The Afterlife and Beyond

The Afterlife and Beyond

Egyptians were loyal to their gods and to their pharaohs who were gods on earth, as established by their enthusiasm to build the pyramids for the safe means of access of their leaders into the next world. Understanding the development and belief system they had with the physical and afterlife, you would have to know a little bit about the location of the area, which the Egyptians began to rise.

The villages of ancient Egypt were found all along the Nile. The Egyptians were skillful farmers. They knew the Nile would flood each year and bring new life and rich grain. The Nile's flooding was expected and left rich new deposits of mud for new crops, making irrigation easy to plan. A basic irrigation system allowed the floodwaters to flow gently into each field, cleansing and renewing the earth each year. Egyptian people would then look to nature to explain the unexplainable. Egyptian gods were depicted as wise, caring, predictable, and forgiving, just as the Nile was predictable and life sustaining.

The Egyptian people thought the world was created by super beings using earth, wind and fire. This was called "The Theogony of Heliopolis". The Theogony of Heliopolis is the belief that a water god called Nu, who gave birth to the sun god Ra, who then created his wife Tefnut, who made the rain. Together, they created Seb, God of the Earth, and Nat, the Goddess of the Sky. Seb and Nat were the parents of Osiris who later became the ruler of the underworld, Isis, Set and Nepthys. Ra is given credit for creating the heavens and earth and all creatures. Ra is also said to have created man from his eye, and Ra became the first king on earth. The idea that the god Ra was the first king is the seed for the belief that a Pharaoh was both King and god. After Ra gave up his kingship to ride across the sky, Osiris became king with Isis as his queen. Osiris is recognized with teaching men to be civilized, and for teaching mankind to worship the gods and to build temples. Almost every god and goddess was associated with one or more animals and in some instances might appear in the form of their chosen animal-familiar. This was called anthropromorphic.

Another Egyptian link from the physical world to the supernatural is the pyramid.