TODAY

17th September: Hildegard of Bingen’s feast day

Today I like she reminds us:

“There is the music of Heaven in all things.”

~ Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a 12th century German abbess, visionary,
prophet, herbalist, and composer who defied the challenges of her time
with her deep connection to the wild and sacred natural world.

Hildegard regularly ate out of her garden and experienced it as both communion and sacrament.
Here are a couple of my favorite recipes that I create often with my common garden sage,
which was a favorite of Hildegard’s as well! I have a hunch that perhaps it was the garden sage
that provided Hildegard with some of her visions and esoteric understandings.

Adapted from an on line retreat centre Waymarkers Seattle, Wa

Try this herbal tea at home;

savor how the flavor gives you

a taste for your place and a profound sense

of the Sacred’s particular presence.

Ingredients

4-5 sage leaves harvested with gratitude from an organic plant
Water
Lemon
Honey—the more local the better!

Instructions

As you gather your 4-5 sage leaves, thank the Creator for the gift of this herb, and offer gratitude to the plant and surrounding nurturing environment.
Place the sage leaves into your teapot or makeshift tea bag of choice.
Pour a cup of boiling water over the leaves and then steep for five minutes.
To serve, pour into a teacup, using a fine mesh strainer as needed.
Tea may be enhanced with a squeeze of lemon and a spoonful of honey.

Our Garden

Go out into your garden and be healied. It is a blessing to be graced by a garden. Even if it is a tiny pocket, even if it is one tree like the power of the single tree in “A Tree grows in Brooklyn”

These past few days I have been stepping out in our garden and am just amazed at the colour, the scent and sheer grace of the beauty at every turn. It is like an artist has been excessing with the paint brush, from the grand eucalypts down to the minute painted dots inside the azalea flower.

Poem for the 17th September 1179

From Hildegard of Bingen:A poetic journey

A Circle Ends Where it Begins

Night sounds. Bird chatter calms
as they settle to roost. Frogs and crickets
interrupted by the near-by cry of an owl.

Whispers call Hildegard.
The bee lured to the open armed flower.

A moon tucks nto her room,
plays warm shadows
on the faces gathered around her.
Hildegard sees a celestial choir
singing the Mass and office
with Guibert as their Priest.

The scent of roses fills the air.
She remembers the smell
of Richardis’ perfumed hands
bringing her a flush of roses
that initial year at Rupertsberg.

In her dreams she sees a loving Jutta
calling her to instruct Richardis
on gathering plants for balms.
Remembers how they ran hand in hand
into the forest
curious about ferns,
flowers, stones, seeds and berries.

She sees Volmar’s warm eyes.
Rides with him from Disibodenberg,
hears again his words,
I could not let you go alone.

She sees a young girl
vigorous as a blossom in full bloom.
She runs in breathless,
Jutta, O Jutta
she calls,
I see the light and beyond to the heavens.
I want to express myself so much.
I feel so blessed.

She watches the young girl pluck a feather
from under her coarse homespun cape,

and look, a gift.
I know there are always feathers,
but this was special, as I watched it drift.
I felt a ‘Yes’ to life.
Ah, I am a feather on the breath of God.

Hildegard watches herself both hands in the air,
eyes to the heavens, turn and twirl a dance of light.