Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

JUDGMENT HALL OF OSIRIS, AND THE WEIGHING OF THE HEART

Symbolical of the soul's evolution on the lower planes to ultimate perfection and union with God.

“The scribe Ani and his wife Thuthu enter the Hall of Double Maat, wherein the heart, symbolic of the conscience, is to be weighed in the balance against the feather emblematical of right and truth. In the upper register are the gods who sit in judgment. . . . On the standard of the scales sits the dog-headed ape, the companion of Thoth, the scribe of the gods; and the god Anubis, jackal-headed, tests the tongue of the balance. On the left of the balance, facing Anubis are: (1) Ani's 'Luck'; (2) the Meskhen or cubit with human head, thought by some to be connected with the place of birth; (3) the goddesses Meskhenet and Renenet who presided over the birth, birth-place, and early education of children; and (4) the soul of Ani in the form of a human-headed bird standing on a pylon. On the right of the balance, behind god Anubis, stands Thoth, the scribe of the gods, who holds in his hands his reed-pen and palette with which to record the result of the trial. Behind Thoth stands the monster called either Amām, the Devourer, or Am-mit, the Eater of the dead." - BUDGE, Book of the Dead, p. 22.

The mental and emotional natures (man and wife) are prime factors in the soul's evolution on higher and lower planes of order and law (double Maat). In the centre of the picture is symbolised the content of the soul, whose nature is to be weighed in the balance of experience. The heart in the vase stands for the causal-body, the shrine of the Higher Self, and the feather of Maat in the other scale signifies the lower personality that relates to justice and law in contradistinction to the higher nature (heart), which is answerable to the dominion of love. The light and unstable feather is symbolic of the life of the personality, and is appropriately the sign of the ephemeral, illusory personality of the lower planes. The ideals (gods) are the tests of the soul's efforts to rise. The dog-headed ape symbolises the lower mind, which finds expression through the experiences of life. The figure of Anubis represents the physical body, which kneels to the law of necessity in nature and so tries to turn the scale in his favour towards the lower life. By so doing the mind is led to act through the astrophysical nature, and thus it is that the ego's several early experiences are gained; these are recorded in the causal-body by the higher mind (Thoth).

(1) "Ani's Luck." The upright figure of a man next to the heart symbolises the lower human nature, or the material life portion of the individual, and refers to the personality. The physical existence being to a great extent independent altogether of the control of the soul itself, and the conditions of organism and environment being divinely prearranged in accordance with karmic law, so the happenings which beset the physical body, or other outer vehicles of the soul, are to be conceived of as illusory, and, as it were, in the nature of chance or destiny, since they are but temporary combinations of conditions and circumstances which are conducive to such growth as will afford the Divine life within the means for expansion and development.

(2) "The Meskhen." The man-headed rectangular object symbolizes the perfected individuality. It is said to be connected with the place of birth, that is, it is an emanation from atma wherefrom the ego originates.

(3) "The man-headed bird" symbolises the spiritual ego or Divine soul. These three, the spiritual ego, the individuality and the personality, constitute the threefold aspect of the human being.

(4) The two small upright figures close together, called Renenet, goddess of nursing, and Meskhenet, goddess of the funeral chamber, symbolize nature in its dual aspect of sustainer and destroyer, by means of which the ego evolves from the germ state to maturity.

Thoth is a symbol of the higher mind or intellect which subjectively gathers up the life experiences of the ego into the causal-body. The monster behind Anubis is typical of negation, that state into which the lower illusion will descend, and by which it will, as it were, be swallowed.

“Thoth, the judge of Right and Truth, saith—Hear ye this judgment. The heart of Osiris (Ani) hath in very truth been weighed, and his soul hath stood as a witness for him; it hath been found true by trial in the Great Balance. There hath not been found any wickedness in him." - Ibid., p. 26.

This signifies that the personality has been perfected and the soul is victorious over the lower nature.

See Also

AB
AMMIT
ANUBIS
APE BALANCE
CAUSAL-BODY
EVOLUTION
EXPERIENCE
FEATHER
GODS
HAWK
HEART
HEBEN
HOME
INDIVIDUALITY
KARMA
MAAT
MESKHENIT
PERSONALITY
RECTANGLE
RENENIT
SAU
SHAI
SHENIT
THOTH