Jane Lead (; March 1624 – 19 August 1704) was a Christian mystic born in Norfolk,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, whose spiritual visions, recorded in a series of publications, were central in the founding and philosophy of the

Philadelphian Society Philadelphian is most commonly used to describe someone who is from (or a resident of) the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. * List of people from Philadelphia "Philadelphian" may also refer to: * Old Philadelphians, members of the First Fami ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

at the time.

Early life

Jane Ward was born in about February or March 1624, the twelfth and youngest child of Hamond Ward, a rich landed gentleman, of Letheringsett Hall, and his wife Mary Calthorpe, a daughter of Sir James Calthorpe of Cockthorpe. She was christened on 9 March 1624 at St Andrew‘s Church,

Letheringsett Letheringsett with Glandford is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It includes the village of Letheringsett, along with the hamlet of Glandford. The village straddles the A148 King’s Lynn to Cromer road. Letheringsett is 1.2 miles ...

, Norfolk.Michael Martin, Literature and the Encounter with God in Post-Reformation England (2016), p. 156 She had a comfortable upbringing in a prosperous family. At the age of fifteen, during a family Christmas party she was gripped by a “sudden grievous sorrow” claimed to have heard an

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inc ...

ic whisper urging her "Cease from this, I have another Dance to lead thee in; for this is Vanity". Although she vowed to do so, the next phase of her life was outwardly conventional. On a date unknown but between 15 June and 14 July 1644, Jane Ward married William Lead, a merchant and distant cousin, with a marriage portion from her father of £240 (). From 1647 to 1657, and perhaps longer, the couple lived together in Kings Lynn, where William was a freeman of the borough. The marriage was happy, lasted 27 years, and they had four daughters. The marriage was extremely stable, but when William died in 1671 she was left utterly bereft and penniless in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

. It was at this time, however, that she had her first vision of the " Virgin Sophia", the Feminine Aspect of God which is described in the

Book of Proverbs The Book of Proverbs ( he, מִשְלֵי, , "Proverbs (of Solomon)") is a book in the third section (called Ketuvim) of the Hebrew Bible and a book of the Christian Old Testament. When translated into Greek and Latin, the title took on differ ...

in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

, who promised to unfold the secrets of the universe to her. Lead declared herself a ' Bride of Christ' and proceeded to transcribe her subsequent visions in much the same way as her predecessor, Hildegard of Bingen. Her final output amounted to many volumes of visionary

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

The Philadelphian Society

In 1663 Jane Lead met John Pordage, a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

who had been ejected from his

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

in 1655 but reinstated in 1660 during the

English Restoration The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to ...

. In 1668, Lead joined a small English Behmenist group led by Pordage Lead remained in this group after her husband's death in 1670, and this was when she began keeping her spiritual diary, which would later be published as '' A Fountain of Gardens''. Left nearly destitute after the death of her husband, Lead joined the Pordage household in 1674 and remained there until his death in 1681. Lead assumed leadership of this group after Pordage's death, and in 1694, the group became known as the Philadelphian Society For The Advancement Of Piety And Divine Philosophy (the Philadelphians). Lead's writings and visions formed the core of the group's spiritual goals and ideas. They rejected the idea of being a church, preferring the term society, and none of the members ceased their memberships in existing churches. Together, the group held views that were somewhat similar to Panentheism, regarding the belief in the presence of

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

in all things, and with a Nondualist component, in that they also believed the presence of the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts ...

exists in each and everyone's

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '':wikt:soul, soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The ea ...

, and that one can become enlightened and illuminated by living a virtuous life and seeking truth through the wisdom of God. The movement flourished until the early 18th century when, with Lead's death in 1704, its membership began to dwindle. It was briefly revived in 1706 when they held meetings with the French

Camisard Camisards were Huguenots (French Protestants) of the rugged and isolated Cévennes region and the neighbouring Vaunage in southern France. In the early 1700s, they raised a resistance against the persecutions which followed Louis XIV's Revocation ...

s, and then faded into obscurity. Nevertheless, it had converts in Europe and America. Lead's spiritual and literary legacy can be found in Radical German Pietism, particularly in the Moravians under Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, in German Romanticism, and in the works of

Emanuel Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758). Swedenborg had ...

