spirit of the dead
This is a picture of ba.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that every person was composed of three things: there body, there ba, and there ka.
The body is the physical body and is unique to each individual. As a person gets older, so the body ages and changes, the Egyptians' expressed the idea of growing up as a process of "making changes" , and death is the last change.
Each person also has a ba. The ba is a spirit that is very similar to what we call "personality" or "character". In the afterlife, the ba is represented as a bird, with a human head.
the ka is the difference between being alive and dead. At birth is when your ka enters you. Like the ba, the ka is not a physical entity, though it has a definite physical connection. ka also means "sustenance," linking it to the idea of food. In fact, ancient Egyptians would bring food to a dead person's tomb as an offering to the person's ka. But since the ka is not strictly physical, the food was not there to be literally eaten by the deceased or the deceased's ka, but it was the life-preserving force in the food that was being offered.
The body is the physical body and is unique to each individual. As a person gets older, so the body ages and changes, the Egyptians' expressed the idea of growing up as a process of "making changes" , and death is the last change.
Each person also has a ba. The ba is a spirit that is very similar to what we call "personality" or "character". In the afterlife, the ba is represented as a bird, with a human head.
the ka is the difference between being alive and dead. At birth is when your ka enters you. Like the ba, the ka is not a physical entity, though it has a definite physical connection. ka also means "sustenance," linking it to the idea of food. In fact, ancient Egyptians would bring food to a dead person's tomb as an offering to the person's ka. But since the ka is not strictly physical, the food was not there to be literally eaten by the deceased or the deceased's ka, but it was the life-preserving force in the food that was being offered.
spirit of the dead continued...
This is a statue of ka.
When a person dies, so the Egyptians believed, the ba and ka become separated from the body, though they do not die. In the New Kingdom period and after, the Egyptians effected this separation through the Opening of the Mouth ritual, in which the ba and ka are released to go to the next world.
The oping to mouth ritual is where they open the deceased mouth to let out the ba and ka.
In the next world, or underworld, the goal is for the ba and ka to come back to the deceased body. During the night time, when the sun god, Ra, is said to visit the underworld, the ba may roam freely in the underworld, or to popular places in this world, but it's anchor in this world, where it must return when Ra leaves the underworld, is the body, because together they are part of the same whole being.
The ba must overcome lots of dangers in the underworld in order to meet up with the ka. When they unite it is called akh. Egyptians believed in three beings. The akhs are the ones that have passed to the afterlife to live with the Gods, the gods, and the dead. The dead are those that fail to make the journey and are said to have died again. They have no hope of life after death.
The oping to mouth ritual is where they open the deceased mouth to let out the ba and ka.
In the next world, or underworld, the goal is for the ba and ka to come back to the deceased body. During the night time, when the sun god, Ra, is said to visit the underworld, the ba may roam freely in the underworld, or to popular places in this world, but it's anchor in this world, where it must return when Ra leaves the underworld, is the body, because together they are part of the same whole being.
The ba must overcome lots of dangers in the underworld in order to meet up with the ka. When they unite it is called akh. Egyptians believed in three beings. The akhs are the ones that have passed to the afterlife to live with the Gods, the gods, and the dead. The dead are those that fail to make the journey and are said to have died again. They have no hope of life after death.