Category: Pilgrimage

Asking a question is hard in live virtual events
As the filmmaker-pilgrim behind The Unruly Mystic Series, I have always found the answers more instructive than the questions. Learning what to ask in the first place — that is the hardest part. Perhaps that instinct comes from my DNA as the son of an astronomer, Peter S. Conti (September 5, 1934 – June 21, 2021). The answers I received through many hours of interviews gave me insight into my own constantly developing spirituality — a luxury I don’t have in live virtual events, where there is no thoughtful editing to fall back on.

Through the process of making these films and running live virtual events, I gained confidence in my own creative work and in the importance of making something of value for the world. For those who haven’t yet taken that plunge fully — there is someone out there right now looking for something that your future self will be creating.

Going Live in Virtual Events

Through the filmmaking process I have encountered many people whose knowledge and personal journeys would have enriched the films — but it is virtually impossible to include everyone in a 120-minute documentary. Each story is unique, each inspirational in its own way.

Starting in 2020, during the pandemic, I began using a live virtual events format to share those conversations in real time — with breakout rooms that allow for the kind of exchange that can lead to genuine understanding and change. These are the conversations that films can point toward but never fully contain.

The first experiment was a VMuir Day Panel in 2020, celebrating John Muir’s 182nd birthday on April 21, 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Panelists were asked about death, connecting with nature in isolation, and why John Muir remains relevant today.

That September, over 150 virtual pilgrims attended the first live Saint Hildegard Pilgrimage — a virtual gathering for her Feast Day on September 17th. The response was extraordinary and confirmed that this format has a life of its own.

Hildegard Presenter Requirements

Presenters for the Saint Hildegard virtual events are invited based on the following criteria:
- A personal connection to Saint Hildegard’s teachings, medicine, art, or music
- Has done something meaningful around that creative connection — has taken the plunge
- Is able to share their own process and experience in doing that work
A Work in Progress

I see each of us in Saint Hildegard, and Saint Hildegard in each of us. That is a work in progress — and an ongoing invitation.

Join the conversation as we celebrate the spirituality and creativity of Saint Hildegard, as manifested through her natural medicine, art, writing, and music.

Saint Hildegard Virtual Pilgrimage — September 2021

Virtual Pilgrimage with Saint Hildegard — sainthildegard.com

The September 2021 gathering offered a live virtual pilgrimage — both live and pre-recorded — spanning 12 days of recordings alongside two live event days over Saint Hildegard’s Feast Day, September 17 and 18, 2021.

On September 17th at 1 PM EST, the Feast Day opened with the ringing of bells from Hildegard Haus in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, followed by a sermon from Rev. Dr. Shanon Sterringer. On Saturday, September 18th, Rev. Carol Vaccariello opened the day at 1 PM EST, followed by Rector Susan Springer offering a solemnity for St John’s Episcopal Church in Boulder, Colorado.

Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox — author of Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, Hildegard’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs, and Hildegard of Bingen, a Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century — shared reflections on spirituality and creativity with the gathered community.
September 16, 2021
Hildegard as Shaman?

Hildegard as Shaman: Matthew Fox writes in his Daily Meditations of 4/27/2021: “A shaman lives in two worlds at once. Poet Bill Everson speaks of the link shamans have with the Animal Powers and recognizes Christ’s relationship to such animal powers in Mark’s gospel following his baptism when he went into the desert. Says Everson, “Christ related to the Animal Powers that preceded our more sophisticated religious impulses.””

As a pilgrim-filmmaker, my own work with Saint Hildegard through the making of my film, The Unruly Mystic: Saint Hildegard, has made me also question if we could see Hildegard as Shaman through our modern-day lens. I realize that equating a Catholic Saint with shamanism is bound to rub some people the wrong way. I can thank Matthew Fox for the courage and insight to share that interesting perspective.

“Hildegard too is much in touch with the Animal Powers. Time and time again she is visited by animals in her visions and paints them, including snakes that frame several of her paintings. She includes images of bears, leopards, lions, birds, vipers, scorpions, lobsters, and fish. Many of these beasts speak to her and advise her. She devotes an entire chapter in her book Physica to a discussion of animals and their uses for healing and assistance in our work. She recognizes that

…birds symbolize the virtue a person reveals in his thinking when, by his internal premeditation, he reckons many things before they come forth in an illustrious deed.“

“Animals that run on land represent the “thoughts and meditations a person brings to completion in work,” as well as spiritual longing. Lions mirror the will of a person, while panthers show “ardent desire.” Tame animals that walk on land show “the gentleness of the human being.” In short, “animals have in them qualities similar to the nature of the human.””

“A shaman is one who has undergone deep initiation and emerges to serve and heal the community. Hildegard was such a person. Estes defines an “initiated woman” this way:

To be the keepers of the creative fire, and to have intimate knowing about the Life/Death/Life cycles of all nature—this is an initiated woman.”

