The Book of the Dead is a Egyptian book that has many different spells which help a dead soul navigate through the afterlife. These spells made it easier to move through the afterlife because of the abilities they granted the user to do. Before a person could obtain these spells, they would have to go through the weighing of the heart ceremony.
This ceremony is a way of seeing if they were trustworthy or loyal during their lifetime. If the person passed the test then they can pass into the afterlife. If they failed then they go to the underworld. The Weighing of the Heart ceremony is very important. It starts with the corpse of a human having his/her name being written down, the body being preserved and the heart taking out.
The heart is then put on a balance scale and on the other side of the scale lays a feather that represents Ma’at, the goddess of truth. If the heart is lighter than the feather then it means that this person has done nothing wrong and that he/she can travel to the afterlife. If this person’s heart is heavier than the feather then the devourer Ammut would appear and eat their soul. This is all happening while Osiris the God of the Underworld is watching. The afterlife was something that Egyptians considered a top priority. They would spend their entire lives trying to earn the chance to go to the afterlife by doing good deeds to make their hearts lighter.
When they got that chance they would appear in a heavenly place called the Land of Two Fields. People believed that when a person arrived in the Land of Two Fields their soul would be split into two the Ba and the Ka. The Ba would fly off and keep watch over the dead person’s family. The Ba would stay and enjoy its time in the afterlife. When night time comes the two parts of your soul return to the dead person’s tomb where they can rest and repeat the same thing over and over. This process goes on for eternity unless their name is erased or their preserved body is messed with. If at least one of those things happens then the Ba and the Ka will be lost and won’t be able to make it back to the person’s body resulting in you never being able to return to the afterlife.
The Afterlife was a big deal because of its importance to both the people and their culture. This is demonstrated by how the egyptians spend their entire lives trying to make it to the afterlife. They would try to do good deeds because they were trying to make their hearts lighter. They didn’t care about the life they were living they only cared about the afterlife because it was a eternal paradise.
