ื ONLINE SINCE OCTOBER 2007 ุ

Launched to coincide with the centenary of Gerald Massey's death in October 1907, this site is dedicated to all three of his major expository works, as well as his classic minor masterpiece, The Lectures.

If this is your first visit to Masseiana, then you are welcome and we hope you find what you are looking for. Enjoy. If you are a regular visitor then you will be pleased to learn that the first stage of our project has been completed, well, almost.

It is now a hundred and two years since Gerald Massey died (29th Oct. 1907). Yet his popularity continues apace, if not growing stronger, thanks to the global medium of the internet. More and more people are tuning in to what he was really saying, and many of his theories have been backed up and scientifically proven. Some, admittedly, no longer stand the test of time, and these are the ones constituting his more speculative approach. They therefore are hardly capable of provability and can now be seen as perhaps holding little weight. Yet his major theories are slowly gaining ground, and with it also a growing belief that Massey was perfectly correct in his assumption that the doctrines of Christianity have their basis in the astrotheology of ancient Egypt, a fact not ignored by some eminent Egyptologists of his day, as well as noted authorities of today.

Over the century since his death many scholars and lay theorists have borrowed extensively from his voluminous works and have drawn their own conclusions, most of them stemming back to Massey's original proposals. Whether or not Massey was the first to propose the idea of Christianity being based on Egyptian beliefs is of little consequence. There are many authorities anterior to him, and he can be seen as following upon their heels. What is important, though, is that he was the first to systematically analyse the data and endeavour to correlate it into a comprehensive whole and back up his theories with an extensive amount of research that took up the latter part of his life. He was determined to prove that his assumptions were correct and he refused to allow any impediments to his own understanding of the primary sources to interfere with the expounding of his own findings. He attempted to back up all his research in such a thorough way, covering all angles, that no stone was left unturned, no gaps would be left gaping wide for dissenters to ridicule, mock, and thereby bring his work into disrepute.

And for those who are new to his work, the sheer bulk of it may be off-putting to a large majority of visitors to this site, especially those used to dealing with short texts and likewise having short attention spans. For some, the amount of reading required to fathom all his work may appear daunting. This is perfectly natural, and this site does not propose to edit his work into a sizable format that can be chewed over in digestible morsels. What we have endeavoured to do here, however, is to bring his work into focus, and support his research by providing full references and source material, making it self-contained and easily accessible.

Over the last two years since the inauguration of this site we have uploaded a vast amount of material and presently stand as one of the best devoted to Massey and his works. And for those interested in facts & figures, this site can now be briefly summed up roughly as follows: It contains all three of his major expository works, and his lectures, revised; 12,000 references;* 2,200 titles in the bibliography; 36 major works used by Massey; over 70 minor ones; 3 translations of the Egyptian Book of the Dead; 6 essays by the editor; over 400 illustrations, with many more to be added.

It has been a long journey. We believe that the time and effort has been worth it, particularly since Massey, who was way ahead of his time, is now enjoying a revival and is more relevant today than ever before. The surprisingly large amount of visitors to this site in the last couple of years alone has proved this to be the case.

We have received many positive responses and appraisals from all over the world. It is nice to know that some appreciate our effort and are eternally grateful that such a gargantuan task we set ourselves—what seems like millennia ago—has not fallen upon their shoulders. We have also, unsurprisingly, received harsh criticism for our disdain and negative views of Massey's lack of scholarship. We accept that such criticism may appear unfair to those unfamiliar to his works, or to those who believe that the truth of his statements far outweigh the scant information he provides for his references. It is easy for outsiders who have not delved deeper into his background material to remain objective, but as this project has taken up considerable time—and without remuneration of any kind—that valuable time has been expended into ferreting out every single reference, every illustration, every source, to produce a comprehensive work, a world within a world. Such a close approach over a prolonged period does, ultimately, tend to shorten one's patience, especially upon finding afterwards much time has been wasted chasing up the wrong source which could have otherwise been put to better use. There is no need to recapitulate what has been said elsewhere within these pages, we hope that the sheer amount of work visibly evident here will to some extent justify our opinion.

Lastly, we would like to thank all those who have supported this site and provided hints for improvements. We appreciate your helpful insights.

