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The Ancient Egyptian Concept of the Soul
by Caroline Seawright
The Ancient Egyptian Concept of the Soul
To the Ancient Egyptians, their soul - their being - were made
up of many different parts. Not only was there the physical form,
but there were eight immortal or semi-divine parts that survived
death, with the body making nine parts of a human.
The precise meaning of ka, ba, ach (akh), `shm (sekhem), and so
on is no longer clear to us. Well-meaning scholars try again and
again and again to force the Egyptian idea of the soul into our
traditional categories without enabling us to understand even a
little of it any better
-- J. J. Poortman, Vehicles of Consciousness - the Concept
of Hylic Pluralism
The Egyptian's other worldly parts include:
- Khat (Kha) - The physical form, the body that could
decay after death, the mortal, outward part of the human that
could only be preserved by mummification.
- Ka - The double that lingered on in the tomb
inhabiting the body or even statues of the deceases, but was
also independent of man and could move, eat and drink at will.
(There was both a higher, guardian angel like Ka and lower Ka
that came from knowledge learned on earth.)
- Ba - The human headed bird flitted around in the tomb
during the day brining air and and food to the deceased, but
travelled with Ra on the Solar Barque during the evenings.
- Khaibit - The shadow of a man, it could partake of
funerary offerings and was able to detach itself from the body
and travel at will, though it always was thought to stay near
the Ba.
- Akhu (Akh, Khu, Ikhu) - This was the immortal part,
the radiant and shining being that lived on in the Sahu, the
intellect, will and intentions of the deceased that
transfigured death and ascended to the heavens to live with
the gods or the imperishable stars.
- Sahu - The incorruptible spiritual body of man that
could dwell in the heavens, appearing from the physical body
after the judgement of the dead was passed (if successful)
with all of the mental and spiritual abilities of a living
body.
- Sekhem - This was the incorporeal personification of
the life force of man, which lived in heaven with the Akhu,
after death.
- Ab (Ib) - The heart, this was the source of good and
evil within a person, the moral awareness and centre of
thought that could leave the body at will, and live with the
gods after death, or be eaten by Ammut
as the final death if it failed to weigh equally against Ma'at.
- Ren - The true name, a vital part to man on his
journey through life and the afterlife, a magical part that
could destroy a man if his name was obliterated or could give
power of the man if someone knew his Ren - naming ceremonies
in Egypt were secret, and a child lived his whole life with a
nickname to avoid anyone from learning his true name!
The multiplicity of Egyptian thought is so different from the
traditional view of western thought that it can be hard to
imagine.
The dead man is at one and the same time in heaven, in the god's
boat [Re, the sun-god's, celestial barge], under the earth,
tilling the Elysian fields, and in his tomb enjoying his
victuals.
-- Lionel Casson, Ancient Egypt
In Egypt one person could have multiple afterlives - each
different part of the person would be able to have its own
existence after death, if they survived the trials of the
underworld and the Osirian judgement of the dead with all of their
magic spells.
While the Khat lies in the tomb, ready to be animated by the Ka,
the Ba might be travelling the underworld with Ra. While the Ab is
with the gods, the Khaibit might be with the Ba on the barque, or
in the tomb eating some offerings. At the same time, the Akhu,
Sekhem and Sahu might be contentedly living in the stars, looking
down at the earth.
An interesting point to note is that the Egyptians believed
that animals, plants, water and even stones had their own Ka. A
human's Ka could move around while a person slept, and even
inhabit a plant if the Ka so desired, rather than the human. The
Ka could manifest itself, as a ghost, to others, both when the
person it was 'born' with was dead or a live. It was even thought
to haunt those who did wrong to it - if family failed to make
proper offerings, the starving and thirsty Ka would haunt them
until they corrected this error!
The Egyptians mummified their bodies because their physical form
was an integral part to their afterlife. Being such a practical
people, liking what they could see and touch, an existence without
a physical body was unacceptable to them. Even the destruction of
the heart (the spiritual Ab rather than the physical heart) would
mean the death of all of the other parts of the being, but it
meant that the physical heart was preserved along with the
physical body. Other rituals point to the importance of the
physical body after death - the Opening of the Mouth ceremony
allowed the body to breath, while other rituals were performed on
the corpse to allow the deceased to see and hear in the Land of
the West.
Death was a complex affair. Originally this was only for the
pharaoh, but the rich soon believed that they could take part in
the afterlife, and eventually the poor believed they could join
the ranks of the blessed dead. Other reasons for the complexity of
life after death came from the Egyptian way of clinging to ideas,
rather than discarding them when new ideas came along. The
intermingling of peoples, the different religious ideas and cults
all were incorporated into the Egyptian belief system, giving rise
to this elaborate belief system.
From the monuments and papyrus scrolls and tombs left today, it's
no wonder that Egyptians were thought to have focused their lives
around death! But the Egyptians, like any other people, enjoyed
life, and did not look forward to death. They followed the maxim
"live life not that thou shalt die" - partying and
generally trying to enjoy life. But death, to the Egyptians, was a
somewhat better version of their current life. They would eat,
drink and share good companionship in the stars or in the Land of
the West. They would have servants to do their chores for them.
Life, after death, would be ideal.
The only problem was that there was no guarantee that they
would actually get to the afterlife, and there was always the
threat of their names, physical bodies or images being destroyed,
killing their multiple parts in the process. Spells, prayers, tomb
paintings and statues could help, but if everything was
obliterated, then they died, too.
No wonder the Egyptians lived their lives to the fullest!
Caroline Seawright is a full time worker, part
time traveler, anime and manga lover and HTML programmer! She
writes many articles on or about Egypt.
For additional articles and information on Egypt, see
her web site.
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