The African American Spiritual Practice of Seven

The African American spiritual practice of Seven is the number that symbolizes Ka-Maat. The number seven has a spiritual significance as the human body has seven orifices and seven layers of skin. There are also seven days in a week, seven notes on a musical scale, seven seas and continents. As a spiritual practice, Seven represents the number of characters in Ka-Maat, six letters with a hyphen that adjoins and unifies its meaning. Equally, there are seven letters in African. Therefore, we use Seven and Ka-Maat interchangeably as both refers to the African American spiritual practice. The word Ka, pronounced Kah, is an ancient Egyptian word that means the vital energy which both sustains and creates life. The word Maat, also of Egyptian origin, means truth, justice and rightness. Together, Ka-Maat means energy in harmony with truth and righteousness. As a spiritual practice, it is defined as a lifestyle and a commitment to serving the Creator, along with uplifting ourselves, our family and community through on-going acts of positive thoughts and deeds. The practice of Ka-Maat begins with understanding the correlation of the mind, body and soul. The three components of a being are intended to work in harmony as the engine, tires and a driver successfully operates a vehicle. If one component fails to work it renders all three useless. Therefore, the holistic wellbeing of a person is stressed upon and imperative in the practice of Ka-Maat.