how I see Ma'at, Set/Sutekh, & isfet
[Originally penned: May 28th, 2025.]
The goddess Ma’at and concept/ideal of ma’at are necessary in every Kemetic religious person. Ma’at is an Ancient Egyptian concept (lowercase m) and goddess (uppercase M). Upholding ma'at in your life is about balance. You should always be a kind person, but if someone is rude to you, then you can be appropriately rude back; defending yourself is always an option. You should strive for order, but you must also let some chaos into your life.
Life isn't perfect, so just do the best you can with what it throws at you. Be good to yourself and to others, but ma'at isn't always about focusing on things that make you feel lighter, ma'at is challenging and hard in many ways. To do what is right for justice and equity is often to do what is inconvenient and difficult. I bring that part up because a lot of folks tend to lean into the softer, brighter parts of ma'at, but ma'at includes things that are tough pills to swallow. A person shouldn’t do extremes, like how being overly passive makes you easy to walk all over. Living within ma’at is finding your balance while still being your best self.
The horrid Unnamed One Apep/Apophis represents and is entropy itself. It's what happens when no one cares, everyone just lets the bad things happen (apathy), and they won’t do anything good to balance it out or try to fix anything. Letting the world fall apart and burn because they’d rather not be bothered. Even Set/Sutekh, Who gets a bad name from many who misunderstand Him, also fights for Ma’at by killing the Unnamed One every night. Set/Sutekh is an active force, putting energy into a purpose.
Sometimes, that's a dangerous process that causes collateral damage which needs to be dealt with, not always avoidable. You can't keep a garden without yanking some weeds and stirring up mud and bugs, you can't build a house without cutting down trees, etc. Set/Sutekh’s necessary chaos does not counter ma'at the way isfet does, in fact, He is part of ma’at. Set/Sutekh’s chaos lies within the bounds of ma’at. The chaos of Set/Sutekh is controlled, and part of the natural order, like how wildfire makes way, so new life can grow. Isfet is destructive chaos that seeks an end to all creation.
Ma'at and isfet are fundamental. They came into being at the same time, two sides of the same coin that is our reality. Neither one can be fully eradicated, as much as people try and should keep trying to always fight off isfet. It’s simply a part of existence. For Ma’at to be triumphant forever, She needs something to be victorious over. If there wasn’t a dichotomy, goodness couldn’t be recognized as such, as there wouldn’t be an evil to compare it with.