In 1670, as a widow of fifty in London, Jane Lead heard a voice: "Resign thyself up to wait for a further manifestation." She waited. Four years later, on the eve of Easter, Wisdom appeared to her — not as an idea but as a presence, feminine and radiant. "Behold me as thy Mother," the vision said. "I am that eternal Virgin Wisdom."
For the remaining thirty years of her life, Jane Lead lived in almost daily communication with Sophia — divine Wisdom, the feminine face of God. She recorded these visions in a vast spiritual diary and became the leader of the Philadelphian Society, a mystical movement that spread across Europe.
"She appeared to me in a brightness
That exceeded the noon-day sun.
Her garments were as white as snow.
Her face like crystal, transparent and shining.
She said: I am the eternal Virgin Wisdom.
I am to be your Mother and Guide.
Come into my house and eat of my bread.
For I have prepared a feast for you."
Jane Lead's teaching was revolutionary: God has a feminine aspect. Wisdom — Sophia — is not merely a metaphor but a reality. She is the bride of God, the mother of creation, the guide of souls. To encounter her is to encounter the divine in its nurturing, creating, transforming aspect.
Unlike many visionaries, Lead wrote theology as well as recording visions. She saw history as a spiral moving toward restoration — all things returning to their source in God. Hell was not eternal but a crucible of purification. All souls would eventually be saved.
"Wisdom has built her house.
She has hewn out her seven pillars.
She has killed her beasts and mixed her wine.
She has also furnished her table.
She calls from the highest places of the city:
Come, eat of my bread,
And drink of the wine I have mixed.
Forsake foolishness and live."
By the end of her life, Lead was blind and poor, supported by followers who treasured her visions. She died in 1704, at the age of eighty-four, still receiving revelations. Her influence spread to Germany, the Netherlands, and colonial America. The Philadelphian impulse — the belief in divine Wisdom, universal restoration, and the coming spiritual age — flowed into movements she never knew.
"The new creation is about to begin," she wrote. "Wisdom is calling. Will you answer?"
Teaching 52
Divine Wisdom appears as a feminine presence — Mother and Guide. She builds her house and invites all to her table. All souls will eventually return to their source. The new creation is always beginning. Wisdom calls from the highest places. Answer her.