The Ka, the Ba and the Kabbalah
The Science of the Afterlife
Jay Weidner
In the current use
of our language, the words 'soul' and 'spirit' have essentially the same meaning.
They are terms used to describe a mysterious state of awareness, or presence,
that is the driving or animating force behind the externalized, concrete physical
body that surrounds it. According to the teachings of the world's major religions,
this mystical soul, or spirit, somehow lives on after death. They tell us that
just as we as human beings, living in a material body, grow and learn through
linear time, so the soul, or spirit, grows in knowledge and experience through
many successive incarnations. However, there is much evidence from the past
that reveals that there may once have been a more complex meaning to these two
terms, soul and spirit. There is a distinct possibility that they may not originally
have meant the same thing at all. It may be, that somehow in the past, these
two words became confused and that their separate meanings became lost in the
well of history. In a way, this loss of understanding between these two words
'soul' and 'spirit' may lie at the root of much of our modern spiritual confusion.
Perhaps it is time to reimbue these terms with their true historical meanings
once again.
In order to understand the subtleties of these two terms with greater clarity,
let us take a look at the teachings of the rich and complex civilization of
ancient Egypt. First of all, it is important to realize that the people of ancient
Egypt lived a completely different type of existence than we do today. The ancient
Egyptians lived each day, and each life, with a complete devotion to what today
we would call the unseen world of soul and spirit that transcends our ordinary
day to day existence. Time, for them, was not measured by the incessant ticking
of the clock, or the hope of a secure future, but was built on a much larger
concept, which included not only their time on Earth, but the afterlife as well.
In fact, their entire culture, including their incredible edifices and their
sacred science, was all constructed around a complete understanding of the afterlife
and what happens to that animating force of human consciousness at the moment
of death.
These ancient sacred scientists found that there is a great moment of confusion
at the instant when the consciousness separates from the body. Examining this
confused state, they realized that there was a division that occurred at this
crucial moment. Consciousness became divided into two separate states, or entities.
They called each of these states by a different name.
The first state in this division of consciousness was called the 'Ba'. This
is the immortal state of existence. This is the aspect of consciousness that
reincarnates. The Ba separates from consciousness at the moment of death and
goes back into the well of souls to be reborn again. In our current lexicon,
the words 'soul' and 'spirit' mean, essentially the same thing. But looking
at it more closely, it can be seen that the word 'soul' is actually referencing
the BA The BA, or the soul, never dies, it reincarnates and continues it's sacred
pilgrimage towards total illumination. It has been described in religious literature
as that spark of divinity that resides within us all, the aspect of our multidimensional
being that inspires us to overcome our animal nature, to move beyond the cravings
of the small self-centered ego so as to experience an interconnectedness with
the entire universal reality. Called the 'breath of life', it is that unseen
force, or essence, that travels throughout eternity from body to body on it's
great journey of experience, purification and enlightenment.
In the hieroglyphs or symbolic language of Egypt, the BA is written sometimes
as a winged human head and sometimes as a human-faced bird. It is the part of
us that is conscious of leaving the earth at death and therefore is depicted
as a winged human or a human bird. This bird motif will be more properly understood
in part II of this article. Suffice to say for now that bird symbol for the
BA represents the force that can free itself from the Tree of Life and soar
into the cosmos, liberated from gravity and the material realm.
The second aspect of this great separation at death was named the 'Ka'. The
kA is the part of the human consciousness that remains here on Earth, and is
represented in the hieroglyphs as two up stretched arms in front of a horizon.
It is perceived as the 'ghost' or psychic residue of the previous conscious
being. It is the spirit. It is the part of us that has a connection with the
place that the physical body lived, with the objects it possessed, with the
people that it knew. It literally haunts the place of its life forever. And
so do all of the spirits that existed in a place. The kA then is the aspect
of consciousness that is left when the BA, or animating force, departs the physical
body. It is the shadow, or remaining psychic imprint, of soul consciousness,
or the 'spirit' which haunts a place, that occupies illusory heavens and hells,
that may relive it's own human life over and over for eternity. Therefore, in
this light it can be seen that the word 'spirit' is actually referencing the
"kA
It was through their knowledge and understanding of the consanguinity between
the BA and the kA that the Egyptians realized the science of the afterlife and
the great relationship that exists between soul and spirit, blood and soil,
between our possessions and our spirit, between our ancestors and our own personal
being.
Many philosophies, religions and spiritual teachings have spoken clearly about
the BA, including Hinduism, Buddhism and many indigenous traditions. But the
awareness and understanding of the kA has fallen by the wayside. Lost in superstition
and legend, the great Egyptian knowledge of the afterlife has become forfeited
in our modern world. Yet, there are many these days who seek deeper knowledge
of the mystic realms. It is important to once again explore the great science
of Egypt, the science of the afterlife, so that we contemporary seekers can
have the opportunity to view the meaning and import of our lives on earth from
a larger perspective.
