Throughout this long and complicated vision, the Living Light revealed to St. Hildegard the relationship between the heavens (macrocosm) and creation, including the human body (microcosm).  This vision not only describes the workings of the created world and how they mirror the heavenly realm, but this vision focuses on the relationship between the soul and the human body. To give you an example of how Hildegard relates this connection, the following is an excerpt:

“The whole human body is joined to its head, as too the earth, together with all its appendages, clings to the firmament; and the whole human person is governed by the head’s sensibility, just as each of the earth’s functions is fulfilled by the firmament. So too in this way, the soul experiences the things of heaven and earth, and the rationality by which it perceives those things of heaven and earth are fixed within it. For as the Word of God permeated all things in creating, so the soul permeates the whole body in operating with it. The soul is also the viridity of the flesh, for the human body grows and advances through it, like the earth made fruitful through moisture.  The soul is also the moisture of the body, moistening it like rain pouring upon the earth, lest it dry out.” (146)

The length of this vision is in part due to the parallels that she drew between the human body, creation, the cosmos, and each month of the calendar year. She described the changes in one’s disposition based on what is unfolding in nature in a particular season and described in detail each of the seven days of creation.

Hildegard was a holistic thinker. This means that the overall health and well-being of a person depends on the health of their mind, body, and spirit. This particular vision affirms her integrated understanding of the relationship between the three. When one of the three of these are out of balance, the whole is affected. This is true not only of human beings, but of all creation. The microcosm  and macrocosm are reflections of one another. There is so much we can learn today from St. Hildegard with regard to our relationship with the earth. We are experiencing the consequences of imbalance.  This piece invites us to consider how we might help to restore balance.