The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) · 49 of 357 · tr. E.A. Wallis Budge
Chapter 6 (part 5)
nuk sah em ba-f I am a sah with his soul.[3] In the late edition of the Book of the Dead published by Lepsius the deceased is said to " look upon his body and to rest upon his sahu ,"[4] and souls are said "to enter into their sahu ";[5] and a passage extant both in this and the older Theban edition makes the deceased to receive the sahu of the god Osiris.[6] But that Egyptian writers at times confused the khat with the sahu is clear from a passage in the Book of Respirations, where it is said, "Hail Osiris, thy name endureth, thy body is stablished, thy sahu germinateth";[7] in other texts the word "germinate" is applied only to the natural body.
The ab or heart.
In close connection with the natural and spiritual bodies stood the heart, or rather that part of it which was the seat of the power of life and the fountain of good and evil thoughts.
And in addition to the natural and spiritual bodies, man also bad an abstract individuality or personality endowed with all his characteristic attributes.
This abstract personality had an absolutely independent existence.
It could move freely from place to place, separating itself from, or uniting itself to, [1.
Recueil de Travaux , t.
v., p.
59 (l.
384).
2.
Ibid., t.
iv., p.
61 (1.
521).
3.
Book of the Dead, Chapter I.XXVIII., 1.
14.
4.
###.
Chapter LXXXIX., 1.
6.
5.
Ibid., 1.
5.
6.
###.
Chapter CXXX., 1.
38 (ed.
Naville).
7.
###.
See Brugsch, Liber Metempsychosis , p.
15.] {p.
lxii} The ka or double.
the body at will, and also enjoying life with the gods in heaven.This was the ka ,[1] a word which at times conveys the meanings of its Coptic equivalent {Coptic kw }, and of {Greek ei?'dwlon }, image, genius, double, character, disposition, and mental attributes.
The funeral offerings of meat, cakes, ale, wine, unguents, etc.
, were intended for the ka ; the scent of the burnt incense was grateful to it.
The ka dwelt in the man's statue just as the ka of a god inhabited the statue of the god.
In this respect the ka seems to be identical with the sekhem or image.
In the remotest times the tombs had special chambers wherein the ka was worshipped and received offerings.
The priesthood numbered among its body an order of men who bore the name of "priests of the ka and who performed services in honour of the ka in the " ka chapel".
In the text of Unas the deceased is said to be "happy with his ka"[2] in the next world, and his ka is joined unto his body in "the great dwelling"; [3] his body [1.
The first scholar who seriously examined the meaning of the word was Dr.
Birch, who collected several examples of the use and discussed them in his Mèmoire sur une Patère Égyptienne du Musée du Louvre , Paris, 1858, p.
59 ff.
(Extrait du t.
xxiv.
des Mémoires de la Société impériale des Antiquaires de France ).
Dr.
Birch translated the word by être, personne, emblème, divin, génie, principe, esprit.
In September, 1878, V.
Themes
◆Theurgypraxis
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
The text describes priests performing services in honor of the ka and making material offerings (meat, incense) to sustain the spiritual double, engaging divine powers through ritual action.