Hildegard of Bingen and her Visions of the Divine Feminine by John Noyce

 Hildegard of Bingen and her Visions of the Divine Feminine by John Noyce

This remarkable Christian nun lived in 12th century Germany. One of her modern biographers has described this “visionary, poet, composer, naturalist, healer, and theologian” who “founded convents; corresponded with secular and ecclesiastical leaders, as well as a vast range of people of lesser rank; and ventured forth as a monastic trouble-shooter, consultant exorcist, and visiting preacher” as a woman of her time who produced written work that ranged from natural history and medicine to cosmology, music, poetry, and theology. This extraordinary body of work “surpasses that of most other male contemporaries; it also possesses great beauty and witnesses to Hildegard's intellectual power.” (Flanagan 1995:59)

First Visions of the Divine Feminine

Born into a noble family, Hildegard was dedicated to the Church at birth, and at the age of 8 was sent to join the anchorite Jutta who taught her to read and write in Latin. Other young girls later joined Jutta whose anchorage was attached to the church of the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg.

After Jutta’s death, when Hildegard was 38, she became the head of the convent which was living within the cramped walls of the anchorage. Hildegard received visions of the Divine Feminine from her earliest childhood through to her last days. These visions formed the basis for a series of extraordinary books which provided her with a platform for commentary on the actions of her contemporaries

both ecclesiastical and temporal. For the first four decades of her life, Hildegard confided her visions only to Jutta and to a monk named Volmar who became her lifelong secretary. This however changed in 1141 when she had a vision that changed the course of her life:

"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 suddenly I understood of the meaning of expositions of the books..."

Hildegard was for some years reluctant to answer the call to write, but parts of her first visionary work Scivias came to the attention of Pope Eugenius (1145-1153) who encouraged Hildegard to finish her writings. With papal imprimatur, Hildegard was able to finish Scivias and her fame began to spread though Germany and beyond.

The Mother Goddess

Around 1150 Hildegard moved her growing convent from Disibodenberg, where the nuns lived

alongside the monks, to Bingen about 30 km north, on the banks of the Rhine. She later founded another convent, Eibingen, across the river from Bingen. Her remaining years were very productive. The first of the three volumes recording her visions is Scivias (Know the Way), written between 1141, after the Holy Spirit had descended on Hildegard and enlightened her, and 1151. Scivias contains a number of visions of the Divine Feminine.

In Book One Vision Four there is a description of the Goddess as the Mother of the Soul:

"… And I saw the image of a woman who had a perfect human form in her womb. And behold! By the secret design of the Supernal Creator that form moved with vital motion, so that a fiery globe that had no human lineaments possessed the heart of that form and touched its brain and spread itself through all its members."

In the fifth vision of Book One, the Goddess appears as the Synagogue with parallels to the Shekinah:

"… I saw the image of a woman, pale from her head to her navel and black from her navel to her feet; her feet were red, and around her feet was a cloud of purest whiteness. She had no eyes, and had put her hands in her armpits; she stood next to the altar that is before the eyes of God, but she did not touch it. And in her heart stood Abraham, and in her breast Moses, and in her womb the rest of the prophets, each displaying his symbols and admiring the the beauty of the Church. She was a great size, like the tower of a city, and had on her head a circlet like the dawn."

In Book II of Scivias there is a vision of the Goddess as Mother of the twice-born:

"… I saw the image of a woman as large as a great church, with a wonderful crown on her head and arms from which a splendour hung like sleeves, shining from Heaven to earth. Her womb was pierced like a net with many openings, with a huge multitude of people running in and out. She had no legs or feet, but stood balanced on her womb in front of the altar that stands before the eyes of God, embracing it with her outstretched hands and gazing sharply with her eyes throughout all of Heaven. I could not make out her attire, except that she was arrayed in great splendour and gleamed with lucid serenity, and on her breasts shone a red glow like the dawn; and I heard a sound of all kinds of music singing about her, “Like the dawn, greatly sparkling.” (II:3)

In another vision the Goddess as the “celestial Zion” or the Mother of the Church is described:

"… I saw a splendour white as snow and translucent as crystal had shone around the image of that woman from the top of her head to her throat. And from her throat, glowing like the dawn from her throat to her breasts and shining from her breasts to her navel mixed with purple and blue. And where it

glowed like the dawn, its brightness shone forth as high as the secret places of Heaven; and in this brightness appeared a most beautiful image of a maiden, with bare head and black hair, wearing a red tunic, which flowed down about her feet. And I heard the voice from Heaven saying, “This the blossom of the celestial Zion, the mother and flower of roses and lilies of the valley. O blossom, when in your time you are strengthened, you shall bring forth a most renowned prosperity.” (II:5)

Divine Knowledge & Present Day

The second volume of the trilogy is the Liber Vitae Meritorum (The Book of the Rewards of Life), written between 1158 and 1163, which contains visions relating to the weakness of the human condition.

The third book is the Liber Divinorum Operum simplicis Hominis (The Book of the Divine Works of a Simple Person), written between 1163 and 1173. Also known as De operatione Dei, this volume is a synthesis of Hildegard’s theological beliefs, structured around ten visions, and contains her knowledge of the elements of the universe, and the physiology of the human body.

Hildegard also authored Physica and Causae et Curae (1150), together known as Liber subtilatum (The book of subtleties of the Diverse Nature of Things) which presented observations on natural history and on the curative powers of plants and animals and other natural objects such as trees and stones.

Music was very important to Hildegard and she wrote music and texts to her songs, mostly liturgical plainchant honouring the Virgin Mary and the saints, for her nuns. She also wrote several morality plays including the Ordo Virtutum (Play of Virtues) for the nuns to perform in their convent.

In the second half of the twentieth century there was a revival of interest in this extraordinary woman, which has continued to grow with much interest in her visions and music, some of which has been unfortunately hijacked by the New Age movement. In this century, the Catholic Church has finally given formal recognition to Hildegard as a saint, naming her a Doctor of the Church.

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