on the hill, which in its turn appeared from the initial chaos, a sunny baby came out, who “illuminated the earth covered by darkness”). By the way, this picture of the baby sitting on the petals of lotus flower was popular till the Roman epoch.
“And though a lot of knowledge of the “golden age” was lost, many real events of that time were camouflaged in myths, but in general, by the time of Imhotep Egyptians believed in existence of, saying in our language, a “dusha” (a “soul”) more than modern people. Ancient Egyptians, for examples, thought that this world is temporary, that the life follows the death the same way like the day follows the night. And the death was considered only as a point of transition in the flow of complicated existence. That is, they had belief into the process of reincarnation, if to say it in our words.”
Yura asked, “Sensei, but why did you say that Egyptians “believed in existence of, saying in our language, a “dusha” (a “soul”)? Didn’t they have such a word, a “soul”?”
“They had a similar word. And “dusha” is a word of Slavic origin, known to many European peoples. The Slavic word “dusha” has its roots in “dykh-”, “dukh” (“spirit”) which once upon a time meant stopping breathing, that is a sign of the end of life. What does it mean for a man to die? “To breathe one’s last”. But I should mention that Slavyans meant under the soul a spiritual creature which possesses both will and reason. In their conception it is something without body, that is without flesh. The soul is interpreted as a vitally important part of the human which at the same time is independent, that is separate from both body and spirit creature. Do notice that Slavyans’ “dusha” (“soul”) is feminine and that points out in its sacral meaning at primary role of the female nature, I will tell you about it a bit later. And the word “duh” (“spirit”) is masculine. Together with the soul it makes harmony.
“By the way, the Slavyan word “duh” has many meanings. It means something incorporeal, an immaterial creature of the spiritual world, a shadow, a ghost. It means a vision. The spirit means as well the strength of the soul, bravery, prowess, strength. It gave birth to the word “spiritual”, that is incorporeal spirit, without body, which consists of soul and spirit.
“Why do I tell you all this in detail? For you to understand, taking into account my further story, how much knowledge is kept in careful memory of Slavyan people… In general, the notion of soul as such existed within many peoples in different times, and the human soul was called in different ways. For example, the Indian in the Hinduism had this word in Sanskrit sounding as “atman”. Or to say more precise, the soul was called a “part of Atman” (that is a part of the Universal Soul), the true “I” of a man which can be cognizable only on the intuitive level. Persians (in Zoroastrianism) called the immortal human soul as “fravashi” (by the way, it’s a derivative word from Avestan words “fravart” – “to make a choice” and “pra-vart-ti” – “preexist”), that is something which exists before the human birth and doesn’t die after his death. Moreover, it was mentioned that fravashi as an embodiment of the soul is feminine. And it was depicted as a disc with wings (faroar). By the way, this symbol was known still to ancient Egyptians. It was deemed that while ascending to good god Ahura Mazda the fravashi goes through three stages – humat, hukht, huvarsht, which in ancient Persian means “good thought”, “good word”, “good deed”.
“Greeks named the soul as “psyche” which root also means “breathing”. And their notion of breathing was similar to the wind, wings. And they depicted the soul not only as a flying bird like Egyptians but also a butter-fly which corresponded the same way as the soul to the word “Psychea”. Later this Greek word migrated to Latin and began to be called as “anima” (anima, animus)…”
Nikolai Andreevich uttered with interest, “It means that the Latin word “reanimation” means not only the “repeated revival”?”
“Right you are. At great extent it’s an attempt to return the soul.”
But our Kostya got excited about another question. Having waited until a Sensei’s answer, the guy asked with curiosity, “So, how did ancient Egyptians call the soul?”
“The Ba,” replied Sensei.
Kostya obviously like all of us didn’t understand it and asked amazed. “The Ba? And that’s all? Just the Ba?!”
“Yes,” said Sensei with a smile looking at confused and funny Kostya’s face, “just the ‘Ba’.”
Eugene immediately reacted to this message, nudged Stas and uttered, “You see, and you always asked me why I’m so unceremonious when I meet you with open arms and shout whole-heartedly, ‘Ba! (Oh!) Glad to see you!” Now you see that I subconsciously greet your soul in ancient Egyptian language.”
“Subconsciously…” mimicked him Stas. “Do you have it at all, your subconsciousness? In order to have “sub”, you should first have “over”!”
Hardly Eugene opened his mouth, probably to object to his friend, Kostya again began to question Sensei, “Well, really, is it just the ‘Ba’?”
“Of course,” nodded assent Sensei. “Or to put it more precisely, ‘Ba’ is the closest term to the notion of the soul. Ancient Egyptians interpreted ‘Ba’ as one of the five elements composing the human creature. Ba was depicted as a bird, a falcon with a human head that flew between two words, the earthy one and the beyond. Ba, as a soul, also was considered to be an embodiment of vital force of all people and it continued to exist after their death.”
“And what are these five elements composing the human creature?” asked Victor.
“They present some modified by people original knowledge. That is, in fact, these five elements are nothing more that a structure of a human, his Spiritual and Animal natures.”
“Sounds interesting,” Nikolai Andreevich asked quite intrigued again.
Sensei looked attentively at the listening group and went on, “Well, if you are so interested in it, let’s continue… One of the elements was called by ancient Egyptians, as you know, ‘Ba’, the soul, which was the foundation of the Spiritual nature. Ba was often depicted as a falcon with a human head and a lit icon-lamp in front of it as a symbol meaning that Ba belongs to heaven. People believed that stars are a gathering of many icon-lamps of blessed Ba, souls of star mother Nut.” Sensei made a pause and distinctly repeated. “Star mother! Remember that, further you will understand why it is so important. Besides, ancient Egyptians attributed their gods with Ba. For example, the Orion constellation was called not else that the soul of the god Osiris. Sotis, or Sirius in our language, was the soul of goddess Isis, the faithful spouse of Osiris… Please remember it, too.”
Sensei kept silence for a while, obviously letting us better reconsider what we had just heard and then he went on, “The second element composing the human creature according to legends of ancient Egyptians, is ‘Akh’, or it was also called ‘Ab’. ‘Akh’ means ‘spirit’, ‘blessed’, ‘enlightened’, that is it originates from Egyptian lexical root ‘akh’, ‘to shine, to radiate’. Akh was regarded as a connecting link between a human and a shining vital force. It was believed that after the death Akh leaves the body in order to join stars. There was even such an expression, ‘Akh goes to heaven, and body goes to earth’.
“Akh was depicted as a bird with bright feathers, an ibis, which was called by Egyptians as ‘akhu’, that is ‘shining’. Besides, in ancient Egypt they worshiped Toth, the god of knowledge (and the keeper of divine power and soul) who was depicted as a man with ibis head or fully as ibis. It was believed that his wife, Seshat, wrote down details of life of every human on the leaves of Heaven Tree.”
Eugene couldn’t keep from making his funny comment, “You see, there were only birds, a falcon, an ibis!”
In reply Sensei said, “They are birds to those who see only the exterior, but doesn’t see the internal essence. Akh was interpreted also as a spirit which symbolized a will and desire of an individual. Later this ‘spirit’ began to be associated as a ‘spirit’ of heart (the hati). It caused the confusion in legends which told that after death a human