Ka

Ka in hieroglyphs
K3

The Ka is described in the Egyptian mysteries as a luminous, bodiless double of the human being, which accompanies him throughout his life as a life-giving guardian spirit. It corresponds to the etheric body as described by Rudolf Steiner. The Ka was symbolically represented by two bent arms on the head of the person to be protected, which at that time still corresponded to an imaginatively perceivable reality. In Egyptian times, individual parts of the etheric head were not yet so firmly bound to the physical head and could rise like etheric hands into the surrounding etheric world. This ability was not lost until the Greco-Latin cultural epoch. In w;Egyptian hieroglyphs, the word Ka is also written with two arms pointing upwards. Closely connected with Ka was Ren, the name of man.

Man's sinister double, which appears as an image of his still untransformed bad qualities, is bound to the Ka.

„The man who put his double out of himself was called the "Kha-man" in the ancient Egyptian mysteries. The double is chained to the Kha-man to remind him continually of what his former life was like or what he still is like.“ (Lit.:GA 266b, p. 274f)

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Aus den Inhalten der esoterischen Stunden, Band II: 1910 – 1912, GA 266/2 (1996), ISBN 3-7274-2662-4 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.