Egyptian Mummification and views of Afterlife

Welcome to my page. For my Death and Dying Final Project i chose the topic to be on Ancient Egyption mummification and views of their afterlife. My name is Brian Keefer, and although this site may not be perfect, it gives you the brief understanding. I chose to do this topic because i've hade past experience with reserching this topic and find it to be quite engulfing with thousands of pieces of information and documents and such. So here's a basic understanding.

Many Egyptians believed that death was a transitional stage on the way to a better life. They felt that only through death, could you reach your life's full potential Each person was believed to have three souls, the "Ka," the "Ba," and the "Akh." For these three souls to act and function properly, it was important to keep the body intact.

When a person would die, a priest would recite prayers and a final attempt would be made to revive the newly deceased person. The person was then taken to a building known as an ibu where the body was washed and purified and prepaired for enbalming.

A cut was made on the body and all the organs would be romoved. These organs were then placed into sacred holding containers known as canopic jars. There were four organs to be removed, and there were four canopic jars to guard them. The organs were placed in the following canopic jars:

1. Lungs - Hapi - baboon

2. Stomach - Duamutefla - dog

3. Liver - Imseti - human

4. Intestines - Qebeshenuef - falcon

Then for a period of about forty days, the body was stuffed with salt (natron) from the sands along the Nile River. After the period of dehydration had passed, the body would then be recleaned, and the insides would then be stuffed with cloths and salts to further preserve the body as much as possible. The body would then be wrapped with scripts, jewerly, and final prayers to help them on their journey. A mask would then be placed over the deceaseds' head and then thay would finally be placed to rest in their tomb.

Picture Process of Embalming and Wrapping

The Soul

There are three elements to the Egyptian concept of the soul: Ka, Ba and Akh.

Ka is the life force or spiritual double of the person. The royal Ka symbolized a pharaohs right to rule, a universal force that passed from one pharaoh to its preceeder.
Ba is represented as a human-headed bird that leaves the body when a person dies. The face of Ba was the exact likeness of that of the deceased person.

Akh is the spirit of Re, which encapsulates the concept of light - the transfigured spirit of a person that becomes one with light after death. The opposite of Akh is Mut, (dead), the state of a person who has died but has not been transfigured into light.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead

"The Egyptians believed that when they died they would make a journey to another world, called the Underworld, where they would start the Afterlife. The Underworld was separate from this world. The sun travelled from the east to the west. After the sun set in the West the Egyptians believed the sun had gone to the Underworld and travelled under the world until it rose in the east again. To start the afterlife the Egyptians believed they would need many of the things they had used when they were alive. Their families would put those things in their graves, such as food, jewellery and in some cases furniture. To get to the afterlife they Egyptians believed that they would have to pass thought a dangerous place first. This place had poisonous snakes, fires, monsters and boiling lakes. Getting past these dangerous places was difficult so the Egyptians used spells, which were written down and left near the coffin. If the spells worked, they got past the dangerous places and reached the gates of Yaru, the Egyptian afterlife. Before passing through the gate to the Underworld, they had to pass a test in the Hall of Two Truths. This test involved the Weighing of the Heart. This was the only organ left in the body after the mummification process. The Heart was placed on one side of a scale and the Feather of Truth placed on the other side. The Feather of Truth held the lies and sins of their past life. Osiris, Anubis and Thoth, three great Gods, decided on the result of the test. If the heart passed the test, then the dead person could enter the gates of Yaru to the Underworld. But if the heart failed the test then a monster called the devourer, which was part crocodile, part hippopotamus and part lion, ate it."

http://www.tki.org.nz/r/socialscience/curriculum/SSOL/egyptian/afterlife_e.php

The different parts of the persons souls, experienced the afterlife in various ways. The "akh" was a ghost or an illuminated spirit and could live either among humans, usually in the vicinity of the tomb, or in the next world. The "ka" was the guardian spirit or life force and looked exactly like the person. This spiritual double tended to hover around the tomb. The "ba" was the breath or soul, the principle animating the person, both physically and psychically, and was pictured as a human-headed bird. The ba was able to perform all bodily functions, but shared with the akh the ability to exist as well, along with and including the gods.
The religious views tell that the pharaohs entered a divine realm, (Heaven to us), by the right of rule. They did not have to answer to anyone and did not have to visit Osiris, god of the underworld.

     The Egyptian views of the afterlife states that the newly dead, in the form of their ba and ka, traveled in the boat of Ra, the sun god as they made their way across the sky. In the West, as Ra reached the underworld with his load of new arrivals, the deceased disembarked and proceeded through seven gates, each with a gatekeeper, watcher, and herald. At each gate they had to use the Book of the Dead in order to recite the names and formulas that would follow further progress.
     Finally, Anubis would provide escort to the Hall of Justice.
     In the court-like proceedings, Thoth, an ibis-headed god of wisdom, acts as prosecutor, and Soirees sits on the judge's throne, flaked by Isis and Nephthys. Forty-two high powered individuals of importance sit as jurors. Again using the Book of the Dead and as much eloquence as they can muster, the deceased make an accounting of their lives. In particular, the dead needed to be able to recite a ritual confession of innocence.
     After the talking was done, the heart of the deceased was placed on a scale and so was a feather, symbolic of truth. If the heart were too heavy, the sinful party would be considered to have failed the test. If failed the person would be, eaten and destroyed by Ambit (terrible creature), or placed in a pit of torture and fire. But if the heart and feather balanced, all was well and the person, now with a new body called the "Oahu", was free to enter the happy world of the Skeet Aura, or Field of Rushes. The hardest part was over, but there were still some dangers to face, as the Oahu was not invulnerable. The Book of the Dead was still useful for spells to protect one from crocodiles, suffocation, and any number of problems.
     The place of the afterlife was usually described as a place not too much unlike the Nile Valley, complete with canals, damns, and farms. Once having arrived, the deceased would be able to make use of all the items left for their use in the tomb, such as food, beds, chairs, and utensils. They would choose one of the 15 "acts" or regions of the Field of Rushes in which to live, each region having its own ruler. The deceased could transform themselves into a bird and live that sort of life, or live as in the midst of an orchard, with delicious fruits of never-ending yield.

Akh

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