What is the spirit of a living person that departs from the body after death to take its place in the kingdom of the Dead?

Answer 1

In ancient Egypt, humans had more than one soul. The Ren was the part of the soul which came into existence when a person was named after birth. As long as the name was remembered, written, and spoken, this part of the soul continues to live. This is why Egyptians were careful to protect their names, and why unpopular rulers (Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, and others) had their names chiseled away from where they had once stood. The Ba is the part of the soul that is the essence of someones personality. It is the part that lives on and takes advantage of the funerary gifts - food, utensils, etc. that are given at the burial This part of the soul becomes corporeal after death, and so can make physical use of funerary gifts. The Ba would return to the deceased body to reside and rest, which was why preservation was so important. At death, Egyptians took with them the ib, or heart. It was here that emotion, reason, thought, will, etc. This was the most important part of the soul and was weighed at death. If heavy with sin, the heart was eaten by the crocodile Goddess of divine retribution, Ammit, and the deceased would not be allowed to enter the afterlife, instead being condemned to wander forever. The Sheut was the shadow. Since a shadow cannot exist independently and all things cast shadows, the Sheut was a reflection of who the person was. Statues were sometimes called a person's shadow. The Ka is the life force. When this leaves the body, it dies. Infants received the breath of a god at birth, and it was this that gave them life. The Ka could be sustained through food and drink, although it was the essence, not the physical form, that was consumed. The Akh is most easily described as a ghost. The understanding and descriptions of the Akh varied through the different periods of Egypt's history. For some, the Ka and Ba combined to form the Akh. For other beliefs, the Ka became the Akh. This Akh was the focus of worship and formed the deceased individual who had to be sustained, else they risk a second death.