Born over 160 years ago, Annie Besant was one of the world's great teachers and reformers. As a young woman, Besant joined both the National Secular Society and the Fabian Society and worked on the radical newspaper The National Reformer. In 1889, the Pall Mall Gazette asked Besant to review H P Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine, a task that proved a revelatory experience for the young activist, and led to her wholehearted acceptance of, and training in, Theosophical Doctrine. She became spiritual leader of the Theosophical Society on Madame Blavatsky's death in 1891. Besant was a prolific writer, and 'The Ancient Wisdom' covers a range of occult topics, including the seven-fold nature of humanity (the higher triad and the lower quaternary), human spiritual evolution, karma, reincarnation, the Law of Sacrifice and the various planes of existence. A book of great depth and spirituality, rightly deserving its status as a classic esoteric text.