IMPORTANCE OF THE HEART IN THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL ACCORDING TO THAT RELIGION. SYMBOLISM OF THE SCARAB IN THEIR DOCTRINE OF SUCH IMMORTALITY. NO THING IN THIS UNIVERSE ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED, ONLY CHANGED. THE IDEA OF METEMPSYCHOSIS IN ANCIENT EGYPT. ELEVATED IDEAS AS TO THE DEITY. HYMN TO AMMON-RA CITED. QUOTATIONS AS TO EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY, EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE AND KOSMOGONY. OF KHEPRA AND OF TUM OR ATMU. EGYPTIAN PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS DIVISIONS.

The human heart, the first life principle of human existence and regeneration, the first apparent individuality of embryonic human life; was symbolized, in the Per-em-Hru, i.e., the Book of the Dead, by Khepra, the scarabaeus deity; this is one reason why the texts which related to the heart, were those usually inscribed on the funeral scarabaei, and consecrated to the preservation of the heart of the dead. The condition of death was described by the Egyptian expression: “The one whose heart does not beat.” The resurrection or re-birth from the dead only began, according to the Egyptian idea, when this organ, so essential and necessary to all animal life, was returned to the deceased Ba, i.e., responsible soul, by the decree of Osiris and the judges of the dead, which Thoth registers: “To him is accorded that his heart may be in its place.” Indeed most of the texts of the Per-em-Hru, as we have seen, are dedicated to the preservation of the heart of the dead one. The philosophic student can therefore from this, at once see, the great value of the scarabaeus symbol to the whole religious thought-world of Ancient Egypt. It was the symbol, when returned to the dead, of the regenerated and resurrected life of the dead one to the heavenly regions of the blessed for all eternity, to the second birth in the regions of eternal rest and happiness.

Taking as a model the daily course of the sun, which rising in the morning as Horus; reaching the zenith at noon as Ra; setting in the evening, in the regions of darkness as Tum; and absent during the night and until the morrow as Osiris; upon which, victorious over the chaotic darkness, it arose in triumph again as Horus; the birth and journey of man on earth, was considered by the Ancient Egyptians as similar to the solar journey; and death, the end of that journey, was assimilated to the course of the sun when at night it was, according to their astronomical knowledge, supposed to be in the Lower Regions or Underworld, the abode of Osiris. When he died, the Egyptian became as Osiris, “the nocturnal sun;” resurrected, he became Horus, the new-born and rising sun; in midday, he was Ra. Horus was: “The Old One who rejuvenated himself.” Such a re-birth of the dead to immortality, was the recompense promised by the Egyptian religion, to the soul of the man pious and good during this life, but the wicked were to be tortured, transformed into lower forms, or annihilated. Matter, according to it, does not perish but only changes and the earth itself, was deified as Seb, Isis, Ta-nen, and Ptah-Tatunen.

What then did matter become, it was transformed, the deities were transformed. Matter was transformed, this is explained to us through the symbolism of the scarab, the hieroglyph of the word Kheper, i.e., “to be,” “to exist,” “to become,” “to create,” “to emanate;” of which, as I have said, the Great Sphinx is the symbol, and has therefore the philosophical value of creator and created. God and His universe, existence and change or transformation, death and dissolution, all which were only considered as regeneration and re-birth in another form. Thence becomes apparent to us, the great value and importance to the Egyptian people of the symbolism of the scarab, it was, to them, the emblematic synthesis of their religion as to-day to Christians, the Latin or the Greek cross, is the emblematic synthesis of Latin or Greek Christianity. The philosophic Egyptian, thought, the atoms and molecules of all bodies and of all matter, were never destroyed or lost, they were always in motion but were only transformed and changed, by death or the dissolution of forms. Death on this earth did not destroy the personality of the human being, that continued beyond death on our earth, and as to those who had been good and pious during their life here, their personality continued eternally; but the punishment of the wicked was, the annihilation of that personality or an immobility which was almost the same. The work entitled, Hermes Trismegistos, contains a resume of that idea, saying, among other things: “What was composed is divided. That division is not Death, it is the analysis of a combination; but the aim of that analysis is not destruction, it is the renewment. What is in effect the energy of life? Is it not movement? What then is there in this world, immovable?"

