The word “Polymath” is one that gets used for quite a few people that are already residents of the Fools Gallery, but I don’t think anyone deserves that title more than the mystic and visionary medieval abbess Hildegard of Bingen. Given to service god by her parents at a young age, Hildegard didn’t start to flourish and share her uniqueness until middle age. Someone who would have been an extraordinary person at any period of history, Hildegard has something for every one of us to admire. An absolute favourite and someone who stands tall in the Fools Gallery.
Care for some musical accompaniment while you scan through the Show Notes? By all means, have a listen to some music composed by Aunt Hildy!
Show Notes
- Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age by Fiona Maddocks – My favourite Biography of Hildegard
- Hildegard of Bingen – Selected Writings
- Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen by Matthew Fox – Well worth grabbing for the illustrations alone
- Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works: With Letters and Songs edited by Matthew Fox – This is great and has some of her more notorious letters
- Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader by Carmen Acevedo Butcher
- How two women pulled off a medieval manuscript heist in post-war Germany
- The Riesencodex – Translate the page
- International Society of Hildegard of Bingen Studies
- Hildegard of Bingen: Mystic of the Rhine
- Hildegard of Bingen – World History Encyclopedia
- Hildegard of Bingen: Essential Writings and Chants of a Christian Mystic-Annotated & Explained by Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook
- Mystics by William Harmless
- Great Lives – Hildegard of Bingen – BBC Radio
- Hildegard of Bingen: Visions and Validation
- The Physics of Angels: Exploring the Realm Where Science and Spirit Meet by Matthew Fox & Rupert Sheldrake
- Scivias Summary and Images – Great to see some of the images in Scivias
- Hildegard of Bingen: More Than a Visionary, an Authority
- Physica – Nature’s Healing Power
- Hildegard von Bingen’s Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing
- The Fiery Cosmic Egg of Hildegard von Bingen
- Magic in the Works of Hildegard von Bingen by George Radimersky
- Hildegard of Bingen Music
- Richardis von Stade
- Cookies? How about some of Hildegard’s Cookies of Joy! Thanks to Lorie for the reminder!
- Hildegard of Bingen’s Lingua Ignota – Esoterica
- Hildegard of Bingen’s Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion by Sarah L. Higley
- Ecstasy: A Devotional Guide to the Female Mystics by Vanessa Irene – This is short but excellent
- Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind by Graham Hancock – I think this is Graham’s best work by a mile
- Bread of Dreams: Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Europe by Piero Camporesi – Awesome book
- When God Was a Bird: Christianity, Animism, and the Re-Enchantment of the World by Mark Wallace
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks – A bit on Hildegard and migraines in this one
- Hildegard Hot Takes – Twitter Account
- Hildegard von Bingen Pendant – My Necklace as given to me by
- Kue Varo – Wonderful person, fantastic artist! Thank you, friend!
What Magic is This? 
Hello, Douglas!
I’m listening to your podcast and really getting a lot out of it. I have a personal distaste for that particular branch of Christianity, but have admired Hildegard’s fierceness nonetheless. That she’s a patron saint of late bloomers and polymaths gives me validation of my own journey as a late bloomer. It seems that I am at a point in my life where I am open to new possibilities. I retired from my IT job 6 months ago and am casting about for direction. Full time work really removed me from persuing many of the interests I had when I was younger. I dipped into my savings to buy 5 years of retirement credit, and am really glad I did. I have time and money to do what I really want to accomplish.
I am glad that you did an entire solo episode on this incredible woman. I know her from her music and her Cookies of Joy recipe. Ironically, I was stationed near the areas that she visited and preached in Germany, and now have an excuse to revisit that part of Germany (I was stationed near Kaiserslautern). I am going to do some deep digging to learn more about her, and how the people of the middle ages lived relatively harmoniously with what we call ‘nature’ now. Your observation about nature only existing to those who are separated from it struck a chord. I also like the idea that veriditas being a form of animism- another aspect of this world I am studying.
What really got my attention was the use of the phrase “Living Light”. I had not heard it used in context with Hildegard before today. What’s really synchrondipitous is that I have the phrase “living light” translated into Vulcan and tattooed on my upper arm in Vulcan script. I’d asked a conlanger (constructed language enthusiast) to translate that English phrase into Vulcan, where it came out as ‘light with life’. Even better, I had a lovely faience blue Ankh symbol tattooed over the script, and the word ‘light’ fills the loop, and ‘life’ is on the stem.
Suffice it to say that I am getting all sorts of solid directional signals from this episode. And I’m going to have to check out your other shows, too. As a Mage (MAgical GEneralist!) I enjoy learning about some of the more interesting aspects of magical practice (Babalon anyone?) but get a lot more from the ‘out of the Magic box’/ Fools Gallery subjects like St. Hildegard. Magic is everywhere, and it’s real. And you don’t need to swan around in Renfaire garb with a wand, a sword and all the smells-n-bells that have become almost stereotypical in some circles.
This might not be a popular opinion, but if a magician can’t be rousted out of bed, yardwork, or shopping to do some magic work that is needed NOW, with decades of study and practice under their belt, maybe it’s time to re-examine motives and purpose. Being a late bloomer means having the ability to do magical stuff off the cuff, because you trust your gut, your Spirit Posse, your inner compass and all the other talents and insights you’ve accumulated over the years.
Again, I want to thank you for a wonderful and insightful episode. It was a very pleasant listen, and I hope to stash it in my own archives if possible. Wishing you and yours all the best!
Sunfell (Lorie Johnson)
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Wonderful to hear Lorie! So glad that you enjoyed the episode!
Hope that the other episodes are interesting to you as well! Ah yeah! Her Cookies! I’ll add a link to the Show Notes! Thank you for the reminder! 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing, I loved it! Hope the searching for direction goes great, I know it will!
All the best, all ways and happy holidays!
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