Akh

The akh is the transfigured, effective spirit of the blessed dead — what a person becomes when, having passed the judgment and been reunited in the tomb, the ba and ka are joined into a single glorified being dwelling among the imperishable stars or with the gods.

Where the ka and ba belong to the structure of the living person, the akh is the aim of the funerary rites: to 'become an akh', a shining and powerful spirit, was the Egyptian hope for the life beyond — a transfiguration not unlike the philosophers' hope for the soul's ascent and return to the divine.