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Ammit
Alternatively Amit,
Aman, Amamet, Ammut, Amunet, and Ammemet. Also known as Eater of the Dead,
the Devourer, Devourer of Amenti, Swallower of the Dead, or the Dweller in Amenta
— the place where the sun sets. The name Amenta was also applied by the Egyptians to their cemeteries located in the western bank of the Nile.
A terrifying female Egyptian demon
with the appearance of a fierce chimaera,
Ammit — literally 'she who swallows the dead' — has the head of a crocodile, the torso of a leopard or lion, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus.
According to Egyptian lore, Ammit waited in the Hall of the Two Truths for the daily flow of souls to come before Osiris for judgment.
Anubis brought these souls, in his role as psychopomp ('conductor of souls').
In front of Osiris, the person who died would have a chance to defend his deeds in his previous existence.
Thoth was the one prosecuting and recording the results. The heart of the newly dead was then weighed on the Great Balance of Justice against a feather from the headband of Maat
— this was the Judging of the Heart, or the Weighing of the Heart.
The desirable outcome was that the heart and the feather should weigh exactly the same, and the beam of the Balance of Justice should be horizontal. If the heart proved to be
"light in the scales," the soul was unfit to enter the House of Osiris. Anubis would then feed the heart to Ammit,
who eagerly awaits for a bad verdict, and the person's soul would vanish into oblivion, with no hope of further existence.
See
Thoth,
Casting Black Magic Spells,
Commanding Spirits,
The Tarot Store,
The Chakra Store and
Divination & Scrying Tools and
Supplies.
Sources: (1) Turner,
Patricia and Coulter, Charles R.,
Dictionary of Ancient Deities,
Oxford
University Press; (2) Faulkner, Raymond
(Translator),
The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of
Going Forth by Day, Chronicle Books.
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