The Green Sofia
In the vision of Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen is a medieval mystic who live in the Rhineland in Germany ( 1098-1179) From her third year she had visions. Later on many of her visions were expressed in mandala’s. She was a healer, composer, writer. She was an Earth Healer and wrote many books about the use of herbs, health and ways of natural healing. She knew the depth of cosmic laws and the processes of Earth. She spoke about the responsibility of the human for creation. She was an advisor for Popes, emperors, kings.
Sofia is the Wisdom of Life, of all Life. You cannot know who Sofia is in the life of the cosmos, if you are not deeply connected with all life. Sofia is an inner experience of God. Read the beautiful texts about Wisdom: Wisdom 7:1 -8:1 8:2-9:18. Wisdom chooses people…
See also Job 28, 23-27: Wisdom is the natural order of the whole creation. She shows us how God has meant creation to be. Wisdom is in the wind, in the flow of the water, in the rain…the way of clouds and thunder. The face of Sofia is creation, Mother Earth.
If you look at Sofia, she has a very great ear: the way to deal and live with wisdom is to listen. Sofia is the one who has learned to listen. The order of creation, the divine laws of creation you can only receive by silence and prayer. See also her very great open eyes…she sees and knows..
Look at the two white tables in her left hand: they stand for the laws of creation, the Divine laws. Her right hand is open and upright: it is the way of passing on the wisdom to others. She receives, understands and passes on. She wears a green robe: the green colour is hope. Sofia in her green robe governs the whole cosmos, community of life from deep within. The robe is long and under the robe are the red shoes. She is the one who brings hope to the whole earth.
Sofia; this figure is every person who lives in deep awareness of the wisdom in the whole cosmos.
Sofia is a very old wisdom figure: she is like a tree who bears fruit and she can create a garden out of desert and chaos. Sofia is the image of Divine Love. Divine Wisdom is feminine. It is the feminine side of God. ( Bah. Ind: Ibu Pertiwi) She is also an Image of Jesus, not the man on the cross, but Jesus as the wisdom of God.
The OT says, that before anything was created, wisdom already was and She, Wisdom was with God when God created the cosmos and all life.
Wisdom has a relationship to all life. She is like a child, so simple and deep. Not just knowledge, but deep in contact with the mystery of life. Then one understands the great mystery and the connectedness of all things from the Beginning. Wisdom searches for the pure heart and wants to dwell there.
In the picture Sofia is in the center of a big circle: the circle is an image of God, without beginning and end. There are three fields, three parts: the red ( sphere of Christ, the wisdom of God, yellow the colour of Spirit, Holy Breath, Light and white: the sphere of God, the undivided Light. Sofia is in the center of the circle and brings all this together.
On the robe you see the precious stones. It is a symbol of what has been entrusted to us. The beauty of creation.
It is wisdom that will save our Earth. Sofia is the name of the one who together with our creator will save the Earth. Wisdom has her home in the whole cosmos.
Where is wisdom dwelling in you? Allow yourself to be a house for wisdom. Do not grab her……She comes in silence and surrender. Your heart has to be pure, ready and open to constantly to receive her. She is pure gift. Sometimes Wisdom is like an unwelcome guest, brings pain and struggle and shows what needs to be transformed. She can also be called to bear deep suffering.
Sofia makes herself know: text of Hildegard of Bingen
Sofia speaks….
I, the fiery life of divine wisdom,
I ignite the beauty of the plains,
I sparkle the waters,
I burn in the sun, and the moon, and the stars.
With wisdom I order ALL rightly….
I am the breeze, that nurtures all things green.
I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits.
I am led by the spirit to feed the purest streams.
I am the rain coming from the dew, that causes the grasses to laugh
with the joy of life….
I am yearning for the good…
Just look so deeply to all creation, till you see the radiance that is in every creature,
There you see the beauty of the face of Sofia.
Living in the spirit and energy of Sofia is to create beauty…make everything beautiful…
Sources of Inspiration: Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, M Fox ISBN 0-939680, 1985
Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen, G. Uhlein, ISBN 0-939680-12-2, 1983