Ren
rnWhat it is
The name, treated as a real component of a person rather than a label attached to one.
What it needs after death
To be spoken and to be written where it can be read. A name said aloud keeps its owner in existence.
What “soul” loses
Why erasure was violence. Chiselling a name off a monument, as was done to Hatshepsut and to Akhenaten, was not censorship of the record but an attack on the person, aimed at ending them.
The other parts
Ka
kꜣThe vital essence, created at birth on Khnum's potter's wheel alongside the body, and the thing whos...
Ba
bꜣThe mobile, individual part: personality and the capacity to act, shown as a human-headed bird.
Akh
ꜣḫWhat a person becomes if everything works: ba and ka successfully reunited after death, transfigured...
Sheut
šwtThe shadow, understood as a real part of a person and as something with its own presence and protect...
Ib
jbThe heart: the seat of thought, memory, will and character, and the organ that testifies at the judg...