Timeless Quaker Wisdom in Plainsong (Paulette Meier)

I don't know much about Quakers. Other than what I learned about Quaker history while visiting Philadelphia several years ago, and a slight acquaintance with the thinking of George Fox in a long-distant church history class from seminary days, my awareness of Quaker spirituality is lamentably shallow.

Paulette Meier's Timeless Quaker Wisdom in Plainsong is a meaningful immersion via music into a mysticism that undergirds the Friends' way. Meier, whose musical background in folk singing strongly influences this collection, has put to musical chant twenty-one phrases from eight Quaker luminaries, including Margaret Fell (1614-1702), George Fox (1624-1691), William Penn (1644-1718) and John Woolman (1720-1722).

More than simply a musical interpretation of Quaker thinking, Meier has skillfully organized the collection into four theme areas, which closely relate the process of Quaker spiritual practice. This sequence begins with "the act of centering deeply into stillness," proceeds to "the experience of the vision," continues with "spiritual relationship," and concludes with a description of "the internal leanings that call us onward into the world."

I am entranced with this musical introduction to Quaker spirituality. From the start, "Be Still and Cool" invites the listener into an openness to the Divine, while "Keep Within" centers the inquirer on Christ by alluding to "the pearl within you, though hidden." By selection number seven we are invited to "Give Over Thine Our Willing" to grow into the "sweet experience that the Lord knows ... and loves ... and owns." "An Infinite Ocean of Light" (selection 9) encapsulates the Quaker experience of divine Inner Light, in which the inquirer receives "great openings."

By selection number 10 ("They That Love Beyond the World") we are drawn from the inward to the outer, a reminder that for the Friend inward spiritual experience is never the end goal, but part of the journey to living in God's world. This is a world "That All Plants May Bud" (with allusions to the inclusive promises of Acts 2) where "everyone may improve their talents, exercise their gifts and speak as the Spirit gives them utterance."

The remaining selections are radical reminders that Quaker leaders were prophetic generation before their time. "Who is it that Dare?" brings into contemporary light the gender-inclusivity of George Fox in 1657: "And may not the spirit of Christ speak in the female as well as the male?" Ecological concern is reflected in "Use of the World" (selection nineteen). William Penn in 1693 preached that "Peace Requires Justice," delivered in this collection with an appropriate gravitas.

It is fitting that by the end of this musical collection in selection number twenty-one that we hear the words of John Woolman (1763), asking the listener to reflect inwardly to discern whether we harbor within ourselves "the seeds of war." It is fittingly delivered in a musical round which makes the intended internal reflection hauntingly vivid.

I began this review by confessing my lack of Quaker knowledge. Now that I've read the author's thoughtful introductory remarks on her journey to this music, and having listened several times to this musical compilation, my sense is that I am better able to understand the heart of a Friend. This is timeless spiritual wisdom in an accessible format that is worth the time to explore, especially if you are interested in broadening the dimensions of your soul.