VISIO TERTIA, cap. IX
The Beasts Within: Humors and Deceitful Thoughts
The seer describes how interior humors rise and shift like wild beasts—leopard, crab, stag, wolf, lion, snake, lamb, bear—each animal image exposing a different mode of spiritual deception that unsettles the soul.
For the humors in a person sometimes rise up fiercely, like a leopard, yet afterward they grow gentler, and like a crab they show change in themselves — now moving forward, now backward — and like a stag, leaping and stinging, they at times display diversity in themselves, because no matter how much a person may have the fear of the Lord, thoughts still sometimes arise in him that, once they grow weary, set themselves down toward vanity, while at other times, as if through a crab, they urge him forward by confidence in a good outcome; but then, dragging him backward, they cast him into [ a hint] that he cannot persevere, they deceive him; at times they make him feel secure, like a stag, through faith, but afterward they pierce him as he wavers in faith. And just as in the rapacity of a wolf, and with it, as it were, in the nature of a stag and a crab, as was said before, they sometimes assault a person, because at times, like a wolf, they offer the person the pains of hell, yet in such a way that he could escape them only, as it were, through a stag — that is, through faith — and like a crab — that is, through confidence — without any other righteous works; they promise this deceitfully, but then they often lead him to despair. At times too, like a lion, they show their strength in him by not giving way, and like a snake they bring forward now gentleness, now sharpness in themselves; and like a lamb, they sometimes pretend to be mild when they set before a person the judgment of God; but afterward they persuade him not to fear it, because, like a snake moving cleverly, they deceitfully suggest how one might escape that judgment with smooth cunning, while also urging him, as if in the patience of a lamb, to fear nothing — as though he were not bound by sins. But like a bear, they at times mutter as if in anger, and at other times they show in him the nature of both a lamb and a snake, as was shown above, because at times, like a bear, they grumble that the person should endure bodily suffering for God, through which — as if in the patience of a lamb and by the cunning of a snake — they show that he has been corrected and cleansed from sins, and once again they plunge him into uncertainty through countless changes.
Storms of Thought and the Strength of Justice
The shifting humors carry the mind between security, despair, and devotion, and these changes pass into the liver, the seat of tested knowledge, where the soul's powers grasp justice and life through the Holy Spirit.
For the humors in a person are changed more often in this way, because the person's thoughts, altered by these storms and other shifts, now lead him to a right security, now to despair, and at times even lift him up through genuine devotion. And so, having been changed, they often pass over to the liver, in which a person's knowledge is tested — knowledge that proceeds from the brain through the soul's tempered powers — and what the brain's moisture touches, so that it becomes rich, strong, and healthy, signifying that a person's thoughts often direct themselves, as it were, to the liver — that is, to the strength of justice, in which the just person acts through knowledge — because the knowledge of good and evil shows the powers of the soul, which through justice grasps life for those who believe, just as the Son of God gathered sinners and tax collectors to himself, and in the abundance of the Holy Spirit made them strong.✦
Right Hand of Action, Left Hand of Bearing
The right side of the body, ruled by the liver's heat, signifies while the left, ruled by heart and lung, signifies the capacity to bear burdens, pointing to their spiritual meaning in the person.
Because a person has the liver on the right side of the body — the liver being the source of heat — the right side is readier for action; whereas on the left, where the heart and the lung are positioned, with the pulse of breathing located there, the left side is better suited for bearing burdens: and what these things signify spiritually in the person.
Read the original Latin
Humores enim, sicut leopardus, in homine ferociter interdum insurgunt, sed tamen deinde leniores fiunt, et ut cancer nunc procedendo nunc retrogradiendo mutationem saepius in se ostendunt, atque velut cervus saliendo et pungendo, diversitatem in se aliquando manifestant, quoniam quantumlibet homo timorem Domini habeat, cogitationes tamen in eo aliquando surgunt, quae deinde taedio affectae ad vanitatem se deponunt, aliquando velut in cancro per fiduciam bonae consummationis illum procedere exhortantur; sed deinde illum retrorsum trahentes, immittendo [ f. innuendo] sic eum perseverare non posse, decipiunt, aliquando quasi in cervo per fidem eum securum faciunt, postmodo autem in fide vacillantem pungunt. Et etiam quemadmodum in rapacitate lupi, et cum ipso velut in qualitate cervi et cancri, ut praedictum est, hominem interdum invadunt, quia aliquando quemadmodum in lupo infernales poenas homini offerunt, ita ut solummodo quasi per cervum, id est per fidem, et velut per cancrum, id est per fiduciam, absque aliis justis operibus eas evadere possit, ipsi fallaciter promittunt, deinde autem illum multoties in desperationem ducunt. Interdum quoque ut leo fortitudinem suam in illo non cessando demonstrant, atque ut serpens nunc lenitatem, nunc acritatem in se proferunt, et quemadmodum agnus, se mites aliquando simulant, ubi judicium Dei homini exponunt; sed postmodum ne illud metuat ei persuadent, quia velut serpens prudenter incedens, qualiter illud leni astutia evadat ipsi deceptuose suggerunt, cum etiam quasi agnum in patientia eum nihil timere exhortantur, velut peccatis obligatus non sit. Sed etiam ut ursus interdum velut in ira submurmurat, interdum quoque cum illo qualitatem agni et serpentis, velut supra ostensum est, manifestant, quoniam aliquando, quemadmodum ursus, corporalem tribulationem pro Deo hominem sufferre submurmurant, per quam velut in agni patientia, et quemadmodum serpentis prudentia, ipsum castigatum et a peccatis emundatum esse demonstrant, iterumque eum in hoc incertum per plurimas varietates reddunt. Nam humores in homine hoc modo saepius immutantur, quia cogitationes hominis hujusmodi turbinibus aliisque modis permutatae, illum nunc in justam securitatem, nunc in desperationem ducunt, interdum etiam per rectam devotionem eum sursum attollunt. Quapropter et multoties ad jecur ipsius sic immutati transeunt, in quo scientia ejus probatur, quae de cerebro per vires animae temperata procedit, et quod humiditas cerebri tangit, ita ut illud pingue et forte ac sanum sit, significantes quod cogitationes hominis saepius quasi ad jecur ejus, scilicet ad fortitudinem justitiae, in quo justus per scientiam operatur, se dirigunt, quia scientiam boni et mali vires animae ostendunt, quae per justitiam in credentibus vitam comprehendit, quemadmodum Filius Dei peccatores et publicanos ad se collegit, quos etiam in abundantia Spiritus sancti robustos fecit.
Quod homo in dextra sui parte, eo quod jecur, in quo fons caloris est, dextrorsum habeat, ad operandum expeditior sit; in sinistra vero pro corde vel pulmone sinistrorsum in se locatis et pulsum respirationis habentibus ad onera ferenda habilior; et quid ista spiritualiter in ipso designent.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.9.10-Matt.9.13;Luke.19.10 — And it happened, as he was reclining at table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined with Jesus and his disciples. Matt.9.11 — And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?' Matt.9.12 — But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." Matt.9.13 — But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Luke.19.10 — For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
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