09/22/2025
Autumn begins here in the Northern Hemisphere in a little over an hour, at 20:19 CET, the autumnal equinox. Night and day are roughly equal length, the temperature has dropped and days are getting shorter.
And this "Cosmic Tree" or Wheel of Life, is a medieval depiction of a spherical earth, with its different seasons, by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179). A German Benedictine abbess, writer, artist, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath, considered the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.
In one of her visions, the Cosmic Tree, she saw nature, the seasons and interdependence of man and nature reflected in a circular pattern. The outer ring of fire representing God. The water and air of the next layer... healing.
Trees represent earth, and both the trees and division of the inner circle reflect the seasons. Much like Celtic drawings of the Tree of Life.
Hildegard did not draw the illustrations of her visions, she dictated them and it is believed that one of her fellow sisters, or perhaps a monk from the abbey, drew them based on her descriptions. And the four elements were very common in all of her visions, together with a sense of balance between light and dark, night and day, winter and summer, which again reflects a Celtic worldview.
In 2012, after centuries of dragging its feet, the Catholic church under Pope Benedict XVI canonised Hildegard a saint, and gave her the title “Doctor of the Church.”
The earth sustains humanity. It must not be injured; it must not be destroyed.
—Hildegard of Bingen
Photo credit: Hildegarde von Bingen Liber Divinorum Operum (The book of divine works), 13th Century Illuminated Manuscript (detail), courtesy of Lucca State Library in the former Convent of Santa Maria Corteorlandini, Lucca, Italy.
