Jane Leade

Jane Ward Leade (March 1624 – 19 August 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 Philadelphian Society in London at the time.

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 family Christmas party 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 penniless 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.

In 1663 Jane Leade met John Pordage. In 1668, Jane Leade joined a small English Behmenist group led by John Pordage, an Anglican priest who had been ejected from his parish in 1655 because of differing views, but then reinstated in 1660 during the English Restoration. Leade remained in this group after her husband's death in 1670, and this was also 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, Leade joined the Pordage household in 1674 and remained there until his death in 1681. Leade 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). Leade'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 Pantheism, regarding the belief in the presence of God in all things, and with a Nondualist component, in that they also believed the presence of the Holy Spirit exists in each and everyone's soul, and that one can become enlightened and illuminated by living a virtuous life and seeking truth through the wisdom of God.

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