Mystical Visions by Hildegard von Bingen

I was first introduced to Abbess Hildegard von Bingen’s work in Feather on the Breath of God, a most profoundly beautiful pre-Gregorian Chant like work for female voice, that I heard first on NPR’s Music from the Hearts of Space.  Hildegard seems to be of interest to both the Christian mystic and to the New Age mystic.  In her Mystical Visions, translated from Scivias by Bruce Hozeski, we can glean a true sense of what this incredible mind what truly about, albeit strongly edited of any Christian

Was she edited of her Christian voice?  Perhaps not entirely but of some of her revoicing of things that were important to her.  Barbara Hand Clow, the editor, writes in her introductory note: “Many Hildegard admirers, myself included, feel that Hildegard expressed herself very powerfully and individually, and then attempted to justify her thought by presenting supportive ideas from other sources – such as the Gospels, patriarchs, and prophets, or by citing the Church opinion of her day.”  She goes on, “We found the elimination of much supportive and repetitive text caused a clearer and more visionary text to emerge.  The remaining commentary material was retained because it is fascinating in light of Hildegard’s text.”

Let me back up a few paragraphs in the editor’s note.  She claims that Professor Bruce Hozeski “offered her the opportunity to publish the complete translation of Scivias”.  After consultation, they decided on an edited version because their mutual goal was “to present Hildegard’s visionary experience totally in a book of reasonable length and readability.  Hildegard’s mystical journey is of extreme subtlety and importance, and the publication of Scivias in an affordable edition in English is a long-awaited event.”  So do I, but I am so disappointed that it was not complete and that the reader was not allowed to decide for him or herself what was justification and what was integral to her vision.

Hildegard was visionary and she was breathtakingly gifted & brilliant.  She was writing music before most anyone else was writing music and it can still launch one’s heart into leaps of joy and rapture, so lovely, so ecstatically, enthrallingly lovely.  We can’t know with certainty what her motives were when she wrote it nor where her heart was but we know where she gave the credit.  Eight hundred years ago, at a time when women were not frequently given much opportunity for educational work much less for ecclesiastical work, Hildegard “influenced thousands during her lifetime”.

Yet even this book, if it’s effort was to separate it’s New Age counterparts from it’s Christian counterparts, could not do so with complete success.  Hildegard’s struggle to know God and to search for God’s heart is here.  On p. 122, in Vision Five:48, she quotes Leviticus 27:28 and asks, “What does this mean?”  and “Why is this done”  And her question goes on for the next 2 paragraphs.  These sorts of questions do not stand alone but are not in the majority.  Perhaps it might have been thought, even in her own mind, to have been to heretical to have asked them at that time.

There is such beauty in her writing, such reverence to her God, to her world and it’s inhabitants, but especially her vision of God.  In Vision 2, she wrote, “Next I saw a very bright light, and in it there was a person who was the color of a sapphire.  The bright light signifies God who is without any blemish of illusion, defect, and falsehood.  The person signifies the Word who is without any blemish of hard-heartedness, ill will, and unfairness.  The Word was begotten before time according to the divinity of God, but the Word was made flesh afterwards in time according to the humanity of the world.”

There is also an apocalyptic sense about her writing, too.  In referring to Revelation 13:3, she responds in Vision Eleven:32, “I, a lover of the mysteries of God, say this false and evil-speaking one surround all the holiness of the holy ones with great and innumerable injustices, harassing their holiness with many faults.  I also saw the following: this evil one uses the craft of his own lies and pretends to pour out his own blood and to die.  He does not actually do this in his own body but does so in a false shadow which make it look like he has been struck through and is dying.”

In Vision Eleven: 39, “A dark, almost malignant side writing: A stinking fog then covered this mountain and enveloped this head with great filth.  The fog stayed around the mountain for a while.  The people who were standing nearby were very frightened.  This refers to the fact that a most unclean and infernal stink will fill up the whole place where the one who exalted himself had been.  And this evil one had boiled up such great uncleanness that even after the last judgment of God had cast him down, it was not possible to measure the time of his beginning nor his end.”

This book is beautifully illustrated with pen and ink drawings by Angela Werneke and translated by Bruce Hoseski, professor of English at Ball State University in Muncie IN.  He is founder and past president of the Hildegard von Bingen Society. 

Dave Burrows