THEOSOPHICAL
BOOKS AND COLOUR
The Theosophical Movement, absurd and politically suspect as it was, nevertheless
inspired many artists and designers with its visual manifestations of
spirituality. Among those who took the plates in Thought Forms
and Man Visible and Invisible directly into their works
included Kandinsky and Mondrian, but also the influential Czech painter
Frank Kupka and Edvard Munch.
THOUGHT FORMS
plates
from Besant and Leadbeater, Thought Forms, John Lane London 1905, "In
the coloured drawings appended... [the] yellow forms accompanied the
endeavour to communicate intellectual fortitude, or mental strength
and courage."
The images
from above from Thought Forms were also published in
BIBBY's ANNUAL for 1917 in an article by Clara M.Codd
entitled "The Power of Thought", from which they reached a
large public.
MAN VISIBLE
AND INVISIBLE
C.W.Leadbeater, Man Visible and Invisible, Theosophical
Publishing House, London 1902 (one plate only - bottom right). An attempt
to render the coloured auras surrounding the human body - here the astral
body. "This indicates that the man has his desires thoroughly under
the control of the mind..." Fine as far as it went but when the author
started making unfavourable contrasts with men of "lesser races",
he reveals a most unpleasant racism.
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