My thinking is like that: all is one and ever was "there" (somehow) but it consists of nothing.
How can it be not absolute nothingness?
I look around and see the world, yet it is absolute nothingness?
Do you know what I mean?
I would appreciate very much any help with this weird question 🙏
Hildegard never follows this quotation with a convenient list, so the six plants in the picture are my best candidate. Not an official “top six” given in the Physica.
Why these six? Because their individual chapters use unusually strong language:
- Galangal is “entirely hot,” contains no coldness and is virtuosum—powerful.
- Zedoary is moderately hot and possesses “great power.”
- Cinnamon is very hot, has “strong powers” and reduces harmful humours.
- Nutmeg has great heat and a well-balanced power.
- Clove is very hot, with a pleasant moisture compared to honey.
- Wormwood is very hot and powerful—and is even called principalis magistra ad omnes languores: roughly, “the chief mistress of all ailments.”
So these are Hildegard’s botanical heavy hitters: intensely aromatic, warming, bitter or astringent plants to which she attributes unusually broad effects.
Why could they “restrain many evils”?
In Hildegard’s humoral medicine, a remedy did not necessarily target one named disease. A strongly warming, bitter and aromatic plant could oppose several cold, damp or corrupted humours at once, strengthen digestion and prevent bodily “decay.”
Her word mala—“evils”—also includes a spiritual dimension. She believed malignant spirits disliked these plants and their powers. For her, medicine, nature and the spiritual world were not separate subjects.
And the modern herbalism angle?
The strong aromas really do signal concentrated chemistry: cinnamaldehyde in cinnamon, eugenol in cloves, galangin and related compounds in galangal, sesquiterpenes in zedoary, myristicin and macelignan in nutmeg, and absinthin and thujone in wormwood.
Laboratory research has found antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, analgesic and digestive activity among these compounds. Human evidence is much less even, but there are some interesting signals:
- A small "cinnamon trial in people with prediabetes" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33123653/) reported improved fasting glucose and glucose tolerance.
- In a clinical experiment, "clove gel reduced needle pain" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16530911/) similarly to benzocaine.
- A "ginger–galangal extract" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11710709/) produced a modest reduction in osteoarthritis knee pain.
- A very small "wormwood trial in Crohn’s disease" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17240130/) reported reduced symptoms and steroid requirements.
That does not prove every remedy in the Physica, much less the part about spirits. Nutmeg and zedoary in particular still have mostly preclinical rather than convincing human evidence.
But it supports a narrower and rather interesting idea: extremely aromatic and bitter plants are often pharmacologically active. Hildegard’s sensory method was not modern science, but it was not random either.
Small safety footnote: culinary use is not the same as medicinal dosing. High-dose nutmeg can cause genuine "poisoning" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24452991/), while the EMA warns that thujone-rich "wormwood preparations" (https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/herbal-monograph/final-european-union-herbal-monograph-artemisia-absinthium-l-herba-revision-1\_en.pdf) can be neurotoxic.
Her work "Physica" in original latin:
I collected the Hildegard texts from Migne’s large 1855 Latin collection into one plain-text file. It includes Scivias, The Book of Divine Works, Physica, her letters, and several shorter writings. The file is in Latin, not translated. You can download it, open it on any phone or computer, and search through all the included works at once.
Here are the works seperately: https://monumenta.ch/latein/xanfang.php?n=23
I have prepared a cleaned, searchable UTF-8 text file containing all nine Hildegard-related works and text groups included in volume 197 of Migne’s Patrologia Latina:
Divina Opera, Epistulae, Explanatio Regulae, Explanatio Symboli, Physica, Triginta Octo Quaestionum Solutiones, Scivias, Vita Sancti Disibodi, and Vita Sancti Ruperti.
The 1855 Migne edition is in the public domain. I removed website navigation, parameter URLs, internal sentence numbering, and other technical markers without substantively altering the Latin text. The digital transcription is credited to Monumenta.ch / Corpus Corporum in the file.
Please note that this is the historical Migne text, not a modern critical edition, and it may contain errors, outdated readings, or disputed attributions.
Is it not striking how little importance people attach to food? And yet it should be a central concern in the lives of us all. After all, food gives us the energy we need to live!
I believe this is also why God revealed to St. Hildegard that unbelievers should fast, so that they may receive the strength to believe in God—alongside prayer, genuflections, and acts of self-mortification. They fail to appreciate how precious their food is, and they also fail to recognize that God comes to us through nourishment. Therefore, they should fast so that they may learn to value it again.