The everlasting interchange of life and death, flows throughout all the religious philosophy of the Ancient Egyptians; basing itself on the continual return of day from night and of day to night, and upon the apparent course of the sun, they seem to have formulated the idea of the immortality of the soul of man after death.

Herodotus tells us, that the Egyptians believed, that the soul of the departed passed into an animal, and after having gone through all the ranks of the animal world, was at the end of three thousand years reunited to the human body; but from the remains of the Egyptian religion we have to-day, next to nothing has been found that will confirm this statement, but much that shows the Greek authors were frequently in error. In the realm of the dead, according to the texts of the Book of the Dead, the responsible soul or Ba of the deceased, may become a sparrow-hawk, an adder, a crocodile-headed being, etc., but only to deceive its demon enemies; not until after this, is the Khu, the intellectual soul, which accompanies the Ba, which is represented under the symbolized form of a sparrow-hawk with a human head, reunited to the Ba. This however all occurs, not on earth, but in the realms of the dead. The Ancient Egyptian believed, that as the setting of the sun was an actual separation of the body and soul of the sun-god; and its rising, a reunion of the two; so it happened to the future of the spiritual of man, and that after man’s death on this earth, his spirit, as did that of the sun-god; would arise again to life, but it would be to a life of immortality in a higher sphere. I am inclined also to think, that they believed the spiritual body of the new-born child came down from the sun-disk or from some very exalted sphere.

The following quotations from Eugene Grebaut’s translation in French, of the Hymn to Ammon-Ra, are important for an understanding of the positions of Khepra and of Turn during the Theban Dynasties.

“Hail to thee Ra, lord of the maat, (the) mysterious in his shrine. Master (i.e., father) of the gods, Khepra in its boat, (it) sending forth the word (i.e., the creative word,) the gods came into existence. Hail god Tum, maker of intelligent beings, who determines their manner of existence, artisan of their existences; (and who) distinguishes (their) colors, one from the other." “Author of humanity, making the form of all things to become (or, former who produced every thing;) it is in thy name of Tum-Khepra." “Khepra is father of the gods and the producer of the maat."

The deities go out of the mouth of their father Khepra, and are nourished by the maat, i.e., the Harmony or Law of the universe; men go out of its eyes, that is from the light of the deity, and it is this light which vivifies the entire universe. The Hymn says: “O Form, ONE, producing all things, the ONE, who art Alone; producing existences! Men come forth from Its two eyes, the gods come into existence from Its Word. Author of the green pastures, which nourish the cattle, and of the nutritious plants for the use of mankind. It who maketh that fishes live in the rivers and the winged fowl in the air; who giveth the breath of life to (the germ) in the egg. It maketh to live birds of all species, and likewise the insects which creep and also those which fly. It maketh provision for the rats in their holes, and nourisheth the birds that are on the trees. Hail to Thee, O Author of the totality of all forms. The ONE who art alone, yet numberless through Thy extended arms: watching over all humanity when it sleeps, seeking the good of Its creatures." I have used the neuter It and not He, the Egyptian idea of the highest deity was, that it was androgenic not masculine. Although it would seem that this Hymn, of which I have cited but a small portion, applied to Ammon-Ra, yet it expressly says, that: Its name is also Tum (or, Atmu,) Khepra.

