ma‛at” because it was good and because the deities desired it. It was the principle of right order by which the cosmos operated. It was that which men recognized as needed on earth.
Ma‛at was realized when justice was effected. To be just meant to protect the weak from the strong and to accomplish equality. It came to mean “right, true, truth, real, genuine, upright, righteous, just, steadfast”, etc. and all these conceptions were represented in Egyptian speech by a single word, ma‛at.
Wrong actions appeared to them to be behavioral aberrations that impeded human beings from being happy. Not conforming to ma‛at brought disharmony and unhappiness. So, as in Biblical tales, the woes of humankind, are largely due to their own choices.
The ancient Egyptians did not need to believe in ma‛at; they just had to experience it. The wisdom texts advised them to do so through observing the results of their behavior when opposing ma‛at or when in conformity with it.
The ancient Egyptians distinguished Ma’at by practical experience. It was behavior that promoted balanced, harmonious relationships between people. Ma‛at was also important to judges and to their sense of duty, and became the personification of justice, who awarded to every man his due.
After the creation of the cosmos by the sun god Ra, Ma‛at ordered the universe. She represents the equilibrium, which the universe has reached through the process of creation, enabling it to conform to its true nature. As such, she is moderator of all things, from justice to the integration of a dead man’s soul into the universal order at the time of the final judgement.
Like the forces of nature, Ma‛at was established at the creation, created by the creator god and was placed in the cosmos to bring order. Ma‛at essentially meant “the way things ought to be.” The goal was to keep the chaotic forces at bay, both in the world and within oneself. The ordered existence of the cosmos was reflected by the ordered existence of humankind, so humankind sought harmony with the cosmic order.
Ma‛at was absolute and eternal. Ma‛at bound all things together in an indestructible unity.
An effective definition of what doing ma‛at is and what its rewards are: loving the good, hating wrongdoing and obtaining a state of honor with the king and the god. The motivation for doing right was obviously not only because the god loved ma‛at, but also because men loved good and hated evil. The most significant element of ma‛at appears to be “not doing evil (that which is harmful).” So, like the Hippocratic oath, the first rule of Ma’at seems to be “do no harm.”
The Judgement of the Dead, or the “weighing of the heart”, shows ma‛at in action. Many Egyptian texts explain that the heart is the organ that receives ma‛at and emits ma‛at. The heart, symbolically representing the ba (the soul) is weighed on the scale against the ostrich feather of Ma‛at.
If the heart was heavier than the feather, it was heavy with evil deeds. In other words, it was not full of truth and justice – and the devourer would consume the departed. If, however, the heart was in balance with the feather, it meant the soul was full of righteousness, goodness, truth, and justice and allowed the deceased to be declared, “true of voice” or ma’at kheru and the deceased was transferred by Horus to the care of Osiris.
But because there is no corpse represented in the death scene of the weighing of the heart; because ma‛at suggests life, the opposite of death; the judgement scene must be about life. The pair of scales was the symbol for the act of exchanging both physical and intangible things. The scales are the instrument of Truth and involve the natural and automatic functioning of a natural law. The heart is the organ of circulation, and the feather, by its lightness, symbolizes immaterial energy – therefore the weighing of the heart is a symbolic representation that the cosmic energy of Ma’at that is free to circulate.
This role of reception–emission of ma‛at played by the heart is the way by which men participate in maintaining the balance of the cosmic as well as the human world and the free flow of life. The primary aim of the scales is to portray the cosmic exchange of ma‛at, in other words it shows the balance obtained through the right circulation of ma‛at through the heart, the cor of man. People were expected to act in accordance with standards of Ma'at.
Obligations to a transcendent principle of “justice”’ were specifically expressed in Egyptian texts as demands for personal tolerance, forbearance, and mercy towards the disadvantaged. In the positive sense, it entails what one ought to do or what has been upheld, praised by the gods and transmitted from one generation to another i.e., wisdom.
Says one ancient writing: “Execute justice (ma‛at), that you may endure one earth. Calm the weeper, and do not oppress the widow; Do not expel a man from his father’s property; Do not wrongfully expel an official from his office. Beware lest you punish wrongfully. Do not kill, for it is no benefit to you, punish (instead) with beatings and with imprisonment, for this land shall be well founded under such actions.
Titles such as “defender of the orphan”, “rescuer of the fearful”, and “husband to the widow” point to the special role that followers of Ma’at were to assume in protecting those who had been improperly deprived of legal recourse. The assumption of such a role defined the contents of ma‛at as something other than simply the implementation of order.
In ancient Egypt, the law was not merely man’s code of law (hpw), but rather the divine law of Ma’at. How good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity…in Ma’at.
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