Fact 1 on the Feather of Ma'at: | The Single Plume was an emblem of the goddess Ma'at who was the female counterpart of Thoth. She wears on her head the feather characteristic of the phonetic value of her name
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Fact 2 on the Feather of Ma'at: | Meaning: To the ancient Egyptians the goddess was the personification of integrity, righteousness, and truth.
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Fact 3 on the Feather of Ma'at: | The icon was used as a Hieroglyphic symbol representing truth, justice, morality and balance (hieroglyphic is shown in the above picture).
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Fact 4 on the Feather of Ma'at: | The ostrich was symbol of creation and light and ostrich feathers were characteristically depicted in Ancient Egyptian Art with a curled top. The plume, or feathers of a falcon were depicted with a rounded top with a stem running down the center of the plume.
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Fact 5 on the Feather of Ma'at: | The ancient Egyptian artists who made the amulets or talismans depicting the curled ostrich feathers often used dark colored stones such as obsidian, basalt. and lapis lazuli. Obsidian is a type of black glass produced by volcanoes. The colors of basalts are very dark green to black. The lapis lazuli is dark blue.
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Fact 6 on the Feather of Ma'at: | The ancient Egyptians believed that after death they would have to answer for any mortal sins in the Underworld during the ceremony of justification and the weighing of the heart in the Hall of Judgement.
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Fact 7 on the Feather of Ma'at: | The feather of Ma'at was placed on the opposite side of the scale from the spiritual heart of the deceased - refer to the picture below. The spiritual heart was called the 'Ib' which was believed to be the source of good and evil. (The ancient Egyptians called the physical heart the 'haty').
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Fact 8 on the Feather of Ma'at: | A heart that was light and free from sin gained entrance into paradise but a heart made heavy by sin outweighed the feather of Ma'at and was devoured by the monstrous Ammit, the 'Devourer of Souls'.
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Fact 9 on the Feather of Ma'at: | The goddess was the patron of judges and all court officials who often wore small golden talismans of the goddess as a sign of their judicial authority and as a symbol that their judgement would be balanced and fair.
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Fact 10 on the Feather of Ma'at: | Priests drew the Feather of Ma’at on their tongues with green dye, so that the words they spoke were truthful.
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