Ankh-af-na-khonsu

Ankh-af-na-khonsu (lit. "He Lives in Khonsu"),^{[citation needed]} or Ankh-ef-en-Khons, lived in Thebes during the 25th and 26th dynasty (apx. 725 B.C.). He served as a priest of the Egyptian god Mentu,^[1] and is best known as the creator of the the Stele of Revealing, a funerary tablet he created for himself to commemorate his death.

Aleister Crowley used the magical name Ankh-f-n-khonsu (from the Boulaq Museum translation) to sign The Comment of The Book of the Law, and also used it sometimes when referring to himself as the prophet of Thelema and the Aeon of Horus. Crowley sometimes called himself a reincarnation of the Egyptian priest. As it says in Liber Legis:

"My scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu, the priest of the princes, shall not in one letter change this book; but lest there be folly, he shall comment thereupon by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-Khuit." —AL I:36

According to one translation of the Stele, it says of him:

"...has left the multitudes and rejoined those who are in the light, he has opened the dwelling place of the stars; now then, the deceased, Ankh-af-na-khonsu has gone forth by day in order to do everything that pleased him upon earth, among the living."^[2]

or by a 1982 analysis,

deliverer of those who are in the sunshine, open for him the netherworld; indeed the Osiris Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu shall go forth by day to do that which he desires, all, upon earth, among the living.^[3]

Sr. Lutea, writing in The Scarlet Letter, explains some of the words in his name:

"A translation of the name might be close to the following: Ankh is both a tool and a symbol meaning “new life.” The hyphen af is always part of another word that lends exclamatory force. The word, na is generally used as a preposition, such as “to, for, belonging to, through, or because.” Khonsu was the adopted son of Amun and Mut from the Theban triad. His name comes from a word meaning, “to cross over” or “wanderer” or “he who traverses.” So, his entire name may be translated as “the truth that has crossed over.”"^[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ "To the same (man) belong sarcophagi Cairo 41001, 41001bis and 41042 (Dyn. XXV-XXVI)". Abd el Hamid Zayed, "Painted Wooden Stelae in the Cairo Museum," Revue d'égytologie 20 (1968), pp. 149-152.
^ "Boulaq Museum translation" in The Holy Books of Thelema, Samuel Weiser Inc. (1983) p. 249.
^ "A modern analysis" in The Holy Books of Thelema, Samuel Weiser Inc. (1983) p. 260.
^ Sr. Lutea. (2002). "Who And What Are Those Egyptian References In Liber Resh?". The Scarlet Letter, Vol. VII, No. 2.