Jon Lange,
Editor,
Oct. 2009.

* There are more references still to be added. We are now in possession of a greater amount of source material so will complete the reference pages to all the volumes by the end of the year, if possible, and overhaul the whole site early next year. We will continue to expand on Massey's writings by uploading more source material when it becomes available. So please do keep checking us out.

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RECENT UPDATES

(AS OF JAN. '10)

In accordance with our scheduled goal, the basic refs. to the Masseian Corpus have now been finished. Admittedly, the easiest ones have been attempted first. Those in languages other than English, particularly Greek and Latin, have yet to be properly referenced, but will be in due course. And those texts which are not in our possession will hopefully be tracked down and added to complete the final stage of our efforts to endorse Massey's work as well as backing up his research.

The refs. to Massey's published Lectures have been completed and tidied up. Wilson's translation of the Vishnu Purana has been added this month, and other minor texts which will be found throughout the refs. More will be added in the future.

We are now taking a short sabbatical and will resume our work on this site in early April 2010. To all those who have been regularly visiting and singing our praises we thank you and wish you all a Happy New Year.

(AS OF DEC. '09)

The ref. pages to The Natural Genesis have been expanded with more refs. A bibliographical error was noted in book 12 which has now been corrected. Grey's Polynesian Mythology has been added this month. And a few minor texts that can be found in the ref. pages, and in the Bibliography, which again has been updated.

We are now concentrating on the refs. to Massey's published Lectures. We anticipate them to be completed by the end of this year.

(AS OF NOV. '09)

The ref. pages to Ancient Egypt, The Light of the World have now been completed with the source material available. There are only a few omissions which will be amended next year. Also, the extant refs. have been tidied up as well.

No major works have been uploaded this month. However, over twenty minor works have been added, and will be found linked in the relevant pages, and also in the Bibliography. The latter, too, has once again been revised.

(AS OF OCT. '09)

Added this month is Duke's The Druidical Temples of the County of Wilts, another work Massey has clearly borrowed from and augmented into his writings, Renouf's translation of the Book of the Dead, and Gill's Myths and Songs of the South Pacific. Many more minor texts have been added and links for those can be found throughout the refs and in the Bibliography. The latter has once again been updated, more links added, and more titles. The refs to A Book of the Beginnings have now been completed, although, as indicated above, there are still a few omissions. The pages to this work have also been amended and slight improvements made, so we recommend reading/downloading all the pages again.

As already noted above, over the next couple of months we will be working on the ref. pages to The Natural Genesis, Ancient Egypt, The Light of the World, and his Lectures, and will complete them as far as possible.

(AS OF SEPT. '09)

Added this month is Tylor's classic Researches into the Early History of Mankind, worth perusing to view how a proper, scholarly book should be presented. Meanwhile, work is still progressing on refs to A Book of the Beginnings.

(AS OF AUG. '09)

For the past few weeks we have been concentrating on increasing the amount of Massey's primary sources available on this site, and therefore have let other interests fall slightly by the wayside. So, added this month so far are Drummond's classic interpretation of biblical lore,  Oedipus Judaicus, the 1866 ed., the Celtic texts contained in both Davies' The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids, and the English translations in volume one of Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales. Due to this distraction we are now revising the completion of the refs to A Book of the Beginnings till late October.  Our apologies if you have been waiting for a long time.

As usual more titles and their availability online have been added to the Bibliography. Many thanks to those who have informed us of these.

(AS OF JULY '09)

Just added Brugsch's History of Egypt under the Pharaohs, the first edition. And Ellis' Polynesian Researches, the four-volume edition. As two missing volumes of the new series of Records of the Past recently came into our possession these have now been added to complete the set. Also, this has given us an opportunity to go through all the volumes of the first and second series, a chance to improve on the texts as well as eliminate minor errors. We are still in the process of updating the refs to A Book of the Beginnings. Our projected schedule should be September of this year.

(AS OF JUNE '09)

The pages of A Book of the Beginnings have been proof-read once again, minor errors eliminated and the text improved. The refs to this work will now be sourced and added where possible. We hope to complete this task by the end of the summer. Also, more texts will be added in due course.

