Though HIldegard of Bingen was one of the smartest and influential women in history, her visions were extremely irrational. Hildegard began to receive unusual spiritual gifts at an extremely young age. She often explained her early visionary experiences as "a great light from which came a speaking voice". Her more complex visions contain coloured and bright images of buildings, mountains, composite animals and denizens from Heaven and Hell .[1] Her experiences were so deep that they were often too powerful to communicate in words so she represented them in symbols and imagery. [2] Hildegard produced three visionary works. Her first (1141-1151), Scivias, which translates to 'Know the Ways' was her longest. It is divided into three sections/books, each containing six, seven and thirteen visions. The Book of Life's Merits (Liber Vitae Meritorum) is Hildegard's second visionary work, which she produced 1158-1163. It's quite a bit shorter than the Scivias, only made up of six visions. Lastly, Hildegard's third visionary work is The Book of Divine Works (De Operatione Dei), 1163-1173. This is, like the Scivias divided into 3 parts. [3] [4]
Citations
[1] Bingen, Hildegard av, and Sabina Flanagan. Secrets of God: Writings of Hildegard of Bingen. Shambhala, 1996.
[2] Fox, Matthew, and Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard of Bingen's Book Of Divine Works. Bear & Company, Inc., 1987.
[3] Hildegard, Fiona Bowie, and Oliver Davies. Hildegard of Bingen: Mystical Writings. New York: Crossroad, 1990.