Jane Leade

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Jane Leade (1624-1704) was a Christian Mystic born in Norfolk, England. Her spiritual visions, recorded in a series of publications, were central in the founding and philosophy of the Philadelphia Society in London at the time.

1 Early Life
2 The Philadelphia Society
3 The Vision
4 See also

[edit] Early Life

Jane Leade came from a well-off family and had a comfortable upbringing. At the age of 15 she claimed to have a had a vision during a wedding in which an angelic voice urged her to give up such frivolity and pursue spiritual matters. Although she vowed to do so the next phase of her life was outwardly conventional.She was married happily to a distant cousin, a merchant, and had four daughters by him. Their 27 year marriage was extremely stable but when he died she was left utterly bereft and peniless in London.

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 in the Bible, who promised to unfold the secrets of the universe to her. Leade 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.

[edit] The Philadelphia Society

In 1670 Jane Leade, with John Pordage, a Protestant priest from Berkshire, founded the Philadelphia Society For The Advancement Of Piety And Divine Philosophy. Leade's writings formed the core of the group's spiritual goals and ideas. The movement flourished until the ealry 1700s when, with Leade's death, its membership began to dwindle. Nevertheless it had converts in Europe and America.

[edit] The Vision

Leade's spiritual vision, although very much her own, was similar to that of Jakob Boehme, whose writings also influenced John Pordage, the other main founder of the Philadelphia Society. Like other female Christian mystics, for exampleJulian of Norwich, Margery Kemp and Hildegard von Bingen, Leade's spirituality has a strong feminine element, the Sophia, or Wisdom of God, being a recurring subject in her writing.

Her writing ranges across all the great Christian mysteries: the nature of Christ, the redemption of Man through a return to the Godhead, the existence of the Sophia, the Apocalypse and the possibility of Ascension. The scope of her work has drawn comparisons with the Kabbalists, the Gnostics, the Alchemists, and even the Rosicrucians in her belief in the presence of God in all things and the existence of the Holy Spirit in each soul.