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The Egyptian Religion starts with the stories of creation and in the religion there are 3 different versions.
VERSION 1:
The beginning of the world started off as a watery Chaos called Nun. From Nun emerged a mound, and from this mound emerged the Sun-god Atum. With the power he had been grated from Nun, Atum created the twins: Shu, who was air and Tefnut, who was moisture.
Shu and Tefnut bore two children: Geb, who was earth and Nut, who was the sky.
Geb and Nut produced Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys and together these Gods formed the Divine Ennead, also called the Company of Nine. Sometimes these Gods were regarded as one dingle divine entity.
Thus the concept of the universe was represented as Shy standing strait and supporting Nut in his out stretched arms while Geb lies at Shu's feet.
VERSION 2:
Another version of the story of creation went as such:
Chaos existed before the creation of the world and within Chaos existed 8 deities who paired together to help create an element:
Nun and Naunet represented the God and Goddess of the primordial water.
Heh and Hehet who represented the God and Goddess of infinite space,
Kek and Keket, the God and Goddess of darkness and Amun and Amunet, the God and Goddess of invisibility.
The earth emerged from these elements of Chaos known as the Hermopolitan Ogdoad and upon earth emerged a mouth that deposited an egg from which the Sun-god emerged. (Then thus the rest of the story)
VERSION 3:
The last version of creation had Ptah as the creation God and the other 8 Gods his subordinates:
Atum,Nun, Naunet, Tatjenen (who was the god personifying the earth emerging from chaos), Horus, Thoth,Nefertum and a serpent-God.
Atum, who held a special position granted by Ptah, held the characteristics in which creation was derived from:
intelligence, which was identified with the heart, was personified as Horus.
And Will, which was identified with the tongue, was personified as Thoth.
Thus Ptah conceived the world intellectually before creating it "by his own word."
THE SOUL IN EGYPTIAN RELIGION:
In the Egyptian Religion, it is believed that a person's soul is made up of 3 parts and one part of the soul could not live without the other 2.
Thus the reason mummification was such an important part in the Egyptian Religion. It was believed that mummification would keep all 3 parts of the soul alive and ready for the next life.
The 3 parts of the soul are as followed:
the Ba, which represented the personality, the character or the individuality of the deceased. The Ba was to live inside the tomb of the dead but could venture out of the tomb at will. It was allowed to venture into the land of the living where it could take any form it choose to take.
The Ka was created at the time of conception, an exact duplicate of the conceived person, both physical and emotional, and resided in the heart of that person. The Ka could never leave the heart until death but had to stay close to the deceased at all times. The Ka could not live unless the body was preserved and it was dependant upon the offerings and objects left in the tomb and brought by the friends and family of the deceased.
The Ankh represented the immorality of the deceased and would make the journey to the underworld so that it would be able to, eventuality, take its place in the afterlife.
MUMMIFICATION IN EGYPTIAN RELIGION:
With the belief in the soul containing three parts, The Egyptians were concerned about keeping the three parts alive until the time of reincarnation. The body had to be preserved so that the soul would remain alive.
The body was prepared for the ritual of mummification by trained priests outside of town in a placed known as the Wabet (a clean place).
The head priest who would preside over the ritual would wear the mask of Anubis, the God of surgery. Anubis's mask was to be worn so that the God could watch the process and guild the priest in the ritual.
If a cut was made to the body that was un- necessary, the spirit would not be able to recognize the body and would be doomed to wander the earth forever and haunt the priest responsible.
The first step in the process was to make a cut in the abdomen, below the ribs, on the left side of the body. This first incision was done with a special flint knife, and all other cutting was done with an ordinary metal blade. They had to cut into the body so that they could take out special organs. Once the organs were removed they were placed in canopic jars, which were carved out of alabaster and inscribed with spells that would one day enable the organs to rejoin the body when it was resurrected. The organs that were placed in the jars include: stomach, lungs, intestines, and liver. Once inside the canopic jars each organ was protected by the one of sons of Horus whose head graced the lid.
Next the brain would be extracted through the nose and then thrown away. Resin was then poured through the nose and into the skull with the use of a funnel, to keep the head from collapsing. The heart was left in place because later in the underworld Anubis would weigh the heart and guide the soul through the underworld. During the embalming process every part of the body was saved and either placed in the tomb with the body or given to the relatives of the deceased. Then, the body and organs were preserved with spices and dried out with natron salt. The spices that were used in the preservation process made the body look brown and leathery.
The entire preservation process took about 70 days. After the process was complete, the body was wrapped in linen. Death masks were placed on the head of the mummy around the bandages to be used as a replacement head incase something happened to the real skull. Special amulets were placed within the wrapping of the mummy to protect it. Finally, a “mummy tag,” similar to our toe tags, was placed around the mummy’s neck to help identify it for burial.
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