I see most people treating their food as though its only purpose were to fill the stomach, and as though it did not matter what they filled it with. Many also pay no attention to the fact that so many people in the world are starving while they themselves grow increasingly overweight. This reveals a lack of awareness of the larger picture.
Nor is it a coincidence that God comes to us through food. According to Catholic teaching, the whole Christ—Jesus Christ, who is God—is contained in a piece of bread. One eats this piece of bread and thereby physically receives God into oneself.
Bread and wine truly contain the blood, sweat, and tears of all humanity. Wars are fought over them—not always directly, but indirectly. After all, we cannot eat our money, nor can we eat our computers. Ultimately, everything in our lives revolves around food, because everyone needs it in order to live.
Reading St. Hildegard’s Physica gives us a different perspective on food and nourishment—one that is urgently needed today.
From what I understand, chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra is the central spiritual practice in the Hare Krishna tradition, or more specifically in Gaudiya Vaishnavism.
Is chanting considered prayer, meditation, or both?
Can you meditate while chanting, or is the chanting itself understood to be the meditation? Do you also practise silent meditation in addition to chanting?
I am asking because, in traditions such as Yogananda’s teachings and Buddhism, silent meditation seems to be at the centre of spiritual life. I am wondering how this compares with the Hare Krishna tradition.
Thank you in advance.
Hare Krishna 🙏
For the original latin texts of physica, liber divinorum operum and scivias:
https://monumenta.ch/latein/xanfang.php?n=23
Causae et curae, latin:
https://archive.org/details/hildegardiscaus00hildgoog
Liber vitae meritorum, latin:
https://archive.org/stream/analectasacrasp05pitrgoog/analectasacrasp05pitrgoog_djvu.txt
Picture: AI-generated illustration inspired by medieval Hildegard manuscript illuminations.
Quelle: Wikimedia CommonsLizenz: CC0 1.0 / Public DomainBild: St. Hildegard von Bingen (attr. Wilhelm Fassbinder, 1898)
„Ein anderes Leben kenne ich nicht als dieses, das ich sehe und berühre und mit den Händen betasten kann. Welchen Lohn sollte mir ein zweifelhaftes Leben geben?
Über dieses Leben aber sage ich: Es ist da — oder es ist nicht da. Und indem ich so suche und wieder suche, sehe, höre und erkenne, finde ich nichts.
Wenn ich aber durch die Erscheinung der Schöpfung manchmal etwas sehe, das mir nützt — was sollte mir daran schaden?
Ich gehe auf keinen Wegen und bewege mich in keiner Wissenschaft, außer in denen, die ich gut kenne. Denn wenn ich auf den Flügeln der Winde fliegen will, werde ich auf die Erde niedergeworfen. Und wenn ich Sonne und Mond frage, was ich tun soll, antworten sie mir nur wenig.
Oder wenn ich irgendeinen Klang höre, weiß ich nicht, ob er mir nützt oder ob er mir schadet. Denn ich weiß nicht, was Vorherwissen/Voraussage ist; nur das, was ich sehe, das weiß ich.
Viele Gerüchte, viele Reden und viele Lehren höre ich, die ich nicht kenne. Darum werde ich tun, was immer für meinen Nutzen am besten ist.“
Später im gleichen Werk:
Über die Buße des Unglaubens
Und ich sah und erkannte dies. Und wiederum hörte ich aus dem vorgenannten lebendigen Licht eine Stimme, die zu mir sagte:
„Das, was du siehst, ist wahr.
Die Menschen aber, die im Unglauben dahinschwinden, sollen — damit sie die Geister überwinden, die ihnen diesen Unglauben eingeben, und damit sie sich aus diesen Strafen herausreißen — sich durch Fasten und Züchtigungen, durch Gebete und Kniebeugen zur Ordnung rufen.
So soll die göttliche Kraft die Taten und Worte des Unglaubens von ihnen abwenden.“
Quelle: Hildegard von Bingen, Liber vitae meritorum / Buch der Lebensverdienste, Pars III.
Lateinischer Text: J.-B. Pitra (Hg.), Analecta Sanctae Hildegardis opera, in: Analecta sacra spicilegio Solesmensi parata, Bd. 8, Monte Cassino, 1882.
