Vague Pure Affection and Vague Selfish Affection
Two contrasting forms of affection in the authors’ symbolic language of colour.
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Thought-Forms
Love appears as a rose-coloured cloud. Anger becomes a jagged flash of red. Music rises into strange, towering shapes that its listeners would never have imagined seeing.
Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater claimed that thoughts and emotions created forms visible to clairvoyant observers. Their extraordinary colour plates translate that theory into a visual language of moods, prayers and musical sound. The images are expressions of Theosophical belief, not scientific photographs of the mind. They remain among the most memorable pictures in the history of esoteric art.
- Scanned pages
- 67
- Illustrations
- 26
- Edition
- 1905
- Key theme
- Visual imagination
Illustrations from the book
Explore all 26 illustrationsPeace and Protection and Definite Affection
A wing-like form of protection, paired with a concentrated rose-coloured oval.
Vague Religious Feeling and Self-Renunciation
A drifting blue cloud and a flower-like form named Self-Renunciation.
Upward Rush of Devotion and Response to Devotion
Upward devotion and the response the authors imagined it might evoke.
Start with these pages
A few ways into the original book.
Scan page 7
Introduction
The authors introduce their approach to thought and the unseen world.
Scan page 33
Inquiry and anger
Contrasting forms of enquiry and explosive anger.
Scan page 29
Devotion
Religious feeling and its imagined response.
Explore the contents 1905 edition
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Codex
Thought-forms
The coloured shapes that Besant and Leadbeater describe as expressions of thought and feeling.
CodexHelpful Thoughts
The practice of directing supportive thought toward another person, as described and illustrated in Thought-Forms.
CodexTheosophy in Thought-Forms
The spiritual and symbolic framework through which Besant and Leadbeater interpret thought, moral responsibility and cosmic order.
Practice · 6–10 minutesShape a guardian thought-form
Picture a rose-coloured wing-form with a yellow heart, carrying a wish for a loved one’s peace.
About this edition 1905
- Authors
- Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater
- Published
- Theosophical Publishing Society · 1905
- Reading edition
- 67 scanned pages, presented as an original facsimile.