Ankh-af-na-khonsu (lit. "He Lives in Khonsu"), 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 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]
(http://www.scarletwoman.org/scarletletter/v7n1/v7n1_egyptian.html) —The Scarlet Letter, vol. VII, no. 1

Encyclopedia of Thelema

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