Born in 1098 in the Rheinhessen area of Germany, the tenth child of noble parents, she began having divinely inspired visions at the age of six and her parents entrusted her at the age of eight to a Benedictine sister, Jutta von Sponheim, at the Disibodenberg cloister near Kreuznach, where she eventually became a nun at the age of sixteen. When Jutta died she was chosen to replace her as abbess. After 35 years in this position, she began having daily illuminations. Hildegard became famous overnight when Pope Eugene III read her first book, Scivias, and authorized its content.
In 1999 Germany celebrated the 900th anniversary of the birth of St Hildegard von Bingen, whose many works had languished for centuries. They had begun to realize her potential for drawing tourists, as her works were beginning to draw worldwide attention, rather than accept the value of the works themselves.
Here are some quotations and comments from her writings which are especially worth noting:-:-
Our eyes are a mirror reflecting the mood of the soul. Bright eyes are signs of life. If someone is physically healthy, he or she has clear and sparkling eyes. Dull eyes are signs of death!
The ear plays an important part in body metabolism resulting from an interplay with the liver. Hildegard sees a direct relationship between that which the ear hears and the metabolism of the liver. The sounds of loud disco music can not only hurt the ear, but also perforate the liver like Swiss cheese. Good music, on the other hand, normalizes the low metabolism of depressed persons and fills them with joy …..
Whenever the blood vessels come into contact with body fluids which have been shocked in such a manner, then they also reach the vessels of the ears and now and then affect the hearing capability, because often a person earns health or sickness with hearing; similarly, the person is overjoyed with happiness, but with misfortune falls into deep sorrow.
For some people heart pain can be a warning to reflect on their emotions and their beliefs, or to completely change their way of life. Whenever you feel pain in your heart, spleen or side, parsley-honey wine is a great help. Think about your lifestyle. Throw away your cigarettes. Do not work so hard at night. Perhaps you require more exercise, hiking or walking. Do not over-eat. One who is oversensitive to the remarks of others is constantly irritating the heart. Concentrating on materialistic rather than spiritual matters, such as money-making or money-losing, creates turmoil instead of peace. Confront anger and other negative thought patterns. Release your negative energy and develop a spiritual attitude. And take the parsley-honey wine!
Overeating, or a diet saturated with fat or raw foods, can damage the heart muscle. In addition to heart pain, such excesses can cause fatigue, mood changes, possible loss of weight, and sometimes loss of consciousness.
Those who have such a severe heart pain that their heart feels like it is barely hanging by a thread, take Yellow Gentian [Gentiana lutea], two to three pinches daily in a [spelt flour] soup and their heart will be strengthened.
It is a good rule not to start any meal with fruit or salad. Start dinner with soup, and eat salad with the rest of the meal.
For a physically healthy person it is good and healthy to forego breakfast until before mid-day, or around noon, because it improves the digestion. For the sick, frail and physically run-down, it is good and healthy to breakfast in the mornings at least to gain some strength from the nourishment, which one might not have had otherwise.
Spelt porridge, spelt bread and spelt coffee constitute the ideal breakfast.
The food which provides growth to human tissues is digested in the first night after consumption. Food providing strength for the intestines [and endocrine glands] is assimilated on the first day after consumption …… The food which contributes energy to the liver is digested on the second day. Foods invigorating the spleen are digested on the third day. But the food nourishing heart and blood finishes its digestion on the tenth day, because heart and blood rely on almost the same energy.
Laxatives, with their sudden elimination, destroy the health of the intestinal tract and cause malnutrition in other organs.
Psyllium is preferable to linseeds, as these steal vitamins and calcium from the body.
Spelt is the food of the future.
Faulty metabolism may be caused by environmental stress and poor nutrition.
Keep smiling.
No other mental disturbance is as debilitating to a person as rage.
If anyone has been provoked to anger or sadness, quickly heat up wine to boiling, then mix with a small amount of cold water. This is how the anger-causing substances are neutralized.
If the human soul feels that its body is being menaced, then the heart, the liver and the vessels constrict. Hereby a sort of ‘cloudiness’ will arise from the heart and envelop it in darkness. This is how humans become sad.
As a person sleeps, the marrow within the spine regenerates.
Craving and curiosity for new and unfamiliar foods and drinks may be the origin of the runny nose. The body, in its wisdom, tries to eliminate the resulting toxins as liquids through the nose. This cleansing is just as important as digestion and elimination, and should never be blocked by nose-drops etc.
Whenever the blood in the vessels is not awake and lively, but rather just lies there as if it were sleeping, and also when the body liquids do not move fast enough, but are lazy and slow, the soul notices this and causes the body to tremble through sneezing and in this way wakes up the blood and juices of the person so that they return to their correct behaviour. If water is not moved through storms and floods, it will foul. In the same way a person, who would not sneeze or blow the nose to clean it, will foul from the inside!
Those who desire strong, healthy teeth should rinse the mouth with fresh (cold), clean water immediately upon rising in the morning. Brush your teeth often and repeatedly with cold clean water. The build-up of film will not increase and your teeth will be strong and healthy.
Whoever is burned anywhere on the body should cook linseeds vigorously in water, soak a sterile (ironed) linen cloth in this water, place it warm on the burned spot, and it will draw out the burn ….. (replace as soon as it dries out or becomes unpleasantly cold). The linseed compress is a simple and safe method of treatment for all ordinary household burns, which often happen in the kitchen. Even 3rd-degree burns with charred skin and scabs can be brought under control. Burns due to radiation, including X-rays, will likewise show good results with a linseed compress.
When the ‘heat’ which has caused the actual burn damage has been drawn out and there is a normal skin wound left, the linseed-water bandage should be removed and the usual burn salves used. After the skin is restored, there remains only a normal wound like other skin wounds.
The chestnut, like spelt and fennel, is totally healthful and relieves all infirmities in people, as Hildegard says. Chestnuts are an extremely helpful brain food for people who develop arteriosclerosis, particularly sclerosis of the brain, including Alzheimer’s disease, with symptoms such as loss of memory, dizziness, arteriosclerotic headache etc.
A person whose brain is empty and dry, and who is therefore weak in the head, should cook chestnuts in water (20 - 30 minutes) and eat them often (daily). The brain will improve and be filled up, and the nerves will be strengthened, and in this way the head affliction will vanish.
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