Thought Forms (book)

Thought Forms was a book written by Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater in 1901 on the titular subject of Thought-Forms.

Writing of the book

The genesis of the book was an article by Annie Besant printed in the September, 1896 issue of Lucifer. These are the original illustrations from that article:

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Charles Leadbeater worked with Annie Besant to develop this concept further, describing their clairvoyant observations to painters to produce the images for the 1901 book. The illustrations were painted by "Mr. John Varley [1850-99, grandson of John Varley], Mr. Prince and Miss Macfarlane."

Digital versions

• The illustrations from the 1905 Benares edition is available at Fulltable.

Influence on art

Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee, and other artists were heavily influenced by this book.

The Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts held a 3-day workshop with lectures by Richard Flores and Kevin Wallace on April 12-14, 2013:

This three-day workshop is based upon Thought Forms, the 1901 book by Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater that inspired Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee and countless other artists. Participants will explore the ideas that pre-date and inspired abstract painting through insights into the processes of seeing and recording impressions in form and color.

Inverted image from Thought Forms band website

Popular usage of the term

Thought Forms is also the name of a 3-piece band from Wiltshire, England, with albums released on Invada Records. An illustration from the book appears, inverted, on their website.

Additional resources

• Lachman, Gary. “Kandinsky's Thought Forms and the Occult Roots of Modern Art.” Quest 96.2 (March-April, 2008): 57-61.