A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 2 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our EraThorndike, Lynn
History
A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 2 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era
Thorndike, Lynn
Magic -- History; Science -- History
If the stars do not even signify the fate and future of man, they
are none the less potent forces and, under God, causes in the world
of nature. “God who created all things,” writes Hildegard in the
_Liber divinorum operum_,[434] “so constituted superiors that He also
strengthens and purifies things below through these, and in the human
form introduces also those things allotted for the soul’s salvation.”
This passage has two sides; it affirms the rule of superiors over
inferiors, but it makes special provision for the salvation of the
human soul. And thus it is a good brief summary of Hildegard’s
position. Sun, moon, and stars are represented as by the will of God
cooperating with the winds--which play an important part in Hildegard’s
cosmology--in driving the elements to and fro;[435] and the humors in
the human body now rage fiercely like the leopard, now move sluggishly
like the crab, now proceed in other ways analogous to the wolf or deer
or bear or serpent or lamb or lion--animals whose heads, belching
forth winds, are seen in the vision about the rim of the heavenly
spheres.[436] They suggest the influence of the signs of the zodiac,
although there appears to be no exact correspondence to these in
Hildegard’s visionary scheme of the universe as detailed in the _Liber
divinorum operum_. In the _Causae et curae_, on the other hand, she
gives a detailed account of how pairs or triplets of planets accompany
the sun through each of the twelve signs.[437] In other passages[438]
she affirms that the sun and moon serve man by divine order, and bring
him strength or weakness according to the temper of the air.
[Sidenote: Influence of the moon on human health and generation.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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