There is a quote attributed to Saint Hildegard of Bingen, but which is actually taken from an article about Hildegard written by Elaine Bellezza:
“We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.”
Regardless of whoever said the quote, I love it because it calls us INTO a life of reverent honesty and AWAY from a life where we surrender our hearts and minds to clergy or to religious dogma.
Scientific mysticism is a passionate sense that life is holy, but it does not fall into escapism or superstition. It calls us to a honest reverence that can be seen with our own eyes and felt with our own skin.
Saint Hildegard was a nun, but she also studied medicine and is often credited with bringing natural history to Germany. Her rapturous hymns to the sacred did not require escape from this world to another supernatural one. The heavenly music she heard came from the infinitely deeper pulses of THIS world. The tapestry she painted traced the web of life.
Scientific mysticism is not an appeal to fear, but an appeal to confront our fears so that we might be fully alive. As the quote implies scientific mysticism is the the courage and honesty to “take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.”
Hildegard’s religious reverence was embodied in her study of botany. Her prayers for healing did not lead her to the world of snake oil miracle cures. She incarnated compassion by studying medicine and seeking justice.
There are religions that seek to bind us and religions that seek to set us free. There are religions that seek to indoctrinate us and religions that seek to awaken us from our trances. Saint Hildegard is a lasting reminder that there can be a religious reverence which explores our own subjective inner world while also helping us live out our highest truths and values in the objective world we share with every other sentient being.