Hildegard von Bingen > Quotes

“She is so bright and glorious that you cannot look at her face or her garments for the splendor with which she shines. For she is terrible with the terror of the avenging lightning, and gentle with the goodness of the bright sun; and both her terror and her gentleness are incomprehensible to humans.... But she is with everyone and in everyone, and so beautiful is her secret that no person can know the sweetness with which she sustains people, and spares them in inscrutable mercy.”
― Hildegard von Bingen

“Like billowing clouds,
Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.”
― Hildegard von Bingen

“The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. This Word manifests itself in every creature.”
― Hildegard of Bingen

“Dare to declare who you are. It is not far from the shores of silence to the boundaries of speech. The path is not long, but the way is deep. You must not only walk there, you must be prepared to leap.”
― St. Hildegard of Bingen

“I am the fiery life of the essence of God; I am the flame above the beauty in 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.”
― Hildegard of Bingen

“We cannot live in a world interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a hope. Part of the terror is to take back our listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.”
― Hildegard of Bingen

“Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars. Gaze at the beauty of the Earth's greenings. Now, think.”
― Hildegard von Bingen

“There is the music of Heaven in all things.”
― Hildegard of Bingen

“I so loved the nobility of your character, your wisdom, your chastity, your spirit, and indeed every aspect of your life that many people have said to me: What are you doing?”
― Hildegard of Bingen, The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen, Vol. 3

“But when the sun drops closer to the earth, the cold of the earth runs to it from the water and causes all green things to dry up. And because the sun has dropped closer to the earth, the days are short, and it is winter.”
― Hildegard of Bingen, Selected Writings

“And I saw a light-filled man emerge from the aforesaid dawn and pour his brightness over the aforementioned darkness; it repulsed him; he turned blood-red and pallid, but struck back against the darkness with such force that the man who was lying in the darkness became visible and resplendent.”
― Hildegard of Bingen, Selected Writings

“The dark membrane contained also a dark fire of such horror that I was unable to perceive it properly. The horror buffeted the dark membrane with a massive impact of sounds and storms and sharp stones great and small.2 Whenever the noise arose it set in motion the layer of bright fire, winds and air, thus causing bolts of lightning to presage the sounds of thunder; for the fiery energy senses the first agitations of the thunder within it.”
― Hildegard of Bingen, Selected Writings

“The soul is the greening life force of the flesh, for the body grows and prospers through her, just as the earth becomes fruitful when it is moistened. The soul humidifies the body so it does not dry out, just like the rain which soaks into the earth.”
― Hildegarde of Bingen

“Underneath all the texts, all the sacred psalms and canticles, these watery varieties of sounds and silences, terrifying, mysterious, whirling and sometimes gestating and gentle must somehow be felt in the pulse, ebb, and flow of the music that sings in me. My new song must float like a feather on the breath of God.”
― Hildegard of Bingen

“The model provided by biblical parables is strongly influential in the following story, from Scivias I, 2, 32, in which Hildegard develops her motif of the ‘pearl’ as a symbol for humanity: The same lord who lost his sheep but so gloriously restored it to its life, also owned a costly pearl. The same happened again: the pearl was lost, and it fell into the ugly dirt. But he did not leave it lying in the dirt. He lifted it out carefully, and he cleaned it of the mud into which it had fallen, like gold purified in the furnace. He restored it to its former beauty till it gleamed even brighter than before. The probable sources of this story reveal something of Hildegard’s methods as a maker of new narratives. The basic message is the same as that of the parable of the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18:12–14), but she draws on other New Testament passages such as the parable of the Costly Pearl for which a merchant sold everything he had (Matthew 13:45–6). There is perhaps also an echo of the command not to ‘cast your pearls before swine’ (Matthew 7:6), since if they lie in the mud they are useless. Taken together these echoes of Hildegard’s biblical reading blend into a new motif which she can add to the storehouse of her memory and bring out for use when appropriate.18”
― Hildegard of Bingen, Selected Writings

“Nevertheless, if someone has an empty brain—and because of this is vexed by insanity, and is delerious—take the whole grains of wheat and cook them in water. Remove these cooked grains from the water, and place them around his whole head, tying a cloth over them. His brain will be reinvigorated by their vital fluid, and he may recover his health and strength. Do this until he returns to his right mind. If”
― Hildegard of Bingen, Hildegard von Bingen's Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing

“For Hildegard, the human soul is ‘symphonic’; music is part of the profound nature of the spirit, by which a human being can recall the heavenly harmony and ‘divine sweetness and praise by which with the angels, Adam was”
― Hildegard of Bingen, Selected Writings

“Reason is the root, through which the resonant word flourishes.”
― Hildegard von Bingen

“O most honored Greening Force, You who roots in the Sun;
You who lights up, in shining serenity, within a wheel
that earthly excellence fails to comprehend.
You are enfolded
in the weaving of divine mysteries.
You redden like the dawn
and you burn: flame of the Sun.”
― Hildegard von Bingen, Holistic Healing

“But one whose face has hard and rough skin, made harsh from the wind, should cook barley in water and, having strained that water through a cloth, should bathe his face gently with the moderately warm water. The skin will become soft and smooth, and will have a beautiful color. If a person’s head has an ailment, it should be washed frequently in this water, and it will be healed. V.”
― Hildegard of Bingen, Hildegard von Bingen's Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing

“When a woman is making love with a man, a sense of heat in her brain, which brings forth with it sensual delight, communicates the taste of that delight during the act and summons forth the emission of the man's seed. And when the seed has fallen into its place, that vehement heat descending from her brain draws the seed to itself and holds it, and soon the woman's sexual organs contract and all parts that are ready to open up during the time of menstruation now close, in the same way as a strong man can hold something enclosed in his fist.”
― Hildegard of Bingen

“Beryl: Beryl is a warm gemstone which develops, between the third hour and midday, from the foam of water when the sun burns it severely. Its power is thus more from air and water than from fire, but nevertheless it has some of the properties of fire. And if a man has drunk or eaten poison, then he should place a little beryl in spring water and drink it at once. Continue for five days drinking it once a day while fasting, and the poison will foam up through vomiting, or it will pass out of him through the rear.”
― Hildegard of Bingen, Selected Writings

“You are a terror to the unlawful foolishness of the world…”
― Hildegard of Bingen

“Sed et anima hominis symphoniam in se habet et symphonizans est, unde etiam multotiens plantus educit, cum symphoniam audit, quoniam de patria in exilium se missam meminit.”
― Hildegard of Bingen

“For eternity is called the “Father,” the Word is called the “Son,” and the breath that binds both of them together is called the “Holy Spirit.”
― Hildegard of Bingen, Hildegard of Bingen's Book of Divine Works: With Letters and Songs

“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.”
― Hildegard von Bingen

“When deeply sad, eat sufficiently of suitable foods to be refreshed, as sadness weighs heavily.”
― Hildegard von Bingen, Causae et Curae: An English Translation of Causes and Cures

“Hildegard, the human soul is ‘symphonic’; music is part of the profound nature”
― Hildegard von Bingen, Selected Writings

“For the juice of mallow dissolves melancholy,”
― Hildegard von Bingen, Causae et Curae: An English Translation of Causes and Cures

“A person eating in winter’s cold should choose a tempered place, neither too hot nor too cold, and eat tempered foods, neither too hot nor too cold, to maintain health.”
― Hildegard von Bingen, Causae et Curae: An English Translation of Causes and Cures