The path of the soul in the afterlife. Where do we go after death?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Imagine that you are dead. And where will your soul go now? It's up to you to decide. Choose one of the underworlds created by the inhabitants of the Old and New Worlds, who lived in antiquity or in the Middle Ages. And we will tell you what kind of reception awaited the dead there.

Place of my death - Ancient Egypt

Of course, if you were a pharaoh, that is, the embodiment of God on earth, then you will be fine in the afterlife. The pharaohs joined the retinue of the sun god Ra and swam behind him in a boat along the heavenly Nile. But mere mortals had a more difficult time.

First, the deceased had to get to the place where the god Osiris performed the judgment. But on the way there, no matter who the deceased was - a righteous or a sinner, various misfortunes awaited him. For example, he could have been eaten by a "donkey eater", and the deceased could have fallen into the "lake of flame".

So that the deceased could avoid trouble, the priests provided them with texts with maps and instructions telling how to get to the place of judgment, as well as where and when to pronounce the necessary spells and names. At first, the texts were written on the walls of the sarcophagi, but, apparently, it was not very convenient for the dead to read them on the way, so later the “Book of the Dead” appeared, written on papyrus.

When the deceased reached his destination, he was greeted by the gods - participants in the Afterlife Judgment. At first, he listed 42 crimes and swore that he was not guilty of any of them. Then the gods-witnesses and the soul of the deceased spoke, who told about his good and bad deeds, and after that the heart of the deceased was weighed on the Scales of Truth.

If the arrow of the scales deviated, the deceased was considered a sinner and his heart was eaten by the goddess Ammat - a monster with the body of a hippopotamus, the mouth of a crocodile, the mane and paws of a lion. Over time, in the ancient Egyptian kingdom of the dead, they began to punish more sophisticatedly: sinners were deprived of warmth, light and the ability to communicate with the gods.

If the deceased was acquitted, he went to the Egyptian version of paradise - to the Fields of Iala (Kamysha). Here he led about the same life as on earth, but he knew no lack of anything. The gods provided him with food, and the servants worked for him, the figures of which were prudently placed in his tomb.

It remains to add that neither the sinners nor the righteous had the opportunity to leave the Duat. According to the idea of the ancient Egyptians, the souls of the deceased remained in the kingdom of the dead forever.

Place of my death - Ancient Mesopotamia

In all other cases, the soul of the deceased, be it a righteous or a sinner, went to the underworld, Kur (Kigal or Eden). Another thing is that it was not always bad there, in any case, torture and special suffering of the souls of the dead did not await.

The dead were not sent to the afterlife with empty hands. Many useful things were placed in the burials: weapons, jewelry, tools, clothes and shoes, caskets with food and drink, as well as a goblet that the dead held to their mouths. Apparently, the drink in the cups helped to overcome the path to the trial. In the underworld itself, the richer dead moved on a stretcher, sled, or even four-wheeled carts.

To get into the realm of the dead, one had to cross the river, "absorbing people", with the help of a carrier - "boat man". For this, boat models were often placed in the graves. On the other side of the river, the deceased had to go through seven gates and in the end got to the judgment of the ruler (and later the ruler) of the underworld.

At the trial, sinners were sentenced to death, and they died finally. Much more fortunate were those who died in battle, who had sons on earth, and who were cared for by their relatives by performing funeral rites. Those who died in battle were comforted by their parents and wife; those who had sons were fed and watered in the afterlife, and some were even allowed into the palace to the gods.

It was impossible for mere mortals to get out of the underworld. This was possible only for the gods, who inadvertently got there, and then only "through barter" - they had to leave a substitute in their place.

Place of my death - Ancient India

Not all the dead in Hinduism are immediately sent back to the world of the living for a new rebirth. First, they go to the underworld, Naraku, where they appear before the judgment of the ruler of this world, the god of death, Yama. Depending on the verdict, the souls of the deceased may go to heaven or hell for a while, and only then be born again.

They get to the place of trial for a long time, a whole year. First, the soul of the deceased moves through the surrounding Ganges River, holding on to the tail of a cow, and then walks across the country with complex landscapes and many cities until it reaches the capital.

There the soul finds itself in the Yama palace. The scribe lists the merits and sins of the deceased, and Yama decides where to send him, to heaven or hell. Paradise, Svarga, is in heaven, and a limited group of people is taken there: fallen soldiers and especially virtuous people. In paradise, the righteous drink in unlimited quantities the "drink of immortality," soma. Despite the fact that the recipe for catfish is lost, researchers believe that it was made from plants containing narcotic substances, possibly from ephedra or red fly agaric.

In the Hindu hell, Naraka, ruled by Yama, the ancients numbered as many as 28 "divisions." Each of them was intended to punish one sin or group of sins. Yama sent to hell not only the familiar set of murderers, poisoners and seducers, but also those who committed lesser sins, for example, astrologers, fortune tellers, brahmins who sold meat and alcohol, and even those who harmed insects.

Despite the fact that such people were usually ascetics and led a righteous life, after death they and their ancestors were doomed to torment.

