An Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
(author unknown)

Chapter One
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk, and I fall in.
I am lost and helpless -- but it isn't my fault.
It takes forever to get out.

Chapter Two
I walk down the same street.
There is still a deep hole in the sidewalk, but I pretend not to see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in this place again -- but it still isn't my fault.
It takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three I walk down the same street.
There is still a deep hole in the sidewalk, and I see it there.
I fall in again -- it's a habit.
But this time, my eyes are open and I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter Four
I walk down the same street.
I see the same hole in the sidewalk and I walk around it.

Chapter Five
I walk down another street.

Last week we talked about how Ma'at works in the universe, and noted that much of Ma'at is both situationally-dependent and action-dependent; that She comes into action as a reaction to something a person does. As a result of Her reactive nature, it falls very heavily onto human shoulders to "make Ma'at" in the world--She does not generally do it on Her own, but in tandem with the actions of the Created.

This is absolutely not to say that Ma'at is the same thing as karma. Karma is a concept taken from Hinduism and also seen in its descendant, Buddhism, and has crept into a number of Western philosophies and New Age type movements as a sort of "heavenly scorecard" where an impersonal force records merits or demerits against a person during their lifetime. According to this understanding (which I am not certain matches up to the original sense of karma in the religions from which it was lifted), after the end of a person's life (s)he is measured up against the "score" on the karmic card, and then shuffled off into another life where (s)he will reap the benefits or curses which (s)he caused others in the previous lifetime.

There are some very strong differences between Ma'at and Western so-called "karma." First of all, Ma'at is not that patient--a person does not get until next lifetime to clean up his act. Ma'at goes into action at the moment any action is made, and while She may not work as fast as one wants Her to work all the time, She does do Her job and She completes it in the proper timeframe. "Instant karma," as John Lennon suggested, would be the only viable comparison here.

Secondly, karma as a concept belongs to a worldview in which human life is believed to be inherently bad or at very least imperfect; where suffering is an acceptable way of life and is routinely "deserved" or "earned." Nothing could be further from the truth for the Kemetic Orthodox, or for the vast majority of African Traditional Religions--we are the children of God, not some secondhand mistake that deserves eternal punishment. We absolutely refuse to believe that suffering is a necessary part of human development, or that anyone, no matter what they have done, deserves to have something happen to them that is not commensurate with what they have done in turn, or deserves to be punished in a completely different lifetime for something one would not even remember doing (provided one were reincarnated; for the Kemetic Orthodox reincarnation is not necessary). This is not a culture of victims locked into an endless loop of "paying" for what they may or may not have done; this is a culture of responsible individuals who can--and must--step up and take to themselves the consequences of their actions, for good or for evil.

As the autobiography notes, accepting those consequences isn't easy (if it was, it wouldn't take five chapters!). In many ways, it is easier for humans to remain victims, to stay in their habit loops, always looking out from the hole rather than looking for ways to get out and stay out. In some cases, the hole is too deep for a person to climb out of alone--in these cases taking responsibility may not automatically equal "well, if you can't do it, you aren't trying hard enough," but involves knowing when and where one must call for help--and also when and where one should lend their aid to another.

Additionally, this also doesn't mean Kemetic Orthodoxy has a naive worldview in which as long as we are faithful and "good" nothing bad will ever happen to us. Being children of Netjer, while the best gift we could ever expect to be given, doesn't grant immunity from bad times; according to our mythology, even the Names of Netjer Themselves occasionally are affected by the unexpected or the sinister, in the form of the Nameless One, the Uncreated, which is outside the universe and therefore cannot be controlled by Ma'at. Occasionally, it may get in and disrupt, manifesting in "evil" in our lives and our societies. Observation and divination is the key to understanding whether suffering comes from the natural results of Ma'at playing out (and can therefore be controlled or righted with the correct counteractions), or is the result of something bigger, requiring Netjer's intervention. Some things may be a combination of both--nothing is so simple when it comes to human life and the nature of the universe.

Simple, however, is Ma'at--so simple that She is often overlooked in the equation of "why?" which is the singular human question. Keep Her and Her sole law ("you are responsible") in mind, and you will find yourself walking down different streets sooner than you'd expect.