Reclaiming our connection to Soul

With Hildegard of Bingen

By Ann Moir-Bussy

Hildegard Von Bingen Garden today

“You cannot eliminate something precious in life without killing something in your own soul” (Laurens Van der post, 1994:6)

Here in the southern hemisphere, it is only 3 months since we welcomed winter and marveled at the brilliant hues, and then bare branches and cold damp mornings. Days seem to pass so quickly and around us nature is again transforming with blossoms and flowers and the magpies feeding their babies in the nest high up in the gum tree next to us. What is the season of Spring calling us to remember?

Do you feel disturbed by daily news of devastating destruction across our universe? The floods that have wiped out villages and thousands of homes in Nepal, the earthquakes in so many parts of the world, the fires, the storms. In this ecological crisis, there is deep fear, hopelessness, anger, and denial, all of which block any creativity. John Wheeler reminds us, “we are inescapably involved in bringing about what appears to be happening; we are not only observers; we are also participators”. We belong to a participatory universe. What can we do?

In a recent series of documentaries, Indigenous peoples from around the world also speak of loss of soul, engulfing fear and anger because the greed of colonialism forced them off the land that sustained them and stuck them in small barren reserves. How are they reclaiming their souls?

Hildegard of Bingen

In today’s deep ecological crises, it is an amazing 12^th century ecofeminist and mystic, herbalist, musician, writer, Hildegarde of Bingen, who can teach us. She spoke of the ‘exquisite greening of trees and grasses” and “earth’s lush greening”. She said that all of creation and humanity are “showered with greening refreshment, the vitality to bear fruit”. She named it ‘viriditas’ a vibrant living freshness.

She contrasts this with “dried up people” – ‘ariditas’, isolated and cut off from connection with humanity and nature. Those who have lost the power to create. Physically, the earth is more in a state of ariditas, with the earth drying up, seas warming, melting of the ice caps, and the lethal waste that is filling up the oceans and killing marine life.

However, if the planet dies, it is the ‘ariditas’ of humans, the lack of consciousness and awareness that breeds denial, repression and greed. To the extent that we live disconnected from other living beings, we are also responsible.

Conscious awareness or psychic numbing

Hildegarde reminds us the earth calls continuously. It calls us into being present into where we are in the here and now. “Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth, is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness”.

Step outside into nature and look around. It doesn’t matter whether it is a large expanse or a small part of your garden. Just be aware – conscious of the myriad life forms all around you, whether in the smell of the air, the scent of the flowers, the sight of the insects or birds or the tiny buds pulsing with life. Let your mind be stilled and listen to the sounds. Notice the myriad forms around you, so often stifled because of the noise and turbulence that we allow to fill our lives, and that contributes to our psychic numbing.

When we are numbed to our feelings, numbed to what we might see or hear, then we join those living in collective denial. Instead, we must cultivate presence, dwelling in embodied awareness, tending and nurturing, reverence for all living things, connectedness and sentience. This is the opposite of dualism and separatism, so destructive in our world today.

Reclaiming Our Soul

In one of her visions, Hildegard heard God say: ‘I am the breeze that nurtures all things green; I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits; I am the rain coming from the dew that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life’. She lived in the 11^th century but her music, her messages, her writings and paintings are still vibrant and relevant today. To reclaim our soul, we need to heed her message:

We cannot live in a world

That is not our own,

In a world that is interpreted

For us by others.

An interpreted world

Is not home.

Part of the terror

Is to take back our own listening,

To use our own voice,

To see our own light

(Hildegarde Von Bingen – 1098 – 1179)

Take a few moments and reclaim that inner peace and connection. Click below to hear her music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJEfyZSvg5c&feature=related

A FREE video with more insights will be available very soon

Ann Moir-Bussy

Ann is a highly experienced counsellor and psychotherapist of over 30 years, a transformative life coach and empowerment leader. She is the creator of The Living Wholeness Framework™ enabling professional women in their journey of transformation and initiation to becoming elders who lead from the soul.