(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
She was a remarkable woman, a “first” in many fields, at a time when
few women wrote. Hildegard, known as “Sybil of the Rhine,” produced
major works of theology and visionary writings. When few women were
accorded respect, she was consulted by and advised bishops, popes, and
kings. She used the curative powers of natural objects for healing. She
also wrote treatises about natural history and medicinal uses of
plants, animals, trees and stones. She is the first composer whose
biography is known. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical
plays were performed. Although not yet canonized, Hildegard has been
beatified, and is frequently referred to as St. Hildegard. Revival of
interest in this extraordinary woman of the middle ages was initiated
by musicologists and historians of science and religion. Today’s New
Age music bears some resemblance to Hildegard’s ethereal airs. Her
story is important to all students of medieval history and culture, an
inspirational account of an irresisible spirit and vibrant intellect
overcoming social, physical, cultural and gender barriers to achieve
timeless transcendence.
Her scientific views were derived from the ancient Greek cosmology of
the four elements—fire, air, water, and earth—with their complementary
qualities of heat, dryness, moisture, and cold, and the corresponding
four humours in the body—choler (yellow bile), blood, phlegm, and
melancholy (black bile). Human constitution was based on the
preponderance of one or two of the humours. Indeed, we still use words
“choleric,” “sanguine,” “phlegmatic,” and “melancholy” to describe
personalities.
Sicknesses upset the delicate balance of the humours, and only by
consuming the right plant or animal, which had the quality the sick
person was missing, could healthy balance be restored to the body. That
is why in giving descriptions of plants, trees, birds, animals, or even
stones, Hildegard is mostly concerned in describing that object’s
quality and giving its medicinal use. Thus, “Reyan (tansy) is hot and a
little damp and is good against all superfluous flowing humours, and
whoever suffers from catarrh and has a cough, let him eat tansy. It
will bind humors so that they do not overflow, and thus will lessen.”
Hildegard’s writings are also unique for their generally positive view
of sexual relations and her description of pleasure from the point of
view of a woman. They contain the first description of the female
orgasm. “When a woman is making love with a man, a sense of heat in her
brain, which brings 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 the 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.”
She also wrote, “Strength of semen determined the sex of the child,
while the amount of love and passion determine the child’s disposition.
The worst case, where the seed is weak and parents feel no love, leads
to a bitter daughter.”