Verwendete Stellen:
Pars III, XI, §16 — Verba Infidelitatis / „Worte des Unglaubens“
Pars III, LXI, §77 — De poenitentia infidelitatis / „Über die Buße des Unglaubens“
Online-Text:
https://archive.org/stream/analectasacrasp05pitrgoog/analectasacrasp05pitrgoog\_djvu.txt
Übersetzung: eigene Arbeitsübersetzung aus dem lateinischen Text; keine offizielle veröffentlichte Übersetzung.
Hildegard of Bingen, Physica II.1 — On Air
Air is a breath which, in the dew of humors, sweats into germinating things, so that all things grow green; and through its blowing it brings forth flowers, and through its warmth it strengthens all things toward maturity.
But the air which is nearest to the ordering of the moon and the stars moistens the heavenly bodies, just as earthly air gives life and movement to the earth and to rational and sentient living beings according to their nature; and for this reason it is diminished in itself.
But when those same living beings die, the same air returns to its former state. It is not increased from them or in itself, but remains as it was before.
And the earthly air which moistens the earth makes trees and herbs grow green and move. And when it is in these things, it does not fail in itself; nor, when they are cut off or pulled up and it goes out from them, does it increase in itself, but remains in its state as it was before.
Source: Hildegard of Bingen, Physica II.1, De Aere, ed. Migne, via Monumenta.
Translation mine. Own photo.
Fennel has a pleasant warmth and is neither of a dry nor of a cold nature. Eaten raw, it does not harm a person. And in whatever way it is eaten, it makes a person cheerful, brings pleasant warmth and good sweat, and produces good digestion. Its seed is also of a warm nature and useful for human health, if it is added to other herbs in medicines.
For whoever eats fennel or its seed daily while fasting reduces bad phlegm and corruptions within himself, checks the foul smell of his breath, and makes his eyes see clearly through its good warmth and good powers.
But whoever is troubled by some contrary condition and cannot sleep, if it is summer, let him moderately crush fennel and twice as much yarrow, press out the water, and place these warm herbs around his temples, forehead, and head, and bind a cloth over them. He should also take green sage, sprinkle it moderately with wine, and place it over his heart and around his neck; then his sleep will be relieved.
But if it is winter, let him cook fennel seed and yarrow root in water and place them around the head as described above. And let him put powdered sage, moderately moistened with wine, over his heart and neck, and he will be better.
When someone with grey eyes has dimness and pain in them in some way, while the pain is still recent, let him crush fennel or its seed, take its juice, and also take dew that he finds on upright grass, together with a little fine wheat flour. Let him mix this into a small cake or paste, place it around his eyes at night, bind it with a cloth, and he will be better.
And if someone has eyes like a cloudy mist, neither fully fiery nor fully dark, but somewhat grey-green, and suffers dimness and pain in them, then, if it is summer, let him crush fennel; or if it is winter, let him use crushed fennel seed. Let him place it in clear egg white that has been well skimmed of foam, and when he goes to sleep, let him lay it over his eyes; it will lessen the dimness of the eyes.
If excessive pain has arisen in a person’s nose because of much discharge, let him take fennel and four times as much dill. Let him place them on a stone roof tile, or on a thin brick heated by fire, and turn the fennel and dill this way and that so that they give off fumes. Let him draw this smoke and its scent inward through his nose and mouth, and then eat those heated herbs with bread. He should do this for four or five days, so that the flowing humors may separate more gently.
A person who has a bad livid disorder in his weak stomach should take fennel, and a little more nettle, and twice as much lovage as those two. With a little flour or a little bread, let him make food from these and eat it often; it will take away the bad livid disorder from the weak stomach.
A person whom melancholy harms should crush fennel into juice and often anoint his forehead, temples, chest, and stomach with it; and the melancholy in him will cease.
And if someone has eaten roasted meat, roasted fish, or any other roasted thing, and has pain from it, let him immediately eat fennel or its seed, and he will have less pain.
If at times a very bad swelling rises up from bad humors in a man’s genitals and causes him pain there, let him take fennel, three times as much fenugreek, and a little cow’s butter. Let him crush these together and place them on top; they draw out the bad humors. Then the same man should take the little cakes from which beer is made, moisten them moderately with warm water, warm them, and place them over the swelling mentioned above.
And if a pregnant woman labors greatly in childbirth, then with fear and great moderation let gentle herbs, such as fennel and asarum, be cooked in water. After the water has been pressed out, they should be placed warm around her thighs and back, and gently held there with a cloth tied over them, so that the pain and the closed passages may be released more gently and easily.
A person should also take fennel seed, and half as much galangal, and the same half amount of dittany, and half as much hawkweed as dittany. Let him powder these together and strain the powder through a cloth. A little while after a meal, let him put this powder into warm wine, not boiling wine, and drink it.
