I am with the news in Egypt, and with the unfolding here. More and more comes into bloom. Sun is predicted for the weekend and then rain returns. I'll see my young friend Zach today so I am excited about that.
I saw the movie Vision: Hildegard of Bingen, twice. I have been entranced with her since I learned about her many years ago. She was a woman of the 12th century, an abbess, a nun, who understanding the unity of mind, body, and soul used herbs and music for healing. After her death, healing separated body and soul into two parts and so we have science and religion.
Church and state also began to separate, though that took longer, and even today, we see the struggle there.
However medical science is beginning to come around and recognize the power of the individual in their own healing. Medicine cannot just be imposed from outside, but must be welcomed within. The patient matters.
I am reading another book, Illness by Havi Carel, and she is very clear on the importance of the patient in his or her own healing, which isn't necessarily to say curing, but certainly is to speak of joy, an inner joy that has nothing to do with the actual physical composition of the body. A physician may see a person near death, while the person may be experiencing an inner contentment, a knowing nourishment of connection between inner and outer, living and letting go.
Hildegard had "visions", and saw and felt what she called the "Living Light."
I am reading Experiencing Hildegard: Jungian Perspectives by Avis Clendenen. It is a beautiful book, an interactive book. Clendenen suggests we each keep a journal as Hildegard did and record with words and drawings what is going on with us, for us, and so, here we are, on Live Journal, open to the possibilities in stirring the inner and outer light.
Perhaps you know Jung's Red Book. It is now available for purchase, though it is huge. It contains his musings and drawings, his visions and mandalas.
Clendenen suggests:
Imagining your journal as a Red Book, allow an image of the infinite to emerge from within and release the image onto the page without self-consciousness or self-censure, but in free-flow form. For example, you may want to sit quietly in a favorite peaceful place to simply listen or choose an ordinary object in nature to contemplate in silence, while holding the question, "What am I noticing?" Just let what happens happen without thinking about it.
I did that this morning, sat by the window and looked out at the trees and sky. I also sat on a bench I've moved to face the morning sun. I had it tucked between plants and under a tree, but now it has more light, perfect for morning meditation, and noticing, noticing the stirring come to life with spring. Sap rises inside and birds sing.