As It Is In Heaven

The United Society of Believers in the Second Coming of Christ, more commonly known as the Shakers, was originally founded in Manchester, England, during the 1770s. Mother Ann Lee, the charismatic and visionary leader of the early Shakers, was among those first believers who set foot on American soil in 1774.
The Shakers believed that God was dual in nature, both mother and father to their children. Jesus Christ was the first manifestation of God’s presence on earth; Mother Ann Lee was the second. They believed that they were living in the millennium leading up to the final judgment and so they were not to be focused on earthly concerns. Because of this, they lived a celibate life dedicated to building the kingdom of heaven on earth. Males and females lived in equality, and all races were welcome to join in Shaker life. The only element required to join was the signing of a covenant at the age of twenty.
As It is in Heaven is set in 1838 in the Shaker village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky — one of the most prosperous of all the Shaker communities during its time. Their dedication to hard work, simplicity and cleanliness became evident in the beauty of their architecture and designs. They lived a good life by selling their manufactured goods to the world’s people and creating labor-saving devices. Shaker inventions include the washing machine, the flat broom, an apple peeler, a method of waterproofing fabric, the metal pen nib, and improvements in circular saws for sawmills, false teeth, and spinning wheels. To many outsiders, especially the poor and disenfranchised, Shaker life was exceedingly attractive, even more so in times of hardship. There are many stories of “winter Shakers” — individuals who joined the Shaker communities for the bleak winter months but, come spring, left to return to the world’s people.

Like most religious communities, internal disruptions arose and many felt that the original vision of Mother Ann had been lost. All of this changed due to an intense spiritual revival that began in 1837, a period of Shaker history known as “Mother Ann’s Work.” As It is in Heaven is set during this period of revival when believers experienced visions, trances and all phenomena of religious fervor. Intense periods of shaking and dancing, visions and the channeling of spirits disrupted the orderly flow of the Shaker service. Many received what they termed “gifts” which were divine inspirations, experiences or abilities. These revivalist experiences swept through all of the Shaker communities, causing many to return to their beliefs and others to doubt.
At its heart, the Shaker experience is about religious freedom and the American puritan values of hard work and endurance, brotherhood/sisterhood and equality. Their beautiful Utopian experiment will be cherished for generations.
—Stephanie Sandberg

A Note from Susan Kattwinkle –

Today when we think about the Shakers we tend to focus on their simplicity and their work ethic, as well as the products of those traits – the beautiful furniture, villages, and foodstuffs. They lived a good life by selling their manufactured goods to the world’s people and creating labor-saving devices. Shaker inventions include the washing machine, the flat broom, an apple peeler, a method of waterproofing fabric, the metal pen nib, and improvements in circular saws for sawmills, false teeth, and spinning wheels.
We think of them as a people apart, isolated from the wider world and its concerns. But the period of visions they experienced in the early 1800s reflected similar occurrences in the “world,” as the Shakers called the rest of society. Throughout the United States and Europe, an interest in spiritualism spread like wildfire. Supernatural occurrences – like visions of ghosts and angels, speaking in tongues – and the practices of spiritualism – like séances and ghosthunting – were experienced by the religious and scientific-minded alike. While the lifestyle and religious practices of the Shakers were demonstrably different from those of the world around them, their pursuit of a purer, better life and their internal struggles of belief are familiar to us all.