Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu i ( Egyptian: ''ꜥnḫ-f-n-ḫnsw''), also known as Ankh-af-na-khonsu, was a priest of the Egyptian god Mentu who lived in Thebes during the 25th and 26th dynasty (c. 725 BCE). He was the son of Bes-en-Mut I and Ta-neshet. Among practitioners of the modern religion of

Thelema Thelema () is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. The word ' ...

, he is best known under the name of ''Ankh-af-na-khonsu'', and as the dedicant of the Stele of Revealing, a wooden offering stela made to ensure his continued existence in the

netherworld Netherworld (''nether'', ″beneath, lower″) may refer to: *Underworld, a region thought to be beneath the surface of the world in many religions and mythologies Film and television * ''Netherworld'' (film), a 1992 American horror film *''Nethe ...

now located in the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...

in Cairo.

Meaning of the name

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 Progressive ankylosis protein homolog (ANK ilosis H omolog) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ANKH'' gene. This gene encodes a multipass transmembrane protein that is expressed in joints and other tissues and controls pyrophosphat ...
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.

Lutea's interpretation is a free one that Egyptologists would tend to reject. A modern Egyptological approach would translate the name Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu (''ꜥnḫ-f-n-ḫnsw'') as "He lives for

Khonsu Khonsu ( egy, ḫnsw; also transliterated Chonsu, Khensu, Khons, Chons or Khonshu; cop, Ϣⲟⲛⲥ, Shons) is the ancient Egyptian god of the Moon. His name means "traveller", and this may relate to the perceived nightly travel of the Moon ...

"; the name is particularly common during the Third Intermediate and Late Periods.

The Stela of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu

The

Stela of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu The Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu (also known as the Stele of Revealing) is a painted, wooden offering stele located in Cairo, Egypt. It was discovered in 1858 by François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette at the mortuary temple of the 18th Dynasty Pharao ...

(

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

A 9422 ormerly Bulaq 666is a painted, wooden offering

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek language, Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ...

, discovered in 1858 at the mortuary temple of

Hatshepsut Hatshepsut (; also Hatchepsut; Egyptian: '' ḥꜣt- špswt'' "Foremost of Noble Ladies"; or Hatasu c. 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, af ...

Dayr al-Bahri Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri ( ar, الدير البحري, al-Dayr al-Baḥrī, the Monastery of the North) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of ...

by François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette. According to one translation of the stela done in the Thelemic perspective, 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.

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.

In Thelema

The Book of the Law ''Liber AL vel Legis'' (), commonly known as ''The Book of the Law'', is the central sacred text of Thelema. Aleister Crowley said that it was dictated to him by a beyond-human being who called himself ' Aiwass'. Rose Edith Kelly, Crowley's ...

'' (I,36) says:

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-Khu-it.

Based on this,

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

used the "magical" name "Ankh-f-n-khonsu" (from the "Stele 666" translation prepared in 1904 for Crowley by

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

Émile Brugsch Émile Brugsch (February 24, 1842 – January 14, 1930) was a German Egyptologist whose career spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is known as the official who "evacuated" the mummies from the Deir el-Bahri Cache in 1881 without re ...

) to sign " The Comment" of ''

'', and also used it sometimes when referring to himself as the prophet of

and the Aeon of Horus.

Kenneth Grant Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byn ...

wrote that "Crowley claimed to have been a re-embodiment of the magical current represented by the priesthood to which Ankh-af-na-Khonsu belonged".Grant, Kenneth (1977). ''Nightside of Eden'', p. 133, n. 9. London: Frederick Muller Limited.

Notes

Sources

*Thelemapedia. (2004).
Ankh-af-na-khonsu
'. Retrieved April 14, 2006.

References

*Crowley, Aleister. ''