Many are speculating—and for good reason—that 79-year-old President Trump is demonstrating signs of dementia and being out of touch.
Starting a war without purpose or end goals and with no explanation to the American people; screaming online about persons formerly his friends who now criticize his war that has brought devastation to the world that was totally foreseeable; the closing of the shipping at Hormuz Strait, rising gasoline prices, ballooning inflation, gutting of fertilizers for the upcoming farming season; killing of thousands of civilian victims including schoolgirls and children; thirteen Americans soldiers killed and 400 wounded—all of it was predictable.
Three previous presidents rejected Netanyahu’s call to war against Iran. Not him.
When I think of Trump and his go-along congressional followers, I cannot help but return to Hildegard of Bingen’s painting of the antichrist. In a previous painting of a “Man in Sapphire Blue” representing the “healing Christ” in all of us, she pictures the “golden ropes” signifying the work of the Creator God keeping the cosmos together.
But in her frightening picture of the antichrist, chaos and the unraveling of order reign. In the upper left-hand corner five animals are depicted, each of them gnawing on a black rope. Each animal represents one of “five beasts” she tells us (her modality follows the pattern of the Book of Apocalypse).
They include “a fiery dog that was not burning; a reddish-brown lion; a pale horse; a black pig; and a grisly wolf.” Just as the golden ropes symbolized the order of a glory-filled universe, so the rope being yanked on by each animal symbolizes the unraveling of cosmic order and the arrival of chaos. An uncanny picture of something Trump specializes in.
Is this something many are feeling in our times with an out-of-control American president and the Israeli prime minister waging war in the volatile Mideast?
Hildegard explains how these five animals name the causes of the undoing of creation and cosmic order. The fiery dog stands for humans who “bite at their own conditions” and “do not burn with the justice of God.” The reddish lion stands for “warlike men,” who wage wars without considering God’s judgment. The pale horse stands for those who put luxury living and their own selfish pleasure before the performance of worthwhile acts. The black pig stands for rulers who create sadness and uncleanness in themselves and their subjects. And the wolf stands for those who rob others.
The black rope itself stands for “the darkness that stretches out many injustices.”
In another book, Hildegard names 34 virtues and vices that assail humanity, but it is significant that in this antichrist painting she focuses on five vices that lie behind chaos and destruction. In a nutshell, they are: 1) those who bite at their own condition; 2) people who choose war; 3) people eager for luxury living (golden toilets anyone?); 4) rulers creating sadness and uncleanness in self and others; and 5) robbing of others.
Do these five vices not name much that characterizes the immorality behind the Trump presidency today? Greed is about biting at one’s own condition. War-making is front and center. Luxury living is the name of the game. Spreading sadness to others is part and parcel of throwing people off Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, threatening to cut Social Security and ending USAID assistance for the poorest people of the world. And robbing others is the very meaning of grift—how Trump and his family are becoming billionaires many times over in just the first 15 months of his second presidency.
I find it uncanny how perfectly Hildegard names the antichrist energy of our moment. At its foundation is the black rope of injustice that guarantees chaos and disorder.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner Image: Hildegard of Bingen’s depiction of the Antichrist. Reproduced from Matthew Fox’s Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen.
Queries for Contemplation
What do you take from Hildegard’s painting of the antichrist and teaching of injustice and chaos, and how it applies to the times in which we are currently living?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, pp. 122-126, 32-37.
Trump and the MAGA Movement as Antichrist.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation.
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings in Creation Spirituality.
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
6 thoughts on “Chaos & Evil Under Trump & MAGA: Lessons From Hildegard”
However useful and necessary it may be to castigate the inept and inapt current leadership, it would be worthwhile reflecting every now and then on the undeniable societal/cultural reality behind the fact that about 167 million citizens have sent it to the helm, 90 million indirectly by not voting, 77 directly by voting. What does it say about the elephant in the room? Denouncing the insanity of the doctor is a must, but it will not suffice to heal the patient.
I take that the forces of evil and negativity are still around in our world and mankind as exemplified by the dictators and the wars/injustices/human suffering they create such as Putin, Trump, and Netanyahu… With this realistic awareness of evil spirits within and around us, We must maintain our Faith that Our Source~Co-Creator’s Spirit of LOVE~Wisdom~Truth~Peace~Justice~Healing~Strength~Transformation~Freedom~Creativity~Beauty~Joy~Compassion… IS ETERNALLY PRESENT and more powerfully within and among Us to guide Us on Our personal and communal spiritual journeys with Our evolving — Humanity, Sacred Mother Earth, and the Loving Diverse ONENESS of All physical/nonphysical spiritual dimensions of Our Sacred Creation Cosmos….
“This devil has no power in good things but only in evil things of eternal death.” I was struck by this distinction. Very meaningful and very revealing in our current situation. The gleeful brandishing of destructive power is consuming all the world’s attention, but I find it eye-opening to simultaneously realize that the orange-faced man is completely powerless in the realm of doing anything good at all.
Thank you Matthew. I appreciate being reminded that Hildegard also challenged love of war and war expenditures which are the root cause of humanity’s unbridled assault on Mother Earth with weapons of mass destruction.
I have promoted your Trump and Maga as Anti Christ on YouTube sites that reference Trump’s recent bizarre AI an/iconic depiction of himself as Jesus Christ.
https://www.aol.com/articles/deranged-critics-pounce-trump-posts-065801907.html
Thank you Matthew for your excellent summaries and elucidations of Hildegard’s paintings and descriptions. Today’s meditation and video is the best description & explanation of our world today that I’ve seen. Even though I live in New Zealand/Aotearoa, maga and the orangeman’s activities still fill our lungs with the same putrid smell.
We so need the fresh air of the Spirit your Daily Meditations provide.
Peace and every good to you all.
I appreciate your praise of Hildegard.
So it shocked me to find out that Hildegard’s worldview joined “genes” and “character”!
Hildegard believed that being born of “good stock” meant you were “bred” to be virtuous. She implemented class segregation in the convent. She refused to admit women of “lower birth” to her abbey at Rupertsberg.
She argued, just as God distinguishes between angels in heaven, we should distinguish among humans on earth. She believed being generosa (noble-born) provided a natural protection for virtue. She believed those without that “noble stock” lack the character to handle high religious life.
She believed that God wrote social rank into one’s soul; that “noble blood” meant a superior spiritual frequency. This her type of world view ultimately begat the herrenvolk (master race) idea. This sense of “pure bloodlines” with “spiritual superiority,” lands just a few historical steps away from the “purity of race” rhetoric used today by MAGA supremacists!
Can you please present BOTH sides of Hildegard?. Despite art and all, she lived as a snob who didn’t want to share a choir stall with a peasant! — not a follower of Christ’s beatitudes. Thanks.