God is our infinite Mother. She will hold us in her arms of blessedness and beauty forever and ever.
— Theodore Parker (1810–1860)
Miracles abound in Shaker history, some with rational explanations, some without. But none is as incredible as the concept, so central to Shaker thought, that Ann Lee was the female Christ. This is, surely, the most difficult part of the Ann Lee story to grasp. Even in a time of women’s liberation, the words female Christ have shock value. In the eighteenth century, they must have been almost unthinkable.
The astonishing idea of a female divinity seems to have evolved from two sources: Ann’s youthful conditioning in the Wardley movement, and her mystical visitations. Jane and James Wardley had instilled in Ann their belief that Jesus’ second coming would be in the form of a woman, because they were convinced that God had to be both male and female. They said that the Christ spirit which first appeared in a man, Jesus, would eventually reappear, to fulfill the biblical promise of the second coming, in the form of a woman. “Thereby,” the Wardleys prophesied, “God would shake the foundations.”
It is essential to understand that at no time did the Shakers actually worship either Jesus or Ann Lee Rather, both were held in deep reverence as the first elders of the Millennial Church, phenomenal beings to be loved and emulated.
The very suggestion that the Messiah might have a feminine aspect was incredible in a day when women were kept totally subservient. Most of the women in England were obliged to marry, submit to their husband’s commands, bear countless children, and remain always tethered to the home. The rights of women had not advanced one whit since the Tenth Commandment listed a man’s wife as one of his possessions, along with his ox and his ass. Jane and James Wardley rejected all of the prejudice against women. Over and over, they claimed God had a dual nature. On one side was the eternal Father, symbolizedby Jesus; on the other was the eternal Mother, symbolized by a holy woman yet to be chosen. Ann Lee reiterated their claims, at length.
After Ann’s next arrest, she was taken, not to jail, but to a madhouse, a rat-infested place of horror where the inmates suffered hideous cruelties. It was while she was there that she had an ecstatic experience that convinced her the Wardleys’ prediction had finally come true. She was on her knees in her cell, praying to God for help when, suddenly, rays on light broke in upon her and “the glories of heaven” shone about here. A Summary View states as a fact: “She saw the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory.”
In that sublime moment, Ann claimed that Jesus had conveyed to her astonishing information. He revealed that she was his anointed successor on earth. She, Ann Lee, was chosen to carry his Truth to the world — and Jesus would protect her. Henceforth, she was to be the incarnation of the Word of God, the second coming of Christ as a woman.
In her mystical ecstasy, Ann was convinced that the spirit of Christ suffused her being. Her identification with him was complete. “I feel the blood of Christ running through my soul and body!” she cried. “I feel him present with me, as sensibly as I feel my hands together….It is not I that speak. It is Christ who dwells in me.”
As soon as Ann was released, she told her followers of her incredible visitation. She, Ann Lee of Toad Lane, had been miraculously changed into Ann, The Word of God Made Manifest in The World. The Wardleys were quick to confirm Ann’s new role. They announced that Ann Lee was indeed the female Christ they had long awaited. Testimonies describes the rivetting effect of Ann’s transfiguration on her associates.
When she was released from her imprisonment, and came to reveal to the society these last extraordinary manifestations, so great was the display of divine light with which her soul was filled and so mighty the power of God which accompanied her testimony, and so keen the searching power of her spirit in discovering and bringing to light the hidden works of darkness, that every soul was struck with astonishment and filled with fear and trembling.
They saw at once that the candle of the Lord was in her hand, and that she was able by the light thereof, to search every heart, and try every soul among them. From this time she was received and acknowledged as the first visible leader of the church of God upon earth.
What are we to make of a woman who is known to her followers as the female Christ? When a person completely identifies herself with her ideal, many assessments are possible, from total dedication, to wish fulfilment, to mental aberration, to hallucination, to insanity. As a rule, people who believe they incorporate the divine are megalomaniacs gripped by insane ideas of their own power. This was never the case with Ann Lee. Throughout her life she remained a modest woman who refused to exalt herself. She did not seek acclaim; her followers bestowed it upon her.
From Mother Ann Lee, morning Star of the Shakers by Nardi Reeder Campion, published by Brandeis University Press. (c) 1976, 1990, 2026 the Estate of Nardi Reeder Campion.
