A prominent campaigner for the causes of socialism, women’s rights, universal education, Irish and Indian nationalism, and Theosophy, the legacy of Annie Besant (1847–1933) continues to be felt across the modern histories of alternative religion, postcolonial politics, and vanguard art. C.W. Leadbeater (1854–1934) was a clairvoyant who dedicated his life to Theosophy after having left his position as a church clergyman and traveled with Helena Blavatsky to India, where he would later discover the young J. Krishnamurti on the Adyar beach.
First published in London in 1901, Thought-Forms illustrates the principle that ideas are objects with distinct patterns and shapes. Through their mastery of clairvoyance, Besant and Leadbeater were able to observe the influence on this “subtle spirit-matter” of factors including music, emotion, and color. They described what they saw to a small team of artists, who created 58 color illustrations of positive and negative thought-forms.
The slim book would inspire artists including Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee, and Hilma af Klint—who also attended lectures by Besant—and represents a landmark in the history of the spiritual in modern art.
