Ankh Meaning
Only Kings, Queens and Gods were allowed to carry this symbol. The Ankh is the Egyptian sign of life and indicates that the King or God holding it has the power to give life or take it away from lesser mortals.
The Ankh as a symbol of the life giving elements of air and water was often used by a God or Goddess who holds the Ankh before the King’s nose, giving him the “breath of life” or as streams of water in the form of ankhs running over the King during ritual purification.
Ankh symbol of life
The scepter was a popular one for the Gods to hold and became a symbol of well-being and happiness.There are three principal ways that the Egyptians used the Ankh symbol, by itself, in their drawings: Probably the most common depiction of the Ankh is being clutched in the hand by the gods and goddesses on the upper loop portion of the symbol.
The Ankh appears frequently in Egyptian tomb paintings and other art, often at the fingertips of a god or goddess in images that represent the deities of the afterlife conferring the gift of life on the dead person’s mummy.
In other words, the Egyptians believed that their gods “held” eternal life in their hands, and could bestow it upon certain persons at their pleasing. Gods and Isis are depicted holding the Ankh to show that they command the powers of life and death and that they are immortal.
Ankh symbolism
The dead also carry it at the time their souls are weighed or when they are aboard the Boat of the Sun God, as a sign that they seek this same immortality from the gods. Furthermore the ankh symbolized the spring from which flowed divine virtues and the elixir of immortality.
Therefore to hold the ankh was to drink from that well. It was sometimes held upside down by the loop – especially in funeral rites when it suggested the shape of a key and in reality was the key which opened the gateway of the tomb into the Fields of Aalu, the realm of eternity.
Therefore to hold the ankh was to drink from that well. It was sometimes held upside down by the loop – especially in funeral rites when it suggested the shape of a key and in reality was the key which opened the gateway of the tomb into the Fields of Aalu, the realm of eternity.
Sometimes the Ankh is placed on the forehead, between the eyes, and then it symbolizes the duty of the adept to keep secret the mystery into which he has been initiated – it is the key which locks these secrets away from the uninitiated.
Blessed by the supreme vision, endowed with clairvoyance to pierce the veil of the beyond, he cannot attempt to reveal the mystery without losing it forever.The act of giving the ankh to the king or pharaoh is also depicted, in two different ways.
First, it is shown in the introductory baptism or purification ritual of the king, where he receives a type of washing and anointing by the gods pouring the life-giving water over him, represented by Ankh symbols.Water does more than purify--it gives life, literally, to all organisms; the water of life is a worldwide concept. “The ramifications of the subject are enormous”.
There is no mistaking the meaning of the little ankh (life) symbols which pour from the sacred vases in Egyptian baptismal scenes such as in the temple of Ramses II at Karnak, which shows the king being baptized with ankh and was (divine power) symbols as he enters the temple and which bears the inscription, “Water for his father, that life might be given to him.”
Blessed by the supreme vision, endowed with clairvoyance to pierce the veil of the beyond, he cannot attempt to reveal the mystery without losing it forever.The act of giving the ankh to the king or pharaoh is also depicted, in two different ways.
First, it is shown in the introductory baptism or purification ritual of the king, where he receives a type of washing and anointing by the gods pouring the life-giving water over him, represented by Ankh symbols.Water does more than purify--it gives life, literally, to all organisms; the water of life is a worldwide concept. “The ramifications of the subject are enormous”.
There is no mistaking the meaning of the little ankh (life) symbols which pour from the sacred vases in Egyptian baptismal scenes such as in the temple of Ramses II at Karnak, which shows the king being baptized with ankh and was (divine power) symbols as he enters the temple and which bears the inscription, “Water for his father, that life might be given to him.”
The second way the ankh is given to the Egyptian royalty was by the god or goddess holding the symbol to their mouth or nose. Anqet, Ptah, Satet, Sobek, Tefnut, Osiris, Ra, Isis, Hathor, Anibus and many other gods often hold the ankh sign, along with a scepter, and in various tomb and temple reliefs, place it in front of the king’s face to symbolize the breath of eternal life.
So in this sense, the god or goddess is bestowing or endowing the king, queen, or pharaoh with eternal life, or breath of life, by touching the ankh to their nose or lips.
It is interesting that the ankh also represents an “utterance of life” or an oath, symbolized by the binding of the knot, and as such also possibly depicts the god or initiate at the same time uttering words of eternal life, or making an oath or covenant in order to gain eternal life.
So in this sense, the god or goddess is bestowing or endowing the king, queen, or pharaoh with eternal life, or breath of life, by touching the ankh to their nose or lips.
It is interesting that the ankh also represents an “utterance of life” or an oath, symbolized by the binding of the knot, and as such also possibly depicts the god or initiate at the same time uttering words of eternal life, or making an oath or covenant in order to gain eternal life.
Ankh Necklace
Egyptians were also famous for their love of pieces of jewelry and cosmetics. Other than jewels being an accessory, they also use it as an amulet or protection. They genuinely believe in the afterlife and elaborately prepare for their death as what these pyramids show us.
Ankh is one of the fashionable charms that they use like a jewel or an engraved in one’s tomb. The protection and the promise of rebirth in the next life are crucial to ancient Egypt. Popularly worn as amulets or pendants with chain necklaces made from precious metals.
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