|
|
| Egypt Flights Home » Egyptian Mythology » Egyptian soul |
|
Egyptian soul |
|
Egyptian soul - Introduction –
The Egyptian soul or a human soul comprises five parts according to the religious beliefs of ancient Egypt. These five parts of the Egyptian soul or human soul in ancient Egypt are the Ib, the Ba, the Ka, the Ren and the Shuet. The body of a human being is known as ha.
Ib or the heart –
Ib is the main part of the Egyptian soul. The heart of a human being contained his or her thoughts and emotions according to the Ancient Egyptians. The intentions and desires were also contained in the human heart.
The heart led a man to afterlife in accordance with the religious beliefs in ancient Egypt. It was imagined as passage to the next world at death and offered proof for or against its owner. The heart was considered to be tested by the deities along with Anubis during the ceremony of ‘Weighing of the Heart’. Ammit, the fiend ate the heart if it was found to weigh more than Ma’at’s feather.
|
Ba or individual personality –
The ‘Ba’ is almost the same as the soul, a modern religious belief of the west. It presented uniqueness to a person just like the concept of ‘personality’. The ‘Ba’ was one of the parts of a human being, which was thought to exist even after the body demised. The ‘Ba’ is also illustrated as a bird with a human heart, which flies out of the grave to unite in afterlife with ‘Ka’.
Ka or life force –
The ‘Ka’ was the notion of life force according to the Egyptians. It only was able to differentiate between a dead being and a living one. When the ‘Ka’ departed from the body, death approached.
|
|
The children’s bodies were formed by Khnum with the help of a potter’s wheel and were put into the bodies of females. Meskhenet or Heket was thought to be the maker of the ‘Ka’ for each human, which he breathed into them when they were born. Drinks and food helped in the sustenance of the ‘Ka’.
Ren or name –
The name of a person was an element of the Egyptian soul, which was received by the Egyptians when they were born. It was thought that the human soul would exist if the name was spoken. For this only the name is mentioned in various old Egyptian writings again and again.
Sheut or shadow –
Shuet or the shadow of a person lived as long as the person existed. A person was considered to be non-existent in absence of his or her shadow. So the Egyptians concluded the shadow to be a part of a person. Statues of god and humans were thus often known as shadows. A black-colored small figure of a human being symbolized the shadow. It was Anubis’ servant or a death figure.
For accumulating more data on Egyptian mythology you can go through the other important and interesting pages on our site eggyptflightshub.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|