The place of my death - Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome

The shadow of the deceased in the kingdom of Hades or simply in Hades (by the name of the god who ruled here) is escorted by the god Hermes. He brings her to the border of the world of the living and the dead - the river Styx (according to another version, Acheron). Through it, the dead are transported by the god Charon, specially placed here. It transports not for free, but for a small coin, which is put under the tongue of the deceased during the funeral. In ancient Greece, it was possible to buy about a liter of cheap wine with it (if translated into modern Russian prices - something about 150 rubles).

One of the entrances to the underworld is guarded by Cerberus, a three-headed dog with a snake's tail. Unlike Charon, he has other tasks - not to let the living into the underworld and not to release the shadows of the dead from it.

After the shadow fell into the world of the dead, she went through the endless asphodel fields to the judgment, which was administered by three demigods - the sons of Zeus from mortal women. The righteous and especially honored persons (for example, mortal relatives of the gods) were sent to the Champs Elysees. Despite the fact that they were underground, the sun always shone here, and their inhabitants spent time in feasts, entertainment and sports. Moreover, they could be repeatedly born on earth in the body of a person or an animal, of their choice.

If a person during his lifetime did not differ in good or bad deeds, his soul was sent back to the asphodel fields, where it first drank from Lethe's “river of oblivion” and lost its memory, and then wandered aimlessly through them until the end of time. The only joy for the shadows was the sacrifices of the living. Then they could drink sacrificial blood and for a while remember the earthly world.

Sinners were destined for Tartarus, an abyss located even lower than the underworld. Various punishments awaited them there: for example, Sisyphus endlessly tried to roll a stone to the top of the mountain, and the Danaids were doomed to fill a bottomless barrel with water.

By the way, from the ancient Greek name for the underworld "Hades" comes the Russian word "hell". And the English "hell" comes from the name of the Scandinavian hell and at the same time the goddess who ruled it - "Hel". But that is another story.

The place of my death - Ancient Scandinavia

In Valhalla, the supreme god Odin (in Folkwang - the goddess of fertility and love Freya) gathers a squad of valiant warriors who will fight in the last battle of the gods with the dead and hellish monsters. Therefore, in addition to feasts with abundant libations, the locals regularly arrange mock battles, during which they chop each other into pieces, but then they all come together again for a friendly feast.

The rest of the dead go to the underworld, Hel (or Helheim - "the land of Hel"), located, according to some sources, in the west, where the sun set, and according to others - in the north, in the land of eternal cold.

The eponymous giantess goddess ruled there - a person of unpleasant appearance. It was half blue, half the color of flesh. Despite her intimidating appearance, Hel seemed to be a hospitable hostess. When the god Balder, who was killed by a misunderstanding, fell into her kingdom, she gave him a generous welcome - she made him sit in a place of honor in her chambers, ordered him to cook honey for him and sprinkle the floor with gold. However, she did not let him go back.

In general, little is known about the structure of the underworld of the ancient Scandinavians. It was a hazy, gloomy place, separated from the world of the living by the river Gyoll, "noisy". The entrance to it was guarded by the four-eyed dog Garm and the giantess Modgud, who did not release the dead back to the ground.

Although sinners (in this case, murderers, perjurers and seducers of other people's wives) had a hard time. Their bodies were gnawed by a specially assigned dragon.

According to the Scandinavian sagas, the inhabitants of Hel and Valhalla will not remain there forever, but only until the onset of Ragnarok - the death of the gods. Then there will be a battle between the squads who came from paradise and the light gods, with the dark forces and the dead from Hel, who will be brought by a ship made of their nails, Naglfar. All will die, only a couple of people, a man and a woman, Livtrasir and Liv, and several gods will survive. They have to create a new world.

The place of my death - the Aztec Empire

The dead were sent to different levels of heaven (there were 13 in total) or the underworld (nine levels), in accordance only with how they died. They were sent forever, there was no way to return to the world of the living. For example, soldiers who fell in battle were sent to the east to accompany the sun. People sacrificed to the gods followed there. Women who died during childbirth were sent the other way - to the west, where they saw off the setting sun.

A special fate awaited the drowned, killed by lightning and lepers. They went straight to Tlalocan, the home of the rain god Tlaloca, where there was plenty of plant food and water.

The rest, those who did not fall into any of the categories necessary to get to heaven, were destined for the underworld - Miktlan. Here the god of the dead, Miktlantecutli, ruled, who was depicted as a skeleton or with a skull instead of a head.

To get to the god, who was distributing souls among the levels, the deceased had to pass all nine levels and overcome a lot of obstacles.

He had to pass between the mountains that threatened to crush him, cross eight deserts and climb eight mountains, go through a field in which the wind blew, throwing stones and obsidian knives at the deceased, cross a river of blood guarded by jaguars. Four years later, the deceased traveled to Miktlantecutli, gave him gifts - masks, clothes and incense - and forever went to one of the levels of the underworld. When distributing according to them, the sins of the deceased were not taken into account, only how he died played a role.