Hall of Maat and Mystical Death

The Hall of Maat

The Hall of Maat is mentioned frequently in the Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead’ and appears illustrated in many of the book’s vignettes. The ‘Book of the Dead’ is actually the name that modern researchers gave to a collection of papyri, found in many burial chambers, that was originally given the name by the Egyptians “spell for coming forth by day”. The ‘Book of the Dead’ contains, spells, incantations and instructions for the dead to pass safely into the after world and dwell in the Tuat (heavens) with Osiris.

The hall of Maat also called the hall of double Maat, as it is the hall of truth and justice is the place where the 42 Assessors or Lords of Maat reside and is where the deceased comes to face to face with judgement. There the heart of the deceased is weighed against the feather of the Goddess Maat, which represents truth. In some papyri it is the Goddess Maat the Goddess of truth and justice that weighs the heart of the deceased, and in some others it is Anubis the chief Assessor of Maat that weighs the heart.

According to the Gnostic teachings there are two types of death, that of the physical death and that of the psychological or mystical death. The Egyptian book of the dead can be seen in two ways, as a guide for the deceased – the person whose physical body has died or a guide for the person who is dying within themselves mystically or psychologically.

Mystical Death

It is worthwhile at this point to clarify what is meant by the psychological or mystical death. In Gnosis and in many different expressions of spiritual knowledge there has always been the teaching that the human being is divided, that within dwells both many errors or defects and something divine. The errors or defects were called the ‘Red Demons of Seth’ by the ancient Egyptians and in this day and age we refer to them as psychological aggregates or egos or “I’s”. The human being has many of these psychological “I’s” or egos that really are the cause of our pain and are the personification of our errors. If indeed we want to arrive at true liberation or enlightenment we need to dissolve the egos we have by first observing them and comprehending them. That process of dissolving our egos such as anger, envy, lust, Pride, laziness, gluttony etc. is what is called mystical death. It is something that any enlightened person has had to pass through. Jesus, Buddha, Hermes Trismegistus, Krishna etc. were all mystically dead, in other words they had all died to their vices, contradictions, desires, fantasies, ill will etc. etc.  

The Deceased Soul Enters the Hall of Maat

Gnosis teaches that once a person dies physically the essence or soul of the deceased after 3 days of a certain type of retrospection, appears before Anubis and the 42 assessors of Maat in the Hall of Maat. In the Gnosis teachings the Hall of Maat is referred to as the Palace of Cosmic Justice and the 42 assessors of Maat as the judges of the Divine law. After death in the hall of Maat the essence or soul is judged on the life just lived and the destiny of the soul is determined.

Three Possibilities After Physical Death

There are according to Gnosis three possibilities for the destiny of the soul after physical death. They are: to return once again to a womb and live another life on earth, or to remain in the superior dimensions of nature for sometime as a reward for the merit earned through good works done in life and then later to return to earth to live once again a human life or to be sent into an involutive or devolutive process in the bowels of the earth. This last option is referenced in the book of the dead in many of the weighing of the heart scenes, where the monster Ammit is waiting to devour the heart of the deceased, if the heart is found heavier than the feather meaning that the principles of the 42 assessors of Maat were not upheld.

In the sense of the mystical death that may well be arrived at a time before the physical death, the confessions of Nebseni are very relevant. To prove that the candidate or initiate is in fact mystically dead the initiate enters the hall of Maat or the tribunal of cosmic justice and faces each of the 42 judges and recites to each one the negative confession that pertains to them. See the back of this handout for a list of all the negative confessions, taken from the papyrus of Nebseni.

The esoteric Gnostic doctrine affirms that indeed the Hall of Maat is not a myth but rather a reality. Obviously if it existed physically the it would have found it by now, but it’s existence is to be found internally, in the superior dimensions of nature.  Gnosis says specifically in the Astral world.

In Conclusion

So, the following point and that of the mystical death are the most important points of this whole series of talks. That of the mystical death is really fundamental if we no longer want to suffer and if we truly want enlightenment and want to pay all of our karmic debts. The second point is to say that we are all under the law of karma or the law of cause and effect. Meaning that we have karmic debts where by the suffering we have caused in the past has to be repaid and the precise reason why we are suffering now, perhaps inexplicably is because of karma. Our karmic debts are repaid with good works and voluntary work dedicated to the dissolution of the ego that in the first place caused the error and therefore the debt.

We also want to say with this talk that our karma is managed by divinities (Anubis and the 42 Assessors of Maat) so we can using the right practices (of which Gnosis teaches) negotiate our karmic debts and if we know how to project ourselves into the Astral dimension or plane (Gnosis also teaches the methods to do this) we can learn about our karma and even negotiate it face to face in the Hall of Maat.

The 42 Negative Confessions

(From the Papyrus of Nebseni, British Museum No. 9, 900, sheet 30)

1.)            Hail, Usekh-nemmt, who comest forth from Anu, I have not committed sin.

2.)            Hail, Hept-Shet, who comest forth from Kher-aha, I have not robbed with violence.

3.)            Hail, Fenti, who comest forth from Khemenu, I have done no violence.

4.)            Hail, Am-khaibitu, who comest forth from Qerrt, I have not stolen.

5.)            Hail, Neha-hau, who comest forth from Rasta, I have not slain men.

6.)            Hail, Ruruti, who comest forth from heaven, I have not made light the bushel.

7.)            Hail, Arti-f-em-tes, who comest forth from Sekhem, I have not acted deceitfully.

8.)            Hail, Neba, who comest and goest, I have not stolen the property of the god.

9.)            Hail, Set-qesu, who comest forth from Hensu, I have not told lies.

10.)         Hail, Uatch-nesert, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not carried away food.

11.)         Hail, Qerti, who comest forth from Amenti, I have not uttered evil words.

12.)         Hail, Hetch-abhu, who comest from Ta-she, I have attacked no man.

13.)         Hail, Unem-snef, who comest forth from the execution chamber, I have not salin a bull which was the property of the god.

14.)         Hail, Unem-besku, who comest [forth from the Mabet chamber], I have not acted deceitfully.

15.)         Hail, Neb-maat, who comest forth from Maati, I have not pillaged the lands which have been ploughed.

16.)         Hail, Thenemi, who comest forth from Bast, I have never pried into matters [to make mischief].

17.)         Hail, Aati, who comest forth from Anu, I have not set my mouth in motion.

18.)         Hail, Tutuf, who comest from from A, I have not been wroth except with reason.

19.)         Hail, Uamemti, who comest forth from the execution chamber, I have not debauched the wife of a man.

20.)         Hail, Maa-anuf, who comest forth from Per-Menu, I ahve not polluted myself.

21.)         Hail, Heri-uru, who comest forth from [Nehatu], I have terrorized no man.

22.)         Hail, Khemi, who comest forth from Ahaui, I have not made attacks.

23.)         Hail, Shet-kheru, who comest forth from Uri, I have not been a man of anger.

24.)         Hail, Nekhem, who comest forth from Heq-at, I have not turned a deaf ear to the words of truth.

25.)         Hail, Ser-Kheru, who comest forth from Unes, I have not stirred up strife.

26.)         Hail, Basti, who comest forth from Shetait, I have made none to weep.

27.)         Hail, Her-f-ha-f, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not committed acts of sexual impurity, or lain with men.

28.)         Hail, Ta-ret, who comest forth from Akhkhu, I have not eaten my heart.

29.)         Hail, Kenmti, who comest forth from Kenmet, I have cursed no man.

30.)         Hail, An-hetep-f, who comest forth from Sau, I have not acted in a violent or oppressive manner.

31.)         Hail, Neb-heru, who comest forth from Tchefet, I have not acted [or judged] hastily.

32.)         Hail, Serekhi, who comest forth from Unth, I have not.... my hair, I have not harmed the god.

33.)         Hail, Neb-abui, who comest forth from Sauti, I have not multiplied my speech overmuch.

34.)         Hail, Nefer-Tem, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not acted with deciet, I have not worked wickedness.

35.)         Hail, Tem-Sep, who comest forth from Tetu, I have not done things to effect the cursing of [the king].

36.)         Hail, Ari-em-ab-f, who comest forth from Tebti, I have not stopped the flow of water.

37.)         Hail, Ahi-mu, who comest forth from Nu, I have not raised my voice.

38.)         Hail, Utu-rekhit, who comest forth from thy house, I have not cursed God.

39.)         Hail, Neheb-Nefert, who comest forth from the Lake of Nefer, I have not acted with insufferable insolence.

40.)         Hail, Neheb-kau, who comest forth from [thy] city, I have not sought to make myself unduly distinguished.

41.)         Hail, Tcheser-tep, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not increased my wealth except through such things are [justly] my own possessions.

42.)         Hail, An-a-f, who comest forth from Auker, I have not scorned [or treated with contempt] the god of my town.

Mystical Death & Renunciation

Introduction - Common View

The common view we have of renunciation is that we have to leave all that we have and all that we love. When we hear the word renunciation images of ourselves leaving our home for the streets or for a third world country come to mind, plus, how could I forget, a certain feeling of terror.

Well, the good news is that this is only one aspect of renunciation and there are many other aspects that quite frankly are more important and practical in relation to the work of mystical death.

This post is about the role and use of renunciation in the work of mystical death.

Renunciation in the Work of Mystical Death

I will expand more on this point later in this post, however to give you an idea, renunciation in the work of mystical death is really the action of giving up the results of what the ego provides us with. It is a stage of the mystical death that is very close to the elimination of the ego. When we no longer have interest in what the ego brings to us that ego has no function in our life and there is no reason to keep it alive in us. This actually is a very advanced stage in the work of the ego and only can happen on a real and sustainable basis when we the consciousness has understood that what the ego brings is no longer needed and that the benefits of being without that ego are far greater than having it.

Comprehension First

What we need above all in the work of mystical death is conscious comprehension. Without it whatever effort we make towards mystical death sooner or later fails. For example, we probably have all experienced the following, we attend our Gnostic meeting and a practice on the death of the ego is being led by our instructor. We recognise that we have to die in an ego though we either feel that we don’t want to or either it is so hard to give it up for one or another reason, and when our instructor gets to the stage of asking the Divine Mother to eliminate it and asks that the group chant the mantra KRIM, after the first KRIM the same ego we were meant to be working on is already planning its next manifestation.

Another common experience is that after working on the ego in a meditation style practice we given a few minutes just easily manifest the same ego that we just worked on. The reason behind all if this is that there is a lack of comprehension.

When we lack comprehension, true comprehension of eh consciousness that is we feel that we don’t want to eliminate the ego, because deeper down we feel that we need it and we can’t live without it.

Comprehension is the marvellous key that we need to open the doors of progress in the dissolution of the many “I’s”. With comprehension we can renounce to the benefits of the ego and see truly that we don’t them or that we have them within our Being already. Comprehension gives us the magic key, the magic phrase or sentence of comprehension that helps or gives us the reason to press ahead in the dissolution of the ego.

Magic Phrase of Renunciation

With renunciation we guarantee our success. This is something that I learnt actually while preparing a practice to give at a retreat on the Stations of the Cross. I for some reason felt attracted to the tenth station of the cross is where: “Jesus is stripped of his garments”.

Apparently in that station Jesus is being humiliated, mocked, ridiculed and has completely surrendered his will. However, from the esoteric point of view He is in complete control, the Christic force is fully active sacrificing itself to fulfil the will of the Father. By completing this act of renunciation Jesus (the Christ) secured his triumph as he fulfilled the law of the path that states that every exaltation, is preceded by a humiliation. By the voluntary act of being humiliated (renouncing his rights) he was later exalted by rising from the dead.

In conclusion, what I learnt from the tenth station of the cross that renunciation is your guarantee of success. It also gives the reason as to why we have to dissolve or give up the ego. Because doing that we will find success in the path and happiness will come to us.

When the ‘I’ fights terribly against us we have to say to it “my renunciation of what you bring to me is my guarantee of success”. We certainly know that this is true. If we have renounced the benefits that those three factors: money, power and sex bring to us everyone knows that the person will be spiritually successful.

When Are We Ready to Renounce?

The first indications that we are ready to renounce occur when our consciousness has comprehended that there is at least one benefit to be had by renouncing to that one ‘I’. As soon as we consciously see and feel one benefit to dissolving that ‘I’ a door opens up before us. That door is the door of option. Before this door opened up to us we had no option all that we could do was the will of the ‘I’ but now we have a choice to make, do the will of the ‘I’ or stop and not do the will of the ‘I’ and collect the benefit that we know and understand exists for us.

If we once the door of option opens for us, what we must do continually strengthen the understanding of the benefit and use it to counteract the ‘I’ until the hypnotic grip that that ‘I’ has on us is broken. Then the fight is over and renunciation and elimination can take place and the ego is dead.

Renunciation Beyond Mystical Death

So far we have explained how useful renunciation is in the process of mystical death. However, we would like to present the message that the renunciation does not stop once we are mystically dead or dead in the ego.

From our understanding of the Gnostic teachings it appears that renounicnation exists from this very moment until the moment where we are about the enter the Absolute. There Master Samael says that the Gods have to renounce to the right of existing before they can enter the Absoluter Abstract Space. So renunciation is an action, actually we can qualify it as an act of sacrifice, that needed for one’s whole path from this moment now to the end and even while we (we that is fused with the Being) are inside the Absolute there are levels and levels within the Absolute implying that even while the Being (we fused with the Being) are inside the Absolute renunciation is needed to move to the next level.

Even the Cosmocrators have to renounce to their role in creation of being regents of a planet, and even the regents of a solar system or of a galaxy have to renounce their role to move to a higher level of development.

Conclusion

Work on deeply comprehending the benefits that the dissolving an ‘I’ will bring to you and discover the payoff that the ‘I’ brings to you and work on comprehending the truth of whether that is really needed or not and be sure that it does not already exist within you. When you have comprehension of these two mentioned factors (benefits of dissolution and the “I’s” payoff) renunciation comes next and it will be processed naturally and easily by your consciousness.

P.S – Another Way – Painful & Difficult

There is of course another way, which is much more painful for the ‘I’. And that is to renounce without much comprehension and use will to enforce the decision. The ‘I’ will struggle tremendously, and to quash it, we have to work and suffer quite intensely (depends on the size and strength of the ‘I’).

Mystical Death is a Decision!

One Big and Many Small

Most certainly as with everything else in life, mystical death is a decision. It is one big decision and thousands of much smaller decisions.

We need one big decision to begin our work in mystical death and thousands of smaller decisions to keep us moving forward.

Decisions at Every Turn

At every turn in the work of mystical death there is a decision to make: die or stay as we are.

Experience shows us that such decisions are often met with fear, anxiety and resistance. Sometimes, decisions to die or to stay as we are, require great courage and determination to make. Experience also shows us that if we delay our decision we also delay our progress and eventually we become stuck, we stand still and become like stagnant water.

Stagnant Water with Decision can Flow Again

Water that does not flow or move eventually becomes stagnant. If our work in mystical death does not progress, move or flow forward it will eventually become like stagnant water.

Experience also shows that the first step to get the water flowing again is to make the decision to move forward. The decision to die, followed action supporting that decision is the remedy.

Stagnation

Stagnation in the work of mystical death as in any field of life has particular symptoms.

Some of the typical symptoms are listed below:

·         Life or certain activities appear to be always the same. We then sense our life or certain activities as very repetitive and mechanical. In other words we begin to live the ground hog day, just as in the movie.

·         There is a slump into a negative, low energy state with corresponding pessimistic thoughts and feelings.

·         In these negative states that we slump into we commonly become cynical. That is we find ourselves starting to think and feel against the spiritual work. We are not into it as we were before and we can even start to think and believe that it is boring, difficult and something that only makes one’s life bitter.

·         Scepticism can enter into the picture as well as materialism. There is a very logical reason for this. As we become stagnated we stop seeing results and naturally we start to think that the esoteric work does not work and that the Being does not help either (scepticism), and because we feel bitter we look for pleasure or happiness elsewhere or rather outside of ourselves in matter, and thus we become more and more materialistic. Then we start to lose the flavour of the work and we begin to gradually adopt the flavour of life and we become fascinated with the various pursuits and projects of life and we reduce the space inside of us for the work of mystical death.

·         After a while we can start to live two lives, where on hand we attend our Gnostic classes or meetings and as soon as we leave the centre to place where the meetings are held we go back into the ego that we can progress in its elimination. We then start to live a contradiction or a lie.

·         Living a contradiction then begins to tear us apart, as we lose ourselves, we find that we are two people and a struggle within ourselves begins. This struggle is very damaging, it is very tiring.

·         We often feel guilty for being stagnated in the ego and for deceiving all our Gnostic friends as we know that they do not expect us to be stagnated in such an ego or egos. We then begin to feel uncomfortable attending the Gnostic classes, and we want to leave.

·         Frustration can also appear as well, we can become angry with ourselves as we see that it is our fault that we are not progressing.

How to do we Break that Stagnation

All of these symptoms can be broken by taking action. That is the main remedy. Get sincerely tired of your stagnated state and take action! When you may ask? Right Now! Is the only answer.

Conclusion

Decide to die! At every turn of life, decide to die!

We may delay our decision, and we may try to turn our back on it. It may seem like a relief to do so, but experience shows, that it is not long before the bitter taste of stagnant water makes us to face that decision again.

When that decision to die comes to you, take it and break that cycle of repetition. Engrave the lesson of repetitive inconvenience, pain and suffering into your consciousness and decide for the new freedom that lies a few steps away from your decision to die!

Mystical Death and Divinity (The Real Being)

One Special Reason

There is one special reason why a human being would embrace the work of mystical death, and that reason is the interior divinity. Certainly, we say in Gnosis, that each and every human being and living creature has their interior divinity, which is nothing other than their ultimate reality, their inner truth and the very true cause of their life. It is essentially the source of the source of vitality and life force that surges through the essence and veins of the person.

Our Current Condition

Unfortunately though we must recognise, and I think that it is easy to recognise it, that we are very far from knowing that reality let alone being one that reality (we are of that reality but we are not consciously integrated with it). We are so often during a given day of our life submerged in psychological processes and even actions or activities that have nothing to do that inner reality or source of life. Unfortunately, those psychological processes (thoughts and feelings) have more to do with the ‘myself’, the ego, the mind made ‘me’ and the abyss.

Pluralised ‘I’

The psychological “I’s” that we have in our psyche are the ones that at any given moment take the place of the Being in us, fooling us to think that we are ‘one’ and as if we were our Being or inner divinity (Real Being and interior divinity are the same in Gnosis).

Pluralised ‘I’ and Contradictions

However, the various contradictions that we have show us that not one ‘I’ that we have is really real or occupies a permanent position within us as if it were real. The “I’s” (‘I’ as in “I walk”, “I run”, “I move” etc.) are not permanent nor solid nor continuous, we are rather made up of so many “I’s” that from moment to moment dethrone each other and deceive making us perceive o think that when they are in control we are one. We in fact are only one when the Being or our interior divinity is within us and we no longer have any “I’s”.

Pluralised ‘I’ Blocks the Interior Divinity

The various “I’s” block do not allow the presence of our interior divinity and fraction and divide us so tremendously that we can not be our Being, that we can not feel our interior divinity and that we can not even from a far perceive our interior divinity.

Conclusion

In conclusion here, the mystical death is the real way of relating well to our interior divinity, and it is the really the only way to continuously improve a relationship with our interior divinity.

What is Mystical Death?

Introduction – Don’t Get Scared

I think that it would be useful to clarify this right from the start: mystical death is not physical death. Mystical death is a term used to describe the real and definite transformation of our psychological nature.

Mystical death refers to the death of the many “I’s” or defects that we carry within our psyche. Where we suffer due to psychological factors, mystical death is a balm to heal the wounds and consequences of our errors that make us suffer.

There is the principle: that for something to be born, something must first die. So, for the so-coveted virtues to be born in us, or for the authentic, inner peace and tranquility to appear in us, something must first die. This is something that so many human beings know deep down, but as always, the absence of a precise answer to the question of “how do I do it?”, causes so many to forget their inquietude.

Mystical Death is Transformation

Mystical death is nothing more than transformation. We know that in every process of transformation, whichever it may be (physical, psychological or esoteric) there is always something that ceases, so that something new may emerge.

For example, in nature the seed must die for the plant to be born. There are so many examples in nature, another very simple example is water. When water is boiled the water loses it liquid property and is transformed into vapour. So the liquid ceased to be, only for it to give way becoming something new – vapour.

The guarantee with all the kinds of death is that when a thing dies there is always something else born after it. That is why in Gnosis we say death and life are deeply or intimately linked. For something to be born something must die. As you know, if you know about past lives that is, we are here again on the Earth because we at some point in the past died and nature brought us back to life.

In conclusion here, we can never separate life form death. If there is one there also has to be the other. The reward for mystical death is always the birth of something new. Such as new conditions, a new perspective, new understanding, new awareness, a new kind of inner peace, a renewed love and glimpses and states of authentic happiness.