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Annie Besant Thought Forms - Project Gutenberg etext 16269

Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen

Original file
allegoryPublic domain

Devotional Thought-Form

Annie Besant Thought Forms - Project Gutenberg etext 16269

John Varley

2006-03-06 14:14:16

About This Work

The image features a large, ethereal mass of color hovering over a landscape containing a small, dark building that resembles a cathedral. The mass is structured like a mountain, with a bright yellow exterior halo, a central red spire-like shape, and bands of green, blue, and pink containing intricate, vein-like white lines. The color palette is pastel-toned in the background, transitioning into more saturated reds and blues in the center. The lower landscape is rendered in muted, dusky blues and greens, showing a path leading toward the building.

This image is a plate from the 1905 Theosophical treatise 'Thought-Forms' by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, which attempted to visualize human emotions and spiritual states as psychic phenomena. It illustrates the Theosophical doctrine that intense religious devotion generates objective, radiant shapes in the astral plane.

auracathedral51F11P31225A27

Inscriptions

W

Connected Texts

Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, 'Thought-Forms' (1905)

The image is a primary plate illustrating the theories proposed in this text.

Provenance & Source

Object

TechniqueAI

lithography

SupportAI

paper

PeriodAI

Early 20th century

CultureAI

Theosophical Society

GenreAI

allegory

Digital Source

Source

Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Original Resolution

520 × 775 px

Linked Data

AATlithographyAIAAT StyleTheosophical artAI

AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview on April 19, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.

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