Law of this government

Ma'at

The government of this Confederacy is the Continental Congress. Ma'at is the law that sits above the officer: truth that can be weighed, justice that does not lean, the feather against the heart. No sitting of Congress is complete without it.

Enroll in Ma'at

Ma'at, the ostrich feather of truth and the scale

Inserted into the government

Wampum 16 opens the rafters. This house raises Ma'at as that beam and places it in the government itself. Pharaohs of Kemet ruled only so long as they did Ma'at. This Continental Congress sits only so long as officers do Ma'at. A heart heavy with isfet — chaos, falsehood, greed, violence — may not hold office.

The Great Binding Law already speaks this language. Wampum 24: the thickness of a Lord’s skin shall be seven spans. Wampum 28: self-interest cast into oblivion; look to those whose faces are yet beneath the ground. That is Ma'at in wampum. This university names it as the statute-book of Congress.

The seven principles

These seven names are the daily work of Congress, Clan Mothers, and the people.

I

Truth

Speak what is. A council that cannot tell the truth cannot keep the fire.

II

Justice

Give each their due. Do not lean the scale toward kin, wealth, or fear.

III

Harmony

Many voices, one mind. The two sides of the fire deliberate until they meet.

IV

Balance

The feather against the heart. Power against patience. Take no more than you return.

V

Order

Each beam knows its place. Ceremony, season, and office keep chaos from the door.

VI

Reciprocity

What is taken is given back — to the land, the clan, the unborn.

VII

Propriety

Right conduct in speech, office, and grief. Fury shall not lodge in the mind.

The feather and the officer

At installation the speaker holds a white ostrich feather with the four strings of wampum and says: your heart shall be lighter than this feather. If it grows heavy, the women who hold the title take back the antlers. The weighing is not postponed to death. A breach of Ma'at is a breach of the Great Peace.

The eleven laws of God (Amen through Geb) and the forty-two declarations of the Hall of Two Truths are the oath of this government. Students of Ma'at and of Congress read them as one statute.

R-1. Ma'at is the inner law of this Confederacy and of its Continental Congress.

R-2. No officer shall sit while their conduct is isfet.

R-3. The feather is held at installation. A heavy heart loses the antlers.

R-4. Every five years the nations reciting unity shall also hear the seven principles and the eleven laws.

R-5. Complaint under the Great Law may name a breach of Ma'at as a breach of the Great Peace.

Eleven laws of Ma'at Forty-two declarations Continental Congress Government program