The Spiritual Hierarchy of Jane Leade: Divine Sophia, the Philadelphian Vision, and the Alchemical Restoration of Souls
The Visionary of the English Civil War Era In the turbulent intellectual and political aftermath of the English Civil War, a remarkable visionary woman articulated a mystical system that would captivate seekers across Europe. Jane Leade (1623 – 1704) was the primary spiritual force behind the Philadelphian Society , an association of mystics dedicated to the cultivation of the inner life and the preparation of humanity for a new, spiritualized age of the world. Born into a wealthy Anglican family in Norfolk, Leade experienced early religious anxieties that culminated in a life of intense, solitary prayer. Following the death of her husband in 1670, she entered a state of spiritual widowhood that opened the floodgates of her inner vision, leading to a series of extraordinary, nocturnal revelations that she recorded in her spiritual diaries, published under titles such as A Fountain of Gardens and The Revelation of Revelations . Leade's mystical system was not a simple emotional...