Maat Magick: A Guide to Self-Initiation

Maat Magick: A Guide to Self-Initiation by Nema (1995)


This book is a veritable treasure trove for the magickal person and is a gem for thelemites. The book is laid out on the basis of the Qabalistic spheres. There is much insight into the symbolism of the Qaballah, the Tarot, and many other systems and magickal formulae.


Maat is the Egyptian neter of Truth. The idea of a neter is that she as a goddess represents truth as an ideal. As Nema points out - truth is not static - it changes depending on what level of reality (represented by the Qabalistic spheres) you are working on.


The Maat Current is said to be concurrent with the Horus Current explained by Crowley. Crowley divided human epochs into periods represented by Egyptian deities.


“The Aeon of Isis was the time of the mother-goddess, of integration with nature in hunter-gatherer societies, of reverance for fertility and clan. The Aeon of Osiris was the time of the father-god, of the conquest of Nature in city-building and migrating societies, of a reverence for wealth and power. The Aeon of Osiris brought the phenomena ofgovernment, organized religion, slavery, war, and money.” … “The major Western manifestation of Osiris as the slain and risen god is Christianity, a religion of submission and dependency on a divine incarnation..”


Horus and Maat are the children in the formula. Horus is in two forms: the infant Heru-Pa-Kraat (Harpocrates) God of Silence and the warrior Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Maat is associated with the infant Horus - so Silence and Truth are siblings so to say.


Osirian paradigms - especially Christianity - propelled the idea of ‘dominion’ over nature and so technology boiled over into destruction of the planet - so the newer paradigms of the children are poised to seek to halt and reverse such damage and find harmonious relationships to Earth and her systems.


The Maatian system is delineated (though not entirely) by a channeled book -’Liber Pennae Praenumbra’ or ‘The Book of The Preshadowing of the Feather’ which she ‘received’ in 1974. Here is given the image of the aeon as the Bee - “whose Will and the Hive-Will are but one.” Also the word is given and much enigmatic magickal mythos wordings which are explained in her commentary and notes. The idea of a ‘double-consciousness (individual and hive) being a mutation in the future is suggested. I am guessing this has something to do with intensifying the clanning instinct into a sort of ‘be we’ or tribal intimacy taken to new depths. The tribes I know have a long way to go here.




There are various practices and suggestions for each level. Rituals of an intense sort are here that one can do oneself in order to access the magickal energies of the ‘current’ - experience the ‘Forgotten Ones’ of our instinctual past - Dance the Masks represented by the Tarot trumps - a Mass of Maat that involves rather intense sexual magick - an Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) - and various other rites of a potent nature.


She talks much of the initiated tradition of Western magick and suggests that working with the Maat current is not exclusive of any one type of belief system. Some of us have a lot of ‘loose’ affiliations.


I should also say that I have met her several times and have known some of her associates. My wife has known her for many years. She lives here in SE Ohio - we run into her every once in a while and she actually gave us our copy of the book some years back. She is also involved in the local pagan communities and is an HP of Pantheistic Wicca. A lot of her earlier works are published in the ‘Cincinnati Journal of Ceremonial Magick’ , in the splendid Archives of Black Moon Publishing and other Thelemic publications.


As far as magick goes this is some neat stuff! Lots of interesting ideas to consider. The book is also illustrated with her own artwork. She is an accomplished painter as well. I wish more magickal people would become familiar with works such as this. Even though there are a lot of unusual magickal practices covered, she does manage to imbue the book with a sense of morality and responsibility.