Hildegard von Bingen - Awakening - Visions - Poetry

[Guest guest]

Dear all, i' had always considered the christian religion as dusty, sinister and

a bit scary….

 

Thanks to this forum i `ve learned to (re)discover the gemms of this great

religious current through the inestimeable Work that its mystics have done

despite the threat of an oppressive church obsessed by its greed of power

and the inquisition .

 

Love

 

nicole

 

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Hildegard Von Bingen :

 

Introduction

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a remarkable woman, a " first " in many

fields. At a time when few women wrote, Hildegard, known as " Sybil of the

Rhine " , produced major works of theology and visionary writings. When few

women were accorded respect, she was consulted by and advised bishops,

popes, and kings. She used the curative powers of natural objects for healing,

and wrote treatises about natural history and medicinal uses of plants,

animals, trees and stones. She is the first composer whose biography is

known. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical plays were

performed. Although not yet canonized, Hildegard has been beatified, and is

frequently referred to as St. Hildegard. Revival of interest in this

extraordinary

woman of the middle ages was initiated by musicologists and historians of

science and religion. Less fortunately, Hildegard's visions and music had

been hijacked by the New Age movement, whose music bears some

resemblance to Hildegard's ethereal airs. Her story is important to all students

of medieval history and culture and an inspirational account of an irresisible

spirit and vibrant intellect overcoming social, physical, cultural, gender

barriers to achieve timeless transcendence.

 

« … The visions which I saw did not perceive in dreams nor when asleep nor

in a delirium nor with the eyes or ears of the body.

 

I received them when I was awake and looking around with a clear mind, with

the inner eyes and ears, in open places according to the will of God.

 

******

 

« My perceptions of things depends on the shifting of the clouds and other

elements of creation. Still I do not hear these things with bodily ears, nor do

I

see them with the cogitation of my heart or the evidence of my five senses I

see them only in my spirit, with my eyes wide open »

 

*******

 

The Awakening :

 

« … And it came to pass … when I was 42 years and 7 months old, that the

Heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed

through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a

flame, not burning, but warming… and I suddenly understood of the meaning

of expositions of the books…

 

*******

 

The Vision of the Trinity Scivias: Book II/ Vision 2

 

Then I saw a bright light, and in this bright light the figure of a man the

color of

a sapphire, which was all blazing with gentle glowing fire. And that bright

light

bathed the whole of the glowing fire, and the glowing fire bathed the bright

light; and the glowing fire poured over the whole human figure, so that the

three were one light in one power of potential. And again I heard the living

Light say to me: " This is the perception of God's mysteries. . . .

 

*******

 

Ave Maria

 

Behold, Mary,

you who increase life,

who rebuilds the path,

You who confused death

and wore down the serpent,

To you Eve raised herself up,

her neck rigid with inflated arrogance.

You strode upon this arrogance

while bearing God's Son of Heaven,

through whom the spirit of God breaths.

O gentle and loving Mother,

I behold you.

For Heaven released into the world

that which you brought forth.

This one,

through whom the spirit of God breaths.

Glory to the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And to this one,

through whom the spirit of God breaths.

 

*******

 

Ave Generosa

 

I behold you,

noble, glorious and whole woman,

the pupil of purity.

You are the sacred matrix

in which God takes great pleasure.

The essences of Heaven flooded into you,

and the Great Word of God dressed itself in flesh.

You appeared as a shining white lily,

as God looked upon you before all of Creation.

O lovely and tender one,

how greatly has God delighted in you.

For He has placed His passionate embrace within you,

so that His Son might nurse at your breast.

Your womb held joy,

with all the celestial symphony sounding through you,

Virgin, who bore the Son of God,

when your purity became luminous in God.

Your flesh held joy,

like grass upon which dew falls,

pouring its life-green into it,

and so it is true in you also,

o Mother of all delight.

Now let all Ecclesia shine in joy

and sound in symphony

praising the most tender woman,

Mary, the bequeather/seed-source of God.

Amen

 

*******

 

God's Word is in all creation

 

 

No creature has meaning

without the Word of God.

God's Word is in all creation, visible and invisible.

The Word is living, being,

spirit, all verdant greening,

all creativity.

This Word flashes out in

every creature.

This is how the spirit is in

the flesh—the Word is indivisible from God.

 

*******

 

Song to the creator

 

 

You, all-accomplishing

Word of the Father

are the light of primordial

daybreak over the spheres.

You, the foreknowing

mind of divinity,

foresaw all your works

as you willed them,

your prescience hidden

in the heart of your power,

your power like a wheel around the world,

whose circling never began

and never slides to an end.

 

*******

 

O Radiant Mother

 

 

O radiant Mother of sacred healing!

through your holy Son you poured ointment

in the weeping wounds of death,

which Eve had wrought, to the torment of souls.

You destroyed death,

making life.

 

Pray for us to your child,

Mary, star of the sea.

 

O life giving instrument and ornament of joy,

o sweetness of all delights, in which you shall never fail.

 

Pray for us to your child,

Mary, star of the sea.

 

Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

 

Pray for us to your child,

Mary, star of the sea.

 

*******

 

 

on the Holy Spirit Wisdom

 

 

 

Oh children of humanity, why have you corrupted tender Love, who gazes far

into my depths and flows forth in works abounding? Because She flows within

me, from Her in turn flow the living waters. She resembles a budding branch,

for, as a virgin's embraces are most tender because of her integrity, even so

Love's embraces are more tender than those of any other. But now She

mourns, because audacious men tear her to pieces with their evil grumbling.

Hence, She flees from them to that height whence She came, and weeps

because Her children, whom She suckled at Her fertile breasts, fall sick and

will not be cleansed from the corruption of their flighty minds.

 

O wretched humanity! Why do they take on themselves the misery of

alienation and exile, tearing themselves away... She is always ready... Yet

they separate themselves from the Bride, whence they are darkened and

shadowed by clouds as if they had ruptured heaven.

 

The Holy Spirit as Caritas (Grace/World Soul)

St. Hildegard von Bingen

trans. B. Newman (mod.)

 

* * *

 

I heard a voice saying to me, " This Lady whom you see is Love, who has Her

dwelling place in eternity. When God wished to create the world, He leaned

down, and with tender Love, provided all that was needed, as a parent

prepares an inheritance for a child. And thus, in a mighty blaze the Lord

ordained all His works.

 

Then creation recognized its Creator in its own forms and appearances. For in

the beginning, when God said, " Let it be! " and it came to pass, the means and

the Matrix of creation was Love, because all creation was formed through Her

as in the twinkling of an eye.

 

The Holy Spirit as Sapientia (Wisdom/Creatrix)

St. Hildegard von Bingen

trans. B. Newman (mod.)

 

* * *

 

I am Wisdom. Mine is the blast of the resounding Word through which all

creation came to be, and I quickened all things with my breath so that not one

of them is mortal in its kind; for I am Life. Indeed I am Life, whole and

undivided -- not hewn from any stone, or budded from branches, or rooted in

virile strength; but all that lives has its root in Me. For Wisdom is the root

whose blossom is the resounding Word....

 

I flame above the beauty of the fields to signify the earth -- the matter from

which humanity was made. I shine in the waters to indicate the soul, for, as

water suffuses the whole earth, the soul pervades the whole body. I burn in

the sun and the moon to denote Wisdom, and the stars are the innumerable

words of Wisdom.

 

The Holy Spirit as Caritas (Grace/World Soul & Wisdom/Creatrix)

St. Hildegard von Bingen

trans. B. Newman (mod.)

 

* * *

 

May the Holy Spirit cleanse you from all faults of malice, and win you the

friendship of Love, most sweet, most tender; who captured the mighty Stag

and poured forth song above all heavens; who entered the bridal chamber of

all the King's mysteries; and who revealed Herself in all Her beauty in the

mirror of the Cherubim.

 

The Holy Spirit as Caritas (Grace/World Soul)

St. Hildegard von Bingen

trans. B. Newman (mod.)

 

* * *

 

I am the Supreme and Fiery Force who kindles every living spark....As I circled

the whirling sphere with my upper wings (that is, with Wisdom), rightly I

ordained it. And I am the fiery life of the Divine essence: I flame above the

beauty of the fields; I shine in the waters; I burn in the sun, the moon, and

the

stars. And, with the airy wind, I quicken all things vitally by an unseen,

all-sustaining life. For the air is alive in the verdure and the flowers; the

waters

flow as if they lived; the sun too lives in its light; and when the moon wanes

it

is rekindled by the light of the sun, as if it lived anew. Even the stars

glisten in

their light as if alive.

 

The Holy Spirit as Caritas (Grace/World Soul)

St. Hildegard von Bingen

trans. B. Newman (mod.)

 

* * *

 

She is Divine Wisdom. She watches over all people and all things in heaven

and on earth, being of such radiance and brightness that, for the measureless

splendor that shines in Her, you cannot gaze on Her face or on the garments

She wears. For She is awesome in terror as the Thunderer's lightening, and

gentle in goodness as the sunshine. Hence, in Her terror and Her gentleness,

She is incomprehensible to mortals, because of the dread radiance of divinity

in Her face and the brightness that dwells in Her as the robe of Her beauty.

She is like the Sun, which none can contemplate in its blazing face or in the

glorious garment of its rays. For She is with all and in all, and of beauty so

great in Her mystery that no one could know how sweetly She bears with

people, and with what unfathomable mercy She spares them.

 

The Holy Spirit as Wisdom: Scientia Dei (Knowledge of God)

St. Hildegard von Bingen

trans. B. Newman (mod.)

 

[Primary source: B. Newman, Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of

the Feminine (1987). See also L. Boff, O.F.M., The Maternal Face of God

(1987); F. Bowie & O. Davies, Eds., Hildegard of Bingen: Mystical Writings

(1990); E. Johnson, C.S.J., Women, Earth, and Creator Spirit (1993); C.

Matthews, Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom (1991); B. M. Meehan, S.S.C.,

Delighting in the Feminine Divine (1994); B. M. Meehan, S.S.C., Exploring the

Feminine Face of God: A Prayerful Journey (1991); T. Schipflinger,

Sophia-Maria (1998); G. Uhlein, O.S.F., Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen

(1983).