Similarities Between Ancient Egypt and Spiritism

The Ancient Egyptian View of the Afterlife 

The Egyptians believed in an afterlife, and the tomb was an important part of that belief. As the tomb of King Tutankhamen testifies, the deceased’s chamber of internment was to be decorated with art and filled with the material possessions of that person. Why? The ritual was not for superstitious reasons, as one might suspect. It was practical, according to their beliefs, and aimed at preventing that person’s energy (spirit) from being re-absorbed into Nature’s spiritual force. For the ancient Egyptians, Ba was the force that animated a living person, whereas Ka was the energy emanating from that person. Although not an exact analogy, the Ka and the Ba are what spiritists might refer as spirit and soul. 

Another important aspect of Egyptian belief represented immortality, the ankh, depicted in hyrogripics as the crested ibis (below). In other words, the Ibis made it possible for the spirit (Ka) to live on, just as spiritists believe that our spirit lives on, once the body is gone. The place for the spirit to have the immortality was ruled by the Ibis (an Egyptian God).

The Ka, represented in art by up-stretched arms (see below), was believed to be the part of man’s consciousness and energy (man’s spirit or inner quality) that related to the immediate world. It is the part of us connected to the physical body; where it lived (just as our spirit lives inside our body).  The Ka also included the possessions that one had, as well as the people he or she was acquainted with. The Ka can be likened to one’s personality when we are in the material world. 

Upon death, the Ka was separated from the body (just as the spirit leaves the body behind), and it would naturally seek a way to once again to take a new form. 

The Ba, represented by a winged human head, or sometimes a human-faced bird, represented the part of consciousness that is immortal (as spiritists call it, the perispirit, where our spirit lives on once the body is gone).

When someone passed away, it was their goal as well as the hope of the family, that the deceased’s Ka would seek a way to remain united with their Ba. In other words, when the Ka (spirit) was separated from the body, how could it stay united to the Ba? 

To help accomplish this eternal union between Ka and Ba, the possessions of the deceased were gathered together by the family and placed in the tomb with the mummified body. Mummification prevented the body from decomposing and returning to the soil of the Earth, whereas the tomb, with the deceased’s possessions inside, served as a ‘home’ for the Ka. As a result, the Ka maintained its identity in the spiritual world and could seek out its Ba in order to achieve ankh, which resulted in the resurrected and glorified form of the deceased beyond the limits of an earthly realm into a spiritual hierarchy.

The ankh was also known as crux ansata (Latin for "cross with a handle").  It symbolized life, and the Egyptian gods were often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, arms crossed over their chest (see below). The ankh appears in the hand or in proximity of almost every deity in the Egyptian pantheon (including Pharaohs).

Ancient Egypt had more in common with spiritism than we may have thought!