Egyptian soul

From Free Encyclopedia of Thelema

In Egyptian mythology, the human soul is made up of five parts: the Ka, the Ba, the Akh, the Name and the Shadow.

Parts of the Soul

Ka

The Ka was the spiritual soul of a person or a god, a type of mana. The Ka was created by Mesenet along with the physical form of the person, and then continued to the underworld after the death of the physical body. The Ka was also commonly referred to as a person's "Double", a constant companion that in some stories was separated from the person him/herself. In an Egyptian tale, Helen came to Egypt and the priestesses of Hathor separated her Ka from her living being, and the Trojan War was actually fought over Helen's Ka, rather then Helen herself!

Akh

The Akh ("to shine") changed somewhat in the history of Egyptian belief. It was, at first, the unchanging unification of Ka and Ba, which united after the death of the physical body. In this sense, it was a sort of ghost. The Akh was then a part of the Akh-Akh, the panoply of Akhs from other people, gods and animals. Alternatively, the Ka changed into the Akh and Ba after death, rather than uniting with the Ba. In this system, the Akh went to the underworld and became the Ka again, while the Ba remained on Earth in the corpse of the deceased.

Some Egyptians believed that they would spend their afterlives as blessed akhs, spending eternity with the circumpolar stars as companions.

Alternative: Khu

Ba

After the death of an individual, the Ba was the shell or physical body that remained on Earth in its tomb. At some point the Ba was to reunite with the Ka and thus the body was mummified. Should the body be destroyed it was believed that a stone sculpture would suffice.

Name

Everyone was given a Name (ren) at birth, often based on a popular local deity. The Egyptians very much believed that names were powerful. Ptah in the Memphite creation myth creates by speaking or thinking the names of things he wants to exist. They also believed it could be possible to get rid of a person's akh by erasing all trace of the person's name, as it was the only way that the soul could be preserved.

Shadow

The Shadow (shewet) stayed with the body after death to protect it, but could not come into any harm itself without great danger. It moved very quickly and had great power, shown as a dark depiction of the person. This belief shows how important shade was to the Egyptians as a refuge from the sun's perishing heat.

References

• Wikipedia (2005). Egyptian soul. Retrieved March 17, 2005.