This powder keeps a healthy person healthy, strengthens a sick person, prepares digestion, gives strength, and provides a good and beautiful color to the face. It is beneficial to every person, whether healthy or sick, when taken after food.
And if sheep begin to become sick, let him take fennel and more dill, and put them into water so that the water takes on their flavor. Then let him give this to the sick sheep to drink.
Source: Hildegard of Bingen, Physica I.66, De Feniculo, ed. Migne, via monumenta.ch. Translation mine.
Note: This is a historical translation of Hildegard’s text, not modern medical advice.
Image: Foeniculum vulgare C.jpg by Wouter Hagens, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. No changes made.
For me, as a beginner interested in Hinduism, this video brought me a lot of information and inspiration. I really like his objective style of presentation.
I thought some of you might like it, too 🙂
On this website you find the original latin texts to some of her important works like 'physica' and 'divina opera'.
Feed chatGPT with it and have fun!
Long time I have searched for this, don't know why it was so hard to find 😂
I have opened up the focus of this subreddit a little.
From now on, posts do not have to be only directly about St. Hildegard of Bingen. Topics that are meaningfully connected to her are welcome as well.
This may include things like mysticism, spirituality, esotericism, natural philosophy, cosmology, healing stones, traditional medicine, Christian mysticism, Eastern religions, or comparative religion.
I made this change because I am personally very interested in the intersections between Hildegard’s thought and other spiritual traditions. I also believe that people who are interested in Hildegard do not necessarily have to be Catholic.
You do not even have to believe in God to benefit from her writings, her view of nature, her music, or her symbolic language.
Hildegard remains the center of this subreddit — but the space around her can be wider.
Wer Hildegard von Bingen liest, stößt immer wieder auf Sätze wie: Diese Pflanze ist warm. Diese Speise ist kalt. Dieses Kraut ist trocken. Diese Frucht ist feucht.
Für moderne Leser klingt das zuerst seltsam. Man fragt sich: Hat sie einfach die Temperatur gemeint? Ist ein „kaltes“ Kraut wirklich kalt? Ist Luft wirklich feucht?
Der Schlüssel ist: Hildegard steht in einer alten medizinischen und naturphilosophischen Sprache. Diese Sprache beginnt nicht mit Laborwerten, Vitaminen oder chemischen Inhaltsstoffen, sondern mit unmittelbarer Naturbeobachtung.
Die alten Denker fragten zuerst nicht: „Woraus besteht etwas chemisch?“ Sondern: Was tut es? Wie wirkt es?
Wenn die Sonne auf die Erde scheint, wird es warm, Pflanzen treiben aus, Früchte reifen. Wärme bringt Bewegung, Wachstum und Reifung.
Wenn Winter kommt, wird alles langsamer. Wasser erstarrt. Pflanzen ziehen sich zurück. Der Körper wird steifer. Kälte bremst, verdichtet und zieht zusammen.
Wenn ein Same trocken bleibt, geschieht nichts. Wenn er Feuchtigkeit bekommt, quillt er auf und beginnt zu keimen. Feuchtigkeit macht weich, verbindlich, fließend und lebensfähig.
Wenn etwas zu trocken wird, wird es hart, spröde, brüchig oder verdorrt. Trockenheit gibt Form und Festigkeit, kann aber auch austrocknen und verhärten.
So kam man auf vier Grundqualitäten:
Diese Wörter meinen nicht nur Thermometer und Wassergehalt. Sie meinen Wirkweisen.
Schon die frühen griechischen Naturdenker suchten nach den Grundkräften der Welt. Einige suchten zuerst nach einem einzigen Ursprung: Wasser, Luft, Feuer oder Erde. Aber ein einzelnes Prinzip reichte nicht aus, um die Vielfalt der Natur zu erklären.
Empedokles ging darum einen Schritt weiter und sprach von vier Grundwurzeln: Feuer, Luft, Wasser und Erde. Später ordnete Aristoteles diese vier Elemente noch genauer durch die vier Qualitäten:
Das ist logisch aufgebaut. Warm und kalt sind Gegensätze. Feucht und trocken sind Gegensätze. Man kann nicht zugleich im selben Sinn warm und kalt sein, und nicht zugleich feucht und trocken. Also ergeben sich vier mögliche Mischungen:
Daraus entstehen die vier Elemente als Grundbilder der Natur.
