Want to learn more about St. Hildegard’s natural remedies? Continue reading this quick guide and see what they are.
St. Hildegard’s natural remedies are a collection of millennia-old remedies that have been hidden in the Vatican catacombs and rediscovered in a library in Copenhagen, a few centuries ago. Some people are knowledgeable of her natural remedies, but some are not that familiar. In this short guide, we want to share with you St. Hildegard’s natural remedies, how to use them according to the moon phases, and also her take on health and healing. Let’s go.
In This Article You Will Find:
Who Was St. Hildegard?
Hildegard von Bingen is a famous German nun born almost a millennium ago who became famous all over the world a few centuries ago after her natural remedies. Her original manuscripts are still a secret to this day, however, a very happy accident caused some copies of her manuscripts to be discovered in a library in Copenhagen, a few years ago. After 1000 years later, these simple and effective remedies were put into practice, for the first time, by the German doctor Gottfried Hertzka, who began to apply them systematically and with great success to his patients.
His successor, Dr. Wighard Strehlow, who took over Hertzka’s office after his death, recklessly continues Hildegard’s treatments. Convinced of the effectiveness and simplicity of these remedies, the author of these lines collected the simplest and most effective recipes of the German nun, with the aim of helping the sick who believe in natural medicine. Now let’s look into St. Hildegard’s natural remedies, but first, let’s take a look at her golden rules for a healthy life.
Hildegard’s 6 Golden Rules to a Healthy Life
According to St. Hildegard’s vision, each person is responsible for their own health, which can be influenced both from the outside, through nutrition, and from the inside, from the soul, thinking patterns, and emotions. Her 6 golden rules for a healthy life are:
- Eating the right food and drink: “Let your food be your medicine”.
- Using the healing forces of nature. “In all creation, in trees, plants, animals, birds, and fish, and even in precious stones, there are hidden subtle forces with healing power, which man cannot know unless they are revealed to him by God”.
- The right rhythm of sleep and movement: “For when a man sleeps, his marrow rests and his bones and blood are strengthened, new muscles and limbs are rebuilt and his mind (reason) and knowledge is multiplied”.
- Work and rest balance (“ora et labora”). The appropriate ratio between work and meditation helps man to regain the strength lost due to stress.
- Cleansing the body of poisons and toxins. “When the fluids in the body keep their balance, the person is healthy. As soon as the ratio between them changes, the person gets sick.” Body cleansing can be done by fasting, applying suction cups and therapeutic leeches, or with the help of medicines that cleanse the body of toxins.
- Gratitude and prayer. These above 5 rules influence bodily needs and when respected, the body and soul are healthy. To these rules, St. Hildegard adds the 6th rule, which is a personal relationship with God/divinity, having faith in oneself and how life unfolds, and the practice of prayer.
Hildegard’s Take on Healing
According to Hildegard van Bingen, healing is a process that takes place on several levels, in which not only the body participates, but also the soul, the spirit – therefore also God – and the universe. According to St. Hildegard, the soul is the immaterial body that lives forever and the bearer of the spirit that is in its heart. The soul is the entity that actually contains human consciousness, with memory, thinking, and intelligence. The soul is the one that completely leads and controls the physical body, and the source of healing and energy of the soul is, according to Hildegard’s writings, always God/creation.
St. Hildegard’s Natural Remedies – Top 10
In St. Hildegard’s manuscripts, she describes different types of natural remedies, but these are her 10 most frequently used ones:
- Fresh juice of medicinal plants, extracted from the leaves, root, or stem.
- Fresh or dried plants, boiled in wine, milk, or water (decoctions).
- Dried or fresh plants soaked in wine, water, or milk (macerations).
- Compresses with fresh leaves or sun-dried or hot stone-dried leaves, applied directly to the skin, with a linen cloth on top.
- Herbal salves made with fresh or rancid pork lard (depending on the disease treated and the plants that are added – the fresh ones have more hormones), bear lard, deer tallow, goat tallow, or butter. In addition to the medicinal plants, the healing effect of her salves can be strengthened by adding certain active ingredients/extracts with great healing properties.
- Biscuits made from various medicinal plant powders and spices, baked in the sun, in the oven, or on a hot stone.
- Wearing precious or semi-precious stones on the body or on a part of the body that needs healing, or soaking the stones in wine or water, and then drinking the wine or water.
- Steam baths – sauna – by steaming herbal elixirs on heated stones, while drinking certain herbal teas or plant elixirs.
- Hot water baths in which certain teas or tinctures have been added.
- Ashes of leaves, flowers, stem, bark, or root, mixed with water or wine, and used as a tincture.
Herbal powders are always eaten on a piece of bread or sprinkled on food and always taken with food or right after eating.
In general, people dry medicinal plants in the shade and in a dry place, because it is believed that the sun kills many active substances in plants, thus weakening the healing effect. St. Hildegard said that the sun causes the harmful substances in plants to be eliminated, because it eliminates everything that is impure in them, making them purer and therefore stronger, “because the sun does not take the powers of the herbs when they are dry, unlike fire” .
Hildegard’s Remedies and The Moon Phases
St. Hildegard’s natural remedies have a stronger and more intensive effect if they are taken in the waxing moon phase. When the moon is waning, wounds bleed less, healing time is shorter, and wounds close with smaller or less visible scars. She also believes that surgery should not be performed on a full moon or on a new moon.
Detox remedies should be taken when the moon is waning, for two consecutive weeks with a one-month break (can be resumed next month, when the moon is waning again). For example, one should stop drinking nettle or calendula tea (are detox) at the new moon and continue when the moon wanes again. St. Hildegard’s natural remedies do not have exact measures, however, Dr. Hertzka and Dr. Strehlow have set the quantities according to the indications of the German nun.
Read Also: St. Hildegard’s 12 Healing Crystals for The Soul
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