In our exploration of this fascinating subject, it is interesting to note that
recently, many Hollywood films have begun to focus upon this mysterious aspect
of human experience, or the 'Ka' state. Perhaps our great cultural confusion
concerning the kA is at the root of this phenomena. In fact, these films are
using the mysterious state of the kA as vital subject matter in their story
lines. For example, The Sixth Sense , which is one of the films nominated by
the academy in the year 2000 as Best Picture, is not only about a boy who can
see the spirits in their kA state occupying the world around him, but also about
a man who is living through the very beginning of his own kA existence. This
man (played by Bruce Willis) spends much of the picture confused and bewildered
by what he sees around him, that is, until he realizes that he is not alive,
that he is in his kA state. No longer alive in terms of physical reality, as
a disembodied spirit, he is playing out a dreamlike scenario in order to realize
- and possibly correct - the mistakes he made during his life. Traveling through
this illusory, but seemingly real drama, his kA, or psychic imprint from this
previous life, is presented with the opportunity to learn from these mistakes.
In many spiritual traditions these illusory landscapes are referred to as heavens
and hells, which present the kA or disembodied spirit with scenarios which allow
it to realize and purify it's sins or reward it for a 'good life.'
The movie 'Ghost' was also about the kA state. Remember the demon spirit who
haunted the underground New York subway system? This mad ghost, this haunted
kA, was caught there in the subway system possibly forever. One gets the idea
that this mad demon committed suicide there in the subway. Now he is condemned
to reliving the incident over and over as his kA is driven insane. In addition,
like Bruce Willis's character in The Sixth Sense, the hero in Ghost, Patrick
Swayze's kA, is presented with the opportunity to 'make things right'.
At the end of the movie 'American Beauty', another Best Picture nomination this
year, the Kevin Spacey character has just died. As the camera pulls away from
his neighborhood, we hear his voice on the soundtrack. It says: 'You know they
say that when you die you live your entire life over again. Well, what they
didn't tell you is that you live your entire life again - but that you do it
for eternity. But don't worry, you'll find out'. This is about as apt a description
of the basic kA state as has ever been spoken in popular culture.
In the film 'What Dreams May Come', the Robin William's character dies and goes
to a place that looks just like the beautiful paintings that he loved while
he was alive. The film reveals that the character has 'created' his own eternity
in the kA state. Conversely, his wife later commits suicide and is banished
to a hell. What they are telling you in this film is that the dreamlike, hallucinatory
experience of your kA is based upon your own belief system and the manner in
which you lived your life. This also is a clear description of how the ancients
looked at the kA aspect of the separation of consciousness at death. Whatever
life you lived here in this existence was repeated - perhaps forever - in the
kA state after the moment of death.
In these films, the Hollywood mavens have hit a nerve in the psyches of contemporary
audiences. The celluloid dreams and illusions that they are creating for the
masses can be compared to the numerous types of experiences that the kA may
undergo. Is it possible that, by subliminally implanting these scenarios into
our collective psyches, they are both teaching us about the kA state and subtly
influencing it's journey?
Let us return to the beliefs and practices of the ancient Egyptians and examine
this ephemeral kA state more closely. According to their doctrines, there are
certain keys to understanding the various aspects of the kA state. They believed
that the formation of the kA is deeply connected to the shaping, experience
and remnants of the physical form. The kA includes all of the genetic material
and characteristics of our parents and ancestors. The Egyptians knew that residue
from all of one's ancestors were sharing in the make-up of one's own personal
kA So reverence for one's ancestors, and remembering their names, was considered
essential to their practices. They believed that our ancestors kA lives on in
all of us. Their genes, successfully passed down through the many generations,
live on in each being born of their creation. All of our ancestors are gazing
through our eyes at this very moment. The ancients believed that by just saying
their names we can call them forth, with all of their wisdom and knowledge.
They also believed that whatever objects one possesses in this life hold a part
of one's kA state as long as these objects exist. Imbued with the BA essence
which once flowed through the physical form, they retain an energetic imprint
of this force. This is why psychics can hold a key, an article of clothing,
or other type of object in their hand and perceive many things concerning the
life experience of the person who once possessed these objects. These psychics
have the capacity to pick up the traces of this kA energy . Because of this
factor, the ancients decided, wisely, to own as few objects as possible. They
did this because they wanted to preserve their kA state in a way that they could
control it after death. It was extremely important not to have their kA spread
all over the place. Therefore, an essential part of their practices involved
the proper preservation of the kA.
In order to accomplish this task, there were important procedures that had to
be followed in the life of the person if their kA and their BA were to remain
unbroken at death. When they died, their few kA objects would be gathered together
by family and friends and placed in their grave, or tomb, with the body. The
preservation of the body through the practice of mummification was also part
of this process. The Egyptians believed that even the body itself held the kA
As long as the decay of the body could be slowed the kA would stay more whole.
