The Weight of the Heart

The symbology of the heart is universal. It represents love, compassion and the essence of someone’s soul.

We give our hearts away when we fall in love. Our hearts stand still when we sense the awe of love. Our hearts break when that love falls away. Our heart becomes heavy when our soul is heavy.

It was believed that the essence of a person’s being was held within the heart, and that removing the heart severed the soul’s connection to the body forever. When Egyptians prepared the dead for burial, they employed the ritual of mummification to preserve the home for the soul. If the body was destroyed, the soul could be lost forever, and the possibility of life after death depended on the body, especially the heart, to remain intact. Its importance was so crucial in the soul’s journey to the world beyond life, that the heart remained in the body during the mumification process.

At the moment of death, the weight of the heart was considered when the gods judged a person eligible for life after death. The goddess Ma’at would weigh the feather on her head against the weight of the heart. If the heart weighed less than the feather, the gods granted afterlife. It meant the heart was full of love, and love made the heart almost weightless. If the weight of the heart was heavier than the feather; mostly due to lies, deceit, or injustice, the soul was devoured by the monster Ammit, and fell into oblivion.

The process of mummification takes time. I employ different salts in the process to pull the moisture from this vital organ, preserving the tissue indefinitely as long as moisture is not reintroduced. The hearts I use in this process come from non-protected birds, mainly used as a food source.

This heart rests on a soft bed of reindeer moss inside a reliquary pendant. It hangs a full 13 inches on a hand-knotted cording that matches the color of the moss.

I chose rhodonite, obsidian and rutilated agate beads for this necklace because of their correlation to the heart, love and their connection to spirit.

Rhodonite resonates with the heart. It gifts us with harmony in our relationships. The pain of grief is lifted when this stone is worn near the heart. It is recharged and cleansed in the moonlight.

Obsidian promotes emotional healing. It connects us to the world of the spirit. It is a mirror into the soul. It also is cleansed in the moonlight.

Rutilated agate holds a soft and gentle vibration. It illuminates the darkness in our hearts.

This piece serves as a reminder (although a brutal one) that love is timeless, limitless and often times, painful. It also shows us that the gift of one’s heart comes with a piece of one’s soul, and we should take the weight of that gift with compassion.