Another text reads: “O Bull of the western region concealed in the concealed region (i.e., Amenti or the Underworld) from whom emanates all the gods (and all) the goddesses who are with him! The Osiris, the Hathor (the name of the dead was inserted here) the justified (or, triumphant,) comes towards thee; the becoming which is in the becoming of all things when they become. Powerful lords, beneficent, divine, judging the speech (words) of the inhabitants of the countries; lords of Truth! Hail to thee! gods, essence of the essences without their bodies, ruling the generations of Ta-nen (i.e., of this earth) and the births (begettings) in the temple of Mesxen (they raise the generations?) from the first essence of the divine essences, third greatness above the father of their fathers; invoking the soul from its Almightiness when are produced its Desires (Will;) adoring their Father in his glorifications; divine Prototypes of the Types of all that exists, Fathers and Mothers of the solar disk, Forms, Great Ancients, Divine Essences, first from Atum (i.e., chaos,) emanating humanity; causing to emerge the forms of all forms; lords of the divine sustenance; homage to thee! Lords from everlasting, possessing eternity,” etc. “All that is done and said upon earth has its source in the heights, from whence the essences are dispensed to us with measure and equilibrium; and there is not anything, which does not emanate from on high and which does not return thereto."

The verb Kheper usually translated “to be,” “to exist,” “to become,” also has the meaning of “to roll” or “revolve.” The sun apparently rolled or revolved around the earth. In the British Museum, in a hieratic papyrus (No 10,188,) Khepera is identified with the deity Neb-er’-ter, and the latter says, in it: “I am He (It?) who evolved Himself (Itself?) under the form of the god Khepera. I, the evolver of evolutions, evolved Myself, the evolver of all evolutions, after a multitude of evolutions and developments which came forth from My mouth. There was not any heaven, earth was not, animals which move upon the earth and reptiles existed not in that place. I constructed their forms out of the inert mass of watery matter. I did not find any place upon which I could stand. By the power which was in My Will I laid the foundation (of things) in the form of the god Shu and I created (emanated?) for them every attribute which they have. I alone existed, for I had not, as yet, made Shu emanate from Me, and I had not ejected the spittle which became Tefnut (i.e., the deity or personification of, moisture.) There did not exist any other to work with Me. By My own Will I laid the foundation of all things, and the evolutions of things, and the evolutions which took place from the evolutions of their births, which took place through the evolutions of their offspring, became multiplied. My shadow was united with Me, and produced Shu and Tefnut from the emanation of Myself, thus from one deity I became three deities I gathered together My members and wept over them, and from the tears which fell from My eye, men and women sprung into existence.”

The duplicate copy of this chapter reads: “I developed Myself from the primeval matter which I made. My name is Osiris, the germ of primeval matter. I have worked My Will to its full extent in this earth, I have spread abroad (or, expanded Myself,) and fitted it I uttered My Name as a Word of Power, from My own mouth, and I straightway developed Myself by evolution. I evolved Myself under the form of the evolutions of the god Khepera, and I developed Myself out of the primeval matter which has evolved multitudes of evolutions from the beginning of time. No-thing existed on this earth (before Me,) I made all things. There was none other who worked with Me at that time. I made all evolutions by means of that soul, which I raised up there from inertness out of the watery matter." This is a most important papyrus for a knowledge of Ancient Egyptian philosophy.

“’In the beginning: When there was not yet heaven, when there was not yet earth, when there were not yet men, when the gods were not yet born, when there was not yet death.’ Nu alone was existing, the water (or humid) principle of all things, and in that primordial water, Tumu, the father of the gods. The day of creation came, Shu raised the waters upon the staircase which is in Khmunu. The earth was made even under his feet, as a long united table; heaven appeared above his head as a ceiling of iron (or steel) upon which rolled the divine Ocean. Hor (Horus) and his sons Hapi, Amsit (or Mestha,) Tuamautef and Qebhsennuf, the gods of the four cardinal points, went out at once and posted themselves at the four corners of the inferior table, and received the four angles of the firmament upon the point of their sceptres; the sun appeared and the voice of the god, the first day is arisen and the world was thereafter constituted, such as it ought to ever remain!"

“Glory of all things, God, the divine and the divine nature. Principles of the beings; God, the Intelligence, nature and matter. Wisdom manifests the universe, of which the divine is the principle, the nature, energy, necessity, the end and the renewing.