(AS OF MAY '09)

We have at long last completed another stage of the refs to The Natural Genesis. Although there are a few still unobtainable, most of the works Massey refers to have been sourced and the quotations double-checked and, where possible, added. Approximately only 10% of the refs still remain unsourced. The pages to The Natural Genesis have also been double-checked, and a few more minor errors eliminated.

No major texts have been added this time, but many minor texts have and will be found throughout the refs. Many images and illustrations have also been added.

The Bibliography has once again been amended and updated, a few titles added, and the same with the Bibliographical Index. Many more titles have been found to be available online. Links to these have also been added also.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support, and please bear with us patiently as we endeavour to bring you the most resourceful site dedicated to |Massey and his works.

(AS OF FEB. '09)

After a brief respite in our work schedule, we are now back on track. The refs to Massey's Lectures, bar a small percentage, have been added. The Bibliography has been amended again.

The pages of The Natural Genesis have been proof-read once again and minor errors eliminated. We are now concentrating on finishing the refs to this work and hope to complete this task by the end of Spring 2009, plus adding other relevant texts and images.

Recently added: Pliny's Natural History, Flowers appraisal of Massey, Gerald Massey: Poet, Prophet and Mystic, Steinthal's The Legend of Samson, Lucian's Syrian Goddess, De Quincy's essay on The Essenes, West's translations of the Pahlavi Texts (Bundahish, Selections of Zad-Sparam, Bahman Yasht, Shayast La-Shayast), Robert Taylor's Diegesis. Other minor texts will be found throughout the refs.

(AS OF DEC. '08)

More refs to Ancient Egypt, the Light if the World have been added, and are almost complete, minus a few that are at present unobtainable. The refs to the various editions of the Book of the Dead (aka, The Ritual) will be added at a later date. We will keep you posted on this.

The Bibliography has been amended.

We are now working on Massey's Lectures and hope to complete the refs to this work by the end of the year.

Newly added: The Papyrus of Ani, with text and reproduction of the colour plates, by Budge. Theal's Kaffir Folklore, Cory's Ancient Fragments, the 3rd edition used by Massey. (The 1st and 2nd editions may be added next year.) Williams' The Barddas, The Book of Enoch (translated by Laurence), The Divine Pymander (translated by Everard), Bleek's Reynard the Fox in South Africa, Rink's Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, as well as other minor texts that will be found throughout the refs.

(AS OF OCT. '08)

The text of Ancient Egypt, the Light if the World has been tidied up again as several errors were noticed, and some new illustrations added.

The Bibliography has been expanded with additional titles.

The texts of Records of the Past (first and second series) have been corrected and minor errors eliminated.

Newly added: Spencer & Gillen's The Natives Tribes of Central Australia, the complete text, minus illustrations; Mead's translation of Pistis Sophia, both the first and second edition versions as they differ considerably in their arrangement.

Contents of this Site:

Part One

  1. A Brief Introduction to the Works of Massey Presented Here
  2. Reasons for Amendments and Revisions
  3. Changes to the Texts

Part Two

A Book of the Beginnings (revised)

Part Three

The Natural Genesis (revised)

Part Four

Ancient Egypt, The Light of the World (revised)

Part Five

Massey's published Lectures (revised)

Part Six

Bibliography

Part Seven

Indices to Massey's Works

Note: There have been several requests since the launch of this site to include a comprehensive index to all of the Masseian corpus, making it easier for the interested reader to consult various lines of enquiry. As yet, time and energy does not permit such a project, but this is something that will be considered in the future. The poor indexing to Massey's works, namely The Natural Genesis and Ancient Egypt, The Light of the World, which have been omitted here, are in desperate need of overhauling, with cross-referencing to his other books. That the planned project of including an index to his A Book of the Beginnings was dropped is proof enough that this could prove a very daunting task, and so far only the above indices are included—for the time being.

Part Eight

A Selection of Massey's Primary Source Material

A few words concerning the reasons for including other material not by Massey in this site.

It has always been the intention with this project to expand on Massey's works by including the material he read that would serve as a useful adjunct to his thinking, as well as providing background information to some of his sources. Hence, the name of this website is Masseiana. That is, everything to do with Massey and his works will be published here—eventually.

I have explained throughout my essays (see below) and elsewhere the relevance of certain works Massey himself considered to be worthy of study. One is Samuel Birch's translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Although antiquated and superseded by far superior modern renderings and translations, Massey was indebted to Birch and his translation, and could not fathom why it was buried deeply in Bunsen's monumental work, Egypt's Place in Universal History. He viewed it of primary importance in understanding the Egyptian gnosis and thought it should have been published separately. (In BB. See notes to part 2, p. 683). To adhere to his request this has now been done, and it serves as a benchmark to Massey's thinking.

Massey was also reliant on another antiquated work, Horapollo's Hieroglyphica. Again, I have stated elsewhere his utilisation of this short but important text, so it seemed useful to publish it here as another adjunct to Massey's thinking.

Also, perhaps not so often quoted as the previous two, Sellon's Annotations on the Sacred Writings of the Hindus I myself consider worthy of publication. Its merits (notwithstanding it flaws) far outweigh any decent scholarly work on the subject.

Also, much quoted is Plutarch's Of Isis and Osiris, a very important work in the Masseian canon, like Horapollo's. Dupuis' Origin of all Religious Worship I consider invaluable as it touches on many aspects of Massey's thinking, if not the book that formed the foundation for his beliefs, particularly regarding the Christ mythos, with Dupuis' radical statement, 'and finally that the Christians are indeed nothing else but worshippers of the Sun,' demonstrating that the life of Christ is nothing but an allegory of solar phenomena (see his discussion of whether Christ actually existed or not). It is well worth reading, and adds much weight to Massey's argument, and proves to be another work he has clearly borrowed from.

I also include here Volney's The Ruins, as, like Dupuis, it was instrumental in forming Massey's thinking, and well worth consulting. Hislop's The Two Babylons I have already discussed in my essay. Anyone approaching Massey's works for the first time should be steered in the direction of this important, but sadly often neglected, work. Its inclusion here also adds considerable weight to what I have said in my essay. And I suggest it should not be skipped over lightly.

Records of the Past, although old and antiquated, has been included here as Massey makes constant references to all the volumes, and relies on the translations therein. Also included is Rev. Robert Taylor's work on Christianity, Diegesis, as it is a very important work and well worth a read. Bearing in mind it was written in 1829, Taylor was in jail at the time due to his blasphemous remarks in another work, The Syntagma, for denouncing the personal, historical Christ, claiming that he never existed! Massey, although never imprisoned, too makes such a radical claim based on Taylor's research. Many of his ideas, I believe, stem from this work.

Other works Massey has consulted, forming part of his intellectual apparatus like those listed above, will be added when possible.

Part Nine

Essays by the Editor

  1. 'Borrowing or Plagiarism?'
    Being an account of Massey's misuse of his source material.
  2. 'Massey and Africa.'
    An analysis of Massey's view of the African origins of the human race and the reception of his work by modern Afrocentrists.
  3. 'Massey and his Critics.'
    Being a brief overview of Massey's work by his contemporaries and modern critics.
  4. 'Who came first? Massey or Hislop?'
    An examination of Massey's indebtedness to Hislop's book The Two Babylons (cached here), demonstrating how Massey borrowed from a book he never even mentions.
  5. 'Massey's Followers.'
    An overview of how certain authors have attempted to carry the Masseian method of typological interpretation to further conclusions.
  6. 'Reliability of Sources.'
    An examination of some of Massey's sources and whether they were reliable or not.

Note: The above selection of short essays were written a long time ago and are in desperate need of updating. They have been included to entice visitors to this site to contribute their own essays/articles on or about Massey and his work(s). So contributions are most welcome. They will be published here with full acknowledgement of authorship.

Part Ten

Appendices and other Material

'For myself, it is enough to know that in despite of many hindrances from straitened circumstances, chronic ailments, and the deepening shadows of encroaching age, my book is printed, and the subject-matter that I cared for most is now entrusted safely to the keeping of John Gutenberg, on this my nine-and-seventieth birthday.'

Gerald Massey,
South Norwood Hill,
29th May, 1907.

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This page last updated: 29/12/2009