, William Law and William Blake. Although no longer officially a functioning group, many of the Philadelphian Society's views and writings, particularly those by Jane Lead, remained influential among certain groups of Behmenists, Pietists, Radical Pietists, Christian mystics, and Esoteric Christians, such as the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness (led by Johannes Kelpius), the Ephrata Cloister, and the Harmony Society, among others.

The vision

Lead's spiritual vision, although very much her own, was similar to that of Jakob Böhme (1575–1624), whose writings influenced John Pordage, the founder of the group which would become the

under Lead's leadership. Like other female Christian mystics, for example Julian of Norwich,

Margery Kemp ' Margery Kempe ( – after 1438) was an English Christian mystic, known for writing through dictation ''The Book of Margery Kempe'', a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. Her book chronicles Kempe's d ...

and Hildegard von Bingen, Lead's spirituality has a strong feminine element, the

Sophia Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek. It may refer to: *Sophia (wisdom) *Sophia (Gnosticism) *Sophia (given name) Places *Niulakita or Sophia, an island of Tuvalu *Sophia, Georgetown, a ward of Georgetown, Guyana *Sophia, North Carolina, an unincorpor ...

, or Wisdom of God, being a recurring subject in her writing. Her writings cover many of the Christian mysteries: the nature of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religi ...

, the redemption of Man through a return to the Godhead, the existence of the

, the

Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...

and the possibility of Ascension. The scope of her work has drawn comparisons with Cabala,

Gnosticism Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Judaism, Jewish and Early Christianity, early Christian sects. These ...

Alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world ...

and Rosicrucianism in her belief in the presence of God in all things ( Panentheism) and the existence of the

in each soul ( Nondualism). Around 1694, she became a Christian Universalist, rejecting the "Doctrine that hath been preached of an endless Misery and Torment" which had "wrought little effect in frightening or terrifying 'em from their evil Courses." She believed that punishment after death was purgative, not punitive.

