An Etheric Anatomy of the Kemetic Soul: Summary

Etheric Anatomy of the Kemetic Soul

Image Creation Process

First I have to say that any image of esoteric conceptualizations is subject to a number of natural restrictions in their usefulness:

1. The limits of a two dimensional format.
2. An inability to adequately represent concurrent realities within a single picture.
3. The artistic ability (or lack thereof) of the creator.

I realize this image is by no means perfect, but the process of making it did help me solidify my thinking. For those who are just joining us and are unsure of what all of this means, or who are referencing this post after the fact, here are the links to the rest of the essays in this series:

Khat and Ka (and Ib)
Ba and Ren
Khaibit and Sahu (and Sekhem)

It occurred to me that rather than restate the information presented in the prior essays (which were already as concise as my personal writing skills allowed me to be) it might be useful to see into the process of thought which went into this image. (This is also a not so subtle invitation for anyone who feels up to the challenge to improve on this image or re-imagine it entirely…as you’ll see, there is a lot I’m still not entirely happy with in my rendition) :

First and foremost, I was attempting to show the various dualities at play outside the usual Ba/Ka duality customarily mentioned in discussions of the soul. The Ka/Khat duality as well as (and especially) the duality of the Khaibit/Sahu seemed, to me, to be more obvious in this format. I hope the intention of the dotted lines to show how the Khat/Ka and Ba cast shadows into the the two realms comes through and doesn’t confuse viewers too much.

[An aside: Did you see how I included the little “unseen creature” to represent how the beings of that realm access us through our Sahu? And the tree added on the seen world side which is a call back to the David Abrahms quote on phenomenology? I was very proud of myself for being that clever. :P ]

I also wanted to show the hidden parallel between the Ka’s keeping of the Ib and the Ba’s keeping of the Ren, hence the similarity in the construction of their nested circled. Unfortunately, to do that, I did have to forsake an arrangement which would have made the Ba’s access to the Ib more obvious.

I placed the Ba/Ren in a way which I hope indicates their inherent ability to separate from the Khat more easily than the Ka is able. I overlapped the circle with the head of the Khat because I wanted to show that the Ba is still an interactive part of the person and that it influences thought even during the day. The reason I didn’t put the Ka/Ib circle in the head itself was partly an issue of space and partly a desire not to overemphasize the head as the “location of souls” and maintain the image of Ib as residing where the heart should reside so the meaning of the term is not completely lost.

I really struggled with how to place the Ren. I wanted to keep the two circles looking similar, again to emphasize the parallels between the responsibilities of the Ba and Ka, but at the same time I couldn’t help feeling that (for most people) the arrangement of the Ba and Ren could (and maybe should) be inverted.  I don’t get the sense that many kau are aware of their Ren. This arrangement makes sense for me, but…I still find myself vacillating on it.

And the Sekhem is represented as glowy-stuff because I wasn’t sure how else to show it.
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Bonus Material 
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The Souls Tarot Experiment 

In addition to the image, I toyed a bit with using tarot cards as a means of communicating with the souls. In some ways, this isn’t entirely necessary, since ideally there already is communication between them, whether we are aware of it or not. I was actually less interested in the “Hi there!” form of communication and more interested in being able to ask “All systems go?” before doing mystical work and get individual answers if somepart was harboring an otherwise unobvious no. As with everything else, your mileage may vary in this, but I thought it was at least interesting to try.

 To design the reading, I was thinking about how each part of the soul might best express itself and also decided I was mostly interested in hearing from the “vocal” (read: sentient) souls, aka the Ka/Ib, Ba, and Khat. I decided to do a four card spread arranged thusly:

The idea was to allow each soul to have a chance to speak through the meaning of a single card, though this method could easily be adapted to allow for more cards, and hence more in depth readings. I decided that the best way to make sure the right parts were “speaking” with each card, the method of drawing the cards should be tailored to what each soul would be most comfortable with.

Khat: To my thinking, the Khat is the part of us which is most comfortable with “feeling” physical sensations. So closing one’s eyes and hold the deck in the hands, then thumbing through it and tactilely picking out the card from the deck which has the most appealing physical sensation to it, might be a good way to let the Khat have its say.

Ka: The Ka seems the more visual of the souls, and I would imagine that to draw the Ka’s card, one would be best off fanning the cards out and looking over the back images until one card stood out as visually appealing despite the apparent sameness between them.

 Ba: The Ba’s card could be selected then by having the deck fanned out but the eyes closed and running finger down the fan (without actually touching it) until feeling that intuitive “ping” that is the Ba’s voice (not sure how else to describe that…basically, it’s using the intuition to “feel” the right card) and then looking to see where the finger is pointed when the “ping” occurs.

Ib: The Ib’s card would be selected visually the way the Ka’s card was, but while feeling for a “ping” of the Ba’s intuition. In other words, both the “look” and “feel” of the card should be used to pick the Ib’s card. The idea there is to let the Ba and Ka keep each other honest when consulting the Ib (I’m not sure why I have a gut feeling that doing so is necessary, but I do).  I placed the Ib’s card under and between the Ka and Ba to further reinforce this idea of both Ba and Ka being involved in consulting the Ib.

And that’s basically it. For a deck without reversed meanings, I might be tempted to shuffle indiscriminately and interpret reversals as the equivalent of loudly drawing attention to the meaning of the card. But that’s another gut feeling I can’t adequately explain. If you happen to try this exercise and wouldn’t mind sharing how it went for you, I would love to get input from others—especially if you come up with other ways of selecting the cards. I’m still experimenting with this and would love to try out other ways of doing this that I haven’t thought of :)