ABSTRACT
Lady Eleanor would have enjoyed the kind of respect that Jane Lead's activities commanded in her readers and co-workers, but it was slow to come and short-lived. Upon Pordage's death in 1681, Lead took over his role as leader of the congregation and published Heavenly Cloud now Breaking, perhaps the text that best reveals the Behmenist influence on her work. Lead's rejection of an excessive literality in biblical interpretation and her heterodox integration of Behmenist, scholastic, alchemic, Judaic, Neoplatonic, or cabbalistic elements is problematic when attempting to make sense of them altogether. Catherine Smith argued that Lead's tracts and occasional poetry are highly significant for their historical value, since the work "signals women's awakening" of their own feminine power. Many of Lead's visions involve the overwhelming presence of Sophia, the Virgin Wisdom, foregrounding the sacred feminine aspect of Christ' divinity which is reflected onto Christ through the Holy Ghost.