Works

She published: ''The Works of Jane Leade'', On-Line Manuscripts
/ref> :1. ''The Heavenly Cloud now Breaking: The Lord Christ's Ascension Ladder sent down; To shew the way to reach the Ascension and Glorification, through the Death and Resurrection'', 1681 :2. ''The Revelation of Revelations: Particularly as an Essay Towards the Unsealing, Opening and Discovering the Seven Seals, the Seven Thunders, the New Jerusalem State, the Twelve Gates and the Magical Eye. The which have not hitherto so far been brought forth to light (except to the Spiritual Discerner) to any degree of Satisfaction, as to the understanding of the grand Mystery'', 1683 :3. ''The Enochian Walks with God: Found out by a Spiritual Traveller, Whose Face Towards Mount-Sion Above was Set; with an Experimental Account of What was Known, Seen and Met withal There. [A Revelation of the Immense and Infinite Latitude of God's Love, to the Restoring of his Whole Creation, and How, and after what Way and Manner we are to Look, and wait for this Last Appearance, and Coming of our Mighty God, and Saviour Christ Jesus.]'', 1694 :4. ''The Laws of Paradise: given forth by Wisdom to a Translated Spirit [God reveals further the requirements for those of the High calling of the Nazarites who shall have access to Paradise while still within their mortal bodies.]'', 1695 :5. ''The Wonders of God's Creation: Manifested in the Variety of Eight Worlds; As they were made known Experimentally to the Author. Manifestation Concerning the Eight Worlds or Regions, Allotted to Human Souls; According to their several Degrees of Ascent or Descent.', 1695 :6. ''A Message to the Philadelphian Society: Whithersoever dispersed over the whole Earth. Together with a Call to the Several Gathered Churches among Protestants in this Nation of England'', 1696 :7. ''A Second Message to the Philadelphian Society: A further Manifestation Concerning the Virgin Philadelphian Church: Given upon New Year's Day in this Present Year MDCXCVI. Being A Second message to the Philadelphian Society, and a Touchstone to the Gathered Churches'', 1696 :8. ''The Tree of Faith: or The Tree of Life, Springing up in the Paradise of God from which All the Wonders of the New Creation, in the Virgin Church of the First-born of Wisdom must proceed'', 1696 :9. ''The Ark of Faith: or A supplement to the Tree of Faith, &c. for the Further Confirmation of the same. Together with A Discovery of the New World'', 1696 :10. ''A Fountain of Gardens:Volume I (Jane Lead's revealing personal Journal of Spiritual Encounters during the years from 1670-1676) Watered by the Rivers of Divine Pleasure, and Springing up in all the Variety of Spiritual Plants; Blown up by the Pure Breath into a Paradise. Sending forth their Sweet Savours, and Strong Odours, for Soul Refreshing'', 1696 :11. ''A Revelation of the Everlasting Gospel Message: Which Shall Never Cease to Be Preach'd Till the Hour of Christ's Eternal Judgment Shall Come; Whereby will be Proclaim'd the Last-Love Jubilee, in order to the Restitution of the Whole Lapsed Creation, Whether Human or Angelical. When by the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant, all Prisoners shall be set free'', 1697 :12. ''A Fountain of Gardens: Volume II Being a Continuation of the Process of a Life according to Faith, of the Divinely Magical Knowledge, and of the New Creation. In Mutual Entertainments Betwixt The Essential Wisdom, and the Soul in her Progress through Paradise, to Mount Sion, and to the New Jerusalem. (Jane Lead's Journal from 1677)'', 1697 :13. ''The Messenger of An Universal Peace: A Third Message to the Philadelphian Society including "The Marks of a True Philadelphian"'', 1698 :14. ''The Ascent to the Mount of Vision: Where many Things were shewn, concerning; I. The First Resurrection; II. The State of Separated Souls; III. The Patriarchal Life; IV. The Kingdom of Christ: With an Account of the Approaching Blessed State of this Nation'', 1699 :15. ''The Signs of the Times: Forerunning the Kingdom of Christ and Evidencing when it is Come'', 1699 :16. ''The Wars of David and the Peaceable Reign of Solomon: symbolizing the Signs of the Times of Warfare and Refreshment of the Saints of the Most High God to whom a Priestly Kingdom is shortly to be given, after the Order of Melchezideck—consisting of two Treatises entitled: An Alarm to the Holy Warriours to Fight the Battels of the LAMB. The Glory of Sharon in the Renovation of Nature'', 1700 :17. ''A Fountain of Gardens: Volume III: Part ONE (Jane Lead's Journal from 1678) A Spiritual Diary of the Wonderful Experiences of a Christian Soul, under the Conduct of the Heavenly Wisdom'', 1700 :18. ''A Fountain of Gardens: Volume III: Part TWO (Jane Lead's Journal from 1679 to 1686) A Spiritual Diary of the Wonderful Experiences of a Christian Soul, under the Conduct of the Heavenly Wisdom; Continued from the Year 1679, to the Middle of the Year 1686 (The Last Volume of her Journal)'', 1701 :19. ''A Living Funeral Testimony: or Death Overcome, and Drown'd, in the Life of Christ. With a Further Description of the Various States of Separated Souls, as to what they may expect will ensue after Death, whether in Christ or out of Christ'', 1702 Other works: :20. ''Sixty Propositions from which was drawn the 1679 Prophecy'' (Edited and Extracted from, ''A Message to the Philadelphian Society: Whithersoever dispersed over the whole Earth'', 1697)

References

External links