ABSTRACT
Scholars have overlooked many of Jane ' s occult sources and they have failed to recognise her frequent use of alchemical imagery. Yet, John Pordage and Edmund Brice have been identified as spiritual alchemists in Jane's circle.s In 1683, however, Jane wrote the preface to Theologica Mystica in which Pordage declared his interest in nature, and provided a key to understanding and uncovering the hidden truths of divinity:
Pordage described the transmutation of elements from a Behmenist understanding of nature. Here we are not looking at Pordage hunched over an alembic; instead his imagery represented a process of spiritual regeneration. Pordage also had connections with Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), whose works were also an important source of occult infonnation. Ashmole was an early member of the Royal Society of London, yet he remained a staunch believer in astrology, alchemy and magic.7 He considered Pordage to be a fellow initiate and became his patron in Bradfield. Ashmole collected and published over thirty alchemical documents in Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. He also gave Pordage a copy of his translation of Arthur Dee's Fascilus chemicus in 1650.8 It is thus likely that Jane had access to these and other alchemical texts belonging to Pordage and his associates. In addition to Brice and Pordage, Jane probably knew of Thomas Bromley's treatise, The Way to the Sabbath of Rest (1655) which also discussed alchemy and spiritual transmutation.9
