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The Real Historical Female Jesus

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Epilogue

First, let us address the question of historical accuracy in the story. The details of Ann Lee’s birth, early life and the establishment of the Shaker settlement at Watervliet, New York are as history records. So is the fact that she and other Shakers journeyed throughout the region preaching and recruiting converts. She did, indeed, go to Shirley, Massachusetts because there were, as mentioned in the story, some people there who were sympathetic to the Shakers. A Shaker village was established at Shirley in 1793, which continued to exist into the early 20th century and is now a museum.

What in the story is NOT historically accurate? Principally one thing-Ann Lee was not crucified. No one was crucified in Massachusetts (or New York, either); even the falsely accused Salem witches were hung, not burned at the stake or crucified. She was actually roughed up by a mob in Shirley on one occasion while there preaching, but she was not jailed or whipped and certainly not crucified. So, in the story that was a fever-induced vision. Did Ann Lee actually have such a vision? History does not record that, but her belief that she was the Second Coming of Christ in female form seems to have been quite genuine in her own mind and that of her followers. Given that, I don’t think it stretches credulity to imagine that she might have had a dream about being crucified.

Ann Lee died not too long after this story, in 1784, of natural causes, and was buried at the Shaker settlement in Watervliet. The Shakers continued on after her death and in fact prospered, establishing a number of settlements in New York and New England and later in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana as settlers moved west. In their settlements, the Shakers lived communally, with all property owned in common and everyone living in single-sex dormitories. A sort of celibate Christian Socialism, if you will.

They reached their height during the Second Great Awakening of the 1830s and 1840s, a period of religious revival in the United States, when many different cults and sects arose. At their peak, there were more than 6000 Shakers who believed that Ann Lee had been the female Christ (Authors note: Accurate numbers are hard to come by, but that may not be very different from the census of Christians in 80 AD, 50 years after Jesus died). The Shakers continued to have women among their leaders throughout.

Eventually, their model proved unsustainable, largely because of celibacy. They depended for new members on converts, particularly young orphans from the streets of cities like New York and Boston, and there were just not enough of them. Today, only one active Shaker settlement remains, at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, currently populated by two elderly women and two younger men. Had they not been celibate, though, one could imagine that the Shakers might be thriving today, like another religious movement that started in New York in the 1820s, the Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, who number over 15 million around the world.

Despite their eventual decline, the Shakers made important contributions in architecture, furniture design, crafts and music, having influence in the broader culture well outside their communities. They were also known as early adopters of technology and inventors of many advances in agricultural and industrial technology, including the circular saw and the first wheel-driven washing machine.

Thanks to all who read this story and particularly to those who took time to comment.

Extra special thanks to Barbaria1 for critically reading it and encouraging me to post it and of course for contributing an absolutely killer chapter.




Ann Lee's grave at the Watervliet Shaker site DSCN0265[1].JPG

A couple of examples of Shaker furniture. They are shown in museums around the worldRocker_in_the_Shaker_Village_at_Pleasant_Hill.jpg h5_66.10.17.jpg

The 1826 round stone barn at Hancock Shaker Village, Massachusetts the-round-stone-barn.jpg

The circular saw invented by a Shaker woman, Tabitha Babbitt in 181319thC-circular-saw.jpg

A Shaker washing exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 fig-51.jpg
 
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I finally got a chance to finish reading this. Excellent story, Windar (and Barb)! Who knew the Shakers could be so exciting, considering their rather "unattractive" morality. :confused::p It was a vivid crucifixion scene, all the more interesting as it was performed by novices. You captured the idea of spectacle for the villagers, as well as the uncertainty of "civilized" people crucifying someone for the first time. I think that was my favourite aspect. It's often hard to make a crucifixion story fresh, considering the number of them that we have already on CF. I can only echo other people's comments now, late to the party as I am, and say your story did it for me as well. I'm sure Mother Ann would be mortified to know I found it erotically and emotionally stimulating. :devil:

:clapping::clapping:
 
I finally got a chance to finish reading this. Excellent story, Windar (and Barb)! Who knew the Shakers could be so exciting, considering their rather "unattractive" morality. :confused::p It was a vivid crucifixion scene, all the more interesting as it was performed by novices. You captured the idea of spectacle for the villagers, as well as the uncertainty of "civilized" people crucifying someone for the first time. I think that was my favourite aspect. It's often hard to make a crucifixion story fresh, considering the number of them that we have already on CF. I can only echo other people's comments now, late to the party as I am, and say your story did it for me as well. I'm sure Mother Ann would be mortified to know I found it erotically and emotionally stimulating. :devil:

:clapping::clapping:

Thanks for the kind words Jolly. When Barb and I discussed the crucifixion scene, we had in the back of our minds Chet and Barney from "Plantation Plight", consulting the Bible for guidance, perhaps. They could have used the advice of the many experts here, but, sadly, the internet hadn't been invented yet.

