Ka

Ka


 * Hieroglyphics:**



The //Ka// is perhaps one of the most difficult concepts to describe, for there is no modern translation for this word. Essentially it appears to mean "double" as well as "vital force" and is a clear reference to a part of the individual that transcends the death of the physical body. Egyptologist Richard Wilkinson explains that "in all periods it is used as a term for the creative and sustaining power of life." The //Ka// also came to be seen as a symbol of intellectual and spiritual power. The hieroglyph for the //Ka// is two arms raised as if mirroring each other. This glyph, used as an amulet, was worn to preserve the life force of the wearer.

According to pictures drawn during the 18th Dynasty, the //Ka// came into being when a person was born, often depicted as a twin or double, but, unlike the body it belonged to, it was immortal provided it received nourishment. The //Ka// was something handed down from one's parents, grandparents, and ancestors, like spiritual DNA, traceable in the very remote past to a creator god by way of lesser deities. The //Ka// of a pharaoh was thought to be the collective life force of all his subjects - crucial to their well-being, indeed to their very existence. The term "By the //Ka// of the Pharaoh" meant "by the good grace of the Pharaoh."

Dying was referred to as "going to one's //Ka//." Upon the body's demise the //Ka// rejoined its divine origin, but always remained in close proximity of the body. In Old Kingdom tombs false or //Ka// doors were supposed to give this spiritual part of the deceased access to the world of the living. The //Ka// was thought to reside in tomb statues of the deceased. One of the most important functions of the //Ka// was to unite with the //Ba// so the deceased could reach the heavens and become an //Akh// spirit.

The paintings in Egyptian tombs recreated scenes from the daily life of the tomb-owner, so that his //Ka// could relive them - hence Egyptian tombs were pictorial biographies of the dead. We see the dead man with his wife, family, and pets; the birth, pasturing and slaughter of the cattle which supplied his meat; the sowing and harvesting of the crops which produced the grain which was baked into bread; the vineyards which produced his wine and the breweries which fermented his beer; the hunting of wild game and fish which stocked his larders; the craftsmen producing his furniture, jewelery, and garments.

Since the //Ka// must be given the opportunity to relive the life of the deceased in every aspect, all relevant activities were presented in the smallest detail - his work, his voyages and travels, his sports and games, his public honors and domestic relaxations. All this was done at the command and under supervision of the tomb-owner himself, during his lifetime. Every Egyptian, if he had the means to do so, made a recording of his whole life, not on tape or film, but in carved and painted limestone - so that his //Ka// could play it over and over again for all eternity.

An interesting point to note is that the Egyptians believed that animals, plants, water and even stones had their own //Ka//. A human's //Ka// could move around while a person slept, and even inhabit a plant if the //Ka// so desired, rather than the human. The Ka could manifest itself, as a ghost, to others. It was even thought to haunt those who did wrong to it - if family failed to make proper offerings, the starving and thirsty //Ka// would haunt them until they corrected this error! Conversely, a well-fed //Ka// could be evoked by prayers or written letters left near the tomb in order to help living family members.

The //Ka// was fed by the family of the deceased or by a //Hem-Ka// (//Ka// Priest) leaving periodic food offerings at the tomb. Being a spiritual entity, it did not eat the food but seems to have extracted the life-sustaining forces from the offerings, be they real or symbolic. The most common funerary inscription invoked "a thousand of bread, a thousand of beer, oxen, and fowl for the //Ka// of the deceased." It was fairly common to seek out old graves that no one visited anymore, believing that those buried in them had become angry over being neglected. People placed offerings on these graves in hopes that the angry //Ka// would "turn away the demons of sickness."

Some individuals willed a piece of land or goods to the //Ka// priests on their death, to ensure that their //Ka// would be provided for. Some even contracted //Ka// priests for generations to come, much as modern-day contractual agreements between corporations or states may long outlast the individual representatives who first drew them up. King Neferirkare-Kakai contracted thirty priests in full-time employment to feed his //Ka//, and his services continued for well over 200 years.

The gods themselves were felt to possess a //Ka//. Egyptologist Dimitri Meeks explains that the vital force that the ancients ascribed to the //Ka// acts in such a way as to give each deity the ability to take creative form infinitely. Because of this ability, it was this essence, the energy of the deity's //Ka//, which was felt to temporally inhabit statues and other magical images during ritual.

Sometimes divine beings were thought to have more than one //Ka//, such as Ra, who had anywhere from nine to one million, which he used to "protect his subjects." Cats were thought to have nine lives because the goddess Bast had nine //Kas//. Claiming their kinship with the gods, pharaohs often claimed to have multiple //Ka//s, such as Ramses II, who announced that he had over twenty.

Parts of the Soul