The book Saint Hildegard’s psychotherapy (LibrosLibres) immerses us in the impressive visions of Saint Hildegard of Bingen about the state of our souls and their mental ailments.
Abbess Saint Hildegard lived in the 12th century and was canonized and named a Doctor of the Church in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. She assured that “Secrets were revealed to him from Heaven,” about music and medicine, the cosmos and theology, a whole related unit in the human being.
The psychotherapy of Santa Hildegarda can be requested here at OcioHispano.
A practical manual for the soul
This book, Saint Hildegard’s psychotherapy (LibrosLibres) is the work of German Wighard Strehlow, the world’s highest authority on the medicine of Santa Hildegarda.
This is a practical manual for learning how to deal with difficult situations and adversities that, poorly managed, generate mental and psychosomatic illnesses.
Strehlow seeks to put into medical practice, nine centuries later, the work of Saint Hildegard “Liber vitae meritorum” (The Book of Merits of Life) on which this book is based.
Strehlow, after 40 years of implementing the recommendations of the German saint to her patients, He has written this book with a manageable approach so that each person can use it to get to know themselves better and thus find the deep roots of their ills and disorders.
Santa Hildegarda indicates that a good part of our ailments have mental causes that, once healed, allow the healing forces of the soul to be released and act, providing us with harmony and health.
The interior of our soul according to Hildegarda
Santa Hildegarda describes the interior of souls as she assured that it was revealed to her. she describes them as a spiritual city and contemplate its towers, walls, houses and palaces, in which 30 divine forces and 5 directing forces carry out their work tirelessly. Santa Hildegarda emphasizes that there is 35 forces that strengthen our soul, and that we know as “virtues”.
These virtues constantly face the 35 antagonistic forces that threaten life, forces that belong to the material world, the so-called weaknesses or “vices.”
Throughout our lives they play a decisive role in terms of our health, fortune or misfortune, joy or melancholy. Those 35 “psychosocial defects” of the material world are the cause of many evils, while the 35 “virtues” sublimate the human condition by discovering its divine nature.
The “virtues” take us by the hand and guide us to a completely different place, to our own spiritual city: the Kingdom of God, in which we human beings are allowed to live and act according to our true nature. This is how we discover a world in which we can all feel good, where we are capable of remove the blockages that prevented us from realizing ourselves.
Santa Hildegarda points out that our daily thoughts, decisions, arguments and feelings are represented as characters who enter the scene as “virtues” and “vices”. These 35 pairs of vices-virtues are explained in detail in this book.
The healing forces of the soul
Wighard Strehlow points out that “in this book Saint Hildegard’s psychotherapy (LibrosLibres) you can discover how change, through spirituality, your own life in a way full of love and vigor. If you yearn in your life love, empathy, peace and joie de vivre You should first unmask your enemies, resistances and failures within yourself, which prevent you from being healthy and happy. By acknowledging your weaknesses and failures and naming them by name, they lose their power and influence over you.”
“He will also experience that, behind every enemy, a friend is hidden, that behind what we consider bad, we can discover the good and that behind the diseases, there is a force to heal and become happy. Evil is not left to eliminate, the generations that have preceded us have tried before and they have not succeeded.Evil has a function because it is part of our existence and fulfills the task of bringing the good to light. Saint Hildegard of Bingen integrated music, theology, medicine and cosmology into her works achieving unity, thus discovering a revolutionary concept of healing and thinking holistically. It is about not only God and the world, but also our health and well-being,” Strehlow writes.
“She knew that, in order to enjoy a good state of health, it is necessary to keep all bodily, mental, cosmic and spiritual forces in balance. Today her visions are the answer to our questions regarding a sensible and happy life.”
What blocks us and destroys us
Strehlow writes in the introduction that “Saint Hildegard described in her Liber vitae meritorum —the Book on the Merits of Life— an imperishable psychosynthesis about the 35 values that enrich our life to make it valuable, and the 35 destructive forces that block life and destroy it. Every time we make a decision choosing the good or the bad, the energy level changes, producing a gain or a loss, in everything that strengthens or weakens man.”
Thus, “the good decisions lead to energy gain reinforcing our vitality, our immune system and our health. Decisions, which manifest a loss of values, lead to a decrease in energy and a loss of vitality and health.”
For example, greed is, for her, the most powerful energy thief, “up to the total collapse of energy, due to sadness or depression.”
A copy of the Scivias of Santa Hildegarda from the 12th century.
