concept

Rebirth

Beliefs & concepts

The claim that a life, a soul, or a year can begin again. Egyptian funerary hope, seasonal return, and later “rebirth” talk are not one doctrine.

Also known as renewal

Egyptian religion

  • Rebirth appears in Egyptian religion.

    Going forth by day after judgment is an Egyptian funerary hope. It should not be used to caption every spring or every snake-shed.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    appears in · sourced · culturally specific

  • Rebirth is associated with Underworld.

    The dead in Egyptian spells travel a below that is also a solar night road. Rebirth and underworld meet there as an Egyptian itinerary.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    associated with · sourced · culturally specific

  • Rebirth is associated with Osiris.

    Egyptian rebirth-talk in the spells is often a joining to Osiris’s condition. The god is the local name of that hope.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    associated with · sourced · culturally specific

  • Sun is associated with Rebirth.

    Egyptian funerary hope is bound to the sun’s daily rising. That daily return is not the same claim as a later European “rebirth” slogan.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific

  • Death is associated with Rebirth.

    Egyptian funerary spells work for a justified dead who may go forth by day. That hope is Egyptian, not a generic cycle.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    associated with · sourced · culturally specific

  • Ra is associated with Rebirth.

    The sun’s rising is the pattern Egyptian funerary hope borrows. Daily return is not a later European rebirth slogan.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    associated with · sourced · culturally specific

  • Osiris is associated with Rebirth.

    Osiris is restored after dismemberment in Egyptian myth. The restoration is a royal-funerary plot, not a snake-shed.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    associated with · sourced · culturally specific

  • Duat is associated with Rebirth.

    Going forth by day after the below is an Egyptian funerary hope. The itinerary is Egyptian.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    associated with · sourced · culturally specific

  • Rebirth is associated with Cycle.

    A year that returns and a dead person who goes forth are both returns. They should not be captioned as one cycle.

    associated with · interpretive · speculative

  • Transformation is associated with Rebirth.

    Rebirth is one species of transformation story. Not every changed body is a soul returning.

    associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

  • Flood is associated with Rebirth.

    A world washed and begun again is a rebirth plot. Applying it equally to Gilgamesh and to Ovid would flatten two tellings; this edge stays cautious.

    associated with · interpretive · speculative

  • Cycle is associated with Rebirth.

    Rebirth stories borrow the language of return. A year coming back is not the same claim as a justified dead going forth by day.

    associated with · interpretive · speculative

  • Seed is associated with Rebirth.

    A seed looks dead and then is not. Agricultural hope and funerary hope have both borrowed the picture; they are not one doctrine.

    associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

  • Green is associated with Rebirth.

    Green as new plant and green as Osiris’s restored face are easy to rhyme. The hymn of grain and the Egyptian dead should still be kept as two plots.

    associated with · interpretive · speculative

Alchemy

  • Serpent is associated with Rebirth.

    Later alchemy uses the circling serpent (ouroboros) as a picture of a work that returns on itself. That is a laboratory emblem, not Egyptian Apep and not Asklepios.

    from Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet), medieval Latin tradition (Arabic antecedents)

    associated with · interpretive · modern interpretation

Celtic tradition

Mesopotamian tradition

  • Flood is associated with Rebirth.

    Enuma Elish is a cosmogony of order from conflict, not a flood-survival tale. Keep Gilgamesh’s flood and creation-combat as related Mesopotamian files, not one plot.

    from Enuma Elish, standard version often dated to the late 2nd millennium BCE

    associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

Egyptian religion · Nile valley

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