Heavenly Visions - The American Shakers Use of Word, Image, and Song as Documented by Shaker Scribes
The history of American Christian Shakers demonstrates within a few short generations the transition from a unique, mystic collective to a regimented hierarchy that mirrored regional and contemporary Christian practices. Somewhere between this sense of control and freedom lies the vibrating spirit of Shaker belief. The importance of receiving gifts from God and sharing their interpretations defines nearly three generations of theological practice. Throughout this timeline, subjects of authorship, iconoclasm, historical documentation, and education are explored and defined by the role of the Shaker 'scribe'. In this essay, I will emphasize the scribe as a sort of architect for the Shaker community that simultaneously acts as translator and educator.
Originating in England, Mother Ann Lee, an already devout Shaker, immigrated to colonial America and established the first Shaker colony in New York during the late 1770s. What separated this new Shaker movement from its past is the vital figure Mother Ann. Lee advocated spirit-led forms of worship that included ecstatic dancing, singing, and speaking in tongues. She attracted many converts due to her magnetic personality and vivacious services alongside a dual-gendered God. The Shakers are singular in many aspects of their faith with key emphases on celibacy and the denial of private property. Although comparatively eccentric in a religious sense, there are still historical attachments to European Christianity and Christian Iconoclasm. In particular, the critical reception of art and decoration became ever more present during the period known as the Era of Manifestations (1837 - 1850). During this period, a number of ‘gift drawings’ (less than 200 to be known to this day), ‘gift songs’ (over 8,000), and numerous ‘visions’ took physical form through drawings, dance, and writing.
The term ‘gift,’ no matter its form, is used to distinguish a message from God that is passed through an ‘instrument’ (or parishioner) and recorded by a ‘scribe’ (or interpreter).In order to lead a more simple life, Shakers could empty themselves to become a channel or vessel through which revelations and simple truths can be sought out. This child-like state of simplicity and acceptance allows one to become a conduit in which to receive God’s message as ‘gifts.’
After the Millennial Laws passed in 1845, all aspects of Shaker faith were documented for the first time, transitioning villages from an oral to a written tradition, and thus regimenting its religious order. Regarding this essay’s analysis, it is essential to note that the Millennial Laws reestablished familiar Puritan beliefs of Iconoclasm, prohibiting pictures or paintings from being set in frames, hung on walls et al.
Until establishing the Millennial Laws in 1845, Shakers lived in communal faith, participating in the oral translation of religious songs, theology, and rites. After these laws passed, recording Shaker religion and culture became at the forefront of its continued evolution. The term ‘gift’ designates the Shaker’s belief that images and songs are not created autonomously but are instead received by ‘instruments’– faithful parishioners who receive divine inspiration which is then transcribed by another Shaker into word or image on paper. To the provincial Shaker, the creation and ‘translation’ of this vision came to fruition because of God’s will.
This notion of authorship is particularly interesting as it contrasts historical and modern interpretations of image-making on multiple levels. Not only do Shakers acknowledge their role by identifying as ‘instruments,’ but the receiver of the gift is not the one to create the physical image. An interpreter or ‘scribe’ is present to further separate an instrument from artistic autonomy. This relationship allows one to focus on gifts from heavenly spirits than the form in which gifts are materialized. The Shakers did not distinguish the medium of drawing as we know it but instead saw it more akin to writing.
Gifts do not appear only in the forms of music or image. Life itself, and each of the activities that comprise it, whether it be working, singing, eating, dancing, or sleeping, is regarded as a gift from the spirit. Due to this fluidity, gifts issued from a common and formative visionary experience, the need for a communal record of that experience, and a desire for physical evidence of divine accessibility necessitated and thus allowed certain leeway and flexibility in terms of accepting drawing as writing into Shaker vernacular.
As postulated by author Sally Promey, the lack of private diaries helps explain the “tenor of Shaker religiosity, which emphasized demonstrating one’s faith through oral confession and public physical worship rather than solitary spiritual self-scrutiny.” Leading up to the publishing of the Millennial Laws, and leading to this moment, the Central Ministry managed to maintain control over the spiritual revival by requiring instruments to present their gifts to the Elders before they could be presented to the community as a whole.
