There Have Been Other Times

But these times are our times. So reflexive, falling back onto itself, like some out of phase Hegelian synthesis, or an old chugging iron steam engine. "At times it felt insistent, and at times it felt impossible, but at no time did it ever seem like it would be stopping. And yet it did stop, right as the flickering lights gave way to day. I thought the flickering was only in my head, but I thought too, that it was only in the air around me. I discovered that it was both as the flickering followed me home. Lying in bed trying to catch a quick nap on Saturday afternoon, I found the flickering there, receding only as the high from the night faded away all together."

-Erik Johnson, March 2022 JOINING THE KA AND THE BA In ancient Egyptian religion, the Ka is the life force or soul and the Ba is the personality, and when the two are joined the person was referred to as an “effective one”.

From wikipedia on Ancient Egypt:

The Egyptians believed that every human being was composed of physical and spiritual parts or aspects. In addition to the body, each person had a šwt (shadow), a ba (personality or soul), a ka (life-force), and a name.[158] The heart, rather than the brain, was considered the seat of thoughts and emotions. After death, the spiritual aspects were released from the body and could move at will, but they required the physical remains (or a substitute, such as a statue) as a permanent home. The ultimate goal of the deceased was to rejoin his ka and ba and become one of the "blessed dead", living on as an akh, or "effective one". For this to happen, the deceased had to be judged worthy in a trial, in which the heart was weighed against a "feather of truth." If deemed worthy, the deceased could continue their existence on earth in spiritual form.[159]