Hildegard of Bingen & Indigenous Teachings on the Green Man

In their classic work, The Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness with the Earth, English photographer Clive Hicks and poet William Anderson teamed up to bring to life this amazing and important archetype for our times.

Philosophers of the modern industrial era such as Descartes and Francis Bacon talked about “mastering nature” and clearly the West has been doing that for centuries.  The Green Man is decidedly not about mastering nature but about relating to nature, nature inside us and nature all about us.

Hildegard of Bingen summarizes it all nicely with her teachings on greening power (viriditas) which she sometimes calls the Holy Spirit in us, our generative and creative powers.  

Forests and grasses and plants are nothing if not generative. (Unless, of course drought takes over as is happening thanks to the ignoring and taking for granted of nature that so dominated modern consciousness and is coming to a cruel climax today in what we call climate change.)

In her own “I am” poem, Hildegard sings of how “I am the breeze that nurtures all things green…and causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.”  The “I am” is God or Wisdom talking.  The Green God and joyful God and laughing God also “encourages blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits.”

We are to participate in this greening power, for we are a “people who are meant to green.” 

In Native American traditions, plants are considered the wisest of all living creatures.  They have been here the longest and by inventing photosynthesis they learned how to eat the sun.  (Father Sky meets Mother Earth.)  By doing so, they make life possible for animals, humans included. 

Plants and trees could live without us–and did for millions of years—but we cannot live without them.  We are indebted to them.  The Green Man reminds us of that. 

Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 19f. 

And Fox, Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century, pp. 34, 41f.

Banner Image: “The Green Man” (detail) by El Salvadoran surrealist painter/sculptor Ullrrich Javier Lemus. Published with permission from Ullrrich.com.

Queries for Contemplation

Are we a people who are meant to green?  How are we doing, personally and collectively?   

Recommended Reading

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God

Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century

Matthew Fox writes in Hildegard of Bingen about this amazing woman and what we can learn from her.
In an era when women were marginalized, Hildegard was an outspoken, controversial figure. Yet so visionary was her insight that she was sought out by kings, popes, abbots, and bishops for advice.
“This book gives strong, sterling, and unvarnished evidence that everything – everything – we ourselves become will affect what women after us may also become….This is a truly marvelous, useful, profound, and creative book.” ~~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism.