Ancient beliefs: what happens to the soul after death?

What happens to the soul after death? What awaits her after the end of earthly existence? And is there anything beyond this side? Almost every person at least once in his life asked such questions.

In fact, there is simply no clear answer. Each religion, every belief has its own descriptions of the afterlife. The only common thing is the statement that the soul still continues to exist even after its physical shell dies. So what awaits a person after death? I think it's best to start by considering ancient beliefs.

What happens to the soul after death: the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians . Quite interesting are the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians who believed that earthly life is not as important as the afterlife. It was believed that after death, a person moved into a new world. The afterlife of Ancient Egypt was the equivalent of earthly existence, only here there was always enough food, no wars, cataclysms, etc.

Quite original Egyptians had the concept of the soul. It was believed that for the continued existence of all the elements of the soul (there were 9 of them), some kind of material binding is necessary. That is why embalming and preserving the body of the deceased was a necessity. It was for this purpose that the pyramids and underground tombs were built. In addition, in the cell of the burial must have been present sculptures of the deceased, household utensils, jewelry, clothing, and sometimes servants - only so the soul could exist in the afterlife.

Around the Middle Kingdom, the myth of Osiris and the Last Judgment first appeared. It was believed that after death, the soul of a person should have been present at a righteous court, where her case was dealt with by a council of 42 gods, led by Osiris. Here, every judge asked a question to the deceased person. A peculiar lie detector was a scales, on one side of which were placed the feather of Maat (goddess of truth), and on the other - the heart and conscience of the defendant. If the soul lied, then the heart became easier - the truth outweighed. If a person deserved the favor of the gods, he was allowed to become part of the kingdom of Osiris. If the soul was denied grace, she was devoured by the monster Amemith.

In fact, such beliefs were by no means a rarity in the ancient world. For example, the ancient Greeks and Romans believed that after death a man crossed the Styx River and went to the underground kingdom of Hades. People who had earned the special favor of the gods for their life sat on Mount Olympus.

What happens to the soul after death: reincarnation . The doctrine of reincarnation is quite common among Eastern religions, for example, Hinduism. The philosophy of the ancient East had quite clear views on what the soul does after death.

It was believed that she did not go into another, beyond the world, but was born anew. At the same time, the newly born soul developed into a completely new personality, which did not remember anything about its former life.

But man was not only reborn - his new shell and new life directly depended on his behavior in the past existence. For example, a brutal criminal could very likely have been reborn as a worm. And the deeply pious people who observed all the rules and laws of the gods had a decent chance in the future to incarnate into a man of higher rank.

Some philosophers assumed that the soul itself chooses in whom it should be embodied - thus, for eternity, a person can explore himself in different situations, perform some higher purpose. By the way, Pythagoras believed that a person has a limited number of lives - 16.

To date, hardly anyone can give a definite answer to the question of what happens to the soul after death. Every religion, every philosophical doctrine and even each person has its own guesses, and sometimes even the facts that confirm them. But no one can say what heaven, hell and the afterlife look like . At least from there no one ever returned.