Apep was the god of dissolution, destruction, and nonbeing. Nothing could escape the attention of Apep when he wanted to advance an adversary position. Indeed, in ancient Egypt, Apep was the main adversary to Ra, seeking to destroy Ra, to bring him into nonbeing, and to create havoc in the society. He swallowed his enemies and caused them complete nonexistence; because no one wanted to be nonexistent, Apep was especially feared. The ancient Egyptians believed that Apep was without natural characteristics; indeed, he was outside of the natural world and therefore could not be looked on like the deities or humans. As a being who needed nothing from the natural world, neither sustenance nor companionship, Apep was totally devoid of any respect for humans.

The ankh is a pervasive symbol in ancient Egypt. The meaning of the ankh conveys the idea of life or the force that generates living. It has been found on all types of materials, including leather, stone, copper, and wood, although it is most often used on gold. The ankh appears in all eras of ancient Egyptian life and is one of the oldest symbols. However, the exact origin of the symbol is not known. Kemetologists and Egyptologists have searched many documents seeking to discover the first instance of the ankh. This has proven to be a difficult task because of the provenance of the symbol as well as its antiquity.

Anubis is the Greek translation for the Kemetic/Egyptian Anpu. He is the Jackal-headed Kemetic god of the dead. Although fearsome in appearance, Anubis is recognized as being a caring and nurturing god. He holds power over the spirits of the dead on their journeys after death. He is the personification of the Summer Solstice because he is associated with opening the way to the afterworld. Anubis was integral in the conveyance of the dead seeking entrance into the Afterlife.

The word animism comes from the Latin term anima, which means breath. The term animism was first used in reference to African cultures by the British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor in his book Primitive Culture in 1871. Tylor defined the term as a general belief in spiritual beings. After Tylor, other anthropologists used the term to refer to African religion, usually contending that all African religions have as a minimum the idea of material and immaterial things having breath or a soul. This minimum constituted for these authors the idea of a religion that was one of the oldest forms of belief on the Earth. Some even tried to date its origin to prehistoric times on the African continent.