What is the feather of Maat?

Maat: truth and right order. At the judgment of the dead the heart is weighed against this feather.

What the sign shows: An ostrich feather.
How Gerald Massey read it in 1907: Massey points to the double feather Horus wears when he rises from the tomb as the mark of his sovereignty.
Where you see it today: The weighing of the heart against the feather is the best-known scene from the Book of the Dead.
Where it stands in Massey’s book: Massey names it 21 times across the book. Book II, p. 46: “Dancing what could not be said”; Book II, p. 114b: “A night-light for the dead”; Book IX, p. 570: “The flood the gods feared”.
Signs that look like it: Papyrus, Was sceptre and Lotus. The app’s Symbol Trainer sets them side by side, so the eye learns to tell them apart.
In Massey’s words: “When Horus passes from the life on earth he rises from the tomb wearing the double feather and wielding the whip as his sign of sovereignty.” (Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (1907), Book XII, p. 773)
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer › Feather of Maat. The app’s Symbol Trainer reads 42 signs this way, each with Massey’s own words and the page they stand on.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

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