Compared to the few remaining gift drawings known to exist, an abundance of Shaker gift songs are known today. This vast difference in numbers explains several identifying aspects of Shaker faith. The first being, without music’s problematic ties to Iconoclasm, song skips over many particulars dictated in the Millennial Laws. Another is its connection to education. Like calligraphy, song and music classes were taught at a young age in Shaker school curriculums. Because of music’s inherent architecture, schooling of song, and its collective nature in worship, gift songs were not just something to be recognized but something to be improved over time. One Elder at the New Gloucester Society of Shakers was quoted to have said, “My dear children... learn to be wise and make a good improvement of every natural talent and faculty which God has given you; for in so doing you will be able to sound, sound, sound forth the glory of God in songs of eternal praises. Amen.” While I am using this quote to discuss the culture of music, it also applies to all aspects of Shaker life and worship. This preoccupation with education and improvement helps explain music and musical gifts’ wide acceptance and documentation. However, the vast number of existing songs also indicates that the production of gifts is just as important as the variables of ‘artistic expression’ taught by and to Shakers.
Shaker music is often defined as being monodic (single melody and no harmony), mostly composed in C major. Sometimes broken by an octave, Shaker hymns are relatively rudimentary and written in 4/4 time. One of the most well-known Shaker songs is ‘Simple Gifts,’ also composed in C, written in 1848 by Joseph Beckett. The attempt to simplify the musical complexity of song was an attempt to make the music more accessible to a wider parishioner group. Furthermore, because the ‘scribe’ taking the song down from an ‘instrument’ was not always literate in music writing, many of the existing manuscripts are written with letters instead of notes, reminiscent of Greek music writing. Not to mention, the translation from someone speaking tongues is not always the most straightforward task. As author Daniel W. Patterson observes, “a great portion of our songs given inspiration, said brother Isaac, are very difficult to time. With scratchbooks in hand he and other scribes faithfully tried to capture changes of meter, tempo, and scale in songs that lasted as long as half an hour. These were not the only unaccustomed features in the songs… some were sung in unknown tongues, some had phrases sung to words spelled out rather than pronounced, some had long groups of notes to one syllable... In short, both in musical form and in text these songs tended to be irregular and strange.”
Overall, singing and dance culture, along with its continued practice, demonstrated one's willingness to become a conduit for gifts. Whether intentional or not, this documentation style adds another layer of accessibility to the overall role of music in Shaker society.
Developing the accessibility of song is not particular to Shaker society. Other types of Folk music at the time, in particular Sacred Harp music, held similar ideals when it came to communal praise. Published in 1844, ‘The Sacred Harp’ is a volume of religious folk songs that emphasizes universality through polyphonic songwriting and the use of shaped notes. Much like Shakers, shaped-note music would have been taught during class and is traditionally performed a cappella. The only difference is Sacred Harp music’s intense, 4 part harmonization. Post-Great Awakening, Shakers eventually adopted the use of shaped notes and the same harmonization architecture. A excellent example of Sacred Harp music is ‘Idumea’, an Irish folk song arranged in ‘The Sacred Harp’ by Ananias Davisson and popularized by Charles Wesley.
In a contemporary sense, we can still see attempts to make music more accessible. Acknowledging the marginalization of those hard of hearing or deaf, the ASL Association and disability advocates have developed a new style of signing that helps interpret the lyrics of a song and a visual interpretation of instrumental and musical scale.
Shakers originated in England in the first part of the eighteenth century. Since its infancy, its believers have participated in the communal ownership of property. Although this required denial of private property is practiced, there still exists a struggle with manipulating word and image by American Shakers seeking a sense of history, agency, and structure. Visually speaking, within gift drawings, one can see both the abundance of boxes and structure as well as obsessive writings that claim lineage through various sources. The use of Indigenous American languages, masonic symbols, drawn replicas of Shaker villages as a holy cities, and apparitions of early American politicians were ways to build agency and a history of place.
