The Ba
The ba is
everything other than the body that makes a person an individual. The ba is also the link between life on earth and the afterlife. Each night the
ba was expected to rejoin the mummy in the tomb and to receive from
it the power of rebirth. When the ba was
reunited with its life force, the ka, it became an
"effective being"--able to come to life again each day. This daily cycle of
rebirth was patterned on that of the sun, which joined with the mummy of Osiris in the
depths of the night and received from it the ability to rise again at dawn. Because of the
ba's ability to move between the tomb and the world of the living, it was often depicted
as a bird, but with a human head.
Section
from a Book of the Dead
The Egyptians believed that this daily cycle of rebirth was available only to those who
had lived properly before death. On its first nightly encounter with Osiris they imagined
that the ba had to undergo a judgment, in
which its heart (the seat of thought and emotion) was balanced on a scale against a
feather, the symbol of the goddess Maat (things as they ought to
be). If the two did not balance, the ba was
denied the chance to enter the cycle of daily rebirth; to the Egyptians this was known as
"dying a second time." The purpose of the Book of the Dead, which contained
a set of proper spells to recite and a scene of successful judgment, was to help the ba
pass this trial. |
Ba Bird
|
The ka (the life force), the name, the
shadow, and the mummified body were the other essential
components of a human being.
