Hildegard von Bingen: In Praise of Creation

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IN PRAISE OF CREATION

The Cosmic Egg (from Sciiuas I, 3)

A famous image in Hildegard’s work is that of the ‘cosmic egg’, a survey of the cosmos whichforms the third vision of thefirst book o/Scivias.

This vision is descriptive, but also highly allegorical, and it is worth noting
that although each detail of the description represents a physical object in Hildegard’s universe, she also attaches afurther significance to it in the life offaith and the events of history.

In so doing she implies that human life and the universe are closely and inextricably connected, as microcosm and macrocosm.

This ties in with her exalted view of the human being in Scivias 1, 3, 17 (translated below), a characteristic attitude of the twelfth-century Renaissance.

The cosmic egg After these things I saw a huge form, rounded and shadowy, and shaped like an egg; it was pointed at the top, wide in the middle and narrower at the bottom.

Its outer layer consisted of an atmosphere of bright fire with a kind of dark membrane beneath it.

And in that outer atmosphere there was a ball of red fire so large that all the
huge form was lit up by it.

Directly above the fireball was a vertical row of three lights which held it with their fire and energy and prevented it from falling.

At times the fireball rose upwards and was met by more fire, which caused it to shoot out great long flames.

At times, however, the fireball moved downwards and encountered a region of great cold that caused it quickly to retract its flames.

From the outer atmosphere of fire, a wind blew storms.

And from the dark membrane beneath, another wind raged with further storms which moved out in all directions on the globe.

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.

Below the dark layer, however, was the purest of ether with no membrane beneath it.

Here also I saw a fireball, of great magnitude, filled with white-shining energy; it had two lights placed above it which held it and prevented it from passing beyond the circuit of its course.

Situated everywhere throughout the ether were many bright spheres, into which the white fireball discharged its energy at regular intervals.

It then rose up again to the red fireball where it recharged its fires and sent them forth again into the bright spheres.

The ether also contained a wind, which poured out its storms and extended them all over the cosmos.

Beneath the ether I could see a layer of watery air, which had a white membrane beneath it.

It spread out everywhere, giving off water to the whole of the world.

At times it accumulated quickly and sent out a sudden fall of rain with a great crash.

But when it spread gently it sent forth soft rain with only gentle agitation.

But from it there came a wind and storms which spread all over the globe.

And in the middle of these elements there was a sandy ball of great size which was so surrounded by these elements that it could not move in any direction.

However, when the winds collided with the elements, the force
of their impact set the whole world in motion a little.

And I saw between the north and the east the likeness of a great mountain, which showed great areas of darkness towards the north and a great light towards the east.

The darkness could not affect the light nor the light the darkness.

And again I heard a voice speaking to me from heaven.

Invisible and eternal things are made known through visible and temporal things God, who created all things in his will, made them so that his name would be known and honoured.

Through his creation he not only makes known visible and temporal things but also invisible and eternal things.

Such matters are shown in this vision which you see.

The significance of the cosmos made in the likeness of an egg ‘I saw a huge form, rounded and shadowy, and shaped like an egg; it was pointed at the top, wide in the middle and narrower at the bottom.’

The large form which you see represents, on the level of faith, the omnipotent God, incomprehensible in his majesty, inconceivable in his mysteries, the hope of all the faithful. It was pointed at the top because at first human activity was naive and simple; later in the Old and New Testaments it became more wide-ranging; finally towards the end of the world it is to endure the narrow constriction of many troubles.

The position of the sun and the three stars and their significance
‘And in that outer atmosphere there was a ball of red fire so large that all the huge form was lit up by it.’

With the splendour of his brightness he shows that in God the Father is his ineffable firstborn son, the Sun of Justice, shining with burning love in such glory that all of creation was lit up by the brightness of his light.

‘Directly above the fireball was a vertical row of three lights which held it with their fire and energy and prevented it from falling.’

The function of the three lights is to show that when God’s Son descended from heaven to earth leaving the angels above him, he made known the things of the heavens to human beings existing in soul and body.

By following his light they glorify him, casting all harmful error from them.

They praise him as the true Son of God, who became incarnate of the true Maiden when the angel proclaimed him to them and when the human being – alive in soul and body – received him with faith and joy.

The sandy ball of the earth and its significance ‘And in the middle of these elements there was a sandy ball of great size which was so surrounded by these elements that it could not move in any direction.’

The ball represents humanity endowed with the gift of profound contemplation, made in a wonderful manner from the clay of the earth, and living in the strength of the creatures of God.

Human beings are so surrounded by the power of God’s created things that they cannot be separated from them.

The elements of the world are thus created for human beings and render them their service.

In the midst of the elements is the human being presiding over them by divine ordinance.

