VISIO QUARTA, cap. CIII
The Fiery Soul That Gives Life
The soul is fiery and windy, warming and animating the body through breath, and it knows God through its fire while being warned not to turn toward the prideful north.
The soul of man is fiery, and it warms and gives life to the whole body of man; and because it is fiery, man exists as a being of blood. It also has windy passages, drawing breath inward into man and sending it out. When it draws that breath into man, the person inside is dried out, and this is very useful to him, because through this dryness man's flesh grows into health; however, when it sends it out, the fire within man wastes away and draws out its heat. And so with sensuality the whole body is built up, so that man can live and govern all five senses of the body with their proper functions. And if this heat were not released, the fire of the soul would suffocate the body, like a house that is entirely consumed by fire. Through the powers of the soul too, man is clothed with flesh and blood and brought to completion, just as through the blast of the winds all the fruits of the earth are filled out. But through this — that the soul is fiery — it knows that it has God; and through this — that its breath is spiritual — it understands that it can work with the body. And so it has a commandment from God to do its works rightly, and not to look toward the empty place of the north, where the first angel wished to reign and perished.
Pride's Flight and the Soul as God's Dwelling
Pride rises like an uncrossable flood, destroying love and authority, while the soul remains the hidden mistress of the body, working through thought and knowledge like bees building honeycomb.
For when it gathers up the full scope of its own will, rising up, pride at once flies swiftly toward the north, carrying out its will however it pleases. But rising pride, flying as it does, is like waters that no ship can ever cross—because they are a trouble both to God and to people, and they abandon everything. And so their works come to nothing, and love cannot pass through them—since they can neither love nor be loved by the faithful. But those who have no willingness to receive, they arrange and establish over things they have no authority over, and so they head toward ruin. So the soul is the mistress of the house of its own body, and in it God fashioned every dwelling that it was going to inhabit. No one can see it, just as it cannot see God as long as it remains in the body—except insofar as it sees and knows God through faith. And it works with every creature that comes from God in a person, just as bees build their honeycomb in their vessel, so too a person completes their work like honeycomb, with the knowledge of the soul, which is like a liquid that brings it to perfection. And because it is sent from God, it lays foundations of thought in the heart and gathers them in the breast, and from there they pass into the head and into all the person's limbs. It also penetrates the eyes, since they are its windows through which it comes to know creatures—because, being full of reason, it discerns their powers in the Word alone. From this too, a person completes every work according to the will of their thoughts, to meet each need of theirs—because when the wind of the soul's knowledge moves in the brain, it descends from the brain into the mind's thoughts, and so the work of the will is accomplished. For the soul sows in its knowledge so that the work of thoughts may be brought to completion, and that work is refined by the soul's fire and turned into a taste by which it is knowingly tested.
Soul and Flesh Made One
The soul restores the flesh through nourishment and order, uniting two natures in one work, and fills the body with the elements so that the whole human being exists.
It also leads the refreshment of food and drink inward into the person, so that their flesh may be restored. For through its own powers it arranges how the person may grow and stand firm in every aspect of their own flesh, and by ordering and by its own strength it fills their inner parts. For it is not itself flesh and blood, but fills them in such a way as to make them live with it, because it is rational, having arisen from God, who breathed life into the first creature he formed.✦ So soul and flesh, in two natures, form one work. But it also brings air into the human body by thinking, heat by gathering, fire by receiving, water by sending in, and green growth by sprouting — the way it was composed from the beginning, and is everywhere above and below, around and within the body. And in this way the human being exists.
The Soul's Longing for the Vision of God
The soul, once freed from the flesh, will see God fully and await the resurrection to enjoy eternal contemplation with the angels.
Because God will judge each person according to their works, for either life or punishment, and because the holy soul, once stripped of the body, will see God fully — whom it cannot see now while the corruption of the flesh gets in the way — and will eagerly await the day of judgment to receive its lovely garment, that is, its own body, so that in it, together with the angels, it may enjoy the contemplation and praises of God without end.
