SCIVIAS 317
Body and Soul, from an early edition of Scivias. One of the souls in heaven (represented by the
eyes) is entering the fetus in the womb. As Hildegard writes, “... at the divinely appointed time
the infant in the maternal womb receives a spirit, and shows by the movements of its body that it
lives.” (
18: A PERSONHASTHREEPATHSWITHINHIMSELF
But a person has within himself three paths. What are they? The soul, the body and the
senses; and all human life is led in these. How? The soul vivifies the body and conveys
the breath of life to the senses; the body draws the soul to itself and opens the senses; and
the senses touch the soul and draw the body. For the soul gives life to the body as fire
gives light to darkness, with two principal powers like two arms, intellect and will; the
soul has arms not so as to move itself, but so as to show itself in these powers as the sun
Art from Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias (CWS), Translated by Mother Columba Hart and Jane
Bishop; Introduced by Barbara J. Newman. Copyright 1990 by the Abbey of Regina Laudis: Bene-
dictine congregation Regina Laudis of the strict Observance, Inc. Paulist Press, Inc., New York/
Mahwah, NJ. http://www.paulistpress.com. Used with Permission).
©