Feuer wärmt und trocknet. Luft bewegt und befeuchtet. Wasser kühlt und löst. Erde trägt und verfestigt.
Nun übertrug die hippokratische Medizin diese Beobachtung auf den Menschen. Denn der Mensch ist nicht getrennt von der Natur. Er lebt aus Wärme, Atem, Wasser, Nahrung, Blut, Schleim, Verdauung, Schweiß, Schlaf, Bewegung und Ruhe.
Die hippokratische Schrift De natura hominis / Über die Natur des Menschen, die traditionell mit der Hippokrates-Schule verbunden ist, spricht von vier Körpersäften:
Gesundheit bedeutete: Diese Säfte sind richtig gemischt. Krankheit bedeutete: Die Mischung ist gestört — zu viel, zu wenig, am falschen Ort, zu heiß, zu kalt, zu feucht oder zu trocken.
Galen, der große Arzt der Antike, machte daraus eine sehr einflussreiche medizinische Ordnung. Für ihn waren warm, kalt, feucht und trocken nicht bloße Wörter, sondern Grundkräfte, mit denen man Körper, Nahrung, Kräuter, Krankheiten und Heilmittel verstehen konnte.
Darum fragte die alte Medizin nicht zuerst: „Welche chemischen Inhaltsstoffe hat das?“ Sondern:
Bei Hildegard begegnet uns genau diese Sprache wieder. Wenn sie sagt, Dinkel sei warm, Galgant sei warm, eine Pflanze sei kalt oder trocken, meint sie nicht nur eine äußere Temperatur. Sie meint: Diese Speise oder Pflanze hat eine bestimmte Wirkung im Menschen.
Hildegard übernimmt diese alte Sprache aber nicht einfach mechanisch. Sie verbindet sie mit ihrer christlichen Kosmologie. Für sie ist der Mensch ein Mikrokosmos: Himmel und Erde, Elemente, Leib und Seele wirken in ihm zusammen. Darum beginnt ihre Medizin nicht nur beim Symptom, sondern bei der Ordnung der Schöpfung.
Man kann sich der Sache auch heute noch durch einfache Naturbeobachtung nähern:
Genau aus solchen Beobachtungen entsteht die alte Sprache von warm, kalt, feucht und trocken.
Man muss diese Lehre nicht als moderne Chemie verstehen. Sie ist eher eine Sprache der Wirkungen. Sie fragt: Wie verhält sich etwas im lebendigen Ganzen? Was macht es mit Wachstum, Verdauung, Blut, Schleim, Wärme, Kälte, Bewegung, Ruhe und Seele?
Wenn man Hildegard verstehen will, hilft dieser einfache Satz:
Warm, kalt, feucht und trocken sind bei Hildegard keine primitiven Messwerte, sondern Grundweisen des Wirkens.
Darum ist die Säftelehre nicht zuerst Aberglaube, sondern ein alter Versuch, Natur, Körper, Krankheit und Heilung aus Beobachtung und Ordnung zu verstehen.
AI-assisted post: mit ChatGPT formuliert und als Einstieg für Neulinge gedacht. Keine moderne medizinische Empfehlung, sondern eine Erklärung der alten humoralmedizinischen Sprache, die auch Hildegard voraussetzt.
One everyday way of cooking is to combine Indian cooking with the ingredients Hildegard recommended.
I got the idea because I lived for a while with the country people of South India. In South India, Sambar Dal is eaten almost daily, and at some point I thought: why not combine this simple country dish with the new ideas I got from Hildegard?
The principle is usually similar:
You cook legumes, such as beans, peas or chickpeas (Hildegard does not recommend lentils), with about three times the amount of water until they become more like a mash. Don’t throw away the cooking water.
Separately, you cook spelt bulgur, wholegrain bulgur or whole spelt grains until they are soft. Maybe it also works together with the beans in a pressure cooker, but I am still trying that out.
Then you fry onions in butter in a separate pan and roast the spices until they smell good.
After that, you add a Hildegard vegetable, for example fennel or pumpkin. Of course, one should vary the vegetables and legumes so it does not become too one-sided. And sometimes fish or meat also fits well with it.
Then you pour the bean dal into the pan and add the cooked bulgur or spelt at the end. Salt either while cooking or at the end.
At the end, add a little wine vinegar, as Hildegard recommended for cooking.
For me, this is simply a practical method to bring Hildegard’s ingredients into everyday life, without turning it into a complicated special recipe. I am sure there are a thousand other ways.
What is your practical everyday dish?