October 9, 2023
Source: Owlcation
Photo Source: Unsplash,
The Heart in Ancient Egypt
The ancient Egyptians believed the physical organ, which they called haty, was different from the metaphysical heart or ib. The ib was the source of wisdom, memories and thought, not the brain.
Whereas they removed the brain during the process of mummification, they left the heart in the body, protected by a valuable heart scarab, as an important key to entering the afterlife.
The Importance of the Ib
In Egyptian mythology, the ib came into being at the time of conception, forged from a single drop of blood from the mother’s heart. The ib survived the physical death of the body.
It was placed on a set of scales and weighed against the feather of Ma’at, the goddess of truth and justice, in a ceremony presided over by Osiris and a tribunal of forty-three other deities. The jackal-headed psychopomp Anubis led the deceased through the gates to the underworld and presented the deceased at the ceremony.
If the scales tipped in favour of the deceased, they became one with Osiris. However, any heart found to be heavy with sin got thrown to the monster Ammit, the ‘eater of the dead’ who devoured it along with any hope of a happy afterlife.
The ib was so important to the Ancient Egyptians they incorporated into their words, such as Awt-ib – happiness, and in people’s names. I think my favourite name is Peribsen, which means ‘hope of all hearts.’
How can such practices apply to real-life? How might such practices impact your health? What are the real-life facts of such cinematic creations?
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