The Weighing of the Heart Ceremony
The Afterlife
Why did Egyptians mummify bodies?
Egyptians believed that a mummified body was the home for the soul or spirit. If the body was destroyed, the spirit might be lost forever.
Their idea of "spirit" was complex involving really three spirits: the ka, ba, and akh. The ka, a "double" of the person, would remain in the tomb and needed the offerings and objects there.
The ba, or "soul", was free to fly out of the tomb and return to it.
And it was the akh, perhaps translated as "spirit", which had to travel through the Underworld to the Final Judgment and entrance to the Afterlife. To the Egyptian, all three were essential.
Many people in ancient civilizations were afraid of their Gods.
This was not true in Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians loved their Gods. They had little fear and great wonder.
There was one exception, though - the goddess Ammit the Devourer, who was 33⅓% crocodile, 33⅓% leopard, 33⅓% hippo, and 100% lethal
The ancient Egyptians believed if you did something bad, your heart would be heavy, and the goddess Ammit might suddenly appear and eat your heart!
Discussion Questions
What role did Egypt’s geography have on the representation of Ammit the Devourer?
Why were those animals chosen?
When you died, the ancient Egyptians believed you traveled to an afterlife, a heavenly place where you spent eternity, called the “Happy Field of Food.”
But you had to earn your way. To reach paradise, you had to have a light heart. Light hearts were earned from a lifetime of doing good deeds.
So after death your heart had to be weighed against the “Feather of Truth.” Ask yourself, would YOUR heart be lighter or heavier?
Discussion Questions
In what way is this different to the religious beliefs of ancient Mesopotamia?
Are there any belief systems we’ve recently learned about that also believe that good and evil actions affect your life in the afterlife?
So, after a body was mummified, it would be entombed with the “Book of the Dead”, a book that contained spells, charms and formulas for the dead to use in the afterlife. The book would help the deceased get to the “Weighing of the Heart ceremony.”
STEP 1: Before the heart of a recently deceased person was weighed, their spirit first had to make it to the Hall of Osiris.
There, you had to swear to the gods that you had not committed any offenses, ranging from raising the voice to stealing. If found innocent, the deceased was declared "true of voice" and allowed to proceed to the ceremony.
Then the god Anubis (the god of embalming and the dead) would lead you to the sacred scale and weigh your heart
Step 2: The god Thoth (the god of knowledge and the chief scribe of the gods) recorded the findings. �
Step 3: If your heart was light enough, you passed the test you would be led by Horus to Osiris.
There you would enter the “Happy Field of Food.”
BUT, if your heart was heavier than the “Feather of Truth”...
You failed the test because your heart was heavy with dreadful deeds and the goddess Ammit would suddenly appear...and eat your heart out, literally! After that, the soul would become restless forever; this was called “to die a second time”
THEY WERE IN de-NILE
However, many of the souls that failed the test refused to believe the results because…
THEY JUST DIDN’T HAVE THE HEART TO GO ON!
Of course, eventually they had to accept the final decision because…
Video Recap
BTW...
What happened to pharaohs in the afterlife?
- In his death, the deceased pharaoh would become Osiris, the ruler of the Underworld
- The living pharaoh that replaced him would then become the living embodiment of Horus, the falcon-headed god of the sky
In life HORUS
In death OSIRIS
Consider it the ongoing Cycle of the Pharaoh
Exit Ticket
Explain how mummification played a key role in the Egyptian view of the afterlife. Make sure you use the highlighted words from the Google Slide presentation in your answer.