Is it possible to have a heart that is lighter than a feather? To the ancient Egyptians it was not only possible but, highly desirable. If the heart was free from the impurities of sin, and therefore lighter than the feather, then the dead person could enter the eternal afterlife. Other gods in the judgement hall who were part of the tribunal overseeing the weighing of the heart were also pictured holding a feather. In this essay, I will be explaining the meaning of the Feather of Truth and it 's interesting secrets. The after-life of the ancient Egyptians was known as the Field of Reeds and was a land very much like one 's life on earth save that there was no sickness, no disappointment and, of course, no death. One lived eternally by the streams and beneath the trees which one had loved so well in one 's life on earth. An Egyptian tomb inscription from 1400 BCE, regarding one 's afterlife, reads, "May I walk every day unceasing on the banks of my water, may my soul rest on the branches of the trees which I have planted, may I refresh myself in the shadow of my sycamore." To reach the eternal paradise of the Field of Reeds, however, one had to pass through the trial by …show more content…
Ammit lived near the scales of justice in Duat, the Egyptian underworld. In the Hall of Two Truths, Anubis weighed the heart of a person against the feather of Ma 'at, the goddess of truth, which was depicted as an ostrich feather (the feather was often pictured in Ma 'at 's headdress). If the heart was judged to be not pure, Ammit would devour it, and the person undergoing judgement was not allowed to continue their voyage towards Osiris and immortality. Once Ammit swallowed the heart, the soul was believed to become restless forever; this was called "to die a second time". Ammit was also sometimes said to stand by a lake of fire. In some traditions, the unworthy hearts were cast into the fiery lake to be destroyed. Some scholars believe Ammit and the lake represent the same concept of