Ma'at
As Depicted Through Kemet
Ma'at is both the concept and goddess of justice from Ancient Egypt, or Kemet. In Ancient Egyptian religion, Ma'at was the personification of justice, truth, and the cosmic order. In the Egyptian myth for the judgement of the dead, the ceremony called the Judgement of Osiris weighed the soul in a scale that is balanced by the justice of Ma'at.
The Divinity
The Justice card here represents Ma'at, the ancient Egyptian goddess of Justice. One of the most prevalent depictions of justice being weighed on a scale, her existence in history has shaped worldwide cultural understanding of the concept itself. The scales of Ma'at can be seen in pop culture and literary references alike. In the ceremony of the Judgement of Osiris, an individual had their soul and thus the actions of their life weighed against the principles of Ma'at as the societal and universal balance of justice and righteousness.
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The Components of 'The Wheel of Fortune'
A sarcophagus housed the body, and the more ostentatious the outside and detailed the carvings the more likely a sarcophagus was to house a royal of ancient Egypt.
The scales of in the ceremony to judge the dead weighed the soul against the feather of Ma'at. This feather represented not only the goddess herself but all the principles and the cosmic balance that she presided over.
To say a sin weighs heavy on one's conscious can be seen as stemming from the idea that if a dead man's soul was weighed as heavier than the feather they were seen as unworthy of proceeding to the Egyptian afterlife.
The khopesh was a distinctly Egyptian sword that developed from axes into a sickle-like shape. They represented not only strength in war but power in the societal sense as well. In this way, it can be seen as comparable to the sword depicted in Waite's Justice card which has been said to represent the power and strength to enforce justice as it points upward.
The pillars of ancient Egypt were as functional as they were decorative. Carvings in the pillars told stories and displayed the purpose of the structures they supported. Each was a marvel of architecture and artwork alike, covered in unique carvings and hieroglyphs over the unique structures.
