Book of Days

The Sixth of August is an important day for a small group of folks Seth and I know and love in Maine. They call each other brethren and sisters and they respond to questions in the old style yea and nay. They are the Shakers of Sabbathday Lake and there are four of them, currently: Sister Frances, Sister June, Brother Arnold, and Brother Brian.

August 6 marks the anniversary of the arrival of Shaker founder Mother Ann Lee in America. It is a day the Shakers call The Glorious Sixth. Mother Ann and a small band of followers left England and came to New York in 1774. Their official name was the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, but they were ridiculed for their whirling dances and outsiders began calling them Shaking Quakers, which was meant to be derogatory. They embraced the name and soon began referring to themselves as Shakers. The movement found fertile ground in America and Communities were founded in the 1700s and 1800s throughout New England and New York and west to Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, and there was even a short-lived southern Community in Florida, up near Kissimmee.

Don’t let the yeas and nays fool you: the Shakers are a progressive bunch. From the start, they stressed equality of the sexes and the races. They refer to God as Mother/Father and women have always held prominent leadership roles. Early Shakers were quick to jump on board with technology and even invented many early versions of tools we use even to this day. A prominent Shaker motto is “Hands to work and hearts to God,” a tenet of their belief handed to them by Mother Ann. Technology was useful in helping them make the work they had to do more beautiful, more prayer like. To that end, the things that Shakers made in their Community industries over the years have become known for their exquisite craftsmanship. And there have been many things: furniture, of course, as well as oval boxes, poplar ware, even the culinary herbs and herbal teas they package today (which we offer at the Convivio Bookworks website and which the Sabbathday Lake Shakers have been selling since 1783).

And so today it will most likely be Brother Arnold who prepares a big meal for the Community and friends who will gather. Perhaps they will eat out on the lawn or in the dining room of the Dwelling House. Come sundown, they will gather up and head across the street, to the 1794 Meetinghouse, a building so beautiful in its simplicity. There are no column supports to interrupt the openness, which gave the early Shakers plenty of room for their ecstatic dancing. The Shakers today do not dance, but still the building inspires. Whenever I am there, I look at the wide plank floor. I think of all the Shakers who whirled and danced on that floor. I look at the beams painted with blueberry milk paint, the original paint from 1794, still blue, still the hue of sky at dusk.

There will be readings and set Shaker songs. One song that is always sung on this night begins At Manchester in England, this blessed fire began / And like a flame in stubble, from house to house it ran…. There will be testimonies from anyone who is moved to speak, followed always by Shaker spirituals inspired by those testimonies. And through it all, despite the lanterns, night will slowly descend on the Meetinghouse and the Community gathered, wending its way, weaving its magic.

Seth and I were there with them only once for this occasion, in 1996, when I was a printing intern with Brother Arnold. And I remember always what happened as the room filled with darkness and lamplight. The women sat on one side of the room and the men on the other, as is the Shaker custom, and in the faces of the sisters and other women across from me, I could discern the faces of Shakers throughout time. We may have entered the Meetinghouse in 1996, but it didn’t seem to remain 1996. Sacred spirit filled that sacred space.

Seth and I will be thinking of our Shaker family tonight as the sun sets, as we do each Sixth of August and so many times through the year. We will think of them and remember this night and our privilege of sharing it with them. The Sabbathday Lake Shakers call their home Chosen Land. To be there is to understand why. Especially on the Sixth of August: it is one night where this title becomes particularly apparent.

Image: This is the most famous of the Shaker gift drawings received from the spirits in the Era of Manifestations: a mid-nineteenth century period of intense Shaker spiritual revival. The drawing is called “The Tree of Life” and it was seen and painted by Sister Hannah Cohoon at City of Peace (the Hancock Shaker Community in Massachusetts) on July 3, 1854.

The Book of Days chapter of August 6, for the celebration of the Arrival of the Shakers in America, drew a lot of interest. I don’t share many videos, but I thought you might like this one. It’s about an organization known as the Friends of the Shakers, and the Friends host a couple of work days each year at Chosen Land, the Sabbathday Day Lake Shaker Community, to lend the Community a hand (again, “Hands to work, hearts to God”). And in mid August each year, fast on the heels of the Glorious Sixth, is Friends Weekend.

I actually did two internships with Brother Arnold at the Shaker Press, one in 1996 and the next in 1997. Both of those summers were wonderful, and once Friends Weekend came around, I knew that my summer was wrapping up, and it would soon be time to pack up my belongings and drive the long lonely road back to Alabama for the fall semester. It was always a bittersweet weekend for me.

