The Ka and the Ba

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night

- The Beatles

The Egyptians had a nuanced and multi-faceted view of spirit. Most fascinating to me is the Ba, the part of the spirit which is the unique identity of the individual, represented as a bird with a human head. After death, this Ba would fly out of the tomb of the deceased, and seek to meet once again with its animating force, the Ka.

This concept has been picked up on by a Hollywood movie or two, not to mention the lyrics above.

  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • TwitThis
  • StumbleUpon

Related

Tags:

No Comments »

All comments are the sole opinion and property of the commenter.

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment