“The human soul is like the wind that surrounds the world. It moves through everything; it warms and transforms.”
— Liber Vitae Meritorum, Hildegard of Bingen
We live in an age where the world outside is louder than the voice within. We master languages, train our bodies, organize our thoughts — yet remain strangers to our own souls. We often don’t know how to read ourselves.
But there is a language — ancient, symbolic, luminous — that speaks not through facts but through images. It doesn’t explain; it reveals. It doesn’t ask us to think, but to feel. This is the language of the soul, and one of its most gifted visionaries was Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), a medieval mystic, composer, healer, and theologian.
Her writings are not just religious visions — they are maps of the inner life, expressions of what it means to live between heaven and earth, body and spirit. And more than that, they offer profound psychological insight for us today.
Manuscript made for Louise of Savoy, 15th c.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, département des Manuscrits; Mss.fr.143, fo 20.
A Visionary of the Inner Cosmos
In her major works — Scivias (“Know the Ways”), Liber Vitae Meritorum (“The Book of Life’s Merits”), and Liber Divinorum Operum (“The Book of Divine Works”) — Hildegard lays out a vast symbolic cosmology. Yet behind every celestial vision and radiant fire lies one central theme: the human being as a reflection of the cosmos, and as a bearer of symbolic meaning.
“Humanity contains within itself the structure and strength of the entire world.”
— Liber Divinorum Operum
Hildegard sees each of us as a microcosm — a living mirror of divine order. This is not far from modern depth psychology, which teaches that we carry within us not just personal experiences, but archetypal forces and universal patterns.
Symbols as Mirrors of the Soul
Hildegard’s symbolic language — light and darkness, fire and water, flowers and stones — isn’t poetic decoration. These are inner mirrors. They speak of your stage of development, your inner state, your growing edges and hidden potential.
Light and Darkness
Light is divine awareness, clarity, truth.
Darkness is not evil — it is the unknown, the crisis, the unconscious.
Only by walking through inner darkness do we begin to see ourselves as we truly are.
“The light I see is not of this world. It is brighter than the sun, and yet it does not burn me.”
— Scivias
Fire and Water
Fire is the inner calling, creative urge, sacred restlessness.
Water is healing, flow, softness — the part of you that restores, yields, and listens.
Flowers and Stones
Flowers represent your inner blooming — potential unfolding into beauty and truth.
Stones represent structure, resilience, but also rigidity — they can either support you or trap you.
Each of these symbols reflects a moment in the soul’s journey. They show you where you are, what is awakening in you, and what part of you needs attention.
Bartholomaeus Anglicus, On the Properties of Things.
France, Le Mans, 15th Century.
Paris, BnF FR 135, fol. 91.
Why Do Symbols Matter?
According to Hildegard, when you lose the ability to see symbols, you lose contact with your soul. Her visions are not abstract. They are living messages that call us to awaken.
“All beings are signs. And the human being is a sign between heaven and earth.”
— Liber Vitae Meritorum
Modern psychology agrees: symbols arise from the unconscious to help us process what the rational mind cannot. If ignored, they rule us from the shadows. But when seen and honored, they become a sacred compass guiding us toward wholeness, authenticity, and transformation.
Symbols make sense of what cannot be explained — the pain that returns for no reason, the inexplicable longing, the deep shift that begins without warning. They help us metabolize emotion, intuition, trauma, and growth.
Living Symbolically: How to Practice
1. Take inner images seriously
Don’t dismiss recurring dreams or persistent feelings. Ask: What is the fire in me saying? What part of me is in the dark?
2. Draw your inner state
You don’t need artistic skill — just give form to a symbol that lives in you right now. A wave? A stone? A flower? Let it speak.
3. Keep a symbol diary
Instead of writing what you did today, write what image moved you. What did you feel like — water, fire, stone, light?
4. Find your light space
Where do you feel most connected to your inner light? In silence? Music? Nature? Make space for it, regularly.
A Soul that Sees
Hildegard’s legacy is not just mystical — it’s existentially practical. She doesn’t ask us to believe in something outside of ourselves, but to awaken to what already lives within.
We are not just psychological beings — we are symbolic beings. And when we learn to read our own symbolic language, we come home to ourselves.
So today, maybe you are a flower ready to bloom.
Maybe there’s a stone in your chest that wants to soften.
Maybe your fire is stirring, asking you to act.
Maybe your soul is whispering — not with words, but with symbols.
Listen.
“To see with the eyes of the soul is to begin to truly live.”
— Hildegard of Bingen