Anpu—the Lips—is a specific microcosmic attribution within the Egyptian magical and theurgical system, wherein the god Anubis (Anpu) is assigned to the mouth and its surrounding flesh. The term "Lips" here denotes the physical organ as a vehicle for speech, breath, and the utterance of divine names, rather than the god in his full funerary aspect. The name Anpu itself derives from the Egyptian Inpw, a jackal-headed deity of embalming and the threshold, but in this context the focus is narrowed to the lips as a point of power and expression.

Position on the Tree of Life

This correspondence occupies Path 12, the twelfth scale step on the Tree of Life, which is the path of the letter Beth (ב) and the sphere of Mercury (Hod). As a microcosmic attribution, Anpu—the Lips is placed at the level of the Perfected Man, the completed human form as a divine microcosm. In the schema of the human body as a temple, the lips are the gateway for the creative word, linking the throat (Daath) to the lower centers.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

Path 12 is governed by Mercury, the planet of communication, intellect, and magic. The lips, as the physical instrument of speech, directly correspond to Mercurial function: the articulation of thought, the utterance of spells, and the transmission of knowledge. In the Egyptian context, this aligns with Thoth (Djehuty), the ibis-headed god of writing and magic, who is often syncretized with Anubis in certain funerary texts. The lips are thus the Mercurial gate through which the will is made manifest in sound.

Historical context

The attribution of Anpu to the lips appears in the Hermetic and Thelemic microcosmic tables derived from the Book of the Dead and later Egyptian funerary liturgies, where each part of the body is assigned a protective deity. In the Book of the Dead (Chapter 42), the lips are specifically protected by Anubis: "My lips are Anubis." This formula is part of a larger spell in which the deceased declares each limb to be a god, thereby becoming a living pantheon. The lips, as the organ of speech, are thus consecrated to the jackal-headed god who guards the threshold between the living and the dead. In the Hermetic tradition, this microcosmic mapping was systematized in the 777 tables by Aleister Crowley, who drew on the work of the Golden Dawn and earlier Egyptian revival sources. The lips, as Anpu, are the point where the breath of life (the ka) is shaped into words of power.

In the context of the Perfected Man, the lips are the final instrument of the creative word. The jackal-headed god, normally associated with mummification and the underworld, is here transformed into a symbol of articulate speech—the power to name, to invoke, and to command. This reflects the Egyptian belief that the spoken word had direct magical efficacy, and that the lips of the priest or magician were the vessel of divine utterance.

In Liber 777

In the table at Path 12, Anpu—the Lips appears as the microcosmic attribution for the Perfected Man, corresponding to the Mercurial path of Beth. The lips are the physical seat of the god Anubis, the jackal-headed guardian of the threshold, who here becomes the organ of speech and magical utterance.