Michael Graham, Director of the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Museum, reminded me yesterday that this weekend has been Friends Weekend. He also shared this video that I liked so much, I decided I would share it with you, too. The singing of the volunteers in the Herb Department feels a bit over the top, though to be honest, Chosen Land is a kind of place where it’s not surprising to hear someone singing in the least likely place. Shaker music is like that: it’s like water, like air. It’s just part of life when you’re there.

The video is brief and it shows much of what is good about Chosen Land. Sister Frances and Brother Arnold make many appearances in the video, and I recognize many of the other faces, too, from those Friends Weekends that I experienced. The New England accents always make me smile, especially Sister Mildred’s. Sister Mildred, who I never had the pleasure of meeting, for she left this world long before I arrived at Chosen Land. But Brother Arnold speaks of her so often, she’s like an old friend even to me, and that’s her voice you hear in song as the video closes, and perhaps you’ll recognize an old friend in her, too. Enjoy.

On the 6th of August in 1774, a slight woman from Manchester, England, arrived in America at New York Harbor with a small band of followers. Her name was Ann Lee, but her followers called her Mother Ann. They called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, but they became known as Shaking Quakers, a derogatory name given to them by outsiders to describe the whirling and sometimes frenetic dances that were part of their worship. They embraced the name and began referring to themselves as Shakers, and following their arrival in America, the Shaker movement gained momentum. Shaker communities sprouted up throughout New England and west into Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. A short lived community was founded even in Florida.

The Shakers became well known for a foundation of their belief that was handed down to them by their founder, Mother Ann: “Hands to work and hearts to God.” This concept made itself manifest in the products the Shakers created, and they became well known for the clean, simple design of their furniture, oval boxes, and poplar ware, and for the exquisite quality of all of their products: not just furniture but also garden seeds, cloaks, confections, and more. They also became known for their progressive and egalitarian ways, referring to God as Mother/Father and giving women leadership roles in each Shaker Community.

In the summer of 1996, I had the privilege of working with the sole remaining active Shaker Community in the country. In the world, actually. It’s at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, in a town called New Gloucester. The spiritual name of the Community is Chosen Land, and to be there, you sense it really is a chosen land. Seth grew up right near there, and that summer, he worked as a tour guide while I worked as an intern in the Print Shop, alongside Brother Arnold Hadd. We printed a biography of Deacon James Holmes, the first printer at Chosen Land, who, in the early 1800s, when he was in his eighties, received a gift of metal type… and then decided the only logical thing to do was to build himself a printing press and teach himself to print. My kind of guy.

Brother Arnold and I labored at this all summer long, always keeping in mind Mother Ann’s words. But on the Sixth of August, Brother Arnold asked if Seth and I would come to dinner and stay for Meeting, for it was, as he called it, “the Glorious Sixth.” We accepted, along with a few other close friends of the Community.

Dinner was wonderful, but this is nothing unusual: every Shaker meal I’ve experienced has been hearty and delicious. After dinner, as the sun began to sink low in the west, we gathered ourselves up and our own small band made its way across the street, from the Dwelling House to the 1794 Meeting House. We took our seats, the Brothers and Seth and me and other men of the world on one side of the room, the Sisters and women of the world on the other. Meeting began and progressed as it always does, with Bible readings and set Shaker songs, and especially, on this night, a song about Mother Ann’s crossing of the Atlantic that begins with “At Manchester in England, this blessed fire began…” And then, testimonies and Shaker spirituals that come from the heart of anyone who wishes to speak up or sing.

Gradually, twilight filled the Meeting House. And as it grew darker, the most amazing thing happened, for me, at least… and to this day I remember distinctly the way the fading light played tricks in my mind as I watched the Sisters sitting across from me and how I could see so many different faces in their own faces, as if the Shakers from the past were there with us, too. Considering the spirit present that night in that sacred space, they probably were.

Celebrating this evening with the Shakers was one of the great privileges of my life, and I know it may very well be the one and only time I get to do so. It was, most certainly, one of the most moving experiences of my life. And so each year this magical date appears on our Convivio Book of Days calendar. Most people read this annual entry and don’t know or care what to make of it, but I mark the day quietly, and I think of my Shaker Family at Chosen Land warmly, especially as night falls upon the land, as all those Shaker Brethren and Sisters from the ages come to visit their old Chosen Land.

Image: Two buildings at Chosen Land (the Boy’s Shop and the Spin House), with the rolling hills of New Gloucester beyond.

We support the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community by purchasing the herbal teas and culinary herbs that we sell at the Convivio Bookworks website from them. The Community first began selling herbs and teas in metal tins in the 1860s. To walk into the Herb Department in the Sister’s Shop is intoxicating: The very air is spiced with herbs.