When grave robbers, and western treasure hunters, broke into many of the ancient
Egyptian tombs they found exactly what has been described above. They found
the kA objects, that were the possessions of the person who was interred in
the tomb. They also found the mummified remains of the person's body. There
was usually a curse put over the door to the tomb. This curse brought damnation
on anyone who would disturb the tomb. The non-disturbance of the kA objects,
and kA body, were crucial aspects of the Egyptian science of the afterlife.
Indeed, as will be revealed, the preservation of the kA, and the kA objects,
in an undisturbed state was the doorway towards a kind of immortality. The formula
went like this: in order to stop the BA from falling back into a state of reincarnation;
and to stop the kA from constantly reliving a fantasy based on the consciousness
of the life lived previously, it was necessary to preserve the kA in an undisturbed
state. This would 'ground' the BA and prevent it from escaping back into the
realms of reincarnation. Since the ethereal link between the BA and the kA had
not severed, this allowed the BA to become an ethereal shamanic traveler into
the many realms and dimensions that invisibly surround us. This includes, but
is not limited to, planets, stars and even galaxies.
Certain rituals were designed to keep the kA inside the tomb and to make sure
that it would not be released back into the world to become a phantom or ghost.
If one was successful in accomplishing this then the BA would also be freed
from the realm of incarnation. The BA would then be able to pass into many different
realms of the afterlife at will. In Egyptian mythology it is fairly clear that
when this state was achieved it was possible for the BA to actually become a
'light body', or a star in the heavens. Through the careful procedures of this
science it would allow the division of consciousness at death to be halted,
thereby gaining a certain degree of immortality.
As we have seen, the science of the ancient Egyptians was a science of the immortality
of consciousness itself. It was a science of the afterlife that promised to
preserve both the kA and the BA It contained practices and procedures that would
allow the kA state to not fall into the path of repeated fantasy states consisting
of eternally reliving the memories of the previous existence. In fact, the ancient
Egyptians - and research has shown that many other indigenous peoples also held
these beliefs - created a system that could change this strange destiny at death.
In fact, the essential transformational practices of Tibetan tantra including
those of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, were created to lead the individual practitioner
towards these same ends.
In Egypt, this sacred science of the afterlife was focused upon two things.
One was the halting of the reincarnation process of the BA The second was the
termination of the fantastic, dream-like states of the kA This science attempted,
it appears, to reunite the essence of the kA and the BA at the moment of death
in a way so that they would not separate.
But there is more. This nearly immortal being also becomes the preserver and
cultivator of the earthly spiritual realm. He or she becomes a being that now
has a capacity to influence events and situations here on Earth, to assist in
bringing all beings into a higher spiritual awareness.
In order accomplish this sacred task, the manner in which an individual lived
his or her life was of vital importance. Thus, the ancient Egyptians believed
that every interaction, judgment and impulse that occurred in one's life had
a small part of one's kA involved. Since they believed that existence is eternal
and that development continues even after death of the body, they knew that
whatever happened here would mirror itself in the afterlife. This is a concept
very close to the eastern philosophy of karma. And so, the Egyptians were very
careful with whom they interacted, became friends with, had sex, and made business
deals. The point was to live lives of virtue and integrity, not allowing their
own personal kA to get stained with negative experiences in this life. Hours
of quiet meditation and contemplation upon the fundamental meaning of existence
and relationship to the world around them would seem to have been the pattern
of their lives. For it was understood that this type of lifestyle would lead
to the development and genuine experience of the higher spiritual attributes
of truth, insight, clarity, wisdom and compassion.
The Egyptians believed that human beings were the 'seeds' for stars. It was
believed that human beings were walking, talking, thinking, conscious 'starstuff'.
And indeed that is what we are. Our bodies are made from interstellar dust which
is the remains of ancient dead stars, cosmic debris and galactic particles.
Throughout the course of our history on this planet, dust and water miraculously
created animated star matter.
Therefore, the navigation of the many realms in the after life was another essential
component of the rituals and practices of the ancient Egyptian priests/scientists.
They discovered that even when all of the proper care and rituals were performed,
there was still much confusion at the moment of death on the part of the separated
and disconnected kA and BA The BA, freed from the cycle of incarnation, still
did not know the way through the many faceted, and difficult to understand,
realms of the after life. The astral playground was too complex and confusing
to comprehend without some kind of map, without some kind of guide that one
could learn during their conscious existence as a human being.
Using meditations, shamanic substances and sacred rituals, these ancient priests/scientists
traveled the shamanic pathways that exist in the higher realms that surround
us like an invisible net. Achieving a state of what is now called a 'near death
experience', these ancient shamans pierced through the misty curtain of the
astral realm. They began to create a hygiene, or a proper set of rituals, that
allowed them to navigate the infinite worlds of the after life.
