Kayleen Asbo, Ph.D
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Week Six: Time and Seasons

Central to HIldegard was the integration of the concepts of Benedictine balance and Celtic seasons.
As a Benedictine, Hildegard would have alternated feasting and fasting.  Indeed, she has left us rather detailed instructions for three kinds of fasting, with recommendations for diet for each season. See  this link for detailed instructions from Hildegard.

Feast days were associated with either a liturgical celebration ( such as Christmas, Pentecost, Easter) or the feast day of a particular saint. By far the most popular saint in the MIddle Ages was the Virgin Mary- there were separate feast days for her nativity, presentation, conception, the Annunciation and more. There were mandated Major feast days by the Catholic Church in which all laborers must be released from their work to attend special services; for monks and nuns, feast days meant  musical variety,  rituals recounting the lives of the saints and additional wine and dessert. Some of the saints  were universally celebrated  throughout Medieval Christendom (Like JOhn the Baptist  on June 24 and Mary Magdalene on July 22), other saints only had "local" or "regional" saints. Hildegard wrote special music, for example, for the Feastdays of St. Disibod and St.Ursula who were deeply venerated in her local community.

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In our modern world, we have lost the rhythm of nature. We eat food from halfway across the world and import flowers from other countries at great environmental cost. Hildegard understood the importance of living in balance with the elements and the seasons, and would have honored them all.

Picture
 The following recipe  has been adapted from Hildegard's 12th century volume  Physica: Liber Simplicis Medicina )  Hildegard of Bingen believed that these spice biscuits should be taken t regular intervals to increase joy and health.

Minutes to Prepare: 10
Minutes to Cook: 15

Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
    1 cup brown sugar
    1 egg
    1 tsp baking powder
    1/4 tsp salt
    3/4 cup plain flour
  • 3/4 cup spelt flour
    1 tsp ground cinnamon
    1 tsp ground nutmeg
    1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • pinch ginger

DirectionsCream together softened butter with the brown sugar. Beat in the egg. Sift the dry ingredients. Add half the dry ingredients and mix. Add the other half and mix thoroughly. Heat oven to 350°. Form small balls of dough, place on greased and floured cookie sheet and press flat. Bake 12-15 minutes (till edges of are golden brown.)

Cool for 5 minutes, remove from cookie sheet and finish cooling on racks.
Contact Kayleen Asbo: mythicamuse@gmail.com
  • Home
  • Pilgrimages/ Retreats
    • The Blessing Thread 1: Mary Magdalene and the Contemplative Tradition: Provence
    • Pilgrimage 2: Wales and Ireland >
      • Beginning Your Pilgrimage
      • Morning Circle
      • Schedule and Links
      • Celtic Knots and Brigid's Cross
      • Doll Making with Polly Paton Brown
      • Celtic Legends with Justin Coutts
      • Brigid's Blessing Hand Instructions
      • Recipes
    • Claiming Our Light Retreat
    • Mystical Scotland
    • From Grief to Garden: Holy Week with Mary Magdalene
  • Heroines
    • Ariadne's Thread
    • The Map of the Heroine's Path
    • The Art of Lamentation: Isis and Nepthys
  • Classes
    • Anchored in the Heart >
      • Week One: Drinking From the Well of Virtue
      • Week Two
      • Week Three
      • Week Four: Images and Visions
      • Week 6: Time and Seasons
    • Dante Retreat >
      • Welcome letter
      • Session One: Love, Loss and Longing
      • Session Two: Hot Sins
      • Session Three: Where Our Hearts Grow Cold
      • Session Four: Arriving on the Shores of Humility
      • Session Five: Returning to Innocence
    • 22 Days of Magdalene
    • The Mystic Path and Poetry of T.S. Eliot >
      • Week One: Prophet of Despair
      • Week Two: Beethoven, Dante and Eliot
      • Burnt Norton
      • East Coker
      • Dry Salvages
  • Poetry
  • Art
  • About