Egyptian Nine-Part Soul

Khat — the corruptible physical body, that which decays. The whole apparatus of mummification exists to preserve the khat as a vessel: not because the body itself is the soul, but because several of the other components require an intact body-image as their anchor. The Book of the Dead spells repeatedly secure the khat 'against the worm' so the rest of the funerary anthropology can function.

Ka — the vital double, the life-force that distinguishes a living person from a corpse, transmitted from a creator-god (Khnum on his potter's wheel; Atum through breath). At death the ka does not perish; it requires sustenance, which is the entire reason for the offering-cult and the funerary endowment. Tombs are addressed to the ka, not to the deceased as such: 'a thousand of bread, a thousand of beer, for the ka of N.'

Ba — the personality, the unique character of the individual, depicted as a human-headed bird (the iconography emphasises that the ba retains the face of the deceased). The ba can leave the body and travel — at night to the realm of the dead, by day back to the tomb to receive offerings. Its survival presupposes both an intact khat to return to and a functioning ka to nourish.

Akh — the 'effective' or 'transfigured' state achieved by a successful deceased after the union of ka and ba. The akh is what the funerary ritual is for: not preservation but transformation. Once an akh, the deceased is among the imperishable stars (the circumpolar stars in the northern sky), and capable of acting on behalf of, or against, the living. Letters to the dead are addressed to the akh.

Ren — the true name, conferred at birth and inscribed everywhere the deceased wishes their existence to persist. To know a being's true name is to have power over them; the famous Isis-and-Re myth turns on Isis tricking Re into revealing his ren. Conversely, to erase a name (damnatio memoriae) is to destroy a component of the person — which is why pharaohs of disfavoured dynasties are systematically chiselled out of monuments.

Sheut — the shadow, considered a real component of the person rather than a mere optical phenomenon. The shadow is bound up with sexual potency and with protection: spells in the Book of the Dead concern the soul's right to its own shadow, and gods are sometimes depicted as 'shadows' (e.g. the shadow of Re). To strip the deceased of his shadow is to weaken him.

Ib — the heart, considered the seat of intellect, will, and moral character; the source of speech, and the organ that will be weighed against the feather of Maʿat in the judgement hall of Osiris. It is the only internal organ retained inside the body during mummification (the brain was discarded; lungs, liver, stomach and intestines went into canopic jars; the heart stayed in place). Spell 30B of the Book of the Dead is addressed directly to the ib, asking it not to rise up against its owner at the weighing: 'O my heart of my mother, O my heart of my different forms — do not stand against me as a witness in the presence of the Lord of Things.'

Sahu — the spiritualised body that comes into being once the deceased is justified before Osiris. It is the form in which the deceased moves through the realms of the dead and meets the gods face to face. Where khat is the corruptible body, sahu is its incorruptible counterpart, available only after successful judgement. Budge translates sahu as 'spiritual body' and connects it explicitly to the New Testament's σῶμα πνευματικόν of 1 Corinthians 15:44; this is a Victorian comparison, not an attested ancient identification, but the morphological parallel is real.

Sekhem — the personal power or luminous force of the justified deceased. The word covers a range from royal authority to divine efficacy; as a soul-component it is the radiant capacity that distinguishes an akh from a mere shade. It is closely associated with the goddess Sekhmet (whose name is the feminine form of the same root) and with the lion-headed image of overwhelming, focused force. Budge counts sekhem among the soul components of the deceased; Allen and most contemporary Egyptologists regard it as a divine attribute that the akh acquires rather than a separate component, which is why some modern lists make this the 'ninth' part and others omit it.