My good Caminohead buddy Dana sent this in. God’s Hotel is a book by Dr Victoria Sweet, MD and medieval historian. The dear doctor is rediscovering some of the truths Saint Hildegard
Recalling the beautiful image of viriditas from God’s Hotel…..
Sending greening thoughts and prayers.
In regards to a particularly difficult patient, Victoria Sweet wrote: “What would Hildegard do?” as she sat at her desk staring at a green potted plant. “What she would do, I suddenly saw, was remove obstructions to the veriditas, to her natural ability to heal. Because if nothing was in its way, then viriditas would heal her wound as surely as a plant will grow green. …. I had to start with a vision of her whole, complete and healthy….I understood from Hildegard that, in addition to removing obstructions to viriditas, I would fortify her viriditas with Earth, Water, Air, and Fire…..and she did heal.
“Like one of those time lapse movies of a plant, where a plant grows from a seed within minutes. Dirt falls on either side of the sprout as it pushes its way up through the earth; then a minute later tiny leaves unfurl, buds appear and then expand until their sides split open and the first petals uncurl…:
Hildegard’s concept of viriditas is from vis medicatrix naturae “the remedying force of your own nature to be itself. To turn back into itself when it has been wounded…….”
From God’s Hotel, by Victoria Sweet PhD pp 106-114
