Was Hildegard of Bingen a Yogi?
May 20th, 2009 12:32 pmToday I was on my own doing our blog talk radio show as Charly was not able to be here. I am talking about Hildegard von Bingen, a German medieval mystic, artist, author, liguist, scientist, philosopher, abbess, physician, herbalist, poet, composer and activist. Her life and her work has always fascinated me. The gift of her visions, some of the things she wrote and some of her ground rules for a healthy way of life are certainly very similar if not identical with some of the ayurvedic and yogic ideas.
There is a lot of discussion amongst Hildegard scholars whether all the dietary recommendations, the advice on diet and living, the herbal knowledge and her medical writings were also “channelled” as a vision or whether she simply recorded what was known during that time and then added her own ideas and philosophy. Whatever the case, it makes for fascinating reading.
Hildegard (the name meaning “fighting protectress”) lived from 1098 till 17.9.1179. This time in history was marked by lots of changes, crusades, minstrels, the foundation of the first universities and lots of political upheaval. Nobility and Free people were the only ones who had the right to be educated. The rest of the population (90%) worked hard, toiling the fields to feed everybody and the remaining 10% had trades to supply the goods needed for everyday life.
Politically and otherwise women were not figuring in the equation at all. Yet Hildegard von Bingen managed to correspond with the highest office bearers like the Pope of the day and the Emperor and was very well respected. She travelled a lot and made public appearances where she preached to the masses. She brought about changes in the way the church conducted itself and founded two monasteries against the will of her male counterparts.
During the blog talk radio show I mainly talk about some of her ideas regarding diet and food. She also wrote some lovely music and if you are interested have a look at http://www.healingchants.com This is Norma Gentile’s site and you can hear some lovely Hildegard chants there and find a translation of a number of them. Hildegard wrote her songs and most of her works in Latin.
On the show I promised the recipe for “nerve” biscuits – these biscuits supposed strengthen your nerves, help with stress, tension, learning and absorption of information.
Here is the recipe for a rather large quantity, you may want to halve it if your family is small:
375 g butter
400g brown sugar
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1000g (1kg) spelt flour – if you can’t get spelt, wheat will do, but the biscuits won’t have the same properties
20g baking powder
80g cinnamon
20g cloves
50-80g coarsely chopped almonds
a pinch of galangal powder (related to ginger, similar taste)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon wine vinegar
Turn all of the above ingredients into a kneadable dough. Great to do in a food processer but you need to make 2-3 batches, a domestic one won’t cope with 1kg of flour.
Roll the dough into 4-5 rolls, wrap into greaseproof paper and put into fridge or freezer in case you want to bake them some time later. Cut into thin slices and then bake at 180 degrees C for about 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!
Here is the show for you to listen to:
Till next time
Connie
Your Yoga Partner
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