VISIO QUARTA, cap. LXIV
The Body's Signs and the Soul's Garments
The body's members mirror interior realities, and the soul is clothed in visible works that will be reaped at the end.
In the heart, however, where everything a person wants to do gathers, certain swellings of the flesh rise up into the breasts, which signify the abundance of the air above—since just as the breasts show a person's strength and fullness, they also make manifest the abundance of that same air for the earth's fertility. So too the soul knows what makes it fly upward like the air, because just as the mind belongs to the heart, knowledge belongs to the soul. Therefore all a person's works are accomplished through the soul itself. And just as the human body is clothed with different kinds of garments, the soul is covered in each work of the flesh—whatever it may be—as if with garments. These are always visible in the soul itself, to souls and to spirits alone, because whatever a person has sown, these things they will also reap, carrying back the sheaves of their own works at the end. A person's desire clings to their heart like breasts to the chest, in which all the heart's strength consists; and so the soul is compelled through desire to cooperate with the flesh, so that through the soul—because it is airy, moist, and warm—all works are accomplished, just as the abundance of the whole earth is brought forth abundantly through the air.
Strength and Servitude in the Inner Life
The soul's powers are strong for knowing God, yet the body groans under fleshly desire and cannot sin without inner grief.
For in that place the man is powerful in his strength, but there the woman pours out milk for infants, who cannot be refreshed by food. So too the powers of the soul are strongest, because through them it knows and perceives God, even though it is also in servitude to the desires of the flesh. Therefore, with a grieving sigh, the body is tormented when, against its own will, it scorns serving God—like a servant who withdraws from his lord with indignation. For the delight of the flesh has no strength of sins are displeasing, but is driven by the movement of burning blood; therefore the body, through the soul's powers, is so afflicted that it can never bring grave sins to completion with joy without the grief of sighing.
Carnal Pleasure and the Soul's Sharp Rebuke
Fleshly pleasure is weak and infant-like, while the soul's desire is a sharp arrow that wounds and rebukes careless living.
Even pleasure itself, when it's set against the soul's strength, has no real power for doing good; instead it feeds on fleshly taste, just as an infant is nourished on its mother's milk, because it's completely weak — like a woman compared to a man's strength. But the soul's desire is like a flying arrow — it's sharp, and it wounds the person it's sent into. So carnal pleasure is subjected to the soul's strength, whether the soul wants it or not, time and again. Therefore the soul's desire speaks with authority to a person who lives carelessly in fleshly pleasures: 'Consider — your work is like stinking mud; that's why it's turned into confusion, because every sweet fragrance breathing from you has been made far away from you.'12 »
Outward Order Pointing Inward
The outward order of man and woman in shared life points to a deeper truth in the inner life.
Because a woman, looking to a man's care because of her own weakness, must always be subject to him and ready to serve, so what their outward shared life points to in the inner life.
Read the original Latin
In pectore autem, in quo omnia quae homo facere vult congregantur, quidam tumores carnium insurgentes in ubera vertuntur, quae ubertatem supra demonstrati aeris designant, quoniam ut ubera fortitudinem et plenitudinem hominis ostendunt, ita et ejusdem aeris ubertatem ad fertilitatem terrae manifestant. Sic et anima scit quae eam sicut aerem sursum volare faciant, quia sicut cordi mentem, sic animae scientiam inesse constat. Quapropter omnia opera hominis per ipsam perficiuntur, Et sicut humanum corpus diversis generibus indumentorum vestitur, sic anima singulis quibusque operibus carnis, qualiacunque sint, tanquam vestimentis cooperitur, quae etiam in ipsa jugiter apparent, animabus tantum et solis spiritibus visibilia, quoniam quae homo seminaverit haec et metet, manipulos operum suorum in fine reportans. Desiderium namque hominis cordi ejus velut ubera pectori adhaerent, in quibus omnis vis pectoris consistit; ideoque anima per desiderium carni cooperari cogitur, ita ut per ipsam, quia aerea, humida et calida est, omnia opera perficiantur, quemadmodum ubertas totius terrae per aerem abundanter profertur. In loco enim illo vir in viribus suis potens est, sed ibi mulier lac infantibus effundit, qui cibo refici non possunt. Ita et vires animae fortissimae sunt, quoniam per ipsas Deum scit et sentit, quamvis desideriis carnis etiam famuletur. Quapropter cum dolenti suspirio corpus macerat, dum contra voluntatem suam Deo servire contemnit, velut servus qui a domino suo cum indignatione recedit. Delectatio namque carnis vires animae, cui peccata displicent non habet, sed motu ardentis sanguinis agitur, ideo corpus per vires animae in tantum affligitur, quod gravia peccata sine dolore suspirii cum gaudio perficere nunquam valet.
Ipsa quoque delectatio viribus animae comparata nullam fortitudinem ad bene operandum habet, sed gustu carnis pascitur, sicut infans cum lacte matris alitur, quia omnino debilis est, sicut mulier si fortitudini viri comparetur. Sed desiderium animae sicut volans sagitta acutum est, quae hominem in quem mittitur vulnerat. Unde delectatio carnis viribus animae, sive velit sive nolit, multoties subditur. Quapropter desiderium animae homini in delectationibus carnis secure viventi sic imperando loquitur: « Attende quod opus tuum quasi fetens lutum est, ideo in confusionem convertitur, quia omnem suavem odorem spirans a te longe factum est. »
Quod mulier propter debilitatem suam ad viri procurationem respiciens, ei subdita et ad serviendum parata semper esse debeat, et quid extrinseca communis eorum conversatio in interioribus designet.
Notes
Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works) companion
Don't stop at Day 30
All 317 chapters live in the free Chosen Portion app, paced for daily reading
Hildegard's practice of daily attention to God's work in creation becomes a paced daily devotional through all ten visions in the Chosen Portion app
- One vision passage a day, readable in under 10 minutes
- The complete Book of Divine Works plus Hildegard's other major works, free
- Progress tracking so a 317-chapter classic actually gets finished