Read the original Latin
Anima vero hominis ignea est, totumque corpus hominis calefacit ac vivificat; et quoniam ignea est, homo sanguineus existit. Ventosa quoque itinera habet, spiramen introrsum in hominem trahendo et emittendo. Quod cum in hominem trahit, ille intus siccatur, idque ei valde utile est, quia caro hominis per siccitatem istam in sanitatem crescit; cum autem illud emittit, ignis intra hominem tabescit, caloremque suum educit. Unde et cum sensualitate totum corpus aedificatur, ita ut homo vivere possit, et omnes quinque sensus corporis cum officiis suis regat. Et si calor iste non omitteretur, ignis animae corpus suffocaret, velut domus quae igne tota consumitur. Per vires quoque animae homo carne et sanguine induitur et totus perficitur, quemadmodum etiam per flatum ventorum omnes fructus terrae complentur. Sed et per hoc quod anima ignea est, se Deum habere cognoscit; et per hoc quod spiritale spiraculum est, se operari cum corpore posse intelligit. Quapropter et praeceptum a Deo habet ut opera sua recte operetur, et ne in vacuum locum aquilonis aspiciat, ubi primus angelus regnare volebat et periit.
Cum enim elatio proprietatem voluntatis suae congregaverit, ex ea mox superbia volans velociter ad aquilonem tendit cum proprietatem voluntatis suae perficit, quocunque modo voluerit. Elatio autem et volans superbia aquis similes sunt, quas navis nequaquam pertransire valet, quia Deo et hominibus molestae sunt et omnia destituunt. Unde et opera earum defluunt, nec charitas eas pertransit, quoniam nec diligere, nec diligi a fidelibus possunt; sed quae non habent capere volunt, illaque disponendo constituunt super quae nullam potestatem habent; quapropter in interitum vadunt. Anima itaque magistra domus corporis sui est, in qua Deus omnia habitacula quae illa possessura erat, formavit; nec eam ullus videre potest, sicut nec ipsa Deum videt, quandiu in corpore manet, nisi quantum eum in fide videt et cognoscit, et cum omni creatura quae a Deo processit in homine operatur, ita scilicet ut sicut apes in vase suo favum aedificat, sic et homo opus suum velut favum cum scientia animae, quae quasi liquor est, perficiat. Et quoniam a Deo missa est, in corde cogitationes fundat et pectore congregat, quae deinde in caput et in omnia membra hominis transeunt. Oculos quoque ipsa penetrat, quoniam fenestrae ejus sunt per quas creaturas cognoscit, quia rationalitate plena in solo verbo vires earum discernit. Hinc etiam homo omne opus suum secundum voluntatem cogitationum suarum ad unamquamque necessitatem suam perficit, quia cum ventus scientiae animae in cerebro movetur, a cerebro in cogitationes animi descendit, et sic opus voluntatis perficitur. Anima enim in scientia sua seminat, quod opus cogitationum compleatur, illudque per ignem animae coquitur, et in gustum convertitur per quem scienter probatur.
Ipsa etiam refectionem ciborum et potuum introrsum in hominem ducit, ut caro illius refocilletur. Nam per vires suas quomodo homo in omnibus naturis carnis suae crescat et consistat, disponendo ordinat, viribusque suis viscera illius replet. Ipsa namque caro et sanguis non est, sed ista adimplet, ita ut eam secum vivere faciat, quia rationalis a Deo orta est, qui primo plasmati vitam inspiravit. Unde anima et caro in duabus naturis unum opus existunt. Sed et aerem cogitando, calorem congregando, ignem suscipiendo, aquam immittendo, ac viriditatem germinando corpori hominis inducit, quomodo et a prima constitutione confectum est et supra et subtus, circa et intra corpus ubique est. Et hoc modo est homo.
Quia Deus secundum opera sua sive ad vitam sive ad poenam hominem dijudicet, et quod sancta anima corpore exuta Deum, quem nunc impediente corruptione carnis non potest, plene videat, diemque judicii ad recipiendam amabilem vestem suam, hoc est idem corpus suum, desideranter exspectet, ut in eo cum angelis contemplatione et laudibus Dei sine fine fruatur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.2.7 — Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
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