What is the ka in ancient Egypt?

The ka: a person’s life-force, born with them and fed after death by the offerings at the tomb.

What the sign shows: Two arms raised from the shoulders.
How Gerald Massey read it in 1907: He argues the ka is more than a ghostly double: it is the higher likeness a person grows toward.
Where you see it today: The “ka statues” in museums were made as a home for it.
Where it stands in Massey’s book: Massey names it 113 times across the book. Book III, p. 177: “The self that lasts”; Book III, p. 177b: “The ka statue and the ghost”; Book IV, p. 206: “Dying as Osiris, rising as Horus”.
Signs that look like it: Ba, Akh and Heart. The app’s Symbol Trainer sets them side by side, so the eye learns to tell them apart.
In Massey’s words: “The Ka has been called the double of the dead, as if it simply represented the Doppel-ganger.” (Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (1907), Book IV, p. 203)
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer › Ka. The app’s Symbol Trainer reads 42 signs this way, each with Massey’s own words and the page they stand on.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

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