sm that you must experience, but ah, how many have rushed into this
too abruptly, because they have not given their earthly selfishness a
single mortal blow right to the heart. [The circle or sword placed on the
left breast alludes merely to the process of the clearing of conscience.
Here the whole ego is not yet annihilated.] So I recommend to thee my
flaming sword. Be courageous and let it achieve complete execution in the
field of nature [The weed in the field is exterminated where, as Jane
Leade frequently says, ears of corn are to grow.] or banish completely all
young or old, and turn from life toward death whatever in you does not
bear my mark and name that is my image.' " [From this the psychological
sense of the countersign is recognized. In connection with the field we
are reminded especially of Shibboleth (Judges XIII, 6: The Ephraimites who
could not speak it had to die). Leade often mentions the Ephraimites.
Directly pertinent to the above passage is, of course, Revelations,
passim.] (L. G. B., I, pp. 21 ff.) The earthly is, as it were, to be
sacrificed to God as a burnt offering or melted away in a fiery furnace,
in a vessel of the purest metal. [Probably it will not be superfluous to
remark that in the Bible the first worker in all kinds of metal was Tubal
Cain, whose name is a password.] Jane Leade finds "the conditions or
circumstances which thou [Wisdom] requirest of me to be very hard;
especially do I find myself still dwelling in the offspring of a mortal
shadow, where whole millions of spirits tempt me and employ all their
ability and strength to hinder and hold me back from the high and noble
exaltation and aspiration, [The seductive and restraining voices in the
circuitous way or on the way to the Lodge according to the eclectic
ritual. The band corresponds to the mortal shadow.] while I, alone and
seeing the receptacle and fire before me, stood in thought about it and
pondered the matter, and was willing, like Isaac, to ask, But where is the
lamb? [The apron is of lamb's fleece.] She [Sophia = Wisdom] answered my
unspoken question with these words: You yourself must be the paschal lamb
that shall be slain. Thereupon I was instructed to say or to beg: Then
give yet this life pulse a stroke so that it may completely return. And as
I stretched out my neck, so to speak, to the love flaming sword, I felt
that a separation or beheading had taken place. [Note the baring of the
neck, the guttural and its mea