“Was there anyone who was busier keeping the creative fire alive than Hildegard?”

Feather along the Hildegard Way, Germany 2019

As one who has been creatively inspired by Hildegard as a filmmaker, I would answer with a resounding “No”. While I am sure others were keeping the “creative fire alive” during those times, we luckily have Hildegard’s work still with us. I see her as the Patron Saint of Creativity. Yet to think of her as a shaman as Matthew Fox shares?

I have two ways of looking at that perspective. Having walked in Hildegardland as a pilgrim-filmmaker, I can testify the experience there resonated with me on a deeply spiritual level, similar to other places that are thinly veiled or considered as sacred landscapes. Specifically, I share a those experiences in my second film, The Unruly Mystic: John Muir.

While those experiences might be profound for me personally, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is because someone blessed once was there. How Hildegard perceived her environment during her time, both internally and externally in her work, connects the past with the present. That is clearly evidence of someone that has a deep connection to spirit and the land.

Finally, shamanism is also much like mysticism. Both are subject to cultural definitions as seen through our modern lens. I would invite us to think of the contributions and attributes that Fox has associated her with from his own unique perspective. There is much value in that observation.

This particular thread that Matthew Fox started continues on his website. You can also find out more about Hildegard through his book below.

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.

April 29, 2021
Saint Hildegard and the usefulness of Hops – Cheers!
A Time Before Hops

Hops weren’t always used in beer brewing—in the earliest days, brewers used all kinds of plants to flavor beer. Generally, a beer created without the use of hops is called a ‘gruit’ or ‘grut’. ‘Gruit’ (or ‘grut’) can also be the term used for the mixture of spices working as a bittering agent in the beer.

Some herbs commonly used in gruit:
- sweet gale
- mugwort
- yarrow
- ivy
- horehound
- heather
- juniper
- ginger
- aniseed
- carraway
and really, anything else a gruit producer thought would taste good in their brew. Gruit fell out of common usage in the last century or two, but is seeing a bit of a revival these days, so there are lots of resources available like Gruit Ale and Unhopped beers website.

But this article is about hops, not gruit, so according to this excellent Short History of Hops by beer historian Martyn Cornell, one early mention of the usefulness of hops comes from a surprising source: Abbess Hildegard von Bingen, the German mystic whose latin texts inform some of what we know about Medieval Europe. I

Historical Perspective

About 1150, Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), mystical philosopher and healer, published a book called Physica Sacra, which translates best as “The Natural World”. Book I, Chapter 61, “De Hoppho”, or “Concerning the hop”, says of the plant:

“It is warm and dry, and has a moderate moisture, and is not very useful in benefiting man, because it makes melancholy grow in man and makes the soul of man sad, and weighs down his inner organs. But yet as a result of its own bitterness it keeps some putrefactions from drinks, to which it may be added, so that they may last so much longer.”

In Physica, Hildegard described the preservative qualities of hops when added to a beverage like beer. In the same book, she also mentioned that hop increases melancholy or “back bile,” one of Hippocrates’ “four humors” of physiology; the others are man’s choleric, phlegmatic, and sanguine dispositions. Today we know that hops can relax the nervous system and thus have a calming, sedative effect, which promotes sleep. This insight made Hildegard a progressive in her time, given that her contemporaries recommended hops as a treatment for exactly the opposite affliction, depression. Hildegard also wrote extensively about barley, which she considered beneficial for the stomach and intestines; she recommended a drink made from barley as a restorative after a cold or stomach flu.

Modern thinking

Jay. R. Brooks of Brookston Beer Bulletin in his researched article on chasing down the origins of Hildegard being consider the patron saint of beer, comments “If you made it through all of the accounts of her life, including her Wikipedia page, one thing you’ll notice is that none of them mention her contribution to the brewing sciences, or indeed anything about her mention of hops. That appears to be a more modern interpretation, though I’m not sure of its origin. One thing seems clear, however, and that it’s an association that here to stay.”

German farmers were doing good business selling hops to breweries across Northern Europe by the 13th century.

While I like the idea that Hildegard has something to do with the idea of the homeopathic benefits of using hops in beer, her way of thinking about things continues to support the idea that she is the patron saint of creativity. Who doesn’t want a beer after finishing their creative pursuit? Especially one called Naughty Hildegard (tongue in cheek)?

Naughty Hildegard ESB from the Driftwood Brewery in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

The Health Benefits of Beer and Hops

Research continues to support the health benefits of beer and the moderate consumption of alcohol, including wine. Many of these health benefits are associated with hops, though some are also linked to trace elements like silicon or the affect of low-levels of alcohol.

Healthy Hildegard gathered a few of the most well-documented health benefits of beer to help you feel better about your nightly pint.

Hildegard von Bingen receives a vision (maybe about hops, who knows?).

More on hops here.
September 1, 2018