For example, when looking at the many attempts to replicate the kingdom of God such as ‘The Holy City’ (Figure 1), we see illustrations of God’s kingdom as symmetrically ruled and partitioned in a way that resembles more pre-modern Catholic church architecture than it does that of a traditional city. This replication is seen mostly in the New Era, where Shaker gift drawings depict the visual and structural characteristics of heaven and its order. Portraying heaven as an idealized image of the earth, these gift drawings exemplified the Shaker’s view of their community as the Kingdom of God.
The creation of lines, squares, borders, etc. visually creates an 'inside' and 'outside,' reflecting the Shaker faith's need to distinguish between sacred and profane. Shaker villages are representative of the 'Holy City,' which makes the area outside of the community and their 'past lives' profane. Shakers constructed impressive dance halls and meeting houses as sacred spaces for song, dance, praise, and the occasional gift. These constructed spaces are set separate from the rest of the community. This separation is essential because its architecture is constructed specifically for dancers and singers who practice and activate spiritual space. This practice is similar to monastic exercises of circumambulation to activate cloistered gardens. These Edenic gardens acted as portals to sacred time, in particular, back to Adam and Eve's innocence.
The construction of 'mountain meeting' spaces that operated as 'feast grounds,' fenced-in and sequestered in trees, were also created for the same purpose. When applied to the category of gift drawings, the scribes' role perpetuates separation between sacred and profane by replicating linear division. Further, images of sacred spaces transcribed from instruments often lack human or animal representation. Because of this, many Shaker gift drawings function as stages that a viewer can place themselves within. (Figure 2) They allowed one's imagination to occupy that imagined space, once again creating a separation between earthy reality and a spiritual realm.
With the progressive view of a duel-gendered God, a tradition of younger women accepted as 'instruments,' and Shaker faith's guiding pentacle, Mother Ann, many feminist readings of Shaker history exist. Scholar Marjorie Procter-Smith produces various feminist arguments that the evolution of Shakerism is a reflection of women's history becoming institutionalized over time. I am inclined to agree with Smith's assertion that after the death of Mother Ann, "[Shakers] had resulted in a more structured community in which the power of women was strictly regulated within a hierarchical system." Many Shaker drawings embody a tension that reflects theoretical shifts in Shaker society from Iconoclasm to feminism. As Shakerism in the United States elevated women's place and value, ministry Elders drew laws forcing feminized power swiftly into domestic spheres as 'gifts' became more scrutinized in the eyes of the patriarchal council. However, this exact tension between inspiration and control allows the process of receiving 'gifts' to occur. These happenings do not appear spontaneously or within a chaotic situation. They are organized, almost theatrically so, to add to the palpable tension and experience of the 'gift'. Sadly, the rich, mystical properties of dwindling Shaker villages recorded their final experience of a gift in 1938.
Figure 1. Spiritual Map. The Holy City, 1843. Polly Jane Reed. New Lebanon, New York. Ink and watercolor on paper, 31”x24.75”. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Figure 2. A Bower of Mulberry Trees, 1854. Hannah Cohoon. Hancock, Massachusetts. Ink and Watercolor on paper, 18”x23”. Hancock Shaker Village.
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Bibliography
Helms, Mary, “Sacred Landscape and the Early Medieval european Cloister. Unity, Paradise, and the Cosmic Mountain,” Anthropos, 2002, 435-453
Jones, Josh, “How Ingenious Sign Language Interpreters Are Bringing Music to Life for the Deaf: Visualizing the Sound of Rhythm, Harmony & Melody,” Open Culture, Apr, 10, 2017, http://www.openculture.com/2017/04/how-ingenious-sign-language-interpreters-are-bringing-music-to-life-for-the-deaf.html
Morin, France, ed. Heavenly Visions: Shaker Gift Drawings and Gift Songs. New York: The Drawing Center, Los Angeles: UCLA Hammer Museum, 2001
Penn Yan Community Chorus, “Simple Gifts.” Aug, 22, 2010, Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, ME. Video, 3:25, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkvpOdG-aGE
Sacred Harp Singers, “Idumea.” Apr, 2, 2019, Liberty Baptist Church, Henagar, AL, Video, 3:24, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCMZQ_NK9KI
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