Shaker drawing

This amazing 'shaker' GIFT drawing is pure eye candy for me. But impossible for me to understand. There must be a code to crack. Because of the taboo on images they had to convert to 'depicting' : using pictograms to translate heartfelt heavenly beliefs and visions
A long jump from the rather austere 'shaker style' in furniture.
More on this subject in:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_7_40/ai_84182781/
exerpt from this site: " . The Shakers, whose laws strictly prohibited "pictures or paintings set in frames," referred to these drawings variously as sheets, notices, rolls, hearts, and tokens of love. Writing, especially calligraphy, provides the conceptual framework"