There was darkness without limit over the abyss and the water, and a subtle and intelligent spirit, contained in chaos by the divine power. Then gushed forth the holy light, and under the sand (i.e., the atomic dryness) the elements went forth from the humid essence, and all the gods distributed the fecundity of nature. The universe being in confusion and disorder, the buoyant elements ascended, and the heavier were established as a foundation under the damp sand, (and) everything became separated by fire and suspended, so as to be raised by the spirit."

The Ancient Egyptians made many more statements which undoubtedly referred to an unknown, all-powerful, ideal deity of the highest order, I have a great number of such, but will not bring them forward in this writing; I refer the reader for some quotations on this subject, to the valuable writings of Mr. P. Le Page Renouf, especially to his; Religion of Ancient Egypt (Hibbert Lectures for 1879), which I have already cited in several places.

It will be seen from these quotations, that Khepra, the scarabaeus deity, especially as Tum-Khepra; occupied a most elevated position, I might say the most elevated, of all the religious conceptions of the Ancient Egyptians, for beyond it, was the unknown ideal deity whom none could form a conception of. Khepra was asserted to have generated and caused to come into existence, itself through itself, it united in itself, the male and female principles of life. It was androgenic. The scarabaeus was the hieroglyph of the creator, the to be, to become, to exist, the eternal, the coming into being from chaotic non-being, also the itself transforming or becoming, the emanating or creating power, also, the universe. Khepra was “Father of the gods,” connected with the idea of the rising of the sun from the darkness of night, Khepra was used to typify the resurrection from the dead of the spirits of men. It represented the active and positive in antithesis to Atmu, or Tum. With Atmu as Atmu (or, Tum)-Khepra, it represented the positive and negative united, spirit and matter.

Atmu, Tum or Tmu, was the symbol of the eternal night or darkness of Chaos, which preceded the emanation of light, it was the type of senility and absolute death, the negative and end. It was the nocturnal or hidden sun, as Horus was the rising sun, and Ra the risen sun, proceeding in its course each day through the firmament. Tum was not however considered as absolutely inert, it was the precursor of the rising sun, and the point of departure of the setting sun, and was the nocturnal sun, and was also a point of departure into existence, of all the created and emanated in the universe. It, as well as Khepra, in some of the texts is called “Father of the gods."

This deity was the unknown and inaccessible, primordial deity of chaos, “existing alone in the abyss,” before the appearance of Light. One of the texts reads:

“Homage to thee, sun at its setting, Tum-Harmakhis, god renewing and forming itself in itself, double essence. Hail to thee author of the gods, who hast suspended heaven for the circulation of thy two eyes, author of the earth in its extent, and from whom the light is, so as to give to all men the sensation of the sight of his fellow creature."

It is of the greatest importance to an understanding of the Egyptian religion and philosophy, and especially of the Per-em-hru, the so-called, Book of the Dead; that the Egyptian psychology be comprehended; in order to enable the reader to do this, I have prepared the following condensed statement of the same.

I. The Body was called Khat. This was embalmed and then placedin the tomb.

II. The Soul was called, Ba or Bai, plur. Baiu. This was the part of the spiritual which was thought to contain the elements necessary for the world-life of a man, such as judgment, conscience, etc. It seems to be the same termed psuke or psyche by the Greeks. This Ba performed the pilgrimage in the underworld, and was judged for the conduct of the man it inhabited in this world, by Osiris and the Forty-two judges. It was usually represented as a bird, especially as a human-headed sparrow-hawk. It fluttered to and fro between this world and the next, sometimes visiting the mummy in its tomb. It was sometimes represented as a crane, at others as a lapwing. It is paralleled by the Rua’h of the Hebrew Qabbalah.

III. The Intellectual part of man’s spirit was called, Xu or Khu. It was considered as part of the flame detached from the upper divine fire. Freed from mortality it wandered through space and had the power of keeping company with or haunting humanity, and even of entering into and taking possession of the body of a living man. The Egyptians spoke of being possessed with a khu as we would say of a being possessed by a spirit. It was considered as a luminous spirit. It was the Intelligence and answers to the Nous of the Greeks and the Neshamah of the Hebrew Qabbalah.