As David says, inspired by God:

The words ofDavid

‘Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. This means that you, O God, have wonderfully created all things. You have crowned the human being with the splendid golden crown of the understanding and clothed him with the honourable robe of visible beauty. You have made him the ruler over your exalted and perfect works, which you have distributed justly and well throughout your creation. Over all other creatures you have granted the human being high worth and admirable dignity.

The meaning of the earthquake You see in the vision that opposing winds come together, and the force of their impact sets the whole globe in
motion a little.

For when at any given time the creatures of God become involved with the knowledge of their Creator, so that with the sounding of the words one wonder follows another, then human beings, struck by the grandeur of this miracle, tremble in body and soul, pondering, in their wonder at this miracle, their own weakness and frailty.

The Cosmos (from Causes and Cures I)
Causes and Cures, otherwise known as The Book of Compound Medicine, deals with the creation of the cosmos,
the human body, health and the cure of ailments. The opening chapter is particularly interestingfor its
discussion, in a ‘non-prophetic’ style, of matters usually treated by Hildegard in the visions of her more widely
read trilogy.

Though still rooted in the theology of its time, Causes and Cures is also more openly influenced by the philosophical and scientific ideas of the twelfth century.

It sfactual style mirrors the subject-matter, the sentence structure is simpler and clearer, and there is lessfrequent resort to the vivid, but also mysterious, allegorical imagery which figures in the passages on the cosmic eggfrom Scivias (20).

The creation of the world God was, before the creation of the world, without beginning, because he is.

He was and is always light and glory, and he was always life.

So when God wished to create the world, he made it from nothing, because all the material of the world was in his will.

Matter

When God’s will revealed itself, in order to create the whole of reality, just as he wished, the material of the world came out of his will still unformed2 and like a dark mass.

The creation of the angels

And the Father’s word sounded forth: ‘Let there be light’,3 and immediately everything was light and the world was full of angels shining with light. For the words

‘Let there be light’ did not signify individual lights, but rather the specially formed light which is the angels. But when he said: ‘Let there be lights’, this signifies the light of the air which we can see.4

Thefall ofLucifer

Lucifer however saw in the North an empty region not yet filled with creative activity and he intended to set up his seat there, and make more and greater works than God himself, since he did not know of God’s intention to
create other creatures.

He had not seen the face of the Father; he did not know of his power, nor had he tasted his goodness; therefore, before he had experienced any of these things, he tried to rebel against God.

But God had not yet made known these things; he kept them hidden, just as a strong and powerful man will do when he conceals his strength from the others who do not yet know him – until he sees what they think of him and what actions they intend to begin and carry out.

But because Lucifer in his perverse will wished to elevate himself to nothingness, all that he wished to create was indeed nothing, and he fell into it and could not stand since he had no ground beneath him.

Indeed he had no height above him and no depth below him to prevent him from falling. But now, as he stretched forth to grasp at nothing, the inception of this action of stretching forth produced evil, and the evil caught fire within itself, although without any light or brightness, and inflamed by his envy of God,° and it rotated like a wheel turned only by itself, and showed burning darkness within itself.

In this way, good and evil fell apart: good did not touch evil, nor evil good. But God himself remained whole and perfect like a wheel; he remained the Father in goodness, because his fatherhood is full of his goodness.

Therefore his fatherhood is very just and fully good, and at once both strong and stable; and seen in this measure, it is conceived as a wheel.

Now this wheel is in some place, and there is something inside the wheel.

If this wheel had just an outer rim, it would be empty. And if an outsider happened to come and wanted to work there, then he would not be able to, for two craftsmen cannot work at the same time on one single wheel.

Human creature, take a careful look at humankind! Each human being contains heaven and earth and all of creation and yet remains one whole figure, and within every human being all things lie concealed. the earth, and the closer they are to the earth, the brighter they seem to be.

Round the sun also there are other stars of lesser strength and brightness; these are like low valleys in comparison to the majesty of those other luminaries and they therefore appear smaller.

Storms If there is a greater heat and fervour of fire in the ether, then this heat causes a sudden rise and dangerous flooding of the waters, which it sends upon the earth, causing cloudbursts and storms.

It is like the pot over a hot fire suddenly coming to the boil and frothing over.

Frequently these storms occur according to God’s judgement because of wickedness, or because of evil deeds perpetrated by men, or as portents of future dangers such as war, famine, or sudden death.

The reason is that all our actions affect the elements and are in turn
disturbed and influenced by the elements.

But if there is a lesser heat and fervour of fire in the ether, then it causes a much smaller rise and flooding of the waters; this is like a pot over a small fire which only produces a bare minimum of froth and bubbles.

But when the air is temperate with fire and water then it sends forth
moderate weather, just as a pan placed over a moderate fire gives off a mild heat.

But when the sun rises up so that its fire burns vigorously in the height of the heavens, then also the air sometimes becomes dry and arid from the heat of the sun, and the fire of the sun sometimes affects the fire of the thunderstorm. ~Hildegard von Bingen, Selected Writings, Page 128-131

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