As these many shamanic voyages were catalogued and compared, a system began
to be built that would allow the shaman, and the person experiencing death,
to better understand what was happening and where to go in the afterlife. They
called their map the 'Tree of Life'. The purpose of this tree was to help the
kA and BA, now united at death, to be able to travel the astral highways. The
profound significance this symbolic map will be explored in Part II of this
article.
In addition, this science may be what is behind the many ancient 'ley' lines
that mark the surface of our planet. These lines have been recorded all over
the planet. From England and Ireland, to the Steppes. Ley lines have been found
running over the tops of 18000-foot mountains in the Andes. They are usually
perfectly straight. Their significance has been unknown for many years. It has
been speculated that they are runways for UFO's. Or that they are ancient highways.
According to the work of Paul Devereuax, they are actually ancient shamanic
pathways. These are shamanic spirit paths that allow fully realized soulspirits
to take off and land, so to speak, into the other realms. This is why the shamans
of old always were buried on the ley lines. In this way, their kA was preserved
in a sacred spot. In Europe, the shamanic tradition called for the kings and
priests to be buried under flowing creeks and rivers. They would damn the river
and create a water by pass. Then they would bury the body in the flow of the
water and release the flow again. This preserved the body so that it would not
be found and it was preserved in a natural 'ley' line, which is what rivers
and streams are in this tradition. Like Indra's net from the Hindu tradition,
the ley lines were reflected in the night sky as the paths between the many
stars. For those who could read the sacred language which linked the microcosm
with the macrocosm, the earth with the larger universe, outcroppings of rock,
groves of trees, creeks and streams all became the earthly representations of
the stars and planets. For these adepts, when one walked the earth they were
not only tracing the psychic waves and patterns of the land, but also transcending
this realm and walking among the stars. The aborigines in Australia believed
that the stones sang the song of the stars themselves. If one listened closely
they could hear the music of the spheres.
The planet we live and walk upon is filled with the numinous residue of countless
amounts of kA spirit. The dirt itself is made up of the dead bodies of plants,
animals and humans. Each has endowed the soil with it's kA The food we eat is
grown in dirt that contains the remains of numerous life forms that existed
in the past. Each retains a charge in that soil, and it too is added to the
food we eat and the water we drink. This is the reason why in some Tibetan Buddhist
practices, mantras are spoken prior to the consumption of meat. It is believed
that if the consumer is a practitioner on the path to enlightenment, that by
eating the flesh of that animal with total awareness he/she is creating a cause
for it's future enlightenment . From a spiritual perspective, the awakened practitioner
has linked his own essence with the kA of the animal thus planting the seed
of it's own spiritual awakening.
This endowment of kA essence into the earth is also the reason for the age-old
linking between blood and soil. Even when genocide is committed, the kA essence
of the people murdered still inhabit the land that they once occupied.
From this perspective, the Native Americans still rule the spiritual landscape
of the United States. The more that we dig up the earth and destroy the landscape
the more we destroy not only the land itself, but also the many kA spirits that
inhabit that landscape. The Hollywood film Poltergeist presents us with a clear
picture of this type of ignorant behavior. As this kA spirit escapes and is
disturbed, so shall our own spiritual future be disturbed and destroyed. The
digging up of ancient burial grounds, the opening of the sacred tombs of our
ancestors and the destruction of the ley line system will eventually contribute
to a complete lack of spiritual enlightenment.
As we increasingly lose contact with our spiritual heritage and become trapped
in the seductive prison of the concrete material world, our lives become dominated
by the dark passions of greed, arrogance, lust, anger, and violence. Blind to
the numinous world of light, harmony and beauty, we sacrifice our sacred knowledge
of the divine realms of soul and spirit, of the kA and the BA. As we trade in
our spiritual values for material gain, so shall we all become the confused
and angry ghosts that haunt the New York subway system. Lack of respect for
our planet, for the origin and custodianship of our kA, is also a lack of disrespect
for our own beings in eternity. We are creating a nightmare hell realm of our
own design. In this realm all of our kA will be deserted and abandoned, repeating
meaningless lives for eternity.
So, we see that the words 'soul' and 'spirit' have very different meanings.
One is the BA, the everlasting imprint of God that incarnates and reincarnates.
The other is the kA, the material and psychic manifestation of that soul here
on Earth. Like a footprint left in the sand, or the crumbling temples and monuments
of our ancestors, this kA leaves only an impression of it's soul, or BA, essence
behind. In these times of shifting values, of battles between the forces of
darkness and light, it is up to us to seek out, acknowledge and learn from the
wisdom of our ancestors so that we may once more, enter and navigate the divine
realms and take our immortal place among the stars.