Ka, Ba and Akh - The Ancient Egyptian Soul

The Egyptians had quite a few interesting ideas with regards to the human soul, and some which are quite hard for us modern types to conceive of. However, some are pretty good food for thought.
So, something "quite interesting" for you now;

Firstly, the Egyptians did not have a simple idea of a soul. There was not "living humans with a single spiritual essence" and then "dead humans who's spiritual essence buggers off to Heaven" (or Hades, or Valhalla or wherever.) There were essentially three "spiritual" parts to a human, and these needed different things. Initially, without the body being preserved, these parts would have nowhere to reside when they weren't living it up in the afterlife, or hanging around irritating their relatives and would therefore quite simply die off. Hence the fantastically complicated burial rituals and the inevitable mummification.

We'll do the easy ones first;

Ka - This is the life force. The living energy of a person. It enters the body when born and leaves it when dead. It is basically the "spirit", not conscious or thinking as such, purely a force.

Ba - This is the thinking one, it's basically the soul. What's different about it is that it needs sustenance. Offerings of food must be left in the tomb, and the Ba will consume the "essence" of these offerings. (The priests of course then get to consume the physical offerings which are no use to the dead, pretty clever huh?)

Akh - This one is the combination of Ka and Ba. And it only comes into being if the proper rituals are performed at the funeral, drawing the Ka and Ba out of the body and getting them to come together. The Akh then basically becomes the Ghost. Able to come and go in the afterlife. And able to wind up the relatives if it so chooses!


Now, what interests me in all of this is the idea that this Akh of the dead person (made up of Ba and Ka) needs sustenance to go on existing. Not only in the form of food and drink, but in the form of attention from the living. There is a lovely little phrase which is often found in tombs which reads "Oh you, who live on earth and pass by this stele, if you love life and hate death, say: may he receive a thousand loaves of bread and a thousand jugs of beer!" So a living person can give this sustenance to the Akh of a dead person simply by willing it.

Now, back to modern times, stick all of that together with one of the theories I previously proposed with regards to the soul, Theory 2. The soul is a concept. It's an idea. Can an idea exist if no one is there to think it? Probably it can't. But it definitely can exist if it is shared and there are many people to think it. Can a person go on simply because there are still people to speak their name and remember them?

Maybe the Egyptians and their nutty priests were onto something here? Maybe they weren't. But it's quite a nice thought either way.



The "opening of the mouth ceremony" The priests are drawing out the Ka and Ba to get them to combine into the Akh. Without this ceremony, it was believed a person could not have life after death.