The two primary elements were those of darkness and light: Sut was the
power of darkness, Horus the power of light. In one representation the
two elements were imaged by means of the black bird of Sut and the white
bird, or golden hawk, of Horus. Thus we can identify two elemental
powers, as old as night and day, which are primeval in universal
mythology; and these two powers, or animistic souls, were divinized as
the two gods Sut and Horus with the two birds of darkness and light, the
black vulture and the gold hawk depicted back to back as their two
representative types or personal totems. --from "Elemental and Ancestral
Spirits, or The Gods and the Glorified" It goes unappreciated by modern
Egyptologists, but it is embraced by those who savor the concept of a
"hidden history" of humanity, and those who approach all human knowledge
from the perspective of the esoteric. Gerard Massey's massive Ancient
Egypt: The Light of the World--first published in 1907 and the crowning
achievement of the self-taught scholar--redefines the roots of
Christianity via Egypt, proposing that Egyptian mythology was the basis
for Jewish and Christian beliefs. Here, Cosimo proudly presents Book 3
of Ancient Egypt, in which Massey explains how the original elemental
spirits of early humans were transformed into deities, and how the
concept of a "soul" developed from animalistic representations of
natural forces. Peculiar and profound, this work will intrigue and
delight readers of history, religion, and mythology. British author
GERALD MASSEY (1828-1907) published works of poetry, spiritualism,
Shakespearean criticism, and theology, but his best-known works are in
the realm of Egyptology, including A Book of the Beginnings and The
Natural Genesis.
