Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu i[1] (Egyptian:ꜥnḫ-f-n-ḫnsw), otherwise known asAnkh-af-na-Khonsu, was apriest of theancient Egyptian godMontu who lived inThebes during the25th and26th Dynasty (c. 725 BCE).[2] He was the son of Bes-en-Mut I and Ta-neshet.
Among practitioners of theWestern esoteric tradition and religious philosophy ofThelema, founded by the Englishoccultist andceremonial magicianAleister Crowley, he is best known under the name ofAnkh-af-na-khonsu and as the dedicant of theStele of Revealing, a wooden offering stele made to ensure his continued existence in thenetherworld, now located in theEgyptian Museum ofCairo,Egypt.
The name Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu (ꜥnḫ-f-n-ḫnsw) translates as "He lives forKhonsu"; the name is particularly common during theThird Intermediate andLate Periods.[3]
TheStele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu (Cairo A 9422, formerlyBulaq 666) is a painted, wooden offeringstele. The stele is a fairly typical example of aTheban offering stele from the lateThird Intermediate Period,[4] dating to the late25th Dynasty/early26th Dynasty.[5] It was originally discovered in 1854 as part of a large burial of priests ofMontu atDeir el-Bahari inLuxor,Ottoman Egypt, and included the coffin of the dedicant, Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu i.[6]
A translation of the text of the stela can be found atStele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu.
Aleister Crowley used the "magical" name "Ankh-f-n-khonsu" (from the "Stele 666" translation prepared in 1904 for Crowley by the German EgyptologistÉmile Brugsch) to sign "The Comment" ofThe Book of the Law, and also used it sometimes when referring to himself as the prophet ofThelema and theAeon of Horus.Kenneth Grant 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".[7]