Sunday, February 21, 2010

Egyptian Afterlife

Egyptians had a belief that they had a personal relationship with the Gods. Gods were represented in every aspect of the natural world and that every element was a divine force. Every God represented a different aspect of life and the world around them. Every force of nature was represented by a God. The Egyptians wanted the Gods on the humans side to do their biddings, so the Egyptians presented offerings of different degrees to appease the Gods. If they were happy Gods, then there would be less turmoil in their lives.
Egyptians viewed life and death differently also, they believed the body had a life force called Ka, which left the body at the time of death. Once a person died they would fill the area with food and drink to sustain the Ka. Each person also had a personality which was defined as a Ba, this separated each person so you could tell them apart from each other. Each day the Ba would leave the body as as akh but return each night to receive each night, so the body had to be preserved so that the Ba could return to it.
Egyptians believed that your Ba could become one with the Gods and walk amongst them. So the afterlife was held in higher priority than life since you were with the Gods while you were dead. But before this could happen the deceased had to go through a judgment called “Weighing of the Heart”. The heart was said to be the center of reason and emotion. They compared the actions of the deceased while alive to Ma’at. If they wre found unworthy then the Akh was destroyed. If found worthy then the Ka and Ba was united with the Akh.
Egyptians knew if they wanted to continue on in the afterlife then they had to live a life that would be excepted by the Gods.

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