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“Ancient Religions of Egypt and Mesopotamia” from page 48 of the World Religions Reference Library, a Gale Virtual Reference Book: Beliefs in Ancient Egypt Egyptians believed that the world was brought into being by Atum or Ra, whose descendants were Osiris, Set, and Isis. These, however, were just a fraction of the gods worshipped by Egyptians. Some estimates put the total number as high as one or two thousand different deities. What began as animal worship led to an immense pantheon. Amen or Amen‐Ra became the most powerful of the gods, center of the national cult; the cult of Osiris was second most powerful. The worship of the sun god Ra led to the construction of immense pyramids for the pharaohs, sons of Ra. The pharaoh was considered a living god, appointed by Horus (son and avenger of Osiris). For ancient Egyptians the gods were subject to the same sense of order and justice, maat, that mortals were. The universe had been created through maat as a replacement for the chaos that once existed. Interaction with the gods was intended to establish maat in society. It was the duty of the pharaoh to interpret the word of the gods in order to establish order and justice. The ancient Egyptians also strongly believed in an afterlife. Much of their religon's focus was centered on ensuring an afterlife, which contained all of the joys and pleasures of the living world. Egyptians believed in at least three different kinds of souls. When a person died one soul, the ba, left the body permanently, while a different kind of soul, the akh, remained with the body. The ka, a third type of soul, was a spiritual duplicate of the dead person, and left its body to journey to the underworld for judgment. The ka had to return to its body periodically during the time it was undergoing judgment. If the body was damaged or decayed during this period, the ka might lose its way and be lost, a kind of eternal damnation. Page 48 | Top of Article Mummification solved the problem of the ka by preserving the body after death, giving the spirit a familiar house to return to. The process of mummification, which could take up to two months to complete, was at first only used for royalty. Later the practice was opened up to include anyone who could afford the specialists and the expensive ingredients required for the process of preservation. By the Middle Kingdom the nobility and even some commoners (non‐royalty) were being buried in elaborate tombs and having their bodies embalmed, or preserved. Egyptians also worried about passing the tests they believed they would face in the afterlife. Elaborate manuals were written as guides to these tests. These included the Book of Amdurat, the Book of Gates, the Book of Caverns, and for those commoners wealthy enough to have a scribe make a copy for them, the Book of the Dead, also called Spells for Going Forth by Day. The most important trial the spirit faced before being allowed into the afterlife was the Judgment of the Dead. The deceased began by making confessions and acts of atonement, or apology, to the gods. Anubis, the god of embalming, then led the person by the hand to the Hall of Maat. The deceased's heart was weighed on a scale against the feather of truth, a symbol of the goddess Maat. If the heart was lighter than the feather, the deceased was admitted into the afterlife. If the feather was lighter than the heart, however, the goddess Ammut, Devourer of the Dead, consumed the deceased, destroying the soul forever. If the deceased passed the judgment he or she was led off by Horus to meet with Osiris and enter the Underworld. Citation: "Ancient Religions of Egypt and Mesopotamia." World Religions Reference Library. Ed. Julie L. Carnagie, Michael J. O'Neal, J. Sydney Jones, Marcia Merryman Means, Neil Schlager, and Jayne Weisblatt, et al. Vol. 1: Almanac. Detroit: UXL, 2007. 37‐67. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Cal Young Middle School. 4 Dec. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=calyoungmidsch>.