The Weighing of the Heart
The Book of the Dead of Kenna
1405-1467 BC


This is one of the many depictions from the ancient Egyptians showing the heart being weighed against the feather. They believed that, after death, a person is guided to the Judgment Hall for this weighing of the heart. According to James Churchward in The Sacred Symbols of Mu, the feather is said to represent "truth" because it can be so easily blown away. According to Joseph Campbell, in The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, the feather is symbolic of Maat, goddess of the moral order of the universe.

Note the seven spherical nodules along the pole from near the bottom on up to the crossbeam. They are thought to correspond to the seven chakras of the human body. There is another nodule above the beam, which may represent a sphere of timeless consciousness beyond the earth plane.

Note also that the the composite animal's snout cuts across the pole between the third and forth nodules. The platform of the Judgment seat is also at that level. This seems to indicate the critical point between the third chakra and the forth, the heart chakra.

The baboon on the Judgment seat is one form of the god Thoth, counterpart of the Greek Hermes (Mercury to the Romans), who guides the soul after death. Baboons bark with the rising of the sun.

If the heart weighs more than the feather, the dead soul is devoured by the "Swallower," the composite beast, a mixture of crocodile, hippopotamus, and lion. If the heart is found to be lighter than the feather, the soul is conducted by Toth to Osiris's throne by the Waters of Eternal Life.

Joseph Campbell wrote that in terms of the kundalini, the message could hardly be clearer . . . if the aims of the deceased in life were no higher than those of Chakra three (the animal instincts), the Swallower claims the soul.

The implication is that if one has not reached the heart chakra level of love and compassion during a lifetime, the person must be reborn, that is, reincarnated back on earth, in order to try again. Otherwise, the soul is free to move on to higher planes of existence.

Personally, I believe that Thoth represents a part of the self, probably the Higher Self, and that we "judge" ourselves after death. The decision is made after a "time," to reincarnate or to move on to another plane.

[link to www.greatdreams.com]