Heru-ra-ha (lit. 'Horus sun-flesh')[1] is a compositedeity related to ancientEgyptian mythology revered withinThelema, a religion that began in 1904 withAleister Crowley andThe Book of the Law. Heru-ra-ha is composed ofHoor-paar-kraat andRa-Hoor-Khuit.[2] He is associated with the other two major Thelemic deities found inThe Book of the Law,Nuit andHadit. Adherents believe theStele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu, known within Thelema as the "Stele of Revealing", links Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit to theancient Egyptian deitiesNut,Behdety, andRa-Horakhty.
The active aspect of Heru-ra-ha isRa-Hoor-Khuit (Ancient Egyptian:rꜥ-ḥr-ꜣḫtj; sometimes also anglicized as Ra-Hoor-Khu-it,[3] Ra-Har-Khuti, or Ra-Har-Akht;Egyptological pronunciation:Ra-Horakhty orRa-Herakhty), means 'Ra (who is) Horus of the Horizon'.[4] Ra-Hoor-Khuit or Ra-Hoor-Khut is the speaker in the third chapter ofThe Book of the Law, where the relationship with Heru-ra-ha and Hoor-pa-kraat is detailed in verse 35:
The half of the word of Heru-ra-ha, called Hoor-pa-kraat and Ra-Hoor-Khut.[5]
Within Thelema, Ra-Hoor-Khuit is called 'Lord of theAeon' (which began in 1904 according to Thelemic doctrine), and 'The Crowned and Conquering Child'. An appellation ofRa, identifying him withHorus, this name shows the two as manifestations of the singular solar force. According to Crowley, the five-pointed "star of flame" symbolizes Ra-Hoor-Khuit in certain contexts.[6]
"Khuit" also refers to a local form of the goddessHathor at Athribis,[7][8] who guarded theheart ofOsiris.[9] "Khut" refers to the goddessIsis as light giver of the new year;[10] some older sources say that it can also refer to the fieryserpent on the crown ofRa.[11][12]
The passive aspect of Heru-ra-ha isHoor-pa-kraat (Ancient Egyptian:ḥr-pꜣ-ẖrd, meaning "Horus the Child";Egyptological pronunciation:Har-pa-khered), more commonly referred to by the Greek renderingHarpocrates;Horus, the son ofIsis andOsiris, sometimes distinguished from their brother Horus the Elder,[13] who was the old patron deity of Upper Egypt. Hoor is represented as a young boy with a child's sidelock of hair, sucking his finger. The Greeks,Ovid,[14] and theHermetic Order of the Golden Dawn[15] attributed silence to him, presumably because the sucking of the finger is suggestive of the common "shhh"-gesture.
Aiwass, the being who dictatedThe Book of the Law to Crowley, introduces himself as "the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat"[16] in the book's first chapter.
Also known as "The Babe in the Lotus", Hoor-paar-kraat is sometimes thought of as the younger brother of Horus.[17][18] The former interpretation in the works of Aleister Crowley portrays Ra-Hoor-Khuit—in place of theGolden Dawn'sOsiris/Jesus—as a model for the initiate, and thus describes attainment as a natural growth process, de-emphasizing the metaphor of death and resurrection. In the second interpretation, the Golden Dawn placed Hoor-paar-kraat at the center of their Hall ofMa'at while the officers of the temple (one of whom represented Horus) revolved around him.[citation needed]
