The+Soul,+Heart,+and+the+Body

The Soul, Heart, and the Body
[|www.reshafim.org]

By Trevor Oakes

The Soul and the Body  What made up a person in Ancient Egypt can be somewhat confusing. The main componets of the body which was called the Ka and it’s name which remained always in close proximity to each other in the tomb and the shadow the Ba Sahu and Akh which were more independent and mobile. In thinking the limits of a person are ill defined. Things we may not pay attention to an ancient Egyptian make take very seriously. We as people think whenever we break up with someone that we can tear up a picture and it will be alright. In ancient Egypt a person believed that they could harm a person if they did that by destroying his image or gain power over him by applying spells which had belonged to them. The Akh is reffered to as the ID of a person. The name as an ego and the Ka is the Super ego.

The Body

 Khnum, the sculptor who gives lives created the child’s body (called the Khat) on his potter’s wheel and inserted them with the sperm into the mother’s womb. The Egyptian view of the body was mostly magical. The biological aspects of the body's functions, apart from the obvious ones everybody can discern, were largely unknown, instead it was populated and surrounded with spiritual and demonic entities whose evil influence caused the [|diseases]  and ailments people suffered from.

They preserve the bodies in a way known as mummification in order for the deceased to enjoy a life after death. This was first only done to the corpse of the divine pharaoh but became more and more common after every person that died. This afterlife is still carried on today. Tombs were decorated in the way of life as the old kingdom. They were given little statues for them to become their servants in the afterlife.

The sahu has been described as the spirit-body or the repository of the soul (Budge). It was seemingly immortal and similar in form to the mortal body it sprang from.

The Heart

 It is known as the essence of life, seat of the mind with emotions, intelligence, and mortal sense. The heart gave man direction in life. Enjoyment was tied in closely to the sensations body. Following the heart meant living a full life. The old kingdom referred to the heart as once it failed the body died. The only way to make it to the afterlife was to have the heart weighed. It was weighed against the feather of Maat. If it was found to heavy the heart was destroyed by the monster Ammit destroying its owner for eternity. During the embalming process the heart was not removed together with the other organs. A scarab was inserted into the top of the heart to prevent the heart from speaking out against its owner. Heart scarabs date back to the early date of the 17th dynasty and were often inscribed with texts from the 30th chapter of the //Book of the Dead//.

The Name

 The name is the foundation of being a human. When it has a name it can be addressed and related to proper existence. True name were often kept secret. Names were closely related in with magic. Inscribing names in the stone gave them permanence and destroying them was a kind of punishment or revenge.

The Shadow

 In a hot country shadows were seen as a blessing because they could rest in them and stay out of the hot son. Kings were often described as the shadows of the god’s. The shadow was not like the body it was aloud to go where the body could not.