I don't find it that strange that there could be something erotic in the denial of sex in the context our culture, where a click can take you to every manner of sexual expression (there's that internet again). And yet, for all their self-denial of actual sex, the Shakers were well ahead of their time and even ours in matters of complete equality between the sexes, having not just Mother Ann as their icon, but many other women leaders.
 
the Shakers were well ahead of their time and even ours in matters of complete equality between the sexes, having not just Mother Ann as their icon, but many other women leaders.

In this respect, they were following the example of the Quakers,
whose womenfolk had been ministering (preaching) and taking leading roles for over a century.
http://www.qhpress.org/texts/fell.html
A much earlier Christian sect - denounced as heretical - with women leaders was Montanism,
the beliefs, practices and rules were interestingly similar to the Shakers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montanism
And, in quite a different religious context, the Sikhs insist on equality of women in worship -
reading from the Granth, preaching, taking leading roles -
challenging of course both Hindu and Muslim views.
 
In this respect, they were following the example of the Quakers,
whose womenfolk had been ministering (preaching) and taking leading roles for over a century.
http://www.qhpress.org/texts/fell.html
A much earlier Christian sect - denounced as heretical - with women leaders was Montanism,
the beliefs, practices and rules were interestingly similar to the Shakers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montanism
And, in quite a different religious context, the Sikhs insist on equality of women in worship -
reading from the Granth, preaching, taking leading roles -
challenging of course both Hindu and Muslim views.


The Gnostics also had a lot of feminine imagery for God and women played a very active role. http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/pro/gnosti/eng_social/gnostic_women.html

Where Ann Lee got some of her ideas is hard to say. She was raised Quaker, so clearly they were an influence, but I don't think they believed in a dual male-female God. She was not educated and probably wouldn't have been aware of Montanism, Gnosticism or the Sikhs growing up in 18th century Manchester (and with very poor internet access).
 
The Gnostics also had a lot of feminine imagery for God and women played a very active role. http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/pro/gnosti/eng_social/gnostic_women.html

Where Ann Lee got some of her ideas is hard to say. She was raised Quaker, so clearly they were an influence, but I don't think they believed in a dual male-female God. She was not educated and probably wouldn't have been aware of Montanism, Gnosticism or the Sikhs growing up in 18th century Manchester (and with very poor internet access).

Those gnostics again!

As Windar knows, I was inspired to do a crux manip of this story, and he's asked me to do a whipping scene as well. These will go in the ebook.

It's not perfect, but I hope it captures something of this mature woman suffering before her community, holding to her faith in the face of extreme punishment.

ph302.jpg
 
Those gnostics again!

As Windar knows, I was inspired to do a crux manip of this story, and he's asked me to do a whipping scene as well. These will go in the ebook.

It's not perfect, but I hope it captures something of this mature woman suffering before her community, holding to her faith in the face of extreme punishment.

View attachment 436769

I love it Phlebas! That fellow in the blue jacket pointing is a nice touch-in case anyone there didn't notice the naked woman on the cross, let me point her out!:D:devil:

As far as gnostics, I consider myself a gnostic. Oh, wait, I mean agnostic.
 
Those gnostics again!

As Windar knows, I was inspired to do a crux manip of this story, and he's asked me to do a whipping scene as well. These will go in the ebook.

It's not perfect, but I hope it captures something of this mature woman suffering before her community, holding to her faith in the face of extreme punishment.

View attachment 436769
Oh wow! Absolutely perfect phlebas!!
 
About Watervliet.

Watervliet is a small village in Northern Belgium, bordering The Netherlands, located some 30 km from both Ghent (southeast of it) and Bruges (southwest).

The name refers to a flowing waterway (‘vlieten' has the same origin as ‘to flow’, fliessen in German). Watervliet is mentioned for the first time around the year 1000 AD, but in the 13th century, it was completely wiped away by storm floods, together with about 20 other villages. Only 200 years later, the area was reclaimed from the sea again (the neighbouring village is called ‘Waterland’).

The floods had created a large tidal inlet, the Braakman (derived from ‘breach’), which gave Watervliet and the surrounding area easy access to the sea. That probably explains why Watervliet, today merely developed around a crossroads, with only 1600 inhabitants, has an oversized village church, one of the typical ‘polder cathedrals’ in the area, large churches built on the wealth of now vanished maritime trade in the vicinity of the Scheldt estuary. Faded away by the closure of the Scheldt after the Treaty of Münster (1648) and the silting up of the inlets. The Braakman was dammed in the early 1960’s.

Settlers from Watervliet, (nowadays Belgium), founded Watervliet, New York, in the 18th century. In the state of Michigan, there is another village named Watervliet, with the same origin.
 

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