The condition from which she was suffering was clearly a functional
nervous disorder; this is sufficiently demonstrated by her repeated
complete recoveries, her activity between the attacks, and the great
age to which she lived. At first sight, the long procession of
figures and visions suggests that she might have been the victim of
a condition similar to that of which Jerome Cardan has left us so
complete a personal record. But on reading the books of visions, the
reader will easily convince himself that we are not here dealing with a
dream-state. The visions are indeed essentially vivid. ‘These visions
which I saw’, she repeatedly assures us, ‘I beheld neither in sleep,
nor in dream, nor in madness, nor with my carnal eyes, nor with the
ears of the flesh, nor in hidden places; but wakeful, alert, with the
eyes of the spirit and with the inward ears I perceived them in open
view and according to the will of God. And how this was compassed is
hard indeed for human flesh to search out.’[117]
Nevertheless, though the visions exhibit great originality and creative
power--the reader will often be reminded of William Blake--all or
nearly all present certain characters in common. In all a prominent
feature is a point or a group of points of light, which shimmer and
move, usually in a wavelike manner, and are most often interpreted as
stars or flaming eyes. In quite a number of cases one light, larger
than the rest, exhibits a series of concentric circular figures of
wavering form; and often definite fortification figures are described,
radiating in some cases from a coloured area. Often the lights gave
that impression of _working_, boiling or fermenting, described by so
many visionaries, from Ezekiel onwards.
This outline of the visions the saint herself variously interpreted.
We give examples from the more typical of these visions, in which
the medical reader or the sufferer from migraine will, we think,
easily recognize the symptoms of scintillating scotoma. Some of the
illuminations, here reproduced in their original colours, will confirm
this interpretation.
‘I saw a great star most splendid and beautiful, and with it
an exceeding multitude of falling sparks which with the star
followed southward. And they examined Him upon His throne almost
as something hostile, and turning from Him, they sought rather the
north. And suddenly they were all annihilated, being turned into
black coals ... and cast into the abyss that I could see them no
more’[118] (Plate XXI).
This vision, illustrated by the beautiful figure of stars falling into
the waves, is interpreted by her as signifying the _Fall of the Angels_.
The concentric circles appear in numerous visions, and notably in
that of the _Days of the Creation of the World and the Fall of Man_,
illustrated by what is perhaps the most beautiful of all the miniatures
of the Wiesbaden Codex B (lib. ii, vis. 1, Plate XXII). It is in this
concentric form that Hildegard most frequently pictures the Almighty,
and the idea again appears in the eleventh miniature, here reproduced
in its original colours, which she describes as ‘a most shining light
and within it the appearance of a human form of a sapphire colour which
glittered with a gentle but sparkling glow’ (lib. ii, vis. 2, Plate
XXIII). Appearances of this type are recorded again and again.
The type with fortification figures is encountered in a whole series
of visions, of which we reproduce the account and illumination of the
_Zelus Dei_ (lib. iii, vis. 5, Plate XXIV, lower section).
‘I looked and behold a head of marvellous form ... of the colour
of flame and red as fire, and it had a terrible human face gazing
northward in great wrath. From the neck downward I could see no
further form, for the body was altogether concealed ... but the
head itself I saw, like the bare form of a human head. Nor was it
hairy like a man, nor indeed after the manner of a woman, but it
was more like to a man than a woman, and very awful to look upon.
‘It had three wings of marvellous length and breadth, white as a
dazzling cloud. They were not raised erect but spread apart one
from the other and the head rose slightly above them ... and at
times they would beat terribly and again would be still. No word
uttered the head, but remained altogether still, yet now and again
beating with its extended wings.’
From the head extended a series of fortification lines, and this
peculiar form of vision is reproduced on several occasions and
variously interpreted (Plate XXIV, upper section). It is united with
similar visions in what we regard as a reconstructed conception of
exceedingly complex structure. This she claims to see separately, and
she interprets it as the _aedificium_ of the city of God (Plate XXV).
Such reconstructed visions are clearly of a different type and origin
to the simple group in which a shining light or group of lights is
encountered and interpreted as a speaking figure.
[Illustration: From THE WIESBADEN CODEX B fo. 30 r