The Ancient Wisdom
Annie Besant · 1897
5.0 · 9 ratings
About the book
Theosophy's clearest textbook: the planes from physical to nirvanic, reincarnation, karma and the ascent of man, laid out by the movement's greatest orator as one coherent map. Where Blavatsky is an ocean, Besant is a well-lit staircase.
Try the short course
Part 1 · One source under every religion. The first six slides, free.
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"Right thought is necessary to right conduct, right understanding to right living." That is the first sentence of the book, and it explains why a work about invisible planes, karma and the birth of universes opens with how people behave.
Besant is not offering a pretty cosmology to admire from a distance. Her bet is that what you believe the universe is quietly decides what you think a life is for, and so what you actually do on an ordinary afternoon. Get the map wrong, and the conduct drifts with it.
That is why she calls the Divine Wisdom, Brahma Vidya in Sanskrit and Theosophia in Greek, a philosophy, a religion and an ethic all at once. For her these are not three subjects. They are one subject seen from three sides.
Inside the course
16 parts- One wisdom under many religions — the book's premiseFree above
- The introduction, continued: the truths every tradition keeps
- The physical plane, and its unseen half
- The astral plane
Questions
Is The Ancient Wisdom free to read in Astra Trainer?
Yes. The full book opens free in the app’s reader, in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.
What is the short course?
16 short parts that walk through the book’s key ideas in slides, each with a quick quiz. The first six slides are free to try on this page.
Where do I get the app?
Astra Trainer is free on the App Store and Google Play. The Ancient Wisdom is waiting in the app’s library.
