'scivias' - know the ways of God.
Self Portrait- Hildegard receiving visions with her secretary Volmar.For Hildegard, knowing the ways of God was a very physical, Semitic experience. There is a degree of bodily presence in her work that you don't find in any other medieval work. Her visions consisted of sound and optical effects, bodily sensation of 'great joy and great pain', which were eccentric and personal. In response to these she created her own set of forms / language.
" to write not by the constraints of human composition but by what you see and what you hear."
Neither her writing, music or illustrations follow the norms. Yet at the time of creation her work was popular and well studied - neglect of her work only came later on.
-Her writing was considered, by herself, to be abysmal, hence the use of Volmar, her secretary.
-Some, now attribute her visions to migraines, such as Madeline Caviness.
- Her illustrations are closely tied to the words of the vision and also relate to the body / female sexuality and eroticism ( Hildegard's work on medical texts would have supplied similar imagery).
- Hildegard considered 'visions' and eroticism to exist within female bodies (winds existing in the womb illustrate this idea) - male sexuality was not greatly considered by Hildegard, as for her, eroticism could exist in the female body alone. Her illustrations somewhat eroticses both spiritual and sexual female experience.
- Hidegard talks of forms of gender ahead of her time- of the female becoming male and vis a versa.
- She talks of the fluidity of the body- eroticism flowing out of the female body and into other things.
- Spirituality / sexuality = pleasure and pain.
Childbirth = creation of the world / spirit compared to the Apocalypse in terms of pain levels.
This pain / pleasure relationship also present within her music - music jumping octaves (uncommon musical composition)
The 'Egg of Creation' - the universe. (From Scivias, in the Rupertsberg Codex, 12th Century,Cited in Alexander Roob, Alchemy & Mysticism, p. 120)
"Then I saw a huge object, round and shadowy. Like an egg it was pointed at the top... Its surrounding layer was bright fire (Empyreum). Beneath this lay a dark skin. In the bright fire hovered a reddish, sparkling fireball..."
Note: - earth at the centre, with flowing water and stones, Flames / winds circling the centre.
Ideas of eroticism spreading out from the womb relate to her ideas about the universe and can be seen within the above image.
'Moisture'- also very important = creation / pregnancy, 'the womb'
Creation = motion (repetition of the stars at the top create the effect of movement)
Images capture the physical experience - How do you capture noise?- the whirlwinds etc.
Stars - used in a number of ways - symbolic of those who inhabit creation.
The trinity - feathers, branches and straw' - shown as united in one column.
Order and structure in her images = layers of the universe / heaven.
Above image (ignore inserted text) - shows God at the cornerstone of heaven. An unknown being of wrath and wings- image suggests a tempestuous horrible noise.
The Creation of Eve (image not available). Hildegard still shows Eve to be created from Adams rib and is still shown to be responsible for the fall- though is clearly violated by evil.
Eve- shown as partly a cloud (containing stars)- holding all the world inside her.
Stars - stars of heaven = future race.
Hildegard talks of the fecundity of the female body and the fecundity of the creation of the universe.
"the greening coming to life"
- relation to the ground and to nature. Idea of disrupted cycles in nature disrupting humanity.
Above image = figure of the church as wisdom and body. A female form emiting a light- illuminating wings, with Virgin Mary's arms of flames.
Hildegard nutured the expression of femlae wisdom and song- she believed that men had already seen these things but failed to listen.
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