I was so happy to know that truth. Massey tells us the truth on the racial origin of the humanity, when he told to the pagge 29-30, that the white was a creation of the black people so-called egyptians. Now, I'am free of all complex, I'am free because Massey with the book of the beginnings, gave me the freedom. Thank you Massey, one black people of the louisiane. (01/02/2000) timec@caramail.com

Everyone who is interested in Gerald Massey and his writings must read this book!! Gerald Massey sought to inform the masses about the evolution of the human mind through varioius archetypes (a term that Mr. Massey uses well before Carl Jung) and symbols. Mr. Massey's service to mankind is as valuable as Charles Darwin's was but because his research is so revolutionary in it's effects that traditional academia still can't embrace what Mr. Massey discovered. Mr. Shaw's book helps the student of Mr. Massey's research to better understand what helped to shape Gerald Massey's views and opinions.

The Historical Jesus and Mythical christ is actually a book about the true orgins of Judea- chritianity coming out of the Egyptian mystery systems. The book actually has two parts, the first part of the book deals with the historical acounts jesus christ, the second part deals with the mythical accounts of jesus, using ancient text such as the "Egyptian Book of the Dead" and the "Babylon Talmud" as well as others, the book is must for all who seek the ture origins of Judaism/Chritianity.

Massey is always very adamant and almost ruthless in approach. That is NOT why I think this is an excellent book, though. Using his immense skill as an Egyptologist, Massey shows us incredible links to the Jesus story. Like other books I have read on paganism, the linkage is unignorable. One must read this to gain a perspective on the links between ancient religions and Christianity.

Gerald Massey is 'the' most under read "seer"/researcher dealing with history, religion, typology,... I mean what doesn't he deal with directly or indirectly?

If you are trying to find the reason or essense of cultural/religious/societal practices then this two volume set is a must. Massey does for History & Understanding what Athur Young does for science (The Reflexive Universe), he makes the developement of Kemit accessible and understandable.

The writings of Gerald Massey will probably be the most dense material you have read in your life! Sometimes what he covers in one page another author would have taken 10. The book is the 2nd of 3 main books (6vols) and in my opinion should be read first! I read "Light of the World" first and understood it (I thought). When I read Natural Genesis and reread the others...they all opened up and revealed way more insight.

Lastly, I think for the establishment of the time Massey would presently be akin to a (more radical) Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn...along the religio-socio-historical side. Hope that helps some.

Spending several years doing research on Ancient Egyptian religion and philosophy for fun I've come in contact with several different treatments of the topic of Ancient Egypt. I'm looking for something with a little more historical value, and have been directed toward this work. I'm speaking of "The Natural Genesis/Book One and the Natural Genesis/Book 2 by Gerald Massey. I understand the book is out of print at this point, but I would like very much if a copy should become available to be notified. Thank you....Cordially....Julie Stout

This is a good collection of essays by the early Egyptologist Gerald Massey. Much of it deals with the more negative aspects of Christianity, particularly its effects on the poor, and it's ties with Egyptology. Personaly, I've always felt that the Horus/Jesus connection was somewhat of a stretch, but this is balanced out by some commentary that's worth reading, even if you don't agree with it.

This book is a distillation of Massey's ideas.It is a good introduction, as his main works such as "Ancient Egypt, the Light of the World", are massive tomes.Massey was a pioneer in giving a coherent interpretation of ancient mythology.He shows how the teachings of Christianity originated in ancient Egypt.Horus, the Egyptian saviour,was the prototype for Christ.He shows how the story of Christ is a retelling of the story of Horus.The parallels are so obvious once they have been explained.Massey relates how many of the alleged sayings of Christ first appeared in other places such as the Talmud, and ancient Egypt.The works of Massey go a long way in explaining the true origins of Christianity.

I am currently rereading this near masterpiece of esoteric, and anthropoligical look at Egyptology and ancient Egyptian civilization- and its legacy. It gets better and better everytime.

