Hildegard of Bingen's Book of Divine Works by Matthew Fox

Author:Matthew Fox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2012-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

Eighth Vision: On the Effect of Love

VISION EIGHT 1

I saw three forms in the midst of the above-mentioned southern regions. Two of them stood in a very clear well, which was encircled and crowned by a round, porous stone. They seemed rooted in the well, so to speak, just as trees at times seem to grow in water. One form was encircled by such a purple glimmer and the second by such a dazzlingly white brilliance that I could not bear to look fully at them. The third form stood outside the well and beneath the stone. It was clothed in a dazzlingly white garment, and its countenance radiated such splendor that my own face had to draw back from it. Before and above these three appeared—like clouds—the blessed ranks of the saints, who gazed intently down at them.

VISION EIGHT: 2

The first figure said:

I am Love, the splendor of the living God. Wisdom has influenced me, and the humility rooted in the living fountain is my helper. Peace is associated with humility. Through the splendor that is my essence, the living light of the blissful angels shines. For just as a ray of light shines, this splendor shines for the blissful angels. It could hardly keep from shining, for there can be no Light that does not shine. I have designed the human species, which has its roots in me like a shadow, just as one can see the shadow of every object in water. And so I am a living fountain because all creation is like a shadow within myself. As regards this shadow, the human species is formed from fire and water, just as I am both “fire” and “living water.” The human species has within its soul the ability to arrange everything according to its own wish.

Every human creature has a shadow, and what is alive within that creature moves now this way and now that way—just like a shadow. Only a rational form of life can think. Savage beasts do not think, for they exist from day to day and have instincts by which they know what to avoid and what to seek out. Only the human soul that receives life from God is rational.

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