{"id":737,"date":"2014-02-15T19:11:58","date_gmt":"2014-02-15T19:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/?p=737"},"modified":"2014-02-15T22:00:28","modified_gmt":"2014-02-15T22:00:28","slug":"february-week-1-hildegard-and-the-greening-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/?p=737","title":{"rendered":"February week 1 – Hildegard and the Greening Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Feb<\/a>Finally we have seen rain on the dry and water-barren lands of central and northern California.\u00c2\u00a0 Winter, normally a time of greening, looked like it was never coming-round-the-bend.\u00c2\u00a0 But the past few weeks have changed the course a slight little bit towards the power of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153greening\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the earth.\u00c2\u00a0 Water drops like diamonds have been jewelling the grasses and plants that have sprung to life.<\/p>\n

The images I present to you from the first wet days of February are reminiscent of words and visions from the 12th<\/sup> century mystic, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). She was a remarkable woman, a “first” in many fields. At a time when few women wrote, Hildegard, known as “Sybil of the Rhine”, produced major works of theology and visionary writings.<\/p>\n

\"Feb<\/a>Women were not accorded respect, but she was consulted by and advised bishops, popes, and kings. She understood and documented the medicinal powers of nature for healing. She wrote treatises about natural history and medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees and stones. She is the first composer whose biography is known. She founded a vibrant convent\u00c2\u00a0 where her musical plays were performed.<\/p>\n

For Hildegard the ultimate human sin was\/is ecological \u00e2\u20ac\u201c against the earth, the air, the water.\u00c2\u00a0 She believed that for injuring creations\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 interdependent balance we are likely to destroy the earth and all humanity with her. In one of her meditations she wrote:<\/p>\n

\"Feb<\/a>The earth is at the same time mother<\/address>\n
she is mother of all that is natural,<\/address>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 mother of all that is human.<\/address>\n
She is the mother of all,<\/address>\n
for contained in her<\/address>\n
are the seeds of all.<\/address>\n
The earth of humankind<\/address>\n
contains all moistness<\/address>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 all verdancy,<\/address>\n
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 all germinating power.<\/address>\n
It is in so many ways\u00c2\u00a0 fruitful.<\/address>\n
All creation comes from it,<\/address>\n
Yet it forms not only the basic<\/address>\n
raw material for humankind,<\/address>\n
but also the substance of the<\/address>\n
incarnational divine.<\/address>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hildegard represents the big link between Christian spirituality and pre-patriarchal spiritualities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 says Matthew Fox.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I contend that she is also the link between present-day patriarchal religious\/political systems and the shift back\/forward to post-patriarchalism that re-greens the future and redeems us all!\u00c2\u00a0 And like jewels each water drop is a precious sign of hope and healing.<\/p>\n

Raindrops and Calla Lilies at Stow Lake, Golden Gate Park.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally we have seen rain on the dry and water-barren lands of central and northern California.\u00c2\u00a0 Winter, normally a time of greening, looked like it was never coming-round-the-bend.\u00c2\u00a0 But the past few weeks have changed the course a slight little … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[71,165,63],"class_list":["post-737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-2","tag-calla-lily","tag-hildegard-from-bingen","tag-stacy-boorn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hkEw-bT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}