Hildegard of Bingen's Spiritual Remedies

Rating:
Summary: Practical application of ancient healing wisdom
Review: Hildegard of Bingen, also called the Sybil of the Rhine, was a great mystic, poet, musician and healer in 12th century Germany. An early holistic practitioner, she used stones, crystals, herbs, words and music in her healing art. Strehlow's book is based upon Hildegard's Book Of Values In Life, in which she discusses 35 risk factors that are harmful to humanity plus the 35 healing forces that counteract these negatives.

The book makes the connection between physical illness and the sickness of the soul and recommends Hildegard's spiritual remedies instead of surgery, chemical treatment and radiation. The mind controls the body, in particular the autonomic nervous system and all major systems like digestion, sexuality and the immune system. This ties in with modern theories on spiritual healing, like psycho-neuro-immunology. Hildegard's wisdom connects the 35 vertebrae of the spinal cord to the aforementioned 35 spiritual forces of the human body, making clear the connection to every organ.

These 35 factors are discussed in chapters 3 - 7: The Eastman, The Westman, the Northman, The Southman and The New Elders' Ascent To The Summit under sections titled Crystal Therapy, Harmful Words, Healing Words, Organ Relationship and Spiritual Healing. Chapter 6: Fasting, deals with fasting as a way to discover one's true personality. Throughout, the importance of the unity of the body, mind, and soul is stressed. Good health is the result of the right ordering of the relationship of the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual dimensions into a harmonious whole.

For a general introduction and overview of Hildegard's various writings, I recommend the book Selected Writings: Hildegard of Bingen (Penguin Classics) by Mark Atherton. I would also like to recommend the CD Monk And The Abbess. This remarkable album contains four of her compositions: O Quam Mirabilis (Antiphon for the Creator), O Ecclesia (Sequence for St. Ursula), O Clarissima Mater (Responsory for the Virgin) and Tu Illustrata (Antiphon for the Virgin), exquisitely performed by the great musician Meredith Monk. Monk and the Abbess is a highly inspiring album and should appeal to those who appreciate vocal medieval and classical music.

In The Spiritual Remedies, Strehlow succeeds in making accessible the wisdom and insight of this medieval visionary in a practical and useful manner, highly relevant to our time. The text is enhanced with plenty of black and white illustrations. The book contains biographical notes on the author and on Hildegard and concludes with an extensive bibliography and a thorough index.

Rating:
Summary: A little doctrinaire, but very interesting
Review: Wighard Strehlow has provided a good look at the writings on human health of Hildegard of Bingen, the famous twelfth-century Benedictine nun and mystic.

The focus of this work is basically on attempting to understand the social prblems we are faced with today in terms of the modern Western way of life and how it fails to satisfy what he sees as basic human needs. Essentially, whilst Strehlow does directly refer a good deal to the writings of Hildegard herself, the greater part of this book by far is concerned with his own interpretation of what there things mean for people today. Strehlow certainly believe that the charatceristic remedies proposed in Hildegard's writings - fasting, wearing rough and scratchy clothing and hard physical exercise - will solve the spiritual problems that undoubtedly do plague our culture today. The tone of the book indeed is extremely modern, even postmodern

However, it is fair to say that the book tends to apply Hildegard's findings in a quite literal manner that moves from its generally modern character to a very different world - which Strehlow however does seem to appreciate. He manages in a quite interesting, even thought-provoking way to link up Hildegard's work to the most modern physics and biology, as well as study the findings of dietitians very clearly.

It is fair to say though, that for all its scientific postmodernism, Strehlow is very doctrinaire, at times resembling a Vatican spokesperson. However, the book is still worthwhile reading for the way in which it illustrates a very different system of understanding both physical and spiritual disorders that plague our culture today.