Each person also has a ba. Though the ba is also unique to each individual, it is not a physical entity. Ba is sometimes translated as “manifestation,” and can be thought of as the sum total of all the non-physical things that make a person different from others. In this sense, ba is very similar to what we call “personality” or “character.” In the afterlife, the ba is represented as a bird, often with a human head.

Each person also has what is called a ka, or life-force, and it is the ka which is the difference between being alive and being dead. Unlike the ba, the ka is not individual, but common to all living people and the gods: in the beginning, the creator made ka, and ka enters each person’s body at birth. Like the ba, the ka is not a physical entity, though it has a definite physical connection. In the plural, ka 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 his or her 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.

 

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. In the next world, or underworld, the goal is to live with ones ka. In order for this to happen, the ka needs to be summoned back to the body and recognize it. But since the body is bound in its wrappings, it must rely on its ba to seek out its ka. During the nightime, 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. In seeking a union with the ka, the ba must overcome many potential dangers in the underworld. But if it does succeed, it will reunite with the ka and form what is called akh. The Egyptian’s believed that there are only three kinds of beings that inhabit the hereafter: the dead, the gods, and akhs. Akhs are those who have successfully made the transition to new life in the next world, where they live with the gods. The dead are those who have failed to make the transition. It is said that they have “died again,” with no hope of renewed life.

The ancient Egyptians believed that death was the end of physical life in this world. But they also believed that through death one could be renewed and live an eternal life free from the physical limitations of age or poverty, just as the god Osiris had, who was also once a mortal human. One’s renewal didn’t come about in this world, though. Renewal came about in the mysterious underworld of the primeval waters, known as “Nun.” The Underworld was separate from this world. One could not see it or get to it by normal means, though. The Underworld could be reached only through one’s imagination, and through one’s knowledge of the path of the sun. The ancient Egyptians believed that the sun moved around the Earth. During the day, it traveled from the eastern to the western horizon. After setting in the west, they believed the sun descended into the Underworld and traveled under the earth until it came up again in the east. For this reason, the Underworld is sometimes called the “West.” It is down into this place under the earth, then, that the mummified dead go when they die. The mummy’s tomb was identified with this Underworld, where the mummy remained motionless while its ba traveled freely throughout the mysterious spaces seeking to unite with its ka. Paintings on the tomb walls and on the coffin usually showed depictions of this other world. The Underworld was a strange and mysterious place. The dead, in fact, were often called “those whose place is hidden or mysterious”, as mummies, they were said to sink into this place which was endless, dark, and chaotic. It was believed that the Underworld was separated from the real world by a wide stream, and that a great river also flowed through it. There was water, plants and trees in the Underworld as well, where the dead, once they achieved resurrection, would grow crops to live on. This region of the Underworld is sometimes called the Ealu-fields.

According to the book of Amduat, the Underworld was divided into twelve departments or hours, and twelve portals that represent the twelve hours of night between the time that the sun sets in the west, and the time it comes up again in the east. But time in the Underworld is not the same as time on Earth. Each hour in the Underworld represents an entire lifetime.

The sun god, Ra, travels in his boat on the great river, bringing order and life to each department in turn. Along the way his boat may come across the sandbank of Apophis, a monster of chaos in the shape of a giant serpent and the enemy of Ra, who attempts to wreck Ra’s boat.

Ra on his barge O gods who are in the Underworld, who are behind the ruler of the West, who are stretched n their side, who are sleeping on their supports, raise your flesh, pull together your bones, collect your limbs, unite your flesh. May there be sweet breath to your noses. Loosing for your mummy wrappings. May your head-masks be uncovered. May there be light for your divine eyes in order that you may see the light by means of them. Stand up from your weariness.

But Ra is defended by several gods and goddesses who ride with him and do battle with Apophis. As Ra comes to the portal of each department, the gates open automatically for him. When he enters he shines sunlight on the darkness and speaks magic words from the Book of Gates (left), and all the mummies throw off their protective wrappings and begin a new life. The resurrected live an entire life as long as Ra remains in their department. When Ra goes on to the next department, the mummies re-wrap themselves in their bandages and return to their tombs, darkness returns, and they begin the wait for Ra’s next return.

The Judgement of the Dead

Among the obstacles that could stand in the way of reunion of ba and ka, and resurrection, the most important was the Judgement of the Dead. We know of the Judgement mostly from one of the latest and most popular collections of spells known as the Book of the Dead, which became the standard for funerary literature from the 18th Dynasty until the end of ancient Egyptian civilization. Especially from spell 125 of the Book of the Dead, we learn about the final judgement.

