The Stele of Revealing

 

 

     The Stele of Revealing is an Egyptian religious artifact dating from the 26th dynasty. It is a wooden tablet overlaid with stucco and painted with mythological scenes and hieroglyphic writing. It was made to commemorate the death of a Theban priest of the god Mentu named Ankh-f-n-khonsu. Although many objects were typically sealed inside the tomb along with the body, funerary steles such as this one were placed outside the tomb as a focal point for offerings given by friends and relatives of the deceased.

     The Stele of Revealing is especially sacred to Thelemites because it is through this artifact that the Law of Thelema was revealed to Aleister Crowley in 1904 e.v., inaugurating the New Aeon of Horus. Soon after discovering the Stele in a museum in Cairo, Crowley received the mystical communication known as The Book of the Law. Much of what Crowley discovered in the Stele of Revealing "set the stage" or formed the basis for these channeled verses.

 

THE STELE OF REVEALING

Thebes, XXVI Dynasty

Painted Stucco on Wood

31 x 51.5 cm (approx. 12" x 20")

Catalog No. 666 – Boulak Museum, Cairo, Egypt

 

Front

 

Back

 

 

 

Translation of the Hieroglyphs on the Stele of Revealing

Front

 

Top: Hadit, the great god, lord of the sky.

 

Above left: Ra-Hoor-Khut, chief of the gods.

 

Above right: The deceased, prophet of Mentu, lord of Thebes, the one for whom the doors of the sky are opened in Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu.

 

Under altar: bread, water, cattle and fowl.

 

The deceased, the prophet of Mentu, lord of Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, true-of-voice, says: "O sublime one! I adore the greatness of your spirits, o formidable soul, who inspires terror of himself among the gods. Appearing on his great throne, he travels the path of the soul, of the spirit, and of the body, having received the light, being equipped, I have made my path towards the place in which Ra, Tum, Khephra, and Hathor are; I, the deceased priest of Mentu, lord of Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, son of a person of the same rank, Bes-n-Maut, and of the priestess of Amoun-Ra, the mistress of the house Ta-Nech."

Back

 

The deceased, the prophet of Mentu, lord of Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, true-of-voice, says: "O my heart of my mother, O heart which I had while I was on earth, do not rise up against me in witness, do not oppose me as a judge, do not charge me in the presence of the great god, lord of the West, because I have joined the land to the great West when I was flourishing on earth!" The deceased, priest of Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, true-of-voice, says: "O, you who only has one arm, who shines in the moon, the deceased Ankh-f-n-khonsu has left the multitudes and rejoined those who are in the light, he has opened the dwelling-place of the stars (the Duaut); now then, the deceased Ankh-f-n-khonsu has gone forth by day in order to do everything that pleased him upon earth, among the living."

 

 

Aleister Crowley’s Paraphrase of the Hieroglyphs on the Stele of Revealing

Front

 

Above, the gemmed azure is

The naked splendour of Nuit;

She bends in ecstasy to kiss

The secret ardours of Hadit.

The winged globe, the starry blue,

Are mine, O Ankh-af-na-khonsu!

 

I am the Lord of Thebes, and I

The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu;

For me unveils the veiled sky,

The self-slain Ankh-af-na-khonsu

Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet

Thy presence, O Ra-Hoor-Khuit!

 

Unity uttermost showed!

I adore the might of Thy breath,

Supreme and terrible God,

Who makest the gods and death

To tremble before Thee:—

I, I adore thee!

 

Appear on the throne of Ra!

Open the ways of the Khu!

Lighten the ways of the Ka!

The ways of the Khabs run through

To stir me or still me!

Aum! let it fill me!

 

The light is mine; its rays consume

Me: I have made a secret door

Into the House of Ra and Tum,

Of Khephra and of Ahathoor.

I am thy Theban, O Mentu,

The prophet Ankh-af-na-khonsu!

 

By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;

By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell.

Show thy star-splendour, O Nuit!

Bid me within thine House to dwell,

O winged snake of light, Hadit!

Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit!

Back

 

Saith of Mentu the truth-telling brother

Who was master of Thebes from his birth:

O heart of me, heart of my mother!

O heart which I had upon earth!
Stand not thou up against me a witness!

Oppose me not, judge, in my quest!

Accuse me not now of unfitness

Before the Great God, the dread Lord of the West!

For I fastened the one to the other

With a spell for their mystical girth,
The earth and the wonderful West,

When I flourished, o earth, on thy breast!

 

The dead man Ankh-f-n-khonsu

Saith with his voice of truth and calm:

O thou that hast a single arm!

O thou that glitterest in the moon!

I weave thee in the spinning charm;

I lure thee with the billowy tune.

 

The dead man Ankh-f-n-khonsu

Hath parted from the darkling crowds,

Hath joined the dwellers of the light,

Opening Duaut, the star-abodes,

Their keys receiving.

The dead man Ankh-f-n-khonsu

Hath made his passage into night,

His pleasure on the earth to do

Among the living.