Ostrich Tattoo Meaning

Truth, swiftness, and the single feather that weighed every soul.

The Ostrich is the bird of the feather that weighed every soul — its single plume the feather of Ma'at against which every heart was measured in Egypt, and itself the great flightless runner that traded the sky for unmatched speed on the ground. To carry the Ostrich is to carry truth, swiftness, and the single feather that weighed every soul — the plume of Ma'at on the scales of judgment, the lightness of the truthful heart, the largest bird that gave up flight to become the fastest thing on land.

In ancient Egypt, the ostrich's plume carried the weight of cosmic truth: the ostrich feather was the feather of Ma'at — truth, justice, and cosmic order — the feather placed on one side of the scales in the Weighing of the Heart ceremony; every human soul was measured against the ostrich feather; the heart that was heavier than that feather had failed to live in truth. Ma'at, the goddess and the principle of truth, justice, and cosmic order, was symbolized by an ostrich feather — and this feather played the central role in the Egyptian judgment of the dead.

In the Weighing of the Heart, the great ceremony of judgment in the afterlife, the heart of the deceased (held to be the seat of character and conscience) was placed on one pan of a scale, and the feather of Ma'at on the other. The heart was weighed against the feather of truth: if the heart was light as the feather — if the person had lived in truth and justice, in accordance with Ma'at — they passed the judgment and entered the afterlife. But if the heart was heavier than the feather, weighed down by wrongdoing and untruth, the person had failed to live in truth, and the heart was devoured by the monster Ammit, denying them eternal life. The Egyptian ostrich is thus the feather of Ma'at on the scales — the plume of truth against which every soul was weighed in the judgment of the dead. The ostrich feather was the feather of Ma'at, weighed against the heart in the Egyptian judgment of the dead — every soul measured against the feather of truth. The Egyptian ostrich is the feather of Ma'at on the scales — the ostrich feather was the feather of Ma'at (truth, justice, and cosmic order), the feather placed on one side of the scales in the Weighing of the Heart ceremony, every human soul measured against the ostrich feather, the heart that was heavier than that feather having failed to live in truth; Ma'at, the goddess and principle of truth, justice, and cosmic order, symbolized by an ostrich feather, which played the central role in the judgment of the dead — in the Weighing of the Heart the heart of the deceased (the seat of character and conscience) placed on one pan and the feather of Ma'at on the other, weighed against the feather of truth (if light as the feather, having lived in truth and justice, they passed and entered the afterlife; if heavier, weighed down by wrongdoing and untruth, they had failed and the heart was devoured by Ammit, denying eternal life).

The ostrich feather as the symbol of Ma'at appears throughout Egyptian art and religion — Ma'at herself is depicted wearing a single ostrich feather in her headdress or as an ostrich feather. The Weighing of the Heart (psychostasia) required that the heart not outweigh the feather of Ma'at — meaning a life lived in truth and justice would leave the heart light enough. Ostrich eggs were luxury objects in the ancient world — decorated ostrich eggs have been found in graves and treasuries from Egypt to Mesopotamia to Minoan Crete, traded across thousands of miles. Ostrich eggshell beads are among the oldest human ornaments — found in African archaeological sites dating back over 60,000 years. The ostrich (Struthio camelus) was once found across the Middle East and parts of Asia — the Arabian and Syrian subspecies went extinct in the 20th century CE; the wild ostrich range is now restricted to Africa.

Ostrich across cultures

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