Anubis was the deity who played an important role in this journey. Depicted with the black head of a jackal, Anubis helped mummify Egyptians when they died. Black represented the fertile soil of the Nile that was needed to grow yearly crops, so the Egyptians believed that the color black symbolized good fortune and rebirth.
In addition, as recorded in the Book of the Dead, Anubis’s other job was to stand in the Hall of the Two Truths and weigh the hearts of people seeking judgment.
The human heart was balanced on the scale against Ma’at’s feather of truth. If the heart weighed more than the feather, the person’s identity would essentially cease to exist: the hybrid deity Ammit would eat the heart, and the soul would be destroyed. But if the heart weighed the same as the feather, the deceased would pass through the underworld and into the Afterlife.