by Terry McCombs
Terry McCombs maintained the "God/dess of the Month Club" on soc.religion.paganism for several years, producing monthly profiles of deities drawn from across the world's traditions. His approach was comparative and eclectic, treating each figure as a window into a shared human experience.
His September 2005 entry took an unusual angle: rather than a deity, he profiled the Akh — the luminous, unified soul that ancient Egyptians believed could emerge from the successful fusion of the Ka (life-force) and the Ba (individual personality) after death. He then ranged across thirteen world cultures to show that the dual-soul concept, and the idea of a higher self that transcends it, appears nearly everywhere.
The entry ends with a survey of Peter Novar's early-2000s books, which use neuroscience and near-death research to propose a modern equivalent of the Akh — and with a characteristic McCombs pun.
Name: Akh. The Shining One, which first was known as the Ka & Ba.
Symbols: As the Akh, a glyph of a crested ibis or stork — though there may be only a phonetic relationship between the bird and the concept, perhaps a sort of ancient Egyptian pun. Symbol for the Ka: two outstretched arms forming a U or cup shape. For the Ba: a human-headed bird.
Usual Image: Crested Ibis, star in the night sky.
Holy Books: Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Holy Days: Your deathday.
Place of Worship: Funeral temples, tombs.
Relatives: The left side of your brain and/or soul (father), the right side of your brain and/or spirit (mother), past lives (grandparents), the dead in the afterlife (brothers & sisters).
Synodeities: For the Akh: The Immortal Fetus (Taoism), Neshamah (Esoteric Judaism). For the Ka & Ba: Psuche & Thumos (Greece — though the Greeks spoke of three souls, not just two), Ruwach & Nephesh (Hebrew), Urvan & Daena (Persian), Hun & Po (China), Atman & Jiva (Hinduism), Uhane & Unihipili (Huna), Nagi & Niya (North Dakota Indians), Hanan & Hurin (Incan), Inua & Tarnneg (Inuit), Baktup (Hot Soul) & Bowugn (Cold Soul) (Maku tribe of the Amazon), Gros bon ange & Ti bon ange (Haiti), Soul & Spirit (Esoteric Christianity), god & goddess small g (some Neo-Pagans, perhaps).
The Ancient Egyptians believed that we humans are creatures of many parts, not just from person to person, but within the single individual as well. It was thought that each person was not just a body with a soul or a mind, but a collection of elements that together made the unique man or woman.
Each person was made up of many parts: the body, the heart, the name, the shadow, the Ka (life force), and the Ba (personality), among others.
It was believed that keeping as many of these together as possible was best for an auspicious afterlife, hence their art of mummification.
There was also an element needed for a good afterlife, one that came into being after death — and that is what concerns us here.
It seems that while preserving parts of a person was a good thing, and while it was important that the Ba keep the Ka going, an even better idea was to combine those two together and achieve an even better version of the person. This was the Akh.
An Akh came into being when the Ka — the substance of the human, depicted as a pair of open arms, thought to be made by the god Khnum on a potter's wheel — was bonded with the Ba, or the individual's unique expression. This union brought about an Akh: the person raised above the common dead to the level of a minor deity. But you've got to start somewhere.
This was accomplished by the person knowing the right spells, being supplied with needed offerings, and having a priest called an Akh-seeker (skhen-Akh) perform a ritual called "Cause One to Become an Akh." Nice practical name.
After this was done, the person was believed to become one of the stars, with the ability to move freely between earth and sky, as well as to aid the living — so that those who had helped the dead could in return be helped by them.
The Akh in the Modern World
All this is well-known ancient Egyptian lore. But the Akh's back, baby, and it's not just for mummies anymore.
It seems the concept has been modified and revived for modern times. In two books — The Division of Consciousness and The Lost Secret of Death by Peter Novar — the author uses recent brain function research and reports of near-death and out-of-body experiences to put forth a fairly distinctive theory on life after death.
He says that those who say we reincarnate and those who say we go to an eternal Heaven or Hell experience are both right.
The reason, he argues, is that we all have two souls: one that holds our memories and emotions, residing in our right brain; and one that is judgment and reason, residing in our left brain.
He goes on to say that when we die these two souls wander off to two very different and equally illusionary and incomplete afterlives. The solution? Somehow find a way to bond these two souls together, so that after the shock of death they become a third new being — one more like our whole selves. In other words, an Akh.
An interesting read, though McCombs found much of the speculation deeply flawed: Novar pretty much ignores most science except for what seems to agree with him, distorts many old belief systems to fit his theory, and leaps to conclusions with logic equivalent to saying: "As 2 + 2 is 4, and 4 + 4 is 8, then 8 + 8 must be apple pie."
Still, it is a stimulating read, and when taken with the required grain of salt it makes for some interesting new things to contemplate.
However, as with most things — remember, it Akh necessarily so!
Colophon
Written and posted by Terry McCombs to soc.religion.paganism on September 30, 2005, as part of his "God/dess of the Month Club" series. Original Message-ID: <[email protected]>.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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