Ma’at

Explanation of the painting:

Background butterfly:
– Emperor blue spot
Charaxes cithaeron Cithaeron

– Cumulonimbus clouds
– Spider Web
– Pearl Spotted Owlet
– Fish – bubbles underwater representing air
– Bateleur – Terathopius ecaudatus
– From Egyptian Book of the Dead:
A scribe balances the heart and a feather of truth

Anubis

An Egyptian deity or goddess with the head of a jackal. The head is black and associated with the colour a dead body has after mummification. Anubis was of great importance in the whole mummification and embalming and purification and anointing process.

Anubis weighs the hearts in the Hall of Judgement and guides the dead who passed the test to resurrection and the all-wise.

The weighing of the heart, a commonly depicted scene in tombs and books of the dead.

His or her dead heart is weighed against the feather of truth. (I used a peacock feather, so that it was visible and clearly a feather in the painting.)

A crocodile head – Devourer of Hearts consumes the hearts of those wanting. This ceremony has 42 assessors.

If the weighing is satisfactory. The deceased is led to Osris, attended by Isis and Nephthys and presented for admission to a new existence.

Female Diadem – Butterfly
Hypoliminus misippus
– Yacht on the ocean at sunset
– Blue Crab: Columbus
– ‘Emperor’ – orchid
Rhyncholaeliocattleya
sung ya green
– Lesser Flamingos
– E Lorraine Smith
Cashews & brown sugar – orchid
– Lesser Striped Swallows
– Moon
– BACH motif represents imbalance, a dramatic subject for fugues.
– Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow flowers
Brunfelsia pauciflora
– Natal forest tree frog
Leptopelis natalensis
we need frogs for a balanced ecosystem.
– Water lily – Lotus Lily
Nymphaeaceae
– Kite – needs wind
Lift = weight
Thrust = drag
– Baby veiled chameleon

September 2024

~Savour my souvenirs of Earth