Santa María de Wamba church, Valladolid, Spain.12th century.
Psychostasia consists in the weighing of the deceased’s soul to determine his/her salvation or eternal damnation. It occurs during the Final Judgment in the Christian religion. The archangel in charge is St. Michael, by means of a scale in which the good and bad actions are placed (usually represented by a human head or a bird). After that, he acts as a psychopomp, that is,conductor of good souls. St. Michael is opposed by the Devil, who cheats (in this case putting his leg on one of the dishes) to be able to take the soul to hell.
It is a very repeated theme in the Romanesque and it is appreciated that St.Michael is nothing more than a divine instrument, since the application of divine justice is done without intercession or mercy.
This ritual appears already in the Egyptian religion, in which the heart of the deceased is weighed and the feather of Maat, symbol of Truth and Universal Justice, is contrasted, after which Osiris dictated sentence.
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