Ma'at the Goddes of Truth

As the first Divine Principal to evolve from the primeval ooze, Ma'at may be the most important deity of all. As the daughter of Ra she was the reality that is solidly grounded in the sunrise. As light giver, it was Ma'at that mapped out the course of the sun at creation. She is the first principal that governs the rising and the setting of the sun. She appears to have given birth to a world of concepts; she is the Goddess of Truth, Balance, Justice, and Law and Order.

Truth has been a principal universal to all religions and that even the gods must obey. Ma'at teaches us to know ourselves-to be aware and honest about our strengths and weaknesses. From a spiritual standpoint, Ma'at enables us to transcend our human shortcomings because we can walk fearlessly, knowing that as the sun rises with each new day, we are in fact new creations. By choosing to live ethically, keeping our souls as light as the feather Ma'at wears, we become one with the Universe. Through this unity, we gain immortality.

Truth is defined as fact, knowledge, veracity, or reality; like the universal laws of physics, Truth is unchanging. These laws apply equally to everyone, unlike the laws of government that are often unequally enforced. While Justice is often determined by race, creed, color, IQ, geography, and income, Truth operates like the law of gravity. It is predictable. For example, we may look to the horizon and see a sunrise or a sunset depending on our perception and location; however, it actually does neither. The Earth actually revolves around the sun. Four hundred years ago, most people believed the world was flat-Columbus was laughed at when he declared the world was round. "All this worldly wisdom was once the unnamable heresy of some wise man." (Henry David Thoreau)

Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus. The world had scarcely become known as round and complete in itself when it was asked to waive the tremendous privilege of being the center of the universe. Never, perhaps, was a greater demand made on mankind - for by this admission so many things vanished in mist and smoke! What became of our Eden, our world of innocence, piety and poetry; the testimony of the senses; the conviction of a poetic - religious faith? No wonder his contemporaries did not wish to let all this go and offered every possible resistance to a doctrine which in its converts authorized and demanded a freedom of view and greatness of thought so far unknown, indeed not even dreamed of.

--Goethe

In fact, "the most important truths are likely to be those which society at that time least wants to hear." (W.H. Auden)

It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.

--Giordano Bruno

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.

--Leo Tolstoy

Historically...those who told the truth about a particular regime have been exiled, jailed, or killed by those in power whose fury has been aroused. To be sure, the obvious explanation is that they were dangerous to their respective establishments, and that killing them seemed the best way to protect the status quo. This is true enough, but it does not explain the fact that the truth Sayers are so deeply hated even when they do not constitute a real threat to the established order. The reason lies, I believe, in that by speaking the truth they mobilize the [psychological] resistance of those who repress it. To the latter, the truth is dangerous not only because it can threaten their power but because it shakes their whole conscious system of orientation, deprives them of their rationalizations, and might even force them to act differently. Only those who have experienced the process of becoming aware of important impulses that were repressed know the earthquake like sense of bewilderment and confusion that occurs as a result. Not all people are willing to risk this adventure, lest of all those people who profit, at least for the moment, from being blind."

--Eric Fromm

Opposition to the truth is inevitable, especially if it takes the form of a new idea, but the degree of resistance can be diminished- by giving thought not only to the aim but to the method of approach. Avoid a frontal attack on a long established position; instead, seek to turn it by flank movement, so that a more penetrable side is exposed to the thrust of truth. But, in any such indirect approach, take care not to diverge from the truth- for nothing is more fatal to its real advancement than to lapse into untruth.

--B. H. Liddell Hart

There is no such thing as truth.

--Adolph Hitler

When I despair, I remember, that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. Yes, there have been tyrants and murders, and for a time they the can seem invincible. But, in the end the always fall. Think of it. Always!

--Mahatma Gandhi

Truth is often confused with honesty. Truth is constant is does not change. "The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth--that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.

--H. L. Mencken

Honesty is subjective to current accepted knowledge, emotion, and state of mind. Where you are mentally and physically will often determine what you see. The honest man must be a perpetual renegade, the life of an honest man a perpetual infidelity. For the man who wishes to remain faithful to truth must make himself perpetually unfaithful to all the continual, successive, indefatigable renascent errors.

--Charles Peguy

Honesty is best described as a lack of intention to deceive. All too frequently, our defense mechanisms keep us from seeing ourselves in the same light as others do. This is because if we were to be simultaneously bombarded with all the realities of life in addition to all of our defects, we would surely short circuit.

Sure, most people have "cash register" honesty, but until we experience awareness of our problems at the gut level, we can't see above the problem to reach real, lasting solutions. We must be able to be, accepting ourselves just the way we are, before we can contemplate being something different. We can't just place ourselves in a different context and expect change to take place. Geographical cures rarely work, because no matter where we go, our faulty belief systems will follow. We have no anchor to keep us from drifting if we do not claim what we are. Honesty helps get a hold on spirituality and allows for expanded consciousness. "The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) "The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so." (Henry Wheeler Shaw)

Our version of truth is filtered through our belief system. Our past experiences and the adopted beliefs handed down to us color our perceptions. Often we are unable to discern if we are seeing things through "rose colored glasses" or a dirty windshield-"We have no assurance that half-truth will make us free." (Roger J. Williams) The fraudulent person lives life without truth, like a piece of plastic fruit that looks genuine on the outside but has no nourishment. While he may be able to deceive himself, those who can see beneath the veneer will not be fooled. Such persons live a hollow existence of perfect appearance by polishing the shiny exterior, but in the process, they never find the meat of their existence. Their desire for immediate gratification will not allow them to plant seeds and then wait for the growth of real fruit. Hollow fruit can never produce nourishment. The fruit of the tree of evil appears good on the surface but it cannot sustain a person's needs-he must first be the thing he is or he will waste all of his energy in deceit.