THOUGHT-FORMS
Book Details + Condition: The Theosophical Publishing House (London). Second reprint, 1925. Scarce. Hardcover with pale green boards; gilt to front and spine. 84 pages, with color plates. By Theosophical stalwarts Charles W. Leadbeater (1847 – 1934) and Annie Besant (1847 – 1933). The book examines the forces that are said to comprise the human aura, and provide the vessel for clairvoyance, telepathy, and spiritual entity creation. The authors claimed that each thought produces a double effect - a radiating vibration and a floating form. Part of the text was originally published in the Theosophical journal "Lucifer". Besant and Leadbeater wrote at a time when the division between the upper class and the working class (mainly quite poor) – were distinct, due to centuries of unbalanced social and political power. With widespread poverty, intolerable working conditions and civil unrest, the authors envisaged a more democratic structure with the aid of humanity’s spiritual progress in the new millennium. By visualizing the impact of the outer world on the inner, it was hoped that the book would “serve as a striking moral lesson to every reader, making [them] realise the nature and power of [their] thoughts, acting as a stimulus to the noble, a curb on the base” [From the Introduction]. Included are 54 illustrations of these “thought-forms”, each accompanied by a short description along with a chart detailing the meaning of the individual colors used. Contents include:
- The Two Effects of Thought
- How the Vibration Acts
- The Form and Its Effect
- The Meaning of the Colours
- Three Classes of Thought-Forms
- Illustrative Thought-Forms
- Various Emotions
- Forms Seen in Meditation
- Helpful Thoughts
- Forms Built by Music
- And much more.
Firm binding; lightly rubbed corners and edges; darkening to spine, with the cloth wrinkled; Theosophical bookseller sticker to inside front board; light foxing and age-spotting to first and last few pages, with a few areas in the book; interior is clean and free of markings.
