Saint Hildegard of Bingen - Gnostic Muse › read-offline › 1364 ›...

Saint Hildegard of Bingen Gnostic Muse

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Hildegard of Bingen, (1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and Sibyl ofthe Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christianmystic, visionary, and polymath.

All of the following paintings are by Hildegard of Bingen.

Hildegard of Bingen is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history inGermany. Hildegard was elected magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136; she founded the monasteriesof Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, isan early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play.



She wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, and poems,while supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her firstwork, Scivias. She is also noted for the invention of a constructed language known as LinguaIgnota. [source]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen



In addition to her devout religious life, Hildegard was also a healer and herbalist. She wrote twotexts of medieval medicine of herbalism, moxabustion, bleeding and other types of cures. These textsalso discuss the theory of the Four Humors, the four vital liquids in the human body, eachcorresponding to one of the Four Elements, and which is the basis of all premodern Westernmedicine.

http://www.gnosisnorthwest.com/the-four-classical-elements/



One principle in Hildegard’s works isviriditas, usually translated as “greenness” or “greening power” and interpreted as meaning growthor life. Hildegard wrote that God transmits life into plants, animals, and gems. People eat plants andanimals and acquire gems, thus obtaining viriditas. They, in turn, give that life out by practicingvirtue, becoming an important link in the chain of being. Hildegard considered the emerald the chiefof jewels because of its green color, and one of her favorite herbs was fennel, which in ancient riteswas used to honor Adonis, the Greek god of vegetation. [source]

http://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/hildegard-of-bingen.aspx?PageId=2#ArticleContent



She experienced mystical visions from a young age which inspired her music compositions, writingsand paintings.

Hildegard spoke openly of her profound mystical experiences at a time when this put her at risk forheresey. As a nun, she left her home monastery and founded two new ones in a different towns,something almost unheard of for any devotee of the Church, much less a woman.

She is well-known for the beautiful music she composed, which her nuns would sing as part of theirdevotional prayer, and enter into mystical ecstasy. These pieces are still performed and recordedtoday.



Quotes from Hildegard of Bingen

“Holy persons draw to themselves all that is earthly. The earth is at the same time mother,She is mother of all that is natural, mother of all that is human.

She is the mother of all, for contained in her are the seeds of all.”



“The marvels of God are not brought forth from one’s self. Rather, it is more like a chord, a soundthat is played. The tone does not come out of the chord itself, but rather, through the touch of the

Musician. I am, of course, the lyre and harp of God’s kindness.”

“‘With my mouth,’ God says, ‘I kiss my own chosen creation. I uniquely, lovingly, embrace everyimage I have made out of the earth’s clay. With a fiery spirit I transform it into a body to serve all

the world.'”

“I do not know myself, either in body or soul. And I consider myself as nothing. I reach out to theliving God and turn everything over to the Divine.”

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