The symbol for AKH. A scene from the the Book of the Dead depicts the Judgement of the Dead. Anubis watches the scales; on the right, Thoth records the results; Amemet, next to Anubis, waits to eat sinful hearts. In the scales are shown the deceased’s heart on left, and the feather of Maat, goddess of truth, justice and order, on the right. The deceased’s ba, we are told, is summoned in to the “Hall of Two Truths” (or of the two Maat goddesses), where the judgement is to take place. There the deceased was usually joined by Anubis, the god of embalming,who ushered him or her into the hall where he would first greet Re and his nine gods, or Osiris and his forty-two messengers, reciting to them “I know you, I know your names.” From there the heart of the deceased was placed on one side of a balance. The heart was special to the ancient Egyptians: it was considered the center of a person’s personality, and it provided a link between one’s life in this world and the next – it would assure memory of ones earthly identity in the afterlife. So important was it that the Egyptians took special care that the heart be left in the body of the deceased, along with a spell from the Book of the Dead to give the heart back to the dead in the afterlife. (This unlike the brain, which was extracted and discarded.) On the other side of the balance was placed a feather, the symbol of Maat. The deceased then would begin immediately reciting a formula called the Negative Confession, part of which is shown below:

I have not done falsehood against men. I have not impoverished my associates. I have done no wrong in the Place of Truth. I have not learnt that which is not. I have done no evil. I have not made people labor daily in excess of what was due to be done for me…

The statements in the confession corresponded with the desire to separate one from his sins, the ultimate goal of the judgement. What’s more, the statements reflect that the confessor is not being made to answer to moral laws of the gods, but to attest to his previous social character among the living. As the confession was recited, the scales of the balance would either stay in equilibrium, indicating that his heart was not heavy and he thus told the truth, or would tip, indicating that his heart was made heavy with falsehood.Anubis would be present to verify the results and bring the scales in balance, and also to reassure the confessor, since Anubis, who presided over mummification, was presumed to have much knowledge about he dead. Thoth, the god of the written word, would record the results. Additionally, the deceased who was prepared for the judgement would have also spoken to his heart from spell 30b of the Book of the Dead:

O my heart which I had from my mother! O my heart which I had from my mother! O my heart of my different ages! Do not stand up as a witness against me. Do not be opposed to me in the tribunal, Do not be hostile to me in the presence of the keeper of the Balance…

Assuming all went well, as it usually did if one made it to the Hall of Two Truths, a general verdict would be given in which the truthfulness of the judged is validated, and he is allowed to receive offerings and take bread with Osiris, confirming his transfer to the order of the afterlife, and is given a parcel of land on which to live eternally. The principle value in achieving this eternal extension of one’s life in the next world is the promise it holds in fulfilling one’s life begun on earth. Those who were debilitated in life by crippling diseases, or who suffered from poverty, or those women who were unable to bear children, would be given an opportunity to fulfill their desires in a new place where those obstacles were now removed. The dream of an ideal life held on earth could now be realized. Excerpts taken from Cultural Heritage Initiative for Community Outreach (CHICO) based at the University of Michigan School of Information. The four triple configurations represent the four sacred letters of YHWH, as well as the four living creatures that stand before the Throne who are “full of eyes” used for evolving all forms of creation. Four also represents the key grids within the human anatomical structure: the heart contains four chambers; within the brain, the medulla oblongata is a pyramidal structure that connects posteriorly with the spinal cord as a pyramidal head piece. Moreover, the four triple configurations also represent how each codon is a “triplet” code derived from the four distinct bases in DNA-RNA. The combination of all the grids shows how the Word is combined to take on form. The Word descends in an envelope of Light which is vibrated long enough to allow its vibration to spiral into different codings of Light. Just as the 64 Keys of Enoch came out of a fiery scroll, so also the 64 structures of DNA-RNA biosynthesis came out of a polarization of divine Light which takes on form from the divine thought-forms expressed in our contemporary program of divine creation. Excerpts taken from The Book of Knowledge: Keys of Enoch. The replication of DNA can be triggered by thought, and vibrate to a particular frequency. Research from the HeartMath Institute, indicates that DNA in a test tube becomes coherent when loving thoughts are beamed into it, while DNA held by a control group “thinking regularly” produced chaotic readings. — Author Unknown It is important to know that you ARE your DNA. When Spirit manifests in 3-D, the first physical entity it becomes, is DNA. The corpus callosum is a multidimensional gateway in physical form. Any time other dimensions are accessed, it happens through the corpus callosum. Even when you are not conscious of it, you as Spirit are interacting with your body through this multi-dimensional doorway. This happens continually. Any dimension and any reality can be accessed and decoded. The trick is to allow yourselves to be conscious of the process and resulting information. The process, while quite complex, can be understood at a simple level. It all boils down to you allowing the DNA in your corpus callosum to shift frequency. –Matali via http://www.dianaewald.com/DNA.html