One of the most beautiful visions in his book scivias (“Know the ways”) describes the intimate union of the soul with the body and the divine and cosmic forces that are available to all men by their origin. “Being aware of this will radically change our way of seeing life since This intimate union of God, man and the universe will place at our disposal forces that in life we would have dreamed of. not even in the wildest dreams,” says Strehlow.
Saint Hildegarda says in another book of hers cause and cure –Book of the causes and remedies of diseases– that: “The human being contains in himself the heavens, the earth and all creation reunited, and everything is hidden in him… Therefore God and man are one as soul and body…”.
The bridge between soul and body: boost the immune system
Strehlow mentions that “the autonomic nervous system (ANS), or vegetative nervous system It is responsible for the regulation and functioning of vital functions. This nervous system works automatically, involuntarily, without being influenced by our will, unlike the voluntary nervous system that reacts to our sensations and sensory impressions.
The German Wighard Strehlow, from Casa Santa Hildegarda, is the greatest authority on Hildegardian remedies.
“The autonomic nervous system within the spinal column communicates with all the organs and systems of the body, to which it sends impulses from the central nervous system (CNS) throughout the body. In addition controls all the functions of the cardiocirculatory system as well as the different systems: respiratory, digestive and urogenital. Controls blood pressure and circulation, heartbeat rate, body temperature and the gastrointestinal system, especially the function of the intestinal microflora thanks to the immune system, maintenance of the acid value, enzymes, mucous secretion and hormonal function,” he says.
“Apart of this ANS also stimulates the entire immune system to activate a complex and very large army made up of hundreds of defense weapons, among others such as free radicals, phagocytes, killer cells, inflammatory factors that are capable of fighting bacteria, viruses, fungi and other enemies in our environment. Health and healing are highly dependent on the proper function of this system.”
“The SNA -continues Strehlow- works with two pairs of nerves, each with different effects. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the heart through adrenaline, dilates the bronchi, narrows the arteries and moderates digestion in the event of a fight and flight situation. The parasympathetic nervous system causes exactly the opposite especially during night rest and inactivity phases. In the past it was assumed that the ANS always worked automatically, without our intervention, like a robot. Today we already know what Santa Hildegarda told us more than 865 years ago. Naturally that lifestyle and our feelings influence the ANS. Negative feelings such as hate, fear, anger and sadness influence the ANS and can cause diseases, the same positive feelings, such as love, empathy, hope and joy, are also capable of exerting a powerful healthy influence on the ANS“.
The 35 vertebrae of the spinal column
According to Strehlow, the highest authority on Hildegardian medicine, “the ANS forms a bridge between body and soul, through the nerve pathways that run through the 35 vertebrae of the spinal column. A pair of nerves exit from each vertebra, making their way to the different organs stimulating them (sympathetic) or calming them (parasympathetic) By exploring tactilely pain points are easily found in all 35 vertebrae, indicating either an organic disorder or a mental problem”.
“The 35 pairs of spiritual forces of the human soul, which Saint Hildegard calls «virtues» and «vices» remain in close relationship with all the organs of the body. In this original way, one can discover an access to the problems of the body and of the soul. A point of pain signals a functional disorder of the corresponding organand leads simultaneously to the related psychogenic causes listed in the table of strengths and weaknesses (‘virtues’ and ‘vices’),” stresses Dr. Strehlow.
Blockages and spiritual weaknesses
In order to achieve an integral cure, according to the concept of Saint Hildegarde, Strehlow considers that “it is necessary identify blockages and spiritual weaknesses to eliminate the causes that have led to the disease. Neglecting spiritual healing leads to failure and incurable diagnoses, which only favor the industry that lives off people’s illnesses.”
Strehlow speaks of the antagonistic forces that “weaken man; they destroy life and cause disease. They block us from participating in the abundance of life. When we lie and deceive, when we act with resignation, anger or cynicism, we lose energy or strength That is why it is so surprising that a multitude of people voluntarily decide to live on the dark side, assuming the risk of getting sick.”
This book, Saint Hildegard’s psychotherapy (LibrosLibres), gives us information to discover the healing forces of the soul that each one has, and that interact with the body.
Also read:
– Santa Hildegarda’s advice to lose weight (here)
– The medicine manual of Santa Hildegarda, explained (here)
– Santa Hildegarda’s recipes to strengthen the immune system (here)
In recent years, Wighard Strehlow has published numerous titles on different fields of health that can benefit from the teachings of Saint Hildegard (here everyone in OcioHispano).
The root of mental illnesses? Santa Hildegarda sees a fight of 35 virtues against 35 vices