Gerald Massey is much like Freud, a man whose herculean intellect combined with his revolutionary discoveries (and in Freud's case obvious character flaws) make people long after him debate his relevance in the intellectual world he himself created (kind of like debating the existence of Frank Lloyd Wright's art in the Guggenheim Museum). What stops this book from being a five star epic is simply his tendency to ramble, creating a labyrinthian world of insight and ideas that can confuse the reader. Yet his work is so meaningful, and so provocative, that it is has only been in the last few years, with the advent of Mega-book outlets like Amazon.com, that his books were available outside of the occult or Afrocentric bookstore.

Gerald Massey was not an "Afrocentric" as we have come to know the term today- which is now seen as pejorative. That is what makes him all the more important. In fact, one major reason that his work has been written off for most of this century, is that his logical deductions, gathered from the variety of disciplines that work so logically together, fly in the face of conventional scholarly wisdom without an obvious thing for him to gain from it in the form of reputation or finances. His work reifies the linguistic, astronomical/religious, architectural and Darwinian/evolutionary perspectives to such a degree that devout Christians and Greco/Roman cultural sepremacists should beware this book. It will shake the very foundations of your faith before giving you the space to reclaim it with a new point of view; particularly in his decoding of the origins of our comparitively modern religious beliefs and literary myths.

Like it or not, Gerald Massey was one of those authors that turn your mind upside down, like Alice's looking glass, to the point where you wonder what is the "real" ancient world, and its influence on the world after it- up to and including today. That alone makes him profoundly successful as an historian/Egyptological anthropologist, with something great to offer all of us.

You will be surprised at how meaningful his perspectives will become to you, over and over again.

Gerald Massey (1829-1907)had humble origins: his father was aboatman on the canals of England.Gerald had to work long hours in afactory for a pittance before he was ten years old.But he had a strong urge to learn and through self education he became a well known poet.( To me much of his poetry is stilted, but now and then certain phrases reveal inspiring poetic imagination.)He became interested in ancient Egypt and learnt hieroglyphics.His magnum opus is this work, a pioneering study of the mythology of ancient Egypt, truly the light of the world.Massey shows how this mythology is related to natural and celestial phenomena.He is very convincing when he explains how the Christian mythos is based on that of ancient Egypt.The original Christ was Horus, and he gives 180 parallels between the lives of Horus and Christ.An open minded reading of this book will leave little doubt that the Christian Christ was based on Horus.He throws much light on THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD ( better called THE BOOK OF COMING FORTH BY DAY).He calls it THE RITUAL. As enlightening as he is,I find that Massey omits to consider the inner aspects of religion.He fails to see that the Egyptian mythos is primarily concerned with the spiritual development of man, and it uses outward Nature to symbolise inner spiritual evolution.This is explained by Alvin Kuhn in THE LOST LIGHT, who is indebted to Massey, but takes his ideas further into the spiritual and soul aspects.All in all, ANCIENT EGYPT, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD is a unique and fascinating book.Most books written about ancient Egypt are way off beam, but this book puts you on the right track.It is a must read in order to start to understand the ancient Egyptian mythos.

Broken mirrors, 7 revolutions of bad luck, is all the wisdom of this world. "As above, SO below", nuance on the so is crucial to understanding, the difference involves levity & gravity. Here in Masseys book much is still presented in its leaden carapace as has fooled the world, but it is the best glimpse to be had of the secret evolution, rarely to be found in books. Then I recommend Budges "The Gods of Egypt", & "The Egyptian Heaven & Hell" as Piankoff's "The Tomb of Ramesses VI" is out of print. "The Hermetic Museum" ed. A.E. Waite & "Teachings of Padmasambhava" trans. Herbert Guenther are later flowers of all this, that is; if you really want to live the legend.

This book is filled with information and analyis of The Book of the Dead. Perfect for anyone interested in the subject. I can't give it five stars though, as it was not quite as good as "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" by Wallis Budge. Overall a great introduction to ancient Egyptian beliefs about death and the afterlife. Highly recommended