What does everybody think about this pratice. Amung the rural Egyptians today a similar pratice exists where it's believed every Friday a spirt[Akhu] visits the grave to communicate with a loved one. Food and drink are left as offerings.

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Originally posted by ausar:
A common pratice amung non-elite Egyptians in communicating with their ancestors was the Letters to the Dead. Even after the deceased pass on the the land of the blessed it was stil believed that the akhu of the deceased could be communicated with. You might see assorted things written on little offering bowls which requested certain things from the akhu. Simple requests or just confirmtation that things were okay in the present world.

What does everybody think about this pratice. Amung the rural Egyptians today a similar pratice exists where it's believed every Friday a spirt[Akhu] visits the grave to communicate with a loved one. Food and drink are left as offerings.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ausar:
A common pratice amung non-elite Egyptians in communicating with their ancestors was the Letters to the Dead. Even after the deceased pass on the the land of the blessed it was stil believed that the akhu of the deceased could be communicated with. You might see assorted things written on little offering bowls which requested certain things from the akhu. Simple requests or just confirmtation that things were okay in the present world.

What does everybody think about this pratice. Amung the rural Egyptians today a similar pratice exists where it's believed every Friday a spirt[Akhu] visits the grave to communicate with a loved one. Food and drink are left as offerings.

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This is interesting! I think you posted something similar to this some months ago. This practice is still prevalent in countries like Haiti and one can finds traits of it throughout the Caribbean Jamaica, Bahamas, ect...I for one can remember hearing stories of how, if you want something you can write a letter to your dead grandparent or parent and ask them for financial and other forms of blessings. This practice is on the low because its is considered anti-christian and is highly "negative" in the bahamas. I remeber it going something like, "If you want to be more successful in business, and for guidance and protection then write a letter to a dead loved one but do not dot I's or cross T's. Is this strictly African? I really think so.

Writing words to the akhu in the form of letters also makes perfect sense in AE.

This topic properly belongs in the "Egyptian Mysteries System", for this is a true manifestation of AE mysteries. It speaks to a very specific and ancient Kemetic philosophy and belief regarding the spiritual world.

The ba was (and is, obviously) the individual personality of the person - all the stuff about him/her that distinguishes him/her from everyone else. To quote, "It ws the Ba which revisited the world of the living, travelled across the sky with the sun god's boat and anxiously witnessed the weighing of the heart in the underworld (of his/her descendants, I guess). ... Nevertheless, the Ba always returned to the body in the tomb; indeed Chapter 89 of the "Book of the Dead" is entitled "Spell to cause the Ba to be reunited with its corpse in the necropolis, suggesting that if the Ba did not return willingly, it would be coerced."

This is the falcon body with a human head, and the more individualistic in pictures and amulets, the better. (None found before Tutankhaman, though.)

Yet it was the "ka", the life force, that accepted the spiritual essence of food offerings.

So, visiting the graves would be a holdover from communicating with the ba, and feeding the ka.
Quite appropriate.

(Quote above, & excellent ba pic - p.68, "Amulets of Ancient Egypt", by Carol Andrews.)

Contemporary Kemetic recreationalist groups, who basically do much the same thing, purport that the ancestor's spirit is a step closer to God/Allah/the Divine source of all because being already in the spiritual realm, they are thus closer to the ear of God, as it were.

(NB - There are books and books debating the minutia of what the divisions of a man is, so the above was just a generalization - if its about to open a debate, lets open a new thread please?)

"Letters to the Dead" also opens up the closely related topics of the heka of the "name" and the heka of the "word".

Ausar, you mentioned somewhere something about funeral rites. More please?

The funeral rites would usually take about 40 days and even today in Egypt the rituals preformed today also take about 40 days. At the funeral you will often see women wail ripping their clothes off while placing mud on their head. Clearly a leftover from AE times.

In modern Egypt the Egyptian peasents call the soul Karineh and Karina which are supposed to be a double of a person that was born with them. These come in assorte colors.

Also when a person dies one of the village gets a Sheikh to ritualy wash the body from a sacred pool of water which is also a rite that goes back to antiquity.

Oooh, I'm intrigued. More please?
"Karineh / Karina" - masculine & feminine versions of the same word? What does the word mean? Where does the word come from - like a particular dialect?

"These come in assorte colors."
Fascinating! What are the colours and what do the colours mean? And are the colours reflected in clothing or anything else?

Also when a person dies one of the village gets a Sheikh to ritualy wash the body from a sacred pool of water which is also a rite that goes back to antiquity.