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Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul

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The ancient Egyptians believed the soul was divided into five parts Ren, Ba, Ka, Sheut, and Ib.

Ib - Heart

The Egyptians believed the heart held the emotions and thoughts. Believed to be weighed on the scales of Anubis by the feather of Maat. The Ib decided what your fate would be after death.

Sheut - Shadow

Believed to be the shadow of the person. The Sheut was the essence of the person and neither could the shadow exist without the person, nor could the person exist without their shadow.

Ren - Name

Given at birth. A person was believed to live as long as their name lasted. Egyptians often went to great lengths to keep their names talked about and had them carved into monuments and surrounded by cartouche (magical rope).

Ba - Personality and Spirit

Ba is considered the spirit. Ba is believed to have a unique personality based on the person who has it. The Ba was shown as a bird that flew from the body to unite with the Ka at death.

Ka - Life Force

One of the five parts of the Egyptian idea of the soul. The Ka was thought of as the life force and left the body during death. Ka was believed to be in food and drink and was placed with the dead for offerings. Egyptian Mythology believes that at death the Ba and the Ka unite through Nehebkau before entering Duat.


Ancient Egyptian Concept Of The Soul Media

  • Fragment from Egyptian Book of the Dead

  • An ushabti box, Ptolemaic Period. On display at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. RC 623

  • Ostrakon with the beginning of the Ghost story. Terracotta from Deir el-Medina, 19th–20th Dynasties, New Kingdom of Egypt. Found by Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1905. Museo Egizio, S.6619.

  • Bꜣ takes the form of a bird with a human head.

  • This golden bꜣ amulet from the Ptolemaic Kingdom would have been worn as an apotropaic device. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

  • Scenes from the north wall of the burial chamber of Tutankhamun. On the left side, Tutankhamun, followed by his ka, embraces the god of the dead Osiris.

  • This exquisite gold and green stone heart scarab belonged to Hatnofer, the mother of the prominent 18th dynasty state official Senenmut, who served under the female king and pharaoh Hatshepsut. The tomb of Ramose and Hatnofer was found intact by archaeologists at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, in Thebes. The scarab is today on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

  • El_pesado_del_corazón_en_el_Papiro_de_Hunefer

  • Egyptian hieroglyph G25, for the sound commonly transliterated as "akh" (ꜣḫ in standard Egyptological notation).

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