IV. The Shadow or Shade was called, Khaibit. This created the Individuality, and was an important part of the personality. There was a valley in which the Shades were, in the Underworld. It was restored to the soul in the second life. They are frequently mentioned in the Per-em-hru. His shadow, would early attract the attention of the primitive man.

V. The Name was called, Ren. This was the Personality, that something, which continued to know itself as a distinct individual, through every change of the atoms and appearances of the body. In the Per-em-hru was written: “The Osiris (then the name of the dead was inserted.)” It was restored eternally to the soul in the second life. The Ba retained the Ren in its journey through the Underworld.

VI. The life or Double was called, Ka, plur. Kau. This was the vital principle, necessary to the existence of man as an animal being on this earth. It was a spiritual double, a second perfect exemplar or copy, of his flesh, blood, etc., body; but of a matter less dense than corporeal matter, but having all its shape and features, being child, man, or woman, as the living had been. It dwelt with the mummy in the tomb and had a semi-material form and substance, and I am inclined to think, from the texts, it had power to leave the tomb when it pleased but always returned. Its emblem was the ankh or crux ansata. It was something like the higher Nephesh of the Hebrew Qabbalah. The sacrificial food left in the tombs and the pictures on their walls were for the benefit of the Ka. The Ka corresponded to the Latin, genius. Its original meaning may have been image; it was like the Greek eidolon, i.e., ghost. The funeral oblations were made to the image or Ka. The Ka was a spiritual double of the man, a kind of prototype in the Upper World, of the man in the Lower World, our earth.

VII. The Mummy or the Husk was called, Sahu. It was the body after embalmment. “His body is in the condition of being true; it will not perish." The Sahu was considered a true being as it was assumed that it would always remain the same. It was like the lower form of the Nephesh of the Hebrew Qabbalah. The atoms of the mummy-body were still intact held together by the cohesion of the particles. This cohesion was looked upon as a spiritual energy keeping the particles together, in the form of the mummy. The word Sahu may sometimes refer to this living personality.

VIII. The Heart was called Ab. This was thought to be the seat of life, the life being in the blood, and the embryonic life starting with the pulsations of the heart.

The Ba, performed the journey through the Underworld accompanied by the Name and Shadow, until it reached the Hall of Judgment; if pronounced pure, the Heart was then given it. The Name, Shadow and Heart, then awaited reunion with the Khu and Ka for the condition of final immortality and the power to make the transformations. The body was embalmed and the Ka dwelt in the sepulchre with it, but went in and out of the tomb. The Khu also accompanied the Ba in its journey through the Underworld and assisted it, but in case of an adverse judgment in the Hall of Osiris and the decree of annihilation; the Khu fled back to its immortal source of life and light.

Not any of these, by its own nature, could exist for any length of time entirely separated from the others; if left to itself, that so separated, would in time dissolve into new elements and if it were the soul, it would die a second time, the personality and individuality would then perish and become annihilated; this was the much feared, second death. This however might be prevented by the piety of the survivors, in repeating the prayers and litanies and performing the lustrations and sacrifices, for the dead. The lot to do this usually fell to the eldest son and in default of sons, to the daughters, etc., no relations existing, the dead persons’ slaves could perform it. The priests were also left annuities to perform perpetually, the sacred duties to the dead. Embalmment preventing for centuries, decomposition; continued prayers, devotions and offerings would save, it was believed, the Ka, the Ba, and the Khu, from the second death, and procure for them what was necessary to prolong their existence. The Ka, they thought, never quitted the place where the mummy was except at some time to return. The Ba, and the Khu went away from it to follow the gods, but they continually returned as would a traveler who re-entered his house after an absence. The tomb was the defunct’s “eternal dwelling house” on earth, the houses of the living were only as inns or stopping places. In case of a judgment in favor of the Ba in the Hall of Osiris, the Khu united to the Ba, Khaibet, Ab, Ka, etc., rose up to the Egyptian heaven, and the whole united was able to make whatever transformations pleased it.