The 42 Laws of Ma’at

Note that the aim of this book is not to explain nor to “interpret” these commandments. Although the laws have been adapted to better reflect the contemporary context, the 42 Laws of Ma’at are provided “as is”. The 42 Laws of Ma’at are the ancient Egyptian laws you should comply with during your life to access the afterworld. The 42 Laws of Ma’at is not the original title of this text. Indeed, the Papyrus of Nebseni lists these “laws” under the name The Negative Confession (Budge, 1898). The Negative Confession is a section of The [Egyptian] Book of the Dead (Budge, 1898; Le Page Renouf et al., 1904), which describes a scene where the deceased would confess to the Assessors of Ma’at, the Egyptian goddess of Truth and Justice. Each one of these forty-two deities would receive a negative confession pronounced by the deceased, beginning with “I have not…”, followed by a sin. After these confessions, Ma’at would weigh the heart of the deceased against an ostrich feather. If the heart of the deceased was heavier than the feather, it was devoured by the monster Ammit, preventing the deceased from accessing immortality. The soul was then believed to become restless forever. Indeed, the 42 laws of Ma’at are in fact confessions. However, for readability and contemporization purposes, this publication presents the confessions in the form of commandments. The aim here is to refer to your future behaviour instead of your past actions. Therefore, all the laws listed in this book begin with “I will not…” instead of “I have not”.