Ankh-af-na-khonsu

From Thelemapedia
Ankh-af-na-khonsu (lit. "He Lives in Khonsu"), is an historical man who lived in Thebes in the
26th dynasty (apx. 725 B.C.). He was a priest of the Egyptian god Mentu. He is best known as
the creator of the The Stele of Revealing, a funerary tablet he created for himself to
commemorate his death.
Ankh-f-n-khonsu is also the magical name used by Aleister Crowley to sign The Comment of
The Book of the Law and when referring to himself as the prophet of Thelema and the Aeon of
Horus. Crowley claimed that he was 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, who has gone
forth by day in order to do everything that pleased him upon earth, among the living."
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." [1